A Couple QOTD

It's been awhile, but this week we had a couple of gems.
After I received an early Christmas gift of a pair of earrings, "Mommy, I'm so glad your ears are already punched." 
This morning my mom made fancy oats for everyone that included a grated apple. While she was grating F asked, "Granny Annie, why are you beating up that apple?"

Dear Santa

Translation for those not fluent in Kindergarten-ese:
He's been really good, he wants slot cars, this year has been excellent, and Red is our elf.
He read the letter and filled in the blanks 100% on his own while I was buying jeans to replace all the pairs that have recently turned into high waters.

Flipper

FFM is perfecting the flip turn. He used to twist first then try to flip.  He's getting it down, but is so excited when he does it right that he stops to hear the praise. Maybe next week he'll swim on and on...

Ache

I've started dripping tears at odd times the last 24 hours. I think thoughts (which a couple of days ago would have been totally irrational) along the lines of never letting my beloved 5 year old out of my sight. I am all out of sympathy for people who think current gun control is fine. I've heard their arguments, could see their side, but no more. I've been tipped over the edge.

I ache for the families. I ache for the children who lived through it and the parents who face the daunting task of repairing those children. I ache for and applaud the teachers who did everything they could to protect their charges. Travis commented, not in a heartless way, "I hope they {the children} are young enough that their brains just block it out and they don't remember." I fear it won't end this way and I fear this escalation of horror that cloaks our country and the world.

I support any action, governmental or otherwise, that will slow the tide of innocent children being killed. It was too many casualties 13 years ago at Columbine, and think how the tally has increased since then.

5 year olds are not equipped to battle this. They should be innocent, they are defenseless, and I want to make the world safer for them. When I was 12 I was in a position where I heard gunfire at school. It wasn't inside the school, but outside. The gunmen were people who were supposed to have guns. You know what, it was scary as hell. We lined up, crawled though the halls, and were evacuated. No one at the school was killed, but I still remember that day so clearly that I don't see how the children at Sandy Hook will ever forget.

I can't talk to F about this. We talked about Jessica Ridgeway and briefly about Aurora, but I can't talk about this. He shouldn't be scared to go to school and I don't see any way to prepare him. So it's all on us, as parents, to do something.

I'll support any and all means that will keep our nation's children safe. If adults have to make sacrifices to their rights, so be it. Our children have rights too and they can't vote for them yet. It's my job as a Mom to protect my family and I'm all in. I am open to changes from any quarter, from religious prayer to better health care and mental screening to changing how the public procures weapons.

Here is a small sample of the online places you can be heard.
We The People by the White House
SignOn Democracy in Action
Momsrising Where Moms and the People Who Love Them Go to Change the World
Contact your elected officials
Find your local government

Keeping up with the Season

I finished my last knitted gift this evening. I had a brainstorm that I'd handmake all of the teacher gifts this year. Then I added one or two more...the last one finished will be gifted tomorrow at a family get together. Nothing like cutting it close, I think it must be the knitter way this time of year. I had a good time knitting this gifting season, I learned a new technique and scored some divine wool on sale. There are two more pieces that didn't make the picture because they're already wrapped up.

I haven't been enthusiastic about baking this month. I think I'm still full from Thanksgiving. I plunged into the baking scene anyway to make sure we had treats for all our neighbors. I remembered a new cookbook I got this year that specializes in high altitude baking. A trickle of inspiration struck when I found a new sugar cookie recipe. Then I got a request for gingerbread cookies, so I started baking. I still want to try these eggnog cookies and F learned about Spritz and subsequently filed another cookie request. After those I'm done, no more cookies!

1st go at new sugar cookie recipe. Decor by F.

It's not all work around here. We are making good use of our symphony membership and attended the annual Colorado Christmas performance. Our seats are on an aisle very close to the stage and F was utterly transfixed as the Colorado Children's Chorale entered the theater right next to him. Like last year he really wanted to be up there singing with the kids. Maybe when he's seven (the required minimum age) he'll get past the steps and actually onto the stage under the bright lights.

Santa 2012

We visited a new Santa this year, but the joy and awe remain the same. FFM is SO excited to see ANY Santa, it brings tears to my eyes.

