Letter to Santa

Lucky FFM got a package from Santa last week. Inside was an elf with a letter all about F. At the end of the letter Santa said, email me anytime! Here's my email address! Once FFM read that bit 'o news he moved heaven and earth to figure out how to compose an email. Mom helped by setting him up with his very own (heavily supervised) email account. 

Here's exactly what he wrote:

My Elf is  named Wonder. I want you to hear my piano Music. I just want surprises this year. I am learning Spanish. I hope you stay warm. MERRY CHRISTMAS!                                                                               From Finn 

Even with super slow hunt and peck he already likes typing better than handwriting.

Fashionista

No, not any of the adults in this family.  FFM. And I'm not sure males are called fashionistas, but I couldn't come up with anything better. FFM loves clothes. Colorful, stylish, hip clothes. He knows the names of his favorite designers/brands and will always pick those shirts and pants before what he calls the 'plain' ones from Gymboree or Crazy 8. When the catalogs come he pours over them, pointing out the outfits he wants.

F outgrew pretty much all his long pants over the summer, blowing past those NWT ones I had stored from last year's end of season sales, and what do you suppose he asked for? All skinny colored jeans,no blue ones please Mom. His favorite pair right now? Teal. Followed by the red ones, the light red ones, and the golden ones (his words, not mine). Every shirt he picked out this fall was button down. He'd wear button down shirts with slacks every day if I'd agree to spring for that many 'fancy' shirts. (with a tie every few days just for kicks).

The dark side of all this, little boy shirts aren't usually made of that spiffy stain resistant/wrinkle resistant, looks great out of the dryer fabric that men's clothes are made of. Here is a sign of the depth of my love for my child:

I DETEST ironing. I had to do a fair bit of it as a youngster and as an adult I only iron if I REALLY REALLY have to. As soon as I started buying my own clothes I avoided anything that had to be ironed. Thus the true, bottomless love of a parent, I iron down the worst parts of his shirts. No starch. How long before he can afford dry cleaning?

F's Semi-Famous Hot Oat Pucks

This spring we made some adjustments to our food storage so FFM could easily reach and prepare meals on his own while I recuperated from hip surgery. I still avoid having him work with sharp knives and hot surfaces unsupervised, so it was tricky to figure out some of his favorites. He prefers to make his own breakfast a lot of the time, which is great since I'm not super chippy in the mornings. Thus F's Hot Oat Pucks were born.

 We keep a bag of these in the freezer and he can help himself and microwave a couple anytime.

F's Hot Oat Pucks
  4 C milk
  2.5 C water
  4 C regular oats
  1/4 C maple syrup (or sweetener of your choice or leave out if)
  2-3 T cinnamon
  1 C toasted chopped walnuts
  Raisins, Craisins, and/or frozen berries of your choice

Bring milk and water to a boil and add oats.  Cook about 5 minutes, or until your preferred consistency. Remove from heat. Add maple syrup and stir through. Add cinnamon, walnuts, and fruit and stir until well combined. Let cool for 5-10 minutes

Spray two 12-count muffin tins with cooking spray. Alternatively, use silicone and skip the spray. Fill cups all the way to the top with oat mixture. We have various sizes and I try to fill them so that the pucks will all end up about the same size. This means filling giant cups only halfway.

Place all your tins in the freezer for a few hours until totally frozen. To remove from a metal tin you may need to run a little warm water across the back of the tin. To remove from silicon pan simply pop out by pushing on the back of each cup. Put into a freezer bag and return to freezer.

When you are ready for Hot Oats, place 2 pucks into a 2C glass measuring cup and add a splash of water or milk (more if you like your oats runny). Heat for 2 min and 30 seconds for a 1000w microwave.  To serve F's favorite way, tip into a bowl and add 3 generous spoonfuls of yogurt and stir.  Yum!

I don't usually sweeten his oats, so I don't always put in the maple syrup. Sometimes I have smooshy bananas around and I mix them in at the end, too. Nuts go in when I have them handy, and if you're an adult you might like to add half a teaspoon or so of salt for your palette.

The Three Amigos Go to Boulder

Last week we had parent - teacher conferences. Our school has two non-student days the week of conferences so after your thirty minute meeting is over you've got a bunch of free time to kill. F and I rounded up some pals and headed to Boulder to tour the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory (free!).

Sipping at the tasting bar. Tea aficionados for sure.

Getting up close to the Sleepytime Bear

Obligatory hair net picture.

 Boulder was great fun and we all got really worn out. The following day FFM and I headed to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to see the new Mythbusters exhibit. F doesn't watch much TV so on the way over I had to explain what the show Mythbusters is all about. He is HOOKED! On the way out I ended up buying one of the DVDs. This worked out really well since I spent the whole day Saturday helping my Mom clean out her basement while FFM binge watched Mythbusters.

