Rained on in Rains county

Around Sept. 18 we headed out to Grandma's place for the weekend. We were surprised as we hit town Friday night by carnival lights. Turns out it was the Rains county fair.

With some coercing Grandma gave us the details of a parade Saturday morning. We headed to picturesque downtown Emory and argued over parking. We ended up in a great spot just before downtown. I saw kids with grocery sacks and said "They must throw candy." Grandma didn't believe the parade would yield much bounty, but each "float" threw handfuls of candy. Besides a marching band the parade mostly consisted of county beauty pagent winners, runners ups and so on. Cutest baby 0-6 mo., cutest 6 mo.-24 mo., cutest 2-4 yr. old, little miss, junior, miss personality, and of course Miss Rains County. Each had their own truck or convertible to ride on and each entry had the winner and at least one runner up. This made for a decent size parade, but I think maybe almost every kid in the county was in the parade instead of catching candy on the side.

Dan and Lea collect Candy at the parade

Lea watches the parade go by.



Lea races toward candy on the street.


Lea and Grandma watching the parade.


Grandma, Lea and Mommy

After the parade we headed to the fairgrounds. We thought it opened at noon and though we had about an hour to walk around I thought we could kill time. Here is a photo of Grandma, Lea and Dan at the fairgrounds.

While you may think this is just the livestock area, this was pretty much the fairgrounds. There was a midway in a field across from where they are standing and two small buildings with crafts and exhibits. Not enough to walk around for an hour. Turns out the only thing that happened at noon was a chili cook-off tasting for $5 a bowl. So we headed back to Grandma's for some family time. Around 2 p.m. we tried again, thinking the fair opened at noon. We were ready to ride the tilt-a-whirl. Turns out the midway and fair did not open until 6pm. Big sigh. So at 6:30 after delicious rib and baked potato dinner at Grandma's me, Dan and Lea headed out one last time. Lea really had her heart set on riding the tilt-a-whirl and I figured it would save us some money at the State Fair if we rode some things at the Rains County Fair. As we drove toward the fairgrounds for the third time that day the rain drops began to hit our windshield. I was convinced that it would pass so we pushed on. As we paid our entry the heavens opened and it poured on us. We saw what there was to see in the craft and exhibit buildings. It was still pouring. Fortunately Dan had grabbed his large golf umbrella and we wandered around relatively dry. Passers-by commented on how smart that feller was brining his umbrella. Yes, we were dry, but we'd paid admission to get rained on. How smart were we really? The rides never opened, not even the fun house. We got Lea a snow cone and I stood in line for fried Oreos to take back to the house. As we cross the road to the muddy parking lot the rain turned to a sprinkle and the rides started back up. The fried Oreos were so so, but much cheaper than at the State Fair (unless you count the price of admission). Lea was freezing by the time we got to the van, due to me letting her play in the rain and eat a snow cone (which they had a stand so Lea could put her own flavor on... she put every single flavor on - I believe that's called a suicide - Dan said it just tasted like Kayro syrup by the end). But we stripped her wet clothes off, wrapped her in a blanket and got safely back to Grandma's. A tip to Rain's county fair officials... maybe opening the fair during the day when the town is gathered for the parade and car show would be wiser than waiting for the rain to come! Just a suggestion for next year.

We did accomplish one thing while at Grandma's. That following Monday the Advocate office was having a bread bake-off so I asked Grandma to make Julekaka. She did and although it tried to burst out of the bread machine it turned out great. The bake-off turned into just a sharing exercise since everyone's stuff was so good there was not point in voting. It was delicious, but hard to stay awake after all those carbs! Here is the recipe for posterity.

Julekaka - Swedish Christmas bread

This recipe is for a bread machine medium to small loaf with a light crust setting.

2 & 3/4 cups bread flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup melted butter

1&1/8 cup scalded milk

1&1/4 tsp yeast

at the beep add dried candied fruit (we soaked them in brandy overnight)

Giraffe and a Half

Did I mention my kid is brilliant? She blew the socks off some people this past week.

