Halloween 2011

I know this post seems "just a bit" late but I've had several people ask me about my kids' costumes last year after posting our Halloween pics this year.  So, for your enjoyment!

C.L.U. from Tron: Legacy

(there is nothing fun about cutting, placing and ironing reflective tape but it turned out pretty awesome)

Little Chicken

(and she went around the entire night saying "Cluck, Cluck!")

Young Anakin Skywalker 

(age nine--just like the little boy in the costume)  

Green Belt Status

This is totally Hunter (in the middle of one of his forms).

Started the day as a yellow/green belt.  

Ended the day by joining the ranks of Green Belt.

Can you "play in your sleep"?

I've experienced a Beginner Band Performance...such a good example of that good ol' nails-on-a-chalkboard sound (see me shudder).  You try really hard not to plug your ears.  I was expecting the same experience at Aidan's 1st Beginner Orchestra Concert.  You just don't have high expectations from any beginner musical group.  But, it was quite the opposite.   Strings sound so much prettier--no matter how simple the music may be.  We were impressed.

This particular clip is just one section of their "Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."  Seriously, how many ways  can you play this and still be entertained?  Apparently, there's a lot.  They played on one foot, they play with one hand...and the list went on.  But, this was our favorite of all! (and yes, that is Robyn's screaming that you hear at the end of the clip).

Happy Hallowen

This is just a quick post with the Fort costumes.  The kids will pretty much come up with the idea themselves and then I go to work creating whatever it is they want to be.  I'm always amazed at how the costume they choose really does represent each one of them.  Heck, I amazed myself for being able to take their ideas and make it a wearable costume.  This was lot of work, some stress and some the-house-is-falling-apart feelings BUT it was also a lot of fun!

Scarlet Macaw

Robyn's favorite toy right now is a big Scarlet Macaw puppet and her stuffed puppy.  She really wanted me to combine these two favorite animals and make a "puppy with feathers"...ummm...that put an interesting picture in my head.  I convinced her to choose just one.  I probably spent the longest on hers.  Certainly made the biggest mess cutting out all those feathers (and her running around the house with all my scraps).  It didn't turn out at all like I had originally imagined it.  

Nope--it turned out much better!  

Luke, Son of Hermes

Hunter's was probably the easiest to create.  He's totally into this book series.  I love that he always chooses to be a less popular character.  Sometimes you have to think outside of the box a bit before you guess it right.  Though it was simple, I love how the winged shoes turned out!  (And yes, they fit me too!)

Robin Hood

Aidan's really into archery right now so he just wanted any character that uses a bow and arrow. So glad he went with this instead of some modern superhero.  This one was lots of fun to put together (quite the understatement).  It was my first attempt to sew a cloak (or anything for that matter) without a pattern.  It was such a good experience, I made two more (keep reading) and whipped up the rest of his costume.  It's a great feeling when your 11-yr. old declares, "It's the best costume ever."  Better than CLU or Hiccup? (Did I even blog about last year's costumes?)

And then there's my other half.  I made a mighty cloak for him.  Versatile enough for him to turn it into whatever character he wanted.  I think he turned it into a "Rogue Jedi" which is very fitting for him.  They were having a Halloween party at work so he sent me this photo this morning.  For the record--I've never made him a costume until now.  It was certainly an adventure...

But of course, there's no photo of my costume.  I made myself a white cloak.  I made Aidan's first for his costume--it was so much fun and such a hit that mine and Jaren's followed.  So, again, I was pretty amazed with myself.

Our pumpkin carvings...nothing too crazy but we love how they turned out.  We surrounded our trunk with hanging ghosts to match.  Probably the most we've ever done for the Ward Trunk or Treat.  So, we deserve a pat on the back for that, I think.

Have A Safe and Happy Halloween!

Robyn meets Old McDonald

 It's takes so little for our children to impress us with their accomplishments.  She's no Mozart but hey--it makes me happy!

It could be that her desire to play comes from the fact that she's watched piano students come in and out of our home since she was born.  So there was always someone playing the piano.  One day she asked me, "Can I be a piano student?"  Why not?!  I've never worked with a 4-yr. old before and I had no idea how she would take to "formal" lessons.  All I could do was offer the simplest book that I had stashed away in my vast library of method books.  Now, she plays everyday and needs no motivation to do so.   Her cooperation and interest as I teach new skills and concepts with her are very surprising.  I'm amazed that I have not had to exhaust myself coming up with crazy, creative ideas to get her to understand some musical concepts.  She just gets it.

It's fun to watch her excel at an instrument that is such a big part of my life!

Steps 5 and 6

Continuing with our "long and slow process" project...

Oh what fun it was covering and taping the entire kitchen Friday afternoon (NOT). 

