Mardi Gras masks

Last week for one of our afternoon art projects JQ, G-tot, and I made Mardi Gras masks. I printed out some blank paper masks I found online and we went to town on them with markers, cut paper, stickers, and glitter glue.

When the glue had set I cut out the eyes and punched holes for the string. You know what came next right?

Pictures!




We had a blast. JQ's mask was the big hit. We all wore that one. How could you not want to put it on—with its cool yellow extension. Very fancy in a Roman Gladiator/Mexican Wrestler sort of way.

Why don't we get that last post title pushed down the page a bit

In my defense, I was quoting a movie.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words from all of you yesterday. I'm feeling much better now. Just getting my rage out through the written word helped immensely. You guys helped even more. Thanks for being a part of my craziness.

Enough with the sappiness, how about some pictures of Valentine's Day that I forgot to show you? Which may be sappy in their own right. More LOVE!

JQ made us heart shaped pancakes

colored pencils (we all wore the hearts sticker)

In the middle of a creative moment (you can see JQ's hearts sticker).

all done

It may not be Hallmark but we still care enough to send the very best

When it comes to picking out cards in a card shop I have a problem. I could stand in the aisles for hours chuckling at the clever graphics and witty phrases that adorn the rows and rows of perfectly folded card stock. I love picking out cards and get an odd kick out of putting that little gold crown sticker on the back of the envelope. I think mostly because it seems so pretentious—"Look at me! I've spent too much money on this card and I want you to be well aware of it!"

This year, for Valentine's day we are doing things a little different. This year we are spending as little money as possible. That doesn't mean the house isn't festively decorated and our table won't be piled with sentiments of love, it just means we are not heading out to Hallmark and dropping our hard earned cash on a card that expresses something we tell each other every day, "I love you."

To be perfectly honest with you? I think our way is going to kick commercialism's ass this year. Just look for yourself.

New flower arrangements crafted from the Groundhog's Day flowers I received almost two weeks ago. Aren't my flower arranging skills wicked awesome?

More dainty flower arrangements and a wonky paper heart chain.

A kick ass heart garland made from dozens of construction paper hearts cut out by JQ and me.

I love this little guy G-tot made at daycare. He just screams cuteness to me.

And last but not least, a "card making" basket I put together this evening for our V-day card making festivities tomorrow. In it is half a dozen blank cards, sheets of red and pink paper, crayons, markers, and sheets of stickers (stars from the desk drawer and v-day themed ones I made up and printed this afternoon). Making our own cards was JQ's idea and I can't wait to do this activity tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Six-pack

My dad, step-mom, and sister have come down from the great white north to visit JQ, G-tot, and I for a week. We haven't seen them since July. They brought the Wii with them. Guess who won't be blogging much for the next several days?

Could I post a more unflattering picture of myself?

I think not.

Just keeping it real here people. Keeping it real.

Who knew I was such a sucker for tradition?

Every year on December 25th I would wake up at the crack of dawn to spend Christmas morning with my Mom and the rest of the immediate family on that side (my Gam, my Dad before the divorce, my Stepdad after the divorce, my brother, JQ for the last 8 years, and now G-tot). It has always played out the same way. Christmas Eve we would celebrate with the extended family on my Mom's side and then Christmas morning at my Mom's.

Even when I moved out on my own I would wake up really early and be at my Mom's before 8 a.m. Gifts and breakfast casserole in tow, it didn't matter that I only got a few hours of restless sleep the night before. It was tradition and I loved it.

This year would be different. My Mom lives out of state now and I get the honor of hosting Christmas morning from here on out. You have no idea how much this excites me. It would still be an early morning and I would still make that breakfast casserole, I just wouldn't have to drive in the chilly December morning over to her house. That alone is enough to make a girl giddy.

Instead of being overjoyed with the fact that in just 2 days I would be hosting my very first Christmas morning with my Mom and family, I'm sitting here crying. Because she won't be here. And it kills me a little inside.

Sure, sure, weather permitting they'll be coming in on Christmas but it won't be until the afternoon. It's just not the same. Wow, that sounds so selfish doesn't it? Poor *pixie*, can't see her Mom until 5 hours after she expected to. Wah, wah, wah… But you know what? I don't give a rat's ass if it's selfish. Or ridiculous. It's real. It's the way I really feel right now and I haven't quite gotten over it because I just found out. Up until a half an hour ago I expected everything to play out the way I mentioned in that third paragraph up there.

It isn't going to happen that way. Car trouble prevented them from leaving yesterday as planned. Today and tomorrow they are expecting lots and lots of snow. I'd rather have them arrive late then have them not arrive at all, but what I'd really like is for tradition to stand. Stupid traditions…

Why yes, I did marry a younger man

Today is JQ's 30th birthday. Thirty. It seems like only yesterday he was in his twenties. Maybe he'll finally stop throwing his youth around during conversation. I doubt it—he's still the baby of the group. I wonder if he'll think it's time to grow up. I sure hope not.

