kirstencan

Read For Fun

We're busy busy around here, getting ready for company this weekend - family in town for a very special event.  The dyson is getting a workout!  So I hope you have a great fourth, and I wanted to point you all to Chelle's cool summer reading program.  Isn't her chart seriously cute?  And if you're not a pink person there is a blue option. 

My library actually does do an adult summer reading program - but Chelle's is way cuter, so I picked hers. ;)

My goodreads friends may have noticed a lack of reading on my part.  Well, I lost my reading glasses.  And they're not the kind you can buy at a discount store and I know they're in my house somewhere so it's driving me crazy.  But I can read in short bursts, and have re-read the Harry Potter books (completely out of order) and started Atonement.  So there you go.

Have a great Independence day for those of you celebrating!  And if you get bored, check out human tetris.  With a name that awesome it has to be good, right?

Just Hangin'

We've had white lanterns hanging in Thomas' room since he was a baby.  There used to be three...

Princess had a great time painting her lantern, so I thought it would be fun to let Thomas paint his (with watercolors).  He did the one on the right nearly by himself.  The one on the left he got bored of quickly (a different day) and I did most of that one.  I thought it was cool that they look like planets. 

So, of course, we couldn't stop there!
We hung up paper x-wing fighters and tie-fighters.  

They are printables from starwars.com. **EDITED - sorry, that page seems to have disappeared - I can't find it on their site anymore! :( **  We've used them before, just to play with, but Thomas likes to make them 'explode' so they don't last long.

They are hanging over the beanbag/pillow area - so it's fun to look up at them.

Thomas was saying 'This is amazing!'  and the next morning he said 'I dreamed about spaceships!'

Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if all of his dreams were about spaceships or trains...

Spy Gear

We're all about the spies here right now.  Princess re-read Harriet the Spy (and Harriet Spies Again) recently, and has been playing lots of 'spy' games.  And begging for magnifying glasses,etc.

For her birthday, my lil' sis made her this awesome spy kit.  The backpack pattern was from this Lotta book. I love the fabric and the stencilled bird.  Awesome.  She rarely goes anywhere without it.

Inside was:  flashlight, notebook, pens, spy mix cd (the Moby James Bond theme + lots of other fun songs including plenty of Beatles, which apparently Princess requested), magnifying glass, pocket mirror, and Harriet the Spy movie.  She's added to it a few things, like a pretend camera and a signal whistle.  And I think lip gloss.

One of her friends on the street just had a spy birthday party - Princess was in heaven.

And to top it all off, I finally printed off some of these code things for her and her friends.  From Martha Stewart Kids magazine a while back (printable here).    I helped her make her first message as it was a little long, explaining who had the codes, etc.  And then we delivered them to her friends and are awaiting replies.

Meanwhile, Princess and I are writing coded notes to each other - fun summer stuff!

The Luck Holds

Eight years ago, at a huge charity yard sale, Aaron and I found a beautiful Nordic Track exercise machine.  A really nice model and never used, I swear.  I stood on it (there were a ton of people circling it in case we didn't buy it) while Aaron paid.  And we've used that thing a ton.

Three (or four?) years ago I found a box of wooden Thomas tracks and engines (and buildings, and Cranky the Crane...).  The kids weren't into Thomas yet, but we'd been planning on getting or making them a train table for Christmas that year.  I went home and cataloged all the engines and found out that my $25 box of train paraphernalia would have cost me about $250 new.  Score.

Even better, the next weekend I happened upon a BRIO train table.  Rock on.  It was a good Christmas.

Today ranked up with those days.  Major Score Days.

Today... I found a Dyson.

For $10.

(Hello, there, beautiful!)

And it works fine.

I have a feeling the lady who sold me this didn't have a clue how much her sister's vacuum was worth - but I didn't haggle, I swear!  I gave her what she asked for it.  Her stupid sister should have marked the price herself, right?

 

The crazy thing is our vacuum is dying - totally, held together by duct tape - and I've been drooling over the Dysons anyway but was trying to hold off buying one.

Yup.  Perfect timing.  I am happy.

What is your biggest yard-sale-ing score?

Princess Curtains

Finally, Princess' curtains are up.  Have been for a while, actually, but I couldn't decide about tiebacks.  Tough decision.