Just yesterday Lea went to a tryout Girl Scout meeting. Dan went with her so he told me this story. He said that each girl was supposed to take a turn with the Girl Scout book, but Lea wanted to read out loud. Apparently there had been problems with other girls playing around doing this, but she was shocked when Lea actually started reading from the book!

And last weekend Grandma picked up Lea for a weekend out in Emory (a weekend, which deserves a blog post on its own). Grandma had some library books for Lea. One of which was a Shel Silverstein book we'd never seen before called "Giraffe and a Half." Lea started reading the whole book to Grandma. I caught some on video.


Grandma said Lea still had problems with some words. Lea asked "Grandma, what's a kidney?"

"Well, its an organ inside your body, but what does the sentence say?"

"The Giraffe had a bee on his kidney."

"Hmmm," said Grandma, "Spell it."

"k-n-e-e"

"Ahhh... I can see how sounding it out would sound a bit like "kney"

Grandparents Day

September 12 was Grandparents day, so in recognition Lea's school invited Grandparents to lunch on the Monday after. To hear Dan tell it, it wasn't too thought out, because there were so many grandparents that some kids didn't have a place to sit, but it all worked out for us. Kindergarten gets to go to lunch first so there was no problem finding a place to eat.


Grandpa Dan and Daddy joined Lea for lunch on Monday September 13. Dan said they got there a bit early so they got to take part in math class. The kids were singing a song counting to number 10, but there were only 19 kids so to do it twice Daddy got to be #9 (which is fine) and Grandpa got to be #4 (who stomps the floor). Sounds like they had a good old time! Then off to lunch they went.

Everyone brought their lunch, and of course Grandpa brought enough to share. The guys sat with Lea and her friend Zoe, Ella and Bella.

And on another note Lea bought her lunch for the first time on Sept. 16. Two weeks before that Lea came home disgusted with me as a mother for not knowing they had "CHICKEN ON THE BONE FOR LUNCH TODAY!" This outcry at my failings was met with resolve to pay attention to the menu. The menu is consistent two week rotation of standard kiddo offering like Pizza and burgers (and too much salad and not enough regular veggie sides for an elementary school, in my opinion). So last Thursday we sent Lea off with her $1.50 to buy her lunch. I cannot tell if she got rotisserie chicken or fried chicken. The difference in skin texture and preparation is lost in translation. All I know is Lea was very happy to get "chicken on the bone." And my sources say Zoe and Ella bought their lunch too. I find this an amazing coincidence, but that's Lea's story. Maybe I'll go check out lunch on the next "chicken on the bone" day.

Cookie Pizza

While reading one of Lea's books called "When I'm Big" Lea pointed out that the boy who thinks about the chef had bags and bags of candy and was probably making candy pizza. The inevitable question followed, "Can we make candy pizza?"

"Sure, why not!" So on our big grocery trip we all made lists of 3 things we wanted on our candy pizzas. We made giant chocolate chip bases with some chocolate sauce on top. Dan's had coconut (more than he bargained for after he let Lea help "sprinkle" the coconut - she dumped the whole bag on!), butterfingers and peanuts.

Lea's had just. Marshmallows and M&Ms.

Mommy's had Marshmallows, Heath Bars, Peanuts and a few M&Ms.

They took us 3 days or so to eat and they were delicious!

We did also have traditional homemade pizza that night. Lea's just had sausage and cheese, but Mommy & Daddy's was a masterpiece with eggplant, zucchini (which our Junie B. Jone's book calls Sue Kini), spinach, sausage and lots and lot of cheese!

Starting Kindergarten

The week before school we got all of Lea's things ready and decided it would be a good time for a portrait. We went out to the school around dusk. While waiting for the photographer, a police offer drove by us 3 times, I guess just wondering what we were doing loitering. But then Robert Bunch, the photographer came and we started taking pictures and all was explained. I think the pictures came out pretty great. Lea's portrait a week before school. Doing what she does best, jumping for joy!



