In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day

/ Shane / Leave a comment

This the the poem I read to the kids tonight in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day:

The Pirate
By Shel Silverstein

Oh, the blithery, blathery pirate
(His name, I believe, is Claude),
His manner is sullen and irate,
And his humor is vulgar and broad.

He has often been known to imprison
His friends in the hold dark and dank,
Or lash them up high on the mizzen,
Or force them to stroll down a plank.

He will selfishly ask you to dig up
Some barrels of ill-gotten gold,
And if you so much as just higgup,
He’ll leave you to fill up the hole.

He may cast you adrift in a rowboat
(He has no reaction to tears)
Or put you ashore without NO boat
On an island and leave you for years.

He’s a rotter, a wretch and a sinner,
He’s foul as a fellow can be,
But if you invite him to dinner,
Oh, please sit him next to me!

Five Fridays of Fun – Beautify the Neighborhood

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Initially, Evie was distinctly disappointed with our second Friday of Fun.

“It’s clean up time, it’s clean up time.”

Make your neighborhood a more beautiful place. Put on gloves and see if you can fill up the trash bag. Then, come inside and make a stepping stone that we can use to decorate.
Tip from the guy at Michaels: use slightly less water than directed & a hair-dryer can help it set if needed.

Compared to going to the zoo, I guess it was a little disappointing. She was definitely not jazzed about picking up trash. However, once we got going, we still had a lot of fun (even picking up trash!)


One advantage vs. going to the zoo is that we have something tangible to show for this one; a stepping stone. The kids were very excited to “stand on it”, but it had to dry for many days before that was possible.

The other thing tangible that we had was an enormous bag full of trash! We barely made it halfway down the alley before we filled our trash bag. The amount of trash around our house is absolutely astounding! Doesn’t anybody in Chicago put anything in the trash can?

Five Fridays of Fun – The Zoo

/ Shane / Leave a comment

This year for Father’s day, rather than get me one gift, Sara got me “Five Fridays of Fun”. Every Friday we would select a random box and open it, and it would give us materials and instructions on what to do for the day.

I had absolutely no idea what sorts of things were in these boxes, or even a ballpark estimate of what to expect. So on the first Friday of Fun we opened the box and saw:

The things in this box are a clue
as to what you might see and do.
Pack your lunch and bring it too
so you can enjoy a day at the…
…………(can you guess?)……….
…………………………………..ZOO!

I can’t remember exactly what was in the box, other than some animal crackers to take with us as a snack.

Evie in particular was very, very excited to open them up each week. Sometimes I was a little nervous, because I didn’t necessarily feel like embarking on some big adventure for the day. However, it always turned out great! It’s hard to explain, but here’s just something about having it all prepared with instructions that’s better than just thinking about it on your own. I would never just say, “Hey kids, lets just up and go to the zoo today.” It has to be a big thing that’s planned out in advance. But when the magic box says we have to go to the zoo, we go to the zoo. And then guess what? We have a great time! We probably should just up and do things like going to the zoo, and this was just the little nudge that we needed.

Also, it was a great gift because instead of just getting one thing, we had about a month and a half worth of enjoyment out of it. There was anticipation leading up to it, the actual doing of it, and then the retelling of everything to Sara later.

So for the rest of the week I will be presenting each of the Five Fridays of Fun, in the order we experienced them.

The $#it fountain

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The other day, we were walking around Chicago and we happened upon this:

Yes, that is a fountain that looks like an enormous pile of poop. And aptly named too:

(I only wish I had a better camera)

After some quick googling, I discovered that it is dedicated to all the neighborhood dogs and their owners who don’t pick up after them.

Only in Chicago my friends.

Mischievious Fairies

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Evie and my mom have been perfecting a new game they like to call, “Mischievious Fairies”.

The game goes like this: mom and Evie (well, mostly Evie) dress up like fairies, complete with wings, wands, and fancy dresses, and fly about the house causing mischief. Later, when someone discovers some of the mischief, Evie shouts out, “Mischievious Fairies!” For our part, we just have to go around finding mischief and saying things like, “Hmm, I guess some mischievious fairies must have been here!”

Evie is very anxious that we find all of the mischief, checking every few minutes to see if we’ve found everything yet. In fact, this time they left little calling cards that said, “Mischievious Fairies” next to each piece of mischief they were responsible for.

I have to tell you, I love this game. It seems counter-intuitive to enjoy a mischief causing game, but the mischief is surprisingly low-grade stuff like tying shoes together, hiding pajamas, moving the bed out a couple of inches from the wall, putting little toys inside of shoes, putting objects in unexpected places, etc.

In fact, I suspect that is the part of the game that is fun for my mom: how many different little pieces of mischief can they come up with while also not really doing anything that will cause real trouble? I am constantly amazed at the amount of mischief the fairies can get up to in a short time, and how my mom manages to keep Evie from causing any actual mischief. For example, we’ve never had any hidden car keys or damaged items. Every once in a while Evie will tell me, “Oh, I wanted to do X, but grandma wouldn’t let me.”

Let no one think that this is not a game of skill!