Locks for Love

Princess Sparkley has been growing her hair out since last time we got it chopped, July 4, 2008.  She's gotten maybe two haircuts since then, but just trims (and one was a horrible trim by me).  While she would LOVE to have hair like Rapunzel, it's been driving B and I crazy because she doesn't remember to brush is every morning, it's always getting into her food while she eats, and it's taking over our house.  We find hair every where!  We talked her into getting her hair cut thinking it was probably long enough to donate to Locks for Love.  And it was! 

Before                       After

Sorry, I don't have a very good before picture.  I didn't think to take one and a lot of her recent pictures have her hair up in a bun/ponytail/braid to control it.  She's a little creeped out in the second picture by the ponytail.

Star Wars Birthday

We did a friend party for Buddy last year, so this year we just did a family party.  Star Wars themed.  It was either going to be Lego, Star Wars, Star Wars Lego, army, race track or construction.  He has a lot of interests.

I sewed a felt "Happy Birthday" bunting to use for all of our birthdays, and a plain one for the "arch" into the dining area.  We decorated with random Star Wars guys and pictures of Buddy.  I called our one bookshelf the Buddy shrine and put a bunch of framed pictures of him as a baby and as a little kid up.  Then I hung a piece of yarn and using tiny clothespins, hung pictures of Buddy in chronological order.  I thought that was pretty fun.

Buddy spent all yesterday trying to convince me that it was his birthday. Or that "birthday eve" should be celebrated by opening all presents that involve Legos.  The kids woke up earlier than they have been all week (8AM) and Buddy was beyond excited to open presents.  We broke down and let him open them even before breakfast.


He got: 
A Washington Capitals t-shirt with Ovechkin's #8 on the back.
A Lego city block (including a bus, three story pizza parlor, bus top and bike shop)
A Lego Star Wars storm trooper thing
A Lego firetruck
Star Wars cookie cutters
some extra spending money

He spent most of the day building Legos.

Dinner was double sided light saber hot dogs and Yoda Soda to drink (ideas from here).  We ran out of time (and energy) to make the Princess Leia cupcakes.  Another day.  We had light saber cupcakes for the cake (idea from here).  And of course, Star Wars sugar cookies (using this recipe).

Egg War 2011

 Egg Wars.

Easter Bunny Training

 Little Guy got bored while I was making dinner, found the empty Easter eggs, and started refilling them with his Easter candy.

At the Park

It was such a nice day, and the kids wanted to be outside, so we broke down and let them go play at a park in town. 

Easter

Easter Prep: 

Saturday our cousins stopped by.  We fed them homemade pizza and dyed Easter eggs together.

Matchy Easter:

I sewed Princess Sparkley 's skirt following this pattern and Little Guy's tie following this pattern.

Princess Sparkley asked why B and I never try to match the kids, so this year we did.

Easter Bunny:

Egg Hunt:

Mr. Grumpy Pants

Little Guy's adorable bottom lip comes out whenever he is sad or crying.  Apparently, he gets this from his Daddy because Grandpa M says B's lip was the same way when he was little.  I was trying to cheer him up the other day by pretending to tickle his little lip, or take a picture of it.  Here's the result.

Dioramas: Take 2

 Click to see bigger.

Buddy's diorama this time was about hockey.  We had recently looked at this year's Washington Post Peeps Diorama contest entrants, so he wanted his diorama to be Peeps doing something.  He decided to have the teams by the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Then he decided to have the game tied at two, but with the Capitals about to hit the puck (a button) in to score.  He mostly did this to infuriate his dad, a Penguins fan.



Here's what he said, sort of, in a very hyper whisper:

My name is [Buddy].  I turn 7 next week.

Ice hockey is one of the four most popular sports in our country.  There are 30 professional hockey teams in the NHL (National Hockey League) which covers the U.S. and Canada.

In a hockey game there are three 20 minute periods.  Each team has 6 players on the ice.  One of those players is a goalie protecting the goal.  The other players use hockey sticks to hit a puck around on the ice and try to score.

I like the Washington Capitals, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings.*


*Which he refers to as the Fire Tires because that's what their logo looks like (to him).  

Princess Sparkly did a sort of biography of Charles Schulz/Peanuts diorama.  We made it sort of a museum of characters.

