February 29 - Feats of Strength!

This morning the actual activity didn't happen until late because I was playing superheroes with the kids. They had put on masks and had power bracelets over their arms, and Zephyr was trying to plasma blast me while Lyric (as Stripe Boy) was trying to put me in a set of toy handcuffs. Writing that sentence makes me so happy. I love the idea that I was able to play with my kids. That's what I want this blog to be about, teaching parents how to play with their kids.

Here was the situation: I was a powerful villain (the Juggernaut) and I would chase them, carrying their clothes for the day, threatening to take off their pajamas and dress them for real. And they ran around the house and screamed a lot. Like, a whole lot (Zephyr especially). I left my wrists open for Lyric to cuff me, but he got too scared a bunch of times and ran away. But eventually he got me and cuffed me to a chair. He was pretty proud of himself for doing that. I felt good that I gave him that moment of figuring something out.

In the spirit of radical honesty (ITSORH): I messed up. What I should have done was pivoted the playing to teach Zephyr and Lyric how to play together. Next time I'm going to try and be present enough in those moments to be able to push the situation towards something where they each need to activate some sort of a power with each other... a "nuclear submarine".

But anyway, Feats of Strength! This is where I challenge Zephyr and Lyric to lift something heavy and chant "Feats of Strength! Feats of Strength!" as they do it. Today we were trying: a stack of books!

You had to pick them all up from the bottom, stand up with them, and balance them. Zephyr dropped the books once, but got it the second time.

Lyric (still wearing his Stripe Boy mask) wanted to make it even heavier. I let him think I added some books. Mind you, as he's doing this I'm chanting "Feats of Strength! Feats of Strength!"

What I hope this gives them: a sense of confidence in their own strength,  a situation in which they have to try harder, gross motor control.

February 27 - March Schedule time!

The weekend before the following month is the best time to get out the following month's schedule, so there's no disruption in the activities. Not to say I've always hit that deadline, however. But now, to get just a bit meta for a moment, having a blog is giving me more of an impetus not to blow self-imposed deadlines. So here's next month's schedule:

Some old favorites (like Piano Lessons for Dad and Chess Puzzles) return this month, plus some brand new experimental activities we'll be trying out for the first time, like a Karaoke Dance Party and Easter Egg Design. Stay tuned!

February 26 - Cardboard Toy Shop

Today our morning activity was Cardboard Toy Shop, in which we take a piece of cardboard we were going to throw away and make it into something to play with. I like it because it teaches kids to recycle, gives them an outlet for getting creative, and you get to make a neat toy for (essentially) free. Also, I love working with cardboard and duct tape, whether it be for Halloween costumes or actual promos...  It's sturdy enough to hold together, but disposable enough not to be upset when it doesn't hold together. Ideal for crafting with kids.

So first comes the sourcing. This was easy, as we had just gotten a soap.com order of paper towels and tissues. But I also found a discarded box of coat hangers in the recycling bin for good measure.

And then I brought out the tools we'd be using: duct tape, packing tape, toilet paper rolls, sharpies, and our pair of extra heavy scissors, which cut through cardboard like it was nothing.

Not pictured: the packing tape and the sharpies. Sorry fellas, too early. You da real MVPs.

Then I broke down the boxes with the scissors to get some flat sheets of cardboard to work with. As I was doing so, I talked with the kids about what we could make.

Lyric wanted to make a cave for Robin (we had made a Batcave previously, replete with giant penny and toy dinosaur) and Zephyr wanted to make a Gargantuar robot from Plants Vs. Zombies. In an effort to save floor space, I decided we should go with the robot. Zephyr went to the iPad to find a reference image.

Our reference image. Zephyr is nuts for Plants Vs. Zombies.

I started crafting the torso and legs and cut some strips of cardboard for the kids to make the telephone pole arms. I had the kids put the crossbars on the telephone poles with packing tape.

Then I cut out a thicker strip of cardboard and folded it into five, so I could make a 4 sided square shape (with one side overlapping). This was going to be our head. I planned to get a cheap "plastic bubble toy" to make the Imp cockpit, which could be housed inside the face square. We drew on the eyes and the mouth and Lyric noted that the head was silver, so Zephyr took a silver sharpie and started coloring in the head.

Zephyr is very careful and precise when he colors things in.

To be honest, that's about as far as we got before it was time to go to school. We'll keep working on it over the weekend, I think. But I dig how it's coming out.

"Braaaaaaaaaaaaains! Robo-braaaaaaaaains!"

