Thanksgiving break part 1

We feel because we are pretty centrally located and our car ride tolerance is higher than most, that we should take advantage and see some of the East Coast while we are living here.  To that end, we decided that rather than wallow in post-pre-thanksgiving-day-feast-no-family-nearby blues, we would travel to one of our favorite cities--Philadelphia--over the holiday break.  We attempted this vacation before, but since we are out of vacation days and Johnny has been on call at work every other three day weekend, this was the first opportunity we had.  So we took it and ran.  We probably kidnapped the opportunity, truth be told.   And it might be the best vacation The Captain will ever have. (Though I hope not cause 3 is a little early to top out.) But more on that later.  

Let's start with Thanksgiving Day.  We drove halfway the night before and got into Philadelphia some time before noon.  We parked in a garage, which we needn't have done since there was parking everywhere on the streets.  We walked around and saw some of the historical sights:

The Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

I love that I caught Joy's beautiful eyes and The Captain 's boundless energy for jumping and running all in one shot.

Then we walked around the city down to the famous Philly Cheese Steak restaurant Johnny remembered so fondly, but it was closed, so we went to another restaurant nearby.  They had pizza, so the kiddos were happy and we were happy with our cheese steaks.

Before you get any ideas about my horrible parenting, it was actually nice weather all weekend.  And the kids were wearing lots of layers, if not coats.

Nothing says Philly like cobblestones.

After we got to our hotel, we hunted for some place to eat.  We didn't have too many options and ended up eating Indian food.  Not my traditional Thanksgiving feast, but tasty none the less.  The Captain, of course, would have none of it and spent most of the time running around the (thankfully) empty restaurant.  I'm not sure how the little guy has so much energy when he refuses dinner most nights . . .

Then we ran to Walmart for some breakfast supplies since we did not have complementary breakfast with our room.  I'm happy to report we were too early for Black Friday deals and the place was not a zoo.  I refuse to go out shopping on Black Friday.

We ended the day with a nice soak in the hot tub.  The hotel did have that.  And don't worry, the kids didn't join us, they were asleep.  And after spending an hour sitting in the hallway working on my nephews' Christmas present, trying to listen to my book on tape and ignore the crying of non-sleeping children, I needed the relaxation.

December Wreath

Sorry about the late posting.  I really did this project early in the month, but our internet service has not been letting us upload, and writing a blog with dial-up speed is not really possible with my attention span or crazy life.  

Here is the inspiration picture for this month.  I got it from the Better Homes and Garden website:

Supplies:

• 12" foam wreath - $2.50
• 50 carnations - 5 flowers/stem, 1 stem = $.96 - $5
• pliers
• hot glue
• ribbon

Total = $7.50

Step 1) Glue the stems to the flowers.  I guess you can skip this step, but after a year of making wreaths, I can say erring on the side of caution usually pays off.

Step 2) Cut the stems to about an inch or so.  I cut mine very short because I only had a half circle wreath, so I didn't have room to stick them in very far.

Sorry about the fuzziness, I shot this one-handed and the camera wouldn't focus. Yes, that's my thumb.

Step 3) Divide the wreath into halves or quarters with some markings and divide your flowers into the same, that way you will have even pacing and not make one section fuller than another.

Step 4) Put hot glue on the stem and stick it into the wreath.  I found three carnations would fill out the top, inside and outside to make a row and I just did one row at a time.

Step 5) Add a bow.

Step 6) Attach a ribbon to the back to hang.

Step 7) Hang it on your door.

The Better Homes and Gardens website said to use 80 carnations for a 16" wreath, so a 14" wreath uses about 70-75, in case you wanted a bigger one, or several different sizes.

I love how this looks, that it was really cheap, and that it breaks up all the evergreen wreaths on my windows.

A word of Joy

Our little Miss Joy is growing, I am happy to report.  At her last appointment she finally weighed in at over 20 lbs., which means she's still wrestling in the lightweight division, but she's on the top end, so she'll win all her matches for sure.

She is super fun and still does silly things to make us laugh.  

She is learning new words like crazy, picks up sign language ridiculously fast and will even put things away if given enough praise.  She likes animal noises, books, wrestling, hugs, water, closing doors, and most recently, turning on lights.  She loves to steal the show and has better dance moves than I ever did.

 And she looks awesome in pigtails.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Christmas Giving

When people combine me and Christmas presents in their heads, they usually come up with this:

Lotion

Scarf

as a result, I currently have a lifetime supply of lotion and more scarves than one neck can handle, even one of these necks:

There is nothing wrong with these gifts.  They are pretty good go-to gifts for any woman, really, which means either I'm really hard to shop for, or I'm average.  I'm not sure which I'd prefer, but in actuality, it doesn't even matter because these gifts are only one step away from what my Christmas heart really desires:

Fuzzy socks

Shower gel

Not that I'm advocating that anyone give me a gift for Christmas.  No really.  You don't need to get me anything.  I'm serious.  Unless you drew my name out for a gift and actually do have to get me something.  In which case, you're welcome.

