On Saturday, the Daisies had their first Cookie Booth. At a winery. It was a really nice day to be outside, and they sold all the cookies they needed to sell. The girls were supposed to be all business and stay at the booth, but there was sunshine and a big open field, so they ran and ran as if it was the first time they'd ever been outside. I couldn't blame them. I kinda felt like running, too. By the time it was over, I was exhausted from all the fresh air and corralling of 5 year olds, so it was good that we had plans to go to the movies with one of Daphne's friends. Sitting in a nice dark theater sounded good to me. The Lorax is a pretty cute movie with a nice message, and the girls had a good time. After the movie, there was pizza and chocolate cake and coffee, and even though it was decaf, I woke up at 4:00am and couldn't go back to sleep. I think that as frustrating as that was, it helped me adjust to Springing Forward, because I had no trouble getting up and hour earlier this morning.
Sunday, we worked in the garden. Kev got the beds ready, I pulled up last year's herbs, and we planted some new ones as well as some lettuce, carrot, and snap pea seeds.
Everyone pitched in, and it was actually kind of fun. The bulbs we planted last fall are sprouting and blooming, and they make me happy. This little corner was such a mess before Kev pulled up all the weeds and fixed it up for me so I could get the bulbs in. The hard work has paid off.
Our last job was hanging the bird feeder that Daphne made with Girl Scouts at the library. Bring on the birds!
Then, we had hot dogs and vanilla milk shakes. The weekend was good.
It is going to be in the 70s all week. Kev's mom and dad are coming Thursday, so I'm glad we'll have nice weather. I am going to try to ride my bike at least once this week. I think the groundhog was wrong. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.
My friend Anne sent me this book recently. I love it. It's all about yarn and knitting and magical boxes and being kind to people. The minute I read it, I knew I wanted to share it with the Daisies. So, I began a search for yarn-themed activities, and ended up planning a really fun meeting for this week.
First, I asked around town and found a person who hand-spins wool into yarn and was willing to come demonstrate for the girls. She seemed a little nervous, but she was great! She brought them each a little ball of roving, straight from a local sheep. The kids couldn't stop touching it and smelling it (?!) and playing with it.
Then, she showed them her spindle and spun a little yarn while they watched. The girls were a good audience and asked a lot of good questions. This was by far our most successful "guest speaker."
We talked about things you can do with yarn, and I showed them some knitting needles and a couple of my projects. Then, I showed them a couple of things that kids can do with yarn, like these yarn dolls and "embroidered" cards:
Finally, it was time to let them make something on their own. I gave them each a little cardboard wheel and some yarn, and showed them how to make these fancy braided friendship bracelets:
I wasn't sure how this would go. I was worried it would be too hard for them, or that by the end of the meeting they would be bored with all the yarn talk. But they LOVED it! They were all really concentrating and working hard, and they did a great job with almost no help from the grown-ups. It was the quietest I have seen them all year. They kept coming over to show me their progress, all proud. It was cool.
I think the moms in the group enjoyed the meeting too. By the end, a couple of them expressed an interest in learning to knit. Yay!
So, thank you to my friend Anne, for sending me such an awesome book and inspiring a really fun Daisy meeting. I think I'll go work on my sweater...
When I sent Daphne to school today, I was not expecting to get this cat in return, but that's what happened. Not only that, but this particular cat told me A: that they had green eggs and ham for snack today, and B: that she LOVED it.
What?!
I can never get this kid to eat eggs. But she says she will eat them next time as long as I put in some green food coloring. And little squares of ham. And a piece of toast with butter on the side.
I have already emailed the teacher to thank her for making lunchtime easier. It will be nice to have an alternative to peanut butter and banana wraps.
Yesterday was February 29 - otherwise known as Leap Day. We decided to celebrate having a whole bonus day by doing "things we don't usually do." If Daphne hadn't missed the whole week of school last week, I would have totally let her skip school, but as it turned out, we had fun anyway.
We started the morning playing leap-frog, or more accurately leap-dog, in the attic. Guess what. I am not very good at leap-frog. But Daphne is, and she had a really good time lining up all of her dogs and leaping them. I just enjoyed watching her and listening to her laughing. Kids are cool. The other day, it was really nice outside, so the little boy next door came over and played tag with Daphne after school. It was so fun to watch Daphne run and run, with a smile on her face the entire time. She was SMILING because she was RUNNING. I don't think adults ever do that. Every now and then, I'll be driving along and I'll see an adult walking down the street smiling for no obvious reason. I guess it's possible that they are smiling because they are crazy, but that's OK. It still always makes me happy. People should smile more.
Anyway, after the leap-frogging, we both put on our craziest socks. Mine had sock monkeys on them and Daphne's had candy corn. Then, Daphne's candy-corn socks were too itchy, so she put on some slightly less crazy penguin socks, and we called some friends and met them for Leap Day donuts. We never do that. I like Leap Day.
