The Dollhouse gets another lease on life!

The kids went bonkers today with the “new” dollhouse.  They stopped playing with it only long enough to watch Imagination Movers - but as soon as the closing song started they were immediately back at the dollhouse again.

 

And in the “I cannot believe this thing still works” category, the winner is:

 

The tiny electric table lamp!!  This thing is classic and sturdy, I guess!!

Dance Photos!!

While I don’t have the real professional ones yet, here are my admittedly amateur photos of the kids in their dance costumes. 

They could not have been better behaved!!  Their timeslot was supposed to be from 1:30 to 3:00, but another parent, apparently, had a birthday party for their child with several kids from another dance group and asked if they could go first.  I maintain that was a cleverly played rouse – one I intend to remember and possible use in the future.  But the end result for use was another delay – we didn’t get the photos taken until nearly 2:30 and didn’t get the kids to sleep until almost 4:00!! 

And these kids weren’t rammy or miserable or anything!! They were patient and quiet and all smiles when they got their pictures taken.  We are so proud of them!!

I’ll pass on info about the real photos when I get it.

A before and after of our garage

Today’s goal of finishing the garage was accomplished!  I even have enough space to possibly fit the van!! Later in the week, that is – tomorrow that space will be filled with leftover moving boxes…

Tomorrow, I hope to start hanging things up!

Visit to the Firefighter Museum

The kids absolutely loved this excellent museum dedicated to Firefighters and American LaFrance (who have been making fire trucks since the 1830’s). 3yr old boys and fire trucks – a combination that CANNOT go wrong!

They climbed a ladder and slid down a fireman's pole, and John drove a firetruck simulator. At the end they each received a fireman's helmet (which they continue to wear after their nap).

Today I went to the HMS Surprise (the ship they filmed "Master and Commander" on), a Russian Foxtrot submarine, a Steam Yacht, and the USS Dolphin test submarine, with my good friend Rob and his daughter Clara. The ships were all very interesting, thought I am absolutely certain that Sarah is glad I went without her!!

My Counter Piracy Brief at EDO School

Here is the brief I gave as part of my EDO coursework. It is in two parts because YouTube has a 10 minute time limit and the presentation was 15 minutes. The quality is poor because it was recorded on a really old VHS tape, and then digitized by my video camera - but hey, it got done.

Ultimately, I didn't really like the way it turned out. I did some things very well but others very poorly. From my perspective:
Goods - excellent transitions between slides, organization of the brief
Bads - way too many verbal ticks (umms, uhs, ahs, etc)

What do you think?

EDO School, so far

We are in the second day of school now, and so here are some photos of where I am and what I'm doing.  The first photo is the schoolhouse (note the propeller and Terrier missile), the second is my desk with monster study material, and the third is the cool rental car I’m driving (a Chevy Malibu)