Don't worry, we'll be back to pictures of the kiddos and funny stories when I can again access all my pictures on the computer.  Which will be soon.

November Wreath

The first Thursday of the month came pretty early this month, but it gave me the motivation to undecorate my porch and replace my monster wreath with my version of this instead.

Inspiration pic

My sisters used this same pictures to make there own nut/bean wreaths a year or so ago, and I'm still making up for lost time.  I am also still sad that they did craft nights without me, but being 2,000 miles away is a pretty good excuse.  

Anyway, this wreath is super cheap, assuming you live somewhere where you can forage your own acorns.

Supplies

• One straw wreath -- $2.50 @ Walmart, or $1 if you go now and they still have some.
• Lots of acorns -- at least one Walmart bag full -- free.  
• Hot glue -- lots

Total = $2.50 or less!

1) Wash and bake your acorns.  Put them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 mins.  This will prevent you from having maggot problems, which my fellow wreathers had, or from having them sprout, which happened to me.  Apparently a plastic sack in my garage is the perfect conditions for growing oak trees, in case you need to.   

*Also very important* -- use the acorns within a day or two of baking, otherwise you have major molding problems (which we all had) and have to repeat step one.  

Also, I would like to note that my acorns are different from the cute little hatted ones that came from my friend's backyard forest because I picked mine off the walking path around Monticello.  So I can keep some sentimental, patriotic memories with mine.  (And my own Monticello oak tree, I suppose, had I only let one of the acorns sprout like it wanted to.)

2) Glue the acorns to the wreath.  After much practice with stones and poof balls this year, we have learned that for best looking results, you should start with a circle like this.  Then build more rows around the middle and get it as tight as you can.  Rule of Thumb: the bigger the objects, the more gaps you get.  That's why we decided to unwrap our straw wreaths, we decided the straw poking through would look very fall-esque.  

3) After you finish gluing down the acorns, spray the wreath with either a clean coat of spray paint or with a color of your choice.  This will seal the acorns and hopefully prevent molding in the future.

4) Attached any ribbons, bows, or embellishments and hang on your door.

Happy Halloween

Hey everyone.  Happy Halloween!

It's been long enough that everyone is out of their Halloween candy comas, right?  Good, then it's a good time to post about our costuming exploits this year.  I'm sorry to say, with a single-minded preschooler, it wasn't really possible to have a family theme this year.  Okay, I suppose we could have, but 

he wanted to be Mario, and since we did that whole thing last year, I tried my best to convince him to be something else.  It did not work until the day after I finished everyone's costumes--in other words, right when it was time to get into costume and party.  But he still managed to be happy about his costume.  And since it was super easy to make, I can't really complain.

Johnny found this awesome pair of pants at Goodwill and became 70's cop, or Miami drug dealer, you pick.

I was Dorothy.  I just felt right.  Please excuse my hair.  It was much better the other two times I did it, but Marie, my French hair dresser had the night off.  

My original plan was to make Joy Toto, but then a stroke of genius hit me, which is the only way I come up with good Halloween costumes.

She could be a luchador.  Her wrestling name is the Star Spangler, which is on her cape but mostly unreadable in this picture.

I was pretty sure she wouldn't tolerate a mask, so I just made it a hood instead.

I put elastic bands on the cape so she could hold it to do her signature move, the Body Slam.

I was hoping to post a video of Joy's Body Slams in real life, but my phone and the interweb are currently not cooperating.  I guess that means . . . bonus post sometime.

Halloween Decorations- Monster Bags

Sorry I only have one picture of the monster bags.  They were great.  I cut out shapes- big and small- out of construction paper and had The Captain glue them on the bags as monster faces.  It was great because The Captain has been talking about shapes in preschool.  Sometimes I like to reinforce school teachings at home.  What can I say, it's ridiculously easy to be an awesome mom when they are in preschool.  

Anyway, the bag closest to the camera that kind of looks like a monster from Monsters Inc. is mine.  

I weighed them down with rocks, stuck tea lights in them, and made Johnny light them.  In fact, that's what he's doing in this picture.  He was all worried that they would light on fire and burn down the house, and I was like, "no way, they'll glow and be totally awesome."  I'm happy to report that I was right.  They did glow and they looked awesome and there was no fire threat at all.  

We actually got quite a few trick-or-treaters this year.  I'd like to think it was because our house looked so awesome . . .