The Eye of the Tiger

That's the song that both kids have been singing at full voice at every opportunity. (And the day, we've come to learn, is pretty much one long opportunity.) It also describes T's aesthetic sensibility, as revealed in the following series of photos, taken by T:



Skittles, unsuspecting, gets a flashbulb in the puss.



Victim number 2.



"...before turning the camera on herself."



I swear, the camera just loves some people...



...and dogs...



...while being distinctly ambivalent toward others.



T is very proud of this ship. Q built it, but she, all by herself, put the stormtroopers on it.



The top of the shoe box that her ballet slippers came in.



The frosting for the cupcakes that T helped Mami to make.



The fruit basket the family bought for us and brought to our summer visit. T took must really like it. That's probably why she took the picture.



Or perhaps because it was in front of her.



Yeah...That's seeming more likely.



Wonder what this guy's celebrating.



Um...Probably ought to do some cleaning up in there.

Q, this morning, did the rounds with me at the Williamstown Camp Fair Or Whatever It's Called, where everyone who locally does a week or more of camp sets up in the Elementary School gym to take advantage of the presence of hordes of people, who come through for the Elementary School Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser Hoozier-whatsis. This event keeps up the age-old tradition of volunteer parents flipping mealy pancakes and undercooked bacon to hand out to other parents who shell out $16 for the privelege of eating them. At a determined point, the flippers and the eaters change places, and the event continues. Q was interested in the usual stuff: Soccer camp (he loved it last year, and he'll go for 2 weeks again), lacrosse camp (a new one - he saw the flyer and immediately expressed interest, and, given his speed and abandonment of baseball, a likely sport for him in the future), and basketball camp. All local, all affordable, all no problem. No surprises. But then at one point he walked up and handed me a brochure and then charged away again, wordlessly. I looked down at the brochure:

"MCLA Robotics Camp"

I was very pleasantly surprised! This is a distinctly learning-based activity, and he's very excited about it. Not that he doesn't like to learn - he loves to. In fact, while we were playing ping pong the other day, he started regaling me with detail after detail, fact after fact, about the life and accomplishments of George Washington Carver. I asked him where he'd heard all this. "MCAS", came the response. (Massachusetts' standardized test that determines if schools are making adequate progress. 3rd grade is one of the years they test them.) "That test was a lot of fun." But when it comes to camps, he really expects a lot of whiz-bang and gee-willikers, and learning doesn't really register in that way with him. Of course, the brochure does say something along the lines of "For kids who like robots and building things with legos". Pretty much a bull's-eye.

Rainy, half-snowy day, so post-pancakes, we came home (all but Q, who was happy to be invited to a playdate with a friend we saw there), where T helped Mami make cupcakes for tomorrow's skating birthday party. At which I will do a lot of filming, and then, some day, edit together a snappy version for all of you to enjoy. But not for a while, probably. Things have been kind of gummed up lately, what with all the guitar-playin' and such. Just not finding the time. Ain't that the way? Then one day you turn around and you're dead. Welcome to life.

Banzai!