Shelburne Museum

What can I say? We love the Shelburne Museum. It opened up for the season yesterday, and yesterday was Lilac Sunday. We spent more time around the apple trees than lilacs this year. They were at the peak of bloom, with the wind blowing the little pink and white petals to the ground. There were so many petals all over the grass, it was almost like the "s" word. You know, that stuff we got so much of in April that I can't bring myself to talk about yet.

What am I Reading These Days?

I've been tagged by Lone Star Ma, so here is what I am reading right now.


The manga Full Metal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa. I'm on Book 8. It's now wildly different from the TV series. This is the first manga I've actually bought.

And


Eldest by Christopher Paolini. Actually, I just finished this. I made the mistake of seeing the movie Eragon (after I read the book) and it just pissed me off. I really liked the book a lot, and I didn't think the movie did it justice at all.

I'm also re-reading all of the Harry Potter books! I was tempted to buy Mugglenet.com's book on Barnes and Noble yesterday. I resisted. We will all know soon enough.

Why Baby's Bottom is So Smooth

Added to my list of foods that make for a Most Interesting Diaper is the poppy seed bagel (no, no, NOT "poopy seed", my fatigued brain). I was changing Sophia this afternoon and I couldn't figure out why I felt like I was exfoliating her bottom.

Then I remembered the bagel of yesterday that was encrusted with poppy seeds. They are very good bagels. Sophia eats off the poppy seeds and hands me the rest of the bagel.

They are real bagels--chewy. Not those huge bready dry ones. So, not like the one in the picture and with way more poppy seeds.

Funk

Yesterday started out great, actually. Then I got a parking ticket. I filled up the meter with quarters (.25 per 20 minutes, 2 hour limit). The problem is, I am at a volunteer meeting and sometimes I am there *just* over 2 hours because I set up and clean up. I have Sophia with me. I can see the meter woman doing the ticket and I cry out "Wait!" She said that she would have let me off but she had already entered it into her little machine. She said she could see I had my hands full (one with Sophia, one with papers, folder, books). Being a meter maid must really suck or it must be really satisfying. It probably depends on your temperment.

The best part of this, before you feel sorry for little me, is that a parking ticket in Montpelier is a whopping 6 bucks.

It's just the principle of the matter.

I was in a Funk. All. Day. Long. I got annoyed with myself for being in a Funk, which only made the Funk deeper. My daughters were total angels that day, which made me feel even sillier for being in a Funk. I just could not snap out of it. Maybe this is PMS.

I called Doug, who was nothing but sympathetic and sweet. After work, I was sent to the bath to listen to The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (which I've read, but the audio version is very good). He made fried chicken with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and biscuits.

All is now right with the world.

Logic, Pure and Simple

The other day, Fiona and Doug were shopping for Mother's Day and they got into a disagreement over something I would like. Fiona stated that she has known me her whole life and that, therefore, she knew me best. She clearly thought she had the winning arguement, and I guess she did, because they bought the item she chose. I'm not sure which item was the contentious item because there was more than one present. I will ask Doug.

All Species Day

Yesterday was All Species Day (the title links to an explanation of sorts). I've hesitated to go in the past, because it is very popular, but we braved the crowds this time. I am glad it is popular, but we don't do so well in crowds. It actually wasn't bad at all...once we found where everybody was in the park (got to see some sections of the forest I've never seen before and probably never will again). We missed most of the first show, but there was wonderful singing, dancing, and drumming! The second show was set up in three acts and was very creative. I loved the little kids in butterfly costumes hiding under a big catepillar costume (yes, they came out). There was also someone in this fabulous crow costume who danced around a bit and then laid an egg that looked like the Earth, and when it opened rainbow streamers came out along with a sign that said "Peace" on it. Then we were in the parade walking to the capitol where the BIG woman/mother/goddess stood on the capitol steps. There was a man dressed up as a Stag (King) who, I am pretty sure, just stood there and looked all stag-like. There was lots of very cool dancing. We left at this point because we were exhausted and it was about 3 PM (I know, we're party animals, but we had school the next day). So we missed the May pole dance, which I am a little sad about. Anyway, it was all very Pagan, which I'm not sure is necessarily part of All Species Day. Maybe that's just the way it is done here. The two are very compatible after all. The weather was perfect as well. A sharp contrast to April.