On the wish list this year: a camera, slot cars, and a Furby. FFM has been busy saving up for toys that he wants and he's figured out that these items are all "big" purchases so he learned how to work the system and is counting on them coming from the big man in red. I'm pretty sure he'll make out with 2 out of 3 which isn't half bad for a kiddo who's been really good this year.

Yesterday we had our first movie date in a long time. Travis has been out of town all week and he's been hard to reach by phone or Skype so we've been feeling a bit lonely. Movie dates always are fun for us and we saw The Guardians. Now not only is F's faith in Santa even more reinforced, but so is his belief in all other magical beings. This morning I heard all about how Jack Frost was playing on our deck last night. I love imagination!

Santa the past few years...from 6 months to last year, 4.5 years.

Busy Boy

Before school started Travis and I had some lengthy dicussions about the volume of activities FFM wanted to do. This child would be happy if he were in some organized group activity every day. However, we parents opt for at least a couple days off.

Swimming is going well.  After seeing the swimmers at the Olympics this summer FFM 'borrowed' my swim cap and now wears it for every lesson. He's refining his strokes and hopes to be on a summer league swim team next summer.

Piano is where he really excels. I'm constantly stunned at his skill and persistence for practice. He gets frustrated when he can't learn a piece in a couple of reads; this semester of piano he's been challenged by longer and more complicated pieces and he's learning to keep going instead of just quitting if it's too hard the first time. This fall FFM inherited my grandma's piano and it was barely in the door when he started playing it.

Somewhere FFM learned about choir and Sunday School so we've become pretty regular church goers. He sings at least once a month in service-our church is very musical with several choirs, bells, 3 piece combos, orchestra, and more. This weekend he sang in the angel choir for the Annual Advent Pageant. He loves choir and manages to be in the front row AND wear a tie for every performance. Notice he is surrounded by girls...perhaps one reason he likes choir so much?

Right before Thanksgiving FFM started 6 weeks of ice skating lessons. I really like this activity because it's on Saturday morning and Travis gets to take him. I tag along occasionally and try to stay warm while we watch him master basic skills like gliding, going backwards, and making tiny jumps. Soon we'll trade ice skating for ski school, just as soon as some snow arrives.

Even after all this FFM wants to go to more.  The school sends home fliers for after school activites every couple of weeks and the latest one was for a ceramics class. FFM asked to do it, and after even more discussion we said OK. Last Tuesday was the first day of class and as I stood in front of the school at 5pm waiting to pick him up I thought about how strange it was to be at school in the dark. When we got all loaded into the car FFM admitted, "Mom, I had a really great day today but it was LONG!" I was concerned it was too long a day but he was adamant about continuing. Mr. Social Butterfly had a grand time and can't wait to go back.

QOTD

A couple today that made my heart melt.
"Mommy, where does the sidewalk end? Can we read the book and find out?"
Yes. We read about twenty poems, including that one.

"I'm tired. I think maybe I should go to bed early tonight."
That was FFM, NOT me for a change!

Annual Tree Lighting

When you come to our house for the first time we will give you directions that sound like this: "it's the house just past the two giant spruce trees."  We love our big trees, even the one that will have to go soon b/c it's taking over the house. The other one, however, is prime for Christmas decorating.  It just looks like a giant Christmas tree.

The 2nd Christmas we were in this house Travis managed to get a few lights up on the tree.  Each subsequent year we've honed our technique (the tree is 30ft+ tall and on a slope) and added more lights.  I also found some large sparkly 'balls' to trim the tree so it's Christmasy even during the day when the lights are off.

Travis just left for a week long business trip, but before he left he managed to get the big tree trimmed. The rest of the holiday decorating was up to FFM and I.  We trimmed the tree, decked the halls, and sang some tunes today.  We had such a good time, even without Travis, that we were nearly late for FFM's advent pageant at church.

Traditional Non-traditional Thanksgiving

We nearly had a traditional Thanksgiving this year. We did not host, we did not gather huge numbers of family (we just don't have a huge family) but we did have a normal turkey dinner! I did not cook it.

This year we stayed close to home and spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Colorado Spring at the Broadmoor resort.

