New Years Eve...Boating!

 Our friends Mike and Jennifer were awesome and took us out to sea on New Years' Eve. It was a blast to see our favorite cities and beaches from the other side. Mike made the most aesthetically pleasing, delicious sub sandwich of our lives, and a pod of dolphins swam by while my sister used the boat's teeny toilet (not really). We learned that seals smell disgusting up close, and I went to my first gas station for boats. We saw a yacht with a helicopter in the harbor (If I ever wanted to feel more important, I would buy myself one of those).

 

My sister, looking for marine life.

 

These guys were just chillin'. (But don't stand downwind)

I think this was Laguna?

The houses were all interesting and beautiful. This one (in the front) used to be the most expensive home in America. If I ever wanted to feel more important I would buy this house to go along with my huge yacht and heilcopter. ; )

 Mike, our Captain and sandwich artist.

Thanks for the fun ride!

Happy New Year!!

Sparkling Cider

A quick chill in the freezer?

Great idea!!

Forgetting it overnight?

Not so great.

: (

Tonight I was cleaning out the game closet and I found a random bag of acupuncture needles!

Anyone want to come play!!?

Hermione Granger and Peter Pan (said in my best British accent)

Second star to the right, and straight on til morning!!

Ever since I felt Halloween approaching I could not picture Littleman as anything but Peter Pan.
1.) The kid is totally carefree.
2.) Certainly, he doesn't seem to think he needs his parents. He runs off all the time really.
3.) I hope he never grows up!

How to:

His costume is a large green t-shirt, frayed at the ends with scissors. I dyed his onesie and a pair of tights dark green to go underneath it all. I tied a brown satin ribbon as his belt (didn't buy him the Peter Pan dagger...I don't want him getting any ideas...). I sewed the green felt hat from a pattern I found on the internet, and sewed on a large red feather from the craft store. It was all pretty easy.

Hermione Granger

Katelyn insisted that she needed a *tie* in order to be Hermione this year. She said last year (as Harry Potter) she didn't feel really like him without a tie. Well, that about broke my heart (not really), so this year I went all out and bought her an entire Gryffindor uniform. 

 How to:

During my research I discovered that 1st and 2nd year Hogwarts students wear grey uniforms. Unfortunately, nobody is selling school uniforms this far into the school year. But I didn't lose hope. After lots of shopping, Katelyn and I came up with this: White button-up collared shirt--JC Penney's, grey(ish) v-neck sweater--Old Navy, uniformy-looking skirt--Target, grey cable-knit stockings--Old Navy. The robes and tie can be purchased at a costume shop. My dad (aka Dumbledore) carved her wand as a bday present last year. (Honestly, she still believes that Dumbledore himself sent her the wand.) But the best accessory of all was Hermione's big hair. I braided her wet hair into little braids the night before. The next day, undid the braids, fluffed and hairsprayed. Voila! Instant pouf!! It lasted all day.

Have a Happy Halloween!!

Intermezzo**

Maybe it was just me, but I thought today was an exceptionally good day. The kind of day that I hope my kids will look back on and think: Yep. Overall, things were good. Don't get me wrong, it was a very normal day. The most exciting part of the day was when I finished folding laundry and realized that all the socks had found a match. Seriously, does that ever happen?

No. But it did today.

Tonight, as Adam put the kids to bed, I sat at the piano playing Brahms. His music is beautiful. It speaks to me more than the other composers, and I was reflecting on the day. After a while, Adam came in and asked if I thought the music might be keeping the kids awake. I said "Yes," then I lied, "No. Why?" He said, "Katelyn is laying in bed with her arms in the air waving with the music." That made me smile and I kept playing for her, and thinking. .  .   .    .

There's one day I look back on as a perfect day from my childhood. I was probably four. We lived in a beautiful house in the woods in a town called "Paradise". My dad was still at work, and my mom was at the stove boiling spaghetti for dinner. I was marching all around her blowing the rhythm to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"-- no, I think it was "Jingle Bells"-- loudly on my recorder. I was blowing the one same note over and over, but in my head it sounded like I was doing it right. For me, that moment was perfect. My parents held my universe in order.

I felt like I gave that moment to my kids today.

I just hope they noticed.

**Intermezzo means "in the middle", or something like that. Kind of like an intermission. It's also the name of one of the songs I played tonight. My time to reflect felt like an intermission to the day. Also, I like how the picture is random and Kate is taking a bow, like in the theater, which ties into the intermission. (I saw a lot of plays growing up, fyi.) But I felt like that all needed to be explained. Haha!