After our visit to Disneyland last month, Aaron, who’s always drawing monsters, decided to draw a portrait of the family for a change.

This is his depiction of us, riding “Soarin’ Over California” (here’s a wonderful photo) at California Adventures.

This letter, transcribed exactly as written by the girl, is to be found under her pillow by a certain fairy:

Dear, tooth fairy

I kind of swallowed my tooth and I was wondering if it’s OK for you. You know to except my note. Well think about it and show me under my pillow when I’m awake. I will always except what you think!

yours truly
Madison

[Edit] I later learned that Maddie asked her mom, “How do you spell accept?” But her mom misheard the word.

The kids love to go to the local roller skating rink.

The reason is not because they’re so interested in skating. It’s like why they ask to go to McDonalds. They want a toy.

The big draw at the roller skating rink is glowsticks. Forget all the fun of skating with your friends for a couple of hours. If you can get a glowstick and swing it around in the dark for a while, that beats all.

The last time we returned with glowsticks, the kids couldn’t wait until it was dark enough to turn off the lights and see the sticks glow. When the time came, we turned off the lights, and activated the glowsticks. The kids danced and spun the glowsticks and worked up a real sweat. They loved their glowsticks.

It eventually became bedtime, and when we told them so, Aaron told his big sister, “Hurry! Turn on the light so they don’t run out!”

It nearly broke our hearts to explain to him that that’s not how glowsticks work. Turning on the lights does not conserve glowstick energy.

I was navigating my way out of the parking lot, and had to roll over a speed bump. Aaron chimed in from the back seat:

“You know why they put the bumps there?”
“Why?”
Cheerfully, he answered, “So you can have fun!”