Oh Tannen Baum

Sunday, 11 December 2005

GR spent much of last week in bed - five days to be exact - with a nasty cold that he's started to pass around to the rest of the family. This past Thursday was the first and only chance we had to go out and get a Christmas tree. For the last 3 years or so we've gotten a beautiful "real" tree form one of the optimist club lots sprinkled around town and spent at least $50 on each of them. I've come to the conclusion that a real tree isn't environmentally friendly or economical, and it's difficult to care for and dispose of.

So, I've been looking at artificial trees. My criteria for an artificial tree... It needs to be full - I don't want to stare at a metal poll every time I look at my tree; it needs to be realistic; and it can't be too tall (many of the trees that fit my criteria, have been 8-10 feet tall, which doesn't really work in our house).

I found a pre-lit tree I really liked at Wal-Mart for about $160, but when I took GR and the kids to see it Thursday night, they were sold out of everything but the display model, and GR wasn't very excited about trying to get an assembled tree with no box, home. So we headed for Hobby Lobby to see if they had anything comparable in look and price. For twice the price of the Wal-Mart tree we found a beautiful 7.5 foot pre-lit tree that with a good amount of fussing looks quite nice. Their trees were 30% off, and I had my 40% off coupon which narrowed the gap between the Wal-Mart tree and our tree.

This evening after Emily’s preschool Christmas concert we got it decorated, and tomorrow I’m taking my receipt back to Hobby Lobby – their Christmas trees are now 50% off and I’m going back to get my additional 10% off!

I’m really pleased with the overall look of this tree. It’s base is wider than I we expected… a few of the branches in the back near the wall, needed to be bent so it would take up less space in the corner, and all the furniture got moved 8 inches towards the kitchen (GR was worried the back door wouldn’t open, but I managed to arrange everything so there’s just enough clearance for the door).

Community Theater

Saturday, December 10, 2005

During November and December, the local community theater group put on a performance of Beauty and the Beast. Tonight I took the girls to see the performance. This was our first live play performance, and Rebecca wasn't really sure she wanted to attend, but at the last minute decided to join Emily and me.



Our community theater meets in an old church building and seats about 125-150 people in the audience. The theater over all is small - intimate - allowing the audience to, in a way be apart of the performance.

The performance started at 8 pm and we got there about 7:30, giving us gobs of time to watch everyone else come into the theater. I was glad to see a lot of other small children like Emily and Rebecca in the audience. With few exceptions, all of the children were extremely well behaved. They must have all had late afternoon naps to accommodate the late night performance (we got home at 10:45).

The cast was small - 15-20 people - and I was extremely impressed with the casts overall singing abilities and the costumes. The costumes were amazing - I looked all over for pictures, and couldn't find any. The woman who played Mrs. Potts designed and made most of the costumes. Cogsworth, looked like a clock; Lumiere, looked like a candelabra; Mrs. Potts looked like a tea pot, etc.!

The girls really enjoyed the performance, staying attentive for the whole show! I was worried they would get scared - the ticket agent had warned other parents that the Beast was a little scary - a loud amplified booming voice, and a wild, wild wig/mane - another excellent costume. So we talked before the performance about how this wasn't going to be the movie we've watched at home, that we were going to be watching real people wearing costumes and pretending to be Belle and the Beast.

For the very last song of the performance, during intermission, they sold red roses (silk) that had been wired with a single white Christmas light in the middle of the flower, so they glow when turned on (2 AA batteries were the power source). An older gentleman and his wife, who sat to Emily's left, asked if they could purchase a rose for Rebecca and Emily. How do you turn down an incredibly generous offer like that? You don't - you can't - and the girls were thrilled to each have a rose to use at the end of the performance.

Snow Days

Thursday and Friday December 8-9, 2005

Visiting Santa

Thursday, December 1, 2005

Every December, since Rebecca was little, Grandma & Grandpa have taken the kids to see Santa at Crown Center. This year I got to go along and we had a really nice and relaxed time.

Crayola sponsors Santa & his Christmas Land, and being that we went on a Thursday afternoon, the kids were able to play and go through as many times as they wanted. They always do an excellent job of selecting the perfect Santa - all with real beards, essential in making a realistic Santa. This gentleman was perfect and did a great job of helping the kids feel more comfortable. The girls talked to Santa, but didn't want to sit on his lap. Sam watched from a distance - never crossing the rope - and was pretty pleased when he heard Santa was a pretty big train fan.





After visiting with Santa we did a little bit of window shopping and then went to a really fun little restaurant called Fritz's Railroad Restaurant. This restaurant does not have traditional servers. Each table has menus and a telephone. When you're ready to order you "call" the kitchen and give them your order. Near the ceiling around the restaurant is a suspended train track and a little train. The train delivers your food in a plastic bin. Depending on the size of your order determines the number of times the train stops at your table. It came to us twice... once with our fries, and the second time with our sandwiches. At eye level they have another train behind plexiglas that also circles the restaurant and helps keep the kids entertained.

A little bit of Christmas

Wednesday, 30 November 2005

Diane's church on Wednesday nights has a short service where their organist plays for about an hour in the chapel. He is very good and has taken a new position and will be leaving at the end of the year, and Diane invited us to hear him play before he left.

Since her church is downtown, I decided to take the kids early so we could do some window shopping - something they love to do - and pick out some new Christmas ornaments for the tree. The store we went to with all the incredible ornaments is one where you take a deep breath and pray no one sneezes. They did an awesome job of picking out their ornaments and not touching anything they weren't suppose to.