 After which I proceeded with Step 5: sanding the drywall that we put up last month.  If I had to pick the worst step of this entire project, it would have to be the sanding.  Yes, the wallpaper ripping was very tedious and time consuming.  But, it was a pretty clean ordeal.  Sanding, on the other hand is a mess with all the dust created.  I still have a layer of drywall dust in my living room and piano room.  While I thought I had every doorway taped--I had to retape one of them when I realized the dust was not contained in the kitchen.  

But, I got Step 5 done. 

 

Onto Step 6: Texturing.  I will admit that once we got the technique down and the consistency of the mud figured out it went very quickly and was actually quite fun.  When we started the mud was too thick and thus the actual texturing was very labor intensive.  So much so that Jaren wasn't sure he'd ever finish this step.  He took a break and then we tackled it again with a thinner mud.  Went on easily after that.  Thank goodness.  I can not imagine texturing without an air compressor and texture gun.  So fun to use such tools.   The photo below is right after the first run of texturing.  It was intense.

 This photo was taken after the texturing is all dry and waiting for Step 7: Priming (I will finish this today)

 If you look very closely you can see the nice texturing job!!

It feels good to get this far into the project.  Now I'm onto some steps that I've actually done before.  So, it should go quickly.

We're almost done...with the walls at least. There's still much to do to actually finish the kitchen but the walls were the biggest part of it.

To play jello...

This week Aidan went in for his "instrument interview" to find the right fit.

It's pretty obvious what instrument he chose.  Frankly, he's been dreaming about getting his hands on one of these since he watched The Piano Guys  and other cellist.  

Robyn was with us during this interview and kept saying, "Aidan play jello?  What kind of jello?" The orchestra director got a kick out of her confusion.   How does one play jello?  Too funny :-)

He has to wait all Summer before orchestra starts up for him in the Fall as a 6th grader in Middle School.  And for him, it's almost unbearable.

  

A Long and Slow Process....

I think I started this project back in September 2011.  Really started on a whim actually.  One day I felt like ripping wallpaper so that's just what I did.  We've been in the home 5+ years and I've always hated the kitchen walls.  So, I just started ripping.  But, it was brought to a halt only  a few minutes later when I realized that I was damaging the drywall underneath it.    Seriously thought, "I'm doomed."  For a while I was convinced that only a pro could fix the damage that I was causing as I continued to peel away the wallpaper.  Note to anyone out there who chooses to put wallpaper on their walls:  PRIME first!  Heaven forbid someone might want to come behind you and strip the wall of this awful stuff.  The lack of primer was why this happened.  Anyway....I finally got all the wallpaper off a few weeks ago.  Yes, possibly the longest, slowest and most tedious step of this entire process. 

This was just step 1.  

Step 2:  Sand down the damaged walls.  

Step 3:  Seal the damaged drywall with a drywall sealer specifically made for this purpose (FYI:  Zinsser Gardz will do the trick). 

Onto Step 4: skim coat.

We just finished this task earlier today.  I'm all excited again because these walls finally look like "walls" again!  Thanks to my sister and her husband (who knew a thing or two about drywall) for lending us a hand today.  

Still have 4 more steps to go: sand again, texture, prime and then FINALLY paint.  Possibly the biggest project I have ever undertaken.  But, I am learning an awful lot about walls.  Probably more than I ever wanted to know.   Now my kitchen is a complete mess.  Actually, it isn't as it's been cleared out of everything.  I really wish I could do every step back to back and then put my kitchen back together.  Crazy schedules haven't allowed that to happen.  But, we're getting there... and it will look sooo much better when we're finally done!

More Caterflies & Butterpillars

Yes, sometimes we get tongue tied around here and forget when we're talking about caterpillars or butterflies. Just easier to put the two together I guess (hey, it works for my 3-yr. old). It comes from an old story from when I was little--okay, younger. I was caught switching my syllables around one time when talking about them...through the entire story. And, it just kind of stuck. So, in our home caterflies and butterpillars are appropriate terms to use. (It's the same reason why we refer to "hiccups" as "hick 'em ups").

Onto the rest of my post...

Since getting home from camping we've been watching a particular caterpillar. At least we think it's the same one...we've watched several Swallowtails eat and grow on the parsley. Which in itself is exciting since it's the first time we've had Swallowtails!!

This was him on Saturday....your typical caterpillar chomping away on the leaves.

Then, this morning...I noticed our mature caterpillar in the first stages of forming the crysalis. A single thread is holding the upper body while the tail is already affixed to the supporting parsley stem.

Tried to get a good enough picture to see the string but to no avail....just imagine it, okay?!

Of course, we had errands to run so we MISSED the actual crysalis forming. But, when we got back..voila!

Robyn was absolutely excited to see this...our first time to watch a complete cycle for one caterpillar (instead of just finding one by luck).