I ended up making two simple panels using the yellow 30's print, plus some lavender dots, lavender gingham, and purple ric rac at the bottom.  I'm liking how it works together.

For temporary tiebacks, we were using hair bands, hair clips, or dress-up necklaces.  Just to get by...

And then I thought - why not use hairclips?

I found some large lavender flowers at the craft store (on sale - 25 cents each) and hot glued them to the sides of large hair clips.  Clear would have been better, but I was a bit impatient (surprise!).

The result is cute, I think!

Not the best shot here - its hard to get a good full-shot of curtains... please ignore the laundry.

Packing

It's amazing how much prep has to go into even a very short trip.  I hate being away from home, but it helped that the kids were SO excited to get to spend a couple of days at Grandma's.  Princess woke up and packed immediately (and for the first time did a great job and remembered nearly everything!  So grown up!).  Thomas saw that she had packed and got to work:
 
-6 pairs of underpants
-2 pairs of pajamas
-Lumpy
-Lego Catalog
-Richard Scarry book
-toothpaste

Yup, all the essentials.  This was all done by about 6:30am.  My mom came to get them at 8:30 that night.   There was much talk about Grandma's house all day.  And Thomas didn't mind that I helped him add a few things to his suitcase.  Like clothes.

Monkey needed a bag to pack in  - since Thomas got the cool Thomas the Tank Engine suitcase (a hand-me-down from a neighbor years ago that the boys both love).  I made a quick bag out of this fun IKEA fabric sent to me by Anna. Thanks so much, Anna!  I used the hippo fabric for the strap.

Monkey was really proud of his bag - wore it much of the day and showed it to anyone that came by.  I've been meaning to make the boys a cool library bag anyway - so this will get plenty of use.

Meanwhile, I packed my day stuff* in this cute tote from my SIL.  I love her logo.  I'd been trying to fit everything in my linen bag, but itwasn't working.  So glad this tote arrived just in time, thanks, Eva! (and Eva - the ABC print matches the playroom perfectly - I can't wait to frame it!).  It held essentials such as sunscreen (none of the kids brought any), sketchbook, camera, planner, various key-cards of whichever girls had no pockets (also their bracelets and chapsticks), lipgloss, excedrin, and water. 

So happy with my new water bottle (not finding it online - it's Thermos brand and I got it at Target).  I filled it up at about 6:15 with ice and water and at about 3:30 - after being outside most of the day - there was still ice inside!  Awesome.

We walked quite a ways - back and forth across campus - so my new kicks may not have been the smartest choice in footwear - but definitely the cutest!  Luckily I got out of the morning hike...

It was an exhausting but fun trip -  I got to join the kids in a water-dodge ball game and on the dance floor (whee!) so that was fun.  And today, after a decent night's sleep and some excedrin, I'm back and feeling nearly normal, thanks!

*And for the record, I fit everything else for the trip into one backpack.  A couple of the girls brought giant suitcases that me and my backpack could've fit into.  Silly girls.

New Kicks

 

I haven't worn Chuck's since high school (green + black tapestry ones - yeah!) and these shoes were calling to me. 

I'll be breaking them in on a little trip this week with the teenagers from church.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.  Driving 5 teenagers in my car for a couple of hours each way is hard enough (esp. when we leave at 6:30 a.m.).    Add to that activities like 'water games', dance,  'Midnight Swim & Gym', and a morning hike and I'm about done in.

Wish me luck - I'm going to need it.

Thrifting Karma?

I've only been able to hit a few yard sales this year  - but I've gotten a few things that are just precisely right.

Like this trike for Monkey - found last week.  Junior version of Thomas' trike that I found last year.  And the boys on our street are always outside riding, so he needed one!  (And I just looked it up on Amazon - I paid $5 for it - a lot better than $50 new!)

They like to 'race'.
(Look at Thomas!  He's finally taken off with the whole pedaling thing!  Yay!)

Also last week - a pretty pale green collander. 

Today was funny.  I wasn't going to hit any sales, but I left early to run some errands and ... just happened across a few. 

