Mother's Day Composition

This morning I was presented with a lovely card and an announcement that in my honor FFM was releasing his first ever composition on Mother's Day. He's been working on it for a few weeks and yesterday he finalized it. Presenting, "Shooting Star" by F. Moore.

Love Letters Lost and Found

While my grandpa was fighting at the Battle of the Bulge 70 years ago, he wrote love letters to a young woman. After he returned home safely he married this young woman and they raised a family. They were happily married for 63 years before my grandma passed away in 2010 shortly after we returned to the US.

Growing up I knew that both my grandpas had been involved in World War II, but neither ever talked about it, even to indulge their grandkids. In the late 1990's that changed and my grandparents started to share their story with students and teachers. The volunteered their time and told what it was like on both sides of the Atlantic during the war, sharing photos and letters. My organized grandma collected highlights of all this information and compiled binders of history for each and every one of us in the family.

View image | gettyimages.com

Just before Valentine's Day this year, nearly 5 years after my grandma passed away, a local news station ran a story about a lost WWII love letter. The next day the story was picked up by national and international news outlets and most recently the TV show Inside Edition ran an expanded piece. Special thanks to Ilene who returned a valuable piece of history to our family.

2:39 PM EST, February 25, 2015 This mystery began as a woman bought a second-hand record, and found the surprise of her life inside: a 70-year-old letter, tucked in the sleeve!

 Ilene Ortiz told INSIDE EDITION, "I took it out and looked at it, and said 'Oh my God, this is a letter from 1945!'" A love letter, to be exact, and it broke Ilene Ortiz's heart. "I get emotional because it's a love letter! And someone should have it. It's not mine, someone else should get it. So I'm going to try to find him."

 Sure enough, she found the man who wrote the letter, and wait until you hear his story. He's a decorated World War ll veteran named Bill Moore, and he wrote this letter to his future wife 70 years ago, during the historic Battle of the Bulge. Bill's daughter, Melinda told INSIDE EDITION, "He was out there by himself all day in the cold and the dark and the snow, pretty lonely and miserable, and thinking of mom."

 When Bill mailed the letter to his beloved, he really didn't know if he'd ever be coming home. He explained, "You always have that thing in the back of your mind, I might never see her again!" As Bill read those words he wrote so long ago, he broke down crying. He read the letter to INSIDE EDITION, saying: "You have no conception of the depth of my love for you. I'm really the luckiest guy in the world, you know, and you are the reason, Bernadean..."

 Fate was on Bill's side. He survived the war and came home to marry Bernadean Gibson and have three children. They were happily married for 63 years until Bernadean's death in 2010. But whatever happened to that love letter? Well, that record containing the letter once belonged to Bernadean, and she apparently kept it there for safekeeping! The letter is precious to Bill's daughters as well. Melinda told INSIDE EDITION, "I was amazed by the emotional depth of it. Just to realize what my parents had."

 Sure, the pages have yellowed and the ink has faded, but Bill's love for Bernadean has not dimmed since he was a brave young soldier, dreaming of the girl he left behind. Bill read, "I love you. I guess I always will."
"

And Finally Some Snow

The first two weeks of February brought the 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships to Beaver Creek. It's a bit like a mini-Olympics for skiers, and all the big names in skiing are there. We watched the races a bit but ended up reveling in the totally empty mountain and had a great day of skiing. We're lucky in that several of the big name skiers train at Vail and Beaver Creek and it's not uncommon to share a lift or a run with someone such as Mikaela Shiffrin. Here's a view of all the race courses in the background of our very colorful skier.

 For Travis' big birthday he requested a ski trip here in Colorado to a ski area we don't normally go to. We narrowed it down to Crested Butte and Monarch and the timing of when we could go landed us at Monarch. We stayed at a hot springs resort nearby and enjoyed soaking in the warm river and pools after a day of better than expected skiing. We also stumbled onto a monthly art walk in Salida and spent most of a day in and out of galleries chatting with artists. All in all a pretty great long weekend.

