Upgrades and New Additions

It was recently brought to my attention that a superhero's most valued possession is his identity.  As such, the superhero outfits that were previously designed and made had to be upgraded for the superheros in residence.  Some careful planning, measuring, cutting, and sewing brought us to the end result of protecting our superhero's identity:

Who is that masked man?

We have also added a Wrist Band of Lightening Power to the whole setup to make sure we are properly equipped with all the villain-fighting tools possible. 

Our fearless superhero, striking a pose and demonstrating his awesome potential power.

With all these superheros in the house, it only made sense that the youngest of the tribe also be trained in the ways of doing-good.  She, too, picked out the colors, fabrics, and materials best suited for her outfit of doing good.  And luckily for her, we were already well aware of the need to protect the superhero's identity.  She might need an upgrade later for her wristband of power, but right now, her power of cuteness is overwhelming enough.

Letter Hunt

There are days when it is just impossible to make sure each child gets the individual attention they need.  I try to devise clever ways to occupy three at once so I can spend time with one.  Last week, opportunity presented itself when two out of the four were already occupied - Squeakers was napping and Otter was at a friend's house. I wanted to spend some time with Bean but was left with Smoosh needing something to occupy him.  By far, he is the toughest one to safely and quietly occupy.  I decided my quiet time with Beans was more important than the welfare of my camera and gave the camera to Smoosh.  He was instructed to go on a "letter hunt" and take pictures of the letter T wherever he could find it.  At first, he did pretty well!  When I flipped through the first few pictures, he had a big smile on his face......

As I went through more, he just started giggling.  He had at some point decided he was tired hunting down Ts and wanted to take a picture of his most favorite creation ever.....his Thunderbird.....

Made from a wrapping paper roll, this creation is really big, covered in red construction paper, and even has jet blasters at the end of it.  If I would let him, Smoosh would sleep with this thing. 

And you might be thinking right now, oh, he's pretty clever, he found something that started with the letter T, doesn't that count?  Well, it would count if he didn't call his Thunderbirds "Funderbirds" and tell us all it starts with "ffffuuuhhh  fuhhhh." But then he started really giggling and was about ready to fall over from laughing.  I figured there was something else on that camera that was causing him this excitement.....

Oh yes, there it was, the classic "picture of myself."  There was not only one of these pictures, but about 20.  He had them in the mirror, with himself next to stuffed animals, lying on the floor, lying on the couch.  It was hilarious.  I laughed at the little goofball and was thankful that at least I had that 20 minutes to spend with Bean reading and doing homework with my camera still intact at the end.  I should have known that Smoosh being quiet for 20 minutes did not mean he was off busy learning by himself and hunting down letters but doing something entirely goofy to entertain himself.  I just cannot imagine where he gets it from......

Planting Daisies

Another fun place we like to go to during the winter is Klein's Greenhouse.  The sign outside their business says "it's always spring in here," and that about says it all.  The little ones and I love walking up and down the aisles looking at the flowers that are just starting to germinate and grow.  We start talking about the different flowers we are going to plant this year in the garden.  We also get to pick out one flower that is already grown and blooming.  Smoosh is so very consistent in not giving a hoot about what kind of flowers we plant, as long as they are yellow.  Squeakers is just in love with walking around and exploring everything - its all still so new to her.  While I wanted to walk out with just about everything I saw, we managed to pick out just two favorite daisies to bring home and plant.  Every time we have been to Klein's, we have left with flowers and smiles. 

Step 1: Put some dirt in the pot.

Step 2: Put your flowers in the pot.

Step 3: Tuck in those little plants all nice and comfy.

Step 4: Add copious amounts of love to your flower.

Aaahhh don't the flowers and the kids look just so happy?

Tracking Down Some Fun

Ahhh, I fell into a slump again and forgot about the blog.  Well, I didn't exactly forget about it, it was unfortunately put on the back burner of life while I was out traveling, playing, cooking, holidaying, and then enjoying some time with the kids.  And, yet again, I have had several equipment failures, misplaced wires, crashed laptop with lots of pictures on it, etc.  I was hoping to use all the time before my next teaching gig starts to prepare for class, especially in lieu of losing lots of lectures!  However, I have had no real schedule and one of the great joys of lazy days with no real schedule to follow is being able to take the kids out on adventures.  Winter does not slow us down one bit!  We have a fabulous selection of outdoor areas that are just as incredible during the winter as they are in the other seasons; if not more incredible during the winter due to the lack of mosquitos!  Last week, the two little ones and I headed to the arboreteum where we were able to borrow a birding backpack and hike through the woods.  It was great timing because there was a fresh layer of snow, which meants lot of animal tracks to follow and try to guess who made them, all while making our own:) 

Such a gorgeous great big place to explore.

