1974 and 2007

Tyra, about 2 and a half

Katie, about 2 and a half

Toothiness

Cooper woke up Thursday morning with his first loose tooth. He obsessed over it all day Thursday and just a little bit Friday. Then he excused himself from the morning assembly, marched to the nurse's office and asked her to pull it. (Katie and I were at the assembly, so after Katie noticed her big brother leaving, we just followed him out of the cafeteria.)

The nurse convinced him it wouldn't hurt too much or bleed too much, and then she pulled it. He was allowed to choose a tiny plastic treasure chest to hold the tooth. At home, we put the treasure chest in his Tooth Fairy pillow, then put the pillow under his bed pillow. He was thrilled to find four shiny quarters Saturday morning.

Celebrating with crazy hair

The Red Sox swept the World Series, as you probably already know. This was big news around here this morning, as Cooper is a huge Boston fan, dating back to our trip in April 2006. To celebrate, Cooper wore his favorite Red Sox shirt to school this morning.

It's also crazy hair/hat day at school, as part of Red Ribbon Week. Steve relied on his past crazy hair days (no school-sanctioned theme day required) to create this look for Cooper. He needed just some hairspray, a blow dryer and a patient subject.

Big weekend

Steve took a vacation day Friday and spent some time at school. He was one of a few dads to help with Pumpkin Math, a fun hour the first-grade teachers had planned. Steve worked with four kids, including Cooper, to estimate the weight of a pumpkin, estimate its circumference, count seeds, design the pumpkin's face and then carve the pumpkin.

After the 1-mile run Saturday morning

The four of us ran in the Gary Burns Fun Run (well, Katie was in a stroller) on Saturday. The Bledsoe team had at least 200 people, and our school won the spirit award and award for most participation.

Cooper and Steve went to a big Cub Scout event in McKinney, where Cooper created a bird house, shot a BB gun and did other scout sort of things. Their first camping trip is this weekend.

Steve sang a beautiful solo at both services Sunday. Our choir joined another UMC's choir and performed a Schubert Mass.

Before church Sunday

Q&A with Cooper D

Cooper practices at his first chess tournament two weeks ago. He won 2 out of 5 games!

• Favorite color: Red
• Favorite food: Ice cream
• Favorite song: "Use Your Words" by The Sippy Cups
• Favorite show: Magic School Bus
• Favorite movie: Return of the Jedi
• Favorite book: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
• Favorite drink: Apple juice
• Favorite car: Baylen's monster trucks
• Favorite friend: Cade
• Favorite animal: Hippogriff
• Favorite state: California
• Favorite baseball team(s): Boston Red Sox and Frisco RoughRiders
• Favorite comic book: Spiderman
• Favorite magazine: Lego

Q&A with Katie

As answered this afternoon:

• Favorite color: Pink
• Favorite food: Maple syrup (Perhaps because we read If You Give a Pig a Pancake this morning?)
• Favorite drink: Apple juice
• Favorite car: Mommy's silver car
• Favorite show: Super Readers (She means Super Why)
• Favorite song: ABCs
• Favorite animal: Pony
• Favorite friend: Noe
• Favorite book: Barnyard Dance

More from Mackinac

Arch Rock, a natural limestone formation, on the back side of the island

The beaches are rocky, and the views are beautiful.

Katie would jump right in if we let her. She loves the water.

One of the many colorful gardens on the island

Taking a break from our eight-mile bike ride around the island

Steve & I took a sunset cruise our first night there. The five-mile Mackinac Bridge, which is 50 years old this year, is behind us.

Pumpkin patch

Katie & I and Reese & Allison met Friday morning at a nearby pumpkin patch. It was Reese's 2nd birthday, with a Hello Kitty party to come.

Four months later ...

Some photos from our fabulous stay on Mackinac Island, Michigan! Steve and I celebrated our 13th anniversary, and the four of us plus Jim, Betty and Jim celebrated Cooper's 6th birthday and the Fourth of July together. Cooper and Katie want to return as soon as possible. I expect we'll go back in a few years -- it was super relaxing, beautiful, perfect weather plus all the ice cream and fudge you can eat.

The island is the "Land of the Great Turtle." This turtle was in our hotel lobby.

The island is in middle of Lake Huron, between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan.

For Cooper's birthday, we ate at The Woods, a restaurant run by the Grand Hotel.

The turtle was a popular photo spot.

We spent a few hours on the 4th at Fort Mackinac, where docents were in costume and a huge picnic dinner was served.

I think we all had at least one scoop of ice cream a day. Thankfully, there are lots of opportunities for biking and hiking!

This is one of the lookouts at the fort.

Spirit night

Katie's preschool had spirit night at Chuck E. Cheese yesterday. We sat with families from her class, ate and ran around. Steve had the tough job of keeping Katie off the playscape (or Habitrail, as he calls it), as we're still protecting her injury.

I don't really love Chuck E. Cheese. It's sensory overload for me -- the lights, sounds, smells, the mediocre pizza, all the people, the animatronic mouse with fading, unraveling fur. And a few years ago my wallet was stolen from my purse during a birthday party there. (We were celebrating Jeff's 50th -- he reasoned he'd never had a big deal party when he was little, so he made up for it that year. The thiefs went through a McDonald's drive-thru twice and then tried to buy a big-screen TV with one of my credit cards.)

Cooper and Katie, of course, love it -- especially the lights, sounds, pizza and the animatronic mouse.