Halloween 2014

My boys are big fans of Minecraft - the game. C wanted a Minecraft costume so we found some instructions online and modified them somewhat. My amazing hubby constructed the costume from our cardboard collection (!!) and duct tape and then I painted it. The head we had already since it was a valentine's day box from 2012. It was in rough shape from lots of play so we fixed it up. We had to cover the costume in clear tape since it was a rainy night. The pick axe came from Barnes and Noble. A decided he was too old and stayed home with Daddy.

Some more photos of C's costume.

My costume (dress, mask, and wig) came from Fred Meyer and Value Village.

I'm a renaissance princess/queen.

Our trick or treating didn't go very well, unfortunately. It was raining hard when we left home. I got lost finding the neighbourhood we enjoyed last year. Parking was tough. I got tired of carrying an umbrella and flashlight. C's handle broke. He had trouble seeing out of his head. He didn't like the attention from other kids who said "cool costume" and "wow, look at that!" "hey, Steve!" C didn't get much candy since he only went to about 5 houses before he wanted to go home.

It was a great costume year but not that great for obtaining candy. Some years are costume years and some years are candy years.

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Paperback Fruit

pumpkin, eggplant (purple), green apple, red apple, pear.

I love to craft with old, discarded books. I wanted an apple for my back to school mantle and decided to make one from an old book. I never finished that in time for that mantle (which I took down around the first day of autumn) but decided instead to make a bunch of fruit and use them for a harvest/fall-themed mantle. Photos of my latest mantle are coming soon.

I followed a great tutorial for making shaped books at this blog. One tip is that the book has to be at least 100 pages. If you are wondering where the books came from, most were found at the used section of my public library, for 25 cents a piece!


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Melty Beads - Not Just For Kids

It's been a tough week. There was a shooting at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, where I worked in the mid 1990s and where my brother in law currently works. Then yesterday there was a shooting at a high school not far north of us. So, here is some harmless crafty goodness to forget all the darkness in the world. At least for a while.

Last weekend I was looking for crafts or activities for my youngest son. He really enjoys making things. I found a bunch of Minecreaft themed creations using Perler beads. I showed him the ideas and he got to work. We spent a quiet Saturday morning together. I sorted the beads by colour and he created. Here are SOME of his creations.

He gave all of the other ones away to friends at school. Later, I decided to get in on the fun and make some. Here are some more of my creations:

Top row: Professor Bunsen Honeydew from the Muppets, Beaker from the Muppets.
Bottom row: Minions from Despicable Me movie.

This is such a simple craft. You line the up the beads on a board and then iron them for a few seconds when you are done. lining up the beads is a bit like counted cross stitch. There are hundreds of pattern ideas if you search Google images or Pinterest, using "hama beads", "perler beads" or "melty beads."

The finished creations can be made into key chains, necklaces or fridge magnets. I think this would be a great activity for young kids learning to count. Small, simple designs, that is.



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Amaize-ing Washington

My boys love corn mazes. On a sunny afternoon on a day off from school, we finally made it to a corn maze. This year we chose The Farm at Swan's Trail in Snohomish.

After a fun bumpy hay ride, the boys went through the maze together, alone. I bought a latte and waited for them. That turned out to be a bad decision on my part. They got separated after I told them to STAY TOGETHER! My oldest son exited the corn maze, alone! After some anxiety, the lost little brother was found. Eye roll. The maze is pretty incredible. It is in the shape of Washington state and the paths are the highways such as 101, 90, etc.

If you go to The Farm, they also have lots of animals to pet including pot bellied pigs which are pretty cute.

They also have a jumping pillow which is like a giant trampoline but raised off the ground. We didn't have enough time for that since A had soccer practice later. They have espresso and baked goods as well.

After the maze and the hay ride, we went to the pumpkin patch and the boys posed by the scarecrow.

Then it was time for the traditional pose by the pumpkins.

We picked out 2 pumpkins and my big strong boys pushed the wheelbarrow for me. I may be mourning the loss of my boys' littleness but it is pretty nice to have them take care of carting and lifting pumpkins into the car.

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Fun in the Sun at Bob's Corn

This past Sunday afternoon was beautiful and there wasn't a Seahawks game scheduled, so I said, let's go to a farm! I chose Bob's Corn because we have never been to it before. I expected a MUCH smaller place so I was pleasantly surprised at all the facilities. Corn maze, hay rides, playground, pumpkin patch, a red barn, lots of food choices, farm animals, and an apple cannon. More about that later. They also had their own apples and corn for sale. My favourite feature was the apple cinnamon donuts. Yum!

