:)

Merry Christmas

From Us to You

I Fixed The Train

I fixed the train under the tree.  No more Thomas the Train music and it works like new.  In fact, I would say that it works TWO TIMES better then new.  All I needed was a little help from Arthur and Ben.

Arthur is the red one.

One again Amazon and Thomas the Train accessories have come together to save me dollars.  If you haven't figured it out yet, I bought two new trains.  They were $6 each with free shipping through Amazon Prime.  Can't beat a deal like that.

Ben is the yellow one.

Each engine came with a car.  We like to put bells and mini-ornaments in them.  The great thing about these trains is that I flip the switch on top and they go without a remote control that plays music and other noises.  They do "chug chug" along.  If we want quiet play, they are designed to be played with without turning them on.  Maybe that way there is less of a chance of them breaking later on.

There was one more change to the train track.  I moved it from around the tree to in front of the tree.  The kids kept crawling behind the tree to play and I was freaked out by that.  Not because I thought the tree might fall over. there is a daddy long legs back there.  Every time I return with the vacuum to suck it up, he has hidden somewhere.  He is also the biggest long legs that I have ever seen.  Now I haven't seen him for a couple of days.  I hope none of us have an extra surprise in our presents.

Gingerbread House

Every year Grandma gives us chocolate advent calendars and a gingerbread house to put together.  It's normally the house you see at Michaels or the grocery store.  I think Costco even has it.  

This year Grandma went to Trader Joe's.  Chocolate advent calendars are basically the same where ever you go and loved by all children.  Chocolate every day until Christmas!  

But oh, the gingerbread house is way cute.

It's base on a German A-frame house.  In my opinion, the Germans really know how to do Christmas.  I don't know if that is because the first Christmas that I can remember I was living in Germany at the time or because the Germans are really that good.

Everything you see here came in the kit.  I only had to add an egg and some vinegar to mix up the "sticky" frosting.  I thought it was interesting that it called for vinegar to make the powered sugar and egg mixture sticky.  I had never done that before, but it was the best gingerbread house glue I had ever used.

Here is BG's side.  She took her time, picked out her colors, and made it pretty.

Here is LG's side.  She went crazy and couldn't put the candies on fast enough. 

This was the most fun gingerbread house that we had ever put together.  I think it was the kids, not the house that did it.  BG did most of the gluing and building.  I did the fancy frosting work that you see in the front and the tree.  BG is starting to get her crafter's hand and I think next year I will be strictly supervising the two girls putting together their own house.

After the house was all put together, I set it up on the entry table by our front door.  I thought that this would be the best place because it's the least accessible to LG, even though the house is on a low sitting table.  You see, we have a baby-proofing gate that blocks not only the staircase, but the downstairs bath and the front door.  Normally every time the gate is left open, LG charges for the staircase or the front door if it is also open.  Lately, she charges for the gingerbread house.

There are no more gummy candies left on the house.

Christmas Cards

Our little fireplace has had some upgrades since the last time I posted a picture of it. 

Garland- I couldn't help myself.  There's glitter in it.  Enough said.  I also picked up a matching wreath for the front door. 

The Picnic Table- You can just see it in the bottom left corner.  I brought it inside to be the "kids table" at Thanksgiving.  LG loves having this table in the house.  The rocking horse has just been moved to by the breakfast bar.

For a few months now, LG has not wanted to sit in her highchair.  I bought the one I bought because it's highchair that can be scooted up to the table with out the tray and then we wouldn't need to buy a booster seat.  I try to seat her that way and eat with her, but that is working less and less.  We get nervous about her sitting in a chair or on the bench.

Now she eats every meal at the picnic table.  Unless I'm at the big table and then she'll want to sit with me.  My solution to that is eating at the picnic table with her.  I'm really glad I put a sturdier seat on the table, but it is just too small for an adult to sit and eat.  We are going to have to come up with something else soon.LG just really wants to be where the family is. 


Finally,

Our Christmas Cards- A friend of mine has this great Fiskevik from Ikea in her house.  She displays her childrens' artwork on it.  I so want one.  I thought it would be perfect for putting the holiday cards up over our empty mantel.  My trip to Ikea got canceled when the family trip to the zoo was canceled.  Since they are both near each other in San Diego. 

Then I thought up this idea and it only cost $0.  I cut strips of ribbon and hung them to the wall with thumb tacks.  I wasn't going for pretty.  Then I hot glued the cards to them. 

