Mae's Real Stories

New Barbie Doll

2011-09-01T17:21:00.002-04:00

Here she is: my Mona Lisa Barbie. This is my first -- and last -- Barbie doll in my whole life. I guess. Unless they make a Leonardo Ken with a paintbrush or something.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIRIAM

2011-05-25T00:19:00.001-04:00

Miriam is 10 years old today. Here is how she looked exactly 10 years ago!

Nagini

2011-05-23T12:31:00.001-04:00

At the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena we saw a lot of art from India and places near India. One statue showed a snake goddess, which is in this picture. You can see snake coils behind her. Here's the amazing thing: the Hindu name for a snake goddess is a nagini. So now I know where J.K.Rowling got her name for Voldemort's snake. Did you know that?

This particular snake goddess is named Revati and her statue is around 1600 years old. In Hindu myths, snakes guard treasures that are underground, and snake goddesses (naginis) look like humans but associate with snakes.

Happy Birthday Alice!

2011-02-07T07:20:00.003-05:00

Here is Alice's most recent self-portrait with Photobooth. And here she is exactly 8 years ago today --

New Harry Potter Movie (with Spoilers)

2010-11-27T10:03:00.004-05:00

Guest Post By Alice

Well I just watched the new Harry Potter movie, and it is very good.

The saddest part is when Dobby dies because they really exaggerate the sadness. Another sad part is when Hermione Granger obviates her parents' memories so that she can be safe and so can they.

The happiest part is the wedding when Fleur and Bill get married because Harry, Ron, and Hermione all get to see their friends.

The scariest part is when Bathilda Bagshot gets invaded by the snake Nagini (Voldemort's snake). It comes out of her mouth and it's also pretty disgusting.

The funniest part is when the defense guards come (Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, Hagrid, Mr. Weasley, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Mad Eye, Bill, Fleur, Mundungus Fletcher, and Kingsley Shacklebolt). They drink a potion and six people transform into Harry (Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, Fleur, and Mundungus). Fleur turns into Harry and still has her bra on, and says "Bill, don't look at me, I look hideous!"

Another funny part is when Ginny and Harry are kissing and George walks in with a toothbrush coming out of his ear and he stared at them for a little bit and then said "Good morning." Ginny was definitely annoyed.

In the previews and featurettes there was a funny featurette where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all having a race. They had to run and jump over logs and run really fast. It really happened in the movie because snatchers were chasing them. Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, says, "Harry wants to beat me, I want to beat Harry, and Ron just wants to keep up."

I really think you should read the Harry Potter books and watch the movies!

The New Fabulous Iwako Erasers

2010-11-26T17:42:00.003-05:00

Guest post by Miriam:
(With an interview of Alice)
Well the Iwako Erasers are totally in. Now some of my friends own 100-180 Iwako erasers, everybody loves them.
Here are some pictures:

This is an interview from my sister and what she thinks about Iwako Erasers:
So what do you really think about Iwako Erasers Alice?
I think they are really cool because you can take apart some parts and also at the same time play with them.
What erasers do you have?
Food: I have a pink baby, a green baby, cotton candy ice cream, an ice cream in a cone, a cupcake, two cakes, and dim sum.
Animals: a cow, a pig, a giraffe, a penguin, a puffer fish, an octopus, a dolphin, and a shell.
Wow that's a lot of erasers. I have:
Animals:a baby, a pig, a crab, a hamster, a squid, a dolphin, a dog, a frog, a penguin, a giraffe, and a cow.
Foods:a piece of sushi, a crumble cake, strawberry cake, and a piece of cake.
Other:a car and a yo-yo.

A Craft Project: Guest Post by Miriam and Alice

2010-11-07T14:10:00.003-05:00

Miriam and Alice are doing projects with colorful duct tape, and sent these photos as a guest post.

My Mother in 1913

2010-10-11T15:30:00.002-04:00

My mother is the little girl holding her grandmother's hand. On the two sides are her sisters. Her mother stands next to her seated father, who died less than one year after the photo was taken. The three young men in the back row are her two brothers and a cousin. Her third brother was born shortly after the photo was taken.

100 Years Old

2010-10-08T16:44:00.001-04:00

Sunday is my mother's 100th birthday. She died in 1967, but I feel as if there should still be a celebration and some photos. I've already posted most of them at various times in the last few years, and I've also posted this at my other blog.

First, here are some photos from the album she made when she was in high school:
The photo from 1914 is the only one I know of from her early childhood. I do not think there are any baby photos, but here is a photo of her dolls.

These were called "Nickel Dolls" because that was how much they cost. They are very small.

The next picture was taken just before she cut her hair for the first time in 1923. A cut-out of this photo is on the album page.

Here is her wedding photo, from 1941, with my father, of course:

Evelyn and Hyman

And here's a photo from a bit later:

Label on back: "The four Feldmans Aug 18, 1948." My brother was born around a year later, so he's not in the photo.

Finally, here's a photo of my mother, father, and me, in 1964.

My favorite popular song

2010-09-09T12:19:00.001-04:00

Miriam and Alice want to know what new music I like. This is my favorite song, from my yoga class:

Miriam's Bugs

2010-09-04T15:15:00.001-04:00

Miriam named these leaf-like bugs Fall and Spring. After crawling around on her arms and hair for a while, fall flew into the swimming pool and drowned. Miriam was sad.

Aragog

2010-09-03T09:16:00.003-04:00

This spider isn't quite as big as Hagrid's friend Aragog, but she is almost an inch long. Miriam and Alice recently read all of the Harry Potter books so they knew the spider's name when the web appeared in their front yard.

"Well, I would like to whack it, but my dad says I should not do it, because it's big and would get mad at me. I kept on blowing on it because my dad said it does not like windy areas. And I still want to whack it," said Miriam.

The School Open House

2010-09-03T09:13:00.002-04:00

It's almost the first day of school. Miriam is in fourth grade and Alice is in second grade, and we went to an open house to see teachers and friends. Here's Alice with Mrs. Liggett, her teacher:

Penguins

2010-06-13T16:08:00.002-04:00

On our trip to the Galapagos we saw several penguins. The penguins in the Galapagos islands are very small, compared to penguins in Antarctica. Like all penguins, their wings are small, and they can't fly. They use their wings in swimming underwater to catch fish. They call to each other with a braying noise.

Galapagos penguins live the farthest from Antarctica of any penguins -- the Galapagos islands are on the equator. In the picture you can see tropical trees called mangroves. A tropical island seems to be a strange place to find a penguin!

