Quotes: No Old Spoons

Some of these quotes are from last month, but I think they hold their value well.

At lunch on Good Friday (April 22)-
S: There are 3 days until my birthday. #23 is 1, #24 is 2, and #25 is 3.
R: That's right.
S: I was so clever.


After the meal-
R: You are such a good eater, Scott. You ate all your food.
D: Yeah. You made Mommy happy and you made your tummy happy.
S: (whips head around, furrows eyebrows and raises spoon in protest) My tummy doesn't even have a smile.


When I went to write the previous quote on a piece of paper-
S: What are you writing down?
D: Something I want to remember. If I write it down then I might not forget.
S: (A few minutes later) Remember when we watched the Dumbo show? And went on the Dumbo ride?
D: Do you want me to write that down?
S: Yeah. (long pause) Are you writing it down?
D: Yes.
S: (pause) Diz... Diz... What makes "Diz" (trying to spell Disneyland in his head).


Getting Ready for Bed, after I got part of the routine out of order.
S: Dad, sometimes you are wrong about things... But I am always right.

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At Bedtime-
S: I love my bouncy ball. Don't you wish you were me? Then you could play with my bouncy ball all day long and not go to work. But then you would say all the boring things that I say, like "Are we there yet?"

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At Lunch, after he dropped his favourite orange spoon on the floor-
R: Scott it looks like the edge of your spoon is broken off.
S: Yeah, I know.
R: So I am going to throw it away.
S: Why?
R: Because you might cut yourself on it. It is a pretty old spoon.
S: Yeah. I don't really like old spoons.

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In the play area at the grocery store, where he played with a girl a few years older than him-
Girl: Okay, you will be the husband and I will be the wife.
Scott: Just for pretend, right?

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At dinner, recounting his most recent basketball class-
R: Scott, tell Dad about Octopus Tag.
S: (proudly) I never got tagged.
R: There were two winners in the game and Scott was one.
S: (beaming) It was William and me. You know my name. That`s why I only said `me`.

More Soccer

Scott just loved playing soccer this year. He was quite focused on the play, but he also took every opportunity to chat with other player while running and lecture them on rules and strategy. He could often be found at the coach's side, spouting questions and various tidbits of Scott-wisdom. He never quite had that big breakout game like he had last year, but had the season continued, we think he would have gotten there, as the last game of the season was his best.

After Naptime

Temple Backdrop

Just trying out my brother-in-law's zoom lens in R's parents' back yard after Sunday dinner. As you can see, they have a REALLY nice view of the LDS Temple from their place (in addition to a REALLY nice view of the Rocky Mountains and Downtown Calgary).

Practice Bus Ride

Scott went to a practice bus ride, where he learned about bus safety and got a chance to ride on a school bus in preparation for kindergarten in the fall. They watched a video, listened to a presentation, and then went for a ride. At first, the parents were in the back and the kids were up front. Then the parents got off and the kids did another little lap. Scott said he wasn't scared.

The Kids

Musik Garten

Scott's latest round of his Musik Garten weekly music class just wrapped up for the season. It is taught by a friend of ours and she does such a wonderful job with the kids. Scott has never been a musical prodigy, since he was ardently anti-singing for the first 3.5 years of his life, but he really enjoys this class. We have a CD that matches the curriculum and we listen to it in the car all the time and he sings along and keeps getting better all the time. You can tell by the looks on their faces that these kids have fun.

Victoria Day

Normally, you would go to a wading pool to cool off on a hot day. Because this spring has had a shortage of hot days, we consider anything warmer than about 13 C to be warm enough for wading, especially if it happens to be a holiday Monday. We teamed up with some friends for a trip to the community center to take advantage of the wading pool, playground and paddle boats. I think Scott went through 3 shirts by the time we were done -- he fell down in the wading pool. Let's hope we get some hot days in June.

May Long Weekend Lives!

The last four years I have mostly spent the May long weekend shuttered up indoors studying for the CFA exams, so it was SO MUCH FUN to actually enjoy the weekend with family this year instead.



Scott had been conducting a countdown to opening day at Calaway park, and we were among the first 100 people into the park that day, getting to the gates only moments after they had opened. With the exception of the bumper cars, we usually shared a ride with only one other family -- no lines. It helped that it was barely above freezing and a bit breezy that morning.



