The Season Opener of our Backyard Pool

I had gobs of stuff to do today, not a lick of which got done.
Oh, sure, I'll pay for it later, but not one drop of guilt or angst entered my being the entire day. I was in full on pretend-it's-summer mode. And I wasn't the only one.
As they splashed around, deeply involved in a completely conflict-free game, I read my book. And I stared. Sometimes I stared into space. Sometimes I stared at these darling little faces.
I suppose I could knuckle down tomorrow. But the very wise Samuel Clemens once said, "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."

The Bendy Hat

How lucky am I to wake up to this sight?
The Bendy hat spends most of its time in the dress-up bin, but every now and then Trevor rediscovers it, and it becomes a key accessory for a few days.

Stalker that I am, I followed Trevi into the bathroom when it was time to brush.

Imagine my delight when he got out the Cabbage Patch Kid's toothbrush, and began simultaneously brushing Bendy's beak.
It's a good thing Bird Flu is last year's pandemic.

Raffles

Ever since she won the ice cream maker, Clara has been very big on the concept of raffles. Tonight, she gathered a collection of "prizes" (aka "junk") in a big box, and wrote the names of all of her friends and family members on slips of paper. Trevi's frequent MO is to copy what his sister is doing, so he gathered his own prizes and made his own tickets. Before long, raffle time was declared by both of them. But here's the devastatingly cute part: They each let the other one win their raffle! Trevi intentionally chose Clara's ticket for his raffle, and she followed suit. Oh my gosh, sometimes these kids are just too much.
From Trevor's prize bin, Clara chose a microscope slide with a slice of an ostrich feather. Trevi's big win earned him a heart-shaped plastic slinky. Big night in our household. Yes sirree.
ETA: Clara's Science teacher was kind enough to put Clara's slide on the microscope the next day, and project it for all the class to see. Clara achieved hero status.
Trevi's slinky was inextricably tangled within five minutes of his taking possession of it.

Photo Booth

In a few short weeks, I'll have to vacate the classroom that's been my home this year. Knowing that Clara occasionally dabbles in Photo Booth when she's using my classroom computers, I figured I should go in and have a deleting party.

I found a few keepers, such as this weirdo shot:

And this one:

I had forgotten all about this photo, which I snapped as my principal was giving me the good news that I wasn't getting pink-slipped:

And here I am today, after deleting 347 Photo Booth pics of Clara and Trevor, instead of grading Social Studies projects.
I think tomorrow I'll do the same thing to my laptop. Perhaps the Social Studies projects will get impatient and start grading themselves.

Manny Reads!

The big news of the day is that Trevi sat down with me and read a stack of unfamiliar books, cover to cover. Then, after he'd finished, he started jumping around, shouting, "I love reading! I love reading! I love reading!"
Be still, my heart.
I have no photos of this, because Trevi said, "This is a reading moment, not a picture-taking moment!"

The day was not entirely without picture-taking moments, though, like when Clara left her own personal mailbox, (labeled "Clara's real mail") out for the mail carrier. She built it last night. I love how great things can happen when you leave scrap wood lying around.

And, when you leave your exercise equipment lying around, it may get turned into some kind of ride for boys and their cats:

Boys who can read and their cats, that is.

The museum

The Lego joy continues. Here is Clara's "Awkward Museum":
Make sure to pay a visit while "The world's most awkward ruby" is still on display. I don't actually know what's going on with Clara and the word "awkward" lately. She appears to be overgeneralizing it's meaning, since a few dozen things a day seem to be awkward, including last night's dinner (?), and Trevor's recent clothing choices. Will I blow Clara's mind if I point out that she's using that word rather awkwardly?

Our cool new ice cream thingy!

