Monthly Archives: July 2012

Pure Silly

Posted on by
1

Here is how we pass the time on a hot summer afternoon.

pure silly collage

This was actually after I got back from work today. Yep, I went to work today! The babysitter swears the kids were angels for her, but they were pretty cranky for me. Hot, sweaty, tired, ya know. In an effort to turn our afternoon around I grabbed the camera. This led to 45 minutes of wrestling on the living room floor. Lex gave it his all and he’s quite strong these days! After that we were all hot and sweaty so we called a drink break (with LOTS of ice cubes!) and then everyone settled down into a lovely evening. Sometimes you just gotta give them some attention. :)

Monday Morning Science

Posted on by
1

Lex got a book for his birthday (from me!) called Science Rocks and he has been happily reading it ever since. Towards the end of last week he decided to try a few experiments. Unfortunately we don’t have most of the “common household items” that the experiments need, like empty 2 liter bottles and plastic hosing. Today he found one that we did have all the supplies first and he was thrilled! At 7:00am we were doing scientific experiments!

lining up the cups

Today’s experiment was about color separation. Or water wicking. I didn’t read the book.

four cups

They each drew a big dot on strips of coffee filters, put the ends of the filters into water, and watched as the water wicked up the filter and brought the colors along with it.

colors

Lex got great color separation with the colors he chose! Eve’s orange and pink didn’t do as well. (this picture was taken by Lex)

Last week they tried to make a hydrolic lift but we had too many substitute parts and the painters tape didn’t hold up to the water and the whole thing just didn’t work out.

lex

This is Lex’s hydrolic lift. It leaked water every step of the way. :(

book

This is how it was supposed to look!

eve

Eve’s experiment is the one in front. She is less interested in directions and instead chose to make up her experiment as she went along. She had a very elaborate story which I can’t really remember. It involved a generator (not show) which would spin fast and generate steam and… something. It all sounded scientific and quite plausible, as long as you didn’t listen very closely. :)

funny face

Funny girl!

dirt

Eve has actually been in “scientist” mode for quite awhile. Before Lex even got out the book she was talking about conducting experiments. This particular “experiment” started by mixing food ingredients (marshmallows, graham crackers, butter) and was shaping up to be quite a tasty experiment, but then she started adding rocks and balloons and more expensive food items, so I had to cut her off and send her outside. This is what she came back with. I’m still not sure what the purpose of the experiment was as her hypothesis kept changing. :)

A day at the races

Posted on by
Reply

Mema and Grandpa Tom decided the grandkids needed a little Nascar exposure, so this weekend we all packed up and headed to the races! It was hot and humid (though it could have been worse!) and we all had a blast! The kids rooted for the Home Depot car (because we have a toy one), Alan observed the drivers and started rooting for the guy who’s driving he liked best, Mema, G’Tom, and G’Don all have their favorites. I corralled the kids and occasionally glanced up at the 50 cars racing around the track. :)

walking in

Lovely ladies off to the races. I love this picture because of the bright colors they both chose to wear. I think it’s so pretty.

trailer row

Can you see the speedway? Waaaayyy back there, behind trailer row? This was our walk in (after we’d already walked through our parking lot and across the street).

lex

Waiting to get through security. (The red mark on his chin is where he burned it on a cookie sheet the other day, eagerly leaning in to smell the blueberry muffins fresh from the oven.)

eve

Can’t take a picture of Lex without Eve wanting one of her too. Then they both wanted to see the pictures to see what they looked like with the headphones one. :)

lunch

First things first, lunch!

binoculars

The binoculars were a big hit. I don’t think either kid can focus them well, but they both had fun trying.

no glasses

They both need glasses on here! They look like sports casters though. :)

notes

It was so loud we resorted to writing notes to communicate. I started on the back of a receipt, but fortunately Mema was better prepared and pulled out a little notebook. This also helped us keep Eve busy for quite awhile with drawings and games.

crowd

A few other people joined us as well.

hd pits

I liked watching the pit crews at work!

silly eve

Eve found a creative place to store her ear muffs when not in use.

ice cream

About half way through the races Eve was ready to head home. Lex was having a great time though, keeping track of the laps, rooting for his car, and trash talking (or writing, as it was too loud to talk!) with Mema. So we got some ice cream and played little games and kept Eve as entertained as possible until the end of the race.

the end

Still smiling 301 laps later!

The day was overcast and the rain threatened, but it held off for us. We made it back to the car, sat in traffic for an hour, then we were on our way. By the time we stopped for dinner the rain was coming down and it hit hard on the way home. My car was quiet though. You’d think they were both asleep, but no, instead they were caught up in our new audio book, the original “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” (which, no surprise, is quite different from the movie!)

It was a loud, sweaty, 12hr day, but well worth the trip. Thanks Mema and G’Tom for exposing us to a whole new sport! :)

Committment

Posted on by
Reply

“The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating — in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around like rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.” – Anne Morris, but I found it here.

Embroidery and other awesome things

Posted on by
3

Around two o’clock this afternoon I was writing a cranky blog post in my head. All about how tired I am these days, how I keep making myself ill with the food I shovel in, how I’m living life in a fog, and dreading my WW meeting tomorrow… do you sense a theme here?

