party tricks

We've been collecting things for the Egyptian party coming up.  We're planning on using these cobra and alligator grabbers for a series of relay races, and favors to take home from the party.  With a small guest list, purchasing a few of these things wasn't too expensive.  We just ran into the zoo on the way home from the grocery store one afternoon and found them at the gift shop right inside the door.  We were aiming for alligators and were super excited to find cobra heads as well. 

Next up... turning a hula girl pinata into Cleopatra or Isis.

friday finds: still looking

Years ago, M and I used to watch "My Name is Earl" on TV.  If I remember correctly, I think it was on TV prior to us owning a DVR.  I think we recorded it on ye olde VHS, along with a few other shows we liked, and every few weeks we'd sit down on a Saturday night and rewind the tape and catch up on a few episodes.  That show was FUNNY.  If you never watched it, the premise of each episode was Jason Lee's (Earl's) quest to make up for the misdeeds of his former life, to respect the idea of karma - good deeds lead to good deeds (and the opposite, of course.)  When something bad would happen he would immediately trace it back to something that he had done to deserve it.  He played an instrumental role in his own fate, 22 minutes at a time.  I don't know if I ever bought into the idea of karma, but Earl sure made it seem like the concept of cause and effect was straightforward and timely.  Perhaps the existence of commercial breaks influenced its punctuality.

At seven o'clock this morning I lay in bed (past when I should have been) pondering what I might possibly have done sometime in late spring to incur the wrath of the gods - of karma - this summer.  I had just gotten off the phone with M, who called to tell me that he was driving directly behind a police officer this morning and had watched the patrol car slam into a median and light pole at full speed without warning.  I'm quite sure he was paying particular attention to that very police car, because it was less than two weeks ago that my husband (who never speeds) was pulled over by another police officer and given a very high speeding ticket while others flew around them at much greater speeds.  Or maybe he was more in tune with that police officer because just six hours earlier he had been conversing with some other police officers around the corner from our house who were on the scene of a car accident with a parked car.  Our parked car.  Hit head on by another car, and knocked off the street and up onto the curb, the urgent knocking and doorbell ringing of our neighbor rousing us out of sleep to let us know what was going on.  Did I mention that our car is 99% paid for? They always are when something like this happens. 

There is not enough wood to knock on in our house.  I no longer whisper thanks for good fortune.  I feel like the mere utterance of gratitude might bring on the next wave of sorrow, or sadness, or the absurd.  After first the baby, and then E and I fell sick a few weeks back I made the rookie mistake of declaring M lucky to have escaped the summer flu.  Flu in the summer is itself absurd, no one should ever contract that sort of virus when the heat indexes are off the charts.  A few days later he is at the Urgent Treatment Center, and then the Emergency Room, and the doctors are searching for answers to why he would lose consciousness and come to in a strange place and strange position.  Why are we back in this Emergency Room again?  Why can't we have a normal summer of sun-kissed cheeks and mosquito bites instead of necks that won't bend and bodies that won't stand up?  When we are most tired and most busy, why does the dishwasher stop working and the oven refuse to heat up?  When we get tired of washing dishes and make time to call for repairs, why do they start working again, on their own accord?  Why is everything we volunteer for suddenly in crisis mode, requiring near constant meetings and stress?  Why do we have to spend the summer saying goodbye to those that we love?  Why does anyone have to say goodbye to a brand new baby, why can one twin be so healthy and one be so sick - why can't this all be easier, and run smoother?  It seems so unfair that it's all so complicated and difficult and heart-wrenching and bizarre.  

I don't want to spend my life responding to events with "of course", but I find myself doing that right now.  We stay up late to play catch up on all the things that we can never get to, and when we finally allow ourselves a moment to lay down, take a deep breath, catch a few hours of rest - the beep of a waning smoke alarm battery begins before the sigh of relief has completely escaped our lips.  "Of course" we mutter as we get to our feet again, the sheets still unwrinkled from lack of use.  We grab the ladder and a replacement battery and make our best effort to silence the warning bells for another (too) brief spell.

and the celebrating rolls on

This Egyptian party has been in the works for nearly a year now.  I think it started after our trip to Chicago last August where the mummy exhibit made a big impression.  I tried to sway her towards a Harry Potter theme, but she said she's saving that for "nine", so Egyptian it is.  We sat down this weekend to make some invitations - she designed and cut and punch while I got assigned all the hieroglyphs.  Thank goodness there are only six.

