Piano Recital

Benjamin played in his first piano recital today. He played three songs, one by himself, one accompanied by me and one accompanied by Steve. He did well for his first show, and was thrilled by the experience. He was the youngest by a year or so, and went first in the program. The advanced students were very impressive, and I think Benjamin found them inspiring. I did, anyway.

Stuart stayed for about half the program before he became too wiggly, and we let him go out. Stuart liked seeing the young students play, but once the pieces got more complicated, and the students stopped looking so much like little kids, he started fiddling around.

Steve took video of Benjamin's solo, and then the persons sitting on his lap dropped something, and camera work went awry. I unfortunately was not together enough to have videoed the Steve and Benjamin performance. I think the shirt too long, tie too short look is in, don't you?

Happy Halloween!

My mother made some ears and tails for my boys' Halloween costumes. Benjamin dressed as Richard Scarry's Rudoph Von Flugel, the airplane pilot, and Stuart dressed as Huckle Cat.

They look terrific from the back as well; the tails are a fantastic touch. I'll have to try to get a picture of that for posterity (posteriority).

It's Benjamin's turn to be student of the week in Mrs. Love's kindergarten class. We had to color this poster. He let me color in some of the stars, but did the bulk of it himself. I feel happy that we are at the beginning of the alphabet (by first name) so that we got it over with!

Benjamin's favorite airplane

Benjamin's favorite airplane is the P-38. What's yours?

March Airforce Base Museum is a fantastic day trip for airplane enthusiasts. Steve made a booklet of photographs of airplanes from the internet that they have at this museum, and Benjamin spent the day trying to find them all.

Kindergarten here I come!

Benjamin started kindergarten last week. So far it's been great fun. Here he is, in his uniform,  ready to go to work.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Joke

This one from my husband:
Q: What does a surfing rooster say?
A: Cockadoodle-dude!

Buggs Stuart

Stuart said, "N'yaaaa, what's up Duck?" That's what the rabbit says when he sees a duck. "N'yaaa, what's up duck?"

Swimming

All of a sudden, Benjamin is swimming.

Stuart is also working up to it. Here is what he does while waiting his turn:

French Toast

In Benjamin's preschool class, the teachers asked the kids to recount a recipe of their choosing to put in the class cookbook. The teachers wrote down everything the children said. Here's Benjamin's recipe.

French Toast

by Benjamin Turnour

First you get some bread, and then you get a bowl. And then you hit 2 eggs on the side of the bowl. And then you dump all the stuff in both eggs into the bowl. And then if there's a little bit of shell inside, then you pick it out. And then you dip the bread inside the egg. First you put butter on the pan, and then you spread the butter around. And then you put the bread with the egg on it in the pan. You let it cook, and then you take it out, and it's French toast. And if you want you can put sugar on it.

Sixteen of the eighteen children ended their recipes with "Then you eat it," with one more saying, "Then you could eat it" (spaghetti).

I took Benjamin and Stuart to cooking classes last summer. The first lesson, which Benjamin appears to have learned well, was French toast. Stuart had just turned 2. I took them to preschool after the cooking class, and one of Stuart's teachers reported that Stuart had told her about the cooking class. She said he explained it as follows: We made French toast. Eggs. Round and round.

Mr. Wonderful

Stuart said, "I want my hat and glasses, so I can be Wonderful."

What's for breakfast?

Here they are again, Chef B and Chef S, preparing their fameous wooden food for their eager clientele of stuffed animals. The cats are fond of shrimp kabobs, and the rabbit, as you would expect, enjoys carrots. Oddly, though, the owl tends to eat watermelon and the horse chooses toast.

New Piano!

Cementric

Benjamin said he wanted to put a tinker toy on each end of a stick because he likes it cementric.

Untached

At dinner, Benjamin was talking about turning the kitchen table into a slide. "First, you untach the legs on this side, and then you climb up the chairs and slide down."

Then, Stuart put his hand in his gravy. He needed a rag. He said, "I need a waaag," but it sounded like wog. Benjamin said, "What? You need a wog? Are you going to build a wog cabin?"

Happy new year!

We had a little party. There was food, there were games, and there was dancing.

Look how Stuart looks over at Steve and thinks, Oh! I was forgetting to do the head! Happy new year all.