Happy Birthday JQ!

Welcome to another decade of this crazy thing called life. We love you!

We take our fort making seriously around here

Tuesday night JQ and I made a fort for G-tot. It was so cool that we left it up until this afternoon. We love making forts. Whether they are simple forts made out of just the cushion of the overstuffed chair or elaborate forts like the one we made the other day—they just rock. G-tot thinks they are awesome and squeals with delight when he realizes what is going on.

Last night—after eating too much—the three of us snuggled up in our fort and proceeded to fall asleep. At 8 o'clock. I woke up two hours later. If it wasn't for the fact that I thought G-tot should sleep in his own bed, I'd probably would have stayed there all night.


Yep, forts are awesome. Don't you think?

it only took me 3 years to meet the neighbors

Trick or treating last night with JQ and G-tot was so much fun! It was beautiful in Toledo—with a high of 70° after many days of 40° weather—and it didn't get dark until well after 7:00. Our original plan was to just go to a few houses around ours and then come back and pass out candy. G-tot was so into it we went much further than I had expected his little legs to handle.

checking out his loot

I had alterior motives to just raking in the treats. I know a grand total of 4 neighbors around here and a few months ago a new couple—one being quite pregnant—moved in down the street. This was my chance to meet them without knocking on the door like a weirdo stranger. Yay! When we approached the house, the neighbor was sitting out front and I noticed she had a little bundle on her lap. Her four week old daughter—awwww—who, I learned, shares a name with our friends dog. I'm guessing I won't forget that one. :)

As we were finishing up our trek we hit the half a dozen houses that sit across the street from ours. As I walked up to the first of these houses I greeted the owners with an, "Hola. ¿Comó esta?" To which the man responded with a semi-surprized, "Bien." That answered confirmed what I thought I saw when I approached the house. It was my high school Spanish teacher. I couldn't believe it. We chatted for a minute and as we left JQ said, "Hasta luego." We're such nerds.

I met the neighbors that live directly across from us by just asking the group which one lived here and then introducing myself. They were very nice—complementing what we've done with our landscape and informally inviting us over for fires in the summer. But the best neighbor meet-up of the night was the very next house. JQ and I had met the guy that lives across the street a couple of years ago very briefly. I was hoping to meet the wife and son last night (it's on my list!) They must have been out trick-or-treating, but the conversation that we had with the husband was crazy.

JQ and I reintroduced ourselves and made small talk for a moment. He asked how old G-tot was and his name. When we told him, he cocked his head to the side and said, "G-tot? That's interesting, my son has a kid that goes to his school with the name G-tot." When he said his son's name I about keeled over in shock. You see, the daycare G-tot goes to doesn't offer part-time for toddlers—but we only needed Mondays and Wednesdays. Lucky for us, there was another family that was paying for full-time care, but only going part-time—Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. So, we could both benefit from it—both families get the care they need and only pay for the days they're using. Win. Win. The only thing is, we would have to share a cubby with the other kid. No big deal. Fast forward to last night when we discovered that the other family is neighbors across the street! What are the chances? I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

What a small world. Now I just have to meet his wife and son.

post t-or-t, eating his first lollipop ever

making a mess can be so fun

Last night we decorated our pumpkins for Halloween. We opted for an amalgamation of traditional carving and a new-to-us method of painting. So I can't just say we carved pumpkins—even though decorate sounds odd to me. I didn't really think it would be a good idea to let G-tot wield a sharp knife and I thought painting would be a great alternative. It was awesome.

absolutely into it

I waited until the absolute last minute to get pumpkins. Which seems to be a trend in my life these days. On the way home from work yesterday I stopped at the farmer's market and picked up one pumpkin for us to carve as a family and 3 small pumpkins to decorate individually. The carving pumpkin was HUGE and topped out the scales at the market—which max out at 30 pounds. We normally carve at least one each—but we also tend to do that well before the eve of Halloween.

separating seeds from pulp

I love making roasted pumpkin seeds out of the innards. One pumpkin surely wouldn't yield enough seeds to satisfy us, but I was willing to make do with what we would get. It wasn't too bad for coming from just one pumpkin.

playing with play-doh after finishing his pumpkin

This year we opted for the super traditional carve as opposed to our normal—more elaborate—designs. JQ carved the eyes and nose while I kept an eye on G-tot painting and then we switched and I carved the mouth. Painting turned out be a real treat and was perfect for G-tot. It was an awesome family moment. Spontaneous & fun. The kind memories are made of.

jq's

mine

G-tot's

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I'm hoping his blue eyes will distract you from my three chins.

a hat from papa

Thanks to everybody for all your kind thoughts and words of encouragement. Including this sweet tweet from the lovely sarahjane (who obviously wants me and should just admit it):

It says: P.S. I think you are beautiful. Not in a lesbian way though. Don't be getting any ideas.

