Vickie and I are in Phoenix as I'm writing this. We came down to watch Adam and Aimee's three children (Lizzie, Eli, and Ivy) while they are in Costa Rica celebrating their 10th anniversary. Check
Aimee's blog for details.
Before Adam and Aimee left, we went to an exciting school carnival.
Later the same day, we also went to the first of three of Eli's baseball games for the week. While Eli was listening to the coach, in the field or at bat, Lizzie and Ivy practiced their cheering. It's amazing how quickly Ivy picks up on the cheers that Lizzie designs. Here
is a picture and a video clip for your enjoyment.
Of course, April Fool's Day just happened to fall when we were here, so Vickie and I had to put together a suitable menu. For breakfast, we made fried eggs and bacon on toast. Nothing too unusual there, except that the toast was pound cake, the eggs were whipped cream and half apricots, and the bacon was fruit leather!
Of course, the kids had to take snacks to school, so we sent them off with rocks and wormy apples (rock candy and apples with gummy worms added:
The kids had a relatively unexciting day at school. It turns out that elementary school kids just aren't as inventive on April 1st as, say, high school kids or even older (say 60-ish) semi-juvenile delinquents, so the little ones didn't have a lot to report.
On the home front, though, creative cooking was under way. Dinner was cupcakes (meat loaf cooked in muffin tins and frosted with tinted mashed potatoes, then put in paper cups and topped with a cherry tomato), mixed peas and carrots (from the candy store - unfortunately, the peas were mint flavored!), and fruit salad (also from the candy store, including such fruity things as orange slices, peach rounds, and candy raspberries and blackberries.) They all seemed to enjoy the dinner.
Dessert was a slightly different matter: the menu was dirt, mud, and worms. (Actually, crushed Oreos, chocolate pudding, and gummy worms, respectively - but it looks pretty bad! And the reaction was decidedly mixed, at least until they tried it.
While Vickie and I were in Phoenix watching grandkids, we decided to take them to the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa, which has a great collection of dinosaurs, which are usually a big hit with the kids. It started outside 
the museum, where they all posed in front of one. Once inside, though, Ivy was absolutely terrified by the mammoth skeleton, and it took her a while to allay those fears. After a while, during which time nobody was attacked by the skeletons, she decided that maybe they weren't so scary after all.
gold-panning stream. As you can see, everybody got to try 
it - and get a bit wet. The sand was spiked with gold (OK, fool's gold), so that everyone came home 
with some sparkle.
