Big Day for Baby G

Today was Caroline's big day. We dropped her and her friend, Camille, off at camp. She has been so excited! We left to get there mid-morning and caravaned with Camille's family. I had Caroline ride with Camille in the hopes that she would get excited. It worked! When we got there she was talkative and giddy. I felt like Jason did when she finally went to kindergarten. She bounded up the stairs, turned and smiled, waved at him and bounded into her school. Today she took my hand, drug me through registration, talking the whole time. We took her luggage to her cabin and she immediately set up her bunk. I ran some errands, but she decided to stay in the cabin. By the time I left, she had settled down in her cabin and was coloring with Camille. She gave me a cursory hug,gave her brother one, waved and bounded into her cabin. I felt somewhat bereft. Kind of the way Jason felt when Caroline went to kindergarten.

TodayHappy Birthday Duchess!

Tomorrow is a big day in our house. Our Duchess is turning 8! She has been planning for weeks, well she and Grammy have been planning. They've been working during Jack's "Study Sessions" with Grammy and Pa. Caroline addressed her own birthday invitations and designed her own party theme. She's going to be a Rock Star.

She's been making progress this past year. She still misses her daddy something terrible, and has moments when she's jealous of other kids with their dads. She's struggled because she doesn't remember Jason healthy. She remembers him after the original diagnosis, and that really wasn't him. Not really.

We went camping this past weekend for her birthday. My kids amaze and puzzle me sometimes. She was really looking forward to it and was so excited, especially during the trip up there. But once we got there she was moody and argumentative with her brother. She had her moments of happiness with the trip, and I think thought it went over well. But I know she missed her daddy, and always will.

So tomorrow, we'll buy her class ice cream for her big day, we'll buy cupcakes and go out to the cemetery and share time with daddy, and then she'll go off to football practice (that's my girl!). Sunday will bring her family party, and I will probably be comfortable enough at school to plan a belated class party.

I can't believe it's been 8 years since she graced us with her presence, and charmed the pants off her dad. In 8 more years she'll be driving, and in 10 she'll be off to college. I'm not going to think about that tonight. I'm going to play a board game with her and enjoy her 8 year oldness.

Happy Birthday Duchess!

Dogs and Cats: The Revenge of Kitty Galore by Huffjackie and help from Baby G.

A few nights ago I took my mom and sister to the movies. Thanks to my dad's poker group I had a movie gift card so we went to see Dogs and Cats: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. I promised I'd review it, so here it is. Caroline helped me out with the review.

The movie was really funny. Caroline liked it too. Here's the "plot" (as my mom called it): This cat, Kitty Galore, is trying to make dogs go crazy on their owners so that they all get put in cages. It's up to the ultra-secret dog organization, with the help of the ultra-secret cat organization, to make sure she doesn't do this (they used the term ultra-secret in the movie and my mom explained what that means). But, the problem is that the cats and dogs don't get along AT ALL. The key to what Kitty Galore is planning is being held by a pigeon. Caroline said the best way to describe the pigeon is "scatter brained". She heard the term used by one of her friend's parents. Kitty Galore tries very hard to get rid of the pigeon, but the bad guys never succeed and they finally fiugre out how she's going to make all dogs go crazy. Which then sets up the final showdown.

Caroline and I have to agree that the funniest character was the pigeon. He was just funny and "scatter brained" which made him funny. My mom said that way the character was shown in the movie is the exact impression she gets of pigeons in general. There were a couple of places that referred to adult topics that Caroline and I didn't get. For example, the characters in the movie have to go talk to the worst criminal mind in the world somewhere called Alcatraz. Mom had to explain that one to me. The criminal mastermind, Mr. Tinkles (a white, fluffy cat), was strapped to a platform behind glass and he had a mask over his mouth. Mom said that was like some character named Hannibal Lector from an adult movie she has never seen and will never see in her life (those were her words exactly). She described the character from the rated-R movie and he sounded pretty bad. But Mr. Tinkles was funny and smart and not really scary (which is good because it's a children's movie).

There were several lessons on getting along with each other even though we're different in many ways. The kittens weren't afraid of the big dog, which surprised Diggs (the dog)because most cats were. So I guess the message is, we can all get along we just have to accept the differences which are makes us all special.

I would recommend the movie to anybody who likes a good movie. I'd give it an A because there was no kissing. However, I didn't give an A+ because I just don't like hairless cats. They could have picked a different cat for the bad person.

My experiment by Huffjackie

My materials included 5 books. I used the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and 1 39 clues. A metal spoon and a rubber ball (meidum sized). The purpose of the experiment was to see if I could toss the ball up in the air and if it landed on the books, roll straight. I did my experiment 20 times and the ball rolled straight once out of the 20 times. The other times it rolled over to the left or right. I deemed my experiment a failure in that it did not go straight enough times, but it was a success because it annoyed my mom. :)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice by HuffJackie

So M'Kirsten and Caroline went to see "Beauty and the Beast" at the Winspear. Mom and I decided to spend the Mom-and-Son time by going to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice at the Studio Movie Grill. We got there a little early, but didn't have to wait too long. My mom had never been to the movie theater grill, so it was fun showing her the ropes.