We arrived on Wednesday with plenty of time to check out the resort and walk around the lake.  Travis was craving pizza so we skipped eating on site and found a great local place nearby.

Thursday the boys got up early and hit the pool, letting me sleep for an extra hour. By then my tummy was growling for some brekkie so I headed out to grab a snack and check out the pool.  Turkey dinner was midday, a good choice for our family who seems to do best when we eat at regular times. FFM donned his tie (his request) and we had a lovely Thanksgiving buffet.

 Friday dawned COLD but we persevered and visited the zoo and various other local attractions until we were too cold to go on.  Back to the pool and hot tub!  Saturday was train day. Back in July we bought tickets to the Santa Train. However, we arrived to learn that our ticket seller had made a mistake, the Santa Train didn't start until Sunday so our tickets were for a full cog rail train ride to the top of Pike's Peak. Was anyone disappointed? Nope. I don't think FFM even noticed he was so excited.

 It's a cog train because it's steep...the cog helps pull the train up grades of about 25%.  Your normal steep road grade = 7-8%. The trip up takes about an hour and FFM sat stock still the entire time. Since we bought our tickets early we had great seats right at the front of the train.

 At the top of the peak it was 9F and windy.  We made a dash into the visitor center for hot chocolate and donuts and beat a hasty retreat back to the warm train.

 It was a lovely day, coming down we watched the other train leaving the peak.

Saturday night was fondue and tree lighting, the Broadmoor lit all it's trees and when we returned from dinner to see all the Christmas lights twinkling and reflecting in the lake we started to feel a little more Christmasy. FFM immediately started wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and hasn't stopped yet.

Turkeys and Indians and Pilgrims OH MY!

Right before our Fall break the Kindergarten classes at Lois Lenski Elementary put on a combo Thanksgiving / Grandparents Day show.  It was AWESOME.  Just like a little kid show should be.  They all concentrated so hard they didn't quite smile enough, they had cute homemade (by themselves) costumes, and there was great singing and a little dancing.

There are 2 morning K classes and 2 afternoon classes which in aggregate makes for a fair number of students.  They all needed their costumes packaged and their pilgrim buckles rubber banded onto their shoes.  F's teacher asked me the morning of the show if I could come help out beforehand since her expected help, the reading teacher, had fallen ill.  Sure!

Oh My.  I have never fully understood the phrase herding cats until that evening. It's late in the day for these kids, they are hyped up to perform, and they all need a construction paper buckle attached to each shoe.  Not any buckle, THEIR buckle that they made and then wrote their name on in Kindergarten style handwriting.  And while they were all neatly lined up so the kids could easily find them the first three kids to walk in the door rototilled the piles and no one can find anything and everyone is getting anxious and that makes them more hyped up and LOUD LOUD LOUD.  And for some reason very eager to pinch each other.

Now, I am not a rookie when it comes to wrangling 5 and 6 year olds.  I've worked with kids for years and have been volunteering in the classroom every week since school started so know the drill. I know where to find extra binder clips and rubber bands, I know what spoon in the bowl means, and I know the right words to say to the pinchers.  I'm not sure how it all happened, but we got every Kindergartener outfitted, some more than once after they rolled around on the floor and tore their buckles, lined up in the order they were supposed to be in, their additional costume parts neatly clipped with a binder clip, and out the door right on time.  I give massive credit to the two amazing Kindergarten teachers (who even managed a lesson on what it means when we say "Break a leg").

Me stopping F for a personal break a leg + photo op on his way to the stage.

F's in the back row, roughly in the center of each photo.

Act 1 - The Turkey Act
piles of costumes in front of the kids

Act 2 - The Indian Act

Getting ready for Act 3 - the Pilgrim Act

All four classes doing a costume change.  The little piles on the floor are their clipped together paper hats and props that I helped wrangle beforehand. 

Sadly it's been so long since I made a video I neglected to check the setting on the camera.  No HD video, we'll have to make do with the blurry stuff.  I'm also trying some new video uploaders so check the volume, one seems a bit low.

Albuquerque Turkey.  I have had this song stuck in my head for weeks.
Take a Turkey Out to Lunch.  Don't say a word!  I love how they all whisper together and then all are loud together.