We spent quite a bit of time just looking in their shop window. They have a small santa's train that moves which Sam and the girls could sit and watch for hours.

We still had time before the performance, so we went into the children's toy store and boy did we find some fun things! We played with three or four different displays for a good 30 minutes before walking over to the church. I am hoping GR and I can get over there together sometime next week to do some Christmas shopping. They have amazing things that you simply don't find anywhere else.

The St. Louis Magic House

Friday 25 November 2005

We have rediscovered a favorite St. Louis location. Although it was a popular site for the day after Thanksgiving everyone really enjoyed themselves. This was a trip best described in pictures - not words, although I've used some. They are bringing Clifford the Big Red Dog in January - May, we will definitely be coming back at some point during that time to experience it again with our favorite PBS/Scholastic character.

This is one of the first "exhibits" you come to... most people were doing hand prints. But GR and Becca decided to do their face prints.


They have an entire area for little kids 5 and under with slides, two different sand play stations and a water station. Here Sam is playing in sand that isn't gritty or fine (that's a station all it's own) - you can mold it and sculpt it, but it doesn't seem to dry out like wet beach sand.


Here's the water station. The water flows down a series of ramps. The children can experiment with diverting or damming the water to change the flow, or create water falls, and pools. We spent quite a bit of time in this area.


There is a small fishing pond - Suzanne is helping Emily fish - the poll has a magnet on the end of the string and the fish are metal tipped. When you catch a fish you can either release it back into the pond, or you can take it somewhere else and release it. Then you can watch your fish make it's way back to the pond through a Plexiglas glass covered "under floor" stream that feeds into the pond. This was quite popular and it took Sam quite a while to finally get his turn to fish. I should have adapted the Lebanese concept of 'waiting' in line.


They have an entire town set up in kid size ... A house, a bank, library (below Emily is the librarian, checking books in and out using the computer system and stamping cards), TV station, grocery store, etc.


This portion of the Magic House dealt with moving air and air pressure and the effects it has on objects. I loved watching toddlers reaction to the floating balls. They stood in stared, looks of confusing and wonder on their faces, as they tried to figure out why the balls were floating in air. They also had air compressors set up with empty water bottles on strings to create "bottle rockets." You filled the water bottle with air and then released it to see how far up the string it would go. Very cool!


The electrostatic Ball is one of the things the Magic House is famous for. Suzanne and I both gave it a whirl. The trick is to move/shake your head around a lot - but your can't touch your hair or help it lift with your hands. Suz's hair really performed well - mine might have done better if I could have waited an additional 5+ minutes for it to collect enough static charge. Unfortunately the kids wouldn't try it - I'm thinking next time they might be brave enough to try it.

Vintage ski caps

23 November 2005

The bet

22 November 2005 - 4:00pm.

On our way to St. Louis for Thanksgiving, the gas light went on on the mini-van shortly after picking up GR from work. He suggested we purchase gas in Olathe, I on the other hand wanted to wait until we got into Missouri where the gas would be cheaper.

In Olathe gas was $1.94/gallon ... cheaper than at home ... $1.99/gallon. I knew, if I waited until Missouri, I'd be able to pay $1.90.

And so the bet was on. If I paid $1.90 or less per gallon when I had to stop and fill up, than GR wouldn't purchase any more computer hardware!

How could I possibly afford to loose this bet! And Missouri didn't let me down:

WOW!

Monday AM as we empty Becca's school bag:
B: Look Mom, I got my first WOW!
M: That's awesome - look you got all your numbers going the right way! I'm really proud of you. You did a great job.


Tuesday PM as we walk to the car from in front of school.
B: Mom I got another WOW!, today!
M: Really what for?
B: Writing my numbers 1-15.
M: Why did you stop at 15? Why didn't you write to 20 or 25?
B: Mrs. C wouldn't let me.

The back of Monday AM's paper is pictured left, back of Tuesday PM's paper picture right. And at the bottom is a how she wrote her name on her first WOW! paper - I was really pleased with how well she did using upper and lower case letters and what a great job she did keeping her lower case letters the right size.

6.2 Million Gallons

GR ran across this article on MSNBC and decided we must go for a family vacation! And after watching the Today Show broadcast live from the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, on November 21st, I am in total agreement. So much so that I'm actually willing to pay the $23/adult - $17/child entrance fee - yikes!

Look out Aunt Alice, here we come!

Hope yours was great!

Rebecca drew this turkey on Tuesday before we pulled out for StL. I had hoped to email it out to everyone, but I had one way internet service (I could receive email, but couldn't send it) and the computer that could send out emails couldn't talk to the computer that couldn't. But it was too cute not to at least post here so a small fraction of you could see her artistry.

We had a wonderful holiday at my parents home, and per tradition, GR's parents joined us for wonderful food, conversation and friendship. It was great!

More pictures and experiences to come from our trip!

I told Mom I would post pictures of Emily's completed dress. Then I went back and read everyone's opinions again, and realized I'd gone against everyone's advice... no one thought the large rick rack would look good on the hem... eeek.
Despite that I still think it turned out cute - is it a little much, yes, but does it look wrong - the jury is still out. Emily on the other hand LOVEs it. She wore it to a party Saturday night, to Church on Sunday and then to school on Monday. And so far it's holding up okay with all the washing.

P.S. Don't you just love Rebecca's stance in this picture! Both of them have such a great sense of style and poise.

Nine for nine

It's been confirmed, all of the leaders and youth who went and raked leaves yesterday have red itchy spots. Two stayed home from church today... one because his parents thought he had chickenpox, the other because he'd convinced his parents he had poison ivy.