The last few days Monkey has been really into the Sandra Boynton books that we have.  And I was feeling bad because we've gotten rid of some of the best ones  - after they were eaten/destroyed.  We hardly get her books out anymore - they were bedtime staples with the first two kiddos.  And so just yesterday I was wishing we could find a copy of Hippos Go Berserk!  (my fave Boynton) in a non-boardbook form.  So we could read it forever without it being a 'baby' book, y'know?  Usually you find her books as boardbooks.  I made a mental note to check Amazon, promptly forgot - and then found one today at the first sale I went too!  Weird...  Hardcover and perfect condition, too.

And Big Pumpkin is our kiddos' fave Halloween book - and our copy disintegrated last year.  We read it a lot in October.  I was planning on ordering a new copy.  What luck!

At the next sale I found Kiki on DVD (which has been on our Amazon list forever and Aaron was about to order) for $1.  Also a Playstation game with all the original Atari games - like Pong (which apparently I stink at)!  And I bought this little Gameboy with 3 games ($13).  The little  boys selling it were high-fiving each other that they'd made a little cash - it was cute.

There've been other things - some Tinkertoys that may be put away for Christmas, more books, and some clothes in just the right sizes, but this is the coolest.

And I'm still weirded out by the Boynton book - but in a good way.   I love when you find just the right thing.

Drawstrings

We are in the process of organizing Princess' tiny room.  We got some much needed shelves hung up last night.  This is a little corner that needed help.  The white drawers next to her desk are packed.  And crazy.  The top one holds playmobil (the pink bucket on top does as well), the bottom drawer holds extra doll accessories, and the middle one holds.... everything else.

You know, little figures, freaky little pets, jacks, etc.  You can barely open the drawer.

(Under her desk are her dress-up clothes - and the phone on the desk is for pretend - not hooked up!  I need to show you some of the sweet corners of her room another time - this not being one of them.)

Anyway, I decided to make some quick drawstring bags to help organize that middle drawer.

I grabbed the first girly fabrics I found in my stash, and used ribbon I already had (it's good to pick up one of those ribbon remnant bags at the fabric store now and then!).

Quick and easy.  Things are more organized so she'll play with them more, plus everything fits better in that drawer.

I think I'd like a set of hooks to hang these on the wall - cute and it would free up precious storage space!

Oh, and by the way, my mom taught me a cool trick for making drawstring bags that close up really fast and tight - and I've tried explaining it verbally to a couple of people with little success.  So here's a stupid diagram of how I made the bags.

After sewing the bag together you have two casings at the top.  Run a ribbon through them both and tie the ends in a knot (top drawing, red - this is where most bags stop) but then run a second ribbon (bottom drawing, green) through the opposite way and knot it.  When you're done you just give each side a little tug and it closes so fast!  It's a much better way to finish off drawstring bags.  Give it a try!

It's a No Go.

So, Thomas is out of preschool.  We took him out a month early.  He was hating school and getting little if anything out of it (his teacher wasn't following through with some of his goals and some of the things we'd agreed he needs to work on - grr).  It just wasn't worth it anymore.  Boy, did he have the most awesome/happy first week home!   He was so glad to be home, and a joy to be around!

It's good, as he'll get a longer break before starting kindergarten in the beginning of August.  The plan is still to mainstream him at our local public school.  We got the teacher we requested, so that's good... I hope.

Last week I signed him up for swimming lessons.  He's never taken them before, but the place where Princess takes lessons is in a home pool, taught by a very patient couple - and it's nearby and a great setup.  When I called, I explained a little about Thomas.  I also put it out there that if he shows he's not ready yet I would absolutely pull him out.

Well, he wasn't ready.  Darn it. 

It's okay, though - he just didn't realize it was a lesson, and wanted to play.  We rarely (so very rarely) go swimming that he wanted to have fun, not wait for his turn to practice front floats.  Thomas really did great for a while, but wasn't listening so great there at the end.  He tried to go under the rope to the deep end directly after the teacher explained that they couldn't do that.  Of course. 

Luckily, he didn't realize it was supposed to be a two-week class, so he didn't ask to go back - which is also a sign that he didn't enjoy himself 100%.  So it's all good.

It was a one-time thing... for this year.  But this summer I need to take that kid to a pool to play!