365 TV-Free Activities: 100 Days of This!

Here we are at Day 100, and I have for you dueling tales, depicting two brothers' dealings with a mysterious creature. First Henry came to me with his story of the The Chickenfish King:

Last night, Thomas and I were down in Nehalem Falls Creek. It was then that Thomas learned about the mythical Chickenfish. The Chickenfish is a bright white fish that has feathers instead of scales. It swims the way a penguin does; its feathers are good swimming feathers.

Thomas announced that he did not believe in the Chickenfish. All of a sudden, the water rippled and we knew that Thomas had angered the Chickenfish King. I told Thomas that we had to go down to the Chickenfish King's lair, and give offerings so that he would not disrupt our picnic. We ran across the rocks and jumped over logs. We climbed mountains and slid down into ravines, until finally, we reached the pond of the Chickenfish King.

We saw a little plant growing beside the pool. We decided the leaves of this plant would be enough of an offering for the Chickenfish King. We weren't sure if he was happy or not, but we saw in a ripple in the water again and we started to run. It was when were running across the rocks that Thomas slipped. Luckily, he caught himself, but hurt his hand. I carried him back to our picnic and lay him down. I saw another ripple in the water. The Chickenfish King was happy after all.

by Henry Laszlo

I was incredulous, and as I transcribed his words, I thought, Thomas will not like this. I said so, but I was instructed to type and remember my place. Thomas was not to hear about Henry's version of the tale of their quest. I pled with Henry to allow me to record Thomas' version. I was granted my wish and Thomas came to see me. When Henry wasn't looking, I said, "Now's your chance to tell your side of this story, which Henry has done, and he's carrying you at the end." So, Thomas gave his side of the story:

It was a gloomy day in summer. Fall was coming up, and me and Henry were just running around on the rocks. We heard a high pitched squeal and a ripple in the water. Me and Henry said, "It's just a pigletfish." But then, a bigger ripple and Henry said, "Oh no! Chickenfish" And I said, "No way! Run!"

And we came to a small creek with water and huge ripple and the water splashed up at us and the Chickenfish King arrived and we ran for our lives. We thought of an idea and we made an offering to the Chickenfish king, we ran away, I fell and hurt my hand. Henry fell and hit his head on a rock, so I had to drag him all the way back the site.

by Thomas Laszlo

The emergence of The Chickenfish King made me think of one of The Activities, from The Book, so here's idea #101: Fantastical Creatures

Introduce your kids to the mythical creatures in reverse. Instead of showing them a picture of a sphinx or a unicorn and saying "That is a sphinx or unicorn", describe the attributes of a sphinx or unicorn and ask your child to draw what they think that would look like. Unfortunately, Henry and Thomas are well-versed in their mythical creatures and their results are pretty spot-on. I need to check that chimera.

The above picture is Thomas' satyr and centaur, and the chimera (lion head, goat body, snake tail) below is Henry's work.

Afterward, you can look up real pictures of the mythical creatures and everyone can have a laugh, I guess. Just don't be hurtful. I couldn't draw a decent unicorn until I was well into my teens, and I even knew what they were supposed to look like. If you say, "A unicorn is like a horse with a horn sticking out of its head!" and your child draws what looks like a trombone with hooves, you know you're doing something right. My unicorns always resembled long-haired pigs who had recently suffered a head injury, sometimes with wings

The Muddy Kitchen: Fried Fruit Kebabs by Henry

I decided one night to make fried fruit and vegetable kebabs. I got together some apples, kiwis, pears, bananas, mushrooms, and cucumbers. I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but I coated a few apple wedges in butter and put them on the grill. This didn't work as well as I hoped, so we had pasta for dinner that night.

Henry's mom interjects: While Henry's dad made the pasta, I ate the pieces of grilled apple and thought, "Henry is on to something. We need to try again. So I told him not to give up on his dream of fried fruit."
Later that night, my mom came up to me and gave me the idea of deep-fried fruit. We decided to try it on Saturday. I cut up the rest of the fruit and mixed up this batter. I started with a few fruits for a test. It comes in a great variety of kiwi, banana, apple, and pear. When you eat the fried apple, it tastes just like a little apple pie in your mouth. The banana, when deep-fried, has a creamy texture. The pear has a gentle flavor, and the kiwi leaves a tangy taste in your mouth.

I started with the apples.

I stuck one on a skewer and slopped it around in the batter, until it was fully coated. I submerged it in the hot oil and waited for about 4 minutes. After they were done, I rolled them in the cinnamon sugar (plus a pinch of salt). I took a bite, it was delicious! Next I tried the bananas. I used the same method and gave it to my mom. She loved it! Then I went for the pear. It was very good. The kiwi almost got nixed, because I thought it would end up tasting very bad. But my mom said "You don't know how it'll turn out, so you should try." It ended up tasting very good! We did a few more fruits, so we all got to taste some.

After I fried up the rest of the fruit, I put them on these kebabs. After that, I put them on a plate, added some popcorn and we all sat down to watch a movie. We also made plans to build our empire, selling fried fruit.