Day of crafts part 2

For me, I have been thinking about making myself a lunch box for ... well, since I made the girls their lunch boxes in August.

I've been using one of the little purses I made the girls back in Sept 2008, sometimes C's, mostly Q's (becaues C6 actually has things in hers, I think, and Q has just let hers float around the house). The bag is OK, but a little small, and a little floppy, and a little bit not mine.

After making the girls their lunch boxes last August, I've delayed. I wasn't sure I wanted it just like theirs. Or in the same fabric. Why have THREE nearly identical lunch boxes that C41 can't tell apart? (I've since had to embroider a Q on Q's handle, and a heart on C's).

SO, I had the idea to use some lovely chinese-style fabric from a worn out dress-up dress and use that to make my lunch box. But it just didn't come together.

But this did, instead:


What makes this better is this:


Inside the bag is a sewed-in "cover" that has drawstrings ... I wanted a different fabric, but didn't have another that complemented as well, and so this one it was. It turned out acceptable. I'm very happy with it, we'll see how well it carries lunch. It was designed specifically to be able to fit a bento box in it, so it may be something the girls get next year.

Q4 looked at it this morning and suggested that she and I swop lunch boxes. Not a chance.

Day of crafts

A few years ago M42 gave C6 a the "Best Ever Craft Book for Kids." The book languished a bit, I think C6 was too small at the time.

However, recently I pulled it out and suggested that Q4 find a craft she wanted to do. She marked about 20 pages, and yesterday morning started going through the crafts to find one where we already had all the supplies.

Which turned out to be a cooking craft, of course. Homemade peppermint patties. I've made these before (from a different but very similar recipe), so I knew how easy they were.



We had a great time rolling out and cutting the "dough" (although it was quite difficult to keep from eating it). And then the chocolate ... C6 missed the chocolate dipping, much to her disappointment, because she chose to continue reading instead of cleaning her room, so by the time she left her room after quiet time the mints were all dipped.

Here are the girls, Q4 chewing a mint, C6 looking at the book:



I'll post later about what I made.

Belle's Ball

Saturday night the town hosted a "Belle's Ball" party for the 4-10 year old set. Last year we went to the Alice in Wonderland Tea, which was loads of fun.

The party started slow, but as children arrived it really picked up quite a bit. No tiaras this time, and I forgot the camera (D'oh!) but some friends took some photos of the kids and me for us.

C6 & Q4 both wore their long hoop skirts (C6's was under her dress that looks like a cupcake to me), and necklaces.



And they asked me to dress up, too, so I had a dress on, although you can't really see it here.



They both had a good time, although C6 complained that it was too loud (Uh, yeah it was, it was a dance party) and Q4 was quite upset that there were no images of Belle (from Beauty and the Beast). Rather than attempt to go into copyright laws with her I tried to suggest that if BELLE had a ball, it might look like the place did ... all yellow (for Belle) and purple (for the Beast), balloons and whatnot, not with images of herself everywhere. That didn't fly so much with Q4, but she survived.

We stayed about an hour and a half then Q4 told me she was ready to go home and C6 readily consented.

Springy

Last week we had increasingly springy weather, culminating in a joyous amazing day of about 70 degrees. The kids spent most of the afternoon outside.

I couldn't get a decent shot of C6. She scrunched her eyes, she made double chins, she waggled. Whatever. It wasn't pretty. But we got one shot of her with a crocus. She's been identifying every single flower in our yard (and the yards of our neighbors). The crocus, the snowdrops. Soon it will be forsythia.




Q4 was on form, however, and I got lots of nice shots of her.

Visit

We had a little burst of spring last week. ME64 was here, and we didn't do a whole lot of exciting things.

But ME64 took C6 to the Museum of Natural History one day, and then spent a day doing arts and crafts and reading with Q4.

Here are some of their doings.

A foam mosaic:



A decorated toilet box:



And they made oatmeal/dried fruit cookies, which I have not made for C41 for TWO years! The reason I have not made him cookies for two years is because he refused to call somebody to fix the bathroom. Refused is a strong word, but his inability to see all the moving parts that might happen during this process resulted in the same thing: no bathroom fix. So, as you can see from yesterday, I called, it took 3x as long to fix up as they anticipated, probably 3x as much money, and I don't care.

But no picture of the cookies. We ate them all.

Bathroom update

We are --FINALLY-- almost done. Just one hole in the wall to be patched, a new toilet seat to be bought (the plumber scratched our new one). Maybe painting, maybe not.

The tile is clean, new, unbroken, not rocking, and so solid. The pipes are now below the floor boards. Old galvanized pipes -- starting to leak -- have been removed and replaced with lovely lovely hidden copper ones.

I love the sink even more in my bathroom than in the store. It is a beautiful, small (but deepish) sink, not a particle-board piece of crap box that is flush with the door. I love my new sink. Best part of the bathroom.

And the toilet. My criteria was threefold: The best most powerful flush we could find (I'd go with institutional flush if I could), white, and round seat, not elongated. We got all three and the toilet is clean, flushes well, and sits just fine.


Yes, you can see the pipes. I still love it.



Come visit and flush!

New dresses from the thrift store

One crazy Hanna Anderson for C6, and one crazy polyester extravaganza for Q4. They love them. A good $2.40 spent.

Dust

The house is dusty. I think I've washed the floor twice every day since Monday. Ug. It is foul.

And here is why:





The floor in the bathroom has been ripped out to repair the rocking floor set in 4 inches of concrete, in which was embedded some galvanized steel pipes that were starting to go. By go I mean rot, leak, crumble. So, this whole tear up the floor replace the pipes and lay down new tile? A good thing.

It isn't done, but the tile is laid.


Nothing is square, nothing.


But the black and white looks good (it was black and light green before), it will be clean, not broken, and so solid. And not embedded in 4 inches of concrete.

Grouting tomorrow. Unfotunately this means sharing a bathroom with Meme while she is here. Many apologies to her.

Common sense

Or lack there off.

Last night Q4 poked herself in the eye so hard she cried for a solid 15 minutes, covering her eye with her hands. A lot of crying. Because she poked herself in the eye. On purpose, I think.

On the other hand, C6's standardized test scores were verbal 99 and nonverbal 99 total 99 (that is percentile across the US) ... which were, her teacher said, the highest she'd ever seen. And the highest the specialist in school has ever seen. Just had to brag here a bit to make up for the other child who poked herself in the eye.

Please just let me gloat for a moment, ok? Thanks.

Girls

Have you been wondering what we've been doing?
School, swimming, baking, coloring, making things.

In fact, you can see some of that coloring on Q4's fingers.

You won't find it on her floor. No, because we washed it off. Mostly. But it wasn't easy. I KNOW it was an accident (it had that just a FLICK off the page quality to it) but I can't say I was pleased to see it. And when she was told to wash it up, she took a facecloth to wash it. When confronted with that reality she said, "But I'm not using hand soap!" True, and a step above what C6 and her friend C7 did the other week, pretending to be prairie girls washing the floor with hand soap and faceclothes.

You can see what C6 made here. A hat of sorts.

But mostly she's been making clothes for her dogs, Dotty and Spotty. The dalmation cousins. Family names. Cashmere hats, sweaters, scarfs, and a raincoat out of the snowskirt materials. Nice.