Kev came home a little early, and there was more leap-frogging before we packed up some games and went down to Shoes for dinner. We ate and played Rat-a-Tat-Cat and Appleletters and had a great time doing things we don't usually do. When we got home, we played guitars. Kev helped me figure out that my favorite Neko Case song (Furnace Room Lullaby) is made up of three easy chords that I can actually play! So that was fun. I've been playing the guitar a little bit lately, and enjoying it except for how bad it hurts my fingers. I have decided that Kev and Misters Jeff and Tim need to work up a stripped-down banjo-intensive arrangement of the Killing Moon (Echo and the Bunnymen). I am learning to play it, too, but it has this C-minor chord in it that is tricky. The Neko Case song is all A-minor, E, and C. I think it's pretty amazing that you can make such a cool song out of just 3 chords.
Or 4 chords.
Wow. I am really rambling today. I should probably be doing something more productive, like practicing C-minor. Hopefully, there will soon be some Housepants Bunnymen for all to enjoy. Happy March!
PS. I am about to go meet a friend for lunch. I am going to walk to the restaurant and I just might smile.
Our weekend was pretty low-key. We didn't have any girl scout activities or birthday parties to attend. Daphne was still feeling a little yucky from the strep, but we did get out of the house on Saturday to go to the mall (Daphne has suddenly out-grown all of her pants!), lunch (lobster bisque!) and grocery shopping.
Sunday, Misters Tim and Jeff came over for a little band time. It was really fun. The guys sounded great, and I even joined in a couple songs on fiddle. We discovered that the secret to playing the fiddle is re-tuning the violin to AEAE instead of GDAE. This allows you to play chords a lot more easily, and I was able to sound like I sort of actually knew what I was doing. Daphne played shakers and sang a little. Good times. The plan is to try to get together and play once a month. We'll see if that happens. Maybe we can get a couple more people to join in and have a real hootenanny in the spring.
The weekend ended with my new favorite show, The Worst Cooks in America. I love that show. Unlike most reality shows, I like pretty much all of the contestants, and I hate to see any of them get kicked off. They are all trying so hard, but what a bunch of train wrecks! Last night, there were steaks catching on fire, pizzas falling on the floor, and one poor girl poured a WHOLE BOX of pasta into her minestrone. Oh wait. That was me.
It is Monday now. I just put Daphne on the bus - her first day back to school post-strep - and I am completely alone for the first time in 10 days. It is nice. I am going to have some lunch and knit. Hope you had a good weekend.
I have left the house twice since Monday. Once, to go pick up 28 cases of Girl Scout cookies from the middle school parking lot, and once to take Daphne to the doctor. She has strep throat. She doesn't feel all that bad, but she can't go to school because of the fever. She has missed the entire week of school, as well as her piano and art lesson and her Daisy meeting (which was a free yoga class - we were both so disappointed to miss it). There's not much food in the house. Cooking has been minimal. Kev went out to the store last night to get a few things, which is good. Otherwise, we might be surviving on Girl Scout cookies. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
During her illness, Daphne has been watching a lot of Buddy movies. The Buddies are 5 golden retriever puppies that speak English and have adventures. They are terrible horrible no good very bad movies if you are an adult, but Daphne LOVES them, and they are sweet movies that don't require lengthy explanations about the meaning of The Force. And during these Buddy movies, I was able to finish the first sleeve of my cardigan. Woohoo!
One of Daphne's friends left a get well card and this bracelet in our mailbox this morning. Daphne has been wearing it ever since. That makes me happy. Kids can be really really sweet. I was telling a friend today that I dread the day the girls in Daphne's grade start being mean to each other. I hope that's a long way off.
Besides watching movies, Daphne has been spending time doing one of her favorite things: taping stuff to other stuff. She has hardly touched any of her toys this week, except her stuffed dogs who are always in the mix. Instead, she has made various inventions with empty cardboard boxes, toilet paper tubes, pieces of string, and tiny pieces of paper. And lots and lots of tape. I told her that if she was going to invent things, she ought to start coming up with a leprechaun trap so we can avoid last year's St. Patrick's Day fiasco. Here is a sneak peek at what she came up with so far:
Note the tape. The leprechaun is SURE to be fooled! We'll catch one this year! For real.
We walked through some neighborhoods we've never visited before, and saw some interesting things:
Somebody's hitching post.
The Big Bad Wolf's house?
Yard Art.
On Sunday, Daphne and I had a sleepover in Manassas, and on Monday, Uncle Jeff took us to Mount Vernon to celebrate President's Day at George Washington's house. Daphne even earned a Girl Scout patch.
The General addresses the crowd.
The soldiers prepare to charge.
Daphne and the General
The President's mansion.
Plus, there was this giant pig.
And we got to spend a lot of time with this good little puppy dog:
Scout.