Checking in on Time

Like all parents it hits me every once in a while how fast my child is growing up.  I do the math and figure out we're nearly 1/3 of the way through what will likely be his life here at home with us. After I gasp at that I give him a big hug and enjoy our fleeting moment.

The Grandest Puppet Show

We had some spare time a couple nights ago and FFM put on a puppet show for us.  It was the "GrandMax Puppet Show" in the Grandest Puppet Show Theater.  It started out great and then got really, really, really repetitive.  Travis requested some new dialogue and perhaps a plot twist.

I suggested that perhaps F could draw from a story he knows for some inspiration.  He thought for a while and then said, "I know, someone could get in trouble!" Perhaps we need to change up our book selection.

After some more repeating...Travis suggested perhaps the animals could DO something.  Abruptly, instead of the kangaroos just making friends, the Mama Kangaroo took action and politely told the baby kangaroo, "You can't go outside right now I didn't put sunscreen on you!"

You just never know what twists and turns will take place in fine theater.

What Comes Around Goes Around

Sometimes slaving away on a costume pays off.  You know all those hours (ha ha) that I spent cutting and gluing foamy bits for FFM's penguin costume last year?  Well, THIS year it won the 1st grade best class costume!  That's not a typo, last year's penguin costume got recycled by the lovely Miss Emma whose favorite animals of the moment are tigers and penguins.

Halloween party

Click HERE to remind yourself of last year... they've gotten SO MUCH BIGGER!  I had to let out all 4" of the penguin pants and they were barely long enough.

Trick or Treating

 Jake the Pirate was popular with other kiddos who recognized him right away.  Most adults just thought it was a regular old pirate costume which unfortunately kind of annoyed F.  Here's a picture of Jake for reference, Jake's a Disney cartoon character and the show is a Peter Pan/Captain Hook spinoff.

And, a random reminder of how incredibly warm it's been.  It's been so balmy the bugs are still out, mid 70s on Halloween day.  Last week we found this giant katydid hanging out on one of the tires while the car was parked in the garage.

I will admit, the Jake costume wasn't nearly as easy as the penguin costume.  Not having a pattern to piece from made it tricky for me.  I managed OK until it was time to come up with the fancy oversized collar for the vest, then I ended up cutting and throwing away a whole lot of blue fleece.  

The yellow trim was a lesson in frustration, too. FFM picked out lovely yellow shiny ribbon that I was not able to sew on without puckering or glue on without the glue making the ribbon so translucent it looked like blue fleece.  After a lengthy discussion I convinced him that perhaps we really, really, really needed to go another route and simple edge binding worked just fine.  By then I was in a bit of a rush and some of the edges aren't up to snuff, but it held together through more than a week of festivities and is now safe and sound in the dress up trunk.  Whew.  Until next Halloween...

Painting with the Aunties

We have a long standing tradition of a family Girls Night Out.  My Mom, Aunt Pam, Aunt Melinda and I love to get together and eat, drink and make merry.  A few years ago Pam retired and moved to New Mexico where her son and his family live.  Since then our family moved overseas, my Mom started working more, and Melinda's kids grew up and got super busy-making her super busy too. Since our return to the US the nights out have been sparse, but we try hard to make time in our mismatched schedules.

This month we had time for not one but TWO nights out to celebrate Pam being in town!  Our most recent was dinner out followed by Canvas and Cocktails. If you don't know the drill, you drink and paint along with a group.  It's pretty easy, there's a leader who helps you step by step and gives you ideas of how to mix colors, etc. Even if you aren't artistic at all you can handle this kind of painting.  If you don't like what's being offered that night you're free to paint whatever you choose. We had a good time and since it wasn't our first time we felt a little more free to experiment with colors, etc this go round.

The teacher's painting is there in the back.  Our little corner of the shop was definitely the contrary corner, we were the only ones who broke away from the suggested color scheme and Pam went Kandinsky style.

It was also Halloween dress night. If you wore anything resembling a costume you qualified for a free glass of wine.  Meet Ms. Money and the Purple Fairy.

It doesn't take much to get us all wound up and goofy!

Family Treasures

We've been lucky to have a lot of family time lately.  My Grandpa Moore, who is widowed, recently moved into an assisted living facility. My two aunts and I have been working on sorting family memories and belongings at his house.  I go at least once a week and this week we were also able to make time for our whole family to go on Sunday.