Posting with the robotic shark from the episode celebrating Shark Week.

Now we're enjoying our lengthy fall (no blizzards yet!) and the not to hot/not to cold weather that we've had the last couple of weeks.

Colorado Skies

Fall is full of change, here we can have 80F one day and blowing snow the next. Shoot, sometimes that's all in one day! It make for interesting skies, and here are some we've had lately.

On the way home from a Broncos game the sky was soft blues, pinks, and oranges.

Travis caught a sunrise from his office this week

 Last weekend we went to Glenwood Springs for an anniversary getaway. On the way we saw the last of the fall colors.

And about ten minutes later ran into this:

 Not much snow, but the road was a solid sheet of ice for a couple miles. Travis did some remarkable driving and saved us from half a dozen near missed. There were several time we were sure we'd end up in the ditch, preferable to colliding with someone, but we made it unscathed. The pass closed shortly thereafter and some of my family were stuck for three hours while a string of accidents were cleaned up.

On the way home on Sunday our drive looked like this!

Corn Maze and Yarn Crawl

In case you think ALL we do in the fall is work on the house, here are the other fun activities the Moores have been up to.

I went on my first ever organized "yarn crawl." Yes, it's like a pub crawl but instead of lots of bars and drinks it's lots of yarn shops and wool. I went with my Mom and Debi, and we hit every yarn store from the south end of Colorado Springs to Boulder. It was SO MUCH FUN! Luckily the crawl coincided with my first paycheck so I went a little crazy buying all kinds of cool stuff. I even bought a drop spindle and am going to try to spin some yarn. I'm also going to learn how to needle felt a fun toy.

While I was driving across the front range Travis, FFM, and Emma did fun stuff, too. Travis was taking pictures to post this -

 on craigslist. Before he could do that Emma and FFM decided it would be a fun thing to play with in the greenbelt.

 Later that day Travis took both kids to the corn maze and fall festival at the Botanic Gardens in Chatfield. They had such a fun time that I'm almost sad I missed it.

Once they made it through the maze, which was just the right level of tricky, they spent hours playing on all the fun toys at the festival. 

 The bouncy, uh, bouncer? That's FFM flying in the air above the yellow stripe. Emma's getting up on the green stripe. They are still talking about "that cool bouncy thing."

 I got home late and called Travis to tell him to go ahead and feed the kids. They weren't home yet either so they stayed at the festival and ate fair food.
Snow cones and

 hand battered corn dogs and hot dogs

To top off a perfect fall day Emma spent the night at our house. Funny thing, though, both kids were asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed, festivals are hard work!

DIY Season

In the summer and winter we don't get much work done around the house. I'm lucky if I manage to even get any cleaning done. Fall and Spring we make a concerted effort to work on the "stuff around the house that needs work" list. It's not all DIY, but the DIY is the only stuff that is fun to blog about (who really wants to see a picture of Travis working on taxes?).

Project #1 - Fireplace screen.
I saw this screen in a copy of This Old House magazine and decided it was just what we needed to cover up our drafty fireplace. We enjoy having a fireplace, but it is so leaky that on cold winter days that whole end of the room is chilly. My biggest hurdle, finding the wood. A friend suggested craigslist, and the next weekend we found someone advertising free wood, help yourself from the pile in the driveway.

Travis got me a board and a can of matte black spray paint, I painted the back board, he cut the logs into discs, and we both glued them on. We ended up with a nice variety of colors and sizes, and they stacked pretty easily.

 Voila! It's a great addition to our family room.

Project #2 - Deck Landing
Like most lots in this part of town ours slopes. When we built our deck that meant that the step down on the east side is nice and manageable, but on the west side really only Travis could step up or down easily. We thought for a long, long, long time about how we wanted to address this corner of the deck and finally landed on this plan - an oversized landing step big enough to put our hose on.

Travis painstakingly leveled, framed, leveled, backfilled, adjusted the downspout until it was exactly right. He used the same stones that run along the border of our deck so it coordinates nicely. Now I can store the sometimes leaky hose reel on stone instead of the wood deck. It's also nice that FFM and I can now step down easily.

Project #3 - Bathroom update
When we moved in to this house FOUR years ago (yipes!) the paint colors were nice, but all a little on the gray side. The upstairs shared bathroom was a shade of green gray that grated on my nerves. Late one night as I was getting ready for bed I decided enough was enough and I pulled out a can of paint leftover from painting FFM's room (it had been blue gray) and painted the bathroom until the wee hours of the morning. I decided as soon as my achy joints could take it I was going to repaint. Four years later I finally get around to it, and FFM gives me his design input. He requested a blue bathroom with a guy theme. Rock and Roll baby!
Before - malfunctioning light fixture, outdated mirror (it's already gone here) and lots of wall patching. We repainted the medicine cabinet instead of replacing it after we discovered it's a bizarre size that isn't available at Lowe's or Home Depot.

