there will be much more of this, for sure! (the swimming and the goofy faces, i'm talking about...)
June 28, 2010
some summerin'
there will be much more of this, for sure! (the swimming and the goofy faces, i'm talking about...)
June 27, 2010
June 04, 2010
let's make some capes
this is such a quick and easy project, i'm not even sure i can call this a tutorial. and it's such a cute and clever idea that i can't possibly be the first genius mama to figure it out (but i'm not even going to google it to find out).
nevertheless, i think they turned out so stinkin' cute that i just had to share!
it's so super easy, and so super cute. no sewing needed! no excuses! i promise it will take you longer to read this post than it will to make the cape.
super-hero capes are one of those projects that have been on my 'to-make' lists FOREVER. i know the kids would love them, and i know they are a super easy sewing project, but for some reason i just never got around to it. and each time i think about buying some, i talk myself out of it with the old 'nah, i can just make them myself' bit.
so, adella's school field day is coming up. their theme is 'super heroes', and they are allowed to wear costumes or capes, or any super-hero garb that they want. and there's nothing like a little pressure to get me motivated to DO something.
we picked out some fabric, i started thinking about the measurements, binding, and other details... of course griffin wanted one too... and i started calculating the amount of sewing time i might actually have vs. what i needed.
and suddenly this idea popped into my head! hooray! a couple of t-shirts, a few simple scissor snips and five minutes later, the kids were donning capes and flying around the house, out the door, and into the front yard.
...get the whole tutorial here ... or click on the handy link over on the sidebar.
enjoy!
xo
June 03, 2010
as the saying goes...
when life hands you lemons,
make lemonade!
we were handed a pretty big lemon today, when we took the car (the camry) in to have a clinkery sound checked out and learned that the clinkery sound (which had turned into a big clackety by the time we got downtown) means that our car need a new motor.
then on the way home, it stopped. dead. and not the fix-it-with-a-jumper-cable sort of dead.
we're not talking about a few hundred dollars repair, not even a few thousand dollars repair. we had it towed back to our house so we can decide what to do with it.
as big a blow as this initially (and suddenly!) was, i'm actually feeling a little optimistic about it all. i know, i'm even surprising myself! it might be all part of my big master plan. i'll fill you in later.
anyway, we spent most of the day at home. when adella got home from school, she suggested we make lemonade. i'd never heard a more perfect idea!
the kids did all the work, together.
and we all enjoyed it.
lemonade IS the perfect remedy for a lemon of a day!
p.s. i used our standard recipe: 4 lemons, 4 cups water, 1/2 cup sugar
p.s. want more nostalgia? click right here -- i'm sorry but i just can't help myself from taking these trips down memory lane...
(hey! i just wanted to clarify, in case it sounded like i was saying that our car was a 'lemon'... it was not. we'd had the toyota for about 5 years or so -- it was a great car! we've had only very minor repairs the entire time we owned it. it was older, but not ancient, and i'm not sure why the motor went bad. it just did. it is an unfortunate situation, but not a lemon of a car!)
make lemonade!
we were handed a pretty big lemon today, when we took the car (the camry) in to have a clinkery sound checked out and learned that the clinkery sound (which had turned into a big clackety by the time we got downtown) means that our car need a new motor.
then on the way home, it stopped. dead. and not the fix-it-with-a-jumper-cable sort of dead.
we're not talking about a few hundred dollars repair, not even a few thousand dollars repair. we had it towed back to our house so we can decide what to do with it.
as big a blow as this initially (and suddenly!) was, i'm actually feeling a little optimistic about it all. i know, i'm even surprising myself! it might be all part of my big master plan. i'll fill you in later.
anyway, we spent most of the day at home. when adella got home from school, she suggested we make lemonade. i'd never heard a more perfect idea!
the kids did all the work, together.
and we all enjoyed it.
lemonade IS the perfect remedy for a lemon of a day!
p.s. i used our standard recipe: 4 lemons, 4 cups water, 1/2 cup sugar
p.s. want more nostalgia? click right here -- i'm sorry but i just can't help myself from taking these trips down memory lane...