Instead I chose to go sit with Lex for the remainder of his quiet time and listen to him practice the piano. Then he and I came downstairs and I got him started on embroidering! I picked up five different hoops from a woman on Freecycle (freecycle rocks, btw!) this morning and the kids loved them! I used some old green fabric with a large-ish weave. Lex drew his picture with white crayon and then started embroidering. Shortly thereafter he declared embroidering to be awesome and sewing as his new favorite craft. :)

lex

He has big plans for this project. I hope they work out. It will be awesome! :)

Then I woke Eve up from her two hour nap (swimming wears her out!) and she came down to join us. She wasn’t gung ho on the embroidering at first. We had snack (popcorn, their favorite) and she washed dishes for awhile (or played in the water under the guise of washing dishes!) and then decided to try her hand at embroidering.

eve

She had a little less patience with the project, but I think she had fun overall and she said she wants to keep working on it. I’m so proud of them both!

Meanwhile, between helping them with the crafts I was able to make zucchini cheddar bread, two loaves of whole wheat sandwich bread, AND fried tofu with pesto, rice pilaf, and squash for dinner! What a productive afternoon!

Bedtime ran a little late of course, but everyone was happy (particularly me!) so all is good. I just got Lex in bed and Alan is reading a bit longer with Eve. Hopefully she’s not up all night!

Here are a few other highlights from the day:

  • I finally saw a chiropractor after 4+ years of dealing with carpal tunnel like symptoms.
  • Lex swam in the deep pool at Swim Camp.
  • Lex found a chalk rock at camp and wrote “Hello” on another rock. He was quite excited about this.
  • Lex went around the current pool four times, against the current! Talk about big muscle exercise!
  • Eve took a two hour nap for the first time in forever and did not wet her bed!
  • We found two more pianos, though they were for a different part of the Quest and not decorated, therefore a little less exciting to find.
  • While discussing eye color with Eve this evening I noticed for the first time ever my different colored eyes! I have been told many times that they are slightly different colors but I have never really seen it myself. The lighting was just right this evening and it was very obvious. :)

In summary, my kids are awesome crafters, and just plain awesome kids, and just because part of the day is crappy doesn’t mean you can’t turn it around and wind up calling it a pretty awesome day!

Into the deep pool

Posted on by
1

When I picked the kids up from swim camp today Lex was super excited to tell me that he went in the big pool today! The big pool is the competition pool that he has so far completely and totally resisted even being near. His teacher said he wore a life jacket, but he didn’t mention that part to me ;) She said it only took a little bit of encouragement and he had a great time. He says he’ll be jumping in again tomorrow! I love that boy!

Sadly I was not there to take pictures :(

Sewing

Posted on by
2

sewing collage

I’m super excited about our afternoon activities. I’m actually ridiculously tired and ready for bed at 7:30pm, but first, a blog post!

I have been thinking about teaching the kids to sew this summer. Ever since Eve separated the petals from an entire bouquet of flower, into her hat, telling me all the while about how she’s going to sew them into a flower petal quilt as soon as we get home. This was two months ago! I’ve been thinking about it, googling “how to sew with kids,” bugging my poor over worked friend Anna who sews her own kids’ clothes, and I’ve probably mentioned it once or twice to the kids. As it usually goes around here, I think about something until the kids push me into actually doing it. Anna showed me an adorable skirt project that I thought Eve would love to do with me. Eve, however, came down from quiet time with her own plan in mind – to sew a quilt for her doggy! I tried to talk her into the skirt, but no deal. I tried to get her to do an introductory project (sewing on a paper plate) but no way. She was focused on a quilt! So we dug out the fabric scraps I have and she went to work. I had to encourage her to draw it out first (a few scribbles on a scrap of paper) and then lay it out on the floor. Meanwhile I cut out the “pattern” (ie: large rectangle) for the skirt I want to make for her and Lex joined the party and happily started the paper plate project. He wrote his name in block letters and then we/he poked holes around it, then he stitched with the holes. Once I had him on a roll and gave up on trying to convince Eve to work with me on the skirt project, I agreed to let her start sewing. I did not agree to the sewing machine though! I thought hand stitching would be a better way to start. :) I held the fabric pieces together and she stitched. It went really, really well. She got three pieces together, he got one and a half letters done, and I felt really relaxed and happy.

Then we moved to the kitchen so I could get dinner ready. Of course by “get dinner ready” I mean cook a few bowls of oatmeal for them and reheat some soup for me. At that point they just lost it. They are super tired these days from Splash Camp. Eve started crying about everything, Lex went a little spastic, and I got a major headache. Oh well. The good afternoon was worth it. We skipped bath and they were both in bed my 7pm! I’m next! :)

PS. I was too lazy to put up all the individual pictures in full size, but it you click on the collage above it will get bigger and you can see more details.

Splash Camp

Posted on by
1

The kids are at Splash Camp this week and SUPER excited! They have been waiting for this for months! There was no delaying or fussing getting out the door this morning. I’m a little nervous about how they are going to do sunscreen and bathing suits and all of that by themselves, but I’m sure they’ll be fine without me. That’s a hard thing to say!

unicorn eve

Unicorn Eve. How else do you start a new week?! Lex is working on a unicorn mask in the background.

campers

Two super excited swimmers! See the hot air balloon in the background? I love this area!

on the benches

They were so eager to join the group I had to stop them and request hugs and kisses. So it begins. Sigh. The girl sitting next to Lex is one of his favorite friends from school. Total coincidence!

I was a little sad to drop them off and leave. Fortunately I have a hot date with my cool car and the Toyota Service Department! Well, I suppose technically my car has a hot date with the service department and I have a long wait in the waiting room. Sigh. Happy Monday!