While the aunties and I worked our way around basement Travis did a basic home inspection and flexed his muscles toting and carrying the heavy stuff out of the basement for us.  FFM and his cousin Skylar washed ancient and dusty toy treasures for a while but before long the warm autumnal breezes beckoned them to the great outdoors and we found them crunching leaves in the backyard.  The resourceful duo found a couple of rakes in the garage and made a leaf pile and were merrily jumping and burying each other.

The kids took the last two pictures, for a while my phone was buried in the leaf pile along with the kiddos.

I see now that they were snacking during the leaf excitement   FFM is covered in chocolate and Skylar has a packet of pretzel chips.  There might be some well fed squirrels in that backyard today, I'm not sure all those snacks made it back inside!

Not What We Planned for Our Weekend

October is a fickle month.  We never know if we are going to have warm, balmy sun or a blizzard. This weekend we had a little of everything except the blizzard. We tried to go to our favorite pumpkin patch, open only this weekend, and were thwarted twice by lashing rain and gusting wind.

Saturday we planned on early breakfast followed by pumpkin hunting and fall festival.  We ended up spending a lovely morning with extended family, then browsed for new light fixtures indoors out of the pouring rain, and hung out at home. Travis changed out our front and back door hardware while Finn and I worked on our own project.

 Since Daddy was busy taking lots of measurements FFM really wanted to help.  He was getting a little in the way so we made our own plan.  He had a Mission Notebook and two pages of measurements to take. His mission was so much fun! He measured all kinds of things, a chair, a phone, an animal, a window, it went on and on.

Saturday night I headed out to girls night out downtown and the boys stayed in and had pizza leftovers for dinner and read lots of books.

Sunday, ah lazy Sunday, the sun finally came out.  We opted to wrap up some of our outdoor chores that have been lingering. We had some exterior trim to paint after gutter work a couple of weeks ago, winterize the lawn, cut back some of the perennials, and hack back the cobwebs that pop up everywhere.  FFM mucked out his playhouse and got it ready for winter.

We had a few moments of panic when FFM disappeared and neither Travis or I could find him anywhere. After the recent Jessica Ridgeway news we JUST had a chat with him about stranger danger and not taking off without permission. No kid in house, front yard, or backyard. There weren't any other neighbor kids out and about so we were at a loss. We finally found him camped out in our car. We got our new one on Monday and he's still very excited about it. When he found it unlocked he climbed in to play in and 'clean' it. Another stranger danger chat and a few tears later we were all calmed down. Now I just hope the car is OK!

We wrapped up early, had early dinner, and had time leftover for family game night. We love game night! Add in cheesy caramel corn and Dots and it's one great time.

Cameraphone

We get so silly sometimes. Thank goodness for cameras on every new piece of tech so we can document it.

Eleven

We celebrated a lot this year.  It's been a fantastic year!  I got pleasantly snarled in the photo albums and spent a lot of time reminiscing before I finally got around to writing this post.  While I had a good time with the dusty albums it didn't top Anniversary Date night with my tied-for-favorite guy (the other one is shorter, younger, blonder and had to stay home with a sitter tonight much to his chagrin).

This year I think about all the wonderful things going on in our family.

click photo to enlarge

My cousin Sarah, just next to Travis, was a member of the bridal party and played piano at our wedding.  She got married about a year and a half ago, FFM was the ring bearer, and she and her husband are expecting their first child. 

Sarah's brother, James, is in the front row 4th from the right (next to my Mom).  He  just graduated from the University of Kansas this May.  

My cousin Matt, next to James, is here in Denver now at pharmacy school at Regis.  He and Lindsey got married in May.  Another rip roarin' party for us, especially for FFM who got to carry rings again and dance with all the bridesmaids.

That handsome ring bearer and beautiful flower girl?  He's a great athlete and aspiring farmer who is hoping to be off to Colorado State University to study agriculture in a couple of years.  She just started her freshman year of college, a whole year early.

Emily, the pretty blond in the top left corner, she's a fantastic artist and is now teaching high school art.  This summer we got to see one of her original metalwork pieces and it was stunning.

