Ok – you’ve got me there…

This morning, my children are pretending that they’re in Narnia. Middle Daughter is pretending that she’s Susan, and she’s created a bow and arrow made of sticks (her gift from Father Christmas). Youngest Daughter is Jadis, the White Witch, and she’s using a baton as her magic wand.

The problem with this is that they’re running around and chasing each other with sharp, pointy objects.

After several admonitions to stop pointing these things at each other, I said…

There won’t be any more warnings. If you point something at your sister, it will be taken away from you.

Youngest Daughter promptly started pointing her fingers as magic wands.

Sigh.

Ok. You win.

Cambodia, part 9b – Angkor: The South Gate of Angkor Thom

This is my second post describing our visit to Angkor. I had planned to write one really long post, but quickly decided (for my own sake) that I’d break it up into pieces. The first post contains maps and references.

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On Monday, November 21st, we tried to get to the temples early in order to avoid some of the crowds. We bypassed Angkor Wat (since many people start there) and proceeded to the ‘Great City’, Angkor Thom.

Angkor Thom was the last capital of the Khmer empire, constructed during the reign of Jayavarman VII around 1200 CE (although some portions were built earlier). The city is in the shape of a square and surrounded by a 100-meter wide moat. Each side is about 3 kilometers long and has one gate (or gopura) in the middle. (The east side has an extra gate for the king.) At the top of each gate are four sandstone heads – one facing each of the cardinal directions. These heads may represent the Buddha, the king, or both. The southern gate is the most popular with tourists because of the carvings on the causeway leading up to the gate. It is also oriented toward Siem Reap.

Visitors usually walk through the southern gate and meet their ride on the other side. We did the same.

The south gate of Angkor Thom. Notice the carving on either side of the causeway.

Most historians believe that the carvings along the causeway depict the “Churning of the Ocean of Milk“, a well-known Hindu story. The asuras (demons) are on the right side as you enter, and the devas (demigods) are on the left. They tug back and forth on Naga (the guardian of Buddha; note the mingling of Hinduism and Buddhism) which rotates the holy mountain, represented by Bayon, the temple at the center of Angkor Thom. This back and forth motion churns the Ocean of Milk to provide the Nectar of Immortality.

(At least, I think that’s sort of how it goes.)

For tourists like us, the churning of the Ocean of Milk provides opportunity for taking pictures…

Asuras (demons)

More asuras

Devas (demigods) and the moat

The girls with the asuras

Middle Daughter helps the asuras to churn the Ocean of Milk

Once we completed our picture taking, we continued through the gopura…

The south gate gopura

…to meet our ride on the other side. We chose the van over the elephants.

Elephants at the south gate

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 Up next: Bayon

Autumn arrangement

Oldest Daughter created an autumn arrangement this afternoon…

And Middle Daughter rendered it in colored pencil…

“Autumn Arrangement” by Middle Daughter
Colored pencil on paper, approximately 5″ x 7″, September 2011 

How to change ‘rainbow’ to ‘New Year’s Day’

Another entry from the Rainbow House of Learning – this one from Middle Daughter. She found a way to change ‘rainbow’ to ‘New Year’s Day’, one word at a time (give or take)…

1. Rainbow
2. Rain boots
3. Snow boots
4. Snow balls
5. Beach balls
6. Beach hut
7. Pizza Hut
8. Pizza pie
9. Apple pie
10. Apple sauce
11. Chocolate sauce
12. Chocolate bunny
13. Cottontail bunny
14. Cottonwood tree
15. Maple tree
16. Maple syrup
17. Chocolate syrup
18. Chocolate egg
19. Fried egg
20. Friday
21. Christmas Day
22. Christmas Eve
23. New Year’s Eve
24. New Year’s Day

Ornithology at the Rainbow House of Learning

Middle Daughter has taken a huge interest in birds – she probably knows more about them than I do at this point. Given her imagination, she sees quite a few more than I do, as well.

A couple of weeks ago, she called our whole family together to do an art show. She welcomed us in to her “gallery”, read her artist’s statement, and then showed us around. I loved that she took the initiative for the whole event. Here is some of her work…

And I asked her if she’d do a drawing of my favorite bird for me…

Eastern Bluebirds by Middle Daughter
(Watercolor and pencil, 8½” × 11″, September 2011) 

Playing Pictionary

This is for those of you who like cute stories about children…

Last evening, Ordinary Mommy and the girls decided to play “Pictionary”. First, here are some fun drawings:

Can you guess what the drawings are?

Hiding in the trees

Apparently, Middle Daughter enjoys surrounding herself with leaves…

(Ordinary Spouse captured these images. The second one was taken today during their outing to the Morton Arboretum.)

Hey! I resemble that remark!

The ordinary family went to see the Kane County Cougars take on the Great Lakes Loons on Saturday. The Cougars lost 9-3*, but we had a lot of fun: we were there with church friends, we got to see the Jesse White Tumblers, and there was a great fireworks display at the end**.

* Middle daughter may actually have been pleased with the result. She’s a big fan of the loons – the birds, though not necessarily the baseball team.

** You wouldn’t necessarily expect post-game, single-A minor league fireworks to be anything special, but these were really well done.

As we were leaving (nearly 10 pm), Youngest Daughter said to Ordinary Mommy…

There’s a chance about as long as Daddy’s hair that I’ll be awake when we get home.

Oh, the things we say!

This morning, Youngest Daughter didn’t finish her milk at breakfast…

ordinary (mostly): Please come finish your milk.

Youngest Daughter: I have no sense of bravery! I’m all filled up.

Then, as if to underscore the point, she stomped off to her room and firmly closed the door.

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On Friday, we were driving in Iowa and had this exchange:

Oldest Daughter: Why is it so mountainous here?

Middle Daughter: Because it’s Ohio!

Ordinary Spouse and I were trying hard not to laugh in the front seat. That exchange was wrong on both accounts. But I guess when you live in Illinois, Iowa might be considered mountainous.

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And here’s one for you nerds out there.

Iowa has a convenience store/gas station called Casey’s (but you can substitute the name of your own local quick mart).

Ordinary Spouse and I were reflecting on how you really can’t buy food there. What you actually get is “food derivatives”. Mathematically, this could be represented as:

d (food)

Of course, then you can talk about integrating  the food derivatives:

∫ d (food)

And what do you get when you carry out that integral?

∫ d (food) = food + C

So you get out food, of course, but you also get ‘C’, which is a constant. And it’s that constant that you don’t want to put into your body.

Sorry. That’s just our brand of humor.

(And how cool is it that I got to use the integral symbol on my blog?)

Daddy-daughter time

Middle Daughter and I just got from a walk in Mather Woods. She wanted to go bird watching.

Here’s her list of animals that we saw:

A pretty good trip, I’d say. A fun time was had by all.