We also got a decent sized storm here in Denver. Totals across the city varied widely, we ended up with a little less than 8" all of which landed over the weekend. Weekend snow means great sledding opportunities and when F and Emma discovered that their "secret" sledding hill was full of most of the neighborhood kids they were thrilled for the giant play date. Getting to each other was a bit tricky, Emma's gate was frozen shut (see the purple coated youngster in the background working the gate) and our gate was stuck shut by the weight of the snow on the opening side. The two intrepid pals were getting to each other one way or the other... Luckily Dad stepped in and manhandled our gate open and Emma bravely clambered over her fence (which is a little shorter than ours) and the two met in the middle for a day of snow play.

 Unrelated to snow, FFM presented several weeks worth of research and writing in the annual 2nd grade country night. He picked Ireland (yes, Australia was a close second) and filled an entire book with facts and details about the land of his birth. It was a great night seeing all the different books from all the countries and tasting foods from all over the world. F's other bestie, also named Emma, dressed in her native Ethiopian garb and made a lovely pancake similar to a French crepe.

My True Love Gave to Me

This year for Christmas we were blessed with illness! Travis took enough days off that he could spend the entire winter school break with us and all in all we got ONE day of skiing together as a family.

The first weekend of the break Travis was sick with Norovirus, a killer stomach bug. He kindly passed it on to me and I started to come out of it Christmas Day. Meanwhile Travis caught a sore throat/cold that mostly made him tired. Christmas Day went pretty well, then FFM caught the stomach bug and the remainder of our family guests skedaddled before it could strike. After scouring the Vail Valley for Pedialyte Pops FFM consumed half a box and felt better.

Week 2 we had a couple of days of everyone being mostly healthy and we managed a day out on the hill.  Tuesday of the second week Travis woke up with a sore elbow. He had me take a look at it to see if he'd banged it and bruised it, but what I saw was a giant, puffy, angry red welt. Quick trip to Urgent Care and he was armed with two kinds of antibiotics and pain killers for a staph/strep bacterial infection in his elbow. By the weekend my foot ached from doing an extremely cold NYE night time ski down with FFM, but luckily FFM had ski team on Sunday so he was able to get out on the mountain again.

We all were feeling mostly well on Christmas Day and had a wonderful and leisurly day with family. We must have been good kids this year as our wish lists were well represented and we'll have sugary treats for weeks to come.

Annual Christmas Letter

I'm pretty sure most readers get a copy of this one way or another, but in case you don't, presenting Moore's (a.k.a. Travis') annual Christmas missive. In real life it's on pretty paper, but here you get hyperlinks to the footnotes!

Hello, Hello!

Let’s jump right in….  Finn loves 2^nd grade, and similar to probably most parents, I’m amazed at the level of work his class is doing. I think I’d have to up my game a bit if I were a modern-day second-grader, because my efforts from decades ago wouldn’t cut the mustard now. I know I didn’t have superficial or loquacious on my spelling test when I was 7. (In fact, loquacious didn’t enter my personal lexicon until sometime in high school.) Math is trickier, too.  Compare these:

o   Travis’ old-school 2^nd grade math:  If you have 5 apples, and you eat two, how many are left? (A likely answer of mine, using the Socratic method – or perhaps dodging the actual task at hand:  What kind of apples are they?)

o   Finn’s modern 2^nd grade math:  Mary goes to the park and sees only dogs and pigeons.  She sees 4 dogs, and a total of 32 animal legs.  How many pigeons does Mary see in the park?[1]

Our major family wing-ding this year was a ski trip to France that has been in the queue for several years.  Since Finn and I had never been to France we added a bit of sightseeing in Paris and Switzerland before heading to Tignes / Val d’Isere for a week on the snow with Ann and Eric and mutual friends the Rushers. 

