Spencer is home!

I am excited (and relieved) to announce that Spencer is home! We didn't want to post his return date, for fear of jinxing it. But he came home early Friday morning and we are all sooooo happy.


Here is the banner we made. Michenna chose the color scheme: blue and silver for the word "welcome"; purple and sea green for the word "home". If you can't tell from the picture, Spencer's name is colored like the American flag, not candy canes. ;)



And here is a picture of Spencer in front of the banner:

Finally - A Lost Tooth!

Michenna finally lost her first tooth! Hooray! I had to pull the tooth out (yuck) because she bit into a piece of food and twisted the tooth almost completely out. I was afraid she would swallow the tooth if we waited any longer to pull it.

We came home (we were at a swimming party) and I finally put together the tooth pillow that has been on top of my "to sew" pile for several weeks. As I was making the tooth pillow she pointed out that the pocket should be extra large, in case the tooth fairy has to leave dollar bills. :) Here she is holding the tooth and the pillow (with extra large pocket).

You can see the gap (sort of - the adult tooth is mostly grown in) on the lower left.

Michenna is VERY excited and can't wait for the tooth fairy to visit.

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T LOOKED AT "TEXAS IQ" (previous post)

The answers to Texas IQ are below:

Hard?!:
. . . the state flower? bluebonnet
. . . the state bird? mockingbird
. . . the state nickname? The Lone Star State
Harder:
. . . the state tree? pecan
. . . the state motto? Friendship
. . . the state dish? chili
. . . the state fruit? Texas Red Grapefruit
. . . the state reptile? Texas Horned Lizard
. . . the state snack? tortilla chips and salsa
. . . the state mammal (large)? Texas longhorn
Hardest:
. . . the state dinosaur? Brachiosaurus
. . . the state mammal (small)? armadillo
. . . the state molecule? Buckminsterfullerene molecule, a.k.a the Buckyball (and I'm still not making this up!)

We found an awesome website that has all this info (and more) for all 50 states. Guam is not included. :( The site is www.statesymbolsusa.org.

Texas IQ

We had our branch heritage night last night. It's an annual event where all the members bring books, pictures, and foods that represent our different heritages/cultures. Last year I made German potato pancakes, which were a complete flop (no pun intended). So this year I chose to present my Texas heritage, hoping that Frito Pie and pecan pie would earn better reviews. The pot and pans came home empty, so I think it was a good choice.

As I was trying to decide what to put on the Texas display, Michenna suggested that we somehow use the state flower, the state bird, etc. Here's the final quiz from the Texas table:

CAN Y'ALL NAME . . . (Sorry, Mom, I know you hate "y'all", but it was a Texas table.)

Hard?!:

. . . the state flower?

. . . the state bird?

. . . the state nickname?

Harder:

. . . the state tree?

. . . the state motto?

. . . the state dish?

. . . the state fruit?

. . . the state reptile?

. . . the state snack?

. . . the state mammal (large)?

Hardest:

. . . the state dinosaur?

. . . the state mammal (small)? [Hint: I've never seen a live one]

. . . the state molecule? [No, I'm not making this up]

(Answers will be posted tomorrow. Correct answers will be posted . . . just kidding. :) I will post the correct answers tomorrow.)

I was also the runner-up in the Filipino Tinikling (bamboo stick dancing) competition. One of the elders won, but I think the contest was rigged. :) Since the prize was a can of mixed fruit, I don't feel too bad about it.