She Knits Shizknits

wordless wednesday

brave lil man

Little Man complained a couple of times last week that one of his molars was bothering him. We were supposed to go to the dentist on Tuesday to get a small cavity filled, so I figured I could ask the dentist about the molar then.

Of course, I got a call Tuesday morning from the dentist's office saying he had the flu and so LM's appt. that afternoon had to be rescheduled. When I went to pick up LM at school, he showed me his tooth and the whole filling had fallen out.  And there was a big crack in the remaining tooth! Luckily it wasn't bothering him much, aside from the funny feeling of the crack.

We were finally able to get back into the dentist's office on Friday, by which time the cracked part of LM's tooth had finally fallen off (he was pretty upset as he thought he wouldn't get $$ from the tooth fairy for the cracked part). Well, the dentist took a look at the molar and we decided that since it was a baby molar and it ws already loose, he would pull it out.

LM was SO brave!

 I was very impressed with how well LM held up- he tends to be very sensitive about physical discomfort (he's the one who screams when he gets a papercut). So I was expecting a lot more drama when the dentist told him the tooth needed to be pulled. But the only sign LM was really worried was the little wrinkle in his forehead. He did great- the whole tooth came out in two pieces, and the dentist told him that since the tooth got pulled, the Tooth Fairy would bring 2x the $$, which seemed to make it all better in LM's eyes!

All Fall, all the time

Wow, we've been so busy I haven't had a chance to post for a week!  So this will be an epic post, with plenty of photos....

I was worried we wouldn't be able to get to the pumpkin patch this year. Usually, we go to Tanaka Farms, take the tractor ride, and pick our pumpkins from the fields.  Unfortunately, the Dearest has been so incredibly busy that he couldn't find the time in his schedule to join us at the farm. So when friends suggested meeting after preschool at a local pumpkin patch, I decided to take the small men and go. We've been to Pumpkin City several times in the past...

It's not one of my favorite patches since it's set up in the parking lot of the local mall...but the boys love it because there are lots of rides!  The first ride Monkey Boy went on was the tractor 'race':



The kids went round and round in the circle on these little tractors...MB seemed to have an advantage since we have a battery powered jeep at home- he knew how to steer and step on the gas much better than some of the other kids.

Little Man pestered me to allow him to try the 'fishing game'. The kids had to use fishing poles with magnets on the end to pick up one of the prize bobbers from a circulating stream of water.

Here they are with their prizes:

Next up was the boat ride:

Then the boys saw the big round swing ride and wanted to take it for a spin (awful pun, I know!)


I was off to the side, watching and taking photos...and after a while I wondered when the carny was going to stop the ride. Two minutes turned into five minutes while he chatted with a busty female customer...and then some of the kids on the ride started looking a little green. Finally one boy began screaming that he wanted OFF! or he was going to be sick! LOL

After that, the small men were willing to oblige me with some silly 'still' shots:





And then we had one final ride around the patch with some friends:

There are a few more photos here if you'd like to see them. One thing that is strange about this particular pumpkin patch is every time we've visited, it's been SO HOT! Notice how all the kids are wearing shorts and tshirts? It was probably 90F that afternoon. Crazy!

One of the things keeping me from posting recently was the costume-making for myself and Monkey Boy. Last Thursday, Little Man and I went to the fabric/craft store to buy some last minute supplies. While we were there, LM spent a long time in the kids' craft aisle, looking at all the fun kits. I told him he could buy whatever he wanted as long as he spent his own money. He also had a 40% off coupon that I had given him to use. He finally picked out a dinosaur excavating kit, and as soon as we got home he put on the included safety glasses to excavate his dino:

I think this safety glasses were the cutest part of this kit:

The safety glasses were also worn during our pumpkin carving escapade. Both the small men had picked out LARGE pumpkins that I could hardly lift, much less cut into. It took me about 20 minutes and much cursing under my breath to cut the tops off of each pumpkin. Luckily the boys were pretty good about cleaning out their own pumpkin guts. Then it was time to trace our templates onto the pumpkins:

We taped the stencils we printed out onto the pumpkins and then used pushpins to poke along the outlines of the shapes.

We have a battery operated pumpkin cutter, but the blade was too short to go all the way through to the inside of the gigantic pumpkins....so I would cut out shape, pop out as much as I could, and give a safety 'knife' to LM or MB to finish cutting.

Here are the finished pumpkins (LM's ghost on the left, MB's bats on the right):


Thank goodness the Dearest showed up while I was still carving, because LM still wanted to put a 'Scooby face' on his pumpkin. I kept trying to tell LM that I didn't think it would be doable because the Scooby stencil he'd chosen was pretty detailed, and his pumpkin was so thick.
The Dearest saved the day by using one of the smaller pumpkins, and look at how happy LM is:

The Scooby face turned out great, too! The Dearest really does these detailed carvings well:

You can also see the little punkin I carved in this photo...that's the Sanskrit word, "OM"....or my approximation of it anyways!

