Noodle Soup

Winter is make-believe in California, and other observations

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!

Faster than a speeding bullet

Today was superhero spirit day at school. And, because I'm me, I found this out at around 10pm last night.

Reece had no problem rounding up an old Batman cape this morning and shoving it in his backpack until he assessed whether any other 4th graders were dressing up. (They were, so he did).

Taite, on the other hand, would have been better suited to a Disney princess spirit day, based on her costume inventory. What to do. I have a Wonder Woman costume (as you may know), but it's way too big for her. This was going to require some thinking on my feet.

Faster than a speeding bullet, I appropriated the Wonder Woman cape and an old white t-shirt from her closet, and ferreted through my fabric scraps.

I ironed some Wonder Under (aptly named for the occasion) onto a couple of scraps and cut out a 5" circle and a 4" letter T with my trusty Cricut (have I mentioned how much I LOVE this machine?? I have another recent ode to the crafty powers of the Cricut on the Ella blog, in case you haven't seen it yet.)

I stitched on a little star applique for fun, and Wham-o! Pow! Zap! Superhero cuteness, no phone booth required.

 

As she walked into the classroom, she definitely had that little spring in her step that only wearing a superhero cape can give you. Makes me wonder why I don't wear that cape around the house from time to time. Because, seriously? We all know who the REAL superhero was in this story. ;)

Quick frame makeover

I picked up this happy-looking frame at Target a couple of weeks ago, to display a colorful spring photo. Cute, huh?

 

But I thought it could be a bit cuter....

Those circles were just begging to have some bright ribbon tied to them.  

 

That helped...but it didn't feel quite done.

So I dug into my stash of vintage buttons and beads, and my brand new package of American Crafts glitter buttons. (I attached the vintage stuff with the awesome new Fiskars cordless glue gun I got at CHA, and the AC buttons with a dab of clear Tacky Glue.) 

Now we're talkin'! From plain cute to extra funky & cheery in about 15 minutes.

{Featured on}: 

Mission accomplished

Reece's 4th grade California Mission project is officially behind us. 

Three down, one to go. 

The history of the missions, and the accompanying report and projects, are a huge part of the California 4th grade curriculum. Thankfully, the students now do the bulk of this unit in class, liberating me from the sugar cube architecture and outlandish projects of the Justin and Kendra era. (I recall a trip to Kendra's mission that involved me toting video equipment while she played roving reporter circa 1769...in the pouring rain.)

Here is Reece, with his painted tile of Mission San Diego Alcala.

 

Sidenote: That is supposed to be a cross on the top, but the brush he was using was rather thick. When Taite saw it, she said, "You did a good job on Texas". I spent about three seconds marveling smugly over my kindergartner's advanced cognitive ability to recognize the shape of Texas. Then she informed me she garnered that bit of knowledge from Spongebob, and my exalted parenting status plummeted back to its previous level.

Shenanigans

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)
 
  

Celebrate yourself

Years ago, I purchased a red "You Are Special Today" plate from the Hallmark store, on an impulse, as a simple, fun way to celebrate my kids. The plate has come out for birthdays, good report card days, "you got a part in the play" days, "you got your driver's license" days, and other big and little triumphs.

Because I'm the mom, I do the recognizing of accomplishments and the presenting of the plate. No one ever presents it to me with a "great job on the laundry this week" accolade, or a "you made it through chairing another school talent show" commendation. And I'm okay with that. For me, the fun is in making it fun for them.

But this week? I turned in the final content for my very first Big Picture Scrapbooking workshop and on the spur of the moment, while I was dishing up the NanaMac & salad, I decided to present that plate to myself.

 

I think we all need to remember to celebrate ourselves from time to time, don't you?

(And incidentally, if you're looking for ways to celebrate the little everyday stuff in your life that often goes unnoticed, treat yourself to my Everyday Adventures workshop. It's only $15! Yep, it's a shameless plug...the plate made me do it.)