We've got a series of great games planned, and we're on the hunt for the perfect pinata.  Not a lot of Egyptian themed ones out there, but we've thought about modifying a donkey to look like a sphinx, or maybe wrapping up an Elmo pinata like a mummy.  (Of course, that would probably scar the little one for life!)  We'll come up with something, I'm sure, and we've already got the goods to fill one... ring pop "jewels" and plenty of gold and silver chocolates.  Maybe a few rubber cobras to throw into the mix.

eat your hearts out, grandparents

"Yankee Doody"  I love how she uses the whole first two lines of the song as the title...

But if you want to know what she really wants to read - it's what sissy is always reading...

And a little sleepy singing before lights out.

little to big

After the late night arrival of a friend's new baby twins, I had trouble falling asleep.  Those nights of worry never really go away once you're a parent - and even when your worry is focused on others' babies, the anxiety hits so close to home.  Earlier in the evening M transformed the little one's crib into a "bid-durl bet" (big girl bed), and the joy - oh the joy! it inspired was priceless.  I'm hoping the newness wears off in a few days and she crawls back into my lap for extra books instead of listening to them from her bed, but for now it's just such an exciting thing.  I'm still not quite sure why we did it - she wasn't climbing out of her crib, and she's just now two.  I just think that we tend towards transitions when things are calm and smooth and the timing seems easy - maybe even early.  Because when the timing is late and things are done out of necessity and frustration it's never quite as nice.  Two nights into it, and she stays in there.  In fact, this morning she stretched luxuriantly and closed her eyes to the sun I let into the room.  Proof that we've added one more future snooze button-er to the ranks.

 

We bought the conversion kit shortly after we got the crib.  We loved the crib so much that we thought we might get some extra use out of it as a smaller bed before moving her into a standard bed.  This configuration gives more play area in the middle of the room too, and it seems to meet her "nesting" needs - I just went up to check in on her and she's all bunched up in one corner, lying across the bed, feet through the slats, just as she did when it was a crib.

little ones

Today we are in constant prayer mode for the two new (little) twins of a dear friend.  Any additional prayers sent out to the baby M's would be wonderful.  Sweet little boys with a tough road ahead.   

her idea of helping

friday morning in the (sweaty) garden

Why won't they just let us move into this house?  Do I have to beg? 

Siamese lilies.

Having a drink.

Wet!

friday finds: relief?

It's so hot, even the reflections of the sculptures in the photo above seem to be splashing water across their hot faces to cool off.  We did a bit of the same.

How hot do you find yourself this Friday?

so hot

It's so hot right now, the thought of putting a camera up to my face to take a photo makes me sweat.  I was drenched just walking out to the car to load up the kids this morning.  And like a big dummy, I decided this was the week when things have settled down just enough for me to squeeze in a little bit of exercise.  That's not the dumb part, the dumb part is me thinking that I can get that exercise in the form I like best - evening walks.  Last night I went walking for about 40 minutes, and then went to the grocery store.  So not only did I look like the very picture of loveliness when I walked in dripping in sweat and red in the face, but two minutes after I arrived I was shivering from the extreme contrast in temperatures.

I know it's summer and all, but this heat is getting to me.

hot

One nice thing about not having so many evening meetings this week is having the time to do other, more enjoyable things in the evening like tennis matches and exercise.  The downfall - it's hot out there.  Really hot.  Sweat aside, we enjoyed the evening and E scored some autographs and a picture with the mascot.  For the record, Mark Philippoussis is every bit as tall and attractive on the court as he was on that really bad reality TV show he was on a few years back.  I think he should stick to tennis.

bonus

Each new day - but especially on Fridays - I am reminded of just how much I loved this age with E.  Conversational, inquisitive, always ready to try out new things... two is about as good as it gets (until four - I adored four!)  What a treat it is to be able to do it all again.  I'm not sure I fully grasped how meaningful it would be to revisit each age with a new little person.

There are moments with two that are very much two-ish, but for the most part, I think two gets a bad rap.  I'll take the occasional bout of fierce independence over lacking verbal skills and diapers any day.

I remember that it was about this time that E's love for letters really took off.  It's fun to see that again with F.  She loves singing her ABC's, and likes pointing them out everywhere.  (Not naming actual letters correctly, but knowing that they are letters.

