Post 2 of 2 - Knitting!

What I've mostly been knitting for the past two weeks is Swiffer covers - now I need to sew buttons on them. But, on Monday I recieved a box in the mail - it was the DishRagTag!

Here's what was in the box (not including the instructions and cards):

There was a lovely cotton dishcloth, in the official pattern of DishRagTag2009, yummy bath salts, and (not pictured) a ball of red, white and blue striped cotton yarn.

The left-over yarn, after I knit a dishcloth out of the striped cotton, is in this picture, along with the dishcloth itself, a tin of mints that went inside the box when I sent it, and a new ball of cotton yarn.



I stayed up way too late knitting it, but, not counting the interruptions, it only took 2 or 3 hours to knit. fun!

Post 1 of 2 - Birthday!

Little J's birthday was a lot of fun! In a grand family tradition, his mommy and daddy procrastinated until the last minute, but I think the cake was a success (at least with the little people), and that's what counts.

This was the cake that I made for Little J's birthday cake. Big J saw it online, and pointed it out to me, months ago. When Little J saw the picture, he asked, "Me have shark cake?" (over and over, and over...) So, I had to fufill his little heart's desire, and make him a shark cake. The only difficulty, was that Little G was trying to blow out the candles before Little J got a chance!




We did eventually manage to convince the girl that she should wait for her brother to blow out the candles, but it was difficult :D

The cake was yummy. I used a recipe from King Arthur Flour's website for a vanilla pound cake, store bought vanilla frosting (note to self: it melts when it gets too warm) and we had chocolate ice cream with it.



And, after cake and ice cream, there were presents! Little J had already received a wooden train set from Aunt R and Uncle D (Thank You! The kiddos play with it quietly) and a card with money from his Grandma and Grandpa. Mommy had a Ravensburger puzzle with a Papo knight figure, and a Ben10 sticker book for him, and daddy picked out a SharkAttack hotwheels car playset for Little J. So, not too many toys for mommy to find places for, but enough to make him happy.


And, even Big J liked playing with the sticker book...

feeding frenzy, radishes, and a new vaccum

This post is a bit random, it covers different things that have happened...

I fixed up lunch for the kiddos, and here is Little G dipping her fingers in ketchup, peanut butter, and yogurt. She prefers the yogurt, her brother likes ketchup better. The yogurt and ketchup were intended to be for dipping tortilla pieces. Below is a picture of the tortillas, I made snowflakes for the little kids. They thought it was so cool!







And, Big J's parents sent the kids presents from Thailand! Below is a picture of Little J and Little G wearing native Thai costumes. Little J and G like them because the clothes are jingly - there's little bells sewn on.

I tried my aunt's recipe for microwave pickles last weekend, and I'm not sure it turned out right. First, the recipe is for pickling onions, not for radishes. But I really love pickled radishes, so I thought I would try (it took trips to two seperate grocery stores to find the ingredients.) Then, I missed the step that said to COVER the container before microwaving. Big J complained about the smell of vinegar in the kitchen. He's the sensitive sort. The radishes looked beautiful at the halfway mark, when I stirred them, and the liquid had already become a lovely clear red, but after 10 minutes of microwaving, the radishes are all shriveled and cooked! AuntR, did I do this right?

Tonight, we had a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman come by and give us a demonstration. He was very good at his job, and the vacuum was very good at it's job. He left us with a new vacuum, and removed our old vacuum, just like magic. Big J and Little Sister are very excited, and have all sorts of plans for vacuuming and shampooing the carpets. I can't wait (to have them vacuuming for me!). Hopefully, this more efficient vacuum will decrease the allergens in the house and help with Big J's allergy symptoms.

more updates since moving

ah, i haven't posted for a while, have I? well, Big J arrived at the airport safe and sound last weekend. For a while, we were afraid that he wouldn't get to us until the next day. He had missed a connection, and although the airline put him on standby, they weren't sure if there would be room, and the next flight would arrive the next morning. Flying standby DID work, and I picked him up and he arrived home around midnight. Yay!

Since then, we've opened boxes, bought a king size bed, cleaned water out of our basement carpet (It rained. Lots. Jay's theory is that it seeped under the back door, but I'm not sure... So now we own a dehumidifer and a shop vac. Home Depot is very useful.) and I've seen a couple of movies.

Ponyo, by Miyazaki, was very cute. It's loosely based on "The Little Mermaid" fairy tale, but with Studio Ghibli's japanese sensibility. I really liked the little fish-girl, with her chicken legs and stick figure arms. And the mother that explains she makes milk for her baby. :) And, the music score includes Wagner's (I think) "Ride of the Valkyries". Love that song! (and the ending Ponyo song sticks in my brain...)

I'm almost done with my watermelon socks! Yay! and thank the little knitting gods, because I am getting so sick of that project. Double knitting is not for me. Yes, I can do it, and yes, I'm probably getting pretty fast (or I was, before I reached the ribbing) but i truly hate having to do twice the amount of work for apparently half the result. I have my next project planned, actually, I need to make Christmas stockings. Like the ones I've made for Little Sister and Little J, the littlest girl and my husband and I need our own. Hmm...i wonder what box that pattern is in?

My little boy, ready for school!

This was Little J's first week at preschool, and he's had a great time. Playground, new toys, lots of boys and girls to play with, it's perfect!

Little J is enrolled at a Montessori preschool, that's not-too-far away from us. He's attending three days a week, for half a day(mornings). That's all I could convince myself to start with, both budget-wise, and seperating from my first-born child. Once I have a grasp on actual expenses, and I see how Little J handles it (and how well it works out for for his Mommy and Little G) , we might increase the number of days per week.

So far, I've been able to do the waking up early and dressing everyone without too much frustration in the morning. The only issue has been that I am absolutely exhausted by bedtime. well, by suppertime. And, I've considered a nap, but the little ones are falling asleep at 4:30, and if I fall asleep when they do, we won't wake up in time to make a reasonable supper, or go to bed early enough to wake up the next morning. (I would love to be one of those people who can function on only 4 hours of sleep.)

It's only going to get worse, I'm afraid. Little Sister started highschool (eek! she's HOW old??) this week too, and because the school dosen't have any busing (really. none at all) I need to be awake to drive her to school. and that's even earlier than we leave for Little J's preschool. So, I can either have everybody dressed and fed by that time (by waking up an hour earlier), or we can all be in pj's to drop her off at school. Hmmm...think she'll be embarrassed if we're in pj's?