The food was fine. She ordered the chicken quesadillas, but there were too many peppers and so I didn't eat much. The best part of it were the chips and hot sauce. They came with the quesadillas (go figure). I had a Dr. Pepper and my mom had a Diet Dr. Pepper. She let me get as many refills as I wanted (for the price we paid for the drinks, according to her, I could have as many as I wanted. )

The movie started with the previews and there's one I'm really looking forward to now, but that's another blog. When the movie started I was really excited. My mom had given me some things to look for during the movie (always the teacher)so that I could review the movie afterwards. So I'll go down the list she gave me:

*Bad guys - He was funny. You knew he was bad because he did mean things. He's the same guy that was in Prince of Persia (the ostrich guy). He was a very convincing bad guy. He had the apperance of being a very "cultured (as my mom said)" look and spoke good. He didn't talk like his apprentice, and he required everyone else to speak correctly as well. I think this is what made him a good bad guy. You know, he could be very nice but then next minute kill somebody. It was very unexpected. SPOILER ALERT(my mom made me put this in): I'm not very sure if he got away in the end or was killed. The way they ended it made it possible, based on if the bad guy lived or died, for another movie. So I'd give the bad guy (who really was just a helper of the main bad girl--but you didn't see her at all except for the beginning and the very end).

Main good characters: There are several so here it goes:

*Balthazaar - I liked him because he was funny in not a clown way. He could do some really cool magic and his main job was to train the "Prime Merlinian". Turns out to be this geeky guy who's in love with this pretty blond girl. He meets the kid when the kid's ten, but things got scary really fast and Balthazaar and the bad guy got trapped for 10 years. He was funny, but took his job seriously.

*David (Dave) was the Sorcerer's apprentice (the Prime Merlinian). He was geeky and kids made fun of him. He liked this girl named Becky. He ended up being a science major (I didn't recognize the type of physics he was in to, but my mom said it's kind of higher stuff). He decides to train to be a sorcerer because he realizes it's what he's supposed to do and if he doesn't the world will end as he knows it (why does it always have to be that bad in the movies?). Anyway, he trains and the whole point is that he can do magic only with the ring of Merlin on until he becomes the true "Prime Merlinian" and then he can do the magic without it.

*We'll call her the "Love Interest". I hope I don't get as sappy about girls as this guy was about Becky. She was a really cool girl. She looked past his geekyness to see what was inside. She gave him a chance and was open to his Sorcerer gig (plus he was smart in physics which she was not). She was really good and strong (not physically but mentally).

Lesson learned: I think, after talking to mom that there were several lessons. 1) If you believe in yourself you can do just about whatever. It may be hard, and it may be hard to understand, but if you believe in yourself you can do it. I learned that from the main character. 2) You can do anything you set your mind to. With the "end of the world as we know it" on the line, Becky got over her fear of heights to help Dave defeat Morgana. That took some guts.

Grade: I'd give it an A-. It should have gotten a B+ on Jack Huffman's scale of movies. They kissed 3 times. Balthazaar and Victoria kissed once (it was kinda long) and then BOOM! right after that Dave and Becky kissed--Twice! That moved it to a B+. It did move up on the scale because the effects were AWESOME! I wish I could change my car into a different one, that was cool. The really cool magic that kept showing up was the metal eagle that came from the Empire State building. That was kind of a funny touch through the whole movie. Just when you didn't expect it, the bird would show up.

I would recommend it to just about anyone. I think Caroline would have enjoyed the movie, but it was kind of scary at the beginning.

I liked it, despite the kissing.

Book Review by Caroline -- Ten Apples Up On Top!

The book was about a lion, and a dog, and a tiger and they all had 10 apples on top. They took some apples out of a bear's refrigerator and the bear came with a mop and tried to make their apples fall on the floor. Everybody in town was chasing the lion, dog, and tiger to try and get their apples to fall. The lion and his friends got an umbrella and scooped the bears to get away from them. The lion and company got onto a bike and had to get off the bike before they ran into an apple carriage. They then went "Kablooey" into the apple carriage. Then everybody had 10 apples on top of their head.

I liked the book. It was a good book to read, and it was fun. If you just practice long enough you can get good at reading the words. Some words were hard, and they were nonsense and real words. The rhyming words made it kind of easy to read. I would recommend the book to my friends. It will go on my Summer Reading list.

Prince of Persia Movie Review by HuffJackie

Tonight my mom surprised me by taking me to dinner and the movie, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time". I was really excited and had to choose between doing that or playing in the sprinklers with my friends. I chose the movie. My sister had been asked at the last minute to sleep over with a friend of hers, so my mom surprised me with the outing. We came up with the review on the way home from the movie.

I really liked the movie. It was kind of slow at first, but my mom told me it was a video game first so I was glad they gave us some information. There was a lot of action, which I liked. There were also these bad guys that were nasty mean, but like most good movies they got what they deserved in the end. My mom thought there was one scene that would be really scary for me (she saw it with my aunt yesterday)but it wasn't really that bad because I knew it wasn't real. People (mainly adults) laughed at the ostrich races, and I think there was some meaning that I didn't get because I'm only 9. But that part of the movie was funny to watch. People rode the ostriches like horses, so that was funny to watch.

There were only a few places where my mom had to help me understand what was going on but it was because I couldn't hear what they said. It was a pretty easy movie to follow. I was really glad they did more than one time travel scene because that made the end easier to understand. I'm glad the main, really mean guy got what he deserved in the end. I was surprised it was him, but I kinda thought it would be somebody you didn't expect and boy I didn't expect him.

I'm giving the movie 2 thumbs up because of the action in the story and the sword fighting. It is also good because it is easy to follow. My mom asked if I should give it a letter grade based on my two thumbs up and I said I'd give it an A-. She asked why the A- and I said because the main guy and the main girl kissed once. It would have been a B if they'd kissed more than once. They almost kissed two times before the actual fake, movie kiss but some more action happened which was good.