Friday, April 30, 2010

Tinkertoys, etc.

Here's a nifty little invention that Trev put together with Tinkertoys today. The yellow grabber thingy (like my technical language?) is held up by a rope that is anchored in place.
Pull the anchor, and the grabber plummets to earth.
When he grows up and invents something that makes the world a better place, I'll be able to show folks these photos of his early tinkering.
P.S.  I got a job!  I am going to be a Middle School teacher next year!  I am approximately 53% relieved and 47% terrified.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Finger Knitting

Clara learned a cool new skill at Brownies today – finger knitting!She worked at it for hours after coming home, and practically every stuffed animal in the house is now the proud owner of a cozy scarf.
(Notice Jordan, the black bear, patiently waiting for his scarf to be finished...)

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

A Show!

We haven't had too many shows lately, so imagine my delight when Trevor and his friend Ben made a "speshl" music show for us.  Even though they had a wide variety of instruments at their disposal, they mainly stuck to their favorite two.I believe that was the first ukulele/rain stick duet I've ever heard. 

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Camping Practice

The weather cooperated today, and we spent most of the afternoon pretending that it was already vacation time.  Clara and Trevor did some backyard camping, while I alternated between roasting cottonballs with them, and sitting in a chair, marveling at their cuteness. Man, I hope I get a job soon, so I can just chill and play with the kids all summer.  Pending unemployment doesn't make you feel all that festive and relaxy.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Lego Airlines

It seems that Legoland is suffering the same budget cuts as the real world.  Take this packed flight, for instance:
There is neither leg room nor arm room.  One guy has been given the task of wearing the antenna on his head.  And Lego Airlines, apparently, has taken to selling wingspace to passengers.  You know these folks are being charged for their carry-ons, too.....

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Monet-ish

I hardly ever blog about school, but today's art activity was so fab that I'm just gushing about it. My class is currently in France, in the middle of our imaginary trip around the world. 
We lucked out, because we happened to be in Scotland when the Icelandic volcano started wreaking havoc on European flights, so we were able to get to France via the Chunnel.

Anyway, we talked about Monet and the Impressionists, and then did this activity, which I found online.  So cool.

The biggest part of the job was making stencils of a fence, a path, and an archway.  I had the kids tack their stencils down with just the teeniest dab of glue.
Then, they sponge painted.  Yellow first, then green, then dark blue for shading, then light blue in the sky.  I told them they had to camouflage all of their stencils.
Finally, the big reveal.  It was amazing peeling off the stencils to see the (almost) finished product.
Tomorrow, some flowers will grow in the gardens.  Why have I never before discovered the awesomeness of making stencils???

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Treasure

The coffee rocks were dry and ready to be demolished today. What was inside? A frog and a balloon. Paydirt!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Swinging

The kids have a funny little conspiratorial habit of not narcing on one another when they are playing a game they know I don't like. They latest game in this category is the old classic where one kid sits in the swing, and the other spins them around and around until the chains can't twist any more, and then lets go.  You know, the gross dizzy type of activity that children choose to do right after dinner, making parents all over the world too queasy to watch.

They routinely get hurt doing this.  Clara will accidentally twist Trevor's finger in the swing, or Trevor will kick Clara in the head. But they talk each other down from their tears, and wouldn't dream of coming crying to me.  Because then it would be game over.  So I suppose semi-dangerous games do have their upside....

Trevor also likes to grab leaves with his feet.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Coffee Rocks

We made rocks out of coffee grinds today.  Add some salt, flour, water, and sand (stolen from the playground down the street - shhhhh), mix it all together, and roll it into a ball.
Oh, and hide a toy inside the ball so you can crack the thing open in a couple of days, and discover the toy that you hid.  The most random after-school activity in the history of the universe.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Verbing

Making dinner tonight, Trevi said, 
"It's a lot faster microwaving your food than stoving it." 
Which made me wonder why microwaving managed to become a verb, but stoving didn't.  Mopping did, but brooming didn't. Shampooing did, but toothpasting didn't.  Drumming did, but pianoing didn't.  Tacking did, but magneting didn't.  Batting did, but gloving didn't.  Biking did, but scootering didn't.  Boating did, but carring didn't.  Waxing did, but razoring didn't. 
Ah, English.  You are such an enigma. 

