An Olympic confession, 100 days of school, first theater movie, and yet another horse party (7 Quick Takes Friday)

— 1 —

Let’s start with a confession. We have watched none of the Olympics. I don’t really know how to work our TV, and the Olympics come on after our sons are in bed—or should be. Then once they’re in bed, I’m loading the dishwasher or writing or falling asleep or searching for a misplaced library book. So we haven’t watched at all.

Then lo and behold Leo brings home an Olympic homework assignment:

– Write two sentences about a country participating in the Olympics.

– Write two sentences about an Olympic winter sport.

– Write one sentence about an Olympic athlete or team.

I was not surprised, but very pleased, when he picked China. I was relieved when he picked hockey, a sport we could spell, at least. Then he wanted to write about the Chinese ice hockey team, but there isn’t one. So he picked the Chinese curling team. I bet he was the only one in his class.



— 2 —

We threw a horse-themed birthday party for my nephew this week. He loves horses, and it happens to be the Year of the Horse, so we had several horse items around the house.

Here’s his cake—a sheet of brownies covered in horses.



And here’s the horse Leo decorated at the party. He wanted it to look like a Chinese horse.



This truly is the Year of the Horse. We’ll have our final Chinese New Year celebration with friends tomorrow, and we’re still not tired of it. The boys were just marching around in their own “Chinese New Year parade” yesterday.

— 3 —

Leo and Daniel don’t always get along. But when they do, it’s so cute that we (mostly) forget the other times. Some of the sweetest moments are when they are sharing a chair. The other day I caught them in a dining room chair together, and I snapped this photo.



— 4 —

Did you go anywhere for President’s Day weekend? I took the boys to a parking lot.

We drove around, hit the brakes a few times, and watched the snow slide off our car roof.

They laughed and screamed, “Do it again, Mama!” over and over and over. Just yesterday Leo said, “Remember that time we went to the parking lot and made the snow fall off our car? I want to do that again.”

And here I was starting to think snow wasn’t fun anymore.

— 5 —



Until last weekend we had never taken the boys to a movie in the theater—except for a 4D movie that I’d rather not discuss because it was so horrifying. Luckily for me the boys also didn’t like getting stabbed in the back through their seats and getting sprayed with water because I was plotting my escape even before they started crying.

Anyway, on Saturday—almost two years after that experience—we decided to start anew and go to the $5 children’s movie at our local historic movie theater, the Senator. John and I hadn’t visited the Senator since it reopened in October, but the theater was showing Babe, which seemed a perfect first film. And $5 seemed like the perfect price.

So we went.

We bought popcorn.



We found seats that weren’t too close to the screen or other people.
And we made it through the entire movie.

The reviews?



Leo loved it. He absolutely adored the whole experience. He can’t wait to see his next movie in the theater. His favorite part was when—do you still say “spoiler alert” for a movie released in 1995?—Babe wins the sheep herding contest.

Daniel loved the first 20 minutes. And the popcorn. And the fact that the seats flipped up and down. His favorite part was when the farmer dances in his living room. (That’s my favorite part, too.)

It was a lot of fun, and the price was right. We’ll almost certainly go again.

— 6 —

With all the snowstorms and lost school time, Leo’s kindergarten class finally celebrated 100 days of school yesterday! And I was lucky enough to get to be in the classroom to help.

As we were walking into school together that morning, Leo very casually said, “It’s my turn to do the calendar this week.” I almost fell over. Each week children are assigned jobs in the classroom, but he never tells me what his job is. And this sounded like a big job.



“YOU are in charge of the calendar for the 100th day of school?” I asked.

“Yes,” said our 6-year-old, cool and calm. “And the 101st tomorrow.”

But who’s counting?



The highlight of my day was watching Leo lead his class in counting through the 100 days. It was so moving to me to see his confidence and pride as he pointed to each number and the class responded.



Then we counted 100 of all kinds of things and had fun in 100 different ways.



— 7 —

Jen of Conversion Diary fame, who graciously hosts these quick takes every Friday, is inviting bloggers to join her in posting every day next week. What should I do? Write every day? Or do you hear enough from me as it is? I’ll let you decide. If I hear from 100 people who say I should, I’ll do it.

See more quick takes at Jen’s Conversion Diary.