Expert birder in training.

All kinds of animals tracking through here!!

"I bet the squirrels live in dhere mommy..."

"uummm....really, I think they live in nests Smoosh...."

Smooshie tracks.

We tried to find the turkeys, but their tracks were all we got to see of them.

Squeaks got to enjoy the view from the backpack.  She was very good at making us be quiet and listen for birds.  "Birrr....Birr...."  She is going to be another great little explorer one day!

Guatemala

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I Love Me Some Halloween Time!

Things I love about Halloween:

 1.  The change of seasons....fall is starting to slowly creep out while winter sneaks in.  In the past few years here, there has been one Halloween where we had snow and one Halloween where the temps were in the 70s.  This year it was around 40, which is just perfect to me.  I love all the signs of the upcoming winter - the few leaves barely hanging onto the trees, the crisp air, and the kids outside playing trying to enjoy the last few weeks of weather that can be played in for hours on end.

2.  Ummmm COSTUMES!!!  So many parts of costumes to love - the deciding, the sewing, the trying on, the wearing of costumes from sunup to sundown during the days off before Halloween.  Love it all!  I was a little disappointed with my craftiness this year and had some mishaps with the "light blue princess kitty costume," but Beans was nonfluffed about it and that's all that really matters.  Otter, as always, required black, gruesome, and something violent.  I think this has been his theme for the past 4 years; he just gives it a new name each Halloween - this year it was called "Spirit Archer."  Uh duh.  He actually drew what he wanted, came and picked out fabrics, help cut, and was standing over my shoulder with ants in his pants while I sewed it up for him.  Smoosh is also consistent in his costumes for the past few years - really cool guys that beat up bad guys.  Spiderman.  Thank goodness we have quite the collection of costumes for him to just pick through.  Squeaks was a "little orange kitty kat," which translates in Mommy language to "adorable."  The girls helped out with the sewing.

3.  School parties.  I don't understand why the kids were looking at me funny when I wanted to join in the eyeball races and eat some gooey brain cupcakes.  Sheesh.  Can't a girl have some fun?

Look - its spidey at the window!  Good party times!

4.  Pumpkin carving!!  Pics say it all:

seeds in, seeds out

and i'm done with that silly seed schtuff

ooh - don't forget to taste the seeds

5.  TRICK OR TREATING!!!  Minus the yelling at kids for saying "trick or death" or running across the street in a black costume in the dark.  Did I say kids?  I meant yelling at the Otter.  My most favorite part of trick or treating is coming home and dumping all the candy on the floor then sorting!  SO FUN!

It was a great Halloween season!  I am already planning the costumes for next year:)

Fall Carvings

Ahh Fall, how I love thee.  Our yard was a beautiful blanket of fall color before the mighty winds set our way.  Now our neighbor's yard is a beautiful blanket of fall color!  We have been busy with all the projects that fall brings.

The first was a venture into homemade applesauce.  We have made this before, but this year Smoosh and I decided to spice it up a bit and make it in the crockpot.  Crockpot applesauce leaves a smell in the house that lingers well into the next day, just like bread baking does.  We carved at least 20 apples to get maybe 2 full cups of applesauce.  I learned that when cooking with Squeakers I should probably keep a better eye on her or give her jobs that do not involve actual food products.  I think she "tasted" every apple before putting it into the crockpot.  I did not notice this until Smoosh raised a fuss about wanting some "taste tests" too.

There go all those apple peels to our bunnies and some to our compost pile!

Next "carving" project up will be canning pears and make absurd amounts of pear pies, pear sauces, pear whatevers!  It was a pear-a-palooza this fall from our trees!

Smoosh and Jack -he's our neighbor who helped with the picking!

One of our biggest fall "carving" projects was a new bed for Smoosh!  Check it out - that's a dragon rail on there!!!  Big Daddy at work again with his craftiness. 

 The bed still needs some paint and a few more details to be added, but I don't think Smoosh minds too much.  He was pretty excited to finally have a big boy bed!

Of course, there is always the Pumpkin Carving of each year that is such great fun for about 5 minutes before I start wigging out from the knives being used recklessly, the over-the-top need for violence and gory items from an eldest child who shall remain nameless, and the smiles from watching the littlest one take seeds out the pumpkin then put them back in, out, then in, out, then in.  Pics will follow in another post:)