See the tiny baby in the back?  That's Skylar, my cousin.  She tested into the gifted and talented program in her junior high this year and one of the best soccer players I know.  I'm so proud of her!  I'm also really proud of her brother, Ryan, who was just a twinkle in his parents' eye at this stage of the game.  He is so kind and generous and I'm glad he and FFM get to grow up together.

So much has changed since this picture was taken!  Our siblings are all married now, new lives have come, and a few have passed on.  I see family that have retired, sold businesses, changed career paths.  We've all journeyed through quite a bit of life since this photo was taken, and I can think of so many joyous occasions we've all been able to share.  I think of all the happy stories we tell about this day, and anticipate the ones we'll tell in the years to come (I think since were no cousin stories generated from Matt's wedding that the rules state there must be twice as many from the next wedding...you know who you are!)  Here's to many, many more years of all of us together,

xoxo,

Maggie and Travis

DJ F

I need to be faster with the camera phone and he needs to be slower. Then things wouldn't turn out so blurry.  And I should get him cooler headphones.

I know he's not spinning so isn't really DJ-ing, but it's the classic headphone to the ear move that makes me think of DJs.  I did not teach him to do this, he generated this move all on his own so he could listen to piano and other stuff all at the same time.  He's gotten to a point with piano that he plays ALL the time so I plugged in the headphones a few days ago because I had to arrange a bunch of appointments on the phone one afternoon and I wanted to do it without Ode to Joy blasting in the background.  I turned around today and there he is, DJ style, rocking out to a tune of his own making.

First Snow 2012

It's always exciting to get the first snow of the year.  We finally have had some fall weather, then we got back up into the 80s for a few days, then were warned of a cold front headed our way.  Any time there is the slightest chance of snow the TV stations all go bonkers and I usually take their estimate and knock at least 30% off.  Last night the news said our accumulation was likely to be 0.0" so I really didn't expect to see any on the ground.

As we all know, those weather people don't always get it right.

It's not very much, not even worth measuring, but every tiny bit helps in our dry, dry year!

Life in a Swing State

Oh, how I wish I was referring to the swing found at a playground.

Unless you live outside of the US or somewhere under a rock right here at home you know that yesterday was the Presidential Debate here in Denver.  Leading up to the debate the biggest news here was a massive closure of the central part of our freeway system for five hours starting at peak rush hour and the cold front that might bring snow.  No biggie.

What the news hasn't talked much about, until today, was the other political joys we've garnered living in Denver/Colorado the last 30 days.  Perhaps it's just the fact that we're a swing state, or the hosts of the first debate, but we have been deluged with advertising.  (For any international folk out there, a swing state, according to our pals at Wiki is: a battleground state...a state in which no single candidate or party has overwhelming support.  Swing states get extra attention during elections because they are still  'undecided'.)

a map showing swing states from a few months ago, examiner.com

We've felt a little battered.  We still have a landline at our house (we live in a hilly spot and the topograpy makes cell signals unreliable.  We're not dinosaurs I promise) and the political calls have gotten so copious we simply stopped answering.  Any given afternoon we'll get between 4-8 calls.  Not so many in the morning, but it's not unheard of.  Then a few more in the evenings.  Some days we get just a couple, then another huge spurt.  I don't even bother getting up to look anymore, it's hardly ever anyone we know.  They are all hiding from their phones, too.

Tonight on the news Travis experienced political ad redemption.  The pain and agony of pushing fast forward endless times on the DVR to skip ads really has been more than normal.  Both campaigns bought more TV advertising in Colorado last month than anywhere else.  Nearly 8,000 ads.  Obama had twice as many as Romney.  I'm pretty sure that the radio buys are about the same and other media outlets aren't too shabby, either.  I sure hope our city and state get some good revenue out of all this spending.  As far as influencing my vote, I can't say that any of the ads have done anything other than annoy me.

Farewell Blue Car

Today we bid farewell to our Blue Car.  It used to be known as MY car, but after we bought the Red Car both cars started getting called MY car and Travis felt left out.  So we renamed them Red and Blue cars to keep it all fair and square.

