Christmas monkey stopping by the woods on a snowy evening

Back in December the kids watched a Curious George Christmas movie a lot... and have been humming the "Christmas Monkey" song ever since. Well, this morning I heard Catherine singing words to it -- and somehow or another she had put Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" to the tune of "Christmas Monkey." And the words fit the tune perfectly! I'm kind of amazed myself!

This week we're learning Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" in honor President's Day... we'll see if she can find a nice mournful tune to that one! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDAn59EUnqY&feature=youtu.be

Stylin' at the bakery

A normal Friday night dinner turned into quite the field trip at Neomonde. The really nice manager there -- who has four kids himself and therefore felt our pain at trying to coordinate fountain drinks, napkins, pita bread, and a wild-running Monica all at once -- offered to take us on a tour of the industrial bakery when we were finished eating.

In hindsight, I kind of wonder what he was thinking... I mean, if I managed a state-of-the-art bakery that could easily be brought to its knees by a few sticky fingers pressed in rising dough, the last people I would want in there would be my own kids. Anyway.

So we toured, and it was very cool. Catherine thinks that Granny Brandt should come down and run the bakery.

Neomonde goes through 7,000 lbs of flour a day and supplies bread to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. They have these humungous mixing bowls and ovens and cooling racks... Not only did we have a great time (except Monica, who was adamantly opposed to wearing her hairnet for reasons of stylishness) but the kids were very inspired. They came home and played BAKER!


Except Vincent, who decided he would rather butcher his tuna. 

In fact, the next morning the inspiration was still going strong as they requested spices and bags and pretzels and hammers (errr, wait a minute) so that they could crush up the pretzels and crackers in bags and add spices. Cool! Except that you know what a hammer (even a plastic one) does to a plastic bag, especially when your name is Dominic and you spend 15 minutes pounding and yelling at your poor innocent bag? Yeah. I'll take a picture of the floor later. Husband, if you are reading this, wait until the afternoon to come home or you will have a heart attack.