 We decided to replace the towel bars with hooksto make it easier to hang up all the towels FFM uses for swimming. The previous owners used interesting hardware to attach the bars, when removed it left gaping holes in the drywall. Lots and lots of patching.

New mirror, shiny metallic royal blue medicine cabinet, and new light fixture. The mirror is my favorite part, it's etched all around with a pattern reminiscent of a bar code. 

The blue color looks weird in the photos, it's a cheery turquoise blue from Benjamin Moore. We all get happy whenever we walk into this bathroom now!

The opposite wall is where we replaced the bars with hooks. After searching high and low FFM and I finally found GUY hooks. Goodness, there are a million fun hooks if you do something feminine. The mirror discs are still in progress, I put the first few up before the paint was fully cured and they didn't stick well. When finished it will be a wave pattern swooping down to below the sign.

That's about it on our list of fall projects, after we pack in all our garden stuff we'll be ready for ski season!

12

It's been twelve years now, and it still seems like a blink. Digging through the archives I looked for the first picture ever of Travis and me. The one I found is *just* before we started dating. This was taken at the party after Travis' fraternity formal. I went to the formal with a mutual friend (Hi PQ!) and had a great time. My brother was also in the same fraternity and was there with a date and Travis' sister was there as a guest of one of his brothers. Someone suggested a snap (back before any of  us had digital cameras) of all the Moores so we four grouped up for a shot.

If you'd told me that day that 1) In about a month Travis and I would be dating and 2) That we'd end up getting married, I would have laughed a hearty chuckle. Good thing Travis and I got ourselves sorted out in the end!

Excuses

Holy cow it's been a month since I blogged last! I've got plenty of excuses, but I promise news is coming soon. The new job is going very well, I like it even more than I thought and am baffled/amazed/blessed every day that luck landed me the perfect job for a mom who really is happy being stay at home.

FFM is adjusting well to first grade. My return to work was the more difficult adjustment for him. While he's happy to be at school he also (we both) really enjoy our time together in the mornings and after school gets out. The first week of work was filled with special training and certification meetings and our schedule was so crazy that he often had to get rides to/from school with someone else. I think it finally sunk in this week that won't be the case anymore, and we're happily back in our school time routine and only ride with friends when it's a playdate day.

My official title - Health Asst.
When I work - 3 hours a day only on school days. If either F or I are sick I don't go in. This is a new position and our school has had the office staff running the school clinic for years so they handle things just fine without me. I'm there to ease their load, and they are always so appreciative when I get a project done.
What I do - manage student health records, dispense meds, and lots and lots of bandaids and ice packs.  Since that doesn't take up all of my time I assist the office staff or anybody that needs a hand that day. I don't see how I could ever get bored, it's a totally different job every single day. I'm not a nurse, but I did have to renew my CPR/AED/1st Aid. We have an actual nurse who is contracted through Children's Hospital, she covers several schools in our district so is there to answer questions and provide training and support, but she's not actually in the school to stick bandaids on boo boos.

When I took the job I was really excited to be able to work in our school with our wonderful staff but had some trepidation about dealing with sick and whiny kids all day (for a whole three hours). Turns out there really isn't any whining and it's incredibly fulfilling to fix up a hurt, sometimes crying, child and have them walk out smiling and waving. I'm learning who the actors are, who just likes to come in and visit, and who the serial minor-injury-must-have-bandaid for my microscopic cut kids are. I'm slowly getting to know more and more of the school staff, who all know who I am already since I had to stand up and get introduced at a staff meeting. So far everyone is so nice and seem to be happy working, which explains the good vibe Travis and I had when we picked this school.

First Day of School 2013 - 1st Grade

There was a lot less hoopla this year, but that did not dampen the spirits of our intrepid student. He's been counting down the days to endless recess and lunch with his friends. We do not request teachers at our school, but he had one in mind and was thrilled to learn he will have Mrs. Miller this year for first grade. She's a lovely calm and smiley lady who has been teaching for more than two decades. F's class is again heavy on the boys, guess Mrs. Miller just got lucky this year.

This summer was "skip hair cuts summer".
He's torn between getting spikes back and smooth, long hair.

Here's how things looked in 2012, 2011, and 2010.

