silverfeatherx5's Blog

My youngest son was born on Valentine's Day in 2002. Up until last year, I was able to get away with "postponing" his birthday celebration by a few days. This year he is all excited and quite aware that his special 6th birthday is fast approaching.

Is there a way to balance his birthday, with the celebration that he will be having in school that day, along with finding alone time for my husband and myself...

Due to his deciding to arrive on Valentine's Day in 2002, I missed out on the Creed concert with my husband and we have yet to have time to ourselves on this holiday 6 years later. Needless to say my husband used the tickets and enjoyed the concert and my, well... I got to enjoy the birth of me 5th boy....

How do holiday "babies" deal with splitting their special day with the holiday festivities?

My second grader brought home fun homework this week. His class is trying to get one postcard from each state as they learn about all 50 of them.

The class is small with 15 or fewer students in it, so this should be a huge challenge for them to complete by their deadline of June 8th.

We started looking through the address book trying to find family or friends that live in other states so we could ask them for postcards... It has been refreshing contacting people that we don't normally talk to on a regular basis.

It will be fun to see if they can get one from each state!

With Leap year coming in 2008 I have a question that I have always wondered about.

I know we all age everday that we are on the planet. Do leap year babies really only "age" every four years as far as their birthdays go or is that just fun and games?

My other question would be: How did February become the only month to have less than 30 days in it to begin with? All the other months have 30 or 31 days, how is it that February did not get 2 more days to be a 30 day month while 2 of the 31 days months could have been shorted a day. Wouldn't that have evened things out a little?

Just curious, something that I have always wondered and never really thought to ask!

Thanks and looking forward to your answers!

I always thought this would be fun, but I have issues with the 85 degree pool in the summer being too cold for me. My 14 year old wants to do this on the first of the year as part of the robotics team bonding experience. He joined the robotics team at Bradley Tech and now I get to look forward to a very enthusiastic teenager wanting to jump in the lake.

Should be interesting if I can find the right location. I guess the team is jumping in around Lincoln Memorial Drive and Bradford Ave at 11:30....

I think I will attempt to take pictures!

Anyone else out there participate... anything to make it more fun or at least a little less chilly?

Just wondering... What is the "official day" (I know I missed it this year, but want to know for next year)

And....

What is supposed to be in the stocking?

My grandmother insists that it has to be a traditional German theme of: a peppermint stick, a popcorn ball, peanuts, and an orange....

Other traditions or insight out there?

I went to conferences for my second grader last week. I was sitting there and found out he was doing pretty good for where he is at right now in his life.  But, right as I was getting ready to head to the fourth grade conference she said she need to share one more thing about his standardized math test that he had taken earlier that week.

The teachers can only read the instructions on the test that are underlined. So, my son hears the directions and starts the test. He comes to a word that he is having trouble with and raises his hand for help. Ms. Teacher nicely tells him that she can not help him with that word because it is not underlined.

My son then gets down to business seriously working hard on the test. A few minutes later he raises his hand again for help...

He underlined every single word on the test!

She said she just burst out laughing and so was I at this point. She didn't know what to say, he thought that underlining everything would get him the help that he wanted.

The lady that designed the test said she will have to find a way to refraze the directions now! He is the first student in the history of that school, that has taken the test and did the unimaginable of underlining it all.

I found this humorous and wanted to share!

Have really enjoyed watching it from home. Came down a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't figure out where to park. Kids didn't want to walk real far so we gave up. But I would love to be there at least once this summer in person. So if anyone has any suggestions that are affordable too... thanks in advance.

With the recent tragedy's both at the amusement parks and festivals around the country, I got to wondering if one is really safer than the other.

While I have riden rides at various amusement parks across the country (Cedar Point being my absolute favorite), and at places such as the Wisconsin State Fair and Dandelion Park (I know that one is an oldie and is now gone, but still it has memories for me) I always was selective which rides I went on for both me and my kids.

I always felt that the rides at the amusement parks were a little safter as they were considered permanent structures that get tested on a daily basis, have regular maintenance, and were regulated more strictly. (Some of this may or may not be true, these are just my impressions)

However, I felt that the rides that travel from town to town that are put up and torn down on a extremely tight schedule sometimes would have a tendancy to have more problems and may not be as safe. While I know the State regulates them, I don't know if all states regulate them equally and that makes me think that some may have issues that are overlooked due to the variances from state to state. (Again, not fact, just my assumptions or feelings)

I am pretty sure that there are not massive injuries/deaths in regards to rides, but the few that do happen make me want to be that much more protective of my kids now.

When you go to the festivals and fairs, how and where do you look for information on the safety record of the company providing those rides? Do you just have to blindly trust that they are ok? What kind of precautions can I take to ensure the best possible outcome of safety other than just not letting them ride any rides at all?

Anyone else wonder about this topic?

Brad,

That was very entertaining and looked so good. I loved the idea of "rivals" sharing their recipies and giving us a little "free" entertainment to go with it.

I looked for the recipies and found yours......

While yours won the contest they both looked so delicious....

I was wondering if all involved would be good sports and post the recipie from the runner up... it was a close 2nd after all.

Appearance wise they both rated 1st class to me....

Anyone else out there hoping to get a glimpse of recipie number 2?

Was thinking as I read the list of celebrations taking place around Wisconsin on the main page.

Some communities are planning celebrations as early as this weekend. Why are we celebrating the 4th before then? and one community is having their celebration on the 7th, isn't that a little late?

My other thought was to ask if people would share what their plans were for celebrating the 4th.

With all that is going on in the world, How much meaning are people getting out of this holiday anymore? I know for me I really feel it important to stress to my kids what the original importance of the holiday has meant and how it continues to be a day to honor those that are still fighting to keep the freedoms alive that we have received and exercise.

To those serving and protecting our freedoms THANK YOU!!  Theres not even enough words to let you know how Proud we are of what you are doing for us.