I bought this car nearly 10 years ago back in my working days.  I traded in the first vehicle I bought totally on my own (an S-10 pickup) for my 2nd new car, a 'sporty' car.  I bought the  truck when I lived up in the mountains, it made a lot of sense, and established as a city girl I wanted a zippy city car.  Boy, was it fun.  I'll miss it.

It sold fast, much faster than we expected, and today we find ourselves a one car family again.  Travis and I did a little car shopping today and much to FFM's chagrin came home empty handed.  Since Travis can bike or bus to work we don't feel huge pressure to buy a car right away, but as soon as we figure out a few logisitics (which one fits best in our garage and do we want figure out the wiring to plug one in?) we'll be on our way to new car ownership again.

bye bye Blue!

Cool Book Lists for Kids

I love books.  Our whole family loves books. We are certifiable bibliophiles.  One of my most favorite things about being a parent is sharing books with my child.  Now that he's reading on his own it's even more exciting, we read together, he reads to me, and now I catch him curled up in random places with a book of his own.  The back seat of our car is littered with paperback early readers and when he's not listening to a book on his headphones F reads a book to me or any other passenger in the car.

This is a habit I want to feed.  I have this longstanding underlying fear of running out of books.  If you are a reader you understand this.  You have to have a good backlog or you just don't feel right.  Now this stretches to my child and I want to make sure he's got plenty of books, too.  We're avid library patrons and many of the librarians know us both by name, even more by sight.  Sometimes, however, I get in a slump and can't think of any good books.  Right now we're in the space between picture books and chapter books and I'm navigating the waters of "readers" (early reader, middle reader, advanced reader etc) and there are so, so many of these books and a lot of them are just awful.

I found a few lists that have been inspiring.  They are all over the place, shoot the library is a great place to find booklists, but here are a few of my current favorites.  Please shout out your own favorites, I'd love to hear what you've found, too.

PBS Parents Bookfinder
A great search engine that allows you to type in age, theme, reader level, and keywords.

PBS Parents Best Books for Boys
OK, so you don't HAVE to be a boy to read these books but I've found that like clothes there are far more books aimed towards girls than boys once you hit a certain age.  This list breaks it down by reading level making searching for that novel for your nephew or picture book for you new grandson a piece 'o cake.

67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10
This list is so much fun. It was written by a Dad and I found it when F started choosing chapter books in lieu of pictures books at bedtime every night. Chapter books at bedtime created an interesting shift in our routine. Travis and I went from rushing through bedtime stories and secretly hoping the other would get picked, to hoping we'd get picked to do bedtime and secretly reading the chapters we'd missed when the other got to do the nightly read.  I admit I've had to pay some library fine so I could finish reading a book that Travis and F got to read.

Teacher's First 100 Best Books
Trying to remember those classic books you loved as a child? Nothing groundbreaking here, when you're in the mood for the oldies but goodies try this list.  The link above goes to the 1999 list which is neatly organized by age, if you are interested in the updated list from 2007 click HERE but be prepared to sift through as it's not organized into any categories.

Common Sense Media
I discovered Common Sense Media when F started school and got his own computer. I wanted to make sure he wasn't stumbling into unsafe or inappropriate places online and stumbled upon their website when doing research.  Their forte is age appropriateness of media - so if you're wondering how soon before you can crack out Harry Potter without scaring the pants off your kiddo, they'll give you some suggestions.

Oprah's Book List for Kids
I'm going to lay this out there, I'm not always a fan of Oprah's book choices.  But she makes them and sometimes they are very good books.  Mainstream with a hint of cultural awareness, this list is decent and includes our favorite early reader characters, Elephant and Piggie by Mo Willems.  It's a flash slideshow, so bring your patience.

Book Awards
Don't forget kids books win awards too!
Caldecott - Awarded to the artist of picture books
Geisel - Distinguished books for beginning readers
Children's Notable Books - Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) chooses the best of the best kid books

QOTD

"Emma and I are moving upstairs to play because downstairs isn't a good enough neighborhood."

I have NO idea where THAT came from.

Halloween Project '12

I am resigning myself to the fact that Halloween costumes will never be simple as I anticipate they will be.

