Sparkle Scarf

December 12, 2012Leave a comment

On a trip to Fancy Tiger a few months back, the girl saw this pretty pretty sparkly yarn and fell in love and wanted a scarf. Given that it’s not exactly cheap, I tied some vague, “you must be good” clause to me getting the yarn for her.

I thought she’d forgotten about it entirely, but then on the way back from the Thanksgiving wedding in Houston, she looked up at me and said, “I be so, so good at Megna’s wedding? Now you buy me that ‘parkly yarn and knit me a scarf?” How could I say no?

Yarn: Knit Pixie Collage

Needles: 19 to cast on, 15 to knit

Pattern: Cast on 30, join in round, knit in garter, cast off. reaaaal complicated.

You can’t see the sparkly goodness in this picture, but trust me, it shimmers. It’s interwoven with a few strands of what seems like gold tinsel.

It took me a few tries to get this right since there’s no real pattern-I really wanted a longer scarf that she could loop once around her head. The first time I finished it, the cast on edge was so tight that I had to unravel the whole thing and cast on with larger needles. Using size 19 needles for anything makes you feel like you’re knitting with broomsticks. It also means that the entire thing took about an hour to knit, which is such instant gratification that I want to make about a million of them.

Here’s a picture of her wearing it that just screams, “Look, I just discovered photo filters!”

4 year old sacrifice

December 10, 20121 Comment

For months, the kids have been doing anything to avoid being a rotten egg. As we go upstairs at night for bath and bed, the boy will scream, “Last one up is a rotten egg!!” and since being a rotten egg is the worst possible thing EVER, both kids will scramble upstairs as fast as they can. Sometimes I’m already halfway up the stairs when the boy darts by and the poor girl is lagging behind. Even though I run AS FAST AS I CAN, somehow I always manage to slip at the last second and the girl ends up on top of the stairs just a split second above me.

I moan, “I’m the rotten egg AGAIN?! I’m always the rotten egg!” and I proceed to weep while both my children roll on the floor giggling loudly.

The other day after running upstairs and me being the rotten egg YET AGAIN, the girl stopped at the top of the stairs. I was kneeling and she put her hands on my shoulders, looked into my eyes, and said, “Mommy, I be rotten egg for you today,” and then gave me a big hug. I almost cried for real-it was one of the sweetest things she could have done.

I’m sure, though, tonight I’ll be back to being the rotten egg as usual.

The Hokey Pokey is Hard

November 9, 20121 Comment

Graduated to the High Bike

October 20, 2012Leave a comment

Big bike!

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Tales From the Backseat of a Minivan

October 9, 2012Leave a comment

Last week, while driving by DU

Me: Kids, did you know President Obama is going to be there tonight?

Girl, angrily: Obama shpends 4 BILLION dollars a day!!!

Boy, yelling: THAT’S NOT TRUE! THAT’S JUST A LIE MITT ROMNEY SAID SO HE WOULD GET ELECTED PRESIDENT! IT’S NOT TRUUUUUUE!

Me: Girl, who are you going to vote for President?

Girl: Mitt Romney! Mitt Romney! Mitt Romney!

Boy, yelling again: HE’S A LIAR!! YOU CAN’T VOTE FOR HIM!! HE’S A LIAAAARRRR!!!

I couldn’t imagine where they had heard any of this since we don’t tune in to commercial TV or radio, and I don’t think I’ve ever said anything about Obama’s spending.

Me: So, where did you hear this?

Boy: Remember the commercials we watched during the Olympics?

Ah, those commercials. 2 MONTHS ago. And apparently since then we’ve had a red state/blue state divide in my own house, and I didn’t even know it.

Aspen Camping

October 2, 2012Leave a comment

I’ve probably mentioned somewhere to most of you that I don’t camp. Humans have evolved to have indoor plumbing, central heat, and carpets and I don’t see any reason why giving that up for “fun” makes any sense.

I may have to rescind that statement after going on an actual camping trip. Now, we did go on a few camping trips before we had kids, and they were fun, but the last time we went camping was when the boy was 18 months old and it was an unmitigated disaster. I know many of you camp with toddlers and purport to have a good time, but I find that the work/fun ratio was too high on the work side to make it enjoyable. Also, he didn’t sleep so we didn’t sleep and it was miserable.