I normally have more cards by this time of year?  So if you haven't sent my your card yet, please do.  I have a cool way of displaying it.

-Yes, the stockings are off centered.  Writing this I noticed that the tree has been pushed away from them.  Normally it's in front of the fireplace filling up all that empty space.

Owl Cowl

I finished the Owl Cowl that I swatched in October, but still need to write up the pattern.  I couldn't wait that long to share the pictures.  

I wasn't sure if I should add buttons for the eyes.  What do you think?

While browsing Ravelry I have seen some knitters add button to just one owl on the sweaters.  I guess if I find some buttons that go perfectly with the yarn I'll add them to one of the owls.  Then the cowl would have a defined front, but it may make it more obvious that it's an owl.

It's nice and cozy; knit in Malabrigo Worsted.  It is a good yarn to keep the cowl from collapsing on itself.  I did notice that it scrunches up in the center where the cables are.  Then lays flat again along the border pattern.  The better to keep you warm I guess.

This blue cowl is a gift that has already been wrapped and delivered, but is local in case I find buttons.  I want to knit another for me in a funner color.  I'm thinking Green Apple.

Thomas the Train

About four years ago DH picked up a Thomas the Train set on the last minute, deeply discounted, just barely enough time before Xmas sale on Amazon.  We pull it out each year to play with it and the rest of the time it sits in it's box waiting for next year. 

Last year we put it under the tree.  Thomas had been played with enough that he wasn't working so well.  We taped a bunch of silver dollars to weigh the engine down in hopes that it would get better traction on the track.  That kinda worked, but not really.

This year we learned that toys don't fix themselves while packed up and sitting in the garage.

BG suggested a complete clean out because she could see stuff wrapped around the axles inside the engine.  I've done that a million times with the vacuum cleaner so I figured it was a really good idea.  Then I took Thomas the Train completely apart. 

There was a little bit of stuff stuck in there.  There was also a moment when I wasn't sure if all the King's Horse and all the King's Men would be able to put Thomas together again. 

After being put back together, Thomas worked great for about fifteen minutes and went back to getting stuck in various spots around the tree.  Normally in the back. 

We will still pull him out every year.  It really is more for show than a toy.  Especially when it plays the Thomas the Train Theme song the entire time it is running.  One can only take so much of that.

The Big Tree

Now that all the rest of you are putting up your Christmas decorations, here is our big tree.  It looks just like it did last year.  You know why?  Because I bought a fake tree.

I don't have anything against going with the real stuff.  Except I don't like dropping that amount of money on something I'm going to throw away two weeks later, and I have to put all the lights on and off, and flocking costs extra, and I have to remember to water it.

I don't have anything against real trees, but my sinuses have a serious issue with them.   At least that is what my allergist told me.

I really love my tree and all it's glittery everything.  There is glitter on the tree, ornaments, floor.  This year I didn't put up any of the glass ornaments.  Even with the child gate up I didn't want to risk one breaking and feet getting cut.  It gave me an excuse to buy more of the 4/$1 glittery snowflakes at Target. 

I found a great wreath for our front door that matches.  It's also fake, so I can reuse it until the color fades.

Sometimes I feel bad for DH having to live in a house fill with all our girlyness.  But then I look at all the glitter and completely forget about him.

PineCone Placemarkers

Everyone had a great time at our Thanksgiving.  We did dinner pot-planned (it's like potluck but you tell people what to bring) so it wasn't too much work for me.  DH cooked the turkey.  All I had to do was pre-clean the house, make stuffing and eat pie. Since I used paper plates, clean up was a breeze.

Part of the fun this Thanksgiving was making the placemarkers for our dinner table.

I don't remember where I got this idea, but it was really fun and simple.  I cut 1x2 inch squares of card stock paper and wrote everyone's name nicely on them.  Then BG finished it up with hot glue, toothpicks and a cinnamon scented pinecone.  I think you can figure out exactly how they went together. 

This is a cute and pleasant smelling craft for any kid to put together. 

...I wonder if this can pass for a Christmas decoration, too?  I'm just joking.

Our Table

I thought that because it is Thanksgiving week I would wait to show you our big Christmas Tree.  Because you know, it's Thanksgiving.  And Thanksgiving is about eating.  You can't eat without a table, well you could.  We did for 6 years in LA.  But it's so neat to have a real table that everyone can sit at for the holidays this year. 

Here's our table.  Seating for 7 adults and LG .  BG and her two cousins were at the picnic table that I brought inside. 

