bacon & Venus

Parker:"Why do I smell bacon?"
Greg:"That would be the bacon cooking."
Mimi:"Actually, bacon is my most favorite food."
Mimi is super trendy...
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 We loved watching the Transit of Venus, 2012!  

Mostly we had to watch online. 

 But now and then we the clouds would break and we could see it in person. 

lost x 2

Mimi is lop-sided in teeth she has lost, unlike Parker's very symmetrical tooth loss.   Just like most things, this girl is unpredictable :)

Suddenly I hear Parker from the family room and from behind the couch (where we keep extra pillows and blankets) :"She lost her tooth!"  And he meant it fell out and then got lost in piles of pillows and stuff.
Mimi:"I'm happy that I loozed it but I sad that I lost it."
Dad, a.k.a. the hero, found it without a moments delay!

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More Camping this time in the back yard!

 Giant Marshmallow S'mores...

And with S'mores came more graham-cracker-discussion.  I didn't know the history of the graham cracker until I started thinking about summer snacks for the kiddos.  Why does the graham cracker seem like it should be healthy but then it has bad ingredients?  I found the Wikipedia article about the origins of graham crackers very cool.  It's sole existence was to create something healthy to eat.  Hmm....

I bought a bunch of different crackers and we've been tasting them.  So far the winner is the Cinnamon Graham crackers from Trader Joe's (lower right-hand corner of the above photo).  We all independently picked it.

Back Yard

Ready for summer, not necessarily the heat.  
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Mimi:"Ahh!  A spider on me"
Parker:"Just make sure it didn't bite you or you could become like Spiderman"
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Just as Yoda is about to squirt me with a spray bottle of water, I say:"Only spray plants or rocks, not people"
As he's about to spray me again, I say:"Don't spray me, I'm a people"
Yoda:"You a queen"
 Me:"awesome"

 Trying to find the best graham cracker...

Camping

A few weeks ago we went camping.  It was awesome.

We started out with hot dogs.  Parker and Mimi had two each.  I was surprised.  Yoda ate a third of his like a corn cob and gave the rest to me to eat.  That was not surprising.

 In the bottom of this picture is the hot dog cooker that Val got last year.  It works great.

Yoda found a tunnel to wander in.
This is him running back to the beginning of the tunnel to start again

I didn't fit in the tunnel, but I could watch Yoda enjoy it.

I tried to take a picture of the 3 in front of the tent.  Thanks for the tent, Taylor's!

 Really, the only way to get a good pose for the picture was seat belting them in.

Not a lot of sleep, but a whole lot of fun.

a win

So much crumbling around me, like, say the cost of fixing the van's a/c or that hole I found in one of the walls of the garage, it was nice to have a win the other day.  I saw this craft room on the internet and wanted it bad.  That's not ever going to happen (we turned our formal dinning room into an office, and that's working out perfect).  But I do have my craft corner and I have had some trouble with my spool and bobbin storage.  So I took her idea, searched my favorite Craig's List and found someone who had some old type trays for sale.  I've had good and bad experiences with CL before and this was a GREAT one.  She was nice, honest and close by.  We picked one up that day with some of my birthday money from my mom.  It looked so nice I decided to clean up my craft area and post a picture....

It's so nice to have a place in the house that no one bothers.  Yoda occasionally tries to play with the sewing machine, but since it has that nice cover, I just click it in place, put it on it's shelf and he runs away. 

Here's some other things that I love about this area:

My new spool storage, looks great too!

My dad gave me this sewing machine from his mom (and if I remember right, it's from her mom).  It's wonderfully old and HEAVY!  The guy that just serviced it said that it will last me as long as I need it.  I don't know how I got so lucky to own it, but I use it all the time and love it so...

My work table is also from Craig's List, it's classy and deserves more attention then it gets being surrounded by the mess that happens here, but it cheers me up when I sit there.

My sewing box thingy (in the front of the picture) that my dad got for me at an estate or antique sale.  It's the only place the kiddos seem to dig into, so I started storing my mounds of felt fabric there.  No harm (except more mess) if they get into it. 

Framed hankies on the wall, got that idea from the internet too :)

Lots of bins and shelves to store stuff: pins, needles, spools of ribbon and yarn, wrapping paper.