A neighbor family invited us to go camping a few weekends ago, and so we all made it up to a campground just past Kenosha pass. The timing was perfect and we were surrounded by a field of bright yellow aspens.

The first night was freezing, and the ground was hard. I woke up to bruised, cold hips. In the morning, I looked at the tent and saw that the ceiling vents were open, conveniently letting all of the heat out of the tent, which made me feel like a right moron. We fixed it the next night and were quite toasty.

The rest of the weekend was filled with tree climbing, bike riding, fishing, campfires and exploring the wild wild woods next to the site.

Eric worked especially hard during the trip.

On our hike we even found a beaver pond, complete with dam!

It was a great time away and I *might* even be up for some camping trips in the future…as long as I can bring a fluffier air mattress with me next time.

August Garden

August 21, 20125 Comments

Things are looking good!

Bean screen looks lovely and shades the house and since it’s in an area that doesn’t get as many hours of sun it hasn’t burned this year and we’re only now getting lots of green beans.

Cutting more broccoli shoots-we ate the main heads weeks ago.

Jungle like tomato plant

We’ve got corn, but something has been getting into it–gross.

Here’s the disgusting little creature now. What IS that?

Thankfully, there are still a few good ears

The borage flowers are pretty, but what to do with this? Any herbalists with ideas?

And this looks juuust about ripe! We have about 6-7 watermelons this year!

Todays harvest, with a few weeds presiding over them.

Things have been so great this year!

There are a few things I think I’ll move around-like one patch where no veggie has ever thrived, and I’ll definitely make time to get the tomato species I really want next year. While the ones we have now are delicious, the heirlooms we had last year were even better. I also need to invest in better tomato cages. The sad little metal wire cones are not up to the task. The squirrels have unfortunately discovered the butternut squash this year and are chomping away at it, so I may need to get a mesh cover for those that are left. The corn grubs are just gross. And one kale plant for a family of 4 is way, way more than enough kale. While the jalapeno plant did really well, I’m giving up on the bell peppers. Not worth the real estate for the sad few fruits I get, and given that if they were going to do well it would have been this year. I’d rather plant a different tomato plant or eggplant.

Broccoli was fantastic to have, and the eggplant has done really well. The tomatillo plant is just starting to produce fruit, and it’s one of my favorites to have fresh from the garden. Such delicious salsa and sauces!

Now off to cook with all that food-the latest bon appetit has recipes for an eggplant rice bake, kale salad, and grilled corn with herb butter which we happen to have most of the ingredients for after the harvest today! Yum.

Look Who’s Riding a Bike!!!

July 18, 2012Leave a comment

San Francisco

July 15, 2012Leave a comment

We all just got back from a great trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up and where my parents still live. The kids had a great time with Aaji and Aba, ate tons of delicious home cooked food, and loved both the Exploratorium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, places that I have such strong wonderful memories of I was incredibly excited to take the kids to both of them. In fact, when we went to the Aquarium, we took a picture of the boy standing in the same spot I stood in nearly 30 years ago, wearing the Aquarium shirt I bought on that trip. That one is still on my Dad’s camera, so I need to have him send it to me. I’m loving all the trips we’re doing this year and hope to keep taking the kids to more places–in some way, this is my gift to them. Some parents teach their kids music, or sports, or wilderness and nature skills. I have none of these talents. What I DO have is a love of traveling and seeing the world and the luck of having a job that lets me take a lot of trips, and a desire for my kids to know the world outside of their own, something that I think comes directly from my Dad.

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating-I’m really so impressed with the two of them, especially considering that they’re only 4 and 6, and still soldier through these trips, largely uncomplaining. These are not easy trips-the kids are responsible for their carting own luggage through the airport (Skip Hop rolling luggage, by the way, hold enough for a 1 week of kids’ clothes and are easy for them to manage) and have to walk on their own everywhere since I don’t want to deal with a stroller. (Eric might disagree with me on that last one since the girl got her fair share of being carried, but I’d say it was 75% her own feet.) I don’t expect them to remember everything about these trips, of course, but my hope is that once you learn these skills it becomes easier to do more challenging trips in the future and more importantly, they love going places as much as I do.

A few pictures from the trip (click to enlarge)