New this year, I'm going to school, too! Mid-summer I got a phone call from F's principal asking if I'd be interested in a part time job. After a little (very little) negotiating we came to an agreement of hours and duties. I will only be at school on student days and during the school day so I won't have to work if F's not there (no daycare!). I'll be working with the front office staff, mainly organizing health records and putting bandaids on owies. I'll also work on anything else that comes my way, which many of you know is enticing and harmonious with my work style. I'll be working three hours a day, so about half the school day. I have met a LOT of Littleton Public School staff the last few days, and I'm excited that they are all SO unbelievably friendly and glad to see me. I am pleased to learn that this culture extends beyond our school throughout the system, all the way to HR and Security. Today was spent doing paperwork, tomorrow I'll see what the real work is all about.

Summer

It's a lot harder to post in the summer. The great outdoors beckons, FFM and I play a lot, read often, and generally poke around. We've been slowly doling out the bounty of birthday gifts he received so the fun lasts all summer. There's always a new Lego set under construction, outdoor toys to test out in the greenbelt, and new books to read. We go to the library a couple times a week, avoid the grocery store and pluck dinner from our garden instead, and we're both always up for a trip to the pool.

Last week F wrapped up a two week theater camp that gave him a little change of pace and me time to do a quick swipe over all the house to get the worse of the grime and to start (not finished yet!) a painting project.  The first week of camp they learned about stage direction, projection, and tips like to face the audience even if they are talking to the person next to them. The kids worked in small groups of about 4 and rewrote a traditional fairytale in their own words. They learned how to create and use storyboards, and at the end of the week there was a small performance.

The second week they spent more time on the BIG stage and learned more theater speak. I got a tour and was shown the house, pit, backstage, lighting tech, etc. Week two the kids broke into different small groups and wrote their OWN play from scratch. They were great! Good plots, interesting characters, and great DIY costumes. Friday brought the Final Performance. F's group performed "Good VS Evil" or as he puts it, "The Queen, The Kitty, and The Witch."

Synopsis:
The Princess falls ill and her mother, The Queen, sends off Magical Kitty Miracle to find the Magic Flower that will cure her. Kitty is intercepted by the Evil Queen who casts a spell on him, renames him Darkenss AND kidnaps the Princess! The Queen sends the Magical Dove and once the Dove saves the Kitty the two have enough power to defeat the Evil Queen and turn her to stone. In the meantime the Queen has found the magical flower, saves the Princess, and they all live happily ever after.
Guess who was the Kitty?
Video quality is poor, my phone camera struggled. I promise it's not too painful to watch, but the sound is bad.


P.S. I had no idea the magic bird was a dove until she told me. I was fully under the impression she was a magical crow.

Swim 2013

We just finished a crazy fun summer swim season. It was F's first, and he took to the pool like a fish to water. I won't lie, it thrills me that our kiddo enjoys one of my favorite sports, and the only one in which I was ever competitive. While he may look like his Dad, there's pool water flowing in his veins just like Mom.

He's surprisingly competitive (again, Mom more than Dad) and it was exciting for him to win (he won his heat several times). Those first hard won ribbons lit him up! He placed in nearly every event he swam in this summer and only got disqualified once (flutter kick during breaststroke).  Our team does a great job of organizing photos during all the meets and here are a few from the first two meets of the season. I'm already wishing for next summer!

Birthday Blowout

Given that our birthdays are only a few days apart, F and I usually take at least a whole week or two or four to celebrate.

F's 6th birthday party was a small affair. We talked about options and he choose Build-A-Bear. 6th birthday = six guests this year, and it was a really good time (a bigger hit than I expected).

Doing something funny with their hearts.
Everyone got two, one to keep and one to give special birthday wishes to FFM

spider-bear, police bear, cammo-bear, swimming kitty, ironman bear, police dog, and pink princess 

 We crashed the  Noodles restaurant next door for a bite to eat and for the serving of the cake (which came from Coldstone around the corner, easiest birthday party ever!). The Noodles staff were super helpful, even though we made a huge mess!

 F received a couple "experiences" gifts this year. The day after his birthday his Granny Annie had arranged to take him on a train trip and mine tour in the mountains about an hour west of us. F still has a freaky obsession with trains and was thrilled to get to spend the day riding one with Granny Annie and Eric.

 Blurry mine tour photo op

Another fun gift was the giant inflatable ball. There was much discussion and rock-paper-scissoring about whose turn it was to roll the ball.

endless giggles 

teamwork to get it back "uphill"

 F got his first giftcard this year, and it was for Barnes and Noble. It was a perfect gift for him, while we were choosing books he asked several times if these were his to keep. He's got a huge library of his own, but this is the first time he's been interested in picking out his own books. We've been doing it at the library for a while now, but of course those have to eventually be returned.

at the hairdresser enjoying his new book

 My birthday was as low key as it's been every year since F was born. A bunch of my aunties were in town so we had a fun family GNO. Dinner out with friends on my actual birthday left me feeling well celebrated!