More as this story develops.

Update, February 27th 8:52p: Well, we worked on it on Saturday and I got a capsule toy for the head bubble, and this was the finished product:

Pretty darn happy with this one.

February 25 - Superhero Adventure

One of the main goals I have with morning activities is teaching my kids how to work together. I try to make fun games based around cooperative play for them: I call these games "nuclear submarine games" based on those movies where people in nuclear submarines need two people to simultaneously turn keys (at locks far away enough from each other so that no one person could turn both keys) to launch their weapons. The idea here is to realize that there are some tasks one can only conquer by working together.

That's the main thrust behind today's morning activity, Superhero Adventure. I get up in there and play superheroes with the kids and subtly (or not so subtly) try to give them challenges they have to overcome by working together.

Often times we play existing heroes from the Justice League (because my boys are kind of snobs about DC over Marvel... just like their old man). But this time I had it be made-up superheroes, to give them a little more imaginative freedom. We went to our costume box for props.

Zephyr was Dr. Ice, with ice making powers. He said he also had icicles in his hair, and that he hadn't combed his hair since Christmas, and he wouldn't tell me which year that Christmas was in.

Lyric was Stripe Boy, with control over stripey rays. It came out during play that he can also make stripe portals to other dimensions.

The helmet almost fit. Almost.

And I was The Colossus, a huge beast on a rampage. With my shield I could block Dr. Ice's Ice attacks, and with my sword I could cut through Stripe Boy's rays. I made sure to telegraph that the power was in the shield and the sword, pushing the kids to realize that if they worked together, Lyric could take out my shield and Zephyr could take out my sword.

The aim was to cause conflict (i.e., ineffective powers) and tie it to a solvable problem. I gave the kids a bit of time to try and come up with the solution on their own, but when they couldn't quite get it, I abandoned subtlety and switched voices to a more narrator type voice breaking down the solution ("But that's when Dr. Ice noticed he could use his ice powers on the sword of the Colossus to help Stripe Boy!") Fortunately, subtlety and superhero comics are frequently not a traditional pair (with many beloved exceptions that prove the rule), so giving clues felt very within the genre.

The kids had a great time with it. Superhero adventure is always one of their favorites. It's also one of the most challenging morning activities I do... playing with kids on their level is VERY HARD as an adult. I didn't think it would be before I had kids, but it's odd how being self-critical can throw everything off when you're trying to play like a kid does. I didn't prep for this superhero adventure like I sometimes do; that does tend to make things easier because you can steer the course of play in a particular direction you're prepared for. But you can be effective playing with your kids and winging it, and they will be glad you did.

Action shot of Dr. Ice and Stripe Boy!

February 24 - Sweet Ninja Moves

Man oh man did the kids wake up silly this morning. When asked to put on his underwear, Lyric put it on no less than three silly ways:

And Zephyr decided he would "prank" me by making today's morning activity, Sweet Ninja Moves, look like it said "Stupid Ninja Moves".

I didn't mention it actually says "Stuped Ninja Moves". Prank: returned.

But despite the modifier, it was time for Sweet Ninja Moves. This was an activity designed by Lyric based on something Robin said during an episode of Teen Titans Go, and holy moley, if you've ever heard a 3 year old say "check out my sweet ninja moves", you know what cute is. Lyric designed it as a way to just jump around and pretend that he was fighting bad guys, but I took it and added some more structure to it.  The idea is I try to teach them some element of martial arts. It should be noted that although I received many years of martial arts training as an elementary school lad, I am in no way a qualified instructor of martial arts. Fortunately, at this point in development for the kids, the instruction can be so basic that I'm pretty sure I'm giving about as accurate martial arts training as the most advanced sensei.

Today's lesson was about punching. I let them stand shoulder width apart, had them point their shoulders forward, and showed them how to do a karate punch: one arm out, elbow straight; one arm back, elbow bent, and then switch arm positions.

The point of this was to give them a bit of physical education, and for them to realize that there's a lot of stuff they can focus on in their body to achieve good technique. I wasn't the most enthusiastic student of karate when my parents forced me to take it as a kid, but I still completely remember the promotion I went for when I was 13 in karate and how focused I was that day, and I don't think I've ever been more focused in my whole life. That alone makes me think there's some value in teaching your kids this stuff.