In leadership meetings this morning, he told everyone that despite Rebecca's looks, she did not have chickenpox. After seeing Rebecca, the primary president, Camie, said, "Wow, it's a good thing you told me." I caught Camie in the bathroom after the first hour of primary and she said Becca was being a real trooper. And she is.

Pin Oak Mites!

Yesterday GR's young men were asked to provide service to a non-member sister who needed the leaves in her yard raked. They met up at the church and since I had quilting at the same time (9-11), GR took the girls, and I took Sam. From what GR has told me they raked 13-15 bags of leaves for this woman who was very grateful for their service and it didn't seem to take them very long because, 2 hours later they had not only raked all the leaves, but he'd also taken them all out for breakfast at McDonald's. So they made quick work of a big job.

When I got home around 1:30 Rebecca had suspicious red dots all over the side of her face and neck. I instantly pulled up her shirt to investigate her tummy ... last week the "Chickenpox" letter went out to the PM Kindergarten classes because a child in the other PM classroom had a confirmed case of it ... so although they looked like bug bites, we made calls to the Grandma's to find out what the first signs of chickenpox looks like. And we gave her the first of many doses of benadryl

These bites look very much like chiggers, but they develop a very small white head - like a pimple, and become welts like mosquito bites can.

While at a friends last night I was describing Becca's bites to Steve who said... Ahh, we had the same thing two weeks ago when we were up (NE) at my Mom's. He and Kathy had raked leaves all afternoon and that night tons of little red bites appeared all over the upper portions of their bodies. Turns out they are Pin Oak Mites, and they have been a huge problem in eastern Nebraska and Kansas. They live in the tree and "rain" down when the wind blows and the leaves fall, and my little girl is covered in these horrific little bites.

All of GR's young men have them, but none to the extent that Rebecca has them. Even Emily managed to come home with only 2-3 bites. Becca literally has 50+ on her face (one under each eye, and one on her left eye lid), neck, upper chest, upper back and lower back. She is miserable and looks it too. Kathy put calamine lotion on her bites last night which kind of helped, and this morning we started with benadryl again, which for the time seems to be the biggest help other than total distraction.

Hot Dogs in Honey BBQ Sauce with Honeydew

The kids had a class field trip to the local H____ grocery store. From what I gathered from the teachers conversations in the hallways, who had just taken the morning classes there... they had expected a 20 minute tour. What they got was an amazing 20 minute, very task oriented, kid friendly tour, and a snack - whole apple, slice of American cheese, sugar cookie and glass of water - in the stores dining room, which took an additional 20 minutes. The tour was excellent and the teachers loved it, they just weren't prepared ...

The field trip took up most of their 2-1/2 hour classroom block of time. The classes had arranged for a child to bring the snack, which is a really big deal for most of these kids - they love to be responsible for that. And for the morning kids after a slice of cheese, an apple and a cookie, they weren't all that interested in eating a classroom snack.

So when I walked in with Emily's snack, Hot dogs in honey BBQ sauce (steaming hot in a sauce pan ready to transfer into a mini-crockpot) with honeydew melon and heard all this, I stuck it all in the school fridge, and was prepared for it to be our dinner.

Oh no, this time around, the teachers gave the kids a slice of cheese at the store and asked for the cookies and apples to get boxed up so they could be either eaten in the classroom or sent home in totebags. I microwaved the hot dogs to take the edge off the chill, and they and the honeydew were served along with the cookies.

They ate all but a handful of hot dog bites (I cut up 15 hot dogs and they had 15 kids attend) and a most all of the honeydew melon (and I cut up the whole melon for them). Mrs. S commented to me at the end, that the kids LOVED it, "None of them may be hungry for dinner, but they loved it!" and kept asking for more. So it was a great success.

Thanks to everyone who helped brainstorm Hh foods.

Art

I love the art teachers at preschool! They are incredible and use the most interesting things for the kids to use to apply paint to paper... bubble wrap; different size balls - golf, pingpong, marbles, etc.; kitchen utencils, etc. For the project below, they used blown up balloons to dip into pie pans of paint to apply the paint to the paper. I LOVE the result. This one is definately getting framed and put in the artwork hall of fame.

Side note: Anyone who would like to own a print of Emily's art, can now do so. I have it scanned into the computer and can make any size print you'd like -- 5x7; 8x10,11x14. I am currently waiting for a 4x6 of this image to arrive for the family journal.

Turkey Feather Homework

Last Wednesday Emily came home with "homework" - a blank construction paper feather that she could decorate any way she wanted that would be hung in her classroom until Thanksgiving. While Becca was in school and Sam was taking a nap on Thursday, she painted and painted and painted until she had her feather just the way she wanted. Here she is with her feather and then another picture of her feather with the nearly dressed turkeys from the morning class (left) and her afternoon class (right).

Yeah or Nay

I'm making this little dress for Emily - I LOVE the teeny red rick-rack I've used around the neckline and the sleeves, and planned to use the jumbo rick-rack along the hem. But now I'm not sure if it's cute or over powering or both. Cute and both, I'm fine with, plain overpowering, I'm not. So once again, I need your advice, jumbo or no jumbo?

Side note, I have plenty of the teeny rick rack and could do a row of it 2" or so from the hem... I could also purchase another package and do 3 rows... Anyway need help/suggestions

Hh Week

The letter for the week at Preschool is H, and on Wednesday our girl's the snack girl. They like the snacks to be healthy, and if/when possible coordinate with the letter/theme for the week. I'm having a hard time thinking of something suitable for this weeks snack. All I can think of is homemade whole wheat bread (mom's bullet bread made in green bean cans, so it's preschool sized) and little slices of ham and cheese.

