Easter Eggs a New Way

We tried something new this year with Easter Egg dying. I read about a great idea and everyone was into it so we did it. We made two colors of dye, blue and red, using purple cabbage and yellow onion skins. We were all really surprised at how deep red the yellow onion skin dye came out.

First, we collected flowers and leaves from the backyard

Then we laid the flowers or leaves across the egg and stretched pantyhose over each egg, which we secured with a twisty tie. I thought this was going to be difficult for the kids, but it really wasn't that bad. Everyone had fun creating different designs.

This is the eggs after we pulled them out of the cabbage dye, before we peeled away the flowers and pantyhose.

The final product. They turned out really cool. Everyone has a different favorite. A few of them cracked, I'm guessing from over boiling. I think we'll try again before Easter because everyone had fun and it was so easy. I want to find ways to make other colors of natural dyes. I was thinking of trying to find a way to make a yellow dye.

Not So Complimentary

Today I rhetorically asked Lennon, "How do you keep getting cuter?" I was not quite expecting the answer he came up with. He said, "I don't know. Probably, I'll start getting less cute, when I get really old. Like you."

Managing Without Our Girl

After settling in to Mia being away, we are actually having a really great week. Monday, we went to my moms group at church as usual in the morning. When we got home, Lennon played with Mateus and Bianca right up until bedtime out in the yard. The weather has been amazing this week and we've basically spent every minute we could outside. Well, except for Tuesday morning when I took Lennon, Mateus and Bianca to Chuck E Cheese in the morning. At school on Tuesday, Lennon was sent home with a project. He brought home Froggy, the class pet puppet. He was to take care of Froggy for the day and have his mom write down what they did together. I had promised Lennon a movie night while Mia was away, so we decided to go for it while we had Froggy to entertain. We rented Rango and Lennon got a tiny ice cream.

This morning we got up and went to the drive thru car wash which Lennon is newly obsessed with. Afterwards, we went to the zoo- with Froggy of course. Lennon wanted deviled eggs for lunch and I was hit with sudden inspiration and turned his deviled eggs into a little spring flower using celery, spinach and cucumber. He thought it was pretty cool. After I picked him up from school we went to the store to get stuff for grilling burgers in the perfect weather we're having. We got home around 4 and he didn't step foot inside the house from that point until just after 7 when he had to come in for a bath and bedtime. He and the Lima kids played with the hose and were all completely dirty and exhausted when it was time to come inside.

I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but so far, he's managing just fine with his sissy gone for a few days. He has been adamant from the beginning anytime we say she's going for a week, that it is, indeed not a full week. She is going from Sunday to Friday. He has also suddenly rebelled against any book that rhymes. In his words, "I don't like trick books. Books that make you think it's going to be a story, but then it's just a poem."

Lennon's Lunch

LIttle Girl

Well, Mia's off to camp. I have been nothing but completely excited about her little adventure for the month or so leading up to it. She was thrilled about it every second since we told her about it. Now, six hours after hugging her good bye in Vermont I am having a bit of a panic attack. I just can't stop thinking about my precious, little, sweet girl, laying up on her top bunk that she picked out because she was the first one in the cabin, all by herself with no mommy to tuck her in. I was just looking at her today out there with the other kids and she is just so tiny. So, yes, technically she is tiny. At her physical Wednesday the doc told us she was in the 10% for weight and 20% for height. Beyond that though, she's so tiny. She's just this teeny little person with this great big heart and now she's all alone in another state. I am dying to talk to her and tell her I love her and give her a kiss on the forehead. But I can't. Not until Friday at noon. And let me tell you, I will be there, first in line when the clock strikes 12 this Friday afternoon. Lennon and I will be in the car heading to VT at 9 o'clock to give us some wiggle room on the time.

As I was leaving, I told her I loved her one more time and she almost looked embarrassed! She definitely wanted to get on with her camp experience. I'm so excited for her to have an awesome time, but it's going to be hard to not talk with her each day. I already miss her little voice so much.

