this week: surprised by pirates and singing about integers

tom sawyer's island is now officially "pirate's lair"which means that there's a smarmy johnny depp look alike swaggering around the old fort and the frontiersman that once took you over on the raft to twain 's boyhood isle are now wearing eye patches and saying "how about some gold me pretty?". but it is a stroke of disney genius, because suddenly that dusty dated excursion has come alive with hollering boys playing hide and seek in the caves under the old fort--i mean abandoned pirate ship. the creaking bridge is still a favorite--owen, of course says to me halfway through: "mommy, they need to fix this bridge. it's not very straight. AND it's very bumpy" indeed! (owen, of course, also didn't think much of the old yellow submarine whether or not it had nemo. )oh, and did you know that there is a sheep named george and several goats at disneyland? i guess in all my wanderings i had never stopped at frontier ranch--the cleanest petting zoo you'll ever visit. well, except that george did nearly poop all over nana's white tennies.

you can get double dr. seuss dvds at costco-- we LOVE the green eggs & ham, although it is a bit like the people who did the score for fiddler on the roof approached mr. geisel and said hey--your book would make a great little musical. the cat in the hat, however, kinda creepy.

on the topic of musical dvds we bought from costco-- how fabulous is Mary Poppins! owen and i had the best friday night movie date giggling at dancing penguins and singing chimchimcherroo (and really i can't get enough of sister suffragette).

and, of course, if you haven't already checked it out--they might be giants do numbers. it's not such a stretch for the guys who did "Ana Ng" and "Birdhouse in your soul". it IS catchy (the four song is the sweetest and i know S & J and Uncle R are still singing High Five!). and hey, owen can count to a hundred, add 8+8, knows that tuesday follows monday, and tell you that girls don't like french fries. This podcast does look like fun.

but of course it all appeals to me, after all i'm part of the child raising generation that thanks god we missed barney and remembers singing "don't drown your food!" after school before memorizing ickle me pickle me tickle me too. . .