On a side note we've got LOTS of Monarch caterpillars around too! I love Spring!

Just had to throw in a picture of my garden complete with my heavy duty trellis that I constructed myself (thanks to my sister). Pretty sure it was quite comical for onlookers watching me walk through Lowe's with 2 pieces of 10ft. conduit and a wandering 3 yr. old...

I'm quite proud of my construction job. Hoping that this trellis will withstand the weight of fruit this year.

Spring Camping

It's a priority for us to venture into the wilderness here in Texas and get some camping in during Spring Break. We would love to be able to go twice a year--but until that happens we get all we can out of the one trip.

This year we headed northwest up to Huntsville State Park with other family. We had some fantastically, big campgrounds to run and roam in.

Aidan has comondeered our old tent and can almost set it up on his own now. He prefers not to sleep in our "family" tent anymore (mmm, Boy Scouts must be growing on him).

We took a 2-mile hike that impressed me enough even with the Poison Ivy growing all around...just stick to the trails and boardwalks.

Not quite the jungle-like ecosystem of Oregon but it certainly has it's own kind of "beautiful".

Due to some underbrush fires we did come across some rather interesting tree trunks like this one:

Did some swimming in Lake Raven. Still a bit chilly for that but that didn't seem to slow them down.

Though the fire proved to be a challenge (we blame it on the wood) we did get it going thanks to the help of our air pump. Had some good coals/charcoal to make our dutch oven meals.

Gotta love it down here when Spring has sprung and the wildflowers are in FULL bloom!

Goodbye until next Spring!!

Until I actually get around to posting about life here in Southeast Texas...here's us just finishing up our Spring Break trip (after three days of camping)!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Taken at the Sam Houston Statue grounds just off the I-45 in Huntsville, TX

A new definition

Fire Fog [fahy^uhr][fog, fawg] (not seen in the above picture...yet)

1. A collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass.

2. An unwanted by-product of fires commonly referred to as smoke.

3. A 3-year olds preferred description of definition #2.

We like definition #3.

A Butterfly is Born (FINALLY)

Disclaimer: We like butterflies so I WILL post about them. It's been oh so much fun to learn about them and how to attract them...

After planting some butterfly host/nectar plants last year we've watched as Monarch, Frittilary and Swallowtail Butterflies have visited our yard. So, they were definitely attracted. Got that part down! And, we've seen the caterpillars come and go. But, we had yet to see a caterpillar successfully transform into a butterfly. We were losing the caterpillars too fast to outside elements or the chrysalis just wouldn't develop. When "winter" came (can we even call it that down here?) I just assumed it would be too cold for anything. I should've known better as our mild, wet winter has been perfect!

On New Year's Eve we had some friends over as we sat around my new fire pit making desserts. Robyn loves to pick from my rather large parsley plant and eat it right there. So, the other kiddos joined in. And then they started sharing the parsley with our guests--literally feeding it to one gentleman. He went to eat another sprig when he noticed one of these on it:

I was quite surprised to even see one! I quickly put it back in the parsley bush realizing immediately what it was. To think it almost got eaten by a human!

Robyn and I have watched everyday to see if a butterfly would actually emerge. Our hopes were low because we've had many that have just not survived. In fact our survival rate was 0% (and this was our first Monarch chrysalis). I have to say I totally missed this caterpillar--never saw it! It had a great place deep down inside my bushy parsley (silly me never thought to check my parsley).

We actually forgot to check on it these passed several days. But, we went out this morning and Hoorah! Finally, a butterfly was born!

In fact, we discovered TWO brand new butterflies! Can you spot them?

There was another one that we completely missed!!

Robyn was quick to find its old "house" (as she put it).

Yep, we like butterflies.

Treeless

I know. I know. I haven't posted in months and this is what I choose to write about?! Truth be told, since switching to a new computer (PC to Apple) I just haven't taken the time to figure everything out (especially posting photos) even though it's been a good 8 months since the change happened. I have no excuse only that posting here is not high on my to-do list. Now onto the original post...

For a long while people have come to our front door commenting on our dying tree and ready to cut it down for us. Yes, I know it's diseased. Yes, I know it's dying. Yes, I know it's ugly. Yes, I know it's a safety hazard. Then they quote me a price that just floors me and I say, "No thanks. I'll keep my diseased, dying, ugly, hazard-prone tree." I mean, every time the wind blows, another branch falls--so, nature was slowly doing it for me. We've watched as it slowly loses its branches. 2008 was it's worst year: August, September. And 2011 was tough too. I think I've blogged about this tree since I started blogging. When the last branch that fell almost caused some major damage to someone else's property, I knew it had to go...for the right price.

So, here's what my front yard looks like now...

....anyone need some wood? Not ready to take on this project of re-landscaping it.

Geesh, I'm still peeling wallpaper inside the house.