Ride for Roswell's Team GarveyFish

ADDIE: Hi.  My name is Addie.  And we are, we are doing the Rise for Roswell.  And I made a picture for a tee shirt so when we put the picture on our tee shirt, it’s three fishes riding on the bicycle because we… ARE… TEAM GARVEYFISH!

I’m doing the Rise for Roswell and we’re getting money for people who have cancer and they’re sick and we want to help them, that’s why we’re doing this.  So we need your help.

MAEVE: Hi. My name is Maeve and we’re doing the Ride for Roswell and we need your help.  If you give us money, we’ll do thirty miles of riding.

DADDY: Um, three.

M: Right, three miles I mean.  It’ll be me and mommy and daddy and Addie and Clark and we’re all going bike riding but we can’t do it and we can’t help people with cancer without you giving us money and donations.  Daddy, can you put my letter on the blog?

D: Sure, I’ll put it right here. [The girls sent this letter, composed and illustrated by Maeve, to a few family members.]

A: And if you help us, you can be part of TEEEEEAAM GAAAAARVEYFISH!  We’re Team GarveyFish because we’re Garveys and we have a fish.  Get it?  It makes sense.  And if you help us we’ll love you.

M: Anyone who helps us is on Team GarveyFish too!  What else should we give people?

A: How about we send them a video if they give us money.  I will send them a video that says “HOW DOOOO YOU DOOOOO?”

M: A Harlem Shake video!  A Harlem Shake video!

A: We could give them a hat.  Or Clark.  Or a hat with Clark on it.

M: I want to make a Harlem Shake video.

D: How about if we raise a thousand dollars, you can make a special video to thank everyone.

M: I have a question.  Will we be Harlem Shaking in the video?

D: Up to you, pipsqueak.  Anything else we should tell people?

A: The place.  You have to say the place where people can send the money.  Say this: if you can help us and send us money and we can use the money for people with cancer all you have to do is go to here.  And then put the website.  http://rideforroswell2013.kintera.org/garveyfish Now, daddy, can I tell you about riding a bike?

In case you're curious...

About what I look like, Maeve asked that I share this portrait she made of her daddy.

I do sing, but my kilt leaves more to the imagination.

Founding Father, Swim Fanatic

[Today we are baking bread. It’s a recipe from Mrs. Hoffman's cook book. While on a break, Addie and Maeve are eating lunch and talking about why we have a day off tomorrow. Professor Addie wishes to share this history lesson with all the blog readers.]

ADDIE: Hey, guys, do you want to hear something? There was a president in the olden days who invented books, fire and flippers. Well, guys, I don’t remember his name though. They were first, I mean the flippers, they were made of wood. And then they were made of rubber because he didn't like how they were once. 

MAEVE: Did he invent remotes too?

A: No. [Shakes head incredulously at such a ridiculous notion.] That’s all that he invented. He was cool. 

M: Is it the guy on daddy’s shirt?

A: No.

D: Who is the guy on my shirt? Does anyone know?

M: Michael Jackson?

D: Ooh, so close. It’s William Shakespeare.

A: [Unimpressed, back to the matter that hand.] And what’s really cool is that once my teacher went to see a statue of that boy. Of the president. He was sitting down and he had hair things on the sides of his head like here and here.

D: Was it George Washington?

A: YES IT WAS!

D: Anything else you want to say?

M: HAPPY PRESIDENTS' DAY!
A: HAPPY PRESIDENTS' DAY!

XOXOXO.

MAEVE: Hi.  Yesterday was Valentine’s Day!  Yesterday I also got a lot a lot of valentines.  I got a little of candy.  And I kept saying to my teacher “Happy Valentine’s Day!  I’m your valentine!”  I can’t believe my teacher got a big apple.  Well not really big, probably like medium sized.  It’s a chocolate apple.  I think my friend gave it to her and I’m in first grade so my friend is in first grade. 

And I keep telling my teacher that Addie is going to drive her nuts next year and I don’t know why.  And next year I’m going to be seven.  

Here is a joke.  [Reading.]  Knock knock.  Whos there?  Stopwatch.  Stopwatch who?  Stopwatch you’re doing and have a Happy Valentine’s Day!  XOXOXO! 

Now I’m going to tell you the same joke but mixed up.  Stopwatch you’re doing and have a Happy Valentine’s Day.  Stopwatch.  Who’s there?  Knock knock.  XOXOXO.  Love Papa and Gramma. 

Happy Valentine’s everyone!  Or yesterday.  And that’s it.  Bye bye!

I left my heart in Presefitso.

MAEVE: Hi, Everyone.  I'm eating apples while we're getting ready for the game.  And daddy is cutting the cheese!

DADDY: Heh.  Um, do you know what that means?

M: Yes.  That means nothing.  Also, my mom is walking past me.  And Addie is right there.  Clarkie is I don't know.  Oh wait, Clarkie is in the kitchen.  My daddy is wearing a weird tee shirt.

ADDIE: it’s a Buffalo Bills tee shirt. [Sabres, actually.  But so long as they're eating their apples, I won't nitpick.]

