CelestialFamily

Spring has sprung and an opportunity to get together with aunts and cousins. Michael and I took the kids down to my dad and Alice's house for Easter. Saturday, the girls helped me bake and decorate a cake for my sister, Tracy's, birthday, the kids hunted eggs, and my dad grilled hamburgers and hotdogs on the Big Green Egg.


Here are Rachel and Haley's toes after a spring inspired pedicure:


Haley and Rachel made and decorated cupcakes for Easter:

They also decorated some hard boiled eggs:

Rachel and Haley hanging out:


Rachel and Haley help me make fondant decorations for Tracy's birthday cake:
Me coloring some fondant:

Rachel and Haley cut fondant to make decorative spheres:

Here are some fondant flowers drying:

Here is the strawberry and devil's food cake frosted with chocolate:

Here is Tracy's birthday cake:





Michael blows bubbles waiting for the kids to start hunting eggs:

Michael snuggles up to my dad:

Dad, you aren't uncomfortable...are you?


Aaron isn't hunting eggs, so he poses with a plate of chili. Noah, Haley, Rachel, Eve, and Tyler are ready to go:
Aaron gets whacked with a confetti egg:




Haley:




Rachel runs away from Aaron:



Tracy and Tyler with the cake:


Dig in:


Happy, slightly early, Birthday, Tracy! Happy Easter, everyone!

This afternoon I drove Aaron over to my brother's school to ask about possible Eagle Scout projects. The director was so friendly and we got a glimpse of my brother, Denny, zooming by with his tray of food. The director said she had asked the teachers what they really needed and they all wanted benches for the outside of the classroom. They also wanted them polyurethane sealed and be able to be brought inside when needed. We talked about an adjacent walking and picnic area to the school and the improvements needed there. Aaron settled on the bench project. He took some notes and now has to find some examples for approval. My brother goes to a school for the mentally handicapped and the director thinks an opportunity to comfortable sit outside would be very beneficial.


Today I got a chance to feed the birds in my mom's neighborhood. I scooped up some writhing mealworms and put them in a bluebird feeding stand. I put the mealworm box away in the neighbors house and in that 2 minute span the bluebird fluttered in and started snacking. I sat on the end of my mom's driveway with the 2 year-old neighbor boy, Nathan, and we watched bluebirds, cardinals, bluejays, and a couple of other species of birds I didn't know. The weather was nigh unto perfect.

Here are a few of the layouts I completed for Noah's Pinewood Derby:
(most of the elements came from Kate Hadfield and CD Muckosky)









A New Book Review:


The chess game is officially complete with this 3rd installment of the dystopian trilogy by Westerfield. The book moved as quickly as the others. Tally is now a "special" Special. Her newest surgery makes her a formidable weapon in the struggle for her city to control the people.
Westerfield takes on the issues of conformity and individuality, along with nature conservancy. Here are a few of my favorite lines in the book:

"So Shay was the Boss, and obeying wasn;t really that bad. It was icier than thinking, which could get you all tangled up."

"That was the whole point of being special: You existed to make sure everyone else behaved, but that didn't mean you had to." (This reminds me of some politicians and religious leaders).

""It was bogus," Shay said. "I'd rather have a brain."
Tally sighed. She couldn't disagree-but having a brain hurt so much sometimes.""

"Thinking like a Special is partly just human nature. It doesn't take much convincing to make someone believe they're better than everyone else."

I was surprised by the ending, but I felt it was better than I had anticipated. I enjoyed the trilogy.

Noah and the Spelling Homework:

Noah: "I have spelling due Wednesday, will you help me?"

I pulled out the sliding shelf in my desk and said, "Come sit down. Be my friend."

Noah: "You already are my friend...(pause)distantly."

Me: (scribbling down what Noah said).

Noah: "Do you write down everything I say?"


Noah and the Book of Weird Facts


While I was digital scraping photos of Noah's Pinewood Derby he was on the couch reading Rachel's newest Book Fair acquisition Weird But True 300 Outrageous Facts. "Did you..." preceded every entry he read to me. After several entries he said, "Did you know the average yawn last 6 seconds?"

Then, Noah yawned.

Noah asked, "Did you time that?"

Me: "No."

Noah: "Crap!"


Noah and the Harp:

My mom returned my phone call this evening and Noah took the opportunity to speak with her. While they were talking she could hear Eve practicing the piano.
She asked Noah: "Is there any musical instrument you would like to play?"