Yeah, I know.  That is Santa Claus in the middle of my table.

I have a confession to make, I don't have any Thanksgiving decorations.  Maybe that is why I put up the Christmas stuff so early.  Because I'm loving the season and all I've got is Christmas stuff?

I'm lucky I even have the Christmas stuff.  When we were in LA we had one of those table top sized trees that we used on a side table 'cause our coffee table was for dining.  I didn't decorate anything else.  (BG asked me where we hung our stockings in LA and I told her we didn't.)  Now that we have space, I really enjoy filling it.

I've received a few items as gifts over the years, most of which I didn't care for.  I picked up some ornaments that I loved which had been discounted the day after Christmas a few years ago.  Last year was the first year I got to buy my very own big tree and I had a ton of fun decorating it.  I picked up a few other things, like stocking holders for the fireplace.  This year there has been a bit more shopping.  I figure I should at least get a good sized Christmas arsenal before I start buying for any other holidays.

Back to the table.  I really wanted these turkeys from Pottery Barn, but have nothing to go with them.  I was thinking that since I already put up the little tree and it's right next to the table, I needed to match the tree.  So red placemats it is.  Red is a Thanksgiving color, right?  The little Santa was a gift I received from my MIL years ago.  He fit perfectly on my skinny table. 

I didn't totally miss the Thanksgiving holiday.  I found these great Turkey paper plates.  They make me laugh. 

The Small Tree

 You may have noticed that I've been working on the Christmas decorations.  No, I don't think it's too early.  In fact, I would rather put it all up too early than after the Holiday Break from school has started which I was afraid would happen if I didn't jump on it now.  

Part of my motivation to get everything decorated was my Dad's visit last week.  He's single and doesn't really put up a tree unless someone is coming to his house.  This year he is traveling everywhere, so no tree.  I thought that he could share in the holiday spirit here during his visit.  Mostly he got to see the empty trees and all the decorations in the boxes still.  That's okay.  

The small (and new) tree was the first to go up.  While taking a quick trip to Walmart with my Dad, I saw this tree for $20 and was wanting a "kid" tree so that I wouldn't have to share the big tree.  I'm a little OCD with the tree decorations.  This tree is all kids.

If you look you will see that most of the decorations are in the middle of the tree.  At one point BG was reminded to put ornaments on the top of the tree, too.  There are no decorations on the bottom of the tree.  We hand strung some fresh Honey Nut Cherrios that will be fed to the birds after the holidays, if LG doesn't eat them all.  There are even fake presents, thank you empty Harry & David boxes from last year.

While school is out for the Thanksgiving holiday, I'm going to take BG shopping to get a few more things for the tree.  It needs a skirt and plastic ball ornaments because all the ones I own are glass.  I should be able to share with you the completed look sometime next month.  

I am glad that I picked up the second tree.  It's perfectly sized to be next to the fireplace with the stockings and our rocking horse.  The horse stays there year round.

All this early decorating wasn't without consequences.  BG put her hand in my stocking and quickly pulled it out because she felt a spiderweb.  While evicting our unauthorized tenant I discovered that it was a Desert Recluse.  It's like a Brown Recluse only the West Coast version.  Still poisonous though.  I really hope that it enjoyed the garbage disposal. 

Cherrios

Don't be fooled by the innocent face...

LG is up to no good...

And she LOVES the new Christmas tree decorations... 

She loves them so much, she wants to eat them.

USS Midway

To keep with the Veteran's Day spirit, today we went to the USS Midway.  It's a retired aircraft carrier that has been converted into a museum. I sent BG to school because these military themed field trips that I take my dad on are usually very boring.  Don't get me wrong, they have a cool, nostalgic feel to them but we're bored out of our wits after an hour while my Dad hasn't made it through half the displays.

 Gunnery area of the USS Midway

The USS Midway is not boring.  I learned that they average 3000 visitors a day and are constantly changing up there displays and demonstration speeches.  There are even simulator rides.  We only toured the Hanger and Flight Decks, skipping the lower decks with all the living area displays.  We just didn't have time to see everything.  I'm told that the lower decks are what the kids really love.  Now I feel like I should of taken BG out of school.  I'm going to have to take her on another day. 

LG tampering with the "safety equipment."  We got in trouble when she pulled it off the fence.

In all I would recommend swinging by if you like Navy stuff and are in the San Diego area.  I'll definitely be going back.  I even picked up gifts in the souvenir shop.  A USS Midway hat for my dad and a little surprise for Nimitz.  (The USS Nimitz is also docked at North Island.)

