bright eyes + blue eyes

here's a short little burst of static to interrupt the radio silence

Hi, friends!

Well, I achieved my goal of posting (at least) one sentence + one photo 6x week for three months.

Hooray!

Mission accomplished.

* * * * *

The last several weeks have been very full.

Busy times.

Happy times.

My responsibilites are keeping me on my toes.

* * * * *

Fact #1: I really enjoy blogging.

Also:

Fact #2: The busy-ness I've just described is going to ramp up a little bit in the coming months.

I have tentative plans to take a blog break.

Not sure yet.

Thinking.

In the meantime, I just wanted to say hello.

Hunter was out of town this week.

He got back home tonight.

What a breath of fresh air.

I love partnering with him in life, and I really miss him when he's gone.

Together again.

Self-portrait in the living room earlier tonight.

Aunt Ellie, please note that Manzo carries around your blue blanket. He sure does love it.

busy saturday

We're halfway through a busy Saturday. It's just me, Pumpkin & Manzo today. Hunter took Superboy on a little road trip to visit Uncle Joe for the day. 

I have a similar trip planned in a couple of weeks. (Pumpkin and Manzo will be coming along with me.)

10 random & unrelated items/thoughts/links off the top of my head:

• The picture above was taken in September. Manzo has LOVED using that little walker. It was a gift from Hunter's parents, and it's from IKEA. What a great little toy.
• Speaking of Manzo, the other day I did a post about things he loves. I cannot believe I left off balls. Footballs, soccer balls, kick balls, tennis balls....the kid loves to play with a ball. If he sees a ball on the other side of the room, he will high tail it over to the ball and initiate a game of toss with me (or whoever is around.) If he is playing with a ball and you have to take it away for some reason (i.e. it's time to stop playing & go get in the car), he will lay down on the floor, cry, and thrash his arms and legs. (Oh boy--we're at that stage now. yippee! Game on.) The kid is passionate about throwing and catching (attempting to catch) the ball. Loves it!!
• Manzo is asleep right now & I'm about to do some housework. I'm putting out all the stuff for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins on the counter. I'm also putting the recipe on the counter. Pumpkin (the girl, not the food) is going to make the muffins all by herself from start to finish. She's helped me a ton over the years, but this is a first for her to fly solo. I told her I'm available if she needs help. I'm so curious to see how this goes! I think she'll have fun.
• After Manzo wakes up, we will be running some errands to collect various things we need for 3 halloween costumes. Manzo is going to be Baby Buzz Lightyear. Superboy is going to be a specific Pokemon character. (I would tell you the name of the character, but, alas, I cannot remember it. It's sort of a turtle-looking thing. Should be interesting to try to make on our own. yikes! Pumpkin's costume is going to be cute--I'll leave you in suspense on that one.
• I watched an episode of Nashville this week. (It's a new show on ABC.) I love Connie Britton's hair on the show. It's SO pretty. Really pretty color---sort of coppery-golden-reddish.
• When I was getting Superboy's stuff ready to go with Hunter earlier this morning, I thought to myself, "Getting a 10 year old ready to go away for the day is SO EASY." It's true, people. No special food. No special equipment. No car seat. No need for an extra change of clothes or anything. Easy, easy, easy. I know, this is a very obvious observation to make. But there you go.
• I took the big kids to see a play yesterday. There's a school not to far from us that has a really great drama program. Last year we went to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and they did an amazing job. So when we heard they were doing Peter Pan, we had to go check it out. I told the kids they could bring friends. We ended up bringing Hailey, Hope, and Connor along to the show.
• I have nursery duty tomorrow at church. Our church has been growing so much over the last couple of years that they keep having to add new nursery rooms to accomdate all the little ones. I think our nursery coordinator does a really great job. That's an important role at a church, if you ask me. Parents want to know that their kids are in good hands.
• I want to stencil one of the walls in Pumpkin's room someday. (in the next house.) I'd like to use one of these stencils. I'm thinking of something fairly subtle. Tone on tone. I was inspired by this blog post:  Before & After Dining Room Style. And here's another post I liked from that particular blog: Attic Renovation Before & After.
• I'll conclude my list with this amazing link: Earth's Most Stunning Natural Fractal Patterns. So amazing!

Have a great weekend!