Then we went down about two blocks and took some more photos on a playground. Here is our happy family on the playground down the street from the school.



Lea says about school "Its fun, and I like it. My favorite part is recess." The first two weeks have been great. We've gotten on a good schedule, even though Mommy is NOT a morning person. We make it to school right around 7:30 every morning. The kids have breakfast at school, so that helps get us out the door. We even got there early last Friday and had time to play with one of our new friends.

The first week the Kindergarten kids only went until noon to ease them into it and it allowed for the teachers to meet with each family for an assessment. As I predicted Lea knocked her teacher socks off. He went through the alphabet and numbers and of course Lea answered all those questions correctly. Next he had a list of colors, but couldn't find crayons to ask "what color is this?" I said, "She can read those words." His eyes go big and he smiled. Then she read the list of about 10 colors including purple and gray. And after that he kept apologizing for asking Lea such simple questions. It was pretty great.

Lea's first day in class at her table. Lea's name was spelled wrong the first day, but we got it fixed. I was so hyped up on excitement I didn't even notice. It wasn't until I showed some friends the photo that they pointed it out.

She sat by two girls who seem to be quite a little group. Stories she brings home indicate they eat lunch together every day. Lea got moved for chatting too much on her second week, but now sits next to another girl who she eats with. We've worked on knowing when to shut our mouth and open our ears during class and for our troubles Lea came home Friday with a "student of the week" button!

Lea showing her name tag to her friend.

Lea's teacher, Mr. Leal (pronounced Lee-al) holding the door as school lets out.


Lea on her second day headed toward class with her backpack.


Lea and her friend walk into the Kindergarten building.

Lea and her friend walk into school together. Lea has her Thursday envelope, which she brings home every Thursday with her week's work and important information for us parents.

Lea racing to school.

Lea and her classmate before school on Friday morning. On Fridays they get to wear school spirit shirts instead of the usual uniform.

Lea gets music and art once a week and a P.E. type class that they call "going to coach" three times a week. Lea starts the day with Mr. Leal and then has reading with Mrs. Hansen in the morning and then math with Mrs. Hansen. Lunch with Mrs. Hansen. After lunch she has social studies and science in spanish with Mr. Leal. In a parent meeting he said by spring they would be writing some sentences in spanish about the seasons and weather after walking around the school grounds observing. So part of the day is in english and part in spanish. Lea has learned a few colors, but has some problems paying attention to pronunciation. She kind of likes to make up her own word close to what she thinks it sounds like and tries to convince me she's right. Fortunately I still remember a little of the many many years (of which I didn't pay much attention) of high school spanish. But I think its going great. At the parent meeting we learned that by second grade the will be assessed at a reading level in both English and Spanish. I am very excited about that. Lea is already reading on her own in level 1 or 2 books (some level 2 books are too hard, it depends on the series) so learning Spanish I think is an excellent challenge for her. So far we are thrilled with the people (teachers and parents) that we've met and Lea is having a ball!

In our Barbie World

So somehow turning 5 flips a switch in a little girl's brain and suddenly Barbie is the most important person in the world! Out of the blue, right before Lea's birthday she told me that "Barbie is the greatest!" and she didn't even have a single Barbie.
So Lea got some Barbies for her birthday. She got Disney princess Barbies Belle & Sleeping Beauty who have their own little world in our bathtub. Ariel has become the step mother, but she's not evil. Everyone shares chores.

From one of her new school friends Lea got a Barbie pet groomer set with dogs that pee water on a special "newspaper" that turns yellow or brown. Lea LOVES the peeing dogs and the Barbies, but the grown ups think its kind of crazy.

But we also got what was termed a "bag of naked hand-me-down blondies." A friend brought the overflow Barbies to us. There were a lot of naked blondies.