In Clara's class this week they had some sort of a raffle, and Clarita won! The prize was a nifty little ice cream maker, and so we were forced, against our will, to make and eat ice cream. Check this thing out:
You fill the ball with ice and rock salt, and then put your ice cream ingredients in a central cylinder. Then, you roll the thing around for 20 minutes. Neat-o, right? Of course, chances are that your kids will lose interest in the rolling process about halfway through, in which case you can eat/drink the semi-frozen stuff, and just pretend that it's ice cream beginning to melt, instead of milk beginning to freeze. Tastes the same liquid or solid anyway.

Construction

We've had a sizable bin of Lego in the house since way back before one or both kids were past the choking hazard stage. Fortunately, not a single block has been ingested (that we know of). Truth is, the Lego has rarely been acknowledged at all, which is weird, considering that Trevi is crazy builder man, and Clara loves to create. Lego does require a bit of finesse, though, and so I guess it's been passed over in favor of things that stack up/stick together more easily. This week, though, the Lego is feeling the love.
In the above pic, by the way, Trevi had, moments before, abandoned the Legos (in large part due to the despotic bin-watcher and specialized parts distributor), and moved on to Tinkertoys.

And for construction on a larger scale, Trevi pounded a few nails into the treehouse, and then stood up there, owning the universe.
We're signing them both up for Habitat for Humanity instead of camp this summer.

Look what I made!!!!

I am so, so super proud. I have branched out beyond painting walls! This weekend, I actually produced a piece of "art"!
We had a chunk of the kitchen that needed some pizazz, and a big canvas that I picked up ages ago for fifteen bucks.
Knowing full well that art is not my thing, I figured I should try to make some sort of geometric design involving squares.
I needed some guidance, so I googled "squares acrylic on canvas" or something like that, and searched around for something that spoke to me. I found this one that completely read/blew my mind. "Salsa Squares". Perfect. Now, I don't really know how the artist (Theresa from Illinois) would feel if she knew I was copying her design, shape for shape, and color for color. I can only hope that it would lean more towards imitation-is-the-sincerest-form- of-flattery, than who-does-this-hack/criminal-think-she-is- copying-my-design, but I can't be sure. I hope this act of forgery doesn't make me a horrible person. Theresa did sell her painting (more than a year ago) for beaucoup bucks, and my brush strokes will never be confused with those of an artist. So, thank you, Theresa from Illinois. I tried my best to do justice to your amazing work. I hope you don't mind.

It started with some grid-making, sketching, and outlining:
More outlining:

And then, after a whole bunch of painting,
TA DA!!!!!!! :
I stayed up way too late working on it after the kids were in bed, and had to hit the coffee big time in the morning. SO worth it. I can see why crafty people are happy and glowy all the time. It feels good to make something besides dinner.

Lazy Rainy Saturday Pics

This bag is not a toy:
It's not a toy, that is, unless you use a straw to blow it up, and then zip it closed. Then, it can be a soccer ball, a trampoline for stuffed cats, a "breath and saliva collector", or a pillow.


Room with a view:
Um, ya, maybe I should close the blinds on that window.



Everything is an instrument:
Including nasty old brass outlet plates.


Beauty is in the eye of the beholder:
Why the sad, pouty look on Trevor's face, you ask? Well, he wanted to make a painting, so I pulled out this old plate to be his canvas. It was originally going to be part of the plate wall,
but I decided that I really didn't like the look of it. Here's how the conversation went:
Me: "Trevi, you can paint this whole plate however you want!"
Trev: "Why to you want me to paint over these beautiful flowers?"
Me: "Well, I don't really like the design too much, so I thought you'd like to make your own design."
At this point, Clara called me into the other room. When I came back, Trevor was gone. So was the plate.
I found him, teary-eyed, sitting in the living room.
Me: "What's the matter, Manny?"
Trev: "Mummy, please don't make me paint over these pretty, pretty flowers. It would be so sad if this beautiful design was gone forever."
Can't argue with that, right?
I told him that he didn't have to paint over it, and that no one else would, either. But he carried that thing around the house with him all morning, just to be safe.