Noah: (Thinks for a little bit) "The Butt Harp!"

As my mom tells me this story my stepfather, Jim, is listening in the background and adds these clever quips, "I guess you call that a wind instrument." Then, he said: "And he is going to be the one cleaning his own reed!"

I hope to post some layots this week. Later, Peeps!

That flair was posted because it made me laugh and I thought I should pass it on.



***Conversations with Noah:::

A brief history to put this conversation in perspective is that Aaron and Rachel were staying with their respective friends over the weekend. Setting: Sunday morning.

Noah: "Where is Aaron and Rachel?"

Michael: "We sold them."

Noah: "I thought you would have sold Aaron and Eve."

Michael: "Oh, we're going to sell you too, but we just haven't found a buyer yet."

Noah: " Well, I have a bid in to Ebay for some new parents."

These exchanges were quick and matter of fact. Being the bystander in this offered several minutes of laughter.


This morning the estrogen anomaly we call "Rachel" was having breakfast and I was putting butter on a blueberry bagel for her and I stated glibly that salted butter was food of the gods. She quickly said that the food of the gods was curly fries. I repeated my assurance that it was salted butter to wit she replied, "Don't try to reason with me. I've made up my mind."


:::::::::Working on a short video for scouts, so later, peeps!

My mom went to the elementary school today to play the chanter and shuttle pipe for the kids. The amount of people morphed a bit from a couple of 3rd grade classes to the entire 3rd grade in the cafeteria.







Then she played for 2 Kindergarten teachers. Our intermission was a trip to lunch with our promoter, Crystal Powell, at the Blue Rooster Cafe. Crystal was Eve's pre-k teacher and we have remained friends. She has a child at Camp Creek, as well. Crystal treated us to lunch. The chicken salad sandwich was tasty and the lemon cake divine. While we were at lunch Michael texted me a photo of my brother out with his class at the local mall. The teachers got nervous that a strange man was taking Denny's picture, but Michael explained that Denny is his brother-in-law and Denny vouched for him by standing near him. Small world.
Our second tour consisted of Noah's 4th grade class. They were really complimentary to mom. I was proud of them all. We took an hour break and mom and I helped with some Book Fair invitations for the teachers. Our last stop was Eve's 1st grade class. Mom let Noah and Eve introduce her for their classes. They were both so proud of her. One of the boys was in Noah's class last year, as well, and said he wanted to be in Noah's 5th grade class of my mom was coming back to play next year. One of the 3rd graders from the morning event complimented mom again when he saw her in the library.


I hope y'all have had a great day too!

Just a few pages of things the family has been doing lately:















Book reviews later. Smiles!

::::::::::Nicknames:::::::
Eve, Noah and I were discussing nicknames. I call Eve, Eveybug and I call Noah, No E Monster. They have a boy that they know at school named Robert and they were asking what are nicknames for his name. I threw out Bob, Bobby, and Rob. Noah suggested "Bobert". I told him I had never heard of anyone going by that, but you never know. Then Noah said, "You can love me. You can even worship me, just don't call me No E Monster. If you are going to worship me you can call me Noah the Great.

I think we all can safely say that I will be continuing with the No E Monster...thanks for the suggestion though.

Here are some new digital pages of the kiddos:

::::::Some of My Favorite Layouts and Why::::::::

This layout was a fun science experiment we did with the kids to answer a question they had:

It was fun to show this photo to Eve since she is in 1st grade now:

I love some of the stuff Noah thinks deeply about:

I was amazed at the artwork that captivated Noah the longest:

I have never seen an episode of Survivor, but from what people talk about I think this captures the essence of a show in a twisted and fun way:

We really enjoyed visiting New York City and I love this layout because the artwork is a sketch Michael did that I extracted and made the lines white instead of black:

:::::::::::::::::Birthday Dinner::::::

We just got back from Granny Sydney's house. She made Michael a yummy birthday dinner. We had rolls, barbequed spareribs, corn, green beans, and rice. She made brownies for dessert. The kids had fun playing with the snow on the back deck and with some of the toys. Michael and I had fun just getting to talk with his mom. Thanks, Sydney!