The Lorax

2010-06-13T16:04:00.002-04:00

Alice drew this picture of the Lorax's world after the land recovered and the animals again had the food and water that they needed. She gave me the picture.

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T07:45:00.001-04:00

This is my present. Miriam and Alice picked it out for me on a visit to the Smithsonian. I bet they are cooking something for Evelyn this morning! Such thoughtful little girls. I'm so pleased with it that I posted it on all 3 blogs.

Globe Puzzle

2010-05-03T21:04:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend we worked an amazing puzzle: a globe with 540 pieces. Alice began with me, and we started sorting the pieces, which are numbered from the bottom up. (Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her working on it.) Miriam did the final assembly which required very skillful steady hands. She was really patient and succeeded in getting the very difficult last pieces into place.

IMAX Theater

2010-05-03T20:57:00.002-04:00

Sunday we went to the Smithsonian Natural History museum. Miriam, Alice, Evelyn, and Tom went to the butterfly exhibit while we went to a display from a nature photography contest. Later, we went to the IMAX theater to see a film about the Galapagos Islands.

Soon we will be in the Galapagos for real!

Reading Stories

2010-04-30T17:03:00.002-04:00

Mozart and Leonardo

2010-04-30T10:42:00.002-04:00

Today I am going to read some stories to Alice's class. These pictures go with the stories.

Two Weddings

2010-03-25T05:00:00.001-04:00

In 1897 my grandparents, each around 20 years old, celebrated their marriage, which I assume was at least partially arranged by their parents and possibly by a traditional matchmaker. I wish I knew if they had a wedding host leading a kletzmer band like the ones that are now once again popular — it’s a good bet that they did, as that was one of the principal functions of music in the little towns at the time. No one has ever mentioned music in telling these old stories. I don't think they had a photographer, either, though photography had become available, even in some villages, much earlier.

I hope the family managed at least this once to serve a rich, luxurious meal with such delicacies as roast goose, goose cracklings with onions, veal, vegetables in goose fat, pickled cucumbers or turnips, and sweets like cherry or plum preserves, waffles, pancakes, and apple strudel. At weddings where the family could afford to serve it, the guests toasted the bride and groom’s health and future with homemade brandy, vodka, and wine. I don’t know what reality brought to them — perhaps little more than their daily fare of bread, potatoes, onions, and a glass of tea with a small sugar lump.

As a bride, my grandmother had a special wedding dress with a lace collar. She remade and reused the lace and other parts of the dress for a long time. She was wearing the lace collar in the family portrait made in 1913, and scraps from this dress also ended up as clothing for two china “nickel dolls” that belonged to my mother later. So I can say that it was quite nice white lace, maybe handmade, maybe not. I don't think the villagers were using sewing machines yet at that time, Her dress was thus sewed by hand, and made generous so that it could be used for best occasions for a long time, including alterations to serve as a maternity dress. My father's father was a tailor in a similar village, and my father said a man would normally buy one suit for his wedding and use it for years if not for the rest of his life. So that could also be my grandfather's wedding suit in the photo. He wasn't getting that rich in America.

When my grandmother and grandfather became engaged, the bride’s mother and the groom’s father had both already been widowed. Thus Mottle (Baba) and Avram Nuchom, the parents of the bride and groom, each around fifty years old, were both eligible to marry. During their children's engagement proceedings, the two of them got to know each other. A few months before their children were married, they married each other. My mother thought there had been some sort of Jewish law that prescribed the order of the two marriages. While my mother always told the story as a kind of a love story, Aunt Sadie said she thought maybe Baba and her grandfather had had to marry for appearances, because the young couple — my grandparents — were responsible for housing them and could only spare one bedroom. As an old woman, my aunts say, Baba told her granddaughters that she had never loved, or even liked, her two husbands. (They told me these stories when they were in the nursing home in the late 1990s.)

This post is one of a number of stories from a longer write-up of family history that I did a few years ago.

Where was my grandparents' village?

2010-03-24T09:04:00.005-04:00

The village where my mother's parents, Morris and Dora, were born might have been called Newstadt, which just means new town, but I’ve never found it on a map. Morris listed “Kowno” on his immigration record in the Ellis Island database; however, this name doesn’t definitively identify any village in the region they came from. I now think that it was mistaken for "Rovno" where I recently learned from my cousin Chuck that his family later immigrated from. His grandmother was Morris's sister.

My second cousin, Nadine Kaufman, wrote that her grandmother, Chaia Sura Stepansky Bass, sister of Dora, was born in Berezno, Ukraine, near Zhitomir. The Stepansky name seems to come from another neighboring village named Stepan -- around 80 km from Rovno, 40 km from Berezno. This area west of Zhitomir definitely seems to be the location of my mother's relatives.

Zhitomir, the big city around 300 km from these villages, is easier to trace. In 1900, Zhitomir had a population of 80,787, of which one-third were Jews. It had two Jewish publishing houses, which printed nearly half of the Hebrew books in all Russia. During the nineteenth century, Zhitomir had been one of the few centers of Hebrew book production in Russia. A man named Avram the Bookbinder is the first ancestor on the family tree that my mother wrote down in 1927. Avram lived at the beginning of the ninteenth century, two generations before my great-grandmother, the source of the information. Histories of Hebrew printing sometimes reproduce pages from books printed in Zhitomir: I wonder if any were bound by our ancestor Avram. Or, I wonder, was he simply a binder of ordinary Jewish documents and religious manuscripts, occupied, that is, with an older trade? (Statistics from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 edition, and the Encyclopedia Judaica)

My Grandparents' Village

2010-03-23T08:14:00.002-04:00

Based on family stories and fictional stories, I can picture the village where my maternal grandparents came from. Wooden houses with thatched roofs or slate roofs stood on crowded, unpaved, muddy narrow streets and still-narrower lanes. Jewish and gentile neighbors lived close to each other, but between their separate areas of town was a line that was invisible but perfectly well known. In a larger town, a central marketplace might open up an area in the center of the houses, but our ancestral town near Zhitomir in the Ukraine was small and had limited commerce. Jewish artisans worked in their homes, and Jewish peddlers went to neigboring villages of non-Jews with packs on their backs to buy and sell. Richer families had a house of their own; the poorest families were lucky if they had a whole room to themselves.

Somewhere among the Jews’ houses in every village was a synagogue, and in at least one house lived and worked the elementary teacher. This often-disliked man, called the melamed, taught the small boys to read Hebrew and recite their prayers, often beating and abusing them in the process. Qualification for the job was minimal, and those who took on the task often did so as a last resort. Unlike the revered teachers who studied Torah and Talmud in houses of adult learning, the elementary school teacher earned little respect for his work.