I also taught them the foundations of the "Kiai", the short scream that you do at the end of a set when doing Karate, which was just a pretty fun thing to teach. And with that, I got out some construction paper so that we could break boards! Zephyr filmed this session with Lyric:

I tried to get Lyric to take a video of Zephyr breaking a board, but he kept on covering the camera with his fingers. We'll get there eventually.

February 23 - Mystery Elves Obstacle Course

Today I made the questionable decision of letting the boys take out their Legos before heading off for school. By the time I got dressed, here's what their room looked like:

Ugh. The "before" picture.

A pretty big mess, and one that if I didn't handle right away, would see lego pieces spread far and wide across their room. Fortunately, today's activity was Mystery Elves Obstacle Course, in which the kids pick up stuff while running a simple obstacle course (picking up things becomes just another obstacle, like jumping over or crawling under something).

Mystery Elves was the very first morning activity we ever did, way back in September of 2014. The house was a mess with toys and clothes everywhere, and in a moment of desperation wondering how to get the kids to help me clean it up, I got the idea to phrase the ask in the form of a game we could play together. I made the kids wear pointy elf hats, talked in an elf voice, and gave them orders on how we could clean up the house while Mommy was still getting ready for work. The idea was to surprise Mommy as she was about to leave for work, and when she asked who cleaned the house, say that elves did it. The kids loved it. They actually wanted to play again the next day, and that's when I got the idea to do more varied morning activities.

However, Mystery Elves is not one of the most popular activities these days. The kids have somewhat caught on to the fact I'm making them work. I've tied running the Treasure Hunt (their favorite activity) to being contingent on doing Mystery Elves at some point in the month before, but that doesn't make ordering your kids to clean up any less of a drag. So last month I tried linking it with running an obstacle course, and the kids seemed to dig it a bit more.

So that's what we were going to try this morning. First I picked up as many Legos as I could in the blanket for Lego playing I laid out and put the filled blanket into the Lego bin like so:

Major credit to my wife Chay here for the "Lego blanket" technique.

Then I moved the Lego bin to by the door and called the kids over to start the obstacle course. The obstacle course usually involves running around one thing, over another thing, and under yet another thing. This morning I had them go into Lyric's bed, around the bunk bed ladder, and over the green elephant step.

But then they have to go and pick up an item left on the floor and bring it back as quick as they could to the bin. As they run the obstacle course more and more times, I give them more and more things to carry, and pretty soon we usually run out of things littering the floor. Two birds, one stone.

However, it's usually bigger things on the floor... clothes, figures, stuffed animals, etc. We hadn't tried this with Legos before. It did not work smoothly.

They're counting out 10 Legos each here. That turns out to not be a lot of Legos.

The kids got more obsessed with getting the right number of Legos than cleaning up the floor. Now, I can see the value in reinforcing counting skills for Lyric, but that wouldn't solve the more immediate problem of a messy floor. So we needed a change in protocol.

I switched up the rules of the obstacle course so that after running through the active part, the kids would get on their knees, push the Legos with their hands like bulldozers, and try to sweep the floor clean that way. It was a little more successful.

The good news is that they started working together, with one kid being the bulldozer and pushing Lego pieces to the bin, and the other kid being a crane and lifting the pieces off the floor into the bin (and then they switched jobs). Teaching the kids how to work together is a HUGE reason I do these morning activities with them, so that did my heart good. But they weren't the most efficient bulldozers, and there were loads of pieces they left behind. As they went off to brush their teeth with Mommy I finished up the job.

The "After" picture.

I wish I could tell you I got to this point having my kids do all the cleaning, but in the spirit of radical honesty which I want to do this blog by, I cannot. But I did get to teach my kids a few little lessons, have a bit of fun with them, and get them to help clean their room. Good enough, I say.

February 22 - Poetry For Prizes!

Now this I've been looking forward to / Collecting props that are a bit overdue

-MC Paul Barman (@mcpb)

Today was Poetry for Prizes, our first one since the triumphant performance at the talent show. I've had the kids working on learning how to recite "La Di Da Di" by Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh for the past year, giving them prizes (usually Justice League Unlimited action figures I get off eBay for about $5/figure) every time they were able to memorize a section. It was a process, but the positive motivation of being able to get a toy made them really want to learn, and with practice and repetition they were able to get their parts down. 

This is helping them develop in SO many ways. First of all, it's challenging. The most important lesson I want to teach my kids, the thing we tell them everyday before we drop them off for school, is "If things are hard, what are you going to do? Try harder." There are lots of times when they mess something up and I correct them that they think it's too hard and want to give up. You definitely have to work with them through that. But if they learn that by trying they can improve themselves, that's an invaluable lesson to provide your kids. 

