Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Spring Break

We decided to have our spring break this week. Other than the boys' spanish class, we've done hardly any studies. It's been nice! I've been catching up on the housework and doings some spring cleaning. Yesterday I tackled the boys' room. It wasn't that bad, but I still had stuff piled in their closet from my dad, including 4 big display boards that we had covered with pictures for his funeral. Finally I took all the photos down (I didn't even cry) and put them in envelopes so they will flatten. Someday I'll put them in photo albums or maybe even make a simple scrapbook. Their room is looking great now! I still have a few things to clean out from the top shelf in the closet, and I'd really like to get that done by the weekend. I also found a slide projector, a movie projector (remember those 8mm movies from the 1970s? one of those), and what I think is a short wave radio.

We went to the Milwaukee Art Museum this afternoon. On Wednesdays, it's free for county residents. I hadn't been there since the Calatrava addition, and I must say, the lobby area is just breathtaking. Heck, even the underground parking lot and elevator are way cool! It was nice to walk through and see all the art, especially the ancient Greek and Roman stuff, as we just finished a study of ancient Greece, and just started on ancient Rome. Calvin's only observation of the whole thing was he wanted to know what was up with all the naked people.

Monday, Calvin asked me if I had "one of those things that you push the buttons and it makes words". It took me a bit, but I figured out he meant a typewriter. I said we did have one, so he begged for me to get it out. Of course, I did, and you would have thought I had uncovered the Ark of the Covenant! They played on it all day on Monday ("Mama! I bet none of our friends have a typewriter! This is so cool!"). They made notes, a newspaper, signs for a lot of the doors, play money, and whatever else they could think of. Every time one of their friends comes over, they have to bring them into the dining room to see The Typewriter. :)

3 comments:

Lisa Laree said...

LOL! I love The Typewriter story!

We have one, but it's an old manual that drops the a if you don't hit it just so.

Imagine! Being able to type straight to a piece of paper without having to tell it to print!

I'm still giggling...

mamafitz said...

We have a manual typewriter as well (it was my dad's and it even types in two colors!), but the ribbon is dried out. So I told the boys they couldn't use it because the ribbon needed ink. They could not understand why you would put ribbon in a typewriter, isn't that for frilly girly things? :)

Anonymous said...

What a cool story. I'm sure the ribbons must be dried out on our old manual typewriter, and maybe even the old electric, of which we might even have two.

It is amazing what archeologic treasures hide in an attic. Since we are between grown children, who knew typewriters as children, and grandchildren, who of course will grow up with computers, it hadn't occurred to us to consider the marvel potential of such mundane objects.