Dancing and Prancing

We are at the coast -- Depoe Bay, to be precise -- but that doesn't stop us from playing Ponyville. Quite the contrary.

This morning we went to the beach. As we were walking toward a driftwood log that looked like a good place to use as a base of operations, I spied a dot of pink upon the log. As we got closer it resolved into --

"A pony!" I exclaimed.

The girls rushed forward and found that it wasn't just a pony. It was Pinkie Pie, the party-loving pony, one of the six main characters of the show, until now played by the dinosaur Parasaurolophus. Her hair was a sight, but she was otherwise in good shape. We told the girls they could play with her, but that some other kid might come claim her.

Pinkie Pie before and after.

Then we found another pony. This one was a bit ragged, but definitely serviceable. We thought at first it was Applejack, but the cutie mark was a single red apple. Applejack's is three red apples.

Research on a My Little Pony wiki (yes, I know I'm way down the rabbit hole, here) revealed this was most likely Braeburn, Applejack's cousin. A character so minor that I'd never heard of him; but not too minor to make a doll of. Such is My Little Pony.

When we played Ponyville tonight, Pinkie Pie put together a party to welcome Braeburn. The girls built a dance floor out of dominoes, and the ponies literally danced until they dropped.

The ponies and their friends (including, yes, Frosty the Snowman) dance til dawn.

Two Obsessions

Elizabeth gets interested in things hard and fast. My Little Pony has so far lasted longer than normal (witness the epic saga that is Ponyville) -- and I'm not willing to give up on MLP, since Elizabeth recently told me that she wants for her birthday either a calendar or the My Little Pony Crystal Palace play set. There were times, long distant now, when she was into Kipper ("the one with the slipper"), or the Wonder Pets ("what's going to work? team work!"). For a while she liked Dora, then it was Word Girl.

Nowadays she still likes My Little Pony, but her heart is really with Turbo F.A.S.T., about a technologically augmented gastropod that races NASCAR-style. (F.A.S.T. stands for Fast Action Stunt Team; for some reason they didn't go with the more obvious Fast Action Racing Team.) Plus, she's very recently into Peter Pan, since seeing the stage production with Barb and Riley last Saturday.

Here's where we run into trouble.

I downloaded to my telephone a free kindle version of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. I told Elizabeth that it would have no illustrations, because the description of the book didn't mention illustrations. Normally, Elizabeth refuses to listen to books that don't have illustrations, but in this case she made an exception. "I'll close my eyes," she told me, "and see the pictures from the play."

Elizabeth and I were both delighted by Mr. Barrie's sprightly prose, hilarious characters, and by the surprising inclusion of illustrations! They looked old, so I'm thinking they were the illustrations that went with the original 1904 publication.

At some point during our conversation about Peter Pan, and school, I encouraged Elizabeth to look for a copy of PP at the school library. She was thrilled tonight to let me know that she got a copy of the book by asking the librarian at her school and being granted access to a book that kindergartners aren't normally allowed to check out.

This was a big deal.

Unfortunately, the book is a horribly abridged version of the classic original, which Elizabeth had been enjoying just fine. But once she got the abridged (and probably bowdlerized) version, she refused to go back to the original text. Mostly, her argument seemed to hinge on the fact that she had secured, at no small cost or effort, this rare version from the school library. "We can read your version on the phone any time," Elizabeth argued.

And I supposed she was right.  So I yielded and started reading the abridged version, suppressing my probably snobbish revulsion. And it was fun -- but not awesome, as Peter Pan is awesome.

Another obsession of Elizabeth's is the board game DixIt. Aaron got this one from his Mom for Christmas, after considering getting it for us. It's a cool game, kind of like Apples to Apples in that you choose a picture from your hand, assign a label to it (e.g., "Dreams of a Dying Star," or "Michael Jordan's sneakers," or "Happiness," or whatever), and the other players give you a picture-card that reminds them of the phrase you just uttered. Everyone but you then votes on which is your card. Hilarity and the racking up of points ensues.

DixIt in action, while Barb multi-tasks.

I like that Elizabeth is so focused on this one game, particularly given that she's not very good at it (e.g., she gets a picture of a giant looming over a city and her clue is: "Paul Bunyan"). What I don't like is this idea that there is only one thing, only one activity, and that everything else is lame. We've played DixIt now three night in a row. Elizabeth doesn't seem interested in any other activity.

Maybe it's time to return to Ponyville.

First Day of '14

We had an excellent start to the year. I went for a run first thing after waking up, and the girls didn't even complain about the lost Ponyville time (at least, not very much). Barb and the girls drew and did puzzles while I ran and showered and got dressed. Then I played Ponyville with the girls while Barb made an awesome Denver scramble with some leftover holiday ham. After some more Ponyville we got out of the house without too little fuss (notable, as sometimes the girls howl like banshees and fight like wolverines when we try to take them out of the house for an adventure). Barb wanted to go to a river to start a New Year's Day tradition of throwing a rock, stick, or leaf into the moving water and saying what thing you want to shed in the coming year.

We went to the park in Sellwood and walked on the beach. It was chilly but not freezing, so of course the girls acted as if it were summer, shedding their coats and digging in the sand without gloves.

After the park it was home for lunch. I took Suzanne for her nap-stroll, which was nice for me and gave Barb and Elizabeth some time together without the presence of an aggressive three year old. More Ponyville followed while Barb went out for some yarn for a new knitting project. When she got back we went to Laughing Planet for dinner, and that pretty much wrapped up a nice day.

If today was a bellwether for 2014, we've got a lot to look forward to.

If our big noggins weren't in the way, you'd see a nice view of downtown.

Suzanne running on a weird modular floating dock.

Notice that Elizabeth is wearing my gloves. This is because her fingers were icy after digging in the cold, wet sand. She looked a bit like Mickey Mouse.

Barb looking nice in one of her latest knitting projects. She dressed appropriately for the weather. He next project is leg warmers for Elizabeth.

Suzanne Larrison: action girl! In reality, she wasn't striking a cool pose, but trying to prevent herself from falling off this tree... while Dad snapped photos.

Elizabeth shimmied up this tree like a gibbon ape. When she was asking for help getting down, I was busy taking pictures and so she slipped and hurt her leg on the stump of a branch sticking out of the trunk. On the plus side, it allowed her to guilt me into carrying her part of the way back to the car.