The weary blog

Oh the poor neglected blog. Oddly enough I hardly ever sit down to the computer anymore because I do everything on my phone or ipad.  So to compile pictures and content for the blog gets back-burnered and then it's 7 months behind.
Then I feel bad because I post pictures on Facebook but not to the blog. And I wish I could post more easily and I tell myself if only I could I would. Well look what I've found, an app to post to my blog. So perhaps you'll see more pictures here. Maybe even more content. Maybe not, time will tell. I do know I've got to catch you up since July and will hopefully get to that soon. But I will also inform the dear mothers in my life that there will be no blog book this year as there are only 7 posts on the blog from this year. Inexcusable!
But let me get caught up, and perhaps this app will breathe new life into this weary blog.
In the meantime, Here's a picture of Suki under the Christmas tree...

Antelope Island

Yesterday we took an impromptu trip to Antelope Island.  It's been something we've wanted to do for a while, wishing to visit the island we look at everyday from our back door.

There we visited Buffalo point (where we saw a buffalo), the ranch (where we saw more buffalo and talked to some ladies from the Northern Utah Fiber Arts Guild who I might take some spinning lessons from once the kids go back to school - so I can learn to hand-spin my alpaca fiber!), ate at the Buffalo Grill and went to the "beach"

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 can you spot the buffalo?

there he is...

 more buffalo in the distance

 snow cone & buffalo burgers at the Buffalo Grill

 traversing the desert to get to the lake

 ...as we got closer to the water, you could hear a distinctive buzz, about 10 feet from the shore, literal clouds of gnats. hovering to about 4 feet off the ground.  This is a sad baby because she wanted to go in the water with Finn, but didn't want to walk through the clouds of gnats.  It took us girls 3 tries to get to the water.  Daddy and Finn just plodded on through the first time.  (ps, I don't like bugs)

Brine shrimp

 

 brine shrimp everywhere...

 in the water...

Jeff’s birthday

O Pabbi Minn

I love Bjork. In high school and college I especially loved her. I loved her growling sometimes screaming but mostly her crazy beautiful voice. Swan dress and all I love her.

Once, around the time of my school days, I had my parents listening to a jazzy ensemble she had done, hoping they could appreciate it.  I watched them squint as she screamed out a note. Sigh.  Parents don't understand my music. Then this song "O Pabbi Minn" came on and my dad started singing it in English (Bjork was singing in Icelandic).  It was an Icelandic cover of "Oh My Papa" by Eddie Fisher (which was an English cover of the German song "Oh Mein Papa" by... someone in Germany). 

It was humbling and connecting all at the same time.  Here I thought I had this awesome new stuff, and it was a cover of an old song my parents knew.  I obviously knew of cover songs, but this one offered me a look into how over time, these things connect us, they mean the same things to us, even though we may imagine them differently.  

So that song is what played during our father/daughter dance at my wedding.  And maybe no one understood at all.  Or maybe, like my dad, some of the more experienced folks could pick out the tune and appreciate the choice.  Or maybe my dad's just a really special guy.  Yeah, I'm going with that last one.  

Thanks for always being there for me, dad.  Even when we're far apart.  Thanks for helping me to appreciate that everything old is new again, and to see some of the hidden connections in this world.  Happy Father's Day, O Pabbi Minn.

O Pabbi Minn by Bjork
Oh My Papa by Eddie Fisher

8 is great

Here’s my little buddy with his little buddy.  He has a new friend who lives just next door named Gentry (who is a year younger).  It is fun for him to have a friend so close.  They play almost everyday.  I guess for me there are ups & downs to a friend next door, but I am curmudgeonly.  Mostly it’s great.  I like that he can hop the fence and knock on his door and never have to go in the road or too far away.  Finn has always been my little social guy, the friend-maker, even though his parents are hermits.

 

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On Finn’s birthday it was a lovely day and we had breakfast outside.  He also opened his present outside since he had done that last year.  If you know this kid, you know once you do anything it will become a tradition.  And he has a Very. good. memory.