Emily thought we should take the white cheese and crackers (the Havarti cheese I introduced to them last weekend - she doesn't know it's name, so it's kinda funny she suggested it since it starts with H... but anyway), but I suggested we think of something else... at $8/lb I'm not thinking 16 preschoolers need to have that as their snack - even if it is H week.

So any other suggestions?

31 October 2005

There is one house that I have always admired. The landscaping is always, and I mean always beautiful, the color of the house is fun, and yet tastefully perfect, and at Halloween time, these women put on an amazing production! Just take a look at these pictures. They are all hand carved and they use real pumpkins every year!

Costume Day, I’m a little Pepper

Monday, 17 October 2005

Today has been costume collection day…

Rebecca
We went through lots and lots of “I wanna be _____” before Rebecca finally settled on a KU Cheerleader, three weeks before Halloween. GR and I checked all the large department stores, then the local sporting good stores, before looking online and calling the University bookstore. Online the outfits had a $30 price range! Add to that the wait time and shipping costs and we opted for the local bookstore. On the morning of the 17^th I called and they had one left in her size which I asked for them to hold. The plan was to pick it up while the girls were in school.

That morning I put Sam in “big boy” underwear – we’d had two successful trips to the potty and I opted to keep him in his underwear for this jaunt to preschool and campus. Unfortunately while I was picking which pose of Emily’s school picture to purchase, we had a little accident. Here’s the huge difference between boys and girls. With girls, there would have been a huge puddle, shoes would have been soaked, etc. With Sam, just a small softball size wet spot on his shorts… no running down the leg, etc.

I took off his wet clothes and put him in a pull-up I had stashed in my purse and off we went to the bookstore… “I’m a Little Pepper” t-shirt, pull-up and sneakers. It simply wasn’t worth the gas or the time to go home and get him a new pair of shorts to wear.

He was too cute walking onto campus without any reservations. Totally confident and wanting to do things on his own. One guy tried to hold a door open for us, and Sam told him, “Mine!” I tried to explain, but how to you explain it to a 19 year old in 5 words of less so they really understand – you can’t. But Sam did it, he opened and held open each of the doors we went through for me. On the way in we got some odd looks from students, but on the way out, all he got were comments about the awesome shirt he was wearing (thanks Ezra!).

Becca’s outfit fits her perfectly – I was a little concerned she wouldn’t like it because the skirt wasn’t pleated, but she was ultimately happy with it and it looks so cute on her!

Emily
Emily has been very set on being Tinkerbell. The same night we went looking for cheerleading outfits, we looked at Tinkerbell costumes. The ones we saw weren’t the right size and just weren’t “fairy princess” enough. We looked at the patterns and had the same problem – they were really disappointing. So I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend looking online and watching auctions on eBay. We’d gotten a Disney Store Catalog with the perfect costume, but were concerned about sizing and getting it here in time for a couple early Halloween parties.

I found lots of Disney Store Tinkerbell costumes on eBay, and was watching 3 or 4 auctions all at once that were getting ready to end Monday night. All of them kept getting higher and higher and higher until I finally called GR… he called the store at the mall and they had everything we wanted. After work he went and picked up the outfit, wings and shoes – he called me from the road and said “I love my daughter very much.” “Yes, dear I know you do – what are you doing?” “I’m driving to Indpendence Center to purchase a wand” “You don’t need to, she doesn’t need it and if she does, we’ll make it.” (Plus how is she going to hold a wand and a tricker-treat bag? That’ll be the first thing that gets handed to Mom to hold.)

Thankfully it wasn’t missed, and Emily’s face was pure delight when she opened up the bag and tried on her costume. The entire ensemble was perfect and she beamed each and every time she put it on.

Sam
Side note on Sam's costume. We looked at purchasing one of those too, but none of them looked right. Most were Thomas the Train costumes that looked more like Thomas PJs than a Train costume. And Sam wanted to be a choo choo because he likes trains, not because he's obsessed with Thomas. So that's why we spent time and made his costume.

Even more Halloween

Sam has always wanted to be a Choo Choo. And the amazing thing is you'd ask him (after having not been asked for days) and he'd respond the same way every time - Choo Choo. GR did 80% of the work and I did the other 20%. He literally spent 6 hours painting it on Saturday. When Sam came down from his nap about 2pm, he looked at the box and said in a quiet awed voice - "My Choo Choo?!" By his reaction you could just tell he thought it was perfect, and he knew it was for him.

But when it came time to put on the costume for our block party on Saturday, he wasn't real sure he wanted to wear it. It took having Rebecca put it on to show him before he was willing to wear it. And he wore it for a good 30 minutes before wanting it off so he could run around and play.

On Halloween he wore it for 4 houses before wanting it off - he wasn't able to walk very well - so we put it in the wagon and he pulled it along to the remaining 12 houses or so that they went to.

Saturday 29 October 2005


Thrusday night is Reality Sisters. A group of 5-6 of us meet at 9pm and watch that nights Survivor. We also usually bring a little snack of some kind. Some bring sweets, other bring appitizers, etc. The food really varries and I tend to bring "test" recipes to see their reaction. Although this week, I was able to take them one of Grandfather's pomegranets. Grandfather sent me a box of ~10 and I took one to share - and they LOVED it so much I'm taking another next week.

These women have introduced me to some great foods with thier snacks. This week Shannon brought two things I've never had before - Havarti cheese and a yummy flavor of Triscuit - Rosemary and Olive Oil. I liked it so much that I picked up some this morning when I stopped at the store for milk and hot dog buns for the Halloween Block party tonight.

