The video shoot (heard round the world?)

This weekend Maddy and her friend teamed up to do the final stages of a social studies project together. A few weeks ago they decided to write a script about the Boston Massacre and then make a movie of it.

Yesterday was shoot day. They enlisted several of their friends and their siblings. Sam was conscripted as the romantic lead (a British soldier) simply because we have a redcoat uniform that fit him when he was five. {This is why his jacket sleeves go to his elbows in the photo below.} Lauren was the director/cameraperson. I alternated between bossy backseat director and observer, depending on whether the cast was behaving or not. {Some would say this is my role on a daily basis.}

I was impressed by their gumption. Usually school projects feel like just as much my homework as the kids' but they did the whole thing. They laid out a whole project schedule, including reading the book, writing the script, and filming the movie. They arranged to meet and type it up together on the computer. They scouted locations, set a time and place, and coordinated casting. They managed to make it really fun for everyone involved.

I tried to attach a clip here but our slow internet connection whined and complained and fell on the floor and did a tantrum so...alas. {I'll have to see what I can figure out. Or switch internet carriers.} In the meantime, here they are getting ready before heading out to the park to film the carnage.

In other weekend news, it was the spelling bee at the elementary school, which is just about the closest to a slice of Mayberry as you can get around here. The 4th graders compete in teams of 3 and it is the first year of elimination. As in, you spell the word wrong, you're out. Sam and his friends had a couple of practice sessions here before the big day. They are AWESOME spellers. I have to admit to a little goeth-before-the-fall pride in imagining just how well they would do. And I always feel so sorry for the first team out, you know?

Well, guess what? They were the first team out. With each word, they would all spell it out on paper, agree on its spelling, then take turns saying it out loud in the microphone. On the third time through, they got the word triangle. They were all cocky--heh! we got triangle...what do they think this is, kindergarten?--and then the one saying it out loud got too excited and skipped the "a." Poor guy. Poor team. They were good sports about it but spent the rest of the spelling bee sitting next to me, whispering how they knew every word that came through. {Well, yeah, guys but you missed "triangle" remember?}

Quick recovery

Greg is sitting at the kitchen table, changing our options for life insurance. The kids are around...doing homework, walking in and out...so they hear some of the discussion around the dollar amount of the policies for each of us.

Maddy pipes up: Wow, Dad. If you die, we'll be rich!

Amused silence.

She quickly adds: ...rich in sadness, that is!

Well played, Miss M, well played.

St. Lucia morning

^
Carl Larsson's Lucia, 1908

Today is St. Lucia Day, a Scandinavian Christmas/winter solsticey celebration of the light returning to Scandinavia (before the switch to the Gregorian calendar, apparently St. Lucia Day fell on Winter Solstice). My mother's family did it, I did it growing up, and now my own family does it every December 13th; I love preserving that chain. Traditionally the oldest daughter in the family (my two daughters take turns and I help them get everything ready) gets up before dawn and prepares breakfast in bed for the family. Wearing a crown of candles, she goes from bed to bed, singing "Santa Lucia" and giving pastries and hot chocolate. It's one of our favorite traditions, pretty much a non-negotiable part of our Christmas season.

We don't have the girls wear the candle crowns anymore; they carry a wreath of candles on a tray. (Although, growing up I would find candle wax in my hair and scalp all day after the candle crown dripped on me on St. Lucia morning.) Now there are new-fangled battery operated St. Lucia crowns. Not as authentic or exciting but a little safer, I suppose.

This year was Maddy's turn
A little Carl Larsson-ish herself
One of these years I'll make a white robe with a red sash
for more authenticity and better photos

5 & 10 Love

We are lucky creatures to have, within a few blocks' walking distance, our very own 5 & 10. When we first moved here, we were charmed simply by its existence {how quaint! I didn't know they still had these ma & pop stores!} but now it is simply essential to our existence. Need an extra posterboard for your homework project? Walk to the 5 & 10. Spray paint for an old lighting fixture? Materials for a primary project in the morning? Just feel like exercising your 11-year-old independence and walking over with friends for some penny candy? Check, check, and check. And that's just today.

Part hardware store, part general store, part anachronistic time capsule, the 5 & 10 reveals many treasures: bins and bins of rubber balls and rubber duckies, yarn, office supplies, plumbing thingies and electrical doohickies, dishes, salt and pepper shakers, games, rubber reptiles, cowboy hats...it's difficult to think of anything that isn't there.

My parents came with a great idea when they visited a few years ago: a penny auction. They gave each family member $5 to spend at the 5 & 10. Then we took our loot home, put it in a big box and started the bidding (everyone had 25 pennies). It was a tremendous hit, leading to several command performances over the years. (You don't need a 5 & 10 either...any drugstore or dollar store will work just as well.) Be prepared for the frenzied bidding on the most unexpected items (flying monkeys, chicken chucker, and a harmonica among them). One of the unexpectedly enjoyable parts for us has been the auctioneers' (we take turns) off-the-cuff, QVC-style descriptions of the items. If you're looking for a fun activity--for all ages--this is it.

p.s. My thanks to Maddy for putting up with my shutter-happy ways. She was a bit embarrassed that I was taking pictures in the store and was sure we were going to get in trouble for something. We didn't but I'm sure she'll be frisking me for my camera before heading out on any errands in the near future.

Adios Boston, Hola Antigua

Maddy and I are leaving Sunday for Antigua, Guatemala. I was invited by one of my professors to work on some child development projects there but first (minor detail...) I need to build my Spanish skills from practically non-existent to at least conversational.

So we're heading there for two weeks of immersed language study. As luck would have it, the town where my professor lives and where I'll be hopefully doing some work later just happens to have a concentration of highly respected and inexpensive language schools (here's a link to ours). So, with Greg's encouragement and a little blind audacity, we decided to give it a try.

{Moment of my nervous and excited dance. Think Snoopy but more scared.}

We'll be staying in the home of my professor and doing one-on-one Spanish classes every morning for 4 hours, then spending the afternoons and evenings exploring and trying out our blossoming linguistic abilities. It sounds like the school and the home where we're staying both have wireless internet so I hope to post semi-regularly while I'm there.

Although I've had my moments of nervousness, I'm getting really excited to try this and to take my spunky and sunny Maddy with me. That quiets the anxiety I have about whether I'll be able to learn Spanish, if Maddy will like it, if it will live up to my high hopes, if we'll be safe, if Maddy will eat the food, if my professor will get tired of having us there so long, etc., etc.

See you soon...

********
p.s.

I came across a really cool site while I was researching Antigua. Dozens of cities around the world participate jointly in a daily photo project. Sometimes they have themes, like colors or typical breakfast, but mostly they are simply fascinating views into life in locations around the world. You could spend hours here. I couldn't find a main coordinating site but the Antigua page had a list with links. Enjoy!