Crafty Goodness!

My friend Caroline is going to have a booth at the Artiquerque Crafters craft fair in March. I went with her to Hobby Lobby to pick up some craft supplies. She's making fridge magnets and hair thingies for adults. While I was there, I got totally sucked in looking at all the neat stuff!

After much oooing and ahhhhing, Caroline talked me into manning the booth together. Now I'm making TONS of kids stuff to sell. I've made a bunch of flowery clips and headbands, and made three tutu's this afternoon! I think I might make some pretty wands, too. I'm ordering some more crocheted headbands to attach the big flowers to, and I think I might make some clippies that match the tutus I made. There might be feathers involved.

If you guys have any other suggestions for pretty things I could make, let me know!

Octobaby!

Tell me about it!

Clover Lane

My cousin turned me on to this blog she recently found called Clover Lane. It's a really cool blog written by this woman with five kids of her own. I specifically love her parenting style, and love one section of her blog she calls Vintage Parenting. It's really all about keeping it simple and doing things for your children that really matter like playing with them, and teaching them by example how to be a good person. She really puts things into perspective, but isn't too serious about it. Here's an excerpt from one of her blog entries called "Whining and Gratitude." Hope you like it as much as I do!

"A favorite part of my daily read of the newspaper is the Reader's Forum and the Pages of Opinion. I skim the rest of the paper but really read these....I love hearing what people write about, and I love to hear other points of view...and you KNOW I love opinions, right? (I always look for the ones that make me laugh...usually authored by people named Mildred or Orville...and I laugh because they tell it like it is, and gosh almighty, it makes sense!)

Lately in our paper, I've been reading about 3 big complaints over and over. Piddly little stuff that makes the complainer seem so self-centered, and petty and ignorant of what is going on in the world. Whining about new city garbage containers, the newpaper not carrying enough TV listings, the dog pound not promoting pet adoptions enough...on and on and on...day after day! I think of what other people in this world who don't have enough to eat, don't have access to health care to save their children, can't even provide their families with clean water to drink...what would they think of us?

So much of what we read, see and hear today, as problems, things to be solved, discussed, debated, really is SO trivial...it's hard to not get sucked in by it all. And the busy-ness of being a mother...and all the duties that it entails (and yes! they are plentiful!) sometimes means that days fly by with me never thinking of all the things I take for granted.

I catch myself...sometimes complaining about the chore of grocery shopping...pushing my cart in a clean store, money in my pocket, throwing food in my cart for my children's stomachs. What is there to complain about? How can this be one bit of an inconvenience to me? How many mothers in this world would give anything to be able to pick and choose what to feed their family?

I hear myself sighing loudly about the laundry...yet we are warm and clothed and have cozy beds to sleep in!

I hear myself looking at my little chores with dread...I have a house to clean, indoor plumbing, fresh water!

The last couple of years I've really tried to make an effort to stop myself when I hear those complaints creeping in, and thinking, "What is the other side of this?" When cleaning the bathroom is on the agenda, I think...what if I only had a muddy unsanitary river to bathe my babies and children in? When I'm tired of fixing meal after meal, I think, what if my children were crying at my feet and I had NOTHING to fix them? When I'm exasperated at picking up school shoes strewn across the floor, packing lunches, checking book bags, what if I had to send my child miles and miles away, barefoot, with no lunch, to a tiny dirt floored schoolhouse?

It's always enough to flip that switch in my mind to one of happiness, gratefulness, total gratitude for how lucky I am."

LOVE!

Explora!

I took the kids to Explora yesterday, and boy was it fun! Miles, his brother, and his Mom Amber met us there, too. She wasn't sure how I was going to handle five kids by myself. I had a plan, though! The two littlest ones went in the double stroller, Austin would be contained on the baby leash (ha!), and the two three-year-olds would hold hands. While this can be challenging when in the open, there are lots of little contained areas in the museum, so it's actually not too difficult. If only I could keep Austin from running in front of the stroller. I need to train that little monkey! ;D

We did lots of fun things like playing in the bubbles, hanging out in the percussion room, and since it's Monday they had a music free play jam session in the theater. All the kids got to choose from a bunch of instruments to play with. Everyone was pretty entertained, and my biggest challenge was getting Austin to stop hitting the bongo drums with other instruments!





Next, we took the big elevator back downstairs and spent the rest of our time in the toddler room. There are lots of puzzles, balls, books, and manipulatives there, and it's all contained so it's easy to keep track of everyone.





We will definitely be doing more trips to Explora so we can get out of the house and have a little fun without freezing our buns off!

One More New Friend

Kieran started today! He's three years old, and is just such a great kid! He's very polite and helpful with the little ones. He's a good eater, a great dancer, and he can paint like it's nobody's business. He informed me today that painting is his favorite thing.


Today we stayed inside because it's just too cold and wet out today. We started the day off by painting some beautiful rainbows. Afterward, we built a nice train track, and played with the firehouse a bit. We watched a movie, had a snack, and then goofed around taking pictures of ourselves on the computer.




Kieran noticed the stereo hooked up to the computer, so we decided we needed to have a dance party! (Don't mock my dance moves! You know you wish you had my groove.)

Fun at the Aquarium

It's been rather chilly lately, so yesterday we went to the aquarium where it's nice and warm inside. We went in the morning so we wouldn't interrupt anyone's nap time, so it was just Sofia, Maya, and Austin. It was pretty empty, so I was very comfortable just letting them check out the fish out of their stroller. They had lots of fun running around looking at all the fish and running around. I had lots of fun keeping Austin wrangled. That little stinker was wandering off every chance he got! I see the purchase of a monkey leash in my near future. ;D









Next week I think we're going to do a trip to Explora on Monday when all the kids can go together. Here's next week's schedule:

Monday - Austin, Miles, Kieran, Sofia
Tuesday - Austin Sofia
Wednesday - Austin, Sofia
Thursday - Austin, Miles, Kieran, Sofia, Kai
Friday - Austin, Sofia

Explora opens at 10am, so we'll be rolling out at around 9:40am on Monday. We'll probably stay for an hour or two, and then head home for lunch. It should be funsies! Especially with Austin properly leashed this time!

Valentine's Day - OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

My husband and I have a tradition of celebrating Valentine's Day one week late so we can avoid the crowds. Knowing how difficult it can be finding a sitter that evening, I thought it would be cool if I opened my doors for everyone so you could have a night out with your significant other!

This year, Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday. I have no desire to be up all night with kids, and then wake up bright and early Monday morning. Soooo, I'm going to be open for business the night before Valentine's Day, Saturday, February 13th from 5:00pm until 1:00am. That gives you plenty of time to have dinner, hit a movie or something, maybe have some romantic time (*wink!), and then get back to my place to pick up your munchkin. I'll be charging $30 for the whole night.

We'll be doing traditional sleep-over fun! Play with toys, bake some Valentine's Day cookies, maybe make a fort in the living room, camp out with blankets and pillows, and watch movies and eat popcorn until we fall asleep! I'll keep them up as late as I can so you can potentially sleep in on Sunday.

Please let me know ASAP if you'd be interested. Shoot me an e-mail, or just let me know next time you see me.