ZimWex Family Blog

A girl of adventure...

I got to attend Ruby's 2nd Grade Publishing Party last week.

Below is the text of her latest story...Not at all lacking in imagination!

"Lucky lived in a mountain with her mom, dad, two sisters, and a brother.  She lived a peaceful life, but also, Lucky is a girl of adventure.  She's gone to every place you can think of right now.  But there is one place she didn't go: NYC! She really really really really really wanted to go to NYC. Tomorrow she can go!

She packs and packs, then goes to bed.  In the morning she put her luggage and a zipline on her g-i-a-n-t giant flying c-a-t cat, Then she jumped on her cat and was off!  She saw a lot of buildings.  then...she was hovering over Manhattan. She smelled hot dogs. She saw pretzels.  She saw cars zooming by.

Plop! Lucky and her cat landed in Central Park! Lucky got into a boat nearby and she rode and rode.  The she saw a duck.  She docked her boat and chased after the duck.  Then she crashed into a bush in the z-o-o zoo.  Click! She was locked in!!

Then she remembered she had clipped the zip line to her belt. Then she said "excuse me, sorry for chasing you." "That's ok" said the duck.  "Can you fly out and tie one end of the line to the tree near the giant cat?"asked Lucky.  "Sure" said the duck.

The duck flew out and tied the rope to the tree. Then Lucky zipped across.  Then she leaped on her cat.  A cat named Kala with a  giant head. Lucky took Kala home. She knew that she couldn't keep Kala because she kept trying to eat her goldfish.  So she donated her to Julie Case, her detective friend."*

She then does a tie-in with her friend Polly's book about a girl detective...

She made a little clay figure of Lucky (who I think is so very cool).

But this girl is cooler...

Proud of my girl.**

AZ

*Okay, so it doesn't really end.

**And wishing I could buy her a portable clip-on zip line.

Right Now

I am...

Helping Ella make her costume for today's Egyptian tomb presentation at school.  There are robes, belts, chokers, and lots of eyeliner...

Nagging Jerry to finish working on his tabloid newspaper about The Red Scare and the Crucible.

Amazed at what he can do on the computer, graphics wise.  My children's knowledge of how to make things look professional on the computer FAR surpasses my own....

Cuddling  up on the couch with Ella to watch American Idol, which we have long since embraced.

Rooting for Jessica Sanchez.*

Wondering how she made such a spectacularly bad song choice this week.

Wishing I had a wardrobe (and body) like J Lo's.

Planning our trip to Mexico Sunday. Back to the Mayan Riviera!

Worrying that somehow Ella's passport will not be rush renewed tomorrow.

Chastising myself for finding myself in this position yet again. How many times do I have to miss the expiration of my kid's passports before I learn the lesson?

Marvelling that this is the TENTH time I have applied for a passport for one of my children.

Unwrapping  a honey lemon Ricola cough drop for the cold I appear to be getting.

Staring at the three parking tickets I got this week and thinking about paying them.

Delivering Girl Scout Cookies. Forever.

Smiling as I finished Reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to Ruby tonight. 

Certain that my Harry Potter accents are better than ever.

Reconsidering my afternoon cappucino. Could I do without it?

Awaiting Tanya's return home from London after a week.

Accepting that I am unlikely to get a pedicure prior to my trip.

What are you all up to right now?

AZ

*And Erika Van Pelt..that girl has a cool voice!

 

 

 

This Moment.

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

AZ

In which she forces them to eat new foods:: #2

On tonight's menu....

Macaroni and Cheese that does not come from a box

This is a recipe of my friend Diana's from the school potluck cookbook.  With two children, and this mother, it was a hit, though I probably would go a tiny bit easier on the optional onion the next time.  My youngest child suffered through it one slightly too cheesy elbow at a time, but nonetheless, by drinking water in between bites, managed to get to the end.  My eldest son, and total food wimp most picky eater, refused to try.  About an hour later, he decided to try (because I hadn't given him any other food).  Again, he lost confidence before the first bite. Finally! (at about 8:15 PM) he ate a very small portion.  Victory? The mere fact that there are general histrionics when macaroni and cheese  is served is enough to put me over the edge!

Sauteed Spinach

Simple spinach sauteed in garlic and olive oil.  Not new for me to cook, but new for me to ask my children to eat.  Three children at the table tonight said unprompted, Great Spinach! The other one has, ahem, yet to try it.

