Serenade

It's been freakishly warm in these here parts lately. So warm, in fact, that today I made sun tea and also noticed my daffodils have re-bloomed. Before we put our fire pit in the basement for the winter (to keep it from rusting, in case you were curious), we thought it would be nice if the kids could experience a night around the fire. It has typically been reserved for just Jason and me as a place to chat after the kids have gone to bed.

We'd had out Santa hats out in my attempt to get "the picture" for our 2009 Christmas card. The kids had to wear them and decided that we should begin the evening by telling stories.

Then they got the idea that they should get out their guitars to serenade us. They took turns each playing some children's favorites and some original creations.

They made Jason sing, too.

We had a snack and the sugar apparently made us get a little silly....

....then tired.

We had so much fun just the four of us. I can't wait to do it again, before they decide staying home with mom and dad at night isn't cool anymore.

Randomness

August kind of snuck in here, didn't it? Here are some random things that went on around here to round out July.

A blimp paid us a visit.

I got some gorgeous "just because" flowers from Jason one night when he went grocery shopping.

I found three new amazing snacks at Trader Joe's. Notice they all have a common theme.

We made pineapple-orange sorbet. It was Xander's idea but then he told me it was taking too long to zest a lemon, so he left and Jordis took his spot.

Our kids have a relationship that involves either hating each other or being best friends. There's no middle ground. Here, not only are they getting along within each other's personal space, but they're reading the bible together.

If only they could be this innocent all the time.

Kids in the Kitchen

The kids and I have been busy lately, because around here there is a lot of truth to the saying "idle hands make for devil's tools." If the kids don't have something structured to do around here, more than likely they are getting in trouble.

Last Friday we made some yarn pumpkins. The kids got a kick out of wrapping me up with yarn and then Xander took my remnants and made his own art.



Today we were supposed to be making trees, using the side of our hand as the trunk and our fingerprints as leaves. Jordis started out as a willing participant, then decided the leaves needed to be smeared all over. Xander decided to paint a bug. I like my trees though.


We also made a new snack. I found a recipe in the September issue of Wondertime magazine for Powerballs.


It's a fairly healthy snack and Xander had lots of fun dumping the ingredients into the mixer.


The kids enjoy eating them and I had plenty to freeze, too.

http://wondertime.go.com/life-at-home/article/powerball-cookies.html

Movie Milestone

This week the kids went to the movies for the first time. The little local theatre here, The Strand, has a summer movie series for kids and it's free, so I thought I'd take them. Figured no big loss if we had to leave since it didn't cost me anything.




I usually avoid doing anything in downtown Delaware simply because I can't parallel park, especially not the Jeep. This day I got lucky though and was able to pull in to the last spot. So not only was it easy to park, but I didn't have to worry about hitting any other cars when I left, either. The kids actually followed directions, too, and stayed on the sidewalk and didn't cross the street until I told them to. Xander only tripped and fell once which is good for him since he's always looking at something other than where he's going.

Here's the kids on our way in. The theatre asks for school supply donations so they were each holding their contribution.

This week's feature was "Horton Hears a Who" and for someone who doesn't like animated movies I thought it was pretty cute.

http://www.hortonmovie.com/site/index.html


It was pretty crowded and Xander wanted to sit up front so we ended up in the 2nd row. Poor Jordis almost got folded up in her seat since she doesn't weigh much.














I don't know what Xander liked better, the movie or the snacks I brought.

We had a really good time. Then we went to vote, which didn't go so well where cooperation is concerned. But I guess we'll work on one thing at a time.