In the town square, a church topped by a cross stood tall: a place where Jews would fear to approach. Each house had a muddy, fenced yard, possibly with a well. Less fortunate villagers had to go to a public well or a nearby river or stream for water. Sholem Aleichem described the houses as full of odors: “the odor of damp walls that dripped in winter and molded in summer, the odor of sour dough and bran, of onions and cabbage, of wet plaster, of fish and entrails; the odor of old clothes steaming under the hot iron.” (Favorite Tales, p. 99)

Geese, pigeons, and sometimes a calf or a goat lived in the yards of the village houses. Non-Jews raised an occasional pig, who might escape and root around the town, eating what it could find and causing disgust among the Jews. Gentiles and a few Jews kept dogs as pets or as protectors. Jewish children and many adults greatly feared being attacked by dogs that gentile masters had trained to hate them. My grandmother and great-grandmother, even in America, passed this fear on to the children, especially to my mother. Village men who made a living moving goods and others who could afford it also kept horses for transportation and pulling delivery wagons.

Lanes and streets of most villages quickly led out of the built-up area to the surrounding cultivated land. Just outside the cluster of houses peasants cultivated gardens of cucumbers, sunflowers, and other produce. Orchards and livestock pens also surrounded the houses. Few if any Jews had such agricultural land, but they often bought or traded produce. A rich or noble landowner and his family might also own an estate with house and land outside of the most crowded part of a town or village. The head of the high-born family frequently employed a local Jew as a bailiff or clerk, who might supervise local peasant laborers. If a village had enough Jewish residents, a Jewish cemetery would also be located on the outskirts. Generations of ancestors lay buried there, and Jewish families often visited the graves of their relatives or of rabbis they considered “saintly.”

The forests beyond the fields and gardens provided wood for timber and for heat. Both Jews and Christians worked in the forest daily or occasionally as wood cutters. In spring, children went into the forest in groups or with their mothers to gather mushrooms, wild blackberries, strawberries, and herbs. In summer, mosquitos from the marshy areas filled the town. In winter dirty snow covered the roofs and streets and made access to the forest difficult. Everyone suffered from each season’s disadvantages: cold, heat, bugs dust, ice, or flooding. Nevertheless, the woods and fields were often beautiful and peaceful.

A road leading to the next village gave Jews and peasants a route through the forests of birch and evergreens and the swamps of the local rivers and streams. The road from my grandparents’ village went on to Zhitomir. Aunt Sadie remembered her mother and grandmother talking about traveling by wagon for about a day to reach the big city. One such occasion was the marriage of one of my grandmother Dora’s older sisters, Chaia Sura, who married Nachum Mayer Bezboki and went to live in Zhitomir in the early 1890s. The roads were bad. The railroad never came all the way to the village. As a result, its isolation and commercial backwardness scarcely profited from nineteenth century improvements in communication and transportation.

After immigrating, my grandfather Morris worked in the garment industry in St.Louis, so he probably had worked as a tailor in the village. Historic sources state that Jewish merchants in the region were active in export trades, especially agricultural and wood products from the surrounding farms and from the forests to the north. Many Jews were innkeepers, but I’ve never heard of anyone in the family being involved with that. Poorer Jews sold small consumer goods, food products, and household items, and repaired, sold, or made clothing or shoes. The poorest worked at any trade or manual labor they could get, including cutting wood in the forests and carrying water to homes without wells. I suspect that everyone in the family did whatever they could to stay alive, including buying and selling goods in the marketplace. The encyclopedia lists kid gloves, tobacco, dyes, and spirits as the industrial products of the area around Zhitomir: family stories do mention that our great-grandmother was a bootlegger — in fact, Uncle Bob said she was once arrested for dealing in illegal whiskey — so I guess she was involved with the last product!

My great-grandmother used to say that she could speak “both Yiddish and goyish” in order to make deals with peasants and farmers as well as with Jews. “Goyish” was what Jews called either Ukranian or Russian, spoken by over 80% of the people in the Ukraine. The Yiddish of the Ukraine had a distinct grammar and some vocabulary borrowed from Ukrainian. The use of baba for grandmother is one borrowing that the family obviously followed. The useful word nudnik comes from the Ukrainian word for boring. Food words came along with the recipes: lokshin kugel (noodle pudding) and latkes (potato pancakes) are examples. Jewish dishes were typically sweeter than those of the ethnic Ukrainians, and of course didn’t use pork.

That's about all I know about my grandparents' village, from a story I wrote a few years ago.

What should we watch out for?

2010-02-27T21:04:00.003-05:00

Two warning signs in the Everglades. Watch for deer on the road. Watch for panthers crossing during the next 2 miles of driving. We didn't see any of these animals when we drove through the Everglades, but we did see alligators and lots of birds. See them here: Everglades.

Alice's Birthday Cake

2010-02-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

From the recipe in Tiana's Cookbook.

Happy Birthday, Alice!

My mother made tea, and my father drank tea

2010-01-21T10:23:00.006-05:00

I was reading a book about tea, and thinking about how my family drank tea. My mother and father drank coffee every morning for breakfast, but sometimes in the afternoon or after dinner, they drank tea.

My mother had a little teapot and a tea ball, which is a round metal ball with holes in it and a lid that screws on. She would put some tea leaves in the tea ball, and put it into a teapot sort of like the one in the picture. Then she put boiling water in the teapot and let the tea leaves soak for quite a while. This made VERY strong tea. She poured a little of this strong tea into a cup and then filled it up with hot water. Children could only have a tiny bit of the tea and a lot of water. Grownups could have it as strong as they liked.

My father drank the tea with a lump of sugar. But he didn't put the sugar into the tea cup. He held it between his teeth, and a little of the sugar dissolved into his tea. He said he did this because that was how they had done it in Russia when he lived there when he was a little boy. That was 100 years ago, but I think they might still do that in Russia. They sometimes put jam into their tea, and sometimes drink it from a glass instead of from a cup, but my father didn't do those things.

Back to School

2010-01-04T17:02:00.002-05:00

This morning Miriam was up very early to perform her duty as class meteorologist. She checks the weather online, and writes down the prediction.

Miriam and Alice had huge loads of books and materials to take back to school after 2 weeks off, including three snow days just before vacation should have started. After they left, we packed up, headed for the airport, and flew back home.