The kids LOVE combination of a little square of cheese on the triscuit. GR on the other hand, didn't. An hour later he was still complaining about the taste the triscuit left in his mouth! I admit they are strong, but the cheese really mellows the flavor and they make a great combo snack!

Halloween continued...

Kindergarten Fall Party - 2:00


Our school has never done Halloween Parties, only Fall Parties. Basically it means no costumes and many parents like the fact that they don't have to mess with two costumes - the school costume and the tricker-treating costume.

The kids have been learning about spiders and I volunteered to bring the craft project - paper plate spiders - a craft Rebecca did years ago at her first "Fairy Tail Forest" at the Nature Center in Liberty, MO.

We used small black paper plates (I spray painted the bottom of the plate black cause they come white), 9 strips of black construction paper cut 3/4" wide, 2 - 1" circles (I finally found a valid reason to purchase a circle punch!), and a long piece of black yarn. I had the yarn already strung through the 2 holes I punched in the plate, and the rest of their supplies were put in baggies to make distribution easier. They did a great job and had already practiced the fan or accordian fold earlier in the day when they made spider hats - the little guy next to Rebecca in the bottom picture is wearing his - they were super cute.

A picture is worth a 1000 words

30 October 2005
At the beginning of the month (the day of the Fun Walk at the school actually) GR bought a couple Pillsbury Halloween cake mixes that had the directions for this pumpkin/jack-o-lantern cake on it. We decided that it might be best to make it for his co-workers since it makes a ton of cake (you use 2 bundt cakes and 2 cans of frosting!). He made it Sunday night and took it to work on Halloween.



31 October 2005
Preschool Halloween Parade - 12:45
Emily's class was so cute! They had great costumes and were so excited to wear them to class. They did a parade for the parents and then sang 5 or 6 Halloween songs for parents (yes M&M we recorded it, although I think Stella knows all the songs!).


Sam fell asleep in the car on the way to preschool... and never woke up. He slept on the floor of the class room while I helped Emily into her shoes, he slept on the floor of the chapel during the parade, then he slept on a table during the Halloween songs, and then GR took him home where he stayed asleep until 3 or so. This is very unusual for him. I can usually move him once, but a second time, never!

A wild discovery

School is out and the sun is shining to the kids have been outside playing for the last 4 hours. I've given up on Sam taking a nap. 20 minutes ago I heard the 5 girls on the street shrieking, and went to tell them that wasn't necessary unless there was blood.

They had discovered a snake in the grass and some felt that was the appropriate way to respond. Gotta love it.

Anyway we all stood around this little baby snake ~12-14 inches long go through the grass and then climb the neighbors oak tree. According to the local 7 year-old, it's a corn snake and venomous. From the Google search I've done, it might be a baby corn snake - didn't find many pictures - and they aren't venomous... they strangle or constrict their prey.

Anyway, after two attempts, the snake made it up into the tree where I snapped a few pictures. The kids found it fascinating to watch this legless creature climb a tree - it really was an amazing thing to watch.

Flying over head

I was looking through photos from the last couple weeks, reminding myself of things I still need to blog about and ran across this picture - it's a perfect 12:15am post!

15 October 2005 late afternoon



After a hot afternoon at the apple orchard, we all flopped on the couch and watched a movie. Around 5-5:30 pm I heard the familiar sounds of a hot air balloon, and headed for the back deck to try and find it. The couple taking the ride had lowered their balloon right over our neighborhood, and went right through our back yard. They were waving at people and saying hello. By the time I got the camera they had already started to raise the balloon higher in the ski. It made for an exciting evening; they are just so beautiful. When the kids are older and can see over the basket, I think that would be a fun adventure to take them on.

Spreading Halloween spirit

Monday night at 9pm our doorbell rang, and on our doorstep we found the following note attached to a bag of goodies:

The spooks are after things to do,
In fact, a spook brought this to you!

The treats that come with crypted note,
Are yours to keep, enjoy them both.

The power comes with friends like you,
Copy this, and make it TWO!

We'll have smiles upon our face,
No one well know who "Boo"ed whose place.

And don't forget a nifty treat,
Like something cute or something sweet.

Please join the fun; let's really see it,
And spread some "Boo"s and Halloween spirit!

We were instructed to enjoy our treat (candy, cookies and a small Halloween decoration), place a sheet of paper with a ghost on it that say "Boo"ed on our front door and secretly deliver packages to 2 houses in our neighborhood who didn't have "Boo" on their front door.

This was a really fun project to work on - my brain must have really wanted to ignore my mounting house work because after telling Barb and Suz about what I made for this little sha-do, I realized I may have gone overboard... but it was SO much fun finding cute things that were simple to make (inexpensive - key!), and might appeal to a varied audience with children or without...

So here's what I did:
I had already planned a trip to Joann's on Tuesday to purchase Halloween fabric to make a pillow case for Samuel, so while I was there I took advantage of their 60% sale and purchased additional fabric to make gift bags that were more like a totebag to deliver all our goodies in.

At Michael's I found some wonderful Halloween themed pre-painted wood cutouts, and unfinished wood frames. I painted the wood frames and assembled - pictured top. They cost about $2 to make since everything was on sale. GR said I should market them - but someone on eBay has already beat me to it. Maybe I should come up with a couple Christmas designs instead...