Another extra to the day was that the Carnival Splendor was docked right next door.  That's the cruise ship that was stranded off the Mexican coast after an engine fire. There were news trucks but no other exciting activities.  Just cool that we got to see it.

Veteran's Day

First of all, a BIG THANK YOU to all of you Veterans out there and everything you have done for freedom. 

Today is Veteran's Day so there is no school.  I got up at my usual early time and did what I wish I could do every morning.  My chores.  Now they are all done and I have the rest of the day to have fun... until it's time to cook dinner.  Normally my mornings are filled with getting ready and going to school.  When I get home, LG is ready for me to pay attention to her all day long and the chores get squeezed in if at all.

Yesterday was one of those super busy days when no chores got done.  I think I have to start with Friday to get this story going.

Friday, we had our first Girl Scouts meeting.  The other moms will tell you that my co-leader and I were super organized.  My co-leader will tell you that she thinks it went really great.  I'll tell you that I think we need to got more organized. 

It went really well for being our first meeting and not knowing what we were doing.  I think that we, the leaders, need a little more practice bouncing off each other so that we don't bounce the meeting right out the door.  The girls need to learn that even though it's a Friday after school, they still need to settle down and listen like they would in class.  I checked out a book from the library called Games to Play with Girl Scouts.  This might help them get some of the energy out and helps me feel more organized.

We put a big rush on getting the troop together and having our first meeting because we wanted the girls to participate in their first big scouting event. 

Every year on the day before Veterans Day the Boy and Girl Scouts of our school host a flag raising ceremony.  Local Veterans of various times of war and peace are invited to our school for a breakfast and then recognized at a flag raising ceremony done by active Marines.

The scouts get to have a special meet and greet time with the Veterans and (most important to a grade schooler) wear their uniform at school.

I tried to get BG to let me take a picture without all the kids in the background.  But she wouldn't leave her classmates.  Then when I had a chance to, I forgot. 

Right after the ceremony I was off to buy this from Craigslist for $75.  That's a deal since you rarely see a good one for under $150 and the $100 are small little pieces of junk.

It is currently hiding on the side of my house where the kids never play until Christmas.  I think this is the only time I'm ever grateful that our yard has pour drainage and is still soaking wet after all that rain we got.  You have to walk through the soggy grass to get to the side yard.

LG was with me the whole time while I picked it up and re-assembled it.  She "oohh" and "aahh"ed the entire time.  Of course I let her play in it until naptime.  That is the nice thing about shopping for kids this age.  When she sees it again it will be brand new all over.

Then it was off to school pickup and no homework because of the holiday.  LG went to bed early while BG and I stayed up watching movies.  This morning LG had a playdate at our house and my dad is driving here as I type.  Actually, he's late so I have time to type. 

I think these last two days have been the most fun I've had in a while.  Thanks Veterans for the holiday!

School Party and the Pumpkins

One of my jobs as an assistant room mom was to help with the class Halloween party.  It's days like that when I am glad I'm crafty and have lots of ideas.  I thought up the pipe cleaner spiders and the Kleenex ghost, though I didn't have to pick up the supplies for the ghost.  I was super excited to do one of my favorite Halloween games.  The Mystery Box.  

I spray painted a box from Costco black that was already missing the bottom (or top in real life) and had a cut out in the back.  The only cutting I had to do was the hole that I covered with construction paper so the kids could put their hand in but not see in.  I also spray painted the little foam letters white and they were added all three sides and the top of the box.

I used egg noodles for Monkey Brains and learned I had to tell the boys not to pull the stuff out of the box.  I used gum for Cow's Teeth and learned that spearmint flavor gives away what it really is.  I used hard boiled eggs for Alligator Eyes and learned that no matter how many times I told them, the kids did not believe that eyeballs smell as bad as eggs.  Then my favorite and the one that no one guessed.  A roma tomato that I rolled and softened two days earlier for a Bamboo Heart.  There were very specific directions not to squeeze while holding this one.

It was a total hit.

As I was put the box together we decorated the first of all our pumpkins.  These are a couple of freebies we got a week before Halloween.  I don't like carving pumpkins but I love to spray paint.  We decorated our pumpkins first with puffy paint.  They puffier the better.  

Then I spray painted them a solid color.  A white kitty for LG and a black bat for BG.  I would love to get a bunch of little pumpkins next year and do this for a table centerpiece.  Maybe I still can for Thanksgiving?