Guest Post by Miriam and Alice

2010-01-03T16:33:00.004-05:00

Miriam: Yesterday we went to the Newseum with Arny and Tracy. We had a lot of fun. My mom and Alice got to be a News Reporter about the moon. We got to play this game of an investigation about who let the animals out from the circus. We found out it was the clown because we saw him red-handed. I did it all with Tracy.

I had a great time at the Newseum.

Alice: It was fun there. Dim Sum is where you eat.

Miriam: We ate dumplings and sticky rice. I love crab balls. Everybody ate a lot.

Alice: At Dim Sum we ate a lot. I love the sticky rice. I also had some dumplings. We also like crab balls. They were crispy crab balls. For desert I had custard. Mae loved it. Mae got almond tofu. Almond tofu was like almonds and fruits in a little bowl. And then after Dim Sum we went to Barnes and Noble. I got two Hannah Montana books. They were called "Truth or Dare" and "Keeping Secrets."

Miriam: I went to Dim Sum and I was so happy because it was soooo good! After that we went to Barnes and Noble. I could have bought a book but they didn't have what I wanted so we are ordering it from Amazon. The books that I wanted are "Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat" and "Dad, Jackie, and Me." Those are Virginia Readers' Choice books. There are ten of them. I have read four of them, and I am starting one of them. I am reading two at school. And then I have one that we are going to start for stories. The Virginia Readers' Choice books are all really good.

We just did beading, and I beaded a really beautiful necklace. Alice made a nice thing for my mom, and my grandma made a nice necklace for Alice. I think that we had a great time.

Why play in the closet?

2010-01-03T16:05:00.002-05:00

Why? Because there are so many secrets in there.

Christmas Elves are still here

2010-01-01T17:46:00.002-05:00

Guest Post by Miriam

2009-12-31T11:06:00.003-05:00

Today is New Year's Eve and me and Alice get to stay up until Midnight! My Grandma and Grandpa came from the airport and we've been doing a lot of stuff. Like we've gone to the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria. We went to see the Terra Cotta warriors which was very fun. I went to the climbing wall with my grandma and grandpa, and we went ice skating. It's really fun on winter break.

Today we are not really doing stuff. We're having fun. But we didn't really decide on what to go to so we're just going to stay home.

Cold Cycling

2009-12-30T13:39:00.002-05:00

Wall Climbing

2009-12-29T19:51:00.002-05:00

Miriam and Alice both had fun at the climbing gym. They climbed to the top of the walls and rang the bell. Alice rang it 6 times. Miriam rang it from four different climbing locations.

Alice Skates

2009-12-26T16:49:00.003-05:00

Miriam, Alice, and Evelyn skated together for a while. Miriam could go by herself some, and at first Alice needed a lot of help.

By the end of the two hours at the rink, Alice could go on her own --

Miriam Skates

2009-12-26T16:30:00.006-05:00

Miriam and Alice spent two hours at the skating rink, and really are learning a lot of skating skills. Miriam could go around by herself when she started, and was getting better all the time.

Terra Cotta Warrior

2009-12-24T17:30:00.002-05:00

At the National Geographic Society, we saw the Terra Cotta Warriors. Inside the exhibit no photography -- outside the exhibit, a special photo op as shown here.

Miriam's Puzzle

2009-12-23T17:43:00.002-05:00

Alice's Photos

2009-12-23T16:00:00.003-05:00

Alice took some photos of the Potomac River looking out the window of the Mai Thai restaurant in Alexandria. Lunch was also very delicious (see Lunch in Alexandria).

Happy Hanukkah

2009-12-11T19:29:00.000-05:00

Did you light candles tonight?

2009-11-07T18:27:00.004-05:00

The American Girl series of books now includes several books about a girl named Rebecca. The story is made up, but helps to teach readers about the way a Jewish family could have lived in 1914.

Rebecca's grandparents and her parents came from Russia before Rebecca was born. In the story, Rebecca has two sisters and two brothers. She also has a set of nesting dolls that her mother or grandmother brought with them when they came from Russia. She had seven dolls in all. I copied two pictures from the first page of the book about Rebecca showing all the dolls that nested one inside the other.

My grandparents came from Russia at about the same time as Rebecca's grandparents, but of course they were real, not made up. My mother was born a little later than Rebecca, but she had a life very similar to Rebecca's. For one thing, Rebecca and my mother both had a big sister named Sadie. (Their other sisters and brother didn't have the same names.)

I don't know if my mother had a nesting doll like Rebecca's when she was a little girl. I think she had had some, but they were lost or given away before she grew up. My mother did have a set of three nesting dolls that are very similar to three of Rebecca's dolls. She bought this set of dolls on her honeymoon, right after she and my father were married. She called the biggest doll the "Baba Doll" because it was wearing a scarf like her grandmother's scarf. Her grandmother was called "Baba."

My mother's three nesting dolls are in the third picture. We used to play with when we were children. We liked to take the large doll and the middle-sided doll apart and put them back together. The littlest doll didn't come apart. The dolls are made of wood, so we were allowed to play with them without being afraid they would break. Eventually, the flowers and faces painted on the wood began to chip and look old.

I think it's interesting that Rebecca, the girl in the story book, resembles some of the things about my mother and my aunts.

Falling leaves, ripening apples: a walk in our neighborhood

2009-11-07T17:12:00.004-05:00

These plants look like roses but they are really cabbages!

Our neighborhood is full of fall leaves. Almost all of them have already fallen off of the trees. A few very bright red maple trees are just losing the leaves. On one lawn, we saw an apple tree but nobody seemed to be picking the apples. A lot of them had also fallen down on the ground. I guess the squirrels will have a feast.

Costumes

2009-10-30T09:39:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween!

The Train

2009-10-30T09:03:00.001-04:00

This afternoon I was taking a walk with the International Neighbors group when the train went by. I was standing on the dam at Barton Pond when I took this video. I really love to watch the train go by!

Old Newspaper Photo

2009-10-23T10:34:00.002-04:00

This photo was in the Michigan Daily a long time ago. The little girl is Evelyn. Mae is leaning over her. We were at an event about rights for women. At that time, women couldn't have any job they wanted, and there were a lot of other problems for working women. A lot of things are better now -- but nothing is perfect.

Pumpkins

2009-10-11T12:30:00.002-04:00

Two farmers market pumpkins are in the picture. The dark orange one is for eating. The hard, orange pumpkin flesh inside the skin will be sweet and good when I cook it. I will also toast the pumpkin seeds. The white pumpkin is for decoration. It would be ok to eat it, but maybe it wouldn't be as sweet as the orange one.