And she really enjoys finding the z is for zebra and the t is for train.  This was really the only exhibit we needed to see to completely make her day.   

Of course that was before she discovered super high tunnels she could scamper up through by herself.

xylophone

While I was watching F play with this giant wooden xylophone I remembered a link that a friend sent to me awhile back.  Take a minute and watch this.  It's worth it.

when "two enough" means "tall enough"

I have pictures of both girls around every birthday playing with this exhibit at The Magic House.  It's never a planned thing, we just seem to find ourselves there every once in awhile, walk around the corner and see this, and then remember to take a picture.  It's like a growth chart on the wall, only with grubby tennis balls and bells.

Of course, now that I have this photo (taken yesterday), I can't find any of the old photos to link to so that you can see the changes throughout the years.  But with both girls that magic age of two seems to get them to the point where, with an enormous amount of reaching, equal parts concentration and determination, and the tippiest-of-tiptoes, they can send those tennis balls down the chute and race to the bottom of the steps to watch them sail over the silver bell and back into their hands for another round.  It's a milestone no less than all the other more familiar ones.  Tall enough.

"mary mack"

Years ago we checked out a copy of Miss Mary Mack from the library for E.  She was so in love with the book, that we looked for a copy of our own to keep so that other kids might get a chance to check it out from the library one day.  We read it a lot.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago when we pulled it off the shelf to read to F.  Just like her sister, she was smitten, so when her grandmother called to ask for birthday ideas we suggested some of the other titles in the series.  Even better - she found a set of three board books with a sing and read-a-long CD.  This is one happy, happy girl.  She calls all four books "Mary Mack", even though she can sing along with each different book.  I love the way she equates the similar illustrations and type of book to her initial exposure - the "Mack".  She reads them in the morning, when she gets home from school, before bed.  They are one of the few things (besides us) that travel between the three floors of the house.  They haven't made it out to the car yet, but for the next car trip - they most certainly will.

friday finds: head gear

This bike was F's birthday gift - she has been infatuated with the same one at E's school for awhile and always runs to play on it when she's there, so this gift was a no-brainer.  Speaking of brains - this morning I took her to get fitted for a helmet so she could safely drive outside.  Fortunately for us all those pink helmets with bunnies on them were too little.  The black one with the flame job was a perfect fit.  It looks pretty cool with these wheels.  She was a hit at the playground. 

What did you find (brain related or otherwise) this Friday?

something's got to give

This has been the state of my family when I've finally returned home each night this week.  Sometimes I feel like all we do is bounce from meeting to meeting, juggling afternoons and evenings and trying to remember what needs to be done for the following day.  The results aren't always pretty.  How do you handle this constant juggling? 

picnic sippy cups

 

I think the mason jar sippy cups were one of my favorite parts of the party prep, and seem to be the one most people ask about.  I got the idea straight from here - I actually saw them just before the party, so they were a bit of a last minute thing.  I called around about pint jars in a case of a dozen - that was the trickiest part of the whole process.  One grocery store carried pint jars but they were short and squatty and the straws would have just tumbled out the top.  I finally found these at Shop-n-Save for under $7 and I thought we still had the red spray paint from E's Lego costume years ago but didn't, so we bought a new can for $2.50.  After washing the jars, M tried to drill through the lid but it didn't work.  In the end he thought of a standard hole punch which worked perfectly.  The lids on these particular jars were thin enough that you could do that with a little effort - if you have jars with thicker lids the drill might work better.

The lids and rings were sprayed twice, then washed again and assembled.  Paper straws from here - a must visit party supply site if you like all things cute and clever - like those giant balloons.

Everything else for the party was borrowed or collected from around our house or my mom's.  We've had stacks of baskets and mason jars sitting around for a few weeks, and the house looks suddenly empty and less picnic-like without them.

Thanks to M for most of the party pics - I forgot to credit him in the earlier posts.  He manned the camera while I transferred sticky icing poppies to sticky icing cupcakes.

party, take two

 

We really did think she might take flight with two of them.  

Here are a few more scenes from the party, a great-grandfather and his four "greats", lots more food, a kid in love with her cake, and presents from family (and a really special red one from her sister).  What a terrific weekend - thanks to everyone that helped out and traveled from afar and came to celebrate with this little one.