Monday, May 03, 2010

George's 9th birthday!

George turned 9 on Saturday. As always, I am shocked by how fast time passes, remember him as a tiny baby, yada yada yada --- but this year, all of that was overshadowed by his party: our first slumber party. He has been planning this for months, ever since he went to his friend's birthday sleepover. It would be a military party, they would sleep upstairs ... the details just kept coalescing.

I couldn't think of any reason to say no, so I said yes, but the whole prospect seemed daunting. We had never had any of his friends spend more than about four hours with us. What would it be like having them for 16? I hadn't realized that a group of kids would keep themselves busy quite easily. The whole party was more fun and less work than I had expected. Tiring, though! Next time we are going to have a "quiet down" time when they have to watch a movie or do something else calm rather than just rampaging around until midnight.

We weren't quite ready when the guests started arriving, but that was no problem and in fact meant that George's friends could help him decorate the cake:


D-day cake, finished -- note the man who has jumped over the side of the Higgins boat:


Here you can see more of the German defenses:


Turns out it's very easy to get frosting out of Legos (actually I knew this already) but if you jam a guy down into the cake, you will need a toothpick to get the cavities inside his legs clean.


Much of the afternoon was spent preparing for and then conducting an assault on a well-defended pillbox. Here are the troops in a lull before combat:



The enemy appears:



General George rolls away from the grenade:



Here they are tending to a wounded comrade:

Being wounded was apparently very appealing. I had laid in a supply of gauze bandages & pads which was exhausted in no time.

Eventually they captured the lone defender:



They were pretty bloodthirsty & most appeared never to have heard of the Geneva Convention.

This assault was so successful that they repeated it several times, until pizza was ready. The evening rolled on, and on, and on, with a regular alternation of war games, Lego building, and snacks. We finally told them they had to go to bed at midnight (too late); they were up again about 6:30 (too early).

We had two real casualties -- one boy cut his foot running around outside barefoot in the dark, and I managed to splash hot bacon grease on my foot. Fortunately I only got first degree burns; it could have been much, much worse. My Birks actually took the brunt of it, so only the part of my toes that were exposed got burned (left foot):

The front porch is covered in grease stains -- I was taking a pan of burning bacon outside so it wouldn't stink up the house -- but better the porch than me.

After the party guests left, we cleaned up and chilled out for a while, then opened family presents. George got some very detailed books about military planes from one set of grandparents:


and a magic set from the other:


We gave him a metal detector:


and are paying both him and Charlotte a nickel for every nail they find in the yard or gardens. I'm not surprised that they are turning up plenty despite my contractor's assurances that he had "taken care of that."

Charlotte's present was apparently hard to open:


but very cool:



And now it's time to go!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

What a find! What a project!

Look what I bought at the flea market this morning:



It's a giant slab of wood -- 51" x 44" x 3" thick. It has been used as a coffee table with this lovely base:



It is in rough shape. There were some pieces of paper stuck to the top -- were they decoupaged? Glued? Who knows -- they were partially ripped off. Then there was a piece of green fuzzy paper, like you use for model train layouts, and another bit of fuzzier brown, and some gunk with a lot of dog hair stuck in it -- very scuzzy. I started wiping it with water & Murphy's Oil Soap, just to get the yuck off, and then tried to scrape the old paper off. The big clumpy bits of finish started coming off, too. You can see where some of that is left:



This is what the "plain" parts (no obvious additional materials stuck on) look like:


Is this just old varnish?


It's kind of stripey:




Can I use a heat gun to take it off? I had thought I would just clean it up a little and then we could use it as is until I had time to really work on it, but I don't think I can stop now, it's just too weird looking. And still kind of grody. But I think I've reached the limit of what Murphy's Oil Soap can do for me.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Medieval Fair 2010

We look forward to the Medieval Fair every year, but this year was a little rough. Because of the remodeling, I spent almost no time getting ready for the fair before we left for spring break; we got back from our trip only two days before the fair opened. Such chilly weather was predicted that I decided we needed new undertunics and cloaks, but I couldn't find the patterns I used last year since my sewing supplies were half moved upstairs and completely disorganized. I did manage to make two undertunics (for Dean and me), one cloak (Dean), and a sash (Charlotte) but I think I was out of my mind.

Dean had a work commitment that meant he couldn't join us on Friday as he usually does, but the kids and I went anyways. The weather was good, if a little cool & windy, and we had a lovely time. Here they are, exchanging fire with (not medieval but cool) pirates:


You can't tell by her expression but Charlotte is having a blast:



Dean had to work again on Saturday, so the children and I were planning on going back & meeting up with friends. Unfortunately Charlotte woke up sick; fortunately George got to go to the fair anyways:

Next year he would like to have Viking shoes and a less scratchy undertunic.

Sunday was supposed to be our "family day" at the fair. However, although Charlotte felt better and wanted to go, once we got there she was very passive & wanted to be carried the whole time. George felt he had seen the whole fair the previous day & didn't have much left to explore, though he did enjoy the Human Chess Game and Daniel, Duke of Danger .... until he realized he had lost the fabulous axe you can see in the picture above. We searched for half an hour but could not find it -- someone must have picked it up. If your child (or you) found something like that, wouldn't you turn it in to lost & found???? At this point George just wanted to go home, Charlotte was a limp floppy doll who wanted to see the mermaids, and I was so frustrated I could have cried.

We made one last stop to see the mermaids. Their printer was malfunctioning and Charlotte ended up sitting with the mermaids for about 10 minutes while the staff fiddled with the printer. It took her about that long to start responding at all. The mermaids were wonderful, though, especially the one with the blue tail:



Dean wasn't enjoying the wait:


Better luck next year.

It took a whole week before we felt up to getting a family picture -- and then only because Dean wanted to shave. But here we are, Vikings version 2010:


It was about 20 degrees warmer this Sunday than last (85 instead of 65). Happy Easter!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Winter storm!

2nd day no school! may have school in June


The back yard.


The back yard.









!!!



The hole pic .



Charlotte




George drinking hot coco .


Charlotte getting the mail.


Charlotte playing .



The hole out side of the house is
covered in ice!


The branches are covered with ice
all over !

An ice covered tree.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

In training for Disneyworld

Day 1: Walk around the block. Charlotte: "This is the longest walk I've ever been on." George, while sitting on brick wall: "This is training, too. They have places to sit in Disneyworld."

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Christmas lamps

I have been eyeing these lamps for years now, trying to decide whether they were cool enough to justify the expense. This year I finally bought them. On Christmas morning the children were distinctly unimpressed, but back home they were eager to set them up. Here are their first versions:



I love the detailing on the treads. And I was amazed at how well such a dark drawing looks lit up.

And:


This is based on the Barbie riding camp Wii game Charlotte got from Santa. It makes me feel so much better about all the time she spends playing with Barbie lately -- apparently blond hair & blue eyes are what she sees, not a tiny waist, big breasts, weird feet, and an obsession with fashion. Well, okay, the feet are weird, I'll give you that. But isn't this the best Barbie you've ever seen?