American Indians had pumpkins long ago before the rest of us came across the ocean to America. They cut pumpkins in long strips and dried them to save food for winter. In summer and fall they cooked pumpkins over their open fires.

Now most Americans use pumpkin only for jack-o-lanterns at Halloween and for pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner. Sometimes people use a pumpkin as a container for soup or other food. For Thanksgiving last year, we had a pumpkin baked with savory bread-and-cheese pudding inside, as well as the other Thanksgiving foods like turkey and vegetables.

Lots of people from far away countries like pumpkin too. In Africa and in the Caribbean islands people make pumpkin soup or stew with lots of spice. I have eaten pumpkin soup in England, Australia, and other places too. In Italy good cooks make pumpkin-filled ravioli or sweet pumpkin tortes with lots of different ingredients. In France we once tried beef stew with pumpkin in it. Our friend Marianna makes a Hungarian pumpkin dish with strips of sweetened pumpkin.

Do you like pumpkin? Or do you just like jack-o-lanterns?

Looking at trees

2009-09-11T14:59:00.003-04:00

First Day of School

2009-09-10T08:50:00.000-04:00

Float Party at the Pool

2009-08-28T09:58:00.001-04:00

Only one night per year are floats allowed at Miriam and Alice's pool.

Alice's favorite photos of the Garden of Eden

2009-08-18T22:43:00.003-04:00

Alice took these photos with my camera.

Buckets of Sand

2009-08-18T20:52:00.000-04:00

Crazy Shirts

2009-08-18T20:42:00.002-04:00

Special shorts and shirts from Crazy Shirts (my favorite shirt store)

Evelyn, Alice, Miriam

Miriam and Alice watching TV in the Condo

Sunlight

2009-08-14T11:56:00.003-04:00

On the beach

In the Oriental garden near the Iao Needle

The Sugar Museum by Miriam

2009-08-12T13:59:00.007-04:00

At the sugar museum we got a kid's thing that was like a tour, but we didn't get a prize. There were stamps there, and we had a lot of fun. They showed how sugar was made. It was raining so we didn't go outside. At the end I had some sugar, and I still have some sugar, and it was really really yummy raw sugar.

How is sugar made? Sugar grows in sugar cane fields. It gets sun and oxygen and water, and sugar grows in the canes. They set the canes on fire and then a truck picks them up. The sugar weighs way more than 8 Asian elephants that are full grown. The truck takes the sugar to the factory.

We saw pictures of the steps for making sugar. The first two steps are covered, and they couldn't take pictures. A big blade cuts them all up and gets them into shreds. After they shred it, they squeeze it and put hot water on it. Then they get molasses out of the raw sugar. The molasses is shipped to the mainland for animal feed. The sugar is put in a heater and turned into table sugar. It is put in little brown packs and sent to stores. They might pop up in cafes for the coffee.

There is the factory right beside the museum, across the street. It looks different from a sugar factory. I didn't think it was a sugar factory at first. My sister thought it was a farm.

I learned that the sugar canes were set on fire in the winter.

It was really fun going to the sugar museum. At the end we got a little sample of sugar. My mom thinks it will be really good in yogurt. The sugar there is really yummy. I liked the museum. It was really fun. Outside there was some stuff that they use to make sugar. Chinese and Japanese people came there to help them make sugar.

They had a train bell there because the railroad used to go there. Me and Alice got to ring it two times. It was a really loud bell DINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Up in a tree

2009-08-12T08:37:00.000-04:00

Ice Cream Sandwiches by Alice

2009-08-11T12:38:00.005-04:00

We went to a restaurant in front of the harbor.
Here I am waiting to order. I had fish and chips. The fish was called mahi-mahi. I liked it. Except for it was a little hot. If I didn't put too much tartar sauce, I liked it.

I had mint chip and a cookie sandwich at Hula Cookies and Ice Cream. It was really good!

Miriam had some kind of strawberry. She liked it too. My Dad had a really good ice cream. I think he got pineapple and coconut.

-- by Alice

The Lavender Farm by Alice

2009-08-11T12:32:00.002-04:00

At the Lavender Farm we had lots of fun. First we got some lavender-colored umbrellas because it was raining. Then we went to the gift shop and got treasure lists and went on a treasure hunt. It was fun, except I gave up because we could never find the third stamp. We went and got some lavender lemonade and cookies and sat and talked. It was really fun. Miriam came and gave us our prize which was cookies. Miriam didn't like it but I loved them. Then we went into the gift shop and bought some lip balm. It was really fun. I wish I could go there again.

For more pictures see: Lavender Farm.

-- by Alice

Fun at the beach by Alice

2009-08-11T12:25:00.002-04:00

"Tower of the Kingdom"

Somebody Else's Sand Castle

Miriam Burying Me

At first we went to the beach that was nearest to our condo. And then we went to a snorkeling beach and we saw a lot of fish and we saw a coral reef. We saw two humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apu-a'as. We made a lot of sand castles and Miriam also buried me in the sand. I kept on moving around.

-- Post by Alice

Alice's Sand Castle

2009-08-09T22:24:00.002-04:00

Water Weeds

2009-07-26T15:45:00.003-04:00

Under the surface of the lake little fish quickly swim between the weeds or sit on top of clumps of leaves. In one Harry Potter movie, Harry had to swim down into a lake with huge plants like these. Strange underwater creatures that seemed to be half-human lived at the bottom of the lake. At Silver Lake in Michigan, the water weeds that Len photographed this morning are much more ordinary.

Harry Potter and the Twisted Bridge

2009-07-22T21:32:00.006-04:00

The Millenium Bridge over the Thames River is a very beautiful bridge that we visited on a trip to London in 2002 -- the picture shows how we saw it on a nice summer day. Lots of people were walking across the bridge, which was pretty new at that time.

In the latest Harry Potter movie, evil flying witches make the bridge shake in a special way and fall into the river. I thought this was very interesting and definitely exciting to see. Only one or two bridges have ever twisted and fallen this way.

I took the next picture from the top floor of a big museum, the Tate Modern, that stands on the river bank near the bridge. We went there with our friends Sheila and John. And the picture right after that shows how it twisted in the movie.

From an article in Popular Mechanics:

I was curious about how the movie makers created such a real-looking disaster. After all, the bridge did once shake some, but engineers and architects worked on it until it was very safe and in fact fun to walk across. Look at me on the bridge -- calm and smiling. No evil witches!