Diane lent me a great Pillsbury Cookbook full of fun things to do with food for Halloween ... we've made lots of interesting things from this cookbook - many of them are on their website. For the goodie bags I made two of their recipes - Ghoulish Gorp (trail mix using peanuts, mini-oreos, raisins, candy corn, and goldfish crackers - pictured bottom left) and Chocolate Gremlins (very tasty! - pictured bottom right). I put the trail mix in little sandwich bags and then wrapped them with a 10" square of orange tissue paper and used a green pipe cleaner to close it shut, creating a mini-pumpkin. I think I'll do this again for Rebecca's Kindergarten class on Halloween.



GR delivered both bags this evening - and didn't get caught! We choose one family we don't know very well on our street, and then another family we are getting to know on the street behind ours... It's hard to only do 2 houses, there are so many houses in our neighborhood, I'd love to do a couple more just to get the ball moving faster and involve more people.

What a smile!

Emily got her school pictures back today and she did beautifully. Usually there's a definitive 'best' picture that makes the choice (and my decision to only purchase 1-8x10 and 2-5x7s) easier, but this year she had two great poses that were hard to pick from. In the end, this is the picture I choose.


This is the other great pose that they choose for her tote bag... Once again, her smile is perfect. Can you see why I really, really debated about this one - so cute!

Going back in time

Saturday, 8 October 2005 - Noon-3:30pm

For the past 29 years Kansas City has hosted a "Renaissance Festival - Festival of Fooles!" (their website is horrifying - do a google search and look at Texas, Ohio, and Michigan - each have a Renaissance Festival just like KCs and their websites are MUCH better!). The RenFest runs for 7 weekends in September and October. They have built an entire 16th-century village filled with townsmen, shopkeepers, merchants, and food vendors all dressed in period costume. And many of those who come just to visit come in costumes as well. Next time we come, we're dressing up! Here's the map of the village, our ticket stub and a sticker the kids got for completing the Amazing Maze.



It's a fun experience for the kids. Throughout the village they have mini-shows happening all day long. At 12:30 each day is a Royal Parade through the village with villagers, knights and royalty. Other mini-shows we saw... jousting, comedy, story telling, and choral performances.

They also have amusement park type attractions, only they are all "man" powered. The kids road a man powered "merry-go-round" where they sat in swings. A group of boys - four at a time - worked in shifts pushing a center post, around and around and around again until a bell was rung and they could rest until the next group of kids were ready to ride again.

The other "ride" the kids wanted to go on was a camel. For $12 we all got to ride, and thanks to Diane, we have a picture to document this first for all four of us. Rebecca was the one who talked us all into doing this, and they really enjoyed the ride.

Shake, shake, shake that tree

1 October 1-4pm

This afternoon was the first (and hopefully not the last) Wakarusa Valley Farm Tour. 10-12 Farms from all over the Wakarusa Valley (as far north as Tonganoxie and Perry, East to Desoto, West to Topeka, and South to Baldwin) participated. Some were mainly for adults and others were very geared to families with children.

There was no way to make it to all of the farms - so we picked three that looked interesting and were "kid friendly." A sheep farm, a pecan farm, and a nursery we go to every summer that had animals, and other autumn things set up for the kids.

The pecan farm was by far the best! When they said "kid friendly," they meant it! Pecans have a green outer husk (see small inset picture on left), then a brown hard shell and the nut rests inside. When the pecan is ready to be harvested, the green husk splits and the brown hard shell inside falls out. To aid in the process, farmers can "shake" the tree using a contraption hitched to the back of a tractor (top picture).

When we arrived they were getting ready to shake a tree so we could help pick up the nuts. It was amazing. Normally they would lay down tarps, first, but I guess they figured we had plenty of hands to help pick the nuts right off the ground (bottom picture), so no tarp was used. I expected a more definitive shake, this is more of a fierce and rapid vibration of the tree - and hundreds of huts rained down to the grown for atleast 60 seconds. It was so cool! We atleast partially filled 3 or 4 - 10 gallon buckets (the ones we'd use for seats at girls camp).



This Pecan farm is family owned ... Dad is a conservationist, and the Pecan's are a family hobby on the weekends in the fall. I can see he and Grandfather having grand conversations about the different "experiments" he's been running on growing and watering techniques. He just mentioned a little bit of what they've been trying with new drip irrigation systems, and planting times to see how they effect crop yields and tree growth.

For $3 I purchased 2 pounds of unshelled, undried nuts. I stuck them in my dehydrator and they are now waiting to be shelled. A friend has a pecan sheller that makes it much easier. I'm going to try and borrow it from her - my pliers work, but it's a slow and tedious process.

Take that, money hungry marketers

1 October - 8-10 AM

This year the Elementary school decided that instead of doing wrapping paper, cookie dough, or candy sales they would have a fund raiser where 100% of the proceeds went directly to the schools PTA; their fund raiser, a fun walk. Kids were challenged to find monetary “sponsors” - family, friends, neighbors, co-workers – and then come with their families Saturday morning and walk on a trail behind the school.

It was a great idea and families loved the fact that all the money was going to the school and not lining the pockets of fund raising companies. And although less than half the students participated, they still exceeded their goal.

I’m trying to get involved with the PTA and volunteered to help the morning of the walk at the refreshment tables… after (key word that some people had a hard time with) their walk the PTA provided snacks granola bars, muffins, bananas, apple dippers, water and juice for everyone.

Rebecca decided she wasn’t interested in walking, so she helped me at the refreshment table while GR took Emily and Sam on an errand.

For every $10 in sponsorships the kids earned, they were able to put tickets in for different prize drawings. Rebecca won a little purse/mini-satchel donated by the local humane society. It’s a great little bag that looks small but carries a ton of stuff!