o   Paris was great, and we saw the key tourist-district sites:  Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Pont Neuf[2] bridge, and Musée d’Orsay; and ate our fill of crepes and croque-monsieur.

o   The TGV train from Paris to Geneva was super-smooth, and super-fast, clocking in at almost 150mph. Check-in? Just walk on your train car. Snacks?  You bet -- Brie and a glass of wine.  We’re all fans of high-speed rail now!

o   We arrived in downtown Geneva mid-trip, so I set out to take care of some laundry while M and F did homework at the hotel.  The laundromats in Geneva are conveniently located in the red-light district[3], so laundry-doing has a bit different vibe than coin-ops elsewhere.

o   One rainy day in Geneva we rented a car and went to Gruyere to see where the famous cheese is made.  Even for factory-tour veterans, the cheese factory is pretty cool – they even have a cheese-turning robot that flips each wheel of cheese as it ages.  Finn campaigned to bring a wheel of cheese home with us, and after calculation I determined that it would be hard to fit 85lb of cheese into his suitcase.

o   The most dangerous thing on the road from Geneva to Tignes was not the narrow, winding, icy, road, chock-a-block with racing buses, but British tourists who are grappling with driving on the wrong side of the road![4] 

o   Tignes is high in the Alps, and is essentially treeless, so there are massive expanses of pure white.  Lifts and the network of groomed runs are there mostly to take you to off-piste[5] skiing.  The tail end of a hurricane made the first few days challenging[6] but when the sun shone it was world-class with cloudless skies and big fluffy powder.   

Finn was a Holly Park Shark again this summer and was a top competitor in his age group, especially in the breaststroke. The Sharks team swelled in size this summer to over 100 competitors and made a formidable sight as they sung the Park Shark Power! team cheer at the start of each meet

Trying to remedy the displacement of June camping by swim meets and the rapidly-shrinking feeling of our “4-man” tent, we adopted the logical approach and purchased a pop-up camper.  While extending our camping season and providing enough space to take refuge from regular afternoon hailstorms, the camper has had some interesting effects on our family and traveling:

o   Finn is enthralled by the whole scene, and turned instantly into a proto-camper salesman.  If you come within earshot, he will explain every feature in exacting detail, ad infinitum.

o   We became accustomed to some new facts of camper-life:  driving in the right-hand lane up big hills (wave as you scoot by in the left-lane, please…); the merits of “pull-throughs”; huge turning radius; choosing businesses that have way-out-there parking; and an eagle eye in the backseat commentating on all of the other campers on the road.

This summer Finn convinced across-the-greenbelt BFF Emma that camping is awesome, and the two laid plans for a backyard summer camp out.  The tent was pitched and stocked with the absolute bare essentials necessary for an authentic suburban wilderness experience:  sleeping bags and pads, stuffed animals, numerous flashlights, pillows, books, headlamps, glowsticks, jammies, spare clothes, and two kiddos.  Marshmallows were roasted before bedtime on a disposable charcoal grill to make some s’mores, and two relatively sticky campers hit the sack.  Finn and Emma elected to spend the night in the tent without any parents, which is pretty plucky for recently-graduated 1^st and 2^nd graders. I left the back door open that night and slept on the couch with an ear open for any bumps in the road.  All was quiet until about 5:45 the next morning when both came bounding gleefully into the house campaigning for breakfast.

Maggie’s paternal grandfather turned 90 this year, and there was a big family party to celebrate.  Bill is a WWII veteran, and was in the infantry at the Battle of Normandy.  After listening to tales of a family member’s recent trip to France, Bill didn’t miss a beat and quipped “Last time I was in France, I had to wade onto the beach…”.   He’s happy and in good spirits, and makes us all smile.

Maggie and Finn made several trips to KS this year to visit Maggie’s maternal grandparents, and Cousin Katie[7] and her parents.  Katie turned 2 in November, and Finn is smitten.  They both have huge personalities, and it’s hard not to smile when they get into their rhythm together.

