Summer Love

My sister Rachel Bee and her man Chet took the plunge this summer.


Despite being warned on the wedding invitation, we still didn't realize that they meant that literally.





I was stuck here, getting ready to send my kids to their first day of school (the next day) and enjoying hurricane season. Bleh.
In typical awesome Rachel party fashion, a soundtrack was provided. -enough copies that children could steal several from me without making a dint.


Thanks for the new tunes, Rachel! Sofia and my's music collection is heavy on break-up songs, so this will provide some a much-needed balance. :) I'm really diggin' tracks 4, 8, 9 and 6 right now! "...it's always better when we're together..."

...and, even though I ditched on her wedding, Rachel sent me the best birthday present ever - totally worth the wait! Tony didn't look very happy that I was jumping up and down, squealing about it being the best present ever...he wishes diamond rings and fancy meals rated as high with me as - ADORABLE PLANT LABELS! ...made from silverware! ....the joy!!



I've already put some of them in my flower bed.

When I saw this one, I turned to the kids and asked, "Ok, who's my favorite?" At first they were jumping up and down with their hands in the air...and then they seemed to reconsider...whether I might be planning to skewer them? ...so I stuck it in by my garden phlox.


...and seeds! Yea!! Thank you!!


I'm already counting the days until next Spring.

Tony's big Korean idea

I may whine about the traffic, and the weather, and the distance from my besties...but there are definitely some awesome things in our neighborhood. My favorite: cultural diversity. I don't mean that in a "we need a certain number of people from each race and cultural background to be a valuable society" way or an "every thing from a different culture is wonderful and acceptable" relativistic sort of way. ...it's more of a "every culture has something wonderful to offer" and we can all share and learn from each other....ok....it's a little give peace a chance-ish....so what?

What have I been valuing from other cultures?

Incentive. Odie wants to learn Spanish...because of the multitude of pretty girls who speak Spanish.(He will deny this - but don't believe him!) I think it'd be really funny if he got back to his roots and married a Hispanic girl. His kids might fit their last names. :)

More importantly: KARAOKE! FM Karaoke is within walking distance from our house. My brilliant husband took us their last night, and, for the price of a movie, we rocked out to all of our tunes in a private room with disco lights. As Sofia would say - It was epic.

And speaking of Sofia, she is a karaoke ninja. She will karate chop your face if you try to pry a microphone out of her hand. ....and, if you're sharing a duet with her, she will belt it out, so that no one even knows you're there. She loves it too crazy much. I'm going to sneak her a valum next time we go.

...and Sarah - they serve Milkis.

the cheese

Cozy knows her colors, but she doesn't feel like people did a very good job naming them. To put things right, she has renamed these colors "cheese" and "chocolate".


I'm not sold on the new system. It works fine when she's asking to wear the "cheese" shirt or the "cheese" necklace. Not so much when Cozette wants "the cheese" on her sandwich...and means mustard.

...and speaking of "the cheese", Annika and I marinated some mozerella, fried some chicken pieces, and made a super-yummy salad.

Museum-O-Fun

Today did not start well. (And it was all my fault. I stayed up late yesterday helping Odie with his homework...and then stayed up later cruising craigslist, pinterest, landscaping websites whose services I cannot afford, and whatever else until 2 in the morning. Bad, bad, bad.)

I postponed getting out of bed until I felt I absolutely had to (sadly, right after my big kids left for school - although I was awake enough to yell things like, "DID YOU FINISH YOUR HOMEWORK? DON'T FORGET YOUR LUNCH!" from the dark, comfortable room I was unwilling to leave.), drank a diet coke or two for breakfast (please, self, wake up!), and threw the little kids in the car. Off to the science museum in Baltimore. Free admission before 11am. I had already told the kids and felt committed.

I left in such a dang, sleep-deprived hurry that I forgot Cozy's shoes. (Yes, she ran around bare-footed the entire time. I'm a good mom. I know. You don't need to tell me.) ...and then we got there 1/2 hour before they opened. Good planning. I had factored bad Baltimore "race days" traffic into my drive time. Traffic-free.

We took a short walk, to kill time until the museum opened. Cute brownstones everywhere, cobbled alleys...no shoe stores. ...but we found something for Odie/Anthony.



For those of you who haven't ever been to Baltimore, it's deep in the Chesapeake Bay (the largest estuary in the United States).


For someone who has lived on a peninsula for the last three years, it was nice to see the water and the boats.

So wonderful and relaxing to take children somewhere they're supposed to touch things.


Cozy adored the pendulums.

Jonny demonstrated why one pulley...


...is not as good as two.


We learned what happens to air when it heats up...it basically makes James break out in a fit of giggles.


In an act of extreme bravery, Jonny laid on a bed of nails. (Annika totally chickened out.)


Our favorite part - shooting foam noodle out into the 3-story foyer...and then racing down to fetch them again.



