School is winding down for the year. Or ramping up, depending on whether your the kid or the mom. They are enjoying less homework and more fun stuff in class these last couple of weeks. I just finished organizing the school talent show and I'm scrambling around taking care of teacher gifts, facilitating a multitude of school projects, clearing some space in my schedule to be at end-of-the-year events, trying to get some work projects finished and off my calendar during my last few kid-free weekdays until September, counting down the number of school lunches left to make, and working on my "summer sanity plan". (Stay tuned...more on that soon!)
Taite performed Katy Perry's "Firework" in the talent show
If the prospect of summer vacation quickly approaching has you panicking about how to keep the kids entertained for the next couple of months, you'll want to be sure to check out my Kidding Around class, which starts June 14. It's full of fun ideas and writing prompts with a fun, art journaling angle.
...is my November flying by. Holy time warp, Batman! Anyone else feel like if they blink they might just miss an entire month at this time of year?
I'm working my way back into the usual daily groove, after a week off from school. Five jam-packed, fun-filled days were spent in beautiful Lake Oswego, Oregon, visiting my sister and her family.
This is what welcomed us to our basement digs. Because my sister is secretly Martha Stewart, I think.
There was lots of fun cousin time
...and plenty of outings. A favorite was the cook your own pancakes restaurant.
We were also pretty impressed with the cart escalator at the two-story Target.
And the kids all made their own blown glass Christmas ornaments! (See, I told you...Martha Stewart, right?)
Oh, and we had pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving.
It rained a bunch, but even that was fun!
(photo edited with my new favorite phone app, Halftone.)
Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm launching into full-blown Holiday Mode. I've got a good chunk of my Christmas shopping done, a peppermint mocha by my side, and a couple of fun projects on my table. It's a good time of year!
If you're looking to make (and scrapbook) some fun holiday memories this season, be sure to check out the new 12 Days of Christmas class at Big Picture Classes. (I'm Day 5!)
For the 12 days leading up to Christmas, you will receive an email from a BPC teacher with a photo prompt and a list of supplies to gather. Preparing specific holiday pictures and products as Christmas approaches will help you focus on the present moments and the joyful anticipation in a more thoughtful way—without feeling any pressure to scrapbook right away! Then, starting on December 25th, you'll get to "open" a new handout each day, designed to guide and inspire you in pulling together pictures and products to complete a dozen different layouts.
Me: Haven't you heard of Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, how does your garden grow? You know...silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row?
Taite: Who would grow taco shells in their garden??
Reece: It's not like taco shells were the weirdest thing in her garden. Hello? Bells and maids?
Okay, so it's been forever since I've blogged. Let's just get that out there.
Here's a little bit of what I've been up to...
Back to School
Annual End-of-Summer Corn Roast
Sea World
We had a furlough day just four days into school. Crazy. But we made the most of it by visiting Sea World while the sane school districts were in session.
And that is pretty much where the non-cellphone photos end, because that cute little guy right there in the dolphin petting pool? He killed my Canon with a gargantuan, playful tail slap, about 10 minutes after this photo was taken. Total bummer...and yet kind of worth it to get that close to one of my favorite animals in the world.
Antiquing with Kendra
With both kids in school all day (for the first time ever!), I was able to meet Kendra on her day off for lunch and antiquing. I found the exact lunchbox I had in first grade!
Family fun in Oceanside/Carlsbad
Speaking of Barbie, Taite and I had the opportunity to see Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale through the awesome folks at Kidtoons. The only catch was the closest theatre showing it was in Oceanside. So we headed down as a family and Matt and Reece amused themselves for 90 minutes while Taite and I "got our sparkle on" (it's a catchy tune - video below).
Then we all headed to Carlsbad for lunch and beach time.
Finding my groove
I love the way fall gets me back into a regular routine after the less structured pace of summer. I'm just now settling into a groove that includes regular walks around the lake
..and scheduled studio time to work on some new classes. More on that soon!
It's the first official week of summer vacation at my house, and I'm trying to find my groove. I've got deadlines, the kids have boundless energy, and we all WANT to have fun. I have discovered in summers past that a little bit of organization and creativity on my part can go a long way toward keeping a semblance of order around here. I believe my kids should have chores over the summer, since they are the primary culprits in messing the place up. And I believe they need to spend some time exercising their academic skills - my 4th grader in particular seems to be a "use it or lose it" type of kid.
So without further ado, I present Cafe Summer, also known as my summer 2010 sanity system!
This is the big bulletin board in our mud room, revamped for summer. As a "retired" preschool teacher, I truly enjoy putting this sort of thing together - the planning, the creative touches, the organization. It makes me happy. The checked awning is cut from a cheap-o plastic table cloth, probably from Oriental Trading. I found a bunch of them in my garage. No idea what I originally bought them for, but hey, they come in handy sometimes.
We have done bingo (thank you, Stacy Julian!) and carnival ticket incentive programs in the past, but this summer we're going with a restaurant theme. The main reasons are because I'm digging the "order" pun, and because I have a whole bunch of these restaurant order pads from Staples. There are 50 sheets per pad, so two pads will be exactly enough for 10 weeks of summer for both of my kids. I simply tore the pages off the pad, set up a file in Word, and ran them right through my printer.
The kids have a "main dish" job on their menu that changes with each day of the week, and two smaller "side dish" jobs that stay the same every day. They also have "drinks of knowledge", which include at least 20 minutes of reading time each day, and one "refill" of their choice: math flash cards, a word search or activity sheet, or writing in their journal or reading log.
