We got the idea from reading Little House in the Big Woods. First I made a little pancake boy and Ingrid was so delighted that she ran to show daddy… Unfortunately the dogs were sitting next to him and they thought Ingrid was offering it to them. There were lots of tears over that one! I had to quickly make one that was even better- a girl. Ingrid dipped her finger in some yogurt and decorated her.
that’s a chipmunk, acorn, and the sun.
The house is furnished inside with a rug (maple leaf), bed of grass, soft dirt, a bottle cap full of amaranth seeds, and a nice big pine cone.
Ingrid and I made a calendar today. She had so much fun making it that I’m going to do it every month. It gave us a chance to practice drawing with a ruler, planning, counting, the days of the week, and writing. Also reminded me that our anniversary is coming : )
I’m a little behind. After Yellow Springs, we drove a few hours north to Cleveland. There we stopped for a few hours at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. I have mixed feelings about the museum. On the one hand, it was awesome to be in a place that was all about music; I loved hearing the songs playing, loved seeing the artists displayed; loved the kiosk where you could listen to the 500 most influential songs; loved learning about the progression from blues to rock and how it grew in different cities. Unfortunately though, for an amazingly cool subject, the museum flopped in its presentation. Sure they had lots of cool memorabilia, but the films they showed were shockingly amateur. We’re talking photos of musicians with different floating fonts over them, on three screens. It made my head hurt to watch but the memories it brought back kept me watching. Overall I’m very happy that we went, because it made me remember how much I love music, and what a wealth of music is out there for us to enjoy. I want badly for Ingrid to grow up loving music, and she did show some interest and ask questions. She was happy that Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was one of the songs in the top 500, although Cyndi Lauper was not one of the inductees (yet). I told her a bit about each exhibit and she listened politely; she made it through four hours of the museum before asking to go, and I give her lots of credit for that.
After our brief stop in Cleveland, we headed East again and North, to Niagara Falls. We stayed at Four Mile Creek State Park, which kicked ass. We arrived at night and were lucky to get a site- the place was packed! I had called earlier and was told there was only one spot left, and it was first come first served, but we were still four hours away at that point. I called again when we were two hours away and the lady told me she’d let me have the spot they have reserved for emergencies. When we got there I realized there were more than 300 sites at this park, so we really lucked out. The energy there was fun, there were lots of families and everyone was happy to be there. An awesome and huge playground, beautiful woods, friendly people all around- I wished we were staying longer. We drove to the falls in the morning, crossing the border to Canada. That was pretty cool and a good learning opportunity for Ingrid. The guard almost confiscated Andrew’s pocket knife but in the end he let him keep it since he could tell it was an expensive one. Andrew promised to leave it in the car during our stay and he did. The falls were huge, of course, and the border city was very colorful and touristy. Ingrid wants to remember how shiny the water was, and that it rained mist heavily; also the incredible rainbow across the water. We walked along the river and looked at the falls (exceptional people watching), checked out the city a bit, and spent a nice lazy day this way. On the way back, we rode an inclined railway down to our car and drove back to our lovely campsite. We cooked ourselves some big juicy burgers and went to bed happy.
We’re in the Adirondacks now, in the northernmost part of New York state. It’s very very scenic here, with dense woods and tons of ponds that are so still, you can see the reflection of the woods in them like a mirror. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen and I’m excited to go out and explore. We think we’ll be here five days or so.
