The Frog Prince, the Missing Rib, Mr. T, and Other Modern Fables

It's finally summer here in Jacksonville, after one of the longest winters on record, and a short, allergy-laden spring. We haven't been taking a lot of photos lately, but a few of our adventures are recorded below.

Sophie's History Fair Project
Sophie researched Susan B. Anthony and gathered her information into a display board and a two-minute memorized speech. She looks a lot like Susan B., don't you think?


Funnily enough, Sophie's Wii alter-ego, who predates this project by several years, is also named Susan, and also wears a bun and glasses. We're not sure what that says about Sophie's perception of herself. (But if it says she's not likely to date the football captain in high school, we're okay with that.)

Easter Egg Hunt at Chet's Creek Church
The mega-church across the street from us gave out 20,000 plastic eggs to about 1,000 kids in their annual Easter outreach. We took our neighbors, Eric - the one with the mohawk - and Miggie, and enjoyed the bouncy houses, games, candy, music, and the hot dogs and burgers sold to benefit Haiti.



Sophie and Daniel perform The Frog Prince
After a lot of conflict about Daniel's role - he didn't mind being the frog, but he wanted to be a blind frog - Sophie finally got Daniel to cooperate in her dramatic production. She even got Daniel to give her a kiss on her cheek - you can see him leaning in for it in the photo below. I like to think Sophie picked her green dress on purpose to symbolize the princess' unity with her amphibious groom, but I'm pretty sure she just liked how the dress looked with her tiara.


In Other News . . .
Ryan and the kids traveled to New York last week, while I went to California to stay with my mom after her kidney surgery. Mom had had a difficult few post-ops weeks, but was starting to feel better after having half a liter of fluid removed from around her left lung. She kindly showed me a photo of the surgery taking place, as well as one of the rib she had removed.

I will never eat ribs again.

Ryan and the kids had a less gruesome visit with our NY friends, which included a big birthday barbecue for Darcy that was just like old times. They didn't take a lot of pictures of their trip, but did get a few of Sophie with Isabelle Ghiradella.


What else are the Myers up to these days? Sophie is making a hat for Daniel, using a round knitting loom - just like Grammy! She also defended her desire not to eat broccoli with cheese with the comment, "Mom, it's just like Shakespeare! You know, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet . . . Broccoli with cheese still tastes like broccoli!" (Mom's unimpressed - and perhaps not very relevant - response: "Yes, but a rose with cheese wouldn't smell the same, would it?)

Thanks to his Dad and youtube, Daniel has been walking around muttering "I pity the fool!" and pointing out that "Chuck Norris doesn't blend!" ** It turns out that imparting useless, out of context low-culture knowledge to your offspring is really funny. I think that's a parenting tip for the ages.


**Just a warning: the videos themselves are clean, but some of the viewer comments are not. Don't scroll down if you want to avoid them.