Did You See Me?

I was the knitter on the plane who brought three different knitting projects for a 1.5 hour flight, an MP3 player and no diaper bag! I could to the bathroom-BY MYSELF-and therefore stayed well hydrated. (Have you ever taken 2 small children into an airplane bathroom with you? It should be a Mom Olympics category!) I ate at child unfriendly restaurants-Tartine and Bittersweet. I went to Kabuki spa to relax and let go. I shopped at ImagiKnit, calmly. I had a rocking time visiting some amazing women (and one new amazing little boy) in San Francisco and Oakland. As you can tell, I went by myself!

I missed the kids and my husband, or at least I'm supposed to say that. DH took the kids down to his parents, therefore, it took 3 people to replace me (Just kidding, Dear :). The best part was not just the hot food and lack of responsibility but being my old self again, laughing and telling stories with some women whose lives I really needed to catch up on. It can be too easy sometimes for your world to shrink. Being back in my old life helped me expand a bit and breath again.

Painting and Coloring

This is what happens when your daughter watches you paint your nails! BTW, if you ever paint your nails black for Halloween, make sure you have polish remover first! I had black chipped nails for 2 weeks.

This is a photo of a picture Butters made which I am immensely proud of! He has not been interested in holding a pencil or really trying to color, but recently something clicked and now he's passed from scribbling to trying to make a picture that looks like something. Here is our family, you'll notice I have curly hair, daddy has black hair, the pets are there but the Princess is missing! The tall skinny things are trees, I love those!

Snow White and Grumpy

This little blog is a small slice of our lives, I don't tell you everything and I certainly candy coat things. We have good weeks and bad weeks. Days when we learn letters, make play dough, eat homemade muffins and days when we watch some TV and I'm looking out the window waiting for DH to get home! What is obvious is that if I'm in a bad mood, my kids pick up on and will be grumpy too. It can be hard to be Snow White all the time, so let's just say there is a reason I'm not a preschool teacher! The other day, I was stressing getting out the door (I know just say, we are going to be late and get on with it), the Princess looked up at me and asked, "Mama, happy?" It stopped me in my tracks. "Yes, Mama's happy. Are you happy?" "Yeah," she said, "E happy." So, lets all try to be.

Right now we've got a clear skies, a woodpecker at our bird feeder and a nice sunrise. Yesterday we took a long nature walk, any moments of dryness are cherished. Butters and I were looking through a Martha craft magazine that P. Mookie gave us to do something during E's nap time. He found Nature Jars which are just cleaned out empty glass jars. Well, he got excited about having a collection! He hadn't wanted to leave on the nature walk earlier that day, then all of a sudden he's putting his boots on, picking out a jar, and rushing outside. We started with a rock, included leaves, grass, a pine cone, a clover. He walked outside and said, "Our plum tree is different, all the leaves are gone, but the Evergreen tree in our neighbor's yard still has it's needles."

Now, this is a kid who just 4 hours ago did not want to go outside, didn't want to take a walk, is tired of hiking the dog words because, "they are boy-ring." (boring). I've tried a compass, camera, I Spy and what finally worked was an empty pickle jar! You never know, but it's good to keep trying. It may not hold his interest tomorrow, but it worked for today. It was hard on Snow White, the vegetarian nature lover, when her son didn't want to go outside, then suddenly it will all pay off!

Pumpkins!

Can't get out of the season without posting our pumpkin patch photos and carving night!

I've been busy answering thousands of questions. I can handle about 100 a day, after that, I get a bit edgy! I know it's how kids learn things, but sometimes, I just don't know the answer. We get creative, we'll look things up on the Internet or try experiments and sometimes I give the answer I told myself I would never say when I was a mom, "I'll tell you later."

Here's a sample of questions: Why do they call it soap? Why is cheese melted on pizza? Why is his name Devon? Why did you say, Ouch? Why is it her birthday? Why is Halloween over? What is Under God? Or, just plain old: Why?

The Princess has been learning words and colors, adding new words everyday. Her first color to recognize was blue. She rambles on in long sentences, "Mama, dadda, Tarter, Me, ohh, hi Levi, do." She is unafraid of everything: swimming, pumpkin guts, wet leaves and danger! I've got to keep my eye on her at all times.

Gorilla Arms

This is E's bog jacket, the sleeves were knit back and forth. I added stitches for the arms and thought, maybe a few more, okay she has long arms, a few more....I ended up with gorilla arms. Here is how I solved the problem in time for her to still fit in it.

Sew fabric, right side to right side of sweater, make several rounds of stitches, this will secure your knit stitches. (This was a tight squeeze! )

Take a deep breath and cut! I wanted to remove three inches, so my seam is 2.5 inches in to allow seam.

Fold over and sew around, it won't look pretty but it will keep the sweater from unraveling.

Ta da! She still won't wear it!

Boo

We had a great time trick or treating! E got the hang of it after one house, her costume was a 2 year old who refused to wear a costume. She wore it the next day, however! Bat wings I cut from fleece, they fit her perfectly.

Butters had a blast, "Just one more house!" People knew he was Obi Wan, however, he refused to be photographed, so this is all I got of my handmade jedi robe and tunic. That morning he said he wanted to be Luke Skywalker instead. He had a halloween party at school, a family halloween party and trick or treating and now we are done! I don't have great pictures of everything, but we have the memories!

Appie Pie/Pumpkin Spice Playdough

1c flour

1/2 c salt

1 c water

1 Tbsp oil

2 tsp cream of tartar

cinnamon/pie spice

Mix it all together in a pan over medium heat until it forms a ball. Remove and knead, can be reheated for about 20 seconds in the microwave for continued fun. Smells great!

This picture isn't blurry because of finger prints, we were using the fog bubble blower and having a spooky morning! I put our drawing table in the middle of the room and we used kitchen tools to mix up the fun.

Halloween post to come!