I'm feeling great today and am looking forward to spending the rest of the weekend with JQ & G-tot. But, before I shut down the Mac for the day I have to share a couple of pictures with you. My Dad—and the rest of the family—was in town earlier this week and he brought G-tot a camouflage (I just had to look up how to spell that) ball cap. Which of course G-tot wanted nothing to do with at first. But, after the family had left, he wanted to wear the hat. I took a handful of shots to share with my Dad (Hi, Dad!) to prove that he did wear it before it got too small. These two cracked me up. You have to click on them to get the full effect of these faces. Especially the eyes and mouth.


Have a happy weekend!

super why & princess presto

Look! G-tot and I made the local PBS website! We are picture numbers 145 & 146. And yes, I clicked through the first 144 previous pictures to find us. They are from the Claire's Day event we went to at the end of May. The woman who took the pictures told us they would be online but no other info than that. This past Sunday JQ, G-tot and I went to another PBS event, this time a WGTE funded Share-a-Story day. It was at the station which was cool because JQ and I got to peek in the windows and see some of the studios. Anyway, G-tot had his picture taken again and this time the photographer gave us a slip of paper with the website on it for looking at the pictures. The pictures aren't up from that event yet but with a bit of navigation I found the ones from Claire's Day. How cool!

picnic

My wish for a family picnic came through last night. I never made it to the meat market so we picked up some fried chicken to go, but everything happened as planned. We ate the bacon wrapped cream cheese stuffed jalapeños before we left the house and JQ could not stop talking about them. Looks like we will be making a bunch of them in the near future.

unpacking the basket

JQ almost always makes a funny face when I 'm taking his picture. On purpose.

It's not very often we get to use our fancy picnic basket. I thought picnic time warranted the use of a real picnic basket so I dusted it off and packed it full of all the goodies I mentioned in yesterday's post. Everything was delicious.

Yummy!

The gnats were a bit annoying and at one point when I had tired of their constant buzzing about my food, I yelled to them in disgust, "I will eat you!". Good times. G-tot would not sit still while we were trying to eat (as witnessed below in my awesome stop motion style film) so—in an effort to actually enjoy dinner instead of just chasing after him—we had to bust out the stroller for him to eat at.



One of JQ's friends was playing at another park for their summer concert series last night so after dinner and some playground time we headed over there. The show started at 7 pm and so did the rain. We went up onto the gazebo along with the band right before it started pouring. We had been there about a half an hour when it let up enough that we could make a run for the car. By the time we got home G-tot was exhausted having just experienced his first picnic and first outdoor concert. I love family time.

577 Foundation

Yesterday, G-tot and I took an imprompteau trip to The 577 Foundation. I discovered 577 over a decade ago when my Mom & I attended pottery workshops there. It was there that I first used a potter's wheel. I still have that piece. Actually, we both still have pieces that we made that summer. I saw one of my Mom's pieces in her bathroom a couple of weeks ago.

chasing butterflies in the community gardens

the shade gardens

The 577 Foundation is so much more than just a place to take pottery classes. As there website states, it's "an ecologically sensitive place that encourages diversity and seeks to foster exploration, experimentation, personal enjoyment and creativity in education."

checking out the fish in the biodome pond

my favorite shot—in the honeybee exhibit

The area is full of community gardens, a biodome, an interactive children's garden, an indoor honey bee hive, and an area to dig up real fossils. And that's just a few of the things you can find on the grounds. I had no idea some of those things were there when I decided to take the trip. G-tot wanted to go outside and I wanted him to have a chance to explore something other than the pot of dirt in our backyard. It turned out better than I expected. G-tot got a huge kick out of it and we had a blast. JQ missed out because of work but the three of us will go back soon.

painting with water

playing outdoor instruments—check out the rain wheel on the tree & the giant xylophone in the background

Of course I took a bunch of pictures. 133 do be exact. I'll probably upload the majority of them to flickr at some point, the ones in this post are just a handful of my favorites.

looking at "crystal cave" in the fairy garden

crossing the bridge—vintage style

If you're ever in Perrysburg, Ohio and have a free afternoon I highly recommend it. Not only is it a fun, educational experience for everyone—it's free!

at arm's length

I've gotten really good at taking pictures (that include me in the composition) with an outstretched arm. Apparently, I have just the right amount of arm length to get a decent shot. I took the three photos below on Saturday. Each shot was only taken once. After the snap of the shutter I checked out my handy work on the LCD screen and was happy with that one frame. No repeats necessary. Who needs a tripod/cable release/self-timer anyway?