Here's what she said:
Charles Monroe Schulz was born on November 26, 1922 in Minnesota.  Before he was a week old hi uncle nicknamed him Sparky.  Charles loved to draw.  A picture of his dog Spike was published in Ripley's Believe It or Not in 1937.  Charles's father owned a barber shop.  Sometimes when an "important" customer came in, Charles would wait, even if he only had half a haircut.  Charles was a good artist.  Once, his kindergarten teacher ever said "Someday Charles, you're going to be an artist."  Charles's best friend was Shermy Peper.  Sparky was also a good athlete.  He played hockey and baseball.  Charles went to drawing school for awhile.  Then Charles joined the army.  While he was in the army, his mother died.  After he left the army, Charles started to try to find a job.  Finally, he found a job lettering a Catholic comic strip and he found a job at his old drawing school.  Then he got a letter from New York.  They liked his comics!  But they changed the name from Lil' Folks to Peanuts.  Charles did not like it but what could he do?  Peanuts started with four characters: Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty and Violet.  Then he added baby Schroeder.  Gradually he added Lucy and Linus.  Charles Schulz was the first to win the Reuben Cartoonist Award twice in a row.  Peanuts became famous!  Charles even received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.  Peanuts is still very popular.  Plus, Charles Schulz has his own museum in California.  I wan to draw a comic when I grow up like Charles.  The End.

The back of her written report.

Other dioramas:

 Left to right: rainforest shelves, mosques, the human organs, snakes

Peanuts, Manta Rays, hockey and I missed getting a picture of a desert one.

Writing

Buddy has been very different from Princess Sparkley as far as reading and writing has gone.  He's really just started reading on his own (without us forcing him to bring a book and sit down with us to read), reading books in bed at night, etc.  And he almost never tries to sound out words to spell, which PS did all the time.  So I was excited the other day to find this message left on our menu board (please excuse it's messiness, Little Guy has attacked my dry erase markers as of late - see below). 

Buddy added "burritos" to the menu. 

Little Guy made the letter S!

Little Guy also filled this entire white board (more than once) with scribbles in every color and declared it a thunderstorm.

Easter Bunnies

For our Family Night treat the other night, Buddy and I made these:

here

They were pretty good, best with the glaze.

The Pack

This pack of dogs (and one cat) follows Little Guy around as the ensemble cast to his imagination.  One day they are a group of pirate dogs, the next day they are off on an all new adventure.

*And I just noticed Snoopy ("Toopy") is missing from this picture, he's usually in the mess of things as well.

And while I'm posting funny stuff about Little Guy, he apparently set up all the musical instruments (and hats, and a dog and cat) in our bedroom today while B was studying and told B that he was Brandon Flowers (lead singer for The Killers). 

100th Day!

Okay, so we're a little behind as far as the typical 100th day of school celebrations... it seems like those fall in mid to late February.  But we started late because grandparents were in town in September and then we follow B's college schedule and had about a month off for Christmas.  So Tuesday was our 100th day of school and for the first year ever (and I told the kids not to expect this celebration to happen EVERY year now) we celebrated!

 First we made 100 day of school "glasses."

 Then we read:

here

One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinszes

here

Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate

here

Counting Our Way to the 100th Day! by Betsy Franco

Then the kids drew pictures of what they think they'll look like when they are 100 years old.

I love Princess Sparkley's drawing.

I love that Buddy's drawing looks exactly the same as his normal self-portraits, only with a mustache.

We counted out 100 Fruit Loops (although we used the fruity Cheerios... I'd recommend Fruit Loops, I think they have a bigger hole).  And by "we," I mean Princesss Sparkley.  Buddy strung up about 15 and Little Guy just ate his.

Then we made a trail mix: 20 peanuts, 20 raisins, 20 peanut butter chips, 20 chocolate chips and 20 M&Ms.  Little Guy was off on his numbers and somehow ended up with most of the M&Ms.  

Buddy gathered up 100 Lego pieces.  Princess Sparkley drew 100 stars on a paper.  I didn't get pictures.

Easter Egg Sugar Cookies

To practice "cake" decorating, which was what we were supposed to be doing for homeschool art a couple weeks ago, we decorated sugar cookie eggs tonight.  Little Guy is missing from the pictures because he was refusing to eat dinner and spent the entire time messing with ketchup (but not using it to dip his chicken in) while we frosted cookies.

Recipe from here

Race Weekend

We headed to Richmond, VA last weekend for the Monument Ave 10K.  B, his dad, sister and brother-in-law all ran in it.

Just some highlights from the weekend:

Princess Sparkley and cousin Pickles made itty bitty donuts (Cheerios dipped in chocolate and sprinkles).

The cousins watched Phineas and Ferb.

The cheering section.

Silly faces.

Holding up our race signs, watching for the runners to pass.

Cheering for Grandpa at about mile 1.

Cheering for B at about mile 5.

Robert E. Lee Monument on Monument Ave. where we were stationed.

Later in the day Aunt H's neighborhood had a kid fun run around the neighborhood lake.  Cousin S ended up winning first place.  Little Guy, who was really excited about it, decided he didn't want to run, so he and ended up walking most of it, losing the group ("Those kids lost us.  We lost those kids.") and coming in last.  Well, really everyone was clearing out and ran back to cheer Little Guy on in his last few yards and award him a medal, a cookie and a Gatorade.

We also saw the movie Hop (me, Grandma, Grandpa and all the kids), watched some General Conference, ate some yummy food, B played some Wii Fit, we watched a Girl Scout episode of DC Cupcake and much much more!