We had hoped to go in the corn maze but the price  is 8 dollars a person. Wow! That would be pretty pricey for a family of four! We chose the much more affordable and wild apple cannon. You get 10 apples (ammunition) for 10 dollars. We all took a turn and we quite successful in hitting the targets.

 We let the boys use my camera to take our photo. They did a great job!

One fun fact. The employees' name tags all had something (underneath their name) to indicate how they were related to Bob, such as "Bob's Friend's Son." The boys had fun making up relationships to Bob on the way home. Another fun memory is stopping on the road for a sign that said "Little Girl's Pumpkin Patch." A young girl was selling pumpkins and gourds she had grown herself. She had some amazing pumpkins. Sadly, we had spent all our cash so we could only buy a dried corn stalk from her.

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One Thousand Gifts #464 to #476

464.  my son's perseverance with Scouting.

465. walking with friends during the day. I've gone three times since school started.

466. the timing of my surgery was just right. I had originally hoped it could be scheduled for the last week of August but I realize now that having two weeks to recover before school started was very necessary.

467. my youngest son's creativity - making Lego "still lifes"

468. a friend from church (a physical therapist) who came to my house twice to do some gentle massage on my scar to help it heal.

469. my younger son singing along to the songs on the Christian music station.

470. the Indian Summer we've been having. I've been soaking up the Vitamin D before the rainy season hits.

471.  I now have a car pool for two days a week. This is cutting down on the amount of driving I do.

472. watching hummingbirds outside my kitchen window.

473. every soccer game so far this season has been on a warm sunny day.

474. good news on my recent blood test. For more info, see:
my CaringBridge page

475.  my oldest son enjoyed the middle school retreat and they had excellent weather for it.

476. a compliment from a man at our church as to how well my son could speak to him and answer his questions about our summer vacation.

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Fishing at Scout Camp

In my opinion, you can't call yourself a Cub Scout without going camping. So, this past weekend it was off to camp for my hubby and C who is now a Webelos (which stands for We'll Be Loyal Scouts). This was C's first official scout camp event. They went to Fire Mountain, which is about an hours' drive north, and spent one night there.

My hubby J wrote the following:

Our campsite consisted of tiny but sturdy "Adirondack cabins" rather than tents, that sleep 4 adults, bunk bed-style. That first evening we enjoyed songs and stories around the campfire before going to bed. Since the camp is located far from the city, we were able to see lots of stars in the night sky.

The night was a little cool and not all of us were warm enough. The first thing we learned was that you should never trust the temperature rating on a sleeping bag. It turns out a "30 degree" bag will only keep you warm when it's 45 degrees if you are wearing a couple of layers of warm clothing as well!

On Saturday morning the boys headed to the docks to do some trout fishing.

They got some great help from "Mr. Randy", one of the leaders of a Boy Scout Troop which was   there to help our Cub Scout Pack in various ways. He had several rods with him, and showed them his preferred way to rig and bait for trout. And boy did his system work! C caught his first fish ever.

He landed 7 fish before the day was over. Our friend T hooked a beautiful 18 inch "beast" during this haul. At one point they were pulling them out two at a time. By the end of the day, our Pack had caught 27 fish.

After catching their limit for the morning, Mr. Randy took them over to the fish cleaning station and showed them how to gut and clean the fish, a first for most of them.

After lunch we kicked things off officially with a flag raising ceremony, led by our Boy Scout friends. One of their senior scouts, Andreas, played the bugle and led the ceremony. It was very well done. Then we split into two groups, one doing a small guided hike up to a waterfall, and the other an orienteering exercise . When those were complete, the boys returned to fishing for a bit, and then switched roles. C was actually too tired to do the orienteering by that point so we stayed back at camp and "guarded" the Dutch Oven lasagna that the other troop had helped us prepare for dinner. After dinner we said our goodbyes and headed home.

making monkey bread

Eating monkey bread and catching all those fish were the highlights of the weekend for C. As you can tell from the photos, it was a beautiful sunny day.


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Back to School Mantle

I've wanted to do a "back to school" mantle for a year or so. I find it hard to go straight from my beach themed mantle to a fall one. Hence, a back to school one.

The periodic table poster is wrapping paper made by Cavallini which I bought at Paper Source.

The school house is vintage Fisher Price.

I found the globe at Ross.

I made the banner with flash cards from the dollar section at Target. I simply punched holes at the top of each card and strung it on some brown cord I already had around the house.

I spelled out Back to School with Scrabble letters.

My boys weren't happy when I was creating this mantle. This was before school had started and they weren't too anxious to get back to school!


