sugar and spice

The baking and frosting of the elder lad's birthday confections were collaborative efforts (though the consumption was every lad for himself).  As fun as that was for both of us, the birthday lad and I, if we had had some helpers like the ones in Who Made This Cake, that would've been infinitely more exciting.

In this charming story written by Chihiro Nakagawa and illustrated by Junji Koyose, tiny construction workers bring in big construction equipment and even a helicopter to bake a birthday cake (in the microwave, oddly), frost it with whipped cream, and festoon it with birthday felicitations.  Does it get much better for a lad who likes to have "cooking camp" in the kitchen with his mama and still has an insatiable interest in trucks and construction vehicles?  The elder lad thinks not.

I've reviewed some of our favorite baking-related and construction-related books before (with a follow-up to the cookie post here), but never one that combined both fascinations.  That virtually guarantees its place among the perennial favorites and a must-read for every birthday celebration.

simile

Demonstrating an early understanding of the literary device known as "simile", the younger lad had this to say of me shoveling in some salad at lunch: "You're like a front end loader."

Is this a compliment?  Coming from him, probably so. 
(but at least I got to finish my lunch!)

hard hat area: construction-themed picture books

We've been experimenting with different driving routes to school in the hopes of striking a balance between most direct and quickest, which are not necessarily the same, depending on the time of day (rush hour, when my beloved is taking the lad to school, and mid-afternoon when the younger lad, lasses, and I are going to pick him up). 

One route is lined with orange construction barrels almost the entire way, with lanes narrowed and lowered speed limits.  This sounds like a nightmare to me in morning rush hour traffic, but to our five-year-old kindergartner, it's a dream come true.  The mid-afternoon drive through this little boy wonderland isn't quite as bad for the chauffeur, especially when punctuated by such wide-eyed, delightful exclamations as "that's my excavator!" and "that crane is lifting a pick-up truck!"

In honor of the construction that surrounds us and my lads who love it, here are some of the construction-themed picture books that we've dug (in no particular order):

• Roadwork by Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock 
• The Construction Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta, illustrated by Rob Bolster 
• The Lot at the End of My Block by Kevin Lewis, illustrated by Reg Cartwright 
• Building with Dad by Carol Nevius, illustrated by Bill Thomson 
• Dig by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal 
• Who Made This Cake? by Chihiro Nakagawa, illustrated by Junji Koyose 
• C is for Construction: Big Trucks and Diggers from A to Z by Caterpillar 
• Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by James E. Ransome

construction zone

Wooden blocks are out.  "Let's build something," I say.

Elder lad: "You're the mom.  You get to decide."
me (wishing to record those words for posterity and precedent):  "How about a house to fit my family?  Soon my husband and I will have four children."

him: "so you'll need four, five downstairs and one upstairs."
me:  "bedrooms?"
him: "yes."
me: "yes -- a guest room would be nice.  We might not need quite that many bedrooms, though.  We can share."

me to younger lad: "what do you want to do for the house?"
him: "bake muffins."

That's an idea I can get behind, but he soon abandons the oven he's constructing in favor of building a bank with a drive-through lane, then later swiping all the cars and tucking them into the box the blocks came in and covering them with pillows.

Check this out:

Notice the sweet vintage Chevelle station wagon.  That's a gift from my dad, as is the flame-bedecked Nomad.  Those are the family vehicles.  The brother pick up trucks parked one in front of the other are for the lads.   The Citroen, Alfa Romeo, and Charger (below) are Date Night cars.

The back view shows the elder lad's fleet of service vehicles: firetruck, the fire "jeef"'s SUV, his Mack truck ready for dispatch to the grocery store, and the dump truck for trips to Sam's.