Memorization also expands their vocabularies and gives them the freedom to learn how to express themselves, and from there they can really have fun (which I think you'll see on Lyric's face in today's clip). Okay, party people in the house, here's Slick Lyric and his partner, the grand wizard, MC Zeph E. Fresh. Hit it:

Immediately after stopping, I said "It's 'slammed the child on the hard concrete', but really great otherwise!" But I was so proud of them inside.

Two things to check out: Look at Lyric's fresh delivery, really emoting there at the end. And check how Zephyr is bobbing to the beat... that's some real progress being made, he's starting to feel the rhythm. This is why I'm doing all of this, and where being a dad becomes really fun. Also as a note of explanation: Zephyr is wearing his paint splatter T-shirt because he has art on Mondays, and Lyric is wearing his clothes backwards because he is an extremely silly little boy.

Here's the lyrics I wrote out this morning to help Zephyr learn his lines. I had to modify a few words to make it right, but I figured if Snoop can do it, there's legal precedent. Zephyr was still working on it as we went to school, but he got a fresh new red ukulele (that I picked up at the recent Toy Fair for cheap, but you don't need to know that) for the hard work he put in. Lyric will definitely get a prize too once he gets his new song down.

Next stanza coming soon... the end goal here is to create a video of them doing the whole thing. Stay tuned. Doug E. Fresh, please say you'll work for spec.

February 19 - Filmmaking, Day five

Today was the last day of filmmaking on our Pickle and Peanut project... when last we left, Lazer was humiliating Pickle by standing on his shoulders. I didn't really know where the story was going, but Zephyr had a "eureka moment" when he mistakenly tipped over the Lego figures and they broke apart and Lazer's legs stayed on Pickle's shoulders. Zephyr thought it looked like Pickle was wearing the large "Turkey wrap" headphones rapper D-Stixx was hawking in another episode of Pickle and Peanut ("Gobble gobble! Buy my headphones"). It seemed like we'd found an ending.

Translations below embedded vines for those who can't understand.

PART EIGHT: LAZER: Kneel before me, subjects! / PEANUT: I can't let Pickle be tortured! / DISEMBODIED VOICE: Head butt head butt head butt...

PART NINE: LAZER: Ahhh, my legs! / PICKLE: Check out my sweet new headphones! / PEANUT: Ohhhh, so jealous!

PART TEN: PICKLE AND PEANUT: Bo bo bo bo bo bo! / MCSWEATS: What are you waiting for? It's the end, baller!

For that end "bo bo bo bo bo", Zephyr filmed it while Lyric and I tried manipulating the arms. It sort of worked. Kind of. But I was glad to have Zephyr take a turn behind the camera!

And that brings us to the end of Pickle and Peanut week for filmmaking. I wanted to give a special shout out to Joel Trussell and Noah Z. Jones... thanks for your incredible cartoon, for teaching the world about booty germs and cookie altruism, and for the encouraging tweets. Bo bo bo bo bo bo!

February 18 - Filmmaking, Day four

Today Lyric was in a mood. Vacations throw the kids off their schedule, and that can lead to them not sleeping right which can lead to crankiness which can lead to tantrums. And tantrums stink.

But that's what Lyric was giving me this morning. It started off with a tantrum about not wearing a superhero shirt... As I've mentioned, Lyric is obsessed with superheroes and all he wants to wear are superhero clothes. He sometimes even sleeps with a mask and cape on. To try and curb tantruming, we made a rule that superhero clothes can only be worn if wearer hasn't had a tantrum in a whole day, but now we were in a position where he was throwing a tantrum to wear said superhero clothes. It wasn't a particularly well thought out plan. 

Days like this happen. I have found that sometimes the best way to deal with it is to let them have their tantrum in their room and go on with morning activity without them until they are ready to join the fun. While Lyric fussed, I made some eyes and mouths for our Pickle and Peanut Lego figures. 

From L to R: Pickle, Peanut, Lazer, McSweats

And then we started knocking out some more Vines. Lyric rejoined us pretty close to shooting our first one, and when I asked him if he would help us, he was happy to do so. 

So now I present to you, Zephyr and Lyric present Pickle and Peanut, act II.

PART FOUR: PEANUT: Hey maybe if we ask Lazer he'll let us come to his party! / PICKLE AND PEANUT: Hey Lazer, can we come to your party? LAZER: No, dum dums!