I was really interested in the Popular Mechanics article about how the Harry Potter movie makers created a computer version of the bridge in order to make the part of the movie about how the evil witches destroyed it. The real-live architects let the movie people have the designs that they used when they made the bridge -- modern bridges are designed in computers. But imaginary bridges can also be in computers.

The movie makers hired around 20 special computer programmers, working for a man named Tim Burke, who figured out how to make a really dramatic disaster look like it happened to the safe real bridge. They had to use some really good mathematical skills to make the bridge fall apart so realistically. Here are some technical details:

While the CG [Computer Generated] bridge is identical in every way to the actual Millennium Bridge, Burke acknowledges there was some artistic interpretation when it came to its collapse. This is magic, after all. "We did a dynamics simulation and proved that individual panels of the walkway would detach and fall into the Thames, but this was not as interesting as we wanted," Burke says. So filmmakers spent a lot of time watching footage of actual collapses—including the fall of Washington's Tacoma Narrows bridge in 1940. "It showed how a suspension bridge would twist and roll like a sine wave created through a vibration, which the Millennium Bridge suffered from itself when it first opened," Burke says. Londoners nicknamed the Millennium Bridge the Wobbly Bridge shortly after its opening; the bridge was closed and modified to eliminate the vibration. "We took this idea and then developed it for the collapse, having the Death Eaters fly around the bridge in a spiral motion to create the twisting that brings the bridge down."

Here's another picture showing our friend John and me on the bridge. The building with the big smoke stack is the Tate Modern.

Parade!

2009-07-05T21:40:00.004-04:00

This was almost the only spectator at the July 4th parade in the Burns Park neighborhood. (In case it's not obvious, it's a sort of scarecrow!) All the rest of the people were marching in the parade except a few on the bench at the park entrance on Granger.

Evelyn's last time in the parade was in 1977. She won a prize. This year, there were no prizes; just lots of kids on bikes and various people walking around the block and into the park for watermelon.

Monkey Bars

2009-07-05T21:37:00.002-04:00

When Evelyn was a little girl she was very good friends with Robin and Lissa who lived across the street. Now Robin has a little girl named Katie, who played with Miriam and Alice today. Here they are on one of the climbing structures in the park this morning.

Miriam and Alice did a lot of tricks on the various kinds of monkey bars in Burns park on two different days. Here are some of the tricks.

Cleaning House

2009-07-02T13:57:00.002-04:00

Today I am cleaning my house. When I was a girl, people worried a lot about having a clean house. My Aunt Bernadine kept her apartment very clean, but her neighbor, who lived in the apartment upstairs, was really always cleaninig and worrying. The neighbor (who was another relative's relative as well as a neighbor) cleaned her apartment ALL the time, and talked about it, too. She didn't like any people to come into her house because they might bring dirt with them.

One day, the neighbor got a new white rug for her living room. She wanted her friends to see it. But she didn't want them in her house. She waited until Aunt Bernadine invited some of the friends to visit. Then she invited them, one at a time to come upstairs. She opened the door to her apartment. She let them look at her new rug -- but didn't let them walk on it.

One reason I thought about Aunt Bernadine and her super-clean neighbor, is that the New York Times today had a story about how New York is a very dirty city. They said that people have to try very hard to keep from having a lot of dirt brought in from the street, especially if their apartment had a white rug. One couple in the story said that every day when they came home from work, they changed into clean, indoor clothes: shorts and t-shirts. Their washer and dryer were in a closet right by the front door so that outside clothes never needed to be in the clean parts of the apartment. And they hardly ever invited "strangers" inside. Just like Aunt Bernadine's neighbor, I thought.

Flying a Kite

2009-06-14T18:20:00.001-04:00

At the beach this afternoon we saw this unusual kite flying in the breeze coming from the ocean. It was spinning, so that the two ends looked like colorful pinwheels.

Building Sand Castles

2009-06-13T23:43:00.002-04:00

This one is different: a boat made of sand.

Washing the Elephant's Foot

2009-06-11T19:01:00.002-04:00

At the new Elephant Odyssey, the keepers like to show how they take care of the elephants. Here, two keepers were washing the elephant's feet. When they finished scrubbing one foot with a big brush (like most people use for a carwash), and then rinsing off with the hose, they said "change feet." The elephant turned around and stuck another foot into the washing space.

The keeper also ran over to the front of the elephant and gave it a reward for cooperation -- it looked like cucumber.

Birds and Elephants at the Zoo

2009-06-11T18:49:00.009-04:00

At the zoo today we visited the new Elephant Odyssey exhibit, where there are lots of elephants, especially very old elephants that have retired to the zoo from other jobs. The Elephant Odyssey also tells about the Woolly Mammoths that used to live around California 12,000 years ago, and about the other birds and animals from that time. So here's Lenny with some extinct bird in that new exhibit, as well as some other birds and animals -- the meerkats are near the end of the elephant area. You can see kids sitting on statues of the woolly mammoths.

At the Beach

2009-06-07T14:14:00.003-04:00

Quite a few surfers were successful at standing up on their boards when we were at the beach this morning. The waves didn't look very big, but they were rolling in and I guess that was good for the many, many surfers. Some were able to ride almost all the way to the water's edge.

One family was building a big sand castle, too. You can see the surfers behind them...

Sand Castles for Experts

2009-06-05T14:26:00.003-04:00

I've been taking photos of sand castles built by kids and people just visiting the beach. Everybody likes to play with sand. Here in San Diego, there's also a contest to see who can build the best sand castle in the world. I found the photo of a contest entry from a past year.

I wish I could go to the sand castle contest and festival this year, but it won't happen until after we leave here. To read about it look here. From the website:

On Sunday, July 19, the official U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition will be held. This is the championship of sandcastle building where the professional sand carvers vie for the title of Master's Champion. Professional and amateur sand carving teams throughout the U.S. will compete in the sandcastle building competition with more than $21,000 in cash prizes.

A field trip to make sand castles

2009-06-04T18:52:00.004-04:00

Making a castle by the drip method

2009-06-01T22:55:00.001-04:00

The waves were coming right up around it.

Memorial Day Sand Castle

2009-05-25T23:26:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday Miriam!

Building the Sand Castles

2009-05-24T22:22:00.002-04:00

Today at Torrey Pines Beach quite a few sand castles were being built near the water. Several had very elaborate moats, with long connections to the water. After a while, the tide came in and knocked them down:

Sand Castle Just before the Tide

2009-05-23T11:55:00.000-04:00

Dolls in Old San Diego

2009-05-19T21:39:00.003-04:00

In one of the bedrooms in the museum-houses of Old Town in San Diego were quite a few dolls that might have belonged to a little girl here a little over 100 years ago. I also enjoyed seeing a spinning wheel in a work room near one of the kitchens. When you visit, you get an idea of how people lived here back then.

