Downward Facing Pig?

Not much is cuter than a little piggy doing downward facing dog. Every time I see that tail, I giggle...

Animal Crossing Birthday

My youngest child turned 15 this spring and asked for an Animal Crossing themed birthday party. For those of you without kids, Animal Crossing is a video game. Players take on the role of a human who lives on an island inhabited by different anthropomorphic animals. Players create and build a village, interact with villagers, collect fossils, fish, and generally live out their happy lives in the village. Interestingly, Animal Crossing simulates the passage of time and players move through the different seasons in real time, or so my kids tell me.

For me the best part of this birthday was copying the cake from the game. (If you play AC on your birthday, the villagers throw a party for you - complete with a cake.) The only issue was - my kiddo is not a strawberry fan, so using real fruit on the top was not going to make them happy. Once again, my 3D printer came to the rescue.

I found a strawberry on Thingiverse, edited it in Tinkercad (changing it from solid shape into a cavity within a solid shape which I then cut in half) and printed out a strawberry mold. From there I just dyed some marzipan red and and made my own non-fruit strawberries. It sounds like a whole lot more work than it actually was.

At first glance, they look amazingly real. In the end all that mattered was the newly-turned 15 year-old was happy with it. Sadly, Grandma and Grandpa didn't get to have any because Grandma tested positive for Covid a few days before and had to quarantine! Thankfully, she'd been vaccinated and her only symptom was a runny nose.

Happy birthday K.

I hope you know how much we love you

and how proud we are of you.

Funny of the Day

I was out walking with my students a week or so ago for ACES (All Children Exercise Simultaneously) when I noticed these hitching posts on the West Bluff. I laughed out loud. I hope their neighbors appreciate their sense of humor.

Spring has Sprung

As you know, I'm a sucker for flowers. So when I noticed these beauties all lit up by the evening sun, I just couldn't resist. 

I'm not sure what these are, but they looked beautiful at the side of the road.

Truth in Advertising

Homemade bread in less than one hour? Let's look at the directions:

 

Hmmmmm. Let rise for two hours, rest for 40 minutes and then bake for abut 25 minutes - that adds up to three hours and five minutes. Shame on you Krusteaz, shame on you. I know what you're thinking -they were talking about the baking time, but that's not what 75% of the people picking up the box will think. It's a good thing I have all day...

Tasty

Darn it! I've been dreaming of a heaping spoonful of flour all day. I mean, really? I did some digging, and apparently, contaminated flour is a thing.

In 2015 General Mills recalled 45 million tons of flour sold under Gold Medal, Wondra, and Signature Kitchens brands because 46 people got sick from eating it raw - 13 of those people got so sick they had to be hospitalized. And in July of 2019, 21 people from nine states got sick from eating E. coli contaminated flour. Kind of makes me rethink my raw cookie dough addiction.

Source

Yoga at School

The teachers at the Mackinac Island Public School are incredibly lucky. Not only do we live and work in an amazing community, and have fabulous students, but we also have incredible support. The Mackinac Island Community Foundation is one of the organizations that provides that support.

This fall I made a grant request to MICF to start a yoga program with the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students at the school. In December we were  given the funds to purchase a mat, blocks, a strap, a blanket and a carrying case for each student. Since the start of the second semester, the students, the 3rd-4th grade teacher and I have practiced yoga two to three times each week. We're hopeful that by starting this program with elementary students we can help them gain some of the benefits of yoga, especially an increase in their abilities to manage stress as they get older and move up to high school. One third grader told me last week, "I always feel good after yoga." Comments like that make it all worth while...