November 1, 2011- "Mom, I want to be a mummy next year for Halloween!"  Cool. A piece of cake.  FFM was consistent and told me for months (I guess some kids are planners and think about costumes year round) that he wanted to be a mummy.  End of summer arrives.  Suddenly the whole costume idea changes.  No more mummy, it's Jake the Pirate.  Now, if I have to manufacture any part of a costume I need a looooooooooooong lead time.  I am not a zippy seamstress. I need like weeks.  Or months.  Just in case it takes a try or two.  Or three.

Jake is a licensed Disney character.  Easy costume methinks! Simply order one from Disney and be done!  Even better, this summer a Disney store opened in our nearby mall.  Super.  I rang them up and asked 1) if they would be recieveing Jake costumes and 2) When they would arrive and 3)What sizes they would get.

Yes, they were in, and biggest was 5T.

Uh oh.  FFM hasn't been a 5T for a while. Now, it's a costume, so maybe I could squeeze him into it and not worry about it being too short if it got me out of constructing one from scratch.  Short OK.  Not going all the way around, whole 'nother ball of wax. grrrrrrrr

So the premade costume idea didn't pan out so I came home and googled and checked Pinterest for ideas.  I am not alone.  The vast knowledge of the internet yielded instructions for a homemade costume.  I'm cobbling together several patterns, mainly with the help of this one from Between the Toys and another from Lu Bird Baby.

My mission, now that I have chosen to accept it, is to turn this:

into this:

Note: Mr. Detail pointed out that the shiny gray fabric we picked is NOT the right color but it passed his approval anyway.

Buddies

Kindergarteners get to do all kinds of cool things.  One of FFM's favorites are every-other-Friday buddy days.  Each Kindergarten child is paired up with a third grader and on alternating Fridays they get together for an activity.  The first week they did get to know you sheets and FFM finally got to bring his home.

A sidenote - some third graders pick their buddies, FFM's buddy picked him because they share the same (currently unusual) name.  They get a kick out of calling each other and my F gets all giggly when he tells me about his buddy F.

The things you learn!  I had no idea his favorite sport was baseball.  Of course when he brought this home he told me now his favorite sport was football because the Broncos are currently playing.  I suspect he was thinking from a spectating angle more than participation.  Zoomies is really the Nick show Team Umizoomi which has been a favorite for a long time.  Good on Buddy F for nearly spelling Qantas right.

On the 3rd grader side I had to Google Kennywood to learn it's an amusement park in Pennsylvania and that Ridiculousness (way to spell kiddo!) is a show on MTV that features video clips of people doing ridiculous things.

Both boys enjoy music, although it didn't make it anywhere on our side of the list. FFM loves that his 3rd grader is a drummer since he's an avid pianist/singer and hoping to play guitar soon.  Perhaps they'll strike up a band before we know it.  Look for the Funkadelic F's playing a show near you!

Pinterest Project

I enjoy Pinterest.  It clicks with my style of visual organization and I like stashing project ideas for later.  Like most people I have way more ideas than I have time to follow through on but I do manage to do a few of my Pinterest projects and this latest is one of my favorites.

Our 30 year old house came equipped with 30 year old shiny brass hardware.  All of the light fixtures, towel bars, and even the floor registers have been updated, but the door hardware screams early 1980s.  Hello Pinterest idea.  I stumbled across this idea and there are about a million websites that give you specific instructions but I'll tell you what I did to change shiny brass to a more updated look.

 First I took all the hardware off, including the latch and strike plates.  Hinges will come later, I only had so much stamina.  I cleaned them all with TSP so that the paint would stick really well.  Travis picked up some primer and spray paint for me on one of his regular Home Depot trips.  Even though the paint said it had primer our past experience tells us things last longer and have a smoother finish with a real coat of primer under them.

Then I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed.  I should have worn a mask.  Some pieces needed to be flipped for even coverage and to make sure all visible parts were covered.  The tp rolls helped me get the undersides of the knobs.  24 hours after the last coat we put it all back up.

The color paint we used was Rustoleum oil rubbed bronze.  I ended up using just more than 1 can for 2+ coats on all the interior hardware in a 2 story house.  It's great!  For less than $20 and an easy few hours of work (more in waiting to dry time - I waited at least 1 hour between each coat) we have all new hardware.

What's next?  Maybe this!

glitterize your shoes!