Jake

Julien had a play date with his friend Jake this weekend. First they set up the indoor play tent in the basement and got into the sleeping bag together, then they had a pillow fight (until Julien bit his lip), and lastly they built different kinds of vehicles. It was one of Julien's best play dates so far!

Make-Your-Own

We had dinner over at John-Paul & Elissa's house. Their sons, Graham and Andrew, are two of Julien's best friends. Not only did we have make-your-own pizzas (with prosciutto, kalamata olives, etc), we also had make-your-own chocolate sundays. What could be better!

Prehistoric Creatures

Last weekend we went to a "Prehistoric Creatures" workshop at the Children's Museum. Julien had been looking forward to it for months. It was fun, but we had thought that Julien might actually learn something about dinosaurs. Instead he knew the answer to every question.
Teacher: "Some dinosaurs only eat meat. Does anyone know what they are called?"
Julien: "Carnivores. They eat plant eaters"
T: "Right. And what are plant eaters called?"
J: "Herbivores"
T: "Right, and humans eat both plants and meat."
J: "We have pointy teeth in the front for tearing and teeth in the back for grinding."
T: "Right"
Julien wasn't the only one answering the questions, but he knew the answers to the more technical questions. We did all get to go behind the scenes into the Paleo lab and all the kids got to touch a Triceratops skull fossil. Afterwards one of the assistants came up to me and said "Julien must really like dinosaurs. I think he could teach this class!" In any case Julien had fun. Afterwards we went for a ride on the carousel.

The Jockey

Here is Julien dressed up as a jockey. We have been playing "horse race" every night.

Tornado

Some of you may have heard that we had tornado warnings yesterday. Supposedly there were a couple touchdowns on both sides of town. I was having walk-in advising for students freaking out before registration. I was almost done for the day but I still had a line of about six students when the sirens went off. I saw two of them and after a call from Richard saying that there was, in fact, a tornado heading towards Bloomington I announced that we should all go to the basement. This was met with great despair and hair tearing-they were frantic to meet with me (one student was even in tears), so I agreed to talk with them in the hall way. When I was done, I went down to the basement. I work in a dorm, so I was the only adult in a room full of college girls. It was incredibly loud. I was down there for about half an hour until we were given the all clear. On the way home I stopped by a sushi place and got us all sushi and udon noodle soup for dinner. Yum. Despite Julien's usual lack of openness for new food, he loved sushi! Anyway, Julien and Richard were driving home from daycare when the sirens went off, so they quickly drove home and hung out in the basement. Julien thought it was fun. After dinner the sirens went off again, so we spent more time in the basement again. Julien and I lay in the guest bed and read books. The next morning we found debree in our yard, bits of insulation.

It was a weird evening.

Colors

By now almost all the leaves have fallen, but they were quite beautiful a few weekends ago. I am a little behind on my posts. Julien has taken to racing when we go for a walk in the woods. It rather remarkable how long he is able to run. Eventually he slows down and starts poking sticks in the dirt.

First Bicycle!

Julien got a new bicycle, his first one ever, from Grandmum Kathy and Grandad Rick, and boy, was he excited! He could hardly breathe! When Richard told him that Grandmum picked it out for him he exclaimed, "Grandmum is a great lady!" I think Julien has shown off his new bike to every neighbor that has walked down the street. He is more cautious with it than he is with his tricycle-he's still getting used to it.

Kathy and Rick

Kathy and Rick visited for an extended Halloween visit. It was very fun. We rented a mini van and the whole family went down to Kentucky for a little adventure. We had lunch at Lynn's Paradise Cafe (fun, but a long wait) and then went to Churchill Downs to the Kentucky Derby Museum. We ended up going on a tour of a horse race. Julien LOVED it and now loves to play horse race. He asked the tour guide lots of questions. "How fast do the horses ride? How many races does a horse race? What kinds of horses are they?"

Trick-or-Treat

On Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with Margaret, who was a sunflower. Margaret and Julien held each others hands the whole time. They were very cute. Afterwards Julien spaced out eating candy and then put on his scary vampire teeth. He did a slapstick routine for all of us and we laughed till our sides hurt.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Julien was very happy to be a raccoon for Halloween, although a few people told him that they did not like raccoons. We went to a "trick-or-treat in the woods" on Saturday where they had (unskilled) actors dressed as fairy tale characters. The first scene we came across was little red riding hood & the big bad wolf. Julien refused candy from the wolf. Then we moved to the three little pigs, who looked quite freaky in their masks and were not very little. Again he refused candy. One of the pigs slipped a candy into Julien's pumpkin and Julien grabbed it and threw it on the ground declaring he didn't want their candy! The next stop was Jack and the Bean Stalk, and with a little cajoling by Jack, Julien accepted a candy and was then ready for the rest of the festivities.

The White Sox

A: The White Sox won last night. It was the longest World Series game in history.
J: Oh. You know what my favorite team is? The Red Sox because I like red. You who plays the night games? The White Sox, the Red Sox, Black Sox, Yellow Sox, Blue Sox, and even Green Sox. They call them the Mixed Sox.

Raccoon

J: Does Margaret like raccoons? I will ask her at school. I will ask her what she wants to be for Halloween & if she says a raccoon, I will say, "OK, I will be a raccoon too."

In truth, Margaret will be a sunflower for Halloween, but Julien has decided that he will be a raccoon (he changed his mind briefly and wanted to be a kitten, but he went back to raccoon). I have been working on the ears & fur vest and there are now little bits of fur floating throughout the house. We will be trick-or-treating with Margaret again this year.

Dig

This last weekend we went to the Dinosphere with Julien's friend Marco(who was born on the same day as Julien). Julien spent a long time in the fossil dig talking with the docent about the gorgosaurus they were in the process of digging out.

Sweet Sleeping

Doesn't he look sweet sleeping? I couldn't resist.

Allosaurus Pinata

This Pinata was sold as a T-rex, however it has three fingers on each hand when it should actually have only two. Julien decided it was actually an allosaurus, which does have three fingers per hand.

Dinosaur Party

Everyone had a great time at Julien's Dinosaur Birthday Party, although Julien cried a couple times (it was a little overwhelming. His biggest complaint was that I had snuck one of the plastic dinosaurs that was supposed to be in the pinata and instead put it on the cake-and it looked so cute!). When it was all over he complained that it was too short. I can understand; all that planning and then it seems over in a minute. We had a dinosaur dig where kids dug for little plastic dinosaur fossils. Then everyone was given a pterosaur glider. The kids loved the gliders! When we opened the presents the kids got in so close there was hardly breathing room. At four kids understand presents at a whole new level. We finished off the day with a pinata. The kids loved it. In the pictures where kids other than Julien are whacking the pinata you can see Julien in the background pretending to swing the bat. He was very enthusiastic about it.

Julien's B-day

Julien is four! We had a very nice birthday, cupcakes in the class room and a mellow birthday at home. He was very happy with all his presents, but not overwhelmed.
When I was putting him to bed the night before his birthday he said "tonight I will grow to four size!"

This weekend his friends are coming over for a dinosaur birthday party- eleven kids!! (what was I thinking?)