Lowly Worm

Tyler really likes Richard Scarry books, with a particular interest in Lowly Worm and Huckle (cat). I decided to make him a stuffed Lowly and Huckle for Christmas. Lowly is made from felt with some sort of electrical wiring inside of him, courtesy of Jeff. The wire makes him completely pose-able! Wee! I finished off his hat with a feather I scrounged from the chicken coop. You can check out the gory details on my craft blog, in case you have the random urge to create a stuffed worm yourself. :)

In other news, Jeff called today to tell me he was cruising through the ghetto near Temple University (bad neighborhood) when he saw two white horses tied up in an abandoned lot between row houses, grazing on the weeds. How weird is that?!

Every Cowboy Needs a Horse (An Ode To Patty, The Stickhorse)

James and Patty

Since James has been a very wee lad, he has been into everything cowboy/farm/horse. He was about 18 months old when he found a pair of cowboy boots in the closet. They were hand-me-downs from my 6 year old nephew. He didn't care that they were way too big. He insisted on wearing them every day, until  his Auntie bought him a pair that actually fit. He has since gone through many pairs of boots, two pairs of chaps, a plethora of Wranglers and Western shirts. Never has he strayed from his interests. In fact, he thinks dinosaurs and Super Heroes are boring and 'dumb'. When he was about two, I found a stick horse at a yard sale for about a buck. It had already been loved, but it was still in nice shape. Little did I know that my $1 stick horse would be used and loved for another 4 good years. 'Patty,' as she was called (from Laura Ingalls) has been through a lot. She has been left in the yard, fought over by visiting friends, and suffered more than her fair share of injuries. It is always tricky when we have friends over, because to James, Patty is not a toy. She is his horse. He don't take too kindly to someone wanting to ride his horse. Usually Patty ended up being put away til the company left. For quite some time, James would tether her to the end of his bed, in her 'pasture', and leave her grass to eat when he went to bed. He would stop at the creek when we took a walk to 'water' her. He would pick her 'hay' (grass) in the yard. He turned the playhouse into his stable. Patty was well loved, and (usually) well taken care of. In an unfortunate turn of events, Patty recently found herself in need of a transplant. You see, her stick was battered, bent and sticking out of the fabric. I performed the surgery and gave her a new implant. It worked, for a while. Over time, the implant started coming out again. Around the same time, Patty's harness broke and her insides started coming outside. Her battery pack was hanging forlornly out of a seam. While technically I probably could have fixed her, it was more effort than I cared to expend on poor Patty. James, however, was not happy about the lack of a horse. He needed a horse, and stat!! I headed to the Devil's Lair, also known as Toys R Us. (I hate that place!!) I found a box o' stick horses, and picked through until I found one that I thought was semi-decent. (Why does everything have to be made of plastic and break in 3 days?!) I was hoping that James could except this replacement for his beloved Patty. I was a little skeptical. It was sure not love at first sight. He looked at her, turned her around, and was kind of indifferent. I talked her up, and he eventually came around. He took her out in the yard for a gallop. She threw him off. He declared her 'faster than Patty.' Now, he and the new stick horse are in the 'getting to know you' stage. He says he has to get used to her. You know, they have to learn to work together, the man and his horse. Since Saturday, James and the new horse have had barrel races, bucking rides, and time in the barn. Yesterday, he declared that she is a he, and his name is Little Red. Phew! He has accepted the new stick horse as his own. Sorry, Patty. I will put your disemboweled carcass to rest in James' memory box, right next to the tiny cowboy boots and mini-Wranglers.

P.S. We are watching Sid the Science Kid's show about recycling, and they showed what looked disturbingly like a bottle of Crown Royal in the glass recycling bin. Why???

Change O' Plans

Despite having lots of plans for the week, we are all hanging out at home still in our jammies. The kids all have a cold, nothing really bad, but James and Katie have pink eye. I am pretty sure Tyler is working on a case of his own, so I am also giving him the drops. Our nice doctor prescribed drops that I could use for all the kids. Giving eye drops to three kids is something special, I tell ya! It involves pinning down flailing arms and legs, prying open eyelids and trying to make a single drop of medicine go in their actual eye. My copay for one teeny, tiny bottle was $35 so each drop probably costs me about $2. Ha!  Despite their sickness, they are quite active and in need of entertainment. My goals for today involve keeping them alive, possibly entertained, making some bread, a nap-time skype date, and finishing a bendable Lowly Worm doll for Tyler's Christmas present. (How's that for a random craft to make!) We'll see how it goes...

A Space Of His Own

In the past several months, James has been getting more and more frustrated at the lack of his own space. The kind of space where he could set things up just the way he wanted without his younger siblings trashing it. Since we don't have a lot of space, I thought there was just no remedy for the situation. It dawned on me one day that I could probably use the space under my stairs. I moved the stuff that was in there up into Katie's closet, and we turned the closet under the stairs into an 'office' for James. He loves it! He has a library that he has carefully arranged and labeled. Each book has a number on it that corresponds with the shelf that it belongs on. We are allowed to check out books. He will also make recommendations on what he thinks we would like to read. He has also carefully decorated his mini-man-cave with his favorite memorabilia: cap guns, his drawings, and his firetruck turned eraser holder. Having this space seems to be a big boost for him. If he is having a rough time, he will often disappear into his office to do a little 'work' and have a little time to himself.