Johnny Apple Seed

30 September 2005

Today Rebecca’s class had an apple party, during the last 30 minutes of class. Earlier in the week, her teacher sent home a list of apple themed foods for parents/kids to contribute to the celebration, and asked for parent helpers. I volunteered to be a parent helper and bring plates and apple chips – aka dehydrated apple slices – since I have a great dehydrator and apple slicer that makes the process really fast, easy and inexpensive.

Long story short, Thursday morning after the dehydrator ran all night, we discovered that the dehydrator wasn’t working and I need to order a new fuse for it. So instead of apple chips, I took applesauce mini-muffins, a recipe I found in one of Diane’s cookbooks.

The kids loved the applesauce muffins! I wasn’t all that impressed with them, but my kids each had 2 large muffins, and the kindergartners couldn’t get enough of them. To start I gave each child 2 mini-muffins, and 4 or 5 of them asked to have more “cupcakes.” I discovered they are definitely better as mini-muffins than they are regular muffins.

Here are pictures from Rebecca’s party:

Applesauce Muffins

30 September 2005

Friday morning Sam helped me make the applesauce muffins that were such a hit at the kindergarten Apple Celebration. He’s gotten to be quite a good little helper. Whenever you’re in the kitchen, he’ll find the nearest stool and bring it into the kitchen and insist on helping with whatever you’re doing.

For this recipe I had him stir the dry ingredients with a wisk, and I think he decided to blow into the bowl, which of course caused flour and spices to go everywhere.

I thought some of you might like this recipe – and trust me, these are better as mini-muffins than regular muffins.

Applesauce Muffins

Makes 2 dozen large muffins, or ~5 dozen mini-muffins

4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon allspice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup butter softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups applesauce
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Combine flour, cinnamon, allspice and baking soda together; set aside. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl; blend in eggs applesauce and vanilla.Mix in flour mixture; fill lightly greased muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. For mini-muffins, bake for 10-12 minutes.

Recipe from the Autumn Gooseberry Patch Cookbook.

Musical Toddlers

The local Arts Center (where we saw the VodVil Klown performance) has lots of great programs for kids. When Rebecca was 2-1/2 I signed her up for "Coloring Outside the Lines" and she LOVED it. They have other excellent programs for kids and adults of all ages using every possible medium.

Sam loves to sing, and they have a parent/child Music and Movement class Diane showed me that we both thought he would enjoy. It's at 9:15 - 10:15 on Tuesday mornings - definitely not an easy time for us given our Kindergarten schedule. It means that if I find someone to watch Rebecca and Emily, they must live in our neighborhood, or come to my house, otherwise we get home to late to get Rebecca fed and do all the little last minute preps before school without a lot of stress and tension. Definitely not the way I want to send her off to school.

Of his three classes, Grandma was in town for one, and Grandpa watched them for one, but I new I needed another solution, because they can't always come to the house and watch them. And unfortunately my friends in the neighborhood aren't able to watch the girls on Tuesday mornings either, so it was either cancel the class, or figure out a way to take them with me. I really, really debated about this one. Sam really loves the other kids he's with and the teacher is wonderful. So I packed the preschool totes with drawing materials in one and books in the other, and had long talks with both girls about sitting quietly and reading/drawing. To my amazement and delight, they were perfect! They were quiet they didn't whine, or talk - they were perfect little angels on the wall.

Becca was so cute. About 40 minutes into the class, I went over and checked on her (which I did pretty frequently throughout the class) and she said, "Sam gets to do really fun things. I want to do fun things too." I told her we could do just about all of what Sam was doing in class at home.

The class does lots of activities involving music and movement. They do rhythm sticks to songs on a CD, singing songs, free form dancing, circle dances, follow the leader stuff, and more. For a good 20 minutes of the class they pull out lots of different things the kids can use their large muscles with - large balls, ladders and slides, stairs to climb, tubes to crawl through, etc. - all the while music is playing in the background. Connie Dover seems to be a favorite musician of the teacher. For the last 5 minutes of class, they pull out a large parachute and do a good-bye routine. When I took the girls with me two weeks ago, I had them help the other parents maneuver the parachute and I think that helped Rebecca with her "I wanna have fun too!" pains. And when it was all over the girls said they wanted to come with us again. So that's encouraging, since they'll be going with me again tomorrow morning!

In January I'm going to sign Sam and Emily both up for "Coloring Outside the Lines." It's for kids 2-3, again it's a parent/child class and is only offered on Tuesday afternoons. But I asked if Emily could come being 4, and if I could be the only adult, and the instructor said it was okay! So I'm excited, I think both kids will enjoy that class - they both have very different approaches to art, so the end product will be different and unique.

Playing catch up

Lots has happened over the last 10 days that I'd like to blog about, but I'm not going to get to them all at once... so scroll down, and make sure you haven't missed anything new... like the picture from GR's birthday...

Vodvil the Clown (posted)... Turtle Burtle - the fat cat (posted)... Musical Toddlers... Johnny Apple Seed... Walk in the Park... Shake, shake, shake that tree... and much more is still to come.

Trash Day

Last week at Emily's school I noticed a poster asking parents to collect Campbell's Labels for Education. They are hoping to collect 17,400 labels so they can get a digital camera for each classroom.


I sent out an email to family and friends asking for their support, and called Mom to tell her to bring any labels she'd been saving (they came up for the weekend). She came with a flat of cans she'd brought from her food storage. Saturday afternoon, she and Emily pulled off the labels marked each can with the contents so she could take the labels in to school.

She put all the labels in her totebag inside a ziplock bag so she wouldn't forget them.

