Kids flew to Idaho

Aster, Kelsea and Torie flew with their grandparents to Idaho today. It was the first time aboard a plane for Kelsea and Torie. Torie said, "It wasn't scary at all. The cars were sooo little. When we landed, it was like we were in another world. We went through lots of clouds. Daddy, are clouds really made out of water? Wow. I guess the plane must've gotten really wet."

F. Molina Campos

Patricia and I are looking through Florencio Molina Campos paintings of the vida campestre. Campos captures the life of my Argentine gaucho ancestry in a delightful way.

Pigeons pooped on the kids today

We went to the park in Mesa to go birdwatching. We spotted a male and female great-tailed grackles, a bewick's wren, a male house sparrow, mallard ducks, and plenty of rock pigeons. Aster, Kelsea and Torie layed hesitantly on the lawn and placed bread crumbs on top of themselves. The gluttonous pigeons happily took the feast and happily rewarded the kids with pecking, scratches, and stains on their clothes.

The kids had a great time. We had to get out of the house because (after plenty of procrastination) we finally had a carpet cleaner come out to remove marker, glue, paint and Lucy markings from our carpet. It took a heap of chemicals.

Dinosaur Letter

Aster got a letter (he wrote to himself) from his dinosaur friend and it goes like this:

Dear Boy,

I had a great time at the party with all of those delicious elk. I would've liked it more if you were on the menu. You should have tricked some of those plant-eating dinos to come. There weren't too many raptors at the party. I hope you didn't mind all the bones and blood everywhere. The deer were a good snack. Tyrannosaurus ate most of the food.

Your prehistoric friend,
Raptor

Kelsea at the Top of Her Class

I'm a proud daddy today. The school year's ending and I just received a call from Mrs. Polillo—Kelsea's third-grade teacher—to tell me that Kelsea (yes, my daughter) has earned the most Accelerated Reader points in her class. What are AR points? AR points are how elementary school teachers test reading proficiency.

I'm actually not at all surprised by this news. How many nine-year-olds are thrilled to go on a trip to Barnes and Noble? One time when we went, I bought Kelsea a hot chocolate and she got halfway through a junior version of The Secret Garden. She read 80 pages that night! I'm not surprised. But I'm sure proud. (Did I mention I was proud?)