Magic Trick

Aidan has show and tell every Wednesday. Mrs. Lindeman usually has the kids do student's choice, which is to say they can bring in pretty much what they want. But this week she wanted the kids to do a magic trick. Andy and Aidan figured out a trick where you clip two paper clips on either side of a folded up (in the shape of an "S") piece of paper, you pull the paper, and voila the paper clips end up together. We got to see the trick several times. Aidan performed it today for his class, and we think it went well. It would probably be more of a Magic Trick to get Aidan to tell us more about it.

What do you call it?

Aidan and Owen are in their second week of baseball. They seem to be enjoying it, and they enjoy it even more when they do well. Andy reports that they each had several hits tonight, which always buoys their mood. What they enjoy most of all, though, seems to be the snacks. At our house, we try to stick to a "healthy snack" rule after a certain time. Basically, if you want a bedtime snack, it's not going to be a candy bar or chocolate chip cookies. But baseball has turned this rule on its head! Practice gets over at 8:15, at which time the boys are normally in bed. As the boys are leaving practice, they get a juice box and a snack. Tonight the snack was...well, let's hear Owen's description.

"They're kind of like Twinkies, but they're chocolate. And they have a white swirl in the center that looks kind of like the Milky Way."

Did you guess? I call them Debbie cakes; Andy calls them Swiss cake rolls. I like Owen's description the best.

Fun time

Normally after school, the boys like to play with any number of kids in our neighborhood. There are days where Aidan and Owen are outside after school longer than they were in school. It's good for them, and I'm glad we live in a neighborhood where there are so many other kids to play with. Today was different, though. I wanted to drive up to Bloomington to pick up a mirror for the bathroom. I did get a few complaints, but in general they were pretty good. To reward them, we stopped at REI after I picked up the mirror. The climbing wall was closed, but the little indoor park was open. In the park there is a cave that has a sleeping family of bears inside. To a two year old, the bears must look pretty realistic. When I suggested to Henry that he go in the cave, he looked at me like there was no way he would do that. I asked Owen to show Henry that the bears weren't real, and Owen was such a sweet big brother - he marched right in the cave. Then Henry immediately followed. The last I was able to see, they were hand in hand on their way to an adventure. Every couple of minutes after that, Henry ran out to me and began every sentence like this: "Mom! I never see..." He was telling me of all the things he'd never until now seen inside the cave and tunnel. After so much fun in the park, the boys were hungry. Either that or they smelled a good opportunity to get some sugary snacks...they got a tube of cookies and we were on our merry way. Safe to say a fun time was had by all.

He must have an Inner Compass

I had a really nice morning with my boys. We went to the Eagan Civic Arena, a place where, for two months every year, they cover one of the indoor ice rinks and just let kids run and play with various balls, stilts, frisbees, etc. We had a great time. As we were walking in, Aidan was remembering how much fun he had playing there with old friends (when he was 3!). We played for about an hour and a half, with me playing frisbee or tag or finding the boys after they'd hidden themselves behind the goals at either end of the arena. Then we ran a couple errands, and the boys convinced me to take them to McDonalds because they are OBSESSED with the toys that are currently there (Monsters vs. Aliens.) Lunch went really well; I actually managed to stay relaxed the entire time. Too relaxed, though. My phone rang, I picked up and noticed the time. We had about 10 minutes to get to Aidan's bus stop. We scooped ourselves up immediately, but by the time we had coats on and walked across the parking lot and got buckled in our seats, we were down to four minutes. Aidan loves the bus. I could very easily have taken him to school, but he really, really loves the bus. He suggested I just tail the bus and he'd eventually get on at someone else's stop. Great plan, except by the time we made it to our neighborhood, we were 5 minutes past our pick-up time. I had no idea where the bus would be at this point. His next suggestion? "Well, Margaret's house is the last stop. We could just go there and wait." Which really is brilliant in and of itself...but where is Margaret's house? "Turn left at the stoplight at Diamond Path." I was so skeptical, but I did it. Then I turned right when he told me to. We continued down a neighborhood street, and lo and behold, I soon saw a bus in my rearview mirror. Then we saw Margaret! Aidan did it! He navigated me to his friend's house, all by himself, at 6 years old. I cannot describe how impressed I am with this.