Molly got bored and finally pulled out the magic kit I gave her last Christmas. She learned some tricks on her own.
Here are the results. Remember: this is only an illusion! 🎩
sweet
Cosmic Walk
Hey, I got a decent pic of both girls today. ☺️
We strolled up to Cosmic Coffee (and Beer Garden). We’re trying to get out for regular walks to prepare for our trip to Ireland later this year. “We’re going to be waling all around Dublin, so let’s get our legs ready,” I told them. Luckily, they were pretty enthusiastic about walking. Bonus: the Texas heat will make walking around Ireland seem like a literal cake walk.
Also, Molly wanted to try out iced tea since she had enjoyed some stevia-based tea at home. But she was not terribly impressed with unsweet green hibiscus tea, describing it as “bitter”. 🤷🏻♂️
The One-Day Scarf
Molly weaved (knitted?) this scarf in one day! She started it this morning and stayed up 10 minutes late to finish it so she could “snuggle with it” as she fell asleep.
Obviously, Molly has become quite a dedicated and productive weaver. She’s concerned she’ll get bored tomorrow morning without anything to weave. 🤷🏻♂️
Fun with Math
Molly has a surprising new form of entertainment while I drive her around in the car. She is doing a math self-assessment. For fun! Her idea, I swear! And this from a girl who was doing extra math tutoring just last year! You have no idea how happy this makes a dad.
Specifically, Molly is doing the official State of Texas 3rd grade math assessment practice workbook. It’s an old copy that she inherited from Claire.
Occasionally as we drive around, Molly will ask me to check her math.
Molly: “Dad, what’s 18 plus 7?”
Me: “I think you probably know that one. Do you have a guess?”
Molly: “Mmmmm… 25?”
Me: “Yep. Well played!”
I asked Molly what she enjoys about doing math for fun, and she just says, “I dunno. I just like it.” She did tell me me she does sometimes get frustrated by multi-step questions. I told her a little challenge can be a good thing. She nodded and kept plugging away at the workbook.
How this happened, I do not know. I guess the math tutoring worked! 🤷🏻♂️
Chocolate Reindeer Comes to Life
Molly was pretty excited about her Chocolate Reindeer idea and wanted to try it out before we go to Houston for Christmas. I warned her it may not come out quite like she imaged and to be ready for a mess. She acknowledged the rick, and then we went all in on making it happen! Despite my hesitations, I really wanted to make Molly’s holiday invention work too.
Molly and I had a fun time figuring out how to bring her vision to reality. It was an interesting challenge and took a fair amount of planning and research! In the end, it came out a too goopy to, uh, eat, much less bring to Houston. But it was a fun experiment, and Molly happily ate up her practice Chocolate Reindeer.
I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
Chocolate Reindeer Blueprint
Molly became inspired to create a new holiday treat called a Chocolate Reindeer, inspired by a Chocolate Mousse. Her vision is three layers of chocolatey goodness, one layer for each “official” Christmas color: red, green, and white.
Molly’s initial idea was for each layer to be melted, colored chocolate. After some discussion and brainstorming , we decided to use a combination layers with heavier ingredient on the bottom and lighter on the top.
- Bottom layer: red-colored white chocolate
- Middle layer: green-colored melted marshmallows
- Top layer: natural white-colored whipped cream
Here’s the blueprint.
Goats!
We discovered some goats at the school down the street. They’re so friendly and cute! They’re basically vegetarian dogs. Now we walk over and visit them form time to time.
Synchronized Sliding
The girls set up a synchronized slide at the park today, and they wanted me to capture it in slow-mo.
First Grade Guide to Austin Restaurants
Molly’s first grade class did the cutest assignment to hand out to the parents as a Christmas present. Each kid in the class wrote a review of a restaurant they were familiar with. Molly choose Chi’lantro, a regular favorite of ours. Molly’s review followed the same format followed by most of the other kids. “Chi’lantro is good. The parking is okay…” etc. But it was support sweet, and Molly had some good observations about Chi’lantro. Way to go, first graders! BTW, the most popular restaurant was P. Terry’s, which got several independent reviews.
McG Kids 