Mandarin Body Parts

Maceo has been studying the body, and here is a little English/Mandarin primer for you. (In the background, you might hear Cassius yelling the Mandarin word for eyes!)

Spring is Springing!

We found ourselves Saturday morning with several choices. Maceo suggested going to Udvar Hazy, the air and space museum out near Dulles Airport. Cassius suggested staying in the house all day and playing games. I suggested going on a bike ride on the Anacostia River, and by the grace of God, they both wanted to do that! We drove over to Prince George's County to the site of the Battle of 1812, and got on our bikes and on the trail. We rode along the river for a while, past the National Arboretum and past Kenilworth Gardens, all with Cassius leading the way. Soon, it was snack time, and we had fun eating and doing slow motion boxing matches.

When we got back to the parking lot, a freight train was slowly going past, so the boys ran up to check it out, just as the horn hooted. Someone came scampering right back.

Kate picked the boys up that afternoon, and I came to join the boys on Sunday afternoon where I found the kids both jumping around on a trampoline (I could hear them a block away) and riding an electric motorbike. Cassius tried it, fell, and was not interested in trying again.

 Since it was St. Patrick's Day, our friend Shelby prepared, of course, corned beef tacos. I'm not quite sure what they do on Cinco de Mayo.

 Finally, at school, Maceo has been studying the body, and here is a Maceo-sized diagram of the innards. The knowledge came in handy this weekend! During our bike ride, we saw at least 3 shrews on the trail who had been killed by passing cyclists. One shew had sadly been "popped" open by the force of the tires. It gave Maceo a chance to see intestines for real. He first thought they were worms, but we checked them out more closely and he was able to identify them both in English and Mandarin. We also brought a shrew home to add to our Natural History Museum.

Grandparents and Grandkids

Saturday, we had a playdate/dinner planned with some friends, but the flu intervened. Not at our house, thank the Heavens, but at our friends'. Luckily, Grandma Sue and Grampa were still planning on coming to dinner, so we roasted a chicken and some vegetables and got our card games ready! We played a new game called Cockroach Poker (McMurrers, better get your poker faces ready!) It's a game that calls for bluffing and Cassius is disturbingly good at it.

Maceo played Legos while waiting to play Sleeping Queens.

Then we played Sleeping Queens, a game we chronicled earlier this year. Cassius and Grampa probably enjoy this game the most, but we all had fun, and Grandma Sue learned to play for the first time.

On Sunday, the first day of daylight savings, we were actually able to get out of the house on time and over to Mamy and Maurice's to go see a play in Bethesda called Anatole: Mouse Magnifique. It was very enjoyable for all ages. We all, for different reasons, especially enjoyed the "mousenary" group called Alpha Strike Force who were supposed to help bell the cheese factory cat.

Quelle bonne piece (of cheese)!

We'll have to keep an eye out for the book at the library.

Pre-show construction

I'm not sure why every theater doesn't have such things in the lobby!

Mr. Persistent spent the most time building ramps and courses.

We got home and had a lovely quiet time, though someone snuck out 10 minutes early for some snuggles.

Hint: it was Cassius.

After quiet time, two buddies (Carter and Parker) were dropped off and the boys had the best playdate ever. They went down to the stop sign at the corner and tried to sell origami to passers-by. Biggest sale? 50 cents to Alex, Carter's and Parker's father.

Horse Publishing Party

This week, Cassius and his classmates invited friends and family to come to a publishing party of their writing. This is the second one of the year. Unfortunately, I couldn't go, but I sent my representatives Pat and Maurice instead. Here is their photographic report.

The hordes of Horse children at the party discuss their art.

The proud author.

The public was allowed to comment on the books. Here is one adoring fan.

"So, the Pokemon leitmotif really just encapsulates late capitalism's yearning
 for a return to the the mid century zeitgeist of Cheever and Salinger."

The only downside according to Maurice was a book release party without wine. I bet there was plenty of whining, though.