Grannie Annie’s birthday gift to Finn this year was a ride on the Royal Gorge Train near Canon City.  Finn was thrilled at getting to ride the train. In the dome car! Through a canyon!  The train ride is an out-and-back through an exceptionally deep, narrow, and spectacular canyon.  The canyon is so skinny that there is a section if the track that is suspended by girders attached to each side of the canyon.  Apparently a train long ago was a bit too big to fit under the suspension beams and crashed into the support structure, leaving various dents and bent things in the process.  Now, as you would reasonably expect, the train stops at the scene of the incident so everyone can more closely inspect the structural damage to the very items that are holding up the train above the icy river. 

Gardening was relatively good this year, with some adjustments to the garden makeup.  I inadvertently discovered a way to expedite the gardening by bypassing the harvest of a portion of the crop:  (1) Hastily construct a bean trellis out of scrap bits of dodgy lumber and make it about seven feet tall just in case you have some of Jack’s beans. (2) Be sure there are a few well-placed knots toward the bottom of the trellis supports. (3) Install the trellis upwind of a bunch of small and delicate crops. (4) Plant beans that will entirely envelop the trellis with 80 lbs or so of biomass. (5) Wait for a big wind, and (6) Voila!  In one cataclysmic event the knots on the structurally-deficient trellis will snap and the trellis will crash into the veggies below, efficiently doing away with a mass of beans, a few bell peppers, some edamame, and baby tomatoes.  Gardening made easy!

We hope you have a joyous and satisfying 2015 –

  

Photos – clockwise from top-left:  sunrise at the Eiffel Tower; M&F at the top of Mt. Evans (CO); Chihuly glass + F at the Denver Botanic Gardens; Louvre in Paris; awesome day at Tignes; off to the Broncos AFC Championship[8]; Hooray for the Camper!

---

[1] Mary sees 8 pigeons in the park. 

[2] Finn thought it was hilarious that the “New Bridge” is the oldest one in the city.

[3] Working-girls have laundry, too, I bet.

[4] As a matter of interest, the French and Swiss drive on our accustomed side of the road – the right-hand side.

[5] Oxford Dictionary definition: ADJECTIVE&ADVERB, Skiing 1.Away from prepared ski runs:[AS ADJECTIVE]:challenging expanses of off-piste skiing

[6] Visibility was zero, with no non-white trees or rocks for reference, and the howling wind blew Finn over a few times.

[7] Technically a second cousin, but who’s counting?

[8] We later avoided the misery of Super Bowl XLVIII with a Serendipitously-scheduled trip to Paris.

Lighting Up the Season #2 + Two Shoes and a Puppy

You know just one visit to see Christmas lights isn't enough, right? Moores saw not one, not two, but THREE sets of light displays.

#1 Trails of Lights with Emma and her Mom

#2 Denver's Parade of Lights with Suzie and Audrey

For any non-Denver readers, the Parade of Lights' claim to fame is that all the floats, marching bands, and balloons are lit up. The advent of LED lights with battery packs have made it pretty spectacular. With my bum foot we opted for grandstand seats this year, an excellent choice. The Denver City and County building gets all lit up, too, and our view over the parade route included top spot viewing of the building (above).
Back in his college days my brother's fraternity volunteered to walk one of the balloons, Underdog. Since the parade winds through the city the balloons have to go under stop lights and such. Underdog didn't make it under his first stop light and sadly fell to the earth. Travis and I were just barely dating and sat patiently toward the end of the parade route and Underdog never showed up. "Oh no, we killed Underdog!"

#3 Blossoms of Light, just us! It was a bit pared back this year, we think due to the Chihuly exhibit that just closed down. Most of the area where the glass sculptures were was closed off and unlit this year. Good thing we had two previous doses of holiday light cheer.

