Refashion Truths.

In preparation for the toys Santa was bound to bring, I asked the kids to go through their rooms and remove the things they no longer wanted or played with. In the middle of the big clean, Blake shyly comes up to me with the cake costume in her hand.

B: "Mom, is it okay if I tell you I don't want this".

V: "Sure honey....But you don't want it for dress up?"

B: "Is it okay if I say that I don't like it?"

V: "Oh my gosh! Did you not like it at Halloween?"

B: "No, I felt silly."

V: "So...you wore it for me?"

B: "I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

[big hugs]

So after I explained to her that it was okay to tell me how she feels about things, we went back to finishing her room. We came across two dresses that she didn't want. Feeling inspired to get my craft on, I decided to do a few refashions...

I took a 4T dress


removed the bodice and added elastic to make a skirt.


I then did the same thing to this dress:


And added some mesh to make it poofy

It didn't take long and when i was done I asked Blake what she thought.

B: "I'm sorry mom but I don't like them."

shoot. Well, at least I've learned my lesson. My daughter has a definite sense of what she likes and what she doesn't. Perhaps the next time I feel inspired, I should just ask what she thinks BEFORE I buy or refashion anything.

Cinnamon Bear

A few nights ago I came home to find Chris and Blake totally enamored with "The Cinnamon Bear". It's a twenty-six chapter holiday radio program originally broadcast in 1937. Blake was amazed that radio was the main entertainment for a family back in the day. She fell in love with Cinnamon Bear and the magical world of Maybeland.

In the days since we've turned on the radio program (thanks internet!), turned off the main lights snuggled on the couch and listened while watching the Christmas tree lights twinkle. It's really been magical and I feel positive this will become part of our holiday family tradition.

So when Chris saw that the Portland Spirit had a "Cinnamon Bear" cruise he had to take Blake! So while I was at work they had a fancy-pants time!

There was, of course Cinnamon Bear:


This picture is dark but we were able to buy a professional shot which seconded as an autograph book.


A few characters were on hand to sign autographs and pose for cute photo ops.


The cost of the ticket included food, drink, and a magic show!


And the view rocked! When all was said and done, Blake said it was the best time ever.

Holiday treats.

It's awesome when kids bring home treats.


Ranen made this at school. So AWESOME!

BTW. Blake's illness only lasted 24 hours. She is doing great and both kids are very excited for Santa's impending visit!

When kids get sick.

Last night we were watching the Phineas and Ferb Christmas special when it happened. Blake refused popcorn. POPCORN. Her favorite thing in the whole wide world. I knew something was up but she had no fever so I took it as her being fickle and we went back to watching the show.

About 10 minutes later, as I was washing dishes, I heard her run to the bathroom. Now as a parent I've been lucky that as a kid Blake has never vomited. It was like she had an iron stomach that could withstand anything.

So it broke my heart to hear her ask, "Mommy? [heave] Am I throwing up? [heave] Am I going to die? [heave]"

Needless to say, she survived the night. She's currenlty napping but as a parent it breaks my heart to see my energetic, spastic kid quiet and so worn out.

Now I'm waiting for the rest of us to join in on the fun! uck.

The Play's the thing.

The play was super amusing, especially with the littlest kids either being super shy on stage or waving frantically when they saw a parent! It wasn't about the sets or the costumes but about the school coming together and doing something fun. A celebration of the Sitton spirit!

I took pictures but they all came out super dark. But I did manage to get a before shot...


I think she was more excited about the "stage makeup" then anything else.

Upcoming...Must See!

Are you in Portland? Are you in the mood to see silly live theater that will melt your heart?

Sitton Elementary is having it's Winter Celebration "Once Upon A Time" this Thursday, December 10th at 6pm. The cost is $1 per family and concessions will be sold.

Blake will be playing a parrot in "The Beautiful Cockroach."

I'm powering up the camera, warming up my spastic clapping hands and preparing my little heart from exploding with the cuteness of it all.

Don't worry...I'll be buying a couple video copies for the grandparents!

Hershey

I would like to introduce you to our newest member of our family....Hershey.


Hershey is a 2 yr old chocolate lab we adopted from a Newberg shelter. And he's GREAT!