Another new tradition – the money hunt.  Clues are placed around the house and at the end is some money to spend on whatever he wants.  This hunt took him hither and yon to find his fortune.  $40.  Which he is going to use to buy movie tickets and popcorn so the whole family can see Iron Man 3.  Generous little guy.

He couldn’t find the perfect cake in the bakery section’s Book o’ Cakes so we made our own.  I’ve been trying to be creative in the cake department and the kids really enjoy it.  It’s so much more fun to make  cake together! You’ll remember for Indi’s birthday, we all made our own mini cakes.  For Finn’s, we made chocolate pirate lollipops and a pirate cake.

The cake was awesome.  We did a square cake in blue for the water, two mini loaf pans for the pirate ship and three mini-rounds for the islands.  The kids did most of the frosting and all of the decorating. 

Finn’s birthday went on for about a week, I swear.  The next day they got to hang out with grandma & grandpa while Cody & I went to the Alt-J concert.  Then Tuesday, we went to Boondocks.  Go Carts (still undefeated over here…), mini-golf, which they did pretty good at for their first time!

We even had a juggler come.  This was our old roommate, Randy.  Such fun!

Finn is 8.  He is a special guy.  Dear to my heart, a good friend, a curious mind and just a good guy.  It’s important to be one of those in life.

Snapshot of favorites @ 8

food: pizza (still)

color: green (still)

thing to do: play with Gentry

toy: Legos

anticipation about summer: playing with Gentry, swimming lessons, no more alarm clock.  ( I second that)

Happy Birthday, Finn!!!

Catching up & shooting forward

Next year Burgundy will be in 1st grade.  We are very excited about this!  This has been something in the works (in my brain) for over a year now.  Actually 2 years.  The hundreds of dollars in gas, tuition, the hundreds of hours driving to her Montessori preschool in Ogden everyday, it was all for this…   All because her birthday missed the cut-off last year to start kindergarten by about 2 months.  So I was told she couldn’t start early, but the following year, she could possibly test in to first grade.  And that’s exactly what she did.

Seems easy enough, no?  No, not if you’re me.  This entailed frustration, anxiety, hopefulness, doubt, certainty and just about any other emotion you can think of.  It involved planning, begging of administrators, begging of new administrators when old administrators up & left a week before testing was scheduled, preschool transcripts and glowing letters of recommendation, prepping, research, all the while trying to show none of this to my lovely little innocent 5 year old.  I didn’t want her to be stressed or worried, nervous or burdened.  I told her she gets to meet the principal of her new school and play on the computers! yay! (while mom is sweating bullets over in the corner).  So as she skips merrily into the computer lab, I am wondering if I have a paper bag in my purse to hyper-ventilate in.  And she takes standardized tests in the forms of math & reading.  Then she takes the pre-K test (for students entering kindergarten – do you know your shapes, colors, letters, etc).

So, the principal tells me, if she does kindergarten she will be the top of her class in math & reading, but possibly be bored (possibly??).  If she goes to first grade she will probably be about the middle of the class. This is her assessment from a one-hour computer test.  So of course, the decision our family has come to and reaffirmed now for months is called into question and suddenly my motherly-guilt kicks in and wonders, “am I doing the right thing?”  But, yes.  Yes, I know my kid, yes she will be bored to tears if she has to spend the next year learning the letters, shapes and colors she knew 2 years ago.  She craves knowledge and needs to be challenged.  She has been easily reading books I saved from when Finn was in 1st grade.  I can confidently say she is beyond kindergarten.  I could say that before, but now with the  evidence of the all-holy standardized tests in our corner, there is little doubt. 

She is now on a waiting list for 1st grade.  Since we go to a charter school, 1st grade is full, but she is at the top of the list and the next open spot is hers.  They are opening a new charter school this coming school year in the next town over, so a lot of kids will be transferring over.  We’ve got time, she’ll get her spot.  They wanted to test her at the end of summer so she had that “extra 3 months of learning under her belt”.  Like she’d get a spot a week before school started?  Duh.  But old Mrs. Squeaky-Wheel over here.  Nah, we’ll do it this way. Test her in April, get her on the list.  All the stress was worth it.

