Trevi and I had to run some errands today, and we found ourselves in a really cool shop with fair trade products from all over the world. I have been pricing different kinds of handmade instruments - shakers, thumb pianos, drums, and the like - because we want to turn the wall that houses our piano into a musical art collection that can be hung up, taken down, and played.
As we wandered through the store, I let Trevor play all of the instruments we found (which were numerous). At one point, he took a mallet from a marimba, and started tapping on a big vase with it. I said, "No, Manny, I don't think that's meant to be an instrument. It's a vase." And do you know what that boy said to me? He said, "You must not have heard what a beautiful sound it made when I hit it, Mummy. Everything is an instrument. You just have to listen."
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
WALL-E
It must have been at least six months ago that I first saw a theatrical trailer for WALL-E. I thought it looked cute, and then promptly forgot about it. Fast forward to about a month ago, when Disney stepped up their brainwashing.... I mean, advertising, and Clara and Trevor suddenly felt compelled to start counting down the days to WALL-E's June 27th release. Clara wrote the super-important date on her calendar, and all four of us started doing ridiculously bad robot impressions of the title character saying his name.
I think the "Let's go see WALL-E" Campaign was particularly fervent because we've been letting the kids watch TV on weekday mornings since school ended. During the school year, TV is what allows us weary parents to sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays. Now that it's summer vacation, we have a much looser definition of the weekend. As a result, Clara and Trevor's impressionable young minds are exposed to a whole bunch of stuff they'd like to eat, buy, see, and do, while Chad and I just try to squeeze in a bit of extra shut-eye. Can you blame us? Our kids get up at six.
Anyway, we decided to wait a few days for the masses to go see the movie first, and today we went to an evening show after picking up Clara from camp. As far as we can remember, this is the first time the four of us have ever gone to a movie together. Chad and I have each taken Clara to the odd flick, but Trevi isn't a huge fan of sitting still for 90 minutes.
We loved it. Thankfully, Trevor wasn't the only kid in the theater asking out loud, "Where is WALL-E going?", "Why are they chasing EVE?", "Why is the pool cover automatic?", and things like that. Clara, a sentimental girl, became quite sad at parts, and I found myself formulating great lesson plans that would use the movie to teach the underlying message (I know, I know, it's summer, but it's just how I'm wired).
Look how thrilled these cuties were to pose with the landfill-bound cardboard replicas of WALL-E and EVE. Chad's cousin Sarah remarked that the souvenir WALL-E popcorn buckets were a nice, plastic contradiction to the moral of the story as well. We didn't buy any popcorn though. Whew.
Our discussion on the way home revealed that neither kid really, really got it. So now we can just continue the conversation. Kudos, Pixar.
I think the "Let's go see WALL-E" Campaign was particularly fervent because we've been letting the kids watch TV on weekday mornings since school ended. During the school year, TV is what allows us weary parents to sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays. Now that it's summer vacation, we have a much looser definition of the weekend. As a result, Clara and Trevor's impressionable young minds are exposed to a whole bunch of stuff they'd like to eat, buy, see, and do, while Chad and I just try to squeeze in a bit of extra shut-eye. Can you blame us? Our kids get up at six.
Anyway, we decided to wait a few days for the masses to go see the movie first, and today we went to an evening show after picking up Clara from camp. As far as we can remember, this is the first time the four of us have ever gone to a movie together. Chad and I have each taken Clara to the odd flick, but Trevi isn't a huge fan of sitting still for 90 minutes.
We loved it. Thankfully, Trevor wasn't the only kid in the theater asking out loud, "Where is WALL-E going?", "Why are they chasing EVE?", "Why is the pool cover automatic?", and things like that. Clara, a sentimental girl, became quite sad at parts, and I found myself formulating great lesson plans that would use the movie to teach the underlying message (I know, I know, it's summer, but it's just how I'm wired).
Look how thrilled these cuties were to pose with the landfill-bound cardboard replicas of WALL-E and EVE. Chad's cousin Sarah remarked that the souvenir WALL-E popcorn buckets were a nice, plastic contradiction to the moral of the story as well. We didn't buy any popcorn though. Whew.Our discussion on the way home revealed that neither kid really, really got it. So now we can just continue the conversation. Kudos, Pixar.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Happy Canada Day!
From day one, I have made sure that Clara and Trevor know that they are half Canadian. They get very excited about celebrating Canada Day and Canadian Thanksgiving, and we often have gatherings on these special occasions, forcing our friends to dress in red and white. This Canada Day was pretty low-key, but we did enjoy our second annual batch of Canada Day shirts from cousins Martin and Isabelle (thanks Ash and Pierre!), and we feasted on pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast. Even though I have abandoned Canadian spellings (which is only because I teach American children), and I think of temperature in Fahrenheit, I have always been, and will always be, 100% Canadian. I have a bit of work to do with the kids, though. When Clara started to sing, "O Canada" this morning, it was to the tune of "O Christmas Tree." Oops. I'll get right on that.I want to send out a special Canada Day hello to Uncle Bryan, who is on ship in the middle of the Arabian Sea right now. We wish you smooth sailing home, Bry, and hope you'll sail our way again soon!
http://www.singforcanada.ca/o_canada.mp3
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