Staycation 2009 Part 2

Freedom

With fewer wheels this year, Sean has been enjoying riding bikes with his friend from down the street.  It took some persuading to get him to try the bike on the road.   Sierra loves riding along with them. 

And a little more video for your viewing pleasure. 

Staycation 2009 Part 3

Mom's Night

Preschool had mom's night this evening.  Sierra has been looking forward to it and it's all she has been talking about since someone came to class to show them how to do massages.  She took this assignment very seriously.

The evening started with exercising.  Sorry, no pictures of exercising.  I didn't know exercising could actually be fun.  Try exercising with your motivated four-year old.  That makes it more fun.  I might have to start recording the exercise show on PBS so we can exercise together.  

Then we moved into a nice hair-brushing.  I don't have a lot to brush at the moment but Sierra was very meticulous about it and it was quite relaxing in spite of the chatter of about one hundred preschoolers and their mothers. 

Next was the temple massage.   

I do not like this picture but I do assure you that I am alive although I look very much dead.  I was taking the picture with one hand and somehow the flash gracefully captured my allergy black-eyes.  Yuck. 

The temple massage was quite involved and Sierra became tired and decided to take a break.  She was quite intrigued by the "pickles". 

Somewhere along the way, there was to be a foot massage.  Sierra waited for the cue but they were on their own at this point and it was hard to hear in the big room.  She kept watching everyone else to see when it was time to switch from head to feet, but it never happened that she could see.  Once most everyone cleared out for lemonade, I suggested she go ahead with the foot massage since she'd been looking forward to this part.

Here's another video.  You can't hear anything she says because the noise level was not good and audio on my camera isn't great, but I like it so here it is. 

Did you Say Chicken?

Sierra is excited about a tentative hatching of chicks at preschool.  "Five more days until the chicks hatch," she told Sean yesterday.  He explained to her that last year, their chicks did not hatch.  He was disappointed but got over it. 

They went on to discuss it some more.  I heard Sean say, "If you cook them, be sure to call me because I like chicken."  She replied in disgust, "I don't even know your phone number!"  So, he quickly got some paper, wrote it down for her, cut it out (don't ask me why he does this) and put it in her tote bag so she'll have it at school. 

I guess he's expecting them to have either scrambled eggs or chicken nuggets sometime soon. 

I have insider news that ten of the eggs are believed to be viable so very soon they should have baby chicks.  And I have permission for us to visit them (field trip!) so we can all see them. 

Shoes are not for Squares?

Even though the temps have only been hovering around the 50-60 degree mark, our teen has insisted on going barefoot outside regardless the weather in the past several weeks.  She says she does not feel the cold.  She also claims that shoes are for "squares". 

Last night her perspective on wearing shoes has changed at least temporarily.  After being dropped off at church for youth group, she decided to go outside, barefoot, in the pouring rain until her friend talked her into going back inside. 

As they came in between the double doors, on the tile floor, our teen slipped and fell, not realizing that, in doing so, she cut her leg.  Deep.  It wasn't until a few minutes later, one of the leaders, who saw blood flowing down the girl's leg and saw that she was leaving a trail of bloody footprints, stopped her, that our teen realized she was injured. 

Okay, so I am ready to accept that when our teen is outside walking barefoot that, perhaps, she does not feel the cold just as she claims.  If she can walk around with a cut that requires three stitches, dripping of blood, without any clue, then perhaps she might not notice a little cold ground under her feet. 

And, at least last night, she was ready to accept the fact that maybe her parents aren't total geeks when they tell her to wear shoes when it is raining.  That just maybe it is safer to wear shoes when the ground is wet.  She said, "I guess shoes aren't for squares."  Oh well, we can enjoy it for the few days that it lasts.  Once the pain subsides, she will probably feel that she once again knows more than her parents.