Anyway, I know lots of people have lots of opinions on this matter.  Feel free to share them in the comments.  Whether you agree or disagree.  We’re all friends here.

But let’s all say, Congratulations to Burgundy.  We are so proud of you, babe!!

Stained-Glass Hearts

Happy VD, everybody!

I was looking for an idea of a craft to do at Finn's class Valentine party.  I found the stained-glass heart idea.  I do love it so.  So far I've been making these all day.  They are just fun, and easy, and so so cute.  I love sun-catchers and am always looking for ones I like.  Although I usually never buy them.  But now, I have all of these!  And we can make new ones for each holiday (shamrocks, Easter eggs, flags, Christmas trees, etc) or just whenever. 

So, I don't do tutorials.  I'm not one of those moms who is so crafty and clever.  But I love these so much, and my kids had so much fun with them, and they are so easy, I am going to tell you how to make them. 

(I started this blog post a while ago, then thought, hmmm, tutorials are always better with pictures.  I should go make just one more and take pictures of each step while I do it.  Then I sat on the computer for 3 hours designing the Valentine's the kids will hand out to classmates.  So I'm not gonna.  I'm just going to tell you.  And you'll figure it out, because this isn't rocket science people...)

 

So, your list of materials is as follows: 

• a roll of contact paper (about $6 - found in the home-wares section of Target, etc.)
• construction paper (which I had)
• tissue paper in fun colors (which I also had - I did buy 2 more packs at the dollar store so I would have enough for the class party.  There is way more than enough)
• Raffia, string, ribbon yarn, whatever you want to use to hang them (had it)
• Hole punch (had it)

First, cut out your heart from the construction paper.  (fold in half, cut.  Then cut around again to make outline - again... not rocket science)

Whatever size you want.  We did big ones for home, and 2 per sheet for the class party (thank you, Aunt Laci for the cutting help!)   So lay your heart on the contact paper and cut contact paper to fit it - I gave myself about an inch or more around the edges but it doesn't really matter...  Just do a square around it, we'll be cutting it to shape, later.  Peel off the backing and lay it sticky side up.  Center heart and place on sticky paper.  Then you start to fill in the middle with tissue paper.  (the only thing is to remember the side facing DOWN will be the front.  The side facing YOU will be the back - that way the paper heart covers any edges of tissue paper that stick out).

The biggest pain of this was cutting the tissue paper into little squares.  But it probably wouldn't be that much of a pain if you weren't trying to do enough paper for 30 second graders.  That's a lot of tissue paper.

Ok, so, after you've filled up the center however you like, then cut a second piece of contact paper, remove backing, and lay it carefully - sticky side down.  Press the whole thing together.  Then cut around the heart, punch a hole and hang that puppy!  So easy, and so, so lovely. (PS do you like my toile tissue paper?  Yes I'm a fan of toile.  I've held onto this single piece of tissue paper for about 5 years until it finally found it's purpose in life today!)

 I must warn you however, that these hearts are so easy and cute you may just make 50 of them before you know what even happened.

Which is what I obviously did, then to break the habit I went to the computer to design this:

which will be attached to 50 of these:

Mini-Recorders.  Get it? I can't wait to PLAY with you...?

Yep.
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Christmas 2012

Christmas break was so relaxed and lazy, there are hardly any pictures.

gingerbread for Santa

(almost...)

Burgundy asked Santa for a Cotton Candy Maker

guess what Finn asked for...

2012 - the year in pictures

these are Burgundy's class pets which we took care of over the break

then we had a snow day the first week back to school!  Apparently that's pretty rare here.  Finn's teacher said she had never had one as a kid.  I remember having a couple when I was a kid.  I'm glad my kids got one!