English Class Photoshoot: "Set Sail for Spring Break"

So, here's the story:
Isaiah and I are currently on Spring Break. I was not given very much homework to do over the break, only two assignments. One was a tiny worksheet from French class that I finished in a snap. The other was an assignment from my English teacher: we had to take a picture of ourselves reading something over the break, and make it as creative as we wanted to.
Now, unlike some of my classmates, I read a lot, so there's nothing special about a picture of me reading. So I decided to have some fun with it, and dressed up in a huge, full pirate costume left over from Isaiah's last birthday party.
But I wasn't going to get in this whole costume for just one photo, so after drafting Isaiah as a cameraman, we ended up making a big photoshoot, shot at a nearby park. At the end of the morning, we were filthy*, tired, and grinning from ear to ear. The end result is very silly, and was quite fun to make. We hope you enjoy it here.

*=Isaiah wasn't actually filthy. He had stayed away from all of the digging and setup because, quote, "I'm the cameraman and I need to take 'behind the scenes' pictures of all this stuff. Next he'll want to direct.

Some Kindly Advice

So on Friday afternoon, I was cleaning off our stovetop. It had gotten extremely filthy, so I was having to use a lot of elbow grease to try to clean it. Isaiah was watching me and asking about the methods I was using: the sponges, scrub brushes, and cleaning fluids I was using to try to loosen the burnt in crud. After a while, my 9 year old son said to me, "You know, Mommy, maybe you should clean the stove every day, and then it wouldn't be so difficult to clean. It's like the way Isaac and I keep the table in our playroom clean every day, so we never have a huge mess on it to clean up." I could barely keep a straight face as I thanked him for his idea. He doesn't seem to remember that it was my idea in the first place. I don't know how many times I've told the boys to keep their table/closet/playroom/bedroom/whatever cleaned up every day so it's easier than having to clean up a huge mess later. Apparently, it has sunk in, but Isaiah has forgotten the source.

And I guess it would be a good idea. Excuse me while I go clean the stove while it still isn't a huge mess...

New pix!

I've uploaded some new pictures from this month. There's a few more pictures from the Renaissance Festival, when we went on Oct. 5th.

There's several pictures of our sukkah from before and during the holiday of Sukkot. A sukkah is a booth, sukkot is the plural form. The holiday is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. Unfortunately our camera got broken while we were building the sukkah, so all the pictures after the construction pictures are taken with Isaac's camera. We gave some gifts to each other, and Kristin and Rachel came to visit.

I'm also posting the pictures of the boys' Halloween parade this year. There were quite a few clone troopers this year. Isaac went as Robin Hood again, and Isaiah was a ninja again. They had lots of fun.

Checkup time

I took the boys to the doctor for checkups last Thursday. They are both healthy. Isaiah weighs 73lb and is 4'6" tall. Isaac weighs 98lb. and is 5'1" tall.

The most interesting thing I learned at this appointment, though, was about warts. Isaiah has a wart on his palm, and the doctor said it's nothing to worry about unless it bothers him. He did tell me the best way to get rid of them, and you'll never guess what it is: duct tape! According to our doctor (and the study he cited), duct tape is better for removing warts than any treatment the doctor does. You simply cut a piece of tape to cover the wart and stick it on. Leave it there for a week. When you remove it, scrub the wart really well to remove the dead skin. Replace the duct tape and do it again.

We did agree, however, that it wasn't likely that an 8 year old boy would be likely to be able to keep a piece of duct tape on his hand for a week. So I'm not planning to try it unless Isaiah really wants to.

Has anyone else heard of this unique use for duct tape?