We had a great time and will definitely go next year--I think next time we will spend more time choosing an animal (or plant) and learning about it and making the appropriate mask.


Fiona and her friend Max. Surprisingly, the species Fiona and Sophia chose to dress up as were unicorns. I was shocked, too.


Sophia watching the catepillar act.


The catepillar.


The sun. This is during the parade, hence the odd angle.


Big mother.


Stag king. The mother and stag are on the capitol steps here.

This Past April

I didn't talk about this when it happened. I was too depressed. But in April we had two major snow storms and we ended up with a couple of feet of snow in mid-April. Remember that crocus picture a while back? Totally buried. If you go further back in my blog...you know, to winter, I posted a picture of our buried grill in the snow. It wasn't quite that deep, but it was darn close. Here are some pictures of the last snow storm. This is only about 2 1/2-3 weeks ago. Now it is in the 60s and quite gorgeous outside. The snow is really gone except for some very dark corners here and there.




The road to our house.


Looking east from our house.



Our back yard.

If Velociraptors Had Wings

Fiona taking off! Despite the fairy wings and the unicorns, she announced with snarls that she was, in fact, a Velociraptor.



Sophia the purple fairy among the daffodils.

Today was the first farmer's market of the year. Fiona dressed in her fairy garb, which got a lot of attention. One family went by, and the mother asked her, "Are you a fairy?" Fiona said, "No, I am a pixie" (I keep forgetting, too). After the oos and aas, we went our separate ways and I heard the dad joke to the mom, "I can't believe you thought that was a fairy."

Romance in the Cretaceous Period

So Fiona is now going to school 8:30 - 2:45 on Mondays and Wednesdays. Last Monday went well. She was very excited. The older kids stay behind after noon to have lunch and do more challenging work. I wasn't sure it was for us because we won't be there next year (we're trying out the public school for kindergarten and the tuition at this school goes up...way up...for kindergarten level) and Fiona seems so tired in the afternoon. She expressed an interest in it, however, and here we are. Incidentally, the public school in our town is only a half day, so we won't have to do the every-day-all-day thing for another year. Thank goodness! 2:45 is a long day! It felt very strange and I didn't know what to do with myself and Sophia. I'm sure I'll look back on this later and get a good laugh out of it.

A couple of weekends ago, we went to a hotel just outside of Boston and spent the next day at Stone Zoo and the Science Museum (SEE) in Manchester, NH. The LEGO exhibit of the town is really worth a visit. Right now (well, until mid-May) they have a very cool exhibit on dinosaurs. I didn't realize they had robotic dinosaurs that were very big (especially to the girls) and made noises. T-Rex was at the end and in a dark corner with eerie lights. They both found him utterly terrifying and utterly fascinating. Sophia kept asking Doug to take her back there again and again...but only while she was in his arms. Fiona wanted to be held, too, but that is getting harder and harder to do and she also likes to have the ability to run away (hopefully not into someone). She promptly made a friend, a boy, while there and once they started talking they were inseperable. She actually asked us if she and her friend could go off and play by themselves without us! I lingered behind, of course. She didn't like that, but I pointed out that the museum had a sign that said all children under 12 (I'm not sure about the age, actually) had to be supervised and it was the museum's rules. They didn't exchange names (he kept calling her "little girl"...I think he was about 7, though) but they did start holding hands once they decided to go see the T-Rex (again). There were dinosaur puppets, dinosaur pencil rubbings, dinosaur magnet activites, dinosaur toys, dinosaur videos, and dinosaur computer activities. They mostly played with puppets. We all left together (she was ready to go home with him) and Fiona is convinced that if we go back (it's about 2 1/2 hours away from us), then her friend will be there, waiting. Because he lives in New Hampshire. She has told me they are going to get married because A) he's a boy (yes, we've had discussions that girls can marry girls if you are wondering--I'm just keeping it simple for now) and B) they aren't related. She sort of acts happy but also proud that she has this figured out already.