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The big one-one

So, he's eleven now. Mr. Middle Schooler. How did that happen?

We celebrated his birthday today. The party started out at Elevated Sportz with 90 minutes of trampoline time including dodge ball and jumping into a foam pit.

Then we went to our house for burgers and an ice cream sundae bar.

We had a beautiful cake for the birthday boy (made by Sherri Feldman) but no one had much of an appetite for it after all that food! We'll enjoy the cake tomorrow, I'm sure.

He had seven friends join us. Three are school friends, one is a friend who A has known since grade one who no longer attends his school, one is a friend from church and two friends are neighbours.

A's main gift from us is a laptop. He's going to learn to program on it and use it for school.

I think the party was a big success. I'm still getting used to the fact that he is eleven and that I've been a mother for eleven years.




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First Day of School 2014

This year is a year of transition. My oldest son is now in middle school. I can't believe that I just typed that. I still think of him as a little boy. :) He is and was a bundle of nerves about this new year.

He now has a lock for his locker. He changes classrooms after each period. He has many different teachers during the day. He doesn't have recess anymore. He has a slightly different uniform. His day is a bit longer. There is a middle school retreat coming up in November at a Christian camp. They have detention in middle school but I don't think that will be a problem, unless he gets too many tardys, which he'll blame on me. :) I'm thankful that he is on the same campus as his brother and many things are the same.

My youngest son is in 4th grade. He has the same teacher that his brother had for 4th. I like that. I know what to expect. She is a good natured teacher and easy to communicate with. I was able to take a photo of him in his classroom.

He wasn't as nervous on his first day. One of his very good friends (who was a friend in Kindergarten) is in his class so that is fun.


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One Thousand Gifts #448 to #463

448. hydrangeas - I love the changing colours as they dry.

449. meals provided by our church family while I recover from surgery.

450. families who took care of my children during my stay in the hospital.

451. the nurses were much more responsive and professional than last year's crew.

452. my voice isn't nearly as weak as it was when my thyroid was removed last year. I can talk pretty normally!

453. I could actually sing a bit during worship at church yesterday!

454. mostly good sleeps since coming home.

455. a friend coming to deliver some groceries and do a little house cleaning for me.

456. I have much less neck pain than after my last surgery.

457. a bountiful harvest of tomatoes this year. More than I can keep up with!

458. free buckets (good quality) from Whole Foods - for garden work.

459. being saved from getting a speeding ticket by a slow driver in front of me. :) (this was several weeks ago).

460. my boys hugging in the grocery store.

461. eating cucumbers that I grew myself.

462. water lilies on the lake where we took our inflatable boat last weekend.

463. a soccer team (for my son A) with experienced players and an experienced coach.


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Dahlias, Dahlias, and more Dahlias.

Yesterday I was able to get out for my first little outing since my surgery on Aug 19th. My hubby drove me to Sky Nursery for the Puget Sound Dahlia Association Show. Wow! What a treat for the eyes!

Some more photos to share.

The show was free to attend. I highly recommend it. It is open today (Aug 24th) as well.Pin It

Trip to Yellowstone (an overview)

Clepsydra Geyser in the background.

We finally did it. We went to Yellowstone National Park. No, we didn't camp. :) Everyone seems to ask that question! It is pretty hard to camp there and I'm not much of a camper anyway.

Idaho cabin

For accommodation we stayed 3 nights at a cabin west of the park, near Island Park, Idaho, and 2 nights at a cabin east of the park, in Silver Gate, Montana. One was a vacation rental by owner arrangement and the other was a motel -- but still a log cabin. Both had kitchen facilities so we were able to make our own breakfasts and pack lunches to save some money on food. We booked our accommodation about three months in advance.

We took 2 days to drive to Yellowstone. My hubby did most of the driving. On the way home we took 3 days and took a slower pace. We used Priceline for our hotels in Missoula and Spokane. The boys enjoyed the pools in those locations.

We were surprised by rain and cold weather on our 2nd day in Yellowstone. It rained for much of the day but we tried to make the best of it. There isn't much to do that isn't outside!

C fulfilled the requirement to become a Jr. Ranger while in Yellowstone National Park. He has the patch to prove it.

We saw many bison, many elk, pronghorns, a grizzly bear or two in the distance, and a ground squirrel up close. We saw lots of geysers, hot springs, mud pots, steam vents, and many waterfalls. Oh, and a canyon or two. The views in the park are spectacular.

On our return we stopped and took the 2 hour tour of the Lewis and Clark Caverns located between Butte and Bozeman in Montana. My oldest son said this was his favourite part of our vacation.



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