PART FIVE: LAZER: Wait a second! / LAZER: I'll let you into the party... only if Pickle gives me a shoulder ride!

PART SIX: PEANUT: Pickle, you gotta do it! PICKLE: I don't know... / LAZER: Come on, Pickle, do it! / PICKLE: Okay!

PART SEVEN: LAZER: Ha ha ha, look at me, I'm so tall! / PICKLE: Oh, you're so heavy... / DISEMBODIED VOICE: Humiliation... humiliation...

The finale comes tomorrow!

February 17 - Filmmaking, day three (pre-empted)

Today was supposed to be the third day of film making, but we had to pre-empt the filming so that the kids could product test a new jigsaw puzzle my wife Chay is thinking of bringing into the MoMA store. It was a 100 piece puzzle with a map of New York City on it... Could the kids do it all on their own?

The answer was yes! They even worked together pretty well to do it, give or take a few little freak outs here and there about who got to put in a piece. But they were able to put together what was on a piece and what it went with fairly accurately. I tried to give them some problem solving strategies throughout: separate edge pieces, turn everything right side up, look at the picture on the back of the box to see where pieces would go, etc.

The nice thing about a jigsaw puzzle is that the more pieces you get in, the easier it gets (because there's less pieces to choose from). So it kind of pulls you in and makes finishing a lot quicker than starting. There was definitely a few points where the kids complained it was too hard, but I told them that's when they have to try harder.

And soon after they were done! I took a victory photo with them laying on the floor.

Look at them goofytoofs.

Filmmaking continues tomorrow!

February 16 - Filmmaking, day two

Some more Pickle and Peanut films this morning... in today's installment, the boys are set for a rollicking evening of Congruous Five when their friend McSweats tells them about a party Lazer is having that they weren't invited to. I play Peanut, Lyric plays Pickle, and Zephyr plays McSweats. I'll provide translation for those that don't speak kid (Zephyr just lost his two front teeth, so he's especially funny sounding at the moment).

PART ONE: TITLE CARD: Pickle and Peanut / PICKLE: Hey Peanut! PEANUT: Hey Pickle, ready to play some Congruous Five? Oh, it's so fun! / MCSWEATS: What up, Ballers?

PART TWO: PICKLE: Hey McSweats! MCSWEATS: 'Sup fools. You going to Lazer's party? / PEANUT: Lazer's having a party?

PART THREE: PEANUT: Oh man, why didn't we get invited to Lazer's party? Quick, Friendship tunnel! / PEANUT: Aw man, Pickle, we gotta get to that party! / PICKLE: But Lazer's such a butt!

More to come later this week! Stay tuned!

February 15 - Filmmaking, day one

It's winter break for the kids this week, so no school. This means the "no TV in the morning before school" rule is suspended, which normally means morning activity is suspended as well, but this year I wanted to try doing morning activity through the break (mainly for this blog, to be honest). What's more, I wanted to make this week's morning activity a week-long intensive activity of Filmmaking. 

For Filmmaking, I make vines with the boys. I love Vine because at 6 seconds long it forces them to edit themselves: if left alone to make movies, Zephyr will make unwatchable 8 minute long catalogs of his toys with lots of dead space in between. But vines are quick and have edits in them, and need to be planned out a bit beforehand. 

Our vines tend to be about their toys having adventures. Some make more sense than others, many involve crossovers between shows that are wild violations of copyright laws, and most are multi-part stories that we never seem to finish. But I'm really proud of some of them, such as these ones from previous days:

But this week I wanted to do some vines based on one of our favorite new shows, Pickle and Peanut. Pickle and Peanut toys don't exist, so we used Legos to make 8-bit representations of the characters:

From L to R: Peanut, Pickle, Lazer, McSweats

And this morning we made our first vine, a recreation of a section of the (incredible) opening sequence. 

Pickle and Peanut executive producer Joel Trussell saw it, retweeted it, and called it amazing! More coming this week!

Thanks, Joel! Your show RULES SO HARD

February 12 - Valentine's Day Crafting

Valentine's day is THIS WEEKEND, and I still hadn't made my valentine for my wife. Luckily, I reserved today to do a Valentine's day craft with the kids, although I still hadn't fully decided on what to do by the time I fell asleep last night. Some improvisation would be in order.

I woke up kind of early this morning and cut out around 50 small hearts out of white paper. I was thinking of making them into swan feathers somehow (swans are an emblematic animal for love in our family), although I wasn't sure how when I started. By the time the kids got up, I had cut out all the hearts and was outlining them with a sharpie. As I got breakfast for the kids, we ran out of Orange Juice, and then it struck me that the juice container, if collapsed properly, could make an excellent swan body. The game was afoot.