This morning when she was jumping up and down, all excited for Trash Day at school, I had to ask for an explanation. Turns out she was excited to take her labels (trash) to school. They have a large plastic 'soup can bank' that sits on the floor outside the directors office. When kids bring labels, or other education points, they get to drop them in the soup can. She was very excited to do that.

Here's more information about Campbell's Labels for Education program as well as a list of eligible products.

Richard Renner, The VodVil the Klown

A few weeks ago Diane showed me an ad for Richard Renner, the Vodvil Clown - a performance that would be at the Arts Center in town. It looked like a lot of fun, so she got tickets for the family to go. She and Bob ended up not being able to attend, so Mom and Dad took their place.

We went to Wheatfields again for breakfast about 8:30 am - and got a great table for everyone to sit at. The kids and Daddy had sweet rolls and fresh fruit, Suz had the omelet of the day, Mom had eggs, sausage and toast, and I had French toast so I could share with Sam - who ate nearly half of my breakfast, his entire fruit cup and some of the cinnamon roll.

I had hoped we'd have time to walk through the farmers market, but everyone was enjoying breakfast so much that we opted to skip the farmers market and go right to the Arts Center.

The doors opened a little after 10 so we took a few minutes to walk through a few of their galleries. They have some amazing pieces of art from local artists. The current exhibit has a Native American theme with beautiful pieces. The kids and I were definitely drawn to the quilts, but they also had clothing, drums, sculpture, paintings, and other beautiful works of art.

While we waited in the theater for the performance to start there was an older gentleman playing the piano on stage. He did show tunes, kids songs, and other pieces that most people would recognized. He didn't use any sheet music - and he was great with the crowd. As more and more people filled the theater, he played songs that encouraged audience participation - clapping, singing, etc. His playing really made the wait seem shorter and helped to keep the kids interested.

The performance - a one man show called "Slapstick Circus" - was exceptional. I'm not sure what I had expected, but it definitely was above and beyond my expectations. In a letter Daddy wrote to the family about the performance he said "He did a good job of combining pantomime, simple circus acts like balancing and unicycle riding, and mostly self-deprecating slapstick humor." I found the following information about Richard Renner, the performer and his one-man show.

Richard Renner, The Vodvill Klown!
Actor, Juggler, Orangutan, Poet and Fool all describe Richard Renner as performs his special brand of humor. Whether juggling, unicycling, ropewalking, or creating a zany improvisation, Richard performs with unbounded energy and skill. He has spent years and a small fortune studying with such teachers as Marcel Marceau - the French mime master, Yuri Belov - a famous Russian clown, and Avner the Eccentric - the famous New Vaudevillian. He is comfortable entertaining a crowd of on or one thousand in any setting. Whether roving or on stage he creates an excitement and visual spectacle hard to forget. All together his performances are marked with laughter, smiles and participation as he uses all he has learned to make us laugh and discover the love of laughter in us all.

PERFORMING SKILLS: Comedy, Stiltwalking, Juggling, Pantomime, Unicycling, Ropewalking, Acrobatics, Audience Participation


The Slapstick Circus
A one man stage show of 30 to 45 minutes featuring Richard Renner as the VodVill Klown performing circus skills and pantomime techniques. A completely silent act, except for the occasional scream, Richard entertains with physical comedy, prat falls and circus skills. Objects attack, machines refuse to work and all the failures ultimately lead to success as The VodVill Klown explores the possibilities of circus skills in the real world. Unicycling with motors, balancing with cleaning equipment and band music with hardware supplies are some of the surprise your audiences will see in "The Slapstick Circus"!

Our entire group really enjoyed it! He had universal appeal. The gentleman who played the piano for the 30 minutes before the performance started also provided the music during the performance, and again, he was excellent. Sam had a hard time understanding why we were all enjoying the performance. The piano would play music that gave a feeling of suspense or anticipation or worry - and Sam understood that, or could sense that suspense/concern/anticipation. So he spent much of the first half of the performance with his head pressed to my chest while his eyes were glued to the clown. The remainder was on Grandpa's lap.

Rebecca and Emily seriously laughed out loud the entire time. A couple of times I had to tap their knees so they would laugh just a little bit softer. But the whole audience was like that. After the show Richard Renner waited outside to say good-bye to the kids and sign programs. One of those momments when you kick yourself for thinking "There's no reason to bring the camera to this - what will there be to photograph?!"

We will definitely be watching for this performance again next year.

Turtle Burtle

Awhile back, and wouldn't you know, I can't find the link, Mary Ann sent a link to pictures of cats doing crazy things. This is one of turtles favorite positions - lying flat on her back gazing up into the ceiling lights. When Mutti and Suz saw this they insisted that a picture be taken and it get posted to the blog. So here she is in her internet debut:

Turtle

Papa's Birthday

GR will be in NYC for his birthday (Rob had baby #1 last month and GR is going out for the blessing this weekend) so we celebrated it this evening.

Someone made him (us) an apple pie as a thank you and delivered it yesterday. After sampling it yesterday, we decided it would make a great birthday cake - and despite the two pieces missing, stuck candles in it and sang Happy Birthday - Sam's pretty good a t singing it, and if I can figure out how to record his voice onto the computer, I'll post a link to his singing.


When asked, GR said he didn't want anything for his birthday - he just couldn't think of anything that he needed/wanted. At the beginning of the summer we met some friends at a park for FHE and shot off model rockets. GR has been wanting to get some to shoot off with the kids ever since and I found a starter kit for him. It's just too bad we have to wait for him to get home from NYC to shoot them off!

The kids designed the wrapping paper - pretty great huh?