After going to the pumpkin patch, I still didn't want to carve pumpkins.  LG and I grabbed our assorted colored permanent markers and hand painted our pumpkins.

DH and BG carved theirs so they could have the pumpkin seeds.  The house smelled like Worcestershire sauce for hours.  I think that they did a pretty job and they looked awesome on Halloween night. 

The Pumpkin Patch

The day before Halloween we went to the local pumpkin patch and picked out our carving pumpkins.  This place was filled with fun and we got 4 pumpkins of assorted sizes for $11.50.  Best price on pumpkins around, though we did drive over half an hour to get there.

Our first stop was the petting corral and this was the best one that I have ever been to.  The animals were very tame.  They didn't bite your fingers or try to nibble your clothes.  They would steal your paper bag of feed it you put too close to their mouths.  Animals.  I think that because these guys don't get packed up and moved around the stare with the traveling carnival or state fair, it makes a huge different.

They were so sweet that LG could feed them one corn kernel at a time. Believe it or not we discovered this while feeding the larger animals not in the petting corral.  LG wanted to bring home a goat, but would settle for a sheep, pony, or llama.  She didn't want a chicken.

BG would like to put in her formal request for a pet bunny at this time.  Oh the bunnies.  So sweet and so soft.  I think BG held one of them for 10 minutes and the bunny just slept in her arms.  The cool thing about a bunny is that they will always feel as soft and cuddly and the day they were born.

We lost our way in the straw maze.  BG and I ran around trying to find the 8 stamps for our scavenger hunt while LG just ran.  I've never been in a straw maze, but they are really fun.  To be honest I think that it is the kids that make it fun.

Finally DH took the girls into the patch to pick out some pumpkins.  There were some incredibly giant pumpkins.  A friends of LG's took home a 124lb mammoth when they went to the patch.  (Then they carved it out and put their daughter inside.  I'm glad her dad's name isn't Peter or she may have stayed there.)

LG had a tough time picking out the perfect pumpkin, but finally found it. 

I can't wait to see what this place doesn't at Christmas time. 

All Dressed Up

I don't usually back-date my blog, but because last week was super busy and this is about a holiday before going into the major holiday season, I'm back-dating.  Since I haven't had time to read about what all of you did for Halloween, I will feel like I never skipped a beat.

You can tell which parent they take after based solely on their smiles.

This Halloween was a bit more work than usual when picking out costumes.

I wanted the girls to be ladybugs, mostly because of the cute tutu and the polka dots.  BG said okay, but she didn't want a puffy costume.  This was also after I got the idea of being a dead bride out of her head.  I don't really like dead things.  Unless it's a good zombie movie.

Then one day BG came home and said she didn't want to be a ladybug.  It's a long story and I don't want to take away from the costumes that we did pick out. 

BG and I went to three different stores to look and see what our costume options were. Then we found the Baterina and Caterina combo for the girls.  I liked that they had tutus and weren't dead.  BG liked that they still had a Halloween feel to them and she liked the purple color because, "Purple is kinda like blue and blue is kinda like turquoise and turquoise is my new favorite color."

BG's final makeup job.  She was gorgeous.

These costumes got a ton of wear with all the Halloween event over the holiday week.  There were three carnivals, two parties, and a dinner before Trick'o Treating.

Both of the girls loved their costumes.  Even LG got excited to get all dressed up when I pulled them out.  I think that she put together that when wearing the costume people gave her candy.  She loves candy.  I think the only thing that disappointed her was that her legs were too little to keep up with her sissy while walking from house to house.  BG went ahead with some of the other 2nd grade girls while LG  hung back with the rest of the babies.  The babies that weren't into Trick'o Treating as much as she was.

In the end, the girls came home with enough candy to fill our Boo box and that seemed like just the right amount.

Ernie and Berts III

BG is finally getting her own pair of Ernie and Bert mitts from me (rav).  I had made some really neat, matching pairs for a brother/sister couple about 2 years ago.  She had asked for a pair but never really pushed the issue. 

Ernie and Berts are originally suppose to be striped and have some arm length to them.  I don't feel liek knitting stripes right now.  They are shorter, because that is the way BG wanted them. gotta love a custom knit  Since it doesn't get too chilly she doesn't need the extra length and she didn't want the mitts getting in the way while taking on and off her raincoats and sweaters.

