Mr. Doggy in the Circus

Mr. Doggy in the Circus
by Stuart Turnour
"I want to be in the circus! I will ask." (Mr. Doggy to himself.)
"Can I be in the circus?" (Mr. Doggy to Acrobatic Doggy)
"Yes, you can. You can be a tightrope walker." (Acrobatic Doggy)
"OK, I will tightrope." (Mr. Doggy)
The circus is going to be fun. When the fair started he was first. The tightrope was long, but he had to go, so he went across.
The End

Mr. Doggy meets Acrobat Doggy

Mr. Doggie meets Acrobat Doggy
by Stuart Turnour
"I went to the moon." (Mr. Doggy)
"Really?" (Acrobat Doggy)
"Yes, I did," said Mr. Doggy. "I launched in the Super Doggy Cannon 2000. Do you have a tightrope?"
"At home I do." (Acrobat Doggy)
"Go get it."  (Mr. Doggy)
"OK I will." (Acrobat Doggy)
When he got back, Mr. Doggy said, "Now I will tight rope."
The End

Mr. Doggie Goes to Space

Mr. Doggie Goes to Space

by Stuart Turnour

Once there was Mr. Doggie. He was walking along. He didn't see the sign that said Super Doggie Canon 2000 Ahead.  He accidentally stepped on it, and then it came up. Then it launched him to the moon. He saw a spaceship, and he grabbed it, then he went inside, then he noticed that it was a probe going to Mars.  When it got to Mars, he noticed that it was the Mars Rover. Then it went on Mars, then he saw a jet-pack and he put it on and flew home. The End.

Piano Recital

Welcome, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, to another Long Beach-Turnour Family show. Today's piano recital features Stuart in his first performance, playing "Number 9," accompanied by his father, and "Graduation," accompanied by his mother. Benjamin, a veteran of piano recital performance, plays the Star Wars theme, accompanied by his father, and "I Thought I Saw a Dinosaur," accompanied by his mother.

I'm getting less nervous, I think, but I'm still a little bit rattled after these things. You'll hear about that on the Star Wars video, when I take over filming duties after finishing the dinosaur song. Thanks to our teacher Sandra Barba for a lovely event.

Stuart Plays Number 9

Stuart Plays Graduation

Benjamin Plays I Thought I Saw a Dinosaur

Benjamin Plays the Star Wars Theme

Piano Recital

I've been Coming Around the Mountain for about a month now, but we are now officially around it. Today, Benjamin performed spectacularly in his second piano recital. Stuart also performed spectacularly in the audience (partly because of the promise of a doughnut hole when it was over). Because Steve and I each accompanied Benjamin, Stuart was responsible for some of the video recording. You can see when I took the camera, because my hands were shaking a bit when I came off the stage, and the camera went from being held by a wiggly person to being held by a shaky person. Enjoy!

New Spellbinder Dies

So I have been into my paper crafts again for a while now. I'm just enjoying making things that are pretty, and I'm not being as fixated on the materials, designs, and images being original works of art. So I'm using my rubber stamps, pretty designer paper, and fabricated dies, not to mention powders, inks and, oh! no! glitter.

Last weekend, I bought some new Spellbinder dies with pretty borders. I was just testing them out, when Stuart and Benjamin decided to put them to good use. They made crowns for their animals, and then donned the Saint Patrick's Day hats they made in their respective schools and posed for this photo.

Paper hats

I know the kids are cute, but see the hats on the animals? Bub-Owl had to sit in a strawberry basket because he falls down.

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.