Last weekend I managed to squeeze a shoe onto my right foot! Hooray! It's been nearly a month since I wore a shoe on that foot. I still have to wear the boot some during the day, but now in the evenings I'm wearing shoes or slippers around the house. Freedom! Healing is slightly ahead of schedule and Dr. and I are both excited about how well it's going.

 The puppy is here, the puppy is here! Not our puppy, but our puppy to borrow. Granny Annie and Eric picked up Teddy on Saturday. Sunday Travis and I went to the Bronco game and F got to hang all day with super mellow Teddy. We'll have plenty of chances to visit and dog sit, even better than having a dog of our own!

The Greats

I have been blessed to have all four grandparents for most of my life. My paternal grandma passed away shortly after we moved back to Denver and the other three have continued to be a big part of our lives.  FFM is particularly close to his great-grandparents, or greats, and we try to see them as often as our schedule allows. We recently celebrated Great Grandpa Moore's 90th birthday.

My Uncle captured this picture, I love that they are deep in conversation and not paying any attention to the rest of us at the table.

 Soon after the party we heard my Great Grandpa Minnick wasn't as sprightly as he usually is. FFM and I both had a couple of days off mid-October and took advantage of some frequent flier miles to fly out to Kansas to visit my maternal grandparents.

The flight out and back was on a good sized prop plane. We walked on the tarmac once (a huge thrill), sat next to the propeller once (explodes your mind kind of thrill), and directly in front of it once (a tiny let down after sitting right next to it). I never knew a window seat could be so entertaining.

The Greats with FFM. He's so excited to be nearly as tall as Great Ma. It was a nice quiet visit, he taught them all about Lego Technic and Perler beads.

 Another highlight of the visit was staying with Katie and her parents. These two kiddos both have SO much personality and love each other SO much that it's like electrifying the room when they are together. Trying to take this picture FFM would squat down to be closer to Katie's height, Katie would immediately squat down, too. F would stand up to get her to stand, and she'd stand up, too. It was a comic scene with lots of photographic outtakes. FFM was busy watching Katie, Katie was busy watching FFM and I finally had to ask them to point at the camera to get their attention.

When you are nearly two you call people by their name and identifier. Thus "Cousin Finn." Although it very quickly got shortened to "CuFinn" or "CuzFinn." And never just once, always multiple times in rapid succession. You can tell exactly what she means by the way she changes the emphasis!

Pawnee National Grasslands

The final camping trip of the summer is behind us. We waved farewell to our new toy and this weekend Travis hauled it to the camper store for winterizing and warranty work. We made our last trip to the hot part of the state, AKA the eastern plains.

It turned out to be a glorious time of year to be there, the days were warm but not hot and the nights were comfortable. On the way to the campground we watched a massive lightening storm light up the east and in our rear view mirror we watched the sun set over the purple mountains.

Pawnee National Grasslands are a haven for birders, and I think we were the only ones in the campground that 1) Slept past dawn and 2) Didn't walk around with binoculars and a camera around our neck all day.  We opted for some light duty hiking instead.

The Pawnee Buttes. The Pawnee Indians were present in this area of the state as were some of our earliest settlers.

Very comfortable campsite with a dry stream bed / hiking trail just behind us.

We went on an evening hike through the grass land and watched the sun set behind the grasses.

F remarked that the grass was taller than him, and Travis remarked that some of the grass was just as tall as him!

Camping often lures me to bed early, but fall camping means night falls sooner so I could stay up to enjoy a twilight camp fire.

End of Summer Round Up

It's back to school and back to work season for FFM and me. We started mid-August and spent the last few weeks of summer vacation relaxing and fitting in a few last adventures and field trips.

We went to see the Chihuly exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Twice. In one week. We'd probably have gone a few more times if school hadn't gotten in the way.

 Cousin Katie came to visit and kindly brought her lovely parents along with her. FFM is so in love with Katie that he almost can't stand it. As she grows up she just gets to be more and more fun. These two kiddos have an abundance of personality on their own, you can imagine what it's like when they team up.