Another Weekend and More Cleaning!

Recently, I wrote about a new cleaning routine the boys and I are trying. I have a template with a list of the rooms and specific tasks for each room.
So, the system is as follows:

1) One boy picks my chore,
2) the second boy picks his own chore,
3) and the first boy gets the last pick.

I stole this strategy from my childhood when my dad would try to mitigate sibling arguments about which chore to do/restaurant to go to/activity to do/etc. And it seems to work! Instead of doing big rooms, this weekend we were doing bathrooms. Once again, Cassius chose the biggest room for himself, and this time, he first got to choose my task.  Cassius told me to do the smallest bathroom, the powder room on the first floor. Maceo chose to clean the boys' bathroom (the medium sized bathroom), and Cassius got the master bath! (Once again, more floor to mop!)

At first, Maceo was quite sluggish and whiney. But soon, with the addition of music ("Despacito" is the current fave), and a little lecture about how working with a bad attitude not only makes one feel bad, but it also ensures low quality work, we were all having a good time and getting stuff clean!

Washing baseboards!

Scrubbing toilets!!!!!!

Getting the tub clean!!!!!!!!!!!

WIPING DOWN THE SINK!!!!!

Once again, we had a pretty good time, and I was so appreciative of the boys' efforts and spirits! They really can be good boys some of the time!

(Most of the time, really.)

The Big Top!

The boys went to their first circus yesterday! Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sue invited us to go see the Big Apple Circus, so off we went through the rainy day to the National Harbor.

We saw super strong tumblers and acrobats. (While this image is impressive, even more amazing were the times when the man balanced himself on her!)

Both boys said Mark, the clown on the left, was a favorite. He stumbled out at the beginning, a seeming spectator looking at his phone and suddenly finding himself in the middle of the ring.

Of course, as a family we loved the dogs!

In the car ride home, Maceo exclaimed, "That's the best circus I've seen in years!"

(Only the last photo is mine. The rest are from Google!)

Decent Docents

The boys and I went down to the National Gallery to see a collection of short children's films. We made it just in time, only missing the first few minutes of the first film. After each film, Cassius would lean over and give me a silent thumbs up to let me know he had enjoyed that one. Once the films were over, I was interested in seeing how they reacted to an actual art museum. We'd never really been to a grown up museum like this one before. The American Art Museum is a little more experimental in its collection, and I wondered how the boys would react. Well, first, they loved the escalator. 

Daddy, now YOU try it!

Then, they were remarkably interested in the Giacometti sculptures to the point where Cassius was identifying them from afar! I showed them the famous picture of Giacometti walking amongst his sculptures, and they dug it. Maceo pointed out that the sculpture in the photo was the one right in from of us!

From there, we entered some of the galleries and I asked them to point out the ones that they really liked. Here's Maceo with one of his faves:

The docents giving me some insight into Gene Davis's "Black Popcorn."

Cash chose an artist I really like, Claes Oldenberg:

"So, so, so, this is a pencil."

And Maceo went with a solid choice in Wayne Thibaut, although he merely told me he "wanted to eat that one", pointing at the canvas. Damn liberal arts education....

"If you really look, you can see how yummy they are,"
my docent told me.

They did like talking about the pieces, looking carefully at them, and proffering ideas about what to look at, what it meant, what it was.

"Beam me up, Macers."

We made our way through some parts of the museum I had never visited before, including quite the staircase:

And finally, we ended up on a terrace outdoors where there were some very interesting and fun pieces. Some were terrifying, like the giant rooster.

I'm saving this one for their high school band's first album.

Some were quite intriguing, like this one called "Ugly Buddha Watches Ugly Television."

We spent quite some time there, and the boys were really great. On the way to the car, I praised them for being such great museum goers and companions. It was delightful. And of course, we had to look at the old standby that all kids in DC know--the incredibly sharp angle of the museum where it seems like the building is toppling over on you.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!