She has wore them to school ALL day on Monday and again today.  Turns out they don't get in the way of doing your handwriting sheets or math facts. 

When I asked her if she was glad to finally get a pair of mitts, BG told me that this is actually her third pair.  Then I remembered the pink pair of Victoria Mitts.  I couldn't for the life of me remember what green mitts, the third pair, she claimed I had made her.   A few minutes later I realized that she was talking about MY green mitts (rav).  Just goes to show what is mine is really theirs.

Since I had so much fun showing you a sneak peek in the last post, here is another.  The pretty, sparkly tattoo on BG's arm is a preview of what her Halloween costume is going to be.  And if that isn't enough of a giveaway, here is some face painting.

Last weekend was the first of a number of Halloween activities that we have planned for the girls.  They had face painters, tattoo artist, cookies, but no candy.  I guess it was one of those "healthy" events?

I am hoping that I can copy the face painting this weekend.  I didn't buy face paint because unless you get the expensive professional stuff, you are not going to have the colors and quality that you want.  I picked up a black eyeliner and a set of four purple eyeshadows by CoverGirl.  If I can't get the full faced bat to work, then she'll at least have cool eye makeup.  We have three more days of events including Halloween, so I'm sure I'll get it right for one of them.

Owl Swatch

I really wanted to do something with the popular owl cable, but I didn't like any of the patterns that I saw on Ravelry.  So, I'm designing my own.  I figure a cowl is a pretty safe project to do this with.  It is amazing how much planning needs to go into something as simple as a fat tube of yarn. 

I began with my typical cast on random number of stitches and frogged after a couple of rounds.  If I'm going to do this, I want to do it right.  I'm keeping notes, going to write it up, have the DH turn it into a PDF (cause I don't know how) and then publish it on Ravelry. 

This is more of a swatch than a gauge to see how the tall finished product will be.  There will be changes, so I'm super glad I did this.  I think that I will knit the gauge last in stockinette stitch.  I really like the cabling that I chose for the lower body of the cowl.  It looks like tree bark.  Most of everything else I saw had traditional cables and they just didn't seem to go together to me.

The knitting is coming along at the same rate of speed as any of my other projects.  The little bit of extra work to write everything down doesn't seem to fill my day anymore than anything else does.  I'm getting extra computer time in with getting the Girl Scouts together, so I'm sure that I can squeeze in pattern writing, too. 

I do have to say that I'm browsing websites less, Facebook.  I'm almost completely mobile only when reading Facebook.  I still stop and read my favorite blogs, but the ones that around for ideas and entertainment get more of a look over at most. 

Otherwise, we had a pretty no-productive weekend.  There was the first of a long line of Halloween events.  It's still raining and with came a fever or two, we're all better now.  The rest of the weekend looked a little something like this:

And now it is Monday.  So far today I've walked with the class to a field trip, got coffee with the other room mom to finalize any plans for the Halloween party, bought milk, discussed Girl Scout plans, written a draft email, called both BFFs and written a blog post.   LG has been very helpful with her nap and lunch times.  But that is quickly coming to an end.  Good thing we are leaving for school pick-up soon.

Little Rock, Big Pond

There is something that happens to Southern Californians when it rains.  We lose our minds.

The first thing to go is our ability to drive.  Some speed and slide while others go extra slow because there is water on the road.  There are always accidents.  I haven't ran any errands this last week for fear of having a fender bender.

Next we realize that we very poorly prepared for rainy weather.  I don't own rain boots.  It rains enough that I say I should buy rain boots.  Then I don't want to pay for overnight shipping, so I sit on the order.   It rains for another four days and counting. Then I think that I really need to order them, but by the time they get here the rain will be gone.  I still haven't ordered rain boots.

Then the brain really starts to go out the window.  I don't know if it's because we are desperate to find activities for our children or what.

Friday afternoon I walked into a conversation.  Next thing I knew I had a bunch of emails in my inbox.  Five days later I was at the San Diego Imperial North County Girl Scout Office going through my Leadership Orientation.

The lady described us a "beautiful rocks thrown into a pond."  Something about the "ripple effects" that we were going to have on the girls' lives.  World a better place.  Blah blah blah.  I just heard rock and pond.  I wonder if I can swim?

I'm not totally crazy.  I'm co-leader with another mom.  We are putting together a co-op style troop.  That means that all the moms will be required to join Girl Scouts and will have to help with organizing at least one of the eight meetings.  We also meet only once a month.  There will be other outside activities, but we'll figure that out later.  Mostly we are just trying to see if it will even come together.