The first couple of weeks were all about teaching him the rules of our house and for Noro to show his alpha dog-ness. Now it's just more love to go around. Hershey is still a little skittish when we leave the house, but overall he has no problems putting himself to bed at night when he gets tired or showing us he needs some snuggles.


It's been an adjustment but once you have one, having another dog isn't that much different.

And Noro?



Oh...he still get's plenty of attention!

Halloween 2009

Why did the skeleton go to the butchers? Because he needed some spare ribs!

A kid told me this yesterday and I'm still cracking up! It's a classic I tell ya!

So it's been a crazy couple of weeks and I haven't been inspired to blog because our camera went capo-wee. Anyhoo, that's been fixed...just in time for Halloween!

When I asked the kids what they wanted to be this year Blake screamed out "CAKE" and then Ranen immediately followed with "FLY...to buzz around the CAKE!". So this year I went to work on our first ever home made kid costumes!

The fly:



The cake with her buddy Dessi as Gabriella from High School Musical:


Chris wore his bee costume complete with beer in hand.


And me...well,


I was the spork. You know, to go with the cake!

But the cutest was Noro as a blazer fan!

Busy Week

Last Sunday we got geared up and found our way downtown for the Blazer Family Fun Fest. We were there early enough to get decent seats. The kids had popcorn and we took turns holding the "claw!"


We had Ranen's half brother with us.


Both Blake and I started classes this week. I'm venturing into the land of Capoeira and Blake is taking swim classes. Our goal is to have her swimming by next summer!

Then today we decided to take advantage of the sun and hit the pumpkin patch.

The kids petted some animals.


Then Blake rode on one.


We picked pumpkins and took silly pictures.


It was a fun afternoon but we are exhausted. I think I'll go take a nap now...

when bad knitting happens to good people

There once was a sweater. It had a body, arms and a yoke on it's way to being finished. The owls were half way done when a funny looking stitch was spotted.


Without thinking I tinked back to that stitch and came across something I've never seen before. So I tinked back more stitches and was once again stumped.


I couldn't understand why the yarn came from the left then went back the same direction.

So I decided to rip back completely to that spot to reknit. As I was pulling out the circular, the piece that attaches the needle tip to the cable broke.


As colorful words started to spew out of my mouth I realized that the funky stitch that I saw was a wrapped stitch from the short row shaping. I created this huge mess for nothing. I blame the mass amounts of sugar I consumed that day.

Needless to say, the owl sweater is in time out.

Blake turns 6!

On Saturday my little girl turned 6.


It amazes me to see pictures of her so young. Was she really that small?



Did she really have all that attitude... even at that age?


I wonder where she get's it from? ;-)

Saturday was filled with presents, cake and laughter. We were lucky to have one of Blake's oldest chums over for a play date. This was the first time she had a friend over to play in the new house and she was the perfect hostess showing Katie every toy she owned.

They geeked over making a fort and played in barbietopia that sprung eternal in the room of pink.



Why yes, there are over 30 barbies in that house.


And yes, they are having one heck of a party! And so did my princess.

Only in Portland

conversation had last night.

me: "So honey, what did you do today?"

c: "Oh...you know. I biked naked down Mount Tabor. The Flaming Lips were shooting a music video."

me: "cool...so what do you want for dinner?"

LOL. At least chris wore my hand knit socks during the shoot!!

Monkey Bar Peeps

Yesterday I volunteered at Blake's school for two hours. It was a great time for me to see what goes on in her classroom and for me to get to know the kids a bit more.

Blake made a couple of friends. They hug in the morning when they see each other. My heart just filled up with rainbows and cupcakes when I saw this!!

During recess Blake, who had dressed herself in a wild colorful skirt and black tank-top, started to climb the monkey bars. A boy ran right under her, looked up, than ran away! I couldn't believe my eyes!

Later that night Blake started doing flips off the couch when I saw some blue under her skirt. "Are you wearing Bloomers?" I asked. "Yup." she said matter of fact.

I've never been so proud! Forget about her ability to count to 100 or write out words she sounds out herself. She wore fricken bloomers to protect her underwear from being viewed by little boy eyes!

Awesome!!

First Day of School

Blake's first official day of school was Friday.