It was a wonderful day. We learned a lot of interesting new things and enjoyed our time together. I guess you can always end a day well, even if you can't manage to begin it well...sometimes it's worth it to drag your tired, lazy rear out of bed. :)

It makes me laugh when...

It makes me want to laugh when:

The littles and I were taking turns wearing Anthony's giant cowboy hat. Cozy wore it. "I'm the cowgirl!" James wore it. "You the cowboy, Bi-Boo." I wore it. "You the cow-mommy!" I can just picture a bunch of cow-mommys riding their horses. So can Cozy.



Kids tell me Sunday night that they need black shorts for PE the next day. At 7:30 AM
We don't live in Las Vegas. There are no open-all-night sporting goods stores.


Boo thinks a cardboard playhouse will support his weight - incurring no structural damage. (We read the 3 little pigs today. Maybe he was being the wolf, climbing down the chimney?)


Cozy wants to climb into my shirt and poke her head out of the neck hole. She wishes we were kangaroos.


How much Annika seems to look forward to each meal...(she just can't handle having lunch any later than 12 noon)...and how little she eats at them. I don't mind. It makes her my volunteer assistant cook.



In other vitally important news: We've started eating Indian food at least once a week, mainly due to the family-sized Indian entrees and fresh naan they sell at our Costco. I've started making basmati rice every time (to make the naan last longer), and tonight we had Mango Lassis too. (Honey in the lassis was a big hit, even thought everyone hated it in my banana bread. Live and learn.) Mmmm...mangos. :)

Spreading my mad skillz to other people like me...who will go completely overboard and cover a million composition books. The end.

So, you want to make your dismal school life prettier...


...all you need is 3 sheets of scrapbook paper, a sponge brush, a composition book (or twenty) and some Modge Podge (school glue is substitutable - but not as awesome).

First, I cut my 2 cover papers down to 9 x 12" each and my inside paper (which is usually cheaper 8 1/2 x 11" cardstock) in half, making two 8 1/2 x 5 1/2" pieces.
Questions? No? Good.

I then sponge-brush ample amounts of Modge on one side of the cover. (You can be more generous with it, depending on the thickness of your paper.)


I line up my 9x12" paper with the black binding, center it, and smooth it onto the cover.


I let mine sit a bit, while I do the previous steps on 4 or 5 other books. :) I then open up the cover and cut the corners off at an angle, leaving just a 1/4" or so of paper at the corners. (Oh, add scissors to your materials list. Oops.)


Like so!

Apply modge to the overhanging paper on one side and the corner bit.


Fold in the corner paper...


...and smooth down the side.


After modge-gluing both sides down, make sure everything is nice and tucked in. Then glue down the end. As my Sofia says, it's just like wrapping a Christmas present.
...but with glue...and we hope it will be REALLY hard to unwrap.


The hard part's behind you now! Grab one of your 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inside pieces, modge/glue the NOT pretty side and use it to cover up that big, empty, ugly place on the inside of your cover.


I like to modge around the edges of it - just so those edges stay pretty longer and hopefully don't dog-ear.


You want to let your book sit open until your glue is all clear and dried. This is where it's good to have 5 or 6 books in the works at time...or to be cooking dinner in between steps.

Once everything is good and dry, repeat on the back cover.

Label and decorate as desired...and then modge the heck out of that too. (I know - I have a problem.)


Annika labelled this herself...and it's actually quite legible when the flash isn't glaring off of the shiny finish. :)

There. Now go make something.

Composition Cuteness

My nice friend/sister-in-law Beth sent me this wonderful composition book for my birthday. She cutified it herself.


I immediately called her, thanked her, and demanded to know her secrets. Then we were off to the craft store for modge podge and scrapbook paper! (And I have to mention that the earthquake happened while we were at Michaels!)

I've been obsessively upcycling old composition books and prettifying new ones I got for cheap in back-to-school sales. This is going to be the best school year ever! ...or at least the most aesthetically pleasing.

I loved the bird print...


...but so did Sofia.


I thought this would be a fun project to do with the kids, but I couldn't even handle watching Sofia make one. My misplaced perfectionism - it's a curse. Still, it's easy. So you might like to do it with your kids.

I did let them each pick one. James chose the bombers (which was sort of my plan anyhow), and I finally talked Jonny into the stripes...instead of making him the eiffel tower print he wanted. (I know, I'm mean - but it was just too goofy.)


...and Sofia made one, complete with drawing, for her friend.



IN OTHER NEWS: Sofi and Odie went to "new student orientation" this morning. I didn't even have to drive them. The bus picked them up and dropped them off. They got to meet all of their teachers. Anthony was torn. Spanish sounded so fun...but so did orchestra...in the end, he decided to postpone taking Spanish. (I can't deny being pleased. I hated for him to give up violin.) Everyone is excited for school to start!