Indian Dance

Remember when you took piano lessons when you were a kid, and you got to the end of the first level, and you played this song...

Little Indian, little indian
Round the fire he would dance.
Little Indian, little indian
Do the indian dance.

Best song ever, right? I bet you can still play it by memory.

Weeeeellllll, EmJ is nearing the end of her first piano book, so I checked for the Indian Dance. And to my suprise, political correctness has even entered the realm of piano lessons! It is now called "Tribal Song". I think in the last edition it was "Native American Dance." In the next edition it will simply be "Campfire Celebration."

My, oh my, oh my....

And

Why, oh why, oh why....

Would you pitch to Ichiro with 2 outs in the 9th when first base is open?! Why?!

I was having a perfectly good game up until that point. I was too busy picking my jaw up off the ground to go for Ichiro's homerun ball, which was only three seats over and a row back (I totally could have crushed that Asian lady to get to it). To make matters worse, I could hear Luke cheering from four sections away. (We don't sit near each other when the Yankees are in town.) I should have known, though, in the 6th inning, that things were taking a turn for the worse. It was at that point that Samantha mooched an entire tray of garlic fries from the lady in front of us, and EmJ announced to everyone around us that she was combing Joshua's hair and searching for lice. People cleared out pretty quick.

The end.

Yankees!

*Sam can say "baseball" and "Yankees" (biddeeeeeeeez!). Let the indoctrination begin.

*Benjamin has been working on finding a better outlet for his screaming and tantrums (like throwing sharp objects at the offensive person, food, article of clothing, piece of furniture, etc). Yesterday, I noticed him wiping his eyes on his shirt and muttering to himself, "Stop it! Stop it! No tears! Stop it!"

*Joshua loves Kindergarten, and tells me much more about school and his daily interactions than EmJ ever has. The problem, however, is that he starts talking in the middle of a thought and expects me to understand exactly what he's saying.
"...with the brown shirt" or "...except it wasn't a whole sticker book, just one sticker" or "...and I sat by him on the bus."
So I'll say, "You sat next to someone wearing a brown shirt and they gave you a sticker?"
And Joshua will look at me like I'm an idiot and say, "Just listen next time! The brown shirt guy doesn't even ride on my bus!"

*Also, Joshua has a new friend named Marcelo. He's Italian, and because he's Italian, Joshua feels the need to pronouce his name with a sort of Italian flair..."Today I played with (pause) Ma-chay-lo."

*EmJ refused to do any chores on Friday, because she was the "Helper of the Day" at school, and that's HARD WORK. You have to, like, walk the attendance all the way to the office and make it back without tripping on the sidewalk or missing the Pledge of Allegiance! So, heaven forbid you also sweep my kitchen.

*Samantha threw a deskful of papers into the toilet yesterday. I found her, started taking the papers out, and started scolding..."No, we do not throw anything in the toilet." Sam nodded her head and looked at me with a look that said, "I know, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I can't believe the nerve of some people!" I simultaneously wanted to laugh and throttle her.

*I promise I WILL put first day of school pictures up soon. I just haven't gotten around to unleashing them from the camera!

*EmJ attended a town hall meeting with Luke a few weeks ago. Of her first foray into politics, she said, "There was more stomping, yelling, and clapping than talking." Yep. Accurate. You should have brought the 50,000 tomatoes from our garden to throw at Jay Inslee. Nobody would have suspected the little Aryan girl.

*I roasted a chicken! Well, okay, Luke did all the dirty work...but it was tasty. The next day, I made chicken soup. And it was yummy! I even harvested all our carrots and onions for the soup. I was so proud of my little garden and my little chicken and the fact that I actually cooked two fabulous meals in a row....that's some kind of record, right?!

The End of Summer...

Yep, summer is over. I wish I was sad, but I'm definately not. I'm looking foward to school, jacket weather, the playoffs, and all that good stuff. We decided that, for our last summer hurrah, we'd take a little road trip (well, okay, Luke had to work and we just happened to stow away...). We went to Yakima (blech) to visit some dear friends (hooray). When it came bedtime, I made a little space for Sam on a crib mattress in the dining area. This picture is how I found her in the morning. It was very cute.

On the way home, we stopped at Snoqualmie Falls...it's a lot smaller than I remember...EmJ snapped this cool picture. I think I'm going to suggest that she enter it in the Reflections contest.

Then today, we went to Jetty Island. It's a manmade island in Puget Sound that you take a free ferry ride to get to. Though the ferry ride is all of 30 seconds, my boys thought it was amazing. The beach is fabulous, too. I predict that we will spend quite a bit more time there next summer. Hopefully on days that are not drizzly, windy, and cold.

And so, with summer's end comes Back to School! As you can see, we are all ready! I think I'm more excited than the kids. I can't wait to see Joshua's little face as he gets on the bus tomorrow!

Alright, time to get the kids in bed so they can be ready for school!!!!