The funny thing about being in the park when it's that empty is that you sometimes end up waiting longer that you would if there was a full lineup. You get to go straight onto the ride without a wait, but then they never start the thing up because people keep straggling in. I am not complaining. This is simply an observation.



Scott is now tall enough (and brave enough) to go on nearly every ride in the park. Sadly, Katie is just an inch short of getting on several good ones. Instead of little ballet flats, we'll put some thick soles on her next time, and maybe a hat.



We met up with some friends and their son Ty, who is sandwiched between Scott and Katie for age. He was Katie's buddy on the baby rides and Scott's co-pilot on the bigger rides.



The kids were in absolute heaven. You can guarantee that we will be back many, many more times this summer.



Katie provided a laundry list of her favourite moments as she said her bedtime prayers. Usually, R prompts her with things to say, but this was the first time she ventured out on her own, listing off "horsies" (carousel), "boats" (tot yachts), "trains" and more. We will definitely need to get those thicker shoes for her.

Pictures from the Weekend

Tiny Dancers

Katie (2 years) and Adalia (1.5 years) dancing to the music of the Thomas couch.

A Day at the Farm

Butterfield Acres Childrens Interactive Farm used to be a short drive outside of the city. Now the city has caught up to it and it is less than a mile down the road from our house. Given that a season's pass is slightly less than the cost of a zoo pass, driving time is almost zero, parking is free, there is a sweet sandbox AND you get to pet the animals, we opted for Butterfield Acres this year. Our hope is that Scott will grow more comfortable with animals as he gets the chance to pet them and spend time with them. They have started slowly with bunnies and baby chicks, and will work their way up to Scott's ulimate fear: dogs.

Butterhorns

When I was a kid, my mom used to sometimes make a big batch of butterhorns for her early-morning seminary class. I remember looking longingly at the container of lovely, frosted rolls before they were carted off to an unknown fate. To be fair, Mom shared some of the butterhorns with us, but not half as many as I would have preferred. This week, I felt a hankering for butterhorns, so I got the recipe from mom and I made some.



Originally, I planned to make them with gluten-free flour as dessert for the Mother's Day meal, but that was a pretty large outlay of the precious flour for something that might taste like sawdust, so I just made them as laid out in the recipe -- with 6.5 cups of standard wheat flour, along with 1 cup of mashed potatoes. It was delicious. Next time I'll attempt a gluten-free version.



Mom, I couldn't be with you on Mother's Day, but these rolls sure made me think of you. You are the best.

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Butterhorns
2T yeast dissolved into
1 C warm water
1/4 tsp sugar
(let stand until it begins to fill the cup)

1 C mashed potatoes
1/2 C butter--mixed into the potatoes

1/2 C sugar
1 C warm water
1 tsp salt
2 eggs--beaten
Mix all of the above ingredients together in a large bowl.

Stir in 3 C flour.
Cover with dish towel and let rise for 45-1 hour. Punch down.
3 1/2 C flour - mix in.

Cover and let rise again for 45-1 hour. Roll out the whole ball of dough on a floured surface. Spread soft butter all over the dough and then fold like and envelope and roll out again into a rectangle. Cut the dough into strips width-wise and roll each one up. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise again for 30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Let cool and then frost.

Frosting
2 T soft butter
1/2 C shortening
1/2 box icing sugar (probably about 2 C)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1/3 C milk
1 tsp almond extract

Cream together butter and shortening. Add salt, vanilla and extract. Add icing sugar and slowly add milk. It should be smooth and creamy, but not liquidy. Add a little more icing sugar or milk as needed to get creamy consistency.

Sumo Action

My buddy Troy had his 30th birthday party on the weekend, complete with Sumo wrestling. He and I had a pretty lively match, since both of us are tall enough to move around reasonably well in those suits. Unfortunately, the camera angle wasn't the best when I gave him a double-footed kick in the stomach near the end (I'm the one in blue).

Soccer: Week 2

We had two weeks in a row where Scott's soccer was rained out, so week 2 was really week 4. The snow was all gone, there was no rain, but it sure was windy. I guess that's what happens when you play on a very exposed field on a ridge in a very windy city.

Scott was very engaged on defense, making a lot of good plays on the ball. However, he mostly likes to watch on offense. He also likes to run one way while looking another, lecturing other players on what is and isn't appropriate to do during the game. He is probably the chattiest player on the field. He still loves playing soccer.