Category Archives: Diversions

The stuff that didn’t fit elsewhere.

I still don’t get the title

03/16/2009 Nichole 3 Comments

Clifford the Big Red Dog
Once upon a time, the angry mommy came to the happy foods. And the happy foods screamed like this, “AAAAAHHHHH!” And the mommy was SO MAD, she was so mad, and then the food cried.

And the toys blew away, and the angry mommy got rid of those toys and throwed them in the trash can! And everyone blew away. And they came back down, and everyone was happy. So was the happy mommy. While they were happy, they decided they wanted to play.

The End

Why is it called “Clifford the Big Red Dog”?
Because that’s the title.

But he isn’t in there anywhere.
He is! He’s in the title. He’s the illustrator.

Why was the mommy so mad?
Because they yelled and screamed like this, “AAAHH, Ahhh!”

What did the foods do to make the mommy mad?
They throwed everything out of the house, and the parts of the house blew away, and the friends blew away, and the angry mommy blew away, and everything was all gone. And so did the people. The people looked stern also. (That means very angry.)

Why did they look so stern?
Because the foods are still crying, and they’re saying “No.”

Why are they saying no?
Because the mommy ran, ran, ran away, and she didn’t like it.

What didn’t she like?
She didn’t like saying no.

Well, why did she say no?
I don’t know. Oh! I said “no”! I must be stern.

Screen time

Sporty McSporterson & the Big Basketball Challenge

03/15/2009 Nichole 7 Comments

It’s NCAA tournament time again! Which means I’ve set up another bracket challenge. Want in? Leave a comment here, and make sure you leave your email address so I can send you the sign-up information. Let’s go! Winner will get a fabulous cookie-related prize. How can you pass that up?

(And when I say “cookie-related,” I mean cookies.)

Reading

If you give a girl a letter …

03/13/2009 Nichole 5 Comments

A few months ago, we checked out “If You Give a Pig a Party” and “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” by Laura Numeroff. One morning as we were writing some letters and drawing pictures, Pi decided she wanted to draw a picture for the author. So she did, and we wrote a little note to go along with it. I looked up her contact info, and we popped Poppy’s drawing and letter into the mailbox.

Can you guess what was in our mailbox today? It was a letter for Poppy, from Laura Numeroff! Here’s a bit of what she wrote:

Dear Poppy,

Thank you so much for writing to me!! Your drawing of the piggy and the cow is very special and beautiful.

I’m glad you love to read — and clearly you love to draw. Just be careful you don’t draw all over the walls with a permanent magic marker! And I love your name — it’s adorable! Ed: This got a very large smile from P.

I have an iPod and I love music and look forward to hearing “Personal Penguin” — thanks for the tip! …

She goes on to say that she’s working on “If You Give a Dog a Donut” and that “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” was recently released.

The letter really brightened our afternoon. Poppy is always excited to get things in the mail, and receiving a note from one of her favorite authors was just terrific. I’m pretty sure Numeroff now has a lifelong fan!