One Of Our Favorite Places

On Saturday, Jeff had a lot of school work to do. It involved equations so crazy they include Greek symbols and require multiple pages just to house one equation. My brain hurts just thinking about it. He needed a little peace and quiet, so I loaded up the kids and hauled them off on an adventure. We first went to the feed store, you know...to pick up a 50 pound bag of layer feed. I love the feed store and I'm glad I have an excuse to go there. It is one of those crammed-to-the-gills-with-stuff places where the people are actually friendly. After scoring ourselves some chicken pellets, we went to the Covered Bridge. It was a busy day, and we spotted lots of horses, which of course made James' day. I also took along a picture frame to play around taking the kids' pictures. I am so out of practice with photography, but I am not going to worry about it. Tyler made sure to get as close as possible to every drop-off he could find, just to give me a heart attack, I'm sure. The kids loved to run in the wide open spaces and play in the tall grass. Of course, it made me wish for the milltionth time that we had ourselves a big piece of land somewhere.

As Usual: Pictures I Should Have Posted Last Week

Katie playing outside early in our October snow storm. Notice that she is wearing footie pajamas, rubber boots, and Tyler's coat. I REFUSE to dig out the winter gear already!

James the Cowboy (or the Gold Miner..ha, ha!) at his Halloween Parade. This is the view he gave me when he walked past. Nice...

Look! He took his finger out of his nose long enough to give me a courtesy smile.

(As usual I am posting pictures way past the time of their actual relevance. Oi! Better late than never.)

Tyler Has Chicken ESP

Yesterday I heard that Tyler had woken from his nap. I went in there to get him and he quickly climbed up on the railing of his crib and stuck his face through the curtains. He kept pointing and saying something, over and over. I realized he was saying 'chicky outside, Mom, chicky outside.' I had let them out into their bigger (but fenced in) area, so I just nodded my head in agreement and got him off the crib rail. As soon as I put him down he went running for the backdoor, again saying 'chicky outside, Mom!!!!!!!' I followed him out to see what he would do and he made a beeline for my garden and went around the corner. There was Pippy, who had apparently flown over the fence in search of greener pastures. I have no idea if he heard her from his room or if he saw her out the window, but he just knew that she was out. He scooped her right up to put her back with the others. I think he may have a future career someday as a chicken whisperer. I hear there is a high demand for those these days. :)

'School' Day for Katie

 Last week was my week to teach our little preschool group, and I used it as an excuse to do as many fun crafts as possible! Are you surprised? We made leaf prints in model magic clay, painted jack-o-lantern candle jars, and painted backgrounds for their silhouettes. We also read two really fun books, Harold and the Purple Crayon and Are You My Mother?. It was quite a lot of fun!

Where's My Vacation?

This weekend was crazy. Friday night we took the kids to a hockey game in Trenton, NJ. Jeff's coworker gave us tickets to go. We parked in a shady parking lot in the shadow on the NJ prison. That made me feel all warm and fuzzy. The kids found it highly amusing every time the players would crash into the walls or each other. We left half way through the hockey game when the kids started to get tired. On Saturday, we had snow. In October. Yikes! Sunday was pretty much uneventful (if I remember correctly...its all blurring together now). Oh, yes, I did sew an entire western shirt for James. Then, Halloween. Yes. James went as a cowboy (surprise!), Katie as a princess (again...surprise!!) and Tyler went as....himself. Until, that is, I recruited Jeff to strong-arm him into a cute pumpkin costume. It was actually pretty funny to see a spitting mad little munchkin running around screaming in a pumpkin costume. He finally got over it when we waved a tootsie roll in front of him. We took the kids to a few neighbors to trick-or-treat then came home and went to bed. And that's when it started. Tyler cried and screamed pretty much the whole night. I don't know if he got any sleep, which means I didn't either. I have no idea if it was candy-overload, too much excitement, something scary, or what. All I know is that now, I need a vacation. Somewhere where I can sleep uninterrupted for a whole night.

Snow

Its hard to believe but we got a snow storm yesterday. While it only dropped about two inches of heavy, wet snow, it was quite out of the ordinary. We haven't even had a real frost yet! Fortunately, we were unaffected by the storm. We did hear, however, that only a few miles from us there was a 30 car pile up early this morning, and two people died in a separate accident nearby.

James' School Report

I am happy to say that James has been happily trotting off to school the last several weeks without any problems. He has yet to have a bad day at school, saying each day was super! fantastic! spectacular! He is making friends and has sadly learned about 5 ways to make fart noises from his friends. Friends...He has friends! Little people his age, who sit around and laugh like little old men at the