I noticed that the back of our order sheets say "Thank You", with a bunch of lines for writing - perfect for tipping Mom with a "graditudity" each day. The kids will check off their tasks as they complete them, and then write one thing they are grateful for on the back. They put their name & the date on the bottom portion and turn in the order sheet to me. I tear off the stub and give it to them, and they can exchange that for an hour of "screen time" - TV, Wii, or computer games. Planned movie time or family TV time (like when we all gather to watch a new iCarly episode) doesn't count against their screen time, and neither does Nintendo DS that they bring along to keep busy when we're out and about.
We're keeping it super simple this year - no crazy long list of reward options. The screen time is what they want the most, so that's the only reward. Plus, they have to have their order sheet turned in before we go do fun stuff.
I also included a calendar for our weekly activities, so they can see what they have to look forward to, and what errands we need to get done. They made lists last week of things they hope to do over the summer, and their ideas will be incorporated whenever possible. The yellow activities are the everyday fun stuff like the pool, beach, or organized crafts. The orange are "have to" activities - errands, lessons, appointments. And the blue are special adventures, like birthday parties, day trips, and family get-togethers.
The calendar is from a pad I ordered AGES ago from Pottery Barn, and they don't sell them anymore. As I started getting low on sheets, I panicked that I was going to run out and quit writing on them. Now we just reuse the same sheet and pin stuff to it.
So there you have it - my version of keeping order while having fun this summer!
And speaking of fun, I have to include this video clip, because the whole time I was working on my "Order, please" diner theme, I couldn't stop thinking, "Betty, please!". This is possibly my favorite Laverne and Shirley episode EVER.
Spring break is in full swing here, which means sleeping in, board games, crafts, staying up later, the occasional sibling smackdown, and liberal amounts of pajama time.
It also means I let the kids eat things like this for breakfast...
...because there are only so many opportunities in a lifetime for colorful hard boiled eggs, chocolate bunnies, and cheesy hash browns to converge on the same plate. You've gotta seize the day. Or the chocolate, as the case may be.
I did draw the line at the jellybean burrito that Taite tried to invent for lunch, though. I have standards.
Here in California, where we pull out the sweaters and Uggs when the thermometer dips into the 60s, actual, frozen, wintery weather is regarded as sort of a fairy tale. Snow, icicles, frozen ponds with skaters -- those are fictional entities to kids who are accustomed to spending Saturday afternoons on the beach in February.
Behold exhibit A: The weather outside was 78 degrees last Saturday, and my kids were indoors playing "Winter", complete with a frozen pond and a Littlest Pet Shop ice skating party.
Aside from the ingenious idea to freeze a plastic container of water for an ice rink, and the inherent cuteness of my kids, I realized these photos tell several different stories.
Littlest Pet Shops are possibly THE defining toys of Taite's childhood. She has gotten a lot of mileage out of these bobble-headed critters over the past few years, and her collection of pets and accessories is pretty impressive. They are to her childhood what Barbies and the Lundby dollhouse were to mine.
Littlest Pet Shop is something Reece and Taite enjoying playing together. With the boy/girl and age difference, there are few toys that interest both of them, so that's big.
Each and every one of those 150 or so pets has a name, and the kids remember them all. Yet, they forget where they took off their shoes.
There is almost always a pile of crap junk on the corner of my family room fireplace, as seen in the background of the first picture. (Who am I kidding with the 'almost'??) This used to really bug me when I would take a photo and realize it was "ruined" with clutter in the background. But I have come to terms with the fact that this is how life is with kids. My fireplace will be clutter-free when they're all grown up, and I will probably miss that pile. Or, at least the time in my life it represents. And then I'll look at pictures like this and smile nostalgically.
Both kids are into sleeping in Dad's big t-shirts lately, even though they have really cute Nick and Nora pajamas.
Playing Littlest Pet Shop is a pretty standard Saturday morning activity around here these days, along with watching Spongebob, and making pancakes.
Amazing how a couple of pictures can encapsulate so many different snapshots of our life!
We're just a little more than halfway through National Craft Month - what crafty shenanigans have you been up to?
(I love the word shenanigans!)
I had hoped to share all kinds of fun on the blog, apropos of a month devoted to the national enjoyment of crafts, but I've been too busy scrapbooking and crafting (and coaching/blogging over in the Library of Memories class) to post lately.
I've also been working on some fun stuff for Ella Publishing - check out my project inspired by Stacy Julian's UR2Cre8ive eBook here, and look for a creative post & project from me Monday on the Daily Trumpet. Guess what else? I've already started working on my next workshop for Big Picture Scrapbooking, which will be coming your way this summer!
Other than that, I've just been keeping up with these guys and their shenanigans, which are occasionally crafty, often crazy, and never, ever dull.
(pictured here observing our St. Patrick's Day shamrock shake tradition)
My sister and I often joke that we accidentally got each other's daughters. Her 9 year old, Miranda, is so like me at that age. She is the oldest child, well-behaved, quiet, conscientious, considerate, a bit of a perfectionist, very funny in an understated kind of way, and would spend an entire day crafting or with her nose in a good book if she could.
Taite, like my sister, is the youngest child, boisterous, sassy, opinionated, emotional, an absolute fiend for candy and sugary treats, loves to decorate for holidays and special events, loves to cook, and would never spend an entire day doing any one thing because, hello? Bor-ing!
Because she reminds me of me, and because my poor sister doesn't know a Cricut from a Cuttlebug, I have taken it as my duty to indoctrinate Miranda into the world of crafting and scrapbooking. Two years ago at Christmas, I helped my sister put together a huge box of scrapbooking supplies for her. This year, I convinced my sister to get in line with me at 3 a.m. on Black Friday to buy Cricut Expressions on sale - one for me, and one for Miranda. My gift to Miranda this year was a handmade, personalized sketch book and her very first Xyron machine.
So you can imagine how proud I was to receive this a few weeks ago:
I imagine it was similar to the way my sister felt when Taite asked her for her granola recipe.
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