 We spent a few days up in the mountains and got to see the super moon rise over the peaks.

 I refinished a crummy old dresser that's been sitting in a closet for years with my newly acquired decoupage skills. You can fall asleep dreaming of Beaver Creek and Vail trails you'll ski the next morning.

 Granny Annie drove us up to the top of Mt. Evans (highest paved road in North America you guys!) with our pals the Rushers. The weather was perfect and I stood at 14,265 feet and there wasn't a lick of wind. You could see a hundred miles in each direction, it was a postcard perfect day.

 Travis mentioned we'd been in our house for nearly 5 years and I realized that the rug under the dining table that I bought at a consignment shop as a stop gap measure had been on the floor for nearly 5 years. I never liked the rug very much, so set forth to find a replacement. My mom recently put carpet squares in her basement and we liked the idea of being able to replace a square when it gets dirty/stained/worn out. Travis flexed his design muscles and came up with a layout we really like. Putting it down was trickier than we expected, one of the color/pile choices we made wasn't the best for beginners.

 The first day of school came and went. I'm back in my role in the office and FFM started 2nd grade. He's got a great teacher with a teaching style that suits him very well. Two weeks in and it's already a totally different year than last year. He requested a giant laundry list of activities but after lots of family and parent discussion we're sticking with piano and swimming for the most part. We agreed he could add in 4-6 week classes periodically, and right now he's taking a hip hop dance class that makes him so happy his smile looks like it's going to swallow his head.

 We did some camping this summer and realized our tent wasn't going to fit all three of us for much longer. We have a pretty good sized tent and Travis just fits lengthwise. Our strategy was to pile all our gear below F's feet since there wasn't really any room by my feet or T's feet. Not only is F's gear getting bigger, but the space below his feet is getting smaller! We looked briefly at giant 6+ man tents and then spent an afternoon looking at campers. We were unimpressed until we found our perfect camping solution. The size, beds, and floor plan sang to all of us and the next thing we knew we were the proud owners of a brand new pop up camper.

 Turns out we all still like to feel like we're in a tent, the hard side campers didn't hold any appeal for us. It's awfully nice to be able to stand up to get dressed and to have amenities like cubbies for clothes instead of giant piles at F's feet. We took it up to a campground about an hour away and did a test run. FFM is so enamored that he'll rope you in and tell you all about the finer points of our camper just like a mini salesperson. Our neighbors all deserve medals for their gallantry while listening to his running narrative.

It's finally FOOTBALL SEASON! We kept all our preseason tickets this year and took FFM to the games. He's turned into a rabid fan and has a good grasp of basic rules and the flow of the game. He hollered more than anyone in our section and is campaigning to go to some regular season games, too.

Go Broncos!

 Our neighbor's peach tree survived the last frosts this spring and is producing some of the best peaches ever. Travis has been eating them and canning them as fast as he can. He remarked that they are so big this year he's getting about 1 peach per jar.

 After a successful and better than expected GI procedure I was cleared for activity just in time for Labor Day weekend. We joined my Mom and Eric at Dinosaur National Monument. My Mom and I were the only ones that had been before long, long ago. After sleeping most of two days I was feeling good and we did lots of hiking. Normally this time of year we'd expect high 90-100F days. Our temps hovered in the low to mid 70s. Such luck!

Hiking to petroglyphs.

 Hiking the box canyons.

 Sunset from our campsite.

 Travis asked about scenic trips nearby and we spent half a day at Fantasy Canyon. Strange and bizarre rock weathering so far off the beaten path you can still walk right up and touch them.

It's back to work and school for all of us tomorrow. Tuesday is hip hop dance class day!

Grand Mesa Camping Trip

The Grand Mesa is a big, flat topped mountain in the western part of Colorado. It's a bit of a trek from Denver so while it's called to us with it's siren song for nearly 15 years now we only just this summer managed to get in a camping trip up there.

There are reported to be 1,000 lakes on the Mesa, a lot for a state that's mostly high country desert. We were warned that while lush, cool, and green there might be a few bugs to deal with. Armed with citronella candles and bug spray we hit the road and headed about 4.5 hours west and uphill to Mesa Lakes.

Pulling up to our campsite we all three declared the drive well worth it. The campground is hilly and many of the sites are very private even though they can be a little close to each other.

 Our site was surrounded by wildflowers on all sides. We walked down some steps in the hill through a field of fireweed, in the shady woods to one side were gallardia and a few columbines, on the lake side wild geranium, yarrow, and more. The hummingbirds were happy!

Fireweed

 The boys did some fishing. Just-turned-7 is the magic age for fishing for us. FFM happily baited hit own hook, cast out, and was patient enough to wait a while to see if a fish was going to bite. He tired fishing with a lure and after a while decided to switch back to bait and bobber fishing since it was "more relaxing."

Putting a super giant night crawler on his hook.

 FFM found a flat rock to stand/sit on and we spent hours by the lakes. For the first time in years we actually did some catching! The boys ate fresh trout for dinner.

On the way home we decided to take a scenic route. On our way over the back side of the mesa FFM hollered from the back seat that there was a deer in the field. I looked over and hollered right back that it was a moose, not a deer! Our moose population is growing, but they are still rare enough that it's exciting to see one (we don't get as worked up about deer and elk anymore).

A special side note for all who have joined us camping in the past, there was NO RAIN! It was just breezy enough to keep the bugs at bay, comfortable in short sleeves or long, and did I mention it didn't rain?

Putting Off the Birds and the Bees

FFM is in camp this week at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It's his favorite camp over the years and this year he selected Museum Investigators. Each day of the camp they learn about a different part of the museum. Today was Expedition Health Day and they learned all about DNA and how their DNA is a map of themselves. On the way home FFM was explaining all this to me and asked where his DNA came from (for rolling tongue and bendy hitchhiker thumb). I told him some from Dad, some from me. There was a pause in the backseat while the brain cogs turned and he asked "If I grew inside of you that's how I got your DNA in me. How did I get Daddy's DNA?" Scrambling rapidly and wholly unprepared to discuss exactly where babies come from ( all while navigating early downtown rush hour), I told him that DNA can move in all kids of ways. Like the DNA in your hair, your skin, and your spit. He chewed on that for a minute and remarked that spit stays in your mouth. I blew him a big, juicy raspberry and now I'm pretty sure he thinks Travis and I spit on each other to make him. We'll sort him out in a couple years or so.

Almost Weekly Science and Crafts

Before the holiday weekend the kiddos opted to do some crafts and activities instead of a new science project. First up, Sharpie Tie Dye.

We used several patriotic colors and the kiddos drew "fireworks" on the front of their shirts. We stuck a piece of cardboard inside so the colors wouldn't run through. We quickly learned that lots of small dots work better than large colors splotches. I sprayed/dropped rubbing alcohol on them to make them bleed, and then ironed over with a cloth to help set the colors. F had so much blue on his that it did bleed a little, but not enough to blur the designs. I washed them once in warm water with vinegar to make sure they wouldn't bleed too much and the kids wore them almost immediately.

One of the things I loved as a kid was building forts out of blankets, sheets, and couch cushions. My mother frowned upon this practice, I think because we tore apart beds and couches to make the forts. FFM hasn't really gotten into the whole fort thing yet, so to spur his creative juices T and I put together a fort kit and gave it to him for his birthday. I made a medium sized drawstring fabric bag and put: 2 full + sheets, small clamps, clothespins, rope, stretchy rope, flashlights, and a string of LED lights. It took about 7.2 seconds for the kids to figure out what I was doing before they took over and I was relegated to reaching things too high for them.

View from outside, the light blue thing on the lower right is tunnel fort access.

 FFM hauled floor pillows from his bedroom and they read by flashlight and twinkly star light.