Andrew's LEGO party

Finally I have some time to post about the latest birthday party. Andrew decided he wanted a LEGO party and it was fun to get everything together. He was very excited.

I love researching online what other people are working on and, oh man, there are some creative people out there.

First we started with the cake. My friend always make may cakes and this year it was no difference. She gives me one last thing to worry about because I know that her cakes are amazing and really well made. We decided to have the cake just plain white on top to put together one of Andrew's gifts on top as a cake decoration. Andrew loved it!

I wanted to make a table with candy for the kids to take home. I was very disappointed with iParty store because they charged so much money for almost nothing. I went there to find simple clear litlle buckets to fill up with candy but they didn't have what I was looking for and when I found something that I could "make do" with, it was for an outrageous price. I gave up on them! I went to the dollar store in Nashua, NH and found EVERYTHING for $20. Amazing. I was chocked to think how much that would have cost at iParty.

Andrew had his friends come over and we had a backyard barbecue, cake candy, water slide and a bouncy house. It was the perfect birthday.

Theo's Second Birthday

Theo's birthday is coming up. I can't believe he is turning two.

Because he is so into robots we decided to make a robot party. We are creating our own robot to use at the birthday party and I think the kids will like it too. I have collected along the week several pieces of recycling material like coke cans, plastic bottles, soup cans, boxes, etc. We also went to Home Depot for some specific parts like screws and bolts that Theo always wanted to play with... We bought the ones we know he is not gonna get hurt playing with and we adapted to create our robot. After a lot of duct tape and glue here is the result of our robot so far...

New Comp II Assignment - Poetry

After Reading Oe's "Prize Stock", one of the very best short stories I have ever read we moved on to poetry. I am analysing similarities and differences using the Formailst strategy. I always wanted to study the classics of poetry, not that I love poetry, I think it to be too subjective for my taste, but I am curious about why people love Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman for example. I chose to analyze "Because I could not Stop for Death" and "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died" both by Emily Dickinson and I wanted to pick a modern poet as well. I selected Linda Pastan with "An Early Afterlife". These three poems talk about death but have very different approach and tone.

She was very strange, I guess. Poeple call her eccentric but she would not conform to the to the rules of society and, as a result, she was always in search of something and exploring the possibilities in her poems. After reading and searching I came to like her poetry and peek inside her world. Very interesting.

Amazing class about Japan

This semester my Comp II teacher asked us to read this book of short stories from Japanese authors. I first thought it was interesting, then naive now that she is adding more background to everything, AMAZING!

I am so appreciative of Fumiko Enchi for exposing herself and her mind to us the way she did. Truly a contemporary female author.
I just finish reading "The Flower-Eating Crone"

Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001

IN BLOOM

Kani-ba saboten (Christmas cactus)

By LINDA INOKI

"In my disappointment, I put the plant, now just a clump of jagged green leaves, out of sight on my balcony,and for the following year I hardly gave it a thought. But the next fall I noticed tiny, jewel-like buds forming on its leaf tips, and soon they swelled into flower all over the plant, their heavy splashes of pink and crimson petals weighing down the leaves in voluptuous profusion."

From "The Flower-Eating Crone" by Fumiko Enchi (1905-86), translated by Lucy North in "Japanese Short Stories" (Oxford University Press)

The spiked, segmented leaves of this cactus, which reach outward like claws, give this plant its popular Japanese name of kani-ba-saboten or shako-ba-saboten (meaning crab- or crayfish-leafed cactus). But to many Westerners, these exotic cacti are associated with Christmas because they bloom during the festive season. In the wild state, six species of Schlumbergera cacti grow in dry areas of southeastern Brazil, which explains why our pot-plant hybrids like well-drained soil and frost-free conditions. In Tokyo, they can usually live outside, but they are sensitive creatures, and if moved indoors at the wrong moment, as in the above story, they will drop all their promising buds.

Kids Konnection Playground in Billerica, MA

I live in Lowell. We moved here not too long ago. We are still getting used to the area. Today I decided go on a hunt for a different playground in the nearby towns. I got the address for one that I couldn't find... it looks like a new neighborhood was created on the place where the playground used to be. Good I had the address for another one near the nonexistent one . We drove to the second one. Difficult to find behind a hardware store but a really nice place for the kids. Again, we parked in front to what seemed to be the gate for the playground but it was a "fake" gate because it was locked. Other people did the same and followed me after I asked a parent inside the playground for the entrance. We had to go in the car again and drive around the baseball field to get to the "real" gate. Kind of stupid but we finally found it.
Andrew and Theo loved it. They have a big sandbox with toys and all kinds of different structures for climbing. It is very hot today and still we found a few shady spots to seat and have lunch inside the playground.
We found a great new spot to have fun!

Classes are over!

Well, finally done with my summer classes. I am still waiting to check my grades though. Hubby gets really upset about small colleges and I did had some "trouble" with the system but overall, I am really happy with it. So nothing to complain for now... let's wait for the grades and maybe I will change my mind ! LOL