This past week also involved a lot of planning for our neighborhood block party. Our friends P and D were hosting, so we spent Friday night decorating their garage with sheets, streamers, bats, and spiderwebs. The party was "Come as you're NOT"...and look at these great costumes!

Monkey Boy as the "Riddler" (aka "the mystery man", becuz according to MB, that's not a question mark on his shirt, it's a "mystery mark"):

here's a little better view of his shirt:
I had to make his outfit because we couldn't find a green unitard in his size anywhere! So I bought some white thermals and dyed them green with RIT dye, then stitched a big felt question mark on the front. It turned out cute, except the thermal bottoms were waaay huge in the waist so we had to use safety pins to hold his pants on!

Little Man was a Ghostbuster:

He even made a ID badge for himself, and wore a flashlight all night.
I was "Stinkerbell"- Tinkerbell's evil twin (who is wayyyy more fun, too), and the Dearest went as "Edward Cullen" from the book/movie "Twilight":


The kids had a ball trick or treating, and everyone had lots of good food and drink...there was so much yummy stuff at the potluck, I kept going back for more! One of the funniest things all night was the doughnut game. We tied a doughnut onto a string and made the kids try to eat the doughnuts without using their hands:

It was SO funny watching the kids run around in circles, trying to bite their doughnuts. I think it might have been even funnier if we'd tried it with the adults (many of whom were a few cups into the beverages!). There are a lot more party pics here if you're interested.

This next week should be a little quieter...I"m looking forward to trying out this new set of paints I picked up:

I haven't painted with acrylics in YEARS....It should be fun to give it whirl again!

"look up"

When it rained last week, Monkey Boy kept asking if he could go outside and 'catch rain drops'...when I said yes, he immediately ran out wearing just his choneys, PJ top, and rainboots. It was so cute I had to take a photo with my phone (no way I'm getting my camera wet!).  Then of course I had to digiscrap it:

(all papers and elements from IAlexeeva's "make believe" digikit)

that toothfairy better get a second job...

Little Man lost *another* tooth today...we were in the parking lot, waiting to pick up Monkey Boy, when LM said, "Hey, my tooth fell out!"...and sure enough, there was another gap in his smile!

digiscrapping: Beach Bum

If you read my blog thru Bloglines or Googlereader, come check out my new banner....I just realized it's only been a year since I updated it so I finally got around to making a new one... And since I had Photoshop open, I did some digiscrapping, too:

All papers and elements from MKDesigns' "Deep Water" digikit. Photos are from July, 2006 (!).

summer yum

photo from July, 2006

papers from A.Victoria's "Beachy One" paper pack

candy corn maths

funny friday

There's a whole series of these videos....OMG I laughed so hard at the hip hop chipmunk! Another funny...I downloaded the Atomic Fart app from iTunes...here's what happened when the small men got ahold of it (you might have to turn up your volume):

busy weekend...

Yesterday was soccer photo day for both the small men. Monkey Boy's team was being photographed at 10:30, and Little Man's team was being shot at 12:45. When we got to the high school where the photographs were being taken, it was easily 80F and muggy, with no breeze at all. With not shade trees to stand under, we ended up baking in the sun...all the kids were pink cheeked and sweaty by the time the photographers ushered them together for the team photo. MB looked much like this (tho this photo was taken on Saturday at his first official soccer game):

After MB's photos, we had an hour and a half to kill before it was time for Little Man's team to show up. So we headed to the our favorite local coffee shop for a quick snack. The boys had smoothies and mini corn dogs while I polished off a delicious veggie sandwich (avocado, tomatoes, sprouts, artichoke hearts, cheese and pesto spread on swirled rye bread- YUM). We *still* had time to kill after eating so we wandered over the the library, which is in the same building. Outside the library's bookstore is a 'free books' cart, and the small men picked out a couple of books each to take home. Check out this book I found-



The copyright date is 1983! I had to take it home and show the Dearest...it's a hoot! I read the first chapter and was cracking up the whole time...

"Most, but not all, computers are built to be used with a TV set as a display screen"....!!

Then it was time to head back to the high school for more photos....thank goodness the breeze picked up so even though it was hot, the air was moving. We got the pictures done and headed home to cool off.

It was just as hot on Saturday, when the boys played their first soccer games. Here are some photos for the grandparents...

Monkey Boy doing the 'bowling' drill:

And Little Man running on the field:

Funnily enough, both the boys have the same color jerseys and socks, and they're only  off by one number! There are more soccer photos in my photostream, for those interested.  I can foresee lots of soccer-filled Saturdays in our near future! LOL