Baguette

Clearly not new. But good! And uncontroversial...

Brownies not from a box

Yum, yum, yum. And what else would you expect with one pound of butter and several cups of sugar? they are good and gooey and rich!

So, now you are getting the idea of what qualifies as new in my family.* How did it come to this? But, in any case, I am having fun with the idea of finding new stuff. Next week, chopped liver!

These recipes, I feel I cannot reprint, because if you email cookbook@lrei.org  you can order you own cookbook and support our school.  There are lots of great recipes in there, including from some fabulous chefs like Mario Batali! 

AZ

*Literally any change from the exact recipe  they are used to.

 

A little about Ruby.

Ruby recently wrote a how-to book for school.

At the end, she has to write a biography of the author:

Guess which sentence is my favorite?

AZ

And off she goes.

Today we said goodbye to Ella, who is off to the farm for the third grade trip, not to return until Friday.

Except for being "worried that she wasn't worried enough"...

she seemed in good spirits...

 

The parents may have had more trouble saying goodbye than the kids!

 

I hope she is doing okay tonight up there with the pigs, the cows, and the chickens.

I can't quite believe she is not here.*

Come home soon, Ella!

AZ

*but will believe it at 6 AM (the early morning hour Ella sets her alarm for...even though we don't walk out the door until 7:45...just to be prepared!)

The Graduate.

Yes, Jerry is now officially a middle-schooler.*

These (dare I say it?) handsome pictures, as usual, do not tell the whole story.

What was off camera?

First off, a major major meltdown the night before the graduation day about not being able to wear sweatpants and a t-shirt.

The polo shirt and jeans were just too, well, fancy for him.

Second off, Ruby crying not wanting to appear in a graduation photo. Then later crying that she missed the graduation photo.

Despite these few setbacks, we were pretty proud of our boy, who stood up to speak with a great deal of composure, and without making any fart jokes.  We were surprised.

Next stop, middle school.

AZ

*And already has the orthodonture to prove it!

THIS is a Permanent City.

Someone asked what a permanent city was when I recently mentioned it in a passing rant.

The second graders spent a few months designing a city (with waste management, power plants, and other municipal committees....) And then made the whole thing out of recycled boxes and other materials...

Ella  built this apartment building. She was oh-so-proud.

Doesn't it look like fun?

AZ

Why its fun not to have homework.

Homework is pretty much the bane of all of our existence in the Zimwex Family.

In order to get all the work done before we all disintegrate into our least organized, most grumpy selves, we usually do our homework right after school.  And because we eat dinner at absurdly suburban-y early bird hours* there isn't a heck of a lot of time for other play and exploration and imagination after school.  Its pretty much school, homework, dinner, bath, bed.  Exciting, right?

However, this week the teachers have been going lax on the homework.

Which allowed us to do this just the other day.

Yes we made a lemonade stand.

Actually I had nothing to do with it.

The kids were all over this project.

There were the lemonade makers:

The barkers:

And, of course they counted this loot:

The grand total: $25.  And we were only out there for about 20 minutes!

They are definitely motivated to do it again....

Who needs homework? We measured ingredients, counted money, and made signs, as well as a schedule of who was doing which jobs!**

Bring on summer.

AZ

*5:30?

**Slippery slope from the lemonade stand to un-schooling?

What's missing from this picture?

That's right.

A picture.

To set the stage....T is out of town, and Jerry is in the school musical.  There is a bit of fretting over this fact, and a somewhat implausible threat of doing a sit-in instead of performing.

However, when we get through this, Jerry is comforted by the many electronic devices I will use to keep T updated.

Problem #1:  She took the Flip Video Camera with her. (at least I think she did..no sign of it here)

I jumped into action and found a substitute videographer.  Phew. At least I have still pictures.

Good seat allowed me to take some lovely photographs throughout the play.

All is well, right?

A few hours later, took Violet to her last day of school, and, again, brought along the trusty Canon Eos Rebel.  I began to take photographs and then noticed a flashing light that I hadn't before.  The flashing light that said..... NO CF CARD.

No CF Card?

So you, along with T, will have to take my word for the fact that he looked awfully cute in his knickers and cap.  

And I have officially failed my 21st century parental duty of constant documentation.*

AZ

*Except for the fact that I am BLOGGING about it. Which is pretty darn 21st century constant documentation...