I think I'm done computering for the night.  Time for some pillowing.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Unbloggable

There was really nothing going on this week.  Snoozefest.  
Check out the highlights:  

Monday
• kind of hard to get up for work after being on Spring Break for 10 days
• no food in the house
• applied for jobs

Tuesday
• rainy
• Kate Gosselin should have been eliminated on Dancing With The Stars, but wasn't

Wednesday
• forgot my lunch

Thursday
• my class flew to Scotland - heh heh, imaginary airports aren't closed due to Eyjafjallajökull 

Friday
• used scanner at school, and now really want one
• Clara's first pimple leads to proclamation that she will be "ugly forever"

Saturday
• forgot that the library closes at five

Friday, April 9, 2010

Gualala

Yay for Grammy and Grampy, who wanted to hang with the kids for the final few days of Spring Break.  Chad and I decided to divide the time evenly, with 50% allocated to getting-out-of-dodge and 50% for job hunting / taxes.  Since the second 50% is decidedly unfun, I'll focus on the first half.

Nutshell vesion:
We drove up to Gualala, our favorite old haunt.  I can never resist taking a picture of the GGB as we drive over.  And I've lived here for eleven years.  Pathetic, right?
We arrived in time for a very late dinner.  Yum for the dinner – always fab – but truly this place is all about the breakfast.  They deliver it to your cabin.  And the coffee is good.
Rustic.  Redwoods.  Relaxing.

We moseyed down the coast on the way home, and stopped to marvel over sea otters, sea lions and/or harbor seals (never can seem to tell those apart), and just generally spectacular ocean views.
Job hunting and taxes will either seem not so bad after such a nice break, or they'll seem worse than ever by comparison....

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Going Underground

You don't have to drive very far to find adventure around here.
We took the miniest of vacations for Spring Break – a Tuesday morning drive, a bit of spelunking, dinner out, hotel, Wednesday morning at a gold mine, picnic lunch, and home in time for soccer practice.  Here are a few of the highlights:

Making our way through California Caverns near Angels Camp:

Cool, cavey formations in Mercer Caverns near Murphys:

Exploring the old (and tiny) town of Amador "City":
It would be cooler if there were no cars....

Cruising down to learn about gold mining in Sutter Creek:

Panning for gold:

Eureka!!!
Clara's gold strike wasn't quite enough to send us to Tahiti for the rest of the week, but we proved that we can pack a lot of fun family time into 30 hours, especially when we are at least two counties away from household responsibilities.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Rainy Day Legothon

Rain + Lego = Shockingly peaceful sibling interaction
It seriously blows my mind how long these two will play with Lego.  Sometimes they collaborate on projects, but more often they just work on their own things, while keeping each other company.  Then, inevitably, one of them will try to control some aspect of what the other one is doing.  A battle of wills will ensue.  Someone will leave the room, possibly in tears.
Today, after practically two hours of harmonious building, it was Clara who left.  There actually weren't any tears, and not even a conflict.  She just got a bit burned out and needed to move on to something new.  Trevi kept going until the rain stopped. 
I would advise against walking barefoot in our living room if you weigh more than 50 pounds. :)

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter!

Clara has been asking me lots of questions lately about Easter, and I usually have to hit up Google to build on my skeleton of an explanation.  So, yes, maybe at some point we should go to church or do something religious or at least spiritual at Easter. For now, though, we're good with the secular version of celebrating.
The Easter Bunny was up to his same old tricks this year. He filled and hid eggs, ate a carrot, and then scampered off to somewhere else. In the morning, just like last year and the the year before that, (along with seven unblogged years of parenthood), the kids found eggs while Chad and I drank coffee and gave the occasional egg hint.  
The tradition gets tweaked a bit from year to year, and this time around the Bunny filled most of the eggs with teeny little squres of paper. On each square was a letter, and the letters, when correctly arranged, told the kids where to look for their goodies. 
Honey mustard pretzels in the mailbox, for instance.  Big ticket item.
There was a bit of chocolate to be found, too.  The Bunny must have known that we've run out of Girl Scout cookies.  :)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Do they make Prozac for cats?

Poor old Berbs misses his sister.  He's been doing a lot more meowing lately (or, "mrowing" as Trev calls it) and he seems to be wandering around aimlessly.  Of course, he has a brain the size of a walnut, so we could be projecting our own human sense of loss on him.  But I don't think so.  I think the guy's lonely.

In completely unrelated (and much more smiley) news, Trevi invented a fab new word today.  It was taking him a dog's age to get dressed for school, and I went in to nudge (i.e. nag) him along. He explained that he needed extra time because they were having a party in his class that day, and he needed to find a shirt that was "celebrationable".  Celebrationable. Someone call Mr. Webster.