After tracking down a used toilet paper roll and paper towel roll, some white duct tape, and a little glue, we had all the basic components we would need.

Our elf Lyric examines our base materials.

With a few cuts in the paper towel roll, we were able to create a neck, although after consulting a picture I realized it was bending in more of an ostrich style.

A few more cuts on the paper towel tube and some more duct tape got the neck looking better.

Then I started applying the heart feathers with the kids. I'd put on the glue and have them place the feathers after showing them how to do it. Lyric was the one who came up with the idea of making the tail feathers.

I should note here that the kids were not present for the whole creation of the swan... they went in and out of their room, playing with toys, as I worked on it. That's how it goes with projects like these, but I think that's fine. The important thing (at least in my mind) is modelling creativity for them. They might not be able to focus all the way through it yet, but if they can see you focusing, it gives them an idea of how things get done.

When I got home today, I added some orange tape on the beak and decorated the head with a sharpie. This is what I've got so far:

I might fancy it up a bit more in the coming days, but it's pretty sweet! And as Zephyr said "We made a swan for Valentine's Day out of things we were going to throw away!" A poet, I tells you.

February 11 - Subway Treasure Hunt!

Oh boy. Today was the Subway Treasure hunt and it was a doozy. Zephyr and Lyric were too excited to get dressed before starting, so I let them do it in their pajamas.

The first thing was finding the initial note on the table laying out the rules. Note that I printed out the notes using Helvetica, in deference to Massimo Vignelli who chose the font for the whole system:

Zephyr got that the rhyme was "ukulele" pretty quickly... their nanny Lilly plays ukulele in a band called the Stops. So he ran to the bedroom where the ukulele was hanging and looked behind it to reveal... the first clue and a subway map!

Zephyr ran to the living room to start working on the clue, and Lyric kind of fell behind to watch a little (he tends to wait until the end of the hunt to get really involved). Zephyr unfolded the subway map on the floor to see the whole city at once. We looked it over together, noting where Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island were.

If you want to play along, here's what clue number one said.

This was admittedly a pretty tough one for Zephyr. But we looked over the map together, and Zephyr noted that the beginning of train lines were marked with a square around the number rather than a circle. So if he could find a line where both squares were outside Manhattan, then that train didn't go into Manhattan. But then I showed him how the R train starts in Queens, goes through Manhattan, and then goes to Brooklyn to end. But while looking that over, we noted that each train has its own color, so if he could find a color NOT in Manhattan, that should be the line that doesn't go into the borough. Bingo. The light green line didn't go into Manhattan, so first letter was G!

One of the best part about having kids is watching their minds work. By doing this, I got to see Zephyr not just see the map as little bits, but take in the gestalt of the thing and see it as a larger unit. It was fascinating. Zephyr wrote down the letter in red pen and figured out pretty quickly that the next clue was under the glider cushion, just a few feet away.

Again, if you're playing along at home, clue number two.

Zephyr was off to the races with this one. He immediately found that there were two subway lines named after vowels, and found the airports on the map. He saw the A went to one and after confirming the E did not, figured out the next letter in the password. He also got the answer about the Lego head pretty quickly, although when he went to check it took him a few seconds to realize it was in the top part of the head rather than the bottom. It was just sneaky enough to give him a good head scratching but quickly get it... that's right on target for what we're trying to get across.

Once again, for all those playing at home. I kind of petered out with the poetry at the end here, but I figured it was okay.

Zephyr found the final letter by tracing over the orange line trains and finding out which one went over the Williamsburg Bridge. I wasn't sure if he was going to look for the bridges first or the lines, but whatever he did worked, because he found the third letter on his own, while I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day. He got Lyric, ran up to me, and said "the password is GEM!" So I gave them the final riddle, which was:

"I stand by the door but never leave, I have many coats but no body, and I hold many hangers although I'm smaller than an airplane. What am I?"

The "hangers" part worked better spoken than written. Zephyr got it was a closet right away, but didn't quite get it was the coat closet until after looking through his own closet. But then both Zephyr and Lyric descended on the coat closet. In a nice twist, Zephyr looked and looked for the treasure, but it was Lyric who eventually found it. He was really happy that he could help.

And then all that was left to do was open up the treasure chest and collect their booty! Another Treasure Hunt in the books!