week ending mar 22, 2009:

Week ending March 22, 2009: St. Patrick’s Day (SPD) was this week and the kids were looking forward to it. As I was putting the kids to bed on the night before the holiday I asked the kids why they were excited about SPD. Alex said “Because I might get a big toy”. I explained that there were no presents on SPD. “Candy?”. Nope. “Don’t we at least get a card?” Well, Aunt Patty already sent us a card in the mail, you’ve seen it. I suggested we could make some green food, hoping that by having the conversation now, they’d be happy with green pancakes in the morning. When morning came Alex was the first one to get up and I asked him whether he wanted green pancakes or to go to Dunkin Doughnuts and see if they had any green doughnuts, thinking this was a way to make the day special. He was still really disappointed and now angry and pouting. Sigh.

I did see Alex cheerful to the point of exuberance this week when he was playing Wii tennis with his dad. Usually Casey will keep the game close, letting Alex win some points, but then Casey will win the game in the end. This time Alex was playing especially well and getting some really got shots in so Casey did some extra cheering for Alex and then decided to let Alex win (without telling him, of course). Casey feigned being crushed by the defeat and Alex jumped around the house yelling about how great he’d played. When Alex saw me he said “Mom I played really AWESOME and I WON and I almost made Daddy CRY!!!!”

Another cheerful time this week was our trip to Cunningham Falls State Park for the Maple Festival. I remember going to see the park rangers talk about tapping trees when I was kid and we lived in State College, PA, so I was very excited to take the kids. CFSP had children’s crafts, a video about making maple syrup/sugar, hourly talks, a guy who showed the kids how to make taps out of sycamore branches, samples of maple syrup, a pancake meal, and the kids could stick their fingers under the tap to taste the sap as it came out of the tree. We also did the ½ mile “easy” hike to the falls. It was a great day spent in the sunshine with family and friends. Here are our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/MapleFestival2009#