Time to read...The Wordy Shipmates

Smiles

::::::::::Nicknames:::::::
Eve, Noah and I were discussing nicknames. I call Eve, Eveybug and I call Noah, No E Monster. They have a boy that they know at school named Robert and they were asking what are nicknames for his name. I threw out Bob, Bobby, and Rob. Noah suggested "Bobert". I told him I had never heard of anyone going by that, but you never know. Then Noah said, "You can love me. You can even worship me, just don't call me No E Monster. If you are going to worship me you can call me Noah the Great.

I think we all can safely say that I will be continuing with the No E Monster...thanks for the suggestion though.

Here are some new digital pages of the kiddos:

::::::Some of My Favorite Layouts and Why::::::::

This layout was a fun science experiment we did with the kids to answer a question they had:

It was fun to show this photo to Eve since she is in 1st grade now:

I love some of the stuff Noah thinks deeply about:

I was amazed at the artwork that captivated Noah the longest:

I have never seen an episode of Survivor, but from what people talk about I think this captures the essence of a show in a twisted and fun way:

We really enjoyed visiting New York City and I love this layout because the artwork is a sketch Michael did that I extracted and made the lines white instead of black:

:::::::::::::::::Birthday Dinner::::::

We just got back from Granny Sydney's house. She made Michael a yummy birthday dinner. We had rolls, barbequed spareribs, corn, green beans, and rice. She made brownies for dessert. The kids had fun playing with the snow on the back deck and with some of the toys. Michael and I had fun just getting to talk with his mom. Thanks, Sydney!


Time to read...The Wordy Shipmates

Smiles

Noah's question for today: "What is the point of using Jedi mind tricks on stupid people?"

Discuss!



Thank you, Teacherninja, for the nomination.
• Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
• Link the person who nominated you.
• Name seven things about yourself that no one would really know.
• Nominate ten “Sugar Dolls.”
• Post links to the ten blogs you nominate.
• Leave a comment on each letting them know you nominated them.

Finding seven things that people wouldn't really know is rather difficult. I thought that listing that I was a control freak would be considered universal knowledge, so I had to move unto something else.

1. I believe dogs and cats should be spayed, or neutered to help decrease the sad circumstances that are produced by unwanted and uncared for animals.
2. I have fond memories of square hamburgers because my maternal grandmother would drive in to Columbus near the "Bypass" to go to Krystals. She would always put napkins around the salt and pepper shakers because, "You never know who touched them before you got there." I love mustard, dill pickles, and bread. I don't deviate from what I order there, or Subway for that matter. My brother is autistic, but he hasn't cornered the market on repetitive behavior. For example, Subway has a menu that offers so many choices, but I always order: a 6inch Subway Club with pepper jack cheese, toasted with lettuce, sliced dill pickles, tomatoes, heavy on the spinach, and plain yellow mustard (I can't stand the other stuff, which surprises me, yet is absolutely true).

3. I like so many different things and enjoy talking about them without ever having mastered any of the subjects that I come off as a repository for useless and inane facts, but Hey I like it that way. My guess is this tendency has led me to spend an inordinate amount of time watching the series QI on youtube.com.


4. I consistently lose Scrabble games against my husband. He is a master of getting words that count in two directions, while I am looking to make the coolest word. This really is my only strategy because I don't think well on multiple planes. I'm like the triangles in Flatland...one dimensional and dangerous if you bump into me (that is why we stopped playing Monopoly too).

5. My daughter says I'm not funny...maybe I was twice...in her opinion. I sometimes get laughing so hard at something I, alone, find witty that my sides ache. That is a good time, my friends.

6. I will go to the store to buy something and find something incidental on the way. If I continue shopping I will make the case for and against buying the incidental object. Usually not buying wins out (even in the case of chocolate...tell no one).



7. I think the spork is one of the handy dandiest of cool inventions.


:::::::::::Book Review::::::::


Amelia Peabody is tired of the Victorian trappings both ideologically and physically. I think she would burn her bra, as well, but by the author's description of Amelia that wouldn't be a great idea. Amelia is someone who speaks her mind and due to an inheritance can do so without worrying to much about the consequences. The information on Egypt was interesting along with some of the preservation techniques. There were a few times where I would think to myself, "get on with it already" because the author rehashed things a bit too much, but the characters have a lot of potential. There were several pithy lines between the sparring couple Amelia and Radcliffe Emerson. I enjoyed their interacctions. Not an outstanding beginning to a series, but still worth checking out book 2.