M: And mama is wearing one too.  Mama is making chili and I'm not going to eat any of it.  I'm going to eat chicken nuggets.  WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!  [Maeve told me exactly how to spell her evil laugh.]

A: Tonight, we're going to watch the Super Bowl. Because it’s the Super Bowl day!  And I love the Super Bowl because people get to come over and we also get to watch the Super Bowl.  There's the Baltimore Raisins and the... Daddy, who is it?

D: The San Francisco 49ers.

A: And the Presefitso Forty Ninels.  Happy Super Bowl!

M: Daddy, can I put my picture on the blog?  The one on the iPad?  It's colorful and blue and gray and black with spots on it.  I'll put it right at the end of the blog.

And that's it for today, folks!  Bye bye!

Space Blog Post, Jr.

DADDY: What were your favorite things that happened at school today? 

ADDIE: My favorite thing that happened today at school was doing Just Dance. It’s a game. And two other things is I learned in school today how to go bowling. And I knocked all of the pins down except one. And the last thing is I had lunch.

D: Wait, you played a video game?

MAEVE: Yes it was a special day for both of us for our whole school. So our classes had a party with a Wii U or whatever it is. A Wii something. We don’t nooooormally play video games.

And my favorite thing was playing on the Wii thing too. And another thing that we did was making a string of paper, like a big line of paper and we put the planets on it. Like, aaaaaaall the planets. Like the Sun and Jupiter. And here’s something about Jupiter. It is an outer planet and there's a big telescope down here on the ground and it found a red dot called “The Big Red Dot” or “The Big Red Spot”. And it spotted two dots and one is called “Red Spot, Jr.”, I think. Or maybe I think the other one’s called “And The Other One”. 

And those spots are storms! And bye folks, because I'm done. I'm done!

The right stuff. And waffles.

[Over waffles this morning, the girls decided to tell us what they know about space.  The conversation eventually got around to NASA, woman astronauts, and Curiosity.  I know this is a weird request to all the girls' readers, but if anyone knows anyone who works for NASA, there are two syrup-soaked kids here who would really get a kick to know this post was read by the Curiosity team.]

MAEVE: Pluto is not a planet it is a darf planet.  A dorf planet.  A dooooorf planet.

ADDIE: Mars is very hot.

MAEVE: Mars has a red spot on it.

DADDY: I think that’s Jupiter.  But Mars is a red planet.

A: How do you know that, Daddy?  Have you been there?

D: Nope, but I've seen lots of pictures of it.  Astronauts built a robot named Curiosity and sent it to Mars.  Curiosity takes pictures with a really fancy camera and he sends them back for everyone to look at on the internet. 

[Utter.  Stunned.  Silence.  Waffle pieces drop from forks.]

A: There’s… a robot on Mars?

D: Yup, named Curiosity.

M: How did it get there?

D: It was built by NASA.  By a bunch of really smart scientists.  It flew to Mars on a rocket and now it looks around Mars and it writes back to the scientists, talking about what it finds.

A: How many aliens does it know?

D: Well, none, yet, but it’s still looking.  Do you think it’ll find any?

M: I have an idea.  Aliens are there, but they’re really small so you can’t see them.  They’re so small you can’t see them.

D: Actually, a lot of scientists agree with you.  They asked Curiosity to look for places where there might have been water because they think microscopic aliens might have lived in the water on Mars.  "Microscopic" means you have to use a microscope to see them.

A: Can we write to Curiosity and say hi?

D: I happen to know Curiosity is pretty active on the internet.  I bet if we write a blog post, he’ll read it.

A: OKAY!  Hi Curiosity!  Daddy, who built curiosity?  What is his name? 

D: I don’t know their names, but one guy who helps Curiosity is named Bobak Ferdowsi.

A: Are there any girls who work with Curiosity?

D: Oh, honey, I’m absolutely certain there are, but I don’t know their names.  Maybe we can look that up on the internet?

A: No, that’s okay, I’ll ask Curiosity.  Daddy, can we build a robot?

M: And send it to Pluto?

D: What would we call it?

A: PLUTO!

M: METAL!

A: BUTTERCUP!

M: MARSHMALLOW!

A: GINGER!

[Here, I swear I’m not making this up, the girls’ mother did a spit take.]

A: So how do we make a robot?

D: Well, first, you study super hard, do really well in school, and become a scientist.  Then you can be an Astronaut and work for NASA.

A: Okay!

M: I don’t want to be an astronaut.  I’m scared of space.

D: Well, not all NASA scientists go into space.  Some work in Ground Control and wear vests.

M: THAT’S for me!

D: Okay, girls, what do you want to say to Curiosity?

A: Curiosity!  I think that you’re cool.  So what are you doing on space?  Do you see any aliens, Curiosity?  Did you find any holes yet?  That you can go down in?  Can you roll on the bottom of your planet because I don’t know if you would fall off.  Goodbye Curiosity!  Write to us soon!

M: Hi Curiosity!  Why are you living in space?  What did you discover already?  What are you going to discover next?  Will you write back to me once you know?  Goodbye Curiosity!  And have a good weekend!  And make sure you have waffles!  Hee hee hee.