 

toddler property laws

This post is for my sister-in-law, Allison.

Allison, I read your latest blog post and loved seeing those two cute little munchkins.

I totally relate to what you wrote about the beginnings of learning to share. I remember those days so well!

I wonder if you've ever seen this list. These are "Toddler Property Laws." I've seen these written in various places. For the below list, I just copied and pasted from this site.

These really crack me up. So true. My favorite one is #5.

Enjoy!

-Abbie

* * * * *

Toddler Property Laws

1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine
5. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like it’s mine, it’s mine.
8. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
9. If I can see it, it’s mine.
10. If I think it’s mine, it’s mine.
11. If I want it, it’s mine.
12. If I need it, it’s mine.
13. If I say it’s mine, it’s mine.
14. If you don’t stop me from playing with it, it’s mine.
15. If you tell me I can play with it, it’s mine.
16. If it will upset me too much when you take it away from me, it’s mine.
17. If I can play with it better than you can, it’s mine.
18. If I play with it long enough, it’s mine.
19. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it’s mine.
20. If it’s broken, it’s yours (no wait, all the pieces are mine).

pocket pets

One thing I did not anticipate when we were at Six Flags was the presence of small gliding marsupials--for sale!

As we were walking through the park, we turned a corner and suddenly found ourselves face to face with a booth selling sugar gliders. (!!)

I did not anticipate having to help my children resist the urge to buy a PET while we were at Six Flags. Cotton Candy? yes. Anticipated that. Small furry pet? Did not see that one coming.

We'd stumbled upon a "Pocket Pets" booth. I'll give you three guesses as to who was really interested in becoming a sugar glider owner......

Sugar gliders remind me a lot of Littlest Petshop Pets (which is a line of toys for little girls.) Those great big eyes!

Thankfully, our tender-hearted little Pumpkin was understanding and accepting of the fact that we are not in the position to get another pet at this point in time. Full plate at the moment! No room for flying marsupials to fit onto said plate.

But it was fun to encounter them at Six Flags. They're cute little things!

 

 

 

passion for fashion

Okay, true confession--I do not have a passion for fashion.

I do, however, like rhyming words, so that's how I landed on this blog post title.

An alternate, and in fact more descriptive, blog post title would be: "I like this kind of top"

On the left: a page I tore out of a Boden catalog.

On the right: a subscription card from Oprah's magazine.

I like tops that have a tailored look.

I love that type of neckline (question for you seamstresses out there: what would that neckline be called?)

I love three quarter length sleeves.

On the other hand, Oprah's top has bell sleeves, which are kind of fun.

* * * * *

On a different note:

I've blogged about how much I love the Brambly Hedge book series.

(see this post: The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge)

I saw something on Pinterest the other day that caught my eye. There's a lady who lives in England who re-created one of the beautiful tree house illustrations from the book Spring Story by Jill Barklem.

The tree house re-creation is unbelievable. Here's the link so you can check it out:

Miniature Mouse Tree House, inspired by Brambly Hedge

I clicked around on her blog for a minute and discovered that the artist who created the tree house has also completed another amazing project---a miniature replica of Bilbo Baggins' home, Bag End.

If you're a fan of The Hobbit, you'll be amazed at this project.

(Actually, even if you're not a fan, you'll still be amazed.)

Here's the link: My Hand Made Hobbit Hole

new glasses

Ever since the first week of 3rd grade, Pumpkin has been saying that her eyes hurt at school and that it's hard to see clearly.

Hmmm.

I asked a few probing questions--particularly because I know several of her friends have glasses, and she's mentioned that she would LOVE it if she needs glasses as well.

As time went on, it became very clear that there was definitely something going on with her eyes.

So I made an eye appointment.

Meanwhile, in the weeks while we were waiting for the appointment, Superboy had his 10 yr old check up at the pediatrician office. During the course of his exam, they did a routine vision check, and he failed. (just barely--thank goodness!) The pediatrician said he needed to visit the eye doctor to find out what's going on.

Hunter took both kids to the eye doctor. And whadya know--they both needed glasses!

I cannot tell you how VERY excited they both were to hear the news.

I guess some kids would be really bummed. But for some reason they didn't fall into that category. They've been wearing their glasses for about a week now, and they've both commented a lot on how well they can SEE now. They're very happy with the new development.