My very old chair that I got at a church rummage sale when I was in high school.  It's been painted 3 or 4 times and is awaiting a new coat of paint now...

And my newest addition to the craft corner is the canvases and a few paint supplies.  I had stored them in Yoda's closet (which is GIANT) and thought I would turn his room into an art studio one day.  Nope, everything stayed in there and the room turned into the world's most boring nursery. 

My mother's sewing corner in our NJ home was my inspiration for this craft area.  It makes sense to me to have it where the action is--right in the family room. 

Sometimes I just sit there and take a breath even if I can't get any work done.

Celebration

Each Sunday Parker is forced to write in his journal.  He does not like this at all.  We have to convince him he will be glad he has done this when he is older.  He doesn't believe us, or care.  Most weeks he writes very fast, short, and silly sentences.  This week was no exception.  After reading his 4 required sentences, I asked him to write just one more, something interesting about his life, maybe about someone's birthday that just happened....Here's what he wrote...

"It's the anniversary of our new counter-tops."  

Apparently he's forgotten his dear mother already--it was me, I was the one he was supposed to write about in his journal.  I had an action packed birthday week!  So I'm going to write about it even if he doesn't...

I had yummy cake, breakfast in bed, lots of going out to dinner (I dislike cooking--have I mentioned that?), many wonderful gifts from my family and friends, awesome phone calls (love that!), and with the help of my mom and Greg's mom, I crossed two things off my before-I'm-40-to-do-list (it's far too boring and embarrassing to publish on the blog, but here's the two I crossed off) -- we saw planets and stars through a giant telescope and saw This American Life.  One thing on the list is to finish that crazy kitchen. We're closer, but basically not that motivated. 

My good friend Kimberly has a list like that, anyone else?

Check List

All the children in wrinkled clothes...Check
Random stains on their wrinkled clothes...Check
Yoda and Mimi's hair uncombed...Check
The price tag still attached to Mimi's dress...Check
25 minutes late to church...Check

Yeah, it was a great Mother's Day...

And here's a sweet video that Parker produced for me as a Mother's Day present.

Because Ira Glass asked me to...

 

I'm using my internet powers for good
to tell the few people who look at this blog
about the This American Life show that I just saw.

Here's a link to part of it.  (If you listen to Fresh Air this short film will make you laugh)
I thought that link would be a link to the movie, but I guess you have to be on Facebook to actually see the movie?

UPDATE: the link sends you right to the youtube movie now.

*Just to let you know, there is a little blood, no violence (it's very subtle and silly, really), but maybe not for the little kiddos:)

SO much fun!

Sleep and the Farm

The question we ask most mornings:
Me:"How was your sleep?"
Mimi:"Good."

The question I asked this morning:
Me:"How was your sleepy?"
Mimi:"Good... I mean goody."
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Greg reading a book to Parker
Parker:"Where are you on the page?"
Greg, points and says:"Here.  Why?"
Parker:"Because if you fall asleep I can tell you where you were reading."
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Mimi reading before bedtime with a small lamp, but it got unplugged
Mimi:"My lamp ran out of brightness!"

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Our friends have an acre or 2 and they invited a bunch of families over for a BBQ.  I LOVED it there.  I want to move in.  Smelly chickens and all.  They even gave tractor rides! 

More Video Fun

Mimi's puppet play, 6 minutes of silliness...

For Adrianne

1-The train at the zoo.
2-Yoda talking to a bug and dropping Lightning McQueen out the window
3 & 4. Yoda playing with a paper yo-yo.

A few videos to help pass the time.  We're working on some more... 

Pinewood Derby Time

 Filing down the axles

While preparing the car, Greg would take breaks to study. 

 The night of the race we got there early so that Mimi and Yoda could race their cars.  Mimi got an old car from our Pack leader, painted and sanded it like crazy.  Yoda used Parker's car from last year. 

 One of my favorite parts was watching the boys chase their cars to the finish line.  

 Yoda was pretty tired by the end. 

 This is the on-deck box.  Ready to race...

 All the little kiddos who stayed to watch made a tunnel at the end. 

Fourth Place!  

It was fun that Nana and Grandpa came to see the race.