I drove her to Sitton Elementary and walked her in. She was nervous. Okay okay... I must admit I was a little nervous as well. We've been to Sitton before on a previous carnival event earlier this year so that part wasn't new for her. It was the kids and the organized chaos that ensued.

After the first bell we walked to Room 1. There were a few other kids there with their families. One thing I love about North Portland is the diversity we have. We heard many languages, saw a lot of different skin tones and even a blue mohawk.

We found her hook to hang her back pack and she picked a spot at one of the four tables to sit in. She was quiet so I was hesitant to leave. But I bucked up, gave her a kiss and hug and backed out of the kindergarten room waving and giving thumbs up the entire way.

When I picked her up she was all smiles. "I LOVE school!!" she yelled. And for the first time this week I relaxed, sighed and enjoyed the moment as she told me about her day.

Ranen turns 10!!

Thursday was Ranen's Tenth birthday. 10. We are talking double digits and it's totally freaking me out.


Ranen isn't a huge fan of cake (i know!) so we opted for donuts and candles in lieu of.

After ice cream and donuts, he opened his presents. As a right of passage, Chris bought Ranen a full stereo set including a turn table.

Chris did an excellent job picking up records that would appeal to a preteen including Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, The Doors and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others.

In the past couple of days we've heard the following from Ranen. "Hey guys, I'm going into my room for a while." followed by heavy metal and the sound of banging feet.

.... and so it begins!

Blake's unofficial start.

Today was the official start of the school year for most kids, but for the kindergarten class at Sitton the first three days are dedicated to one on one assessment meetings with the teacher. I really don't know who was more anxious, Blake or me.


All my worries were for not. She and the teacher got along famously. Blake answered all her questions and showed she was more then ready to be a school kid.

Later I cried. I could blame it on the moon or the hormones, but it was more of a realization that my daughter is about to start a whole new phase in her life. It's scary and awesome all at the same time.

Yaaaarn

Yarn. Oh how do I love thee. And what better way to spend a wonderful afternoon then with great friends, yarn and lots of color!

So this is what happens when someone gives me permanent dye.


Honestly I was a little confused on which direction to go. Part of me wanted perfection. Perfect stripes in multiple colors gently flowing together in a perfect representation of a color wheel. The other part of me wanted to say "frick you perfection!". I wanted to let my hair down and play. So what eventually happened was the mental struggle captured on this blank starting from left to right and ending with Blake's name written on top. How will this knit up as socks? Who knows...but I'm kind of curious to find out!

The next two sock blanks I already had planned in my head. At the sock summit I fell in love with the thought of stripped knee highs. My favorite colors are maroon and green and even though I was risking looking like a walking Christmas advertisement, I went for it.


I don't think this combo will look too christmasy...right? Knee Socks. Rock!

I was a blown away by what my fellow knitters did. The engineer had the most freeflowing and creative samples, the professor had an amazing eye for color, the lawyer had me drooling with her overdye and the teacher kept spitting out color combos that I never would have thought would work...but they did. And they were wonderul. Everyone did amazing work.

So now I need more time to knit. Good thing I finished the promised doggie sweater for Blake's day care provider!




Molly was gracious enough to pose! What a cat!!

Baby Presents

Today we planned on attending the Pumpkin Patch opening of their Trailblazer Corn Maze. Unfortunately it was a downpour this morning and as much as we are hard core Portlanders who are not afraid of a little rain, cold mud on the other hand didn't sound as much fun as bowling.

Blake dressed herself. And Ranen ended up beating my score.


I also finished a gift package for Chris's band mate who is expecting a child at the end of this month.


The highlights:

A self screenprinted onesie with the band's logo on the front.

And their tagline on the butt. I know...chris made me do it!


I also made a stuffed elephant.


There's an embroidered heart on the front and the Pan's symbol on the butt. I was inspired by Care Bears.


And of course, the Norwegian Sweet Cap...modeled here by Blake's baby doll.


Since we don't know the sex of the baby I kept the colors as neutural as I could. Everything is machine washable...a must for babies. I hope they like it!

Newfie Legend

Did you know that Lewis and Clark had a Newfound named Seaman?




Yeah, Newfies are great. Nothing like a bit of BIG Newfoundland love!!