Below are some pics from the day we picked out frames.

Superboy got one pair of everyday glasses and one pair of sports frames.

Pumpkin got two pairs of everyday glasses--one with dark frames, one with light pink frames.

Hunter wears his glasses or contacts every day.

So at this point, me & Manzo are the only ones with 20/20 vision. I'm sure I'll be the next one to need glasses at some point down the road.

Here are the cute new glasses:

 

mama said there'd be days like this

Today was the 5th Grade Nutrition Feast for Superboy and his classmates. Very fun project involving all the kids.

As part of the prep for the feast, I was taking two big, hot pans of pasta and marinara from the oven this morning. It was about 10:10am and I needed to have the pasta dishes up at the school at 10:30.

Here's what happened:

I took one hot pan out of the oven & put it on the stovetop.

Then, I took the 2nd hot pan out and didn't get a good hold on it unfortunately. It wobbled a bit towards me. The oven was 400 degrees and I overreacted when I felt like the hot dish was wobbling towards my skin. The over-reaction caused the pan to wobble back the other way---and ultimately overturn back INTO the oven. Hot tomato-sauce-laden pasta ALL over the oven. Wonderful.

I turned off the oven, did a quick initial clean up. More detailed cleaning would have to come later.

Then I ran back to Superboy's room to do one more thing before getting in the car to head to school.

We had window cleaners at our house this morning. They had finished all the exterior windows and were about to come inside to do the second part of the job. I had moved a few things to make it easy for them to get to all interior windows. (i.e. scooted Pumpkin's bed away from the wall a bit, etc etc) The last thing to do was pull Superboy's Lego table away from the wall so they could have easy access to the window that is right next to it.

I was under the impression that the lego table had those little furniture pads attached to the legs.

So I didn't give it much thought when I pulled the table away from the wall in one quick motion.

Not good.

The table had no furniture pads, and there was one little sharp place on the bottom of the back left leg.

I don't know if you can see it in the above picture. There's a gash in the floor tracing the path I used when I moved the Lego table.

Here's a closer look.

Noooooooooo!

So anyway, I loaded up the food in the car (except for the one pasta dish that I ruined by dropping) and headed up to school.

As I was driving I thought to myself, "Did that seriously just happen in the last 2 minutes?....dumping food ALL over the interior of my clean oven...and then cutting a big gash on the hardwood floor....?"

{sigh}

* * * * *

To end on a positive note, I will say this--I'm really enjoying how clean the windows are today. They are fresh & spotless, and give me a wonderful view of the trees I love so much.

{one of my FAVORITE things about our house is all or our beloved trees....love love love them.}

{I'm still missing the fig trees!! :-(   booo hooo  }

{On the other hand, not really missing the ginkgo tree from the front yard.}

{random, somewhat related sidenote: Ellie likes to be able to identify trees.}

happy saturday

Happy Saturday!

We've had a nice relaxing day at home.

Lots of projects accomplished.

Lots of down time with the kids.

Newsy info about the kids:

Superboy - Really interested in Pokemon cards all of the sudden. 5th grade recess craze.

Pumpkin - The 3rd graders are about to start a big unit of study at school. Topic: Africa. She will be assigned a region and will be making a shoebox diorama to give information about the animals/landscape/etc of her region.

Manzo - Has suddenly become obsessed with the framed family photos hanging in our hallway. When we walk by the photos, he shouts "DA-DA!!!" His enthusiasm sometimes makes me jump because it startles me. Today he started blowing kisses at Da-Da's picture. (his own idea--so precious!)

And in other news, this issue came in the mail today.

I've read half of the cover story and it's stressing me out.

Maybe I'll keep reading and there will be a happy ending or magic solution to the predicament described by the author. (ha ha...unfortunately not the case.)

* * * * *

Have a great evening!

-Abbie

update : state quarters collection

We searched through some spare change we had here at home and found THREE of our four missing quarters. Hooray!

The only one we're missing now is TENNESSEE.

If you happen to run across a Tennessee quarter, don't let it get away! We have a happy home for it on our cozy little quarter map.

*posted by Abbie*

talk to your kids PSA : star wars

Talk to your kids PSA : Star Wars

*posted by Abbie*