(hey! i just wanted to clarify, in case it sounded like i was saying that our car was a 'lemon'... it was not. we'd had the toyota for about 5 years or so -- it was a great car! we've had only very minor repairs the entire time we owned it. it was older, but not ancient, and i'm not sure why the motor went bad. it just did. it is an unfortunate situation, but not a lemon of a car!)
May 19, 2010
rice table/water table
(or, maybe the best $4 i ever spent)
several years ago i bought this cheap plastic under-the-bed storage box, threw in some plastic dinosaurs and a couple of big bags of white rice, and hoped adella would be into it.
she was. here's the link! my goodness it seems like so long ago...
later, once griffin came along, he loved it too. and it's easy to pull out, play with, and then put away. usually there's a little clean-up involved, but the kids are pretty good about not making a huge rice mess.
a few weeks ago i was itching to buy the kids a sand/water table (um, they're way more pricey than you might think) to play with outside on the porch, and i remembered the box.
it just took a few minutes to dump the rice into a big garbage bag, find a few new-ish tools and toys to play with, and fill the box with water.
and look! they love it. i mean, really love it.
every day that it's nice and sunny, they spend hours on the porch splashing around in it. of course it usually ends up drenching them, but that's to be expected -- and it's part of the fun!
griffin approves my endorsement of the plastic box filled with water.
total side note: i just got stuck sitting here, looking through LOTS of old blog posts, and watching all of the short videos (in the 'home videos' category). WOW. SO MUCH PRICELESS STUFF THERE! (in all caps - yes - for real) i'm so glad that i have them to look back on.
xo
several years ago i bought this cheap plastic under-the-bed storage box, threw in some plastic dinosaurs and a couple of big bags of white rice, and hoped adella would be into it.
she was. here's the link! my goodness it seems like so long ago...
later, once griffin came along, he loved it too. and it's easy to pull out, play with, and then put away. usually there's a little clean-up involved, but the kids are pretty good about not making a huge rice mess.
a few weeks ago i was itching to buy the kids a sand/water table (um, they're way more pricey than you might think) to play with outside on the porch, and i remembered the box.
it just took a few minutes to dump the rice into a big garbage bag, find a few new-ish tools and toys to play with, and fill the box with water.
and look! they love it. i mean, really love it.
every day that it's nice and sunny, they spend hours on the porch splashing around in it. of course it usually ends up drenching them, but that's to be expected -- and it's part of the fun!
griffin approves my endorsement of the plastic box filled with water.
total side note: i just got stuck sitting here, looking through LOTS of old blog posts, and watching all of the short videos (in the 'home videos' category). WOW. SO MUCH PRICELESS STUFF THERE! (in all caps - yes - for real) i'm so glad that i have them to look back on.
xo
April 30, 2010
pink. for real.
just a few pictures from a recent afternoon outing...
can you believe all that amazing pink? i hardly can.
these were taken last week, at one of the parks that we love to visit. everything is in full bloom around here right now, and i had this tree in mind when i suggested this particular park to the kids one afternoon (aren't i sneaky?)
this cherry is just HUGE. and full of huge, fat, full, pink blooms -- it is just SO unbelieveably pretty. i'm not exaggerating when i say that, in the couple of hours that we were there, i took over 200 pictures of this tree. it was so hard to narrow it down to just a few to share here! and i still wasn't able to capture the whole entire tree in a way that i wanted to. (there are more pictures on flickr)
trees and colors and settings like this remind me how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful area of the country. and springtime days like this one make the long, cold, gray winter totally worth it.
April 27, 2010
April 24, 2010
saturday morning
stig is out of town, and i get to spend the weekend with my two favorite people. this morning we lazed around in our pj's, went out for a few errands, and then had a nice brunch picnic at the park. with plenty of time afterwards for playing and exploring, of course.
there was some monkeying around...
some wishes made...
some soaring...
and some very sweet sharing...
it was great. i can't think of a better way to spend a saturday.
there was some monkeying around...
some wishes made...
some soaring...
and some very sweet sharing...
it was great. i can't think of a better way to spend a saturday.
April 20, 2010
we ::heart:: spring
we've been happily busy this past week, enjoying the beautiful spring weather. and i've just uploaded oodles of photos to flickr, so please hop on over and check them out.
click right here to see a slideshow -- it's fun!
(i think the pictures do a better job of summing up our days than i could, anyway!)
xo