Oh, and against popular belief, Girl Scouts does not cost $12 a year.  I mean, that's your membership fee, but if you want to wear a uniform vest, earn patches, or do anything there needs to be some starter money.  We seem to have a few moms that don't like fundraising.  Only thing is that is what pays for everything.  If you fund raiser right, you can only pay for the first year and everything else is covered.

So like I said, we are still trying to see if this thing is even going to come together.

Believe it or not, this was not my idea.  But if putting the little bit of effort will give my kids a great experience, then I'm all for it.

Gustav Klimt

You don't know who Gustav Klimt is?  Well, neither did I until about last week.  You can read about him here but if you want to skip that, all you need to know is that he was an artist.  Gustav was featured this week by the Meet the Masters Art Program at our elementary school.

You don't know what Meet the Masters is?  I only know because I have a school aged kid.  Different school districts call it different things, but BG has been doing this ever since she entered Kindergarten.  The entire school learns about a famous, normally deceased, artist and then makes their own piece of art that kinda replicates the technique that artist is famous for. 

I say kinda replicates the techniques because it's more of a the end results look like their work, we don't always get there the same way.  For instances, if we were learning about Van Gogh, the hour allowed for in class instruction is not enough to do layered painting.  But if the kids put some yellow swirls onto blue paint, it will look like The Starry Night.

From what I learned about Gustav Klimt is that he liked to emboss, use gold and silver, and precious and semi-precious stones.  His subjects were the female body, Asian inspired, and he loved geometric and curved lines. Oh, and he was from Vienna.  That's all I know.

Our vocabulary words are emboss, pattern, shape and texture.

Did I mention that I got to teach the kids how to make their projects?  It's what I signed up for before BG signed me up for asst. room mom, also. 

My experience with this started right after our 1.5 hour training last week that ended with a shortage of supplies due to a misunderstanding and the paper had been cut to the wrong size.  I came to the rescue and cut 800plus 9x9 squares for the entire student body.  It only took me two nights after the kids went down to bed.  I've started drinking coffee this week, also.

Happily everything was ready for Monday morning when I got to have my first in-class teaching experience. We embossed a Kimono onto foil paper and added sparkly stickers as our diamonds.  So cool. 

Here are my Kimonos.  The purple kimono is my training piece.  I thought that my next one it would be so much nicer because I would already know what I was doing.  I forgot to factor in that I would be teaching 20 kids at the same time.  The orange kimono is the same if not worst.  Mind I did it in about 2 minutes and there are no sparkly gems.  Sad orange Kimono.

I was really impressed with the artwork that came out of this project.  Some of the kids were upset if they goofed up a little while others didn't follow directions at all.  I just wish I could show you all the different interpretations of the same thing.  I forgot to take pictures.

My other training pieces were the Tree of Life (3rd & 4th grade) and the Eyeball thing (5th grade).  I lost my Tree of Life which is a shame because it was my best piece.  I had both convex and concave embossing on it.  I hope I find it.  The Eyeball thing I didn't follow the directions. 

I figure that I'm not teaching 5th graders and well, you can't tell a creative person that they have to create a piece of art to follow specific directions.  Both sides are suppose to be the same shape, with the foil showing through the middle of two black sheets of paper.  I did the big eye that you see and then 9 little eyes on the back.  I would show it to you, but it's really ugly. 

Next month is Norman Rockwell :)

Boom CRASH Rumble

Last night was seriously the loudest thunderstorm that I have ever heard.  It woke up the whole family at about 2am.  LG and I crawled into bed with BG.  I'm really glad she has a double-sized bed, though I did consider kicking DH out of the king-sized and letting us girls sleep in there.  After an hour, BG had gone back to sleep so that everyone could go back to their own beds.

I can't believe how loud the thunder was.  At first I was thinking that because we are closer to the coastline than where we lived in LA, that we were listening to the thunder over the ocean.  Once morning came, I wasn't exactly sure where that thought process was going.  Also, Facebook confirmed that it was really the loudest storm ever no matter where you lived.

I literally got up the next morning to see if I could find the house that was struck and burnt down because the thunder was so loud it sounded like it was in my backyard. It literally shook the house.  I imagine that if the lightning had actually struck in our backyard it would of been so loud we would of peed our pants.  

There is really only one other storm in my life that I can think of that was louder.  I don't really remember the storm, but I remember the next morning.