Today's Sand Castle

2009-05-17T20:55:00.002-04:00

The group of people who had been working on it said it was "sort of a sand castle."

Sand Castle Again

2009-05-16T00:01:00.000-04:00

Sand Castles

2009-05-12T17:07:00.004-04:00

At the beach, sometimes people build really elaborate sand castles. I saw two very nice ones.

Once a long time ago, I was looking at a very very complicated sand castle in the morning. The sand had been wet, but the bright sun was drying it out, and little tiny streams of sand were flowing down from the castle's towers. Soon the castle was going to fall down because it was too dry. It would turn into a pile of smoothed sand instead of nice distinct towers like these.

Bunny on the Beach

2009-04-29T23:13:00.002-04:00

Panda in a tree

2009-04-23T18:32:00.003-04:00

A little while before my walk through the zoo today, a construction noise had frightened the young panda, so she climbed into the tree. That's what they do, I learned. And sometimes they fall out of the trees, though they don't hurt themselves. The mother panda in the next cage was just lying around; I guess the noise didn't bother her. The father panda was not in the exhibit today, he was in the research area. Pandas in the wild live alone, except when the babies are young, so they each have a separate cage at the San Diego Zoo.

German Language Lesson?

2009-04-19T20:17:00.001-04:00

Gliders

2009-04-12T13:12:00.003-04:00

In the sky beyond the La Jolla Shores beach we can always see gliders. Yesterday we visited the glider port and watched the gliders taking off. A paraglider is a parachute that you can fly from the ground, as long as it's windy. Another kind of glider, a hang-glider, has stiff wings. When we were there, some people were folding up their hang-gliders. One person was flying a radio-controlled model plane too. It was very high up.

Feed the Lorikeets

2009-04-07T01:14:00.005-04:00

The Wild Animal Park has many animals out on the African Savannah: dik-diks, lions, giraffes, white and black rhinos, pelicans, wildebeasts, and many more. We saw them from the Safari ride, and also while walking. In the other part of the park are many bird cages, the merry-go-round, gift shops and restaurants, and much more.
Miriam and Alice fed the lorikeets from a little cup of special nectar. They also climbed into a big bird nest.

Butterfly House

2009-04-07T00:54:00.005-04:00

At the Wild Animal Park the annual butterfly exhibit just opened, so it was very crowded. We enjoyed seeing the butterflies land on our shirts, hats, and hands.

Guest Blog by Alice

2009-04-05T20:05:00.005-04:00

i am in San Diego. This is the story: once upon a time Alice and Miriam came out from the airport and then we ate lunch. Then we were at the beach. Miriam buried me in the sand. And so I buried her back. Miriam found lots and lots and lots of kelp. And then we rode home. Then we had dinner; I slept through the dinner.

Then I woke up in the morning. We had breakfast. I had 4 bowls of Honey Smacks. And then we went to the incredible zoo.

We saw the koalas first. And then we went on a tour. Then we took the Sky Ride but my dad and my grandpa did not do the sky ride -- they walked up the hill. Then we went to the Polar Bear Plunge. Then we had lunch, but I got cotton candy after. And then we went to the gift shop. I took half an hour to find out what I wanted. I picked out a cute penguin, and then we went home. On the way back to the condo we had some gummi frogs.

We ate dinner after that. After dinner we went to bed. In the morning we woke up. We went on the cruise boat for 1 hour in the harbor. We saw lots of people who had suitcases because they were going on the cruise ship for 6 days. My mom said that they were staying where the cruise was more than I was staying at the condo.

And now I went to eat. After we ate we went to Point Loma. We saw a weird lighthouse, well at least to me it was weird. Then I rode home because I wanted to. And so we went home. And then Me and my sister made a creation. You can see the creation on the earlier blog post here: "Miriam and Alice's Creation"

And after that, I wrote this blog. Then I said "tippety tat." And Miriam was playing with her chihuahua.

Guest Blog by Miriam

2009-04-05T19:47:00.003-04:00

We are in San Diego visiting Mae and Lenny. We are in a condo. On the day I came from the airplane we went to the beach. After that, we went to see the seals. Then I went to sleep. The next day we went to the zoo. We stayed there for 5 hours. Then I watched some TV in the afternoon. Then I went to sleep. Then in the morning I watched more TV. I went on a cruise. It was really fun, but they talked a lot about aircraft carriers and the Navy. Then I went to Point Loma Seafood. Then we went to a lighthouse. Then me and Alice played in the backyard and made a beautiful creation. Then I wrote this!

Me and Alice at the Zoo Sitting on a Statue Gorilla.

Miriam and Alice's Creation

2009-04-05T19:43:00.003-04:00

The Emperor and Empress

2009-03-28T11:18:00.002-04:00

I rarely have a chance to display my own collection of Japanese dolls, so I was very glad to see this Emperor and Empress at the Japanese Garden in Balboa Park. They are very much like mine.

Dolls

2009-03-28T11:09:00.002-04:00

Dolls are a wonderful part of the collections of the Mingei International Museum in San Diego. I was really amused by the egg dolls that had their faces on top and little Japanese clothing. It would be a good idea for making Easter Eggs.

The Japanese garden nearby also had many dolls on exhibit because it is the month for Girls' Day, when Japanese girls display their doll collections:

Santa Barbara Family

2009-02-22T18:56:00.003-05:00

We visited our cousins this weekend. At left: Barbara and Bill, who live in Santa Barbara. Next to Bill: Ava, Jacki, and Madeline. Jacki is Bill's sister. At right: Mae and Len. The photo was taken Saturday night in Barbara's art studio.

The Courthouse

2009-02-21T00:35:00.004-05:00

Evelyn went to 9th grade at Santa Barbara High School. She often rode her bike past the famous Santa Barbara Courthouse. The tower has beautiful views of the mountains behind Santa Barbara and also out to sea, where you can see the Channel Islands. Inside, the courthouse is decorated with tiles and arched doorways in Spanish style because Santa Barbara was started by Spanish people.

Camp Rock Dance Floor

2009-02-10T23:35:00.003-05:00

One of Alice's birthday presents was a plastic mat that teaches dance steps. Miriam and Alice did a great dance on it, though they weren't exactly following the instructions.