Teaching Scout some self-control.
The good puppy.
A good weekend, but now Daphne is sick. Too much President's Day partying. I think today we'll rest on the couch and watch a good movie. Perhaps there will be knitting.
Our weekend was big. There was a lot of cooking and eating. We went to the movies. I attempted to play a fiddle. Kev played some drums. Daphne played some kazoo. We went to a cooking class, had two play dates, and I went to Curves. It was fun and crazy and exhausting.
Wegman's has cooking classes for kids every other Saturday for $5.00, so the Daisy troop went over the weekend and learned to make smoothies, trail mix, and fruit tartlets. They had a blast. And it was only $5.00! Wegman's is awesome. If only they had amaretti cookies. But that's another story.
Next weekend, we have nothing on the calendar. So, Saturday, we are going to have Family Star Wars Day. Daphne has been getting points for trying new foods. She finally reached her goal of 20 points, and now she gets to watch Star Wars. We're going to make a whole day of it. There will be things like Darth Taters, Wookies and Cream ice cream, and Ham Solo sandwiches. My dad suggested Obi Wan Cannoli, which is an awesome idea, but I don't like cannoli and we are already having the ice cream. But if you have any funny Star Wars food pun suggestions, please comment. Perhaps Princess Leia cinnamon buns for breakfast. I reckon I'll be up in the middle of the night thinking about this.
So, this year, Daphne's class isn't having an official "party" for Valentine's Day. I guess they are only allowed three parties a year, and this one didn't make the cut. The kids still get to exchange Valentines, but it's sort of more like a homework assignment. Very strict and specific instructions were sent home about what the students MUST (print name in d'nealian) and MUST NOT (send candy) UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES do. The cards were due today.
Not to be intimidated, I was determined to still have SOME fun with Valentine's Day cards this year, so we stole an idea from the internet and made rubber stamps by putting foam stickers on corks and bottle caps. While not as cute as last year's stolen Valentine idea, these were at least still hand made. One of these days, Daphne is probably just going to want the Justin Bieber (good grief) ones from the grocery store, so I'm hanging on to crafty as long as I can.
Hey! Look what was in our mailbox today!
When Kev gets home, we get to open it. I'm afraid it might be a bit of a let-down though. How can you possibly top alligator?
Another big weekend is here. Cooking classes, play dates, the whale movie, and some cleaning. Off to get a head start. Or maybe a nap.
My dad has been doing lots of good paintings lately, and this is one of my favorites. This is Albert when he was a puppy. He was so little when we went to get him from the SPCA. His name was "Tommy." He doesn't really look like a Tommy to me. Albert suited him much better. I miss you, Albert.
The craftiness continues around here. I decided to show Daphne how to do an embroidery back stitch.
She got the hang of it pretty quickly, and made a "D" with a circle around it. She wants me to make it into a pillow for her stuffed dogs.
Meanwhile, at Daisies last night, the girls made Valentine's Day cards and crafts to swap with another Daisy troop as part of earning their "Be a Sister to all Girl Scouts" petal. All of the parents pitched in to help, which was awesome because otherwise it could have been a disaster.
The girls did great, and we ended up with nice little Valentine bags to give to the other troop. I think they will like it. Violet petal earned!
Today after school, Daphne and I made a Valentine t-shirt using a doily and some fabric paint. It should be noted that I don't care for the word "doily," but they do make nice stencils.
At the moment, it is snowing, but it will probably melt by tomorrow. Yesterday it was warm enough to go outside without a coat. Saturday night, Kev and I walked downtown to see a movie and it was snowing. My bulbs are coming up, and they must be so confused. Cold, warm, cold, warm. Such a weird winter this year.
Kev and I saw The Descendents at the Tally Ho. It was really great. Go see it. Take some kleenex. Then we went to dinner at Palio, which was very good...it's hard to go wrong with mushroom raviolis, especially when they have little amaretti cookies crumbled on top. I have to remember that next time I make ravioli.
It was a really busy weekend. Daphne had two birthday parties, Kev and I went out, and my parents, Jeff, and Scout the good new puppy came over for breakfast on Sunday. This coming weekend, the Daisies have a cooking class on Saturday and Daphne has a play date on Sunday. Never a dull moment.
Daphne is getting old enough now to do some pretty cool crafty stuff. Yesterday, I got her a potholder loom like I had when I was a kid. She did almost the whole thing by herself, and now I have a lovely and cheerful new potholder in my kitchen. It's only February, but it looks like we have this year's Christmas gifts covered. Potholders for all!
Friendship bracelets and finger knitting coming soon!
Because one day Kev was singing "Sway," and if you know Kev, you know he is a notorious low-talker, so when he sang "like the lazy ocean hugs the shore," I thought he said "like a lazy Russian horses show," and it seemed like a good name for something. Sorta Sgt. Peppery. No offense to Russians or horses is intended.
