Easing into February

We had a really low-key week, or at least one without too many activities besides the ones normally on the schedule. The one addition was that Landon started his Spanish class at Barnes School on Wednesday. Our friend from church, Priscilia from Venezuela, came over and helped us take care of a couple of projects at home, and she and Eliza had fun chatting together in Spanish as well. Here are pics from this week's music class: 

We have had a surprising yet welcome stretch of relatively warm weather. In fact Mike and the kids even managed to get some bike time in. We also finally set off our Mentos rocket again, after waiting for the city crew to clean out the storm drain.

The kids loved watching the big truck with the giant vacuum pump. Eliza had never seen anything like it. 

On Friday, Mike had lunch with a work friend down in Corktown at Astro near Slow’s BBQ. He took a side trip over to Mexicantown and La Colmena (Honey Bee) Market, where he stocks up on his Latino foods (among other things, they have tasty fresh-made pico de gallo, tamales, and Goya products imported from Mexico and Central and South America). Alas, this time they had no yerba mate! Please don’t let this be the trend for the future.

Later in the evening after Eliza went to bed, Landon and his parents had a movie night with Mary Poppins and movie treats. Partway through the movie, it hit Mike that Mary Poppins, a movie Mike always felt was “old,” was made only nine years before he was born (we’ll let you do the math). For Landon, this would be like a movie made in 1998 (A Bug’s Life, for instance). 1998 was not very long ago, right?! Oh, help. Someone feels a bit older than he did before that movie started. . . . Anyway, rather than focusing on that, let's focus on the kids!

Little prima ballerina

Look at these curly locks!

On Saturday, we went to pick up a hand-knitted Minnie Mouse cap for Eliza in preparation for her first birthday party. 

That night, the women from church had a ladies’ night at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where they saw the exhibition Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus. Meanwhile, Mike stayed home with the kiddos, and he and Landon made stamped sugar cookies in the shape of characters from the movie Cars 2.

The word sugar always reminds Mike of an old story: George Bernard Shaw was at a party, and a brash young man, thinking he knew something very clever, came up to Shaw and asked, “Did you know that sugar is the only word in the English language where the letter ‘S’ makes the sh sound?” Mr. Shaw, without missing a beat, replied, “Are you sure?” (For you wordsmiths, it turns out sumac can also be pronounced with the sh sound. Who knew? Well, Shaw, probably.)

OK, can't resist one last pic of our Minnie Mouse lookalike dressed in her Sunday best: