Category Archives: Kids

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Christmas Crafting Has Begun

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The tree is complete.  The stockings are hanging.  The outdoor lights have been strung up (and they look pretty beast this year if I do say so myself.  And also to borrow a hip new term from the teens).  The cookie list is in process – I have yet to narrow down the exact types I’ll be preparing this year, but I’m close.  The gift knitting is in full swing.  I’ll share a little of that as I can…..but we don’t want to ruin any surprises!  Currently I am cutting red felt snowflakes to applique onto the white tree skirt I have made.  Now if we could just get a good snow to really kick the season off!  Ah, wishful thinking around these parts.  But the snowman mugs are out, the fireplace is on and the girls have their new Christmas pj’s.  Which means I have our 2008 holiday picture!

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Sweet, Sweet Done-ness

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I’ve spent all weekend feeling more unwell than I can remember feeling in a long time.  Blame it on the numerous tiny ugly germs my kids bring home from school.  Whatever the cause, the result is a total lack of anything being done on my part other than laying around feeling miserable.  However……..Emily’s Gingerbread Sweater is done!  Yay!  I feel so accomplished!!  (Nevermind the monumental pile of projects left to go)

Besides the sweater, I took some pictures of the girls raking leaves and playing outside.  The only comment I’ll make is that I am sick and was therefore no way involved in picking out their clothes.  This is proof that without me at the helm around here things don’t always go so smoothly!

First, the sweater:

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Pattern by Wendy Bernard over at Knit & Tonic.  Yarn:  Plymouth Galway.

And raking leaves in outfits of their own design:

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Happy Weekend!

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Another Day, Another Pie

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The house is rather a mess but I feel quite a sense of accomplishment nonetheless.  I spent most of the day working on finishing up Emily’s sweater, and I should have pics of the final product before too long.  I’ve been calling it the “Gingetbread Sweater” since I started adding the color bands, since it’s a combination now of chocolate (or gingerbread) brown, pink and cream.  I hope she’ll like it as much as she likes the handknit socks.

It was a bit tough at one point working on it – Oona took a nice long nap today (she has a bit of a cold and a cough, so I guess she doesn’t feel so well) and the cats decided it was time to bombard me with attention.  At first I thought perhaps they decided for once they’d show their love and keep me company out of the goodness of their little kitty witty hearts, but no.  Nothing quite so cute and cuddly.  They were bugging me, as it turns out, because their food bowl had gone empty.  Brats.  But at least I got to take advantage of some Milo lap time.

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He stayed long wnough for me to complete a couple of rounds of color and watch about an episode and a half of recorded Ghost Hunters before he decided I wasn’t going to give up the goods and he didn’t need any more snuggles.  He took up a post with Sushi in the hallway instead.

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At least they didn’t puke in the doorway again.  It’s always fun stumbling in the darkness at 6:15 am to wake up your children for school and have your foot find a nice mushy cold pile of puke.  And what a lovely segue that makes to my evening accomplishment: the pie.

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I’m full of pumpkin-y goodness here.  Oona’s fallen off early so I think I will grab myself a slice, cozy up on the couch, put in something non – children – y, and tie up the loose ends on that sweater.  But before I go, have another pie picture.  This one’s a cutie pie.

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It’s Fall and I’m in Love

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I can’t believe we’re into November already!  Autumn is my favorite time of the year and it seems to pass me by so quickly, especially when I have so much on my plate.  Sometimes I have to remind myself to pause and enjoy the leaves and the cooler air.  So while dinner was grilling on the back deck I walked aorund the yard a bit with Oona, who love love loves being outside.  There’s a lot more color this year around the house than there’s been the last few falls and we were out at twilight, making it even more dramatic against the setting sun.

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I love that my driveway is long enough and that our house is set back enough that you can’t see the road from the front.  We’ve helped that a bit by planting some nice flowering trees along either side of the driveway, and hopefully they will continue to grow and thrive and look beautiful.

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Yesterday was a nearly perfect day for me.  It was a bit on the soggy side, but that just happens to be ideal “sit by the fireplace and knit” weather.  Oona and I went out early and voted (no lines, either – don’t tell me there’s not advantages to living way out in the country), got our groceries, got some cleaning done and she laid down for a nap – all before noon.  I couldn’t quite believe my luck!  The rest of the afternoon was given over to baking cookies for a neighbor who expressed a taste for them at the block party, and who also has done a few favors involving my children, so the way I see it I owe them a bit.  Then we had a nice exciting – yet – somehow – relaxing evening watching the election.  The girls played while I knitted in front of the tv.  I’ve made quite a bit of headway on Emily’s sweater, though I am way off my projected completion time of several days ago.  It is, however, fun to knit and I am excitedly getting ready to start the yoke and the faux fair isle coloring.  It’s so close!!!

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Need A Good Camera

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Because I am a technological moron, I simply cannot get the quality out of my camera that I would like.  In the hands of someone adept at this sort of thing, it should turn out some pretty fantastic photos.  But you have to go all manual – like with it and adjust light settings, etc.  First, I don’t have time to do all that when taking pictures of a squirmy bunch of kids.  Second, I lack the mental acumen to do so in the first place.  Seriously, this is why I am a painter and a knitter – I cannot get my brain to understand the concept of working with the settings on my camera to magically make them come together into a working whole.  I tried.  I played with the thing, took several pictures of Oona on various settings and not one of them looks good.

So instead I am going to drool over the very expensive Canon EOS I want.  I’m going to have to take applications for a sugar daddy, though.  Rats.

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Jack O’Lanterns

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Or is it Jack O’Messes?  We had fun carving our pumpkins, but boy was it messy.  And it took like 3 hours!  Neve carved a little pumpkin all by herself, and Emily carved a fairly difficult wolf pattern into hers.  Mine had some gltiches, but I was pleased with it nonetheless.

Scooping out the guts.

These pumpkin guts are gross!!!!

More gut removal.

When does the Psycho music start???

A lovely little pumpkin, done all by herself.  DIsregard the dog snout nosing in rudely.

Emily, hard at work.

Starting out.

Oona didn’t feel like making it easy.

Part of the “G” fell off during carving.

The big mess.

Neve’s little lantern, all lit up.

Neve asked me to do this pattern as well.  She carved the bones.  Then Oona wouldn’t let her near me anymore.  (Jealous little baby!)

My poor not – quite – perfect pumpkin.

Can you believe a 9 year old carved these intricate wolves all by herself??

The proud artists with their masterpieces.  Currently 2 of the 3 are trying to fend off candy overload after a successful haul on Halloween night.  The littlest one was supposed to go as a toadstool mushroom (with the cutest mushroom cap hat!!!) but she refused to cooperate, so sadly she went trick or treating as a “cute little baby in a stroller”.  Oh well.  There’s always next year.

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A 50th to Remember

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That’s right, folks, my dad’s 50 this year.  He’s a young-un!!!!!!!!

Actually his birthday isn’t until December, which is what made his surprise party a real surprise.  A lot of weeks and months of planning and secrecy preceded the festivities (which, as you’ll recall, took place the Saturday before the block party here – it was a crazy weekend for me.  Fun, but SO glad it’s over!).  There were 2 surprise guests – my uncle from Florida, who stayed with me the night before, and a life – long friend of dad’s that he hadn’t seen in years.  The look of shock and surprise on his face at seeing these two was just priceless.  And he thought he was going to have an ordinary Saturday of golfing with a buddy and going home for a nap! HA!

Dad with longtime pal Chris.  I believe the correct word to describe how dad felt on seeing him there is “gobsmacked”.

The memorabilia board featuring some old jobs in radio.

From “The Stuff”, a campy (and yes, pretty bad)  horror movie that dad and Chris were in back in the 80’s.  Those b&w photos are with Garrett Morris from SNL and Michael Moriarty from Law & Order.  Another big star they met while filming (who’d like to forget he ever was in that movie) was Paul Sorvino.

Checking out the memo boards.

The gifts!

Neve liked helping grandma play bartender.

Emily liked Booboo.

Oona with her grandpa.

Enjoying the party.

Neve loves her grandpa.

Maddie doesn’t want to hear our funny stories about the old days.  She calls them “TMI”.

Maddie REALLY doesn’t want to hear.

Oona and her great uncle.

Dad with “Uncle Daddy”. (yes, we are very odd people, ok?)

More party people!

I also managed to get through the night without getting any embarrassing pictures taken of me or by me, despite the fact that I drank a few more mangotinis than I should have.  Hey, they were yummy.  The food was good, the people were fun, there may have been some happy crying.

Now go check out The Stuff. I guarantee it’s one of the worst movies you’ll ever see, but check out the newscaster three quarters of the way through.

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Weekend Update – Success All Around!

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As you may have guessed I survived the craziness of this past weekend.  There is still much to be done and plenty of looming deadlines between now and the 31st, but the major events and stress are behind me (for now!).

Saturday was a surprise birthday party for my dad (very surprising indeed considering his birthday is not  until December).  I haven’t yet gotten back the pictures from that eventful night but months of planning culminated in a successful party all around.  More on that in a separate post, once I have the graphic evidence in place!

Sunday we threw a block party (by “we” I mean the neighborhood).  There were only 3 weeks of planning, budgeting and prep for said party, making it an impressive feat to have been pulled off, and thanks are due all around to those whose hard work made it possible.  I am afraid I was not as much help as I would have liked, between the usual solo parenting and helping my mother stress out about the surprise party.

Sunday was cold but beautiful, we had plenty of food and games and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves well into the evening.  We have the best neighbors.

Our lovely location, pre – party.

Set – up began around 11 am, but the kids couldn’t wait until the slide was ready.

Wanted!!!  This year our theme was “Rodeo”.

Oona wouldn’t keep her poncho or hat on, despite the cold.

The kids loved the slide…..in fact they almost tipped it over they were having too much so much fun!

The mistresses of the face painting and tattoo table.  Another favorite stop for all the kids.

Getting the games organized.

Waiting to run the Rodeo Relay.

The kids ran a series of obstacles in a heated “Girls vs. Boys” competition.

Waiting their turn to run.

Even the little ones got a chance.

Neve cheered loudly for her team.  In the end the boys won, but everyone enjoyed it, and as an adult it was hilarious to watch.

People started filing in in earnest once the food tables were set up.

This little cutie and his lovely mum had fun watching the kids.

I also ran into some crazy people.  Actually Paul wasn’t around for very long but at least we got to hang with Lisa here for a bit.

Towards the end of the day we had to bring out the propane heater for the adults, but the kids kept warm by learning some line dancing.

Neve found a kindred spirit to copy for the dancing contest.

All in all the food was great, the people were great and the kids had a blast playing all the games planned for them.  I stayed with the girls until it was dark and I could no longer feel my face from the cold (thank goodness for the coffee pot – I’d have packed it in much earlier if not for the 5 cups of hot coffee keeping me warm!).  When we left there was a good sized bonfire going and marshmallow roasting, so my older girls were rather reluctant to leave.  They didn’t, however, argue with the nice warm bath and Sleepytime Tea once we got home and they were out pretty quickly once they were jammied up and in bed. My only regret was not getting more pictures of everyone that was there.

The cold and the extreme busy – ness of the weekend made sure that I woke up Monday with one heck of a stuffy head and body aches (although I think most of the aches were due to holding Oona continuously Sunday with little break).  So Monday I gave myself the day off, yesterday was spent cleaning ( as if you could even tell….) and now I am on to getting Emily and Oona’s costumes made for a party Friday.  Busy busy!

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Happy October!

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Welcome to my favorite month of the year.  Apples, pumpkins, crisp fall air, beautiful foliage and Halloween.  Perfect knitting atmosphere.  And if I am lucky, less stress than September was this year.   Emily had 3 fillings.  Neve had 6 (6!!!!!) fillings for which she had to be sedated and now she has 2 silver molars.  We didn’t come out of that cheap, I assure you.  Then the darn dog had diarrhea.  Then Neve did.  Then Emily did.  Then the cat got an upper respiratory infection.  Then we all got a nasty cold.  Then the dog got diarrhea again.  Noticing a pattern?  Oh yeah, and lice is going around.  Knock on wood, there’s been no sightings here.  On the mechanical front, you all know Paul had the engine incident whereby he almost gave himself a vasectomy.  Then after a heavy rain he got the truck stuck in the mudslide in our back yard (it’s actually the area beyond the driveway where 2 years ago Paul got a little over zealous with a borrowed bobcat and took down a bunch of trees and made a nice muddy slope.  Imagine the happiness that resulted for me.  And did I mention that he made the driveway into a massive gravel pit at the same time?  Fun for all, I assure you!).  Anyway with a little help from a neighbor we got the truck out.  I got to play with the winch.  Hee hee!  And just last night as Paul was getting a parts car delivered (at 9 pm, no less) the delivery guy overshot our driveway and the car had to be pushed so as not to roll into a ditch.  Which didn’t work out so well and our street ended up being blocked by the delivery truck (you know those big car carriers?) and the parts car.   The bobcat was called upon to save the day and tow the car out of the street.  Which it almost did.  Until it broke as well, leaving 3 vehicles blocking the street.  Good thing we have lots of understanding neighbors who are willing to help out.  Point is, September was full of fun and excitement.  Let’s hope October is boring and quiet!

In good news we got new couches on Craigslst.  Free!  Black leather, which we are dyeing chocolate brown using automotive leather upholstery dye.  So far it’s perfect.

So exciting!!!!