At the consignment sale I got a bag of 80s clothes that including two shiny roller skating short outfits with suspenders and homemade wrap around dresses. But what does Lea like to dress the Barbies in? A pink slip. That's what I dressed my Barbies in! I remember them always going to sleep in a slip. I think because all the Barbie clothes look really pretty, but are hard to get on. The slip just slips on. Lea says that is the perfect dress for going to The Ball. All the Barbies, no matter their age go to The Ball at night. I don't know that any have ever really made it, but we've gotten them dressed and ready for their grand entrance that never quite comes. It is hard t get some of the dresses on the Barbies. Most of our Barbies are what Lea and I have taken to calling "sticky leg Barbies." It is the kind of plastic/rubber that the Barbie is made of. Some of the bendy leg Barbies have a rubber type of skin that makes their legs sticky when you slide on their clothes. When I told Lea they were "sticky leg Barbies" she ran off to the bathroom and tried to wash them, thinking I meant they had sticky stuff (like Lea gets sticky when she eats honey or jelly). I had to explain the "sticky leg Barbies" would always be sticky leg. That's they way they were made and we will love them and their sticky legs just the way they are. We just won't put jeans on them!

Also at the consignment sale we also got a little kitchen/bath set for $6 which Lea bought with her money. It all folds flat and has an external part with a door that has a doggie door. Then the kitchen and bath are separate. It came with plastic food: pieces of cake, water bottle, a pizza box and a bowl of chips (that Dan had to explain to me — I couldn't figure out what the yellow blobby bowl was!) The bath has a stand up shower and the laundry room. The washer and dryer really spin when you push a button, but they won't stay closed with any more than a bikini top in them. Laundry would take forever at that rate!

THEN I found my pink Samsonite case of Barbie clothes. It had a note on it (that I'm pretty sure I wrote in college) "Protect with Life. Barbie clothes." It was a treasure chest of all things Barbie. Some dolls, a ton of very fashionable clothes — if you're Cher pre-nose job! Yes, I had Cher and Cher's dressing room. I don't know what happened to my Cher doll (I remember her being taller than other Barbies) but I still have her Bob Mackie style clothes.

This is not Cher, but dressed in Cher's cast offs. This treasure has a turnable scalp so she can be blonde or brunette, but in her old age lives in a freaky Cruella DeVille meets Bride of Frankenstein style. Thus the hat!

But the best find in the pink Samsonite Barbie treasure trove was the blow up furniture! Yes, a whole room of green and brown striped blow up couches and chairs. Its like a bad 70s sit com.

Everyone is a sister that fluctuates in age from 3 to 16, except of course Ken in his make shift dolly clothes - he's dad and one Barbie is mom. How Lea can tell them apart is a skill specific to the 5 year old eye. They look the same to me, but they all have a different name and back story. There's (left to right) Ken, Skipper, Pretty, Starlight, Mom and Auntie Cher (who for some reason has a Southern accent like Elvis when its my job to talk her). Charlotte is not in this picture - Hey I guess I can tell them apart!

They eat and sleep more than any other activity, but sometimes Lea sends them on photo shoots or to gymnastics/swim class or other crazy adventures. That Barbie family never knows what's going to happen next.
But remember its no fun playing just one thing... We must play dress-up while playing Barbies!

Drive In

The first week of August we headed out South to a drive-in Theater in Ennis, TX with some friends for their son's birthday. We had a quick stop for cake at J&G's house. The cake was a fantastic replica of a game that their son and Lea love to play. Plants v. Zombie's. So great!




We had a convoy of about 4 cars and trucks and were ready for anything... except rain. It hadn't rained for over 10 before nor 10 days after, but on that particular Friday we got a good sprinkling with an awesome cloud show on the drive down.



Fortunately it only rained until after the opening credits, then it cleared up. So we put lawn chairs out and tail gated with our yummy burger and popcorn. The concession stand was awesome. But through it all Lea and her new friend had a cozy comfy place to watch Cats & Dogs 2. We brought pillows and blankets for the back of the van. I think this popcorn is bigger than they are!


The revenge of Kitty Galore was pretty entertaining for what it was. The 5 year old set loved it. We got done around 11pm so it was a pretty late night with our 45 minute drive home. But it was a blast!