I was about 6 or 7 years old and my family was living in Germany, only it was called West Germany at the time.  I think that this is where I first fell in love with the rain.  I would ride my bike every time the drops started pouring and then when it subsided, I would go home for fresh socks and a hot chocolate.  It's so cool that my mom would let me do that, because I would never allow my daughters out in the rain.  Though it may have been easier to send me out to play in the rain than entertain me indoors all day.

There was a very loud storm one night as siblings and I were tucked in our beds.  The wind blew so strongly that the tree outside my bedroom window actually blew over, splitting into two parts as it happened.  A landscaping crew was out the very next morning to remove the remainder of the tree with all their power equipment.  They had been there for about half an hour before I finally woke up.

I had slept through the entire storm and tree falling over.  I was the only one not woken up by the storm.  I have to imagine that it was very loud if it halfway pulled a tree out of the ground.  If a tree falls over and no one is awake to hear it, does it make a sound?

Recently my dad found some incomplete medical records from when I was 2.5 to 6ish years old.  I had chronic ear infections as a kid (this explains a lot).  So, I guess I slept through the storm because I had water in my ears and couldn't hear a thing. 

My daughters' ears are fine and we stayed up for an hour listening to the thunder crash and trying to go back to sleep.  On the bright side, there was a lot of cuddling and not fighting over mommy between the girls. 

Kitties

LG's favorite commercial.  She likes the kitties, I like the yarn.

We've Been Booed

On Friday, I had a very exciting day.  I wrote a super long post, then accidentally deleted a third of it and was unable to recover it.  That's okay, it was long and probably could be two posts anyways.  But then LG decided to skip her nap that day.  This is not okay.  I had to deal with a fussy 1yo all day.  No time to finish blogging.

I had plans, too.  I met up with some moms for lunch.  Yummy.  I had a playdate at our house for LG afterward.  She was quite pleasant and having fun during her playdate, but what kid doesn't love having a playdate in the afternoon.  I didn't have to pick up BG from school because she had a playdate. LG of course decided that 4pm would be the perfect time to take a nap.  Sorry, we need to jump in the car and pick up your sister.  That resulted in a half hour nap for the day.

We had an easy going night.  DH was working late. LG went to bed a little bit early.  It was 8pm when BG and I decided to get a little cuddle time in.  We turned on some random kid friendly TV show, I don't remember what, when there was sudden knock at the door.  You know, the type of knock police do before yelling, "Police, open up!"  We weren't really sure what to make of it.

I went to the door, turned on the outside light and used my peep hole.  I couldn't see anybody.  I waited to see if there was any movement.  I then locked the slide bolt, turned off the light and said that we would wait for daddy to come home before opening the door.

DH came home about a half hour after the scary knock.  I figure enough time had past that any mass murderers with baseball bats had to of gotten bored of waiting and gone away.  I opened our from door and found the cutest box.  It looks like a haunted house.  Then when you open it, it yowls and shrieks at you. 

OMG, super fun and it had candy inside.  We're talking the good stuff like Kit Kats, Heath Bars and Skittles.  We had been Booed.  I think that I am the only person that has never heard of this Booing.  It's probably that I have never lived in a neighborhood with an HOA.  

Being Booed is basically the best type of chain mail out there.  It comes with a cute little poem telling you to put the provided sign up on your door so you don't get Booed twice.  Then you print up the needed paperwork at beenbooed.com and Boo two of your neighbors.

I think we did a good job putting together our packages.  We had specific targets in mind, one family with two girls and another with a girl and 1yo boy.  We cased their houses and then headed to the Halloween and Dollar sections at Target.  Our bag was filled with candy, socks for the girls, a book for the boy, Peeps, two safety trick'o treating flashing pumpkins pins, and a homemade card.  Each Boo costs us about $10 each.  I guessed that is about what was spent on us because that box came from the Hallmark Store.  Just checked, yep $10 with purchase.  

We delivered our Boos that night and had a hilarious time.  The two girls were super excited to see the gift left for them.  The other family, we apparently scared the heck out of.  They guessed it was us that Booed them because of the baby book and the type of candies.  I need to stop buy candy when I walk to the grocery store with the neighbor.  She knows all my favorites.

In the end, if you ever get to play this game it's a ton of fun.  Or you can start your own with your neighbors, office, church.  And the only casualty was to my middle finger.  I guess when you double-fisted bang on a door like a crazed ape you run the risk of popping a blood vessel under your knuckle.