Harris Happenings

February 1999

Happy Valentine's Day: We hope all those reading this had a happy, love-filled Valentine's Day, whether it was from a lover, a friend, or just someone who touched your heart. At our house, David and Jenny celebrated their 16th Valentine's Day as a couple (13th as an old married couple) by going out for a nice dinner and then relaxing at the bookstore for a little while. OK, so maybe the bookstore wasn't the most romantic place to go, but it was nice to get out. A friend of ours was kind enough to offer her babysitting services for the evening, and so we had a very nice time.; The kids each had Valentine's Day parties at their respective schools on Friday afternoon. They came home with "mailboxes" filled with notees and candies from their friends. They both reported that they'd had a good time, but no one was in love. So much for Cupid!

Post Office Field Trip: Kim took a field trip to the local Post Office. She got to see the area where the letters are sorted by big machines and put into separate bins according to destination, and learned that the machines put little barcodes on each letter to help sort. She received a coloring book which had lots of fun information and facts in it. The high-light was when she paid her 33 cents to buy a "Love" stamp, and then put the stamp on a valentine she had made for Jenny and David. She got to mail her valentine, and the next day it arrived in our mailbox at home. Cool!

Mike's 2nd Quarter Report Card: Mike received his second report card of 2nd grade. It was great news! He is above grade level in all of his subjects, and is doing outstanding work in all areas. The only thing which needs a little work is the behavior category of "Self Control". Mainly the problem is remembering to work quietly without disturbing others. On his own accord, Mike requested that his teacher move him to a different area of the classroom so that he wouldn't be tempted to goof around with his best pals which he used to sit near. Congratulations to Mike on his very grown-up decision! After a couple weeks of exemplary self control, Mike received a "Mickey Call". That's when you get to go to the office, use the Mickey Mouse telephone to call your mom or dad to tell them that you have done a great job. It's a pretty big deal, and we're very proud of Mike! Way to go!


Field Trip: On President's Day, all of us had a day off from work or school, so we used that opportunity to go to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for the morning. We saw lots of stingrays, sharks, and hundreds of varieties of aquatic fish and plants. The special exhibit was on venemous animals. The dolphin show was pretty neat - there were four dolphins doing synchronized jumps at one point. The rain forest exhibit at the top of the aquarium was really hot and humid, but we enjoyed it a lot. We even saw some Baltimore Orioles! No, not Cal Ripken, the aviary kind of Orioles! After we finished visiting the aquarium, we went over to the Inner Harbor for lunch, then headed back home for a well-deserved afternoon rest.
Sleep-over: On the Friday night before Valentine's Day, Mike hosted his first-ever sleep-over for his friends. He invited Tyler, Travis and David, his three best buddies from school. The kids arrived Friday night after dinner, and imediately started playing PlayStation. They played all night long! Finally at 10:30pm, Jenny made them choose between bedtime or a quiet movie. They chose the movie. It was Angels in the Endzone. They all enjoyed it, and by the time it was over, they were all really, really sleepy. They dragged themselves up the stairs to bed right at midnight. They fell asleep pretty much immediatley after crawling into their sleeping bags, but were up bright and early at 8:00am. They all played more PlayStation, had a big pancake breakfast, and after a little while went home. Everyone seemed to have a good time, but everyone was really tired (and grumpy!) that day. Mike didn't really recover until Monday. But, he's a great kid, and will soon be looking forward to another chance to entertain his buddies.

Spring Fever: Jenny has been bitten by the Spring Fever bug. She's started in earnest on the arm-chair gardening. She and Kim already went to the garden center to pick out seeds for flowers and vegetables they plan to grow this year. Jenny's planning to expand the back-yard flower beds to make them a real wooded garden. It's finally time to give up on grass under the big, dense maple tree which provides so much cool shade, but blocks out all sun. The plan is to make the back left corner of the yard a much larger planting area, with lots of ferns, hostas, and maybe an azalea or two. We'll experiment with shade-loving annuals too, hence the seeds we bought. As the spring and summer roll along, we'll provide updates on how the garden is coming. Maybe even a picture or two.

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