:::::::::::::Yearbook Music:::::::
I have been working on the kids yearbook again this year and I'm becoming "snowblind" looking and relooking at photos, but I thought of this song and it made me nostaligic and I just think it's cool:

:::::::::::::Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?

Spongebob Squarepants, as many people know. We had a request from a friend and her daughter to help make a 1 year-old's party a bit more fun in the cake department. I enlisted the help of my favorite creative genius and we used date night to help decorate this birthday cake:

Everyone pitched in. Favihola (grandmother to our birthday girl) baked the cakes, made the tube worm and some sea grass. Michael trimmed the cakes. I frosted and covered them with fondant. Michael made the pineapple the red & orange coral, and the cute pink octopus. Alex (uncle) made Gary the Snail and cut out the flowers, Christina (mom) made Nemo, the jellyfish, sea stars, bubbles and some seagrass. Favihola made Planktons body and ears and I stuck on his eye bits. Richard (dad) made a giant clam with a pearl.

The toothpicks will get pulled out today for the party. Happy 1st Birthday, Eliana!

Rachel's Vocabulary Quiz Show brought to you today by the letter S.

So Rachel quizzed Noah the other day, "Noah do you know what scrupulous means?"
Noah replied, "Isn't that a part of the body?"

Noah's response brought upon him hails of derisive laughter. I think we will keep him for the comic relief alone. We did eventually tell him what scrupulous meant after several attempts at coming up with some new anatomical definitions in the form of a sentence.

:::::::::::::Copious Book Reviews::::::::



This book was recommended to me by a very well read member of our book group. She knows what types of books I like and this does fit the general bill for me. Elna Baker writes about her experiences, hopes, and dreams. It is book worthy because of the juxtaposition she finds herself in being a single Mormon in a community largely made up of non Mormons in New York City. Her insights, especially, in the beginning chapters is spot on about Singles dances and attitudes in the church. She comes off as rather neurotic, but understandable in the context of being someone who by nature questions everything, but is in a religion that requires faith. She reminds me of an adrenaline junky that wants a constant thrill, but needs to run back to the comfort of familiar beliefs. She is an actress, so the personality is not surprising. Faith is an intregal part of her life and I had the feeling it was like an imbilical cord that was both a life line and something she felt like she was growing out of and was trying to cut the cord. She is an amazingly sharp witted person, but her inability to make a decision left me feeling somewhat the way I imagined her ex-boyfriend Matt felt, rather frustrated.



Dr. Carson was brought up in poverty by a mother who had episodes of depression that had her checking herself into the hospital. He had a brother who was a good example and got him involved with ROTC. Dr. Carson's ability to analyze his life and work past his intense anger issues and early poor study skills to become the skilled pediatric neurosurgeon he is today he attributes to his faith in God who gave him the talents to begin with. He tells off the long hours of studying and internships, which tired me out just thinking about all of the hard work. His ability to think spatially has helped him see how the parts of the body, specifically, the brain works in all its varied parts. I enjoyed the stories of some of the specific cases he has encountered and how they have effected him, as well as, the patient. I appreciated his emphasis on procedures as being a team effort realizing that one person can't get it done. He has kept his humanity in the face of the opportunity to be a celebrity. He acknowledges his talents and achievements, while remaining humble. I was impressed by his wife, who is an accomplished woman in her own right and maintains their family amidst her husband's long hours.


This is not just a book of eye candy. You might think bugs aren't eye candy, but the photographs in this book are outstanding. I might not want to meet these bugs in person, but I loved going over and over this book and looking at the variously hued insects and their funky appendages. The introduction is very well written and a definite solid beginning to a fabulous book.


If looking at freaky cool bugs isn't your thing, then maybe photographs of freaky cool plants and their bits might just be. Pretty colors that are worthy of any lsd trippin' Timothy Leary types (that is purely a guess on my part...about the lsd...I mean...I think the hardest thing I've done is Nyquil for a cold back in 1990...but I digress). This book is so cool. It even has words, which explain the photographs...BONUS I highly recommend this one.


This was a solid sequel to Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper. The effects of the octopus dna in the kids was really fun. I love the characters of the narrator, and Ms. Fanstrom from the Historical Society. I even think the Books from the different orders are very intriguing. I could have used less running about finding and fighting folks and had more of the cerebral stuff regarding the Books and how they interact. I'm hoping for a sequel that gets more into the scientific and less about the physical Fight Club aspects of finding out the mysteries of the Board of Administration.

Peace out my Peeps!