Stupid Electronics are Ruining My Life

So, if you've noticed I've been a bit behind on my blog these days, you are not mistaken. For some reason the technology around me has decided to mutiny. Our camera, when it works, will not communicate with our computer, so I can no longer upload pictures from my camera to my computer. Hence, I have all but stopped taking pictures at all which means no pictures for the blog. And let's be honest here. No one wants to read a blog with no pictures. Also, Lennon found our old video camera and we charged it up and bought a new tape thingy for it and when it was all charged and we turned it on, it refused to believe that we had indeed placed a tape inside it. Lennon was beside himself with grief, but I think he will manage in time. Our computer is one glitch away from leaving us forever. We just dissected our old dvd/vcr combo to Lennon's satisfaction because it wasn't functioning anymore, but now the one we are using doesn't have a remote so we can't select anything other than whatever is the first choice up on the screen when you put a disk in. We also have this cool Planet Earth game that Lennon likes to play and we can't play it anymore because of the lack of remote to choose questions.

So, in case you have been wondering what we've been up to, I'll give you a brief synopsis. We haven't been up to too much really. Is that brief enough?

Here's the real deal. Mia is crazy busy. We've been doing a new curriculum called Moving Beyond the Page and it covers literature and science mostly with a bit of history here and there. That alongside the history and math we were already doing is pretty much filling up our school time during the week. She's been going once a week to a friends house for more in depth science experiments that pertain to the curriculum we are both using. This friends parents have tons of awesome equipment for the girls to use and it gives me some free time while Lennon is in school. Here's a sample of a week for Mia:

Monday: we usually take Monday's mostly off because I have my moms group at the church. Sometimes I send her in with some math to work on

Tuesday: Piano, school, lunch. Lennon goes to school at 12:30 and she has a 45 minute piano lesson.

Wednesday: Piano, school, music at the public school,lunch. Lennon goes to school at 12:30 and she goes to science at Anna's from about 12:30 until 3 just after we pick up Lennon from school.

Thursday: Piano, school, gym at the public school, lunch. Lennon goes to school at 12:30 and then I take her to her music class from 1:00 until 2:30 where she has voice lessons and works with an ensemble. The are working on a cover of The White Stripes song, Seven Nation Army and her teacher told me today he gave the instrumental solo to Mia in the middle of the song.

Friday: Piano, school, lunch. Sometimes we go on field trips on Fridays. We recently went on a great one at The American Textile History Museum. The first half they showed the kids all different kinds of traditional dress from around the world and had them locate the different countries on the map and then the kids all got a large paper doll and got to choose from several scrap bins to recreate the outfits for their dolls. If I could take pictures I would post how cool their projects turned out. Mia made a native American and Lennon made an Egyptian.

Mia is also currently in two book clubs at different libraries. She reads and draws and plays lots of music. Lennon wants to get back into gymnastics but I'm not sure how to fit it into the schedule. I am doing a bit more babysitting for my friend Sue's two boys these days which is nice financially, but hard on the schedule. We are having tons of fun and the weather has been pretty good this winter. We're all hoping for a bit more snow before all's said and done though.

It's a strange time to not have any idea what the future holds for us. I feel like packing, but don't want to be surrounded by all the boxes. I think I'm in a bit of denial. Each day that passes is a little sad as I think it will be our last "February 8" etc to be here.

My cell phone is also stupid.

As I don't have any relevant pictures to share with you, I will leave you with these four, somewhat randomly selected photos from the past. Enjoy.

Are these babies or giant rabid squirrels?

Precious little Mia in her Jackie O dress

Mia's first time fishing

Demented Batboy

Little Tiny Mia

I just watched an episode of Parenthood where the daughter is accepted into her college of choice and I just got so sad thinking about Mia going away to college some day. I know it's still 8 years away, but we've already passed the half way point. She has less time left with us than she's been with us and that is so totally depressing. I don't know how anyone ever let's their kid walk out the door and go away to college. I'm so happy to be a home schooling mom right now and any time I think about how short and precious the time I have with my little kiddos is. There are definitely many moments (and let's be honest, days and phases) that are incredibly frustrating, but weigh that against the vast amount of joy I've been given with each of their smiles and giggles and there is just no contest. Each challenge they present me with is just a chance for me to learn and to grow. Every day brings a new opportunity for me to be my best self for them. I fail and I fail and I fail and they still love me completely and unconditionally. If ever we need an example of true love we need only to look at our children and how they love us.

It's hard to believe that in just a few months Mia is going to be ten. An entire decade of life. She is my sunshine.

Dang Parenthood always making me emotional. That show is so good.

Gaga's Visit Part 1

Gaga and David came in the day after Christmas and it was wonderful to have some family with us at Christmas time.