Guest Post by Alice

2009-02-09T13:52:00.002-05:00

I am Alice. I can bicycle. Watch this cool movie of me bicycling. I can bicycle by myself. Can you bicycle by yourself?

Seal Babies

2009-01-23T11:05:00.002-05:00

A lot of seal pups are growing up on one of the beaches in La Jolla. They usually stay on the rocks and islands out in the water, so it's very good to be able to watch them. The guards put ropes around to keep people from bothering them, but they seem used to having a lot of people up on the breakwater to see them.

The Inauguration

2009-01-18T11:52:00.003-05:00

I know that Miriam and Alice are very excited about our new incoming president, and wish they could go to the Inauguration in Washington -- but it's going to be too crowded. They told Evelyn that Malia and Sasha, the Obama children, are lucky because they will be living in the White House.

I thought all the children in the family would be interested the following letter that Barack Obama wrote to his children:

Dear Malia and Sasha,

I know that you've both had a lot of fun these last two years on the campaign trail, going to picnics and parades and state fairs, eating all sorts of junk food your mother and I probably shouldn't have let you have. But I also know that it hasn't always been easy for you and Mom, and that as excited as you both are about that new puppy, it doesn't make up for all the time we've been apart. I know how much I've missed these past two years, and today I want to tell you a little more about why I decided to take our family on this journey.

When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me-about how I'd make my way in the world, become successful, and get the things I want. But then the two of you came into my world with all your curiosity and mischief and those smiles that never fail to fill my heart and light up my day. And suddenly, all my big plans for myself didn't seem so important anymore. I soon found that the greatest joy in my life was the joy I saw in yours. And I realized that my own life wouldn't count for much unless I was able to ensure that you had every opportunity for happiness and fulfillment in yours. In the end, girls, that's why I ran for President: because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation.

I want all our children to go to schools worthy of their potential-schools that challenge them, inspire them, and instill in them a sense of wonder about the world around them. I want them to have the chance to go to college-even if their parents aren't rich. And I want them to get good jobs: jobs that pay well and give them benefits like health care, jobs that let them spend time with their own kids and retire with dignity.

I want us to push the boundaries of discovery so that you'll live to see new technologies and inventions that improve our lives and make our planet cleaner and safer. And I want us to push our own human boundaries to reach beyond the divides of race and region, gender and religion that keep us from seeing the best in each other.

Sometimes we have to send our young men and women into war and other dangerous situations to protect our country-but when we do, I want to make sure that it is only for a very good reason, that we try our best to settle our differences with others peacefully, and that we do everything possible to keep our servicemen and women safe. And I want every child to understand that the blessings these brave Americans fight for are not free-that with the great privilege of being a citizen of this nation comes great responsibility.

That was the lesson your grandmother tried to teach me when I was your age, reading me the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence and telling me about the men and women who marched for equality because they believed those words put to paper two centuries ago should mean something.

She helped me understand that America is great not because it is perfect but because it can always be made better-and that the unfinished work of perfecting our union falls to each of us. It's a charge we pass on to our children, coming closer with each new generation to what we know America should be.

I hope both of you will take up that work, righting the wrongs that you see and working to give others the chances you've had. Not just because you have an obligation to give something back to this country that has given our family so much-although you do have that obligation. But because you have an obligation to yourself. Because it is only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential.

These are the things I want for you-to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world. And I want every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and thrive that you girls have. That's why I've taken our family on this great adventure.

I am so proud of both of you. I love you more than you can ever know. And I am grateful every day for your patience, poise, grace, and humor as we prepare to start our new life together in the White House.
Love, Dad

This letter was published in today's Parade Magazine.

California Pictures

2009-01-13T18:22:00.003-05:00

We are seeing lots of interesting birds by the sea. Lots of wading birds like to peck their long beaks into the sand and into piles of seaweed along the shore. Pelicans skim over the water or sit on the rocks.

Last Sunday we saw seals at the La Jolla Cove, but this Sunday, they weren't there at all, and we found out that it's unusual for them all to come up on the beach. The first picture shows the beach with all the seals last week. The second picture shows the beach a week later -- still nice and sunny, but they were all out on the other rocks, I suppose.

This Sunday we were at an old car show in the park right near the cove. I liked the dashboard of this old car:

Fairy Tales

2009-01-13T12:22:00.003-05:00

I was reading about fairy tales here:

Are Fairytales Too Scary for Children?

(This reference is for grownups who read this blog.)

The author says that fairy tales are too old-fashioned, too scary, too cruel, and don't give a good idea of what girls and women are able to do. She doesn't like the Disney princesses in the original stories. I think a lot of girls like the princesses. I was talking to a father with a little girl and a little boy in the park yesterday, and the girl said her favorite princess was Ariel.

Lots of girls have a favorite princess. I think that's ok. The princesses actually have to do a lot for themselves and for other people, even if it's old fashioned. Belle was very brave, tried to save her father, and realized that the beast was ugly but good. Ariel explored a whole new world. Snow White was kind to the dwarfs. Sleeping Beauty was curious, though it wasn't good for her.

Cinderella really was pretty clever too, some writers have pointed out. Her stepmother kept her in the attic, so she made friends with the animals. She wanted to go to the ball, but it wasn't easy. She did all her hard work, made her own dress, and then when the stepsisters messed up her dress, she found a powerful helper: a fairy godmother. She also managed to get out of her attic, show the other slipper, and become the princess.

Miriam, Alice, Theo, Lenny, and I have all been reading two modern fairy tales: Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air by Diana Wynn Jones. I think Sophie, who is in disguise in both books, is a wonderful magical character, though not in fact a princess. I think this is a great fairy tale for both grownups and children.

Family we visited

2009-01-02T23:05:00.002-05:00

Ruby, Jon, Don, Lenny, Jay

Myrtle & Howard

Our Old House

2008-12-30T09:46:00.001-05:00

This is the house in University City Mo. where we grew up. The landscaping is somewhat different, but the house itself looks just the way it always was. The tree in the front is an oak that my father planted from a little "volunteer." The house was built in around 1912.

Elaine's Doll

2008-12-26T23:35:00.002-05:00

When we were little girls, our mother made Raggedy Ann dolls for both of us. She copied the pictures in the Raggedy Ann stories, which were our favorites. Instead of a real candy heart, she drew a heart that said "I love you" on the doll. She made hair from yarn, and black button eyes, and she drew the faces. Each one was a little different. This is Elaine's doll. I think mine wore out a long time ago.