They got in around noon on Monday and we went straight to Chipotle to pick up some lunch before grabbing Shelby from his office and heading home to eat and open the presents the kids had been drooling over. We took the rest of the day pretty easy as Gaga and David were pretty exhausted after getting up at 3:30 to catch a 6AM flight out here.

Kids with their traditional giant gingerbread men from Gaga

Tuesday we watched Claire's kids for her so she could get her house cleaned up for her company that was coming in on Wednesday. Once she was done cleaning she took all the kids for a walk down the street for some pizza.

On Wednesday we got up and drove over to the train to ride into Boston. Gaga had never been on a subway before and the kids always think it's exciting to ride the train into town. We had lunch at Quincy Market and then started on the Freedom Trail. We started out at The Old State House where The Boston Massacre happened then headed out toward Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. We stopped at a really old cemetery that none of us had ever been to before. Most of the graves were from the 1700's and a lot of the people didn't even live past their 30's. We curved back around and walked down Canal Street where Shelby worked the first three years we were here. We finished at the New England Holocaust Monument before getting back on the train and heading home.

On the train home from Boston the kids sat with David and played angry birds.

In front of Paul Revere's house

We dropped off Lennon and David at home while Gaga, Mia and I went to use Mia's gift card at Justice. We made it home just in time to pick everyone up and make it to our dinner reservation at a Tapas Restaurant in Somerville, called Dali. It was a first experience for everyone except for Shelby and me and everyone had fun. Lennon wanted us to all have a parade after leaving the restaurant all the way to the car, and everyone agreed. I wish I could have been one of the people stopped at the intersection to see four adults and two kids playing pretend instruments and singing while marching across the street to the sidewalk and to our car. We all had fun, but Lennon said the music was not to his satisfaction.

Our table at Dali

Thursday morning we went to a matinee of the new Chipmunk movie, Alvin and The Chipmuncks: Chipwrecked. The kids were both mesmerized, especially Lennon. Gaga and David mostly slept through it and I was less than impressed. Both kids agreed that they liked it much better than the new Muppets movie, which I thought was tragic because I loved the new Muppets movie. Oh well. Thursday night Dusty got here and we put him in Mia's room. And, because we gave Lennon's room to Gaga and David, it meant that we were now all four in our room for the remainder of the visit. Lennon mostly slept on a pallet on the floor and Mia doesn't kick and move like she used to so it was kind of nice to be all snuggly with the kids for a couple of nights.

Friday we played lots of games and hung around the house, went to exchange some French instructions that came in one of the games Gaga gave us for English instructions so that we could figure out how to play it, but mostly just relaxed.

Saturday morning we went out to brunch at our favorite spot, Full Moon Cafe in Cambridge. It was far less busy than we had ever seen it which allowed us to linger over the meal and not feel rushed to let them seat someone else at our table. After brunch we dropped everyone off and Gaga and I went to do the shopping for the New Years Eve celebration we were having with the Lima's that night. It was super low key. I had promised the boys that I would play this game called Castle Panic with them and it ended up taking more than an hour to play one game and by then it was about time to ring in the new year on Rio de Janiero time. The kids all toasted with their hot cocoa and went off to bed after throwing lots of streamers around the living room and blowing lots of horn blasts. The adults then played a super silly, fun game called Quelf. At one point in the game Shelby had to pretend to be riding an Ostrich around a beached whale, but could not tell us what his card said to do. Claire's mom had to lie down under the kitchen table for a whole round. Dusty had to wear a bicycle helmet for the last half of the game. Very silly game and we almost missed ringing in the new year because we were so wrapped up in it.

The kids slept in until about 8:30 the next day thankfully since we were all up until after 1. We had another day of just hanging out and playing games. After dinner the kids went to bed and Dusty had a friend of Dusty's came over to watch the sad Cowboy game. Gaga and I tried to stay awake through the game, I sort of made it.

Monday Gaga got up super early with the kids and hung out with them before having to get dressed and head to the airport. Mia cried her eyes out at the airport while Lennon shouted, smiling, "I love you guys! See you later!"

Thanks for an awesome visit Gaga and David!

Funny moment this morning: Lennon was getting his socks and David was questioning why he needed two socks, just to mess with him. Lennon replied finally, "Everyone needs two socks. What are you, a flamingo?"

David showing Lennon how to tighten up our new table legs if they get wabbly again. He also did a few other handy man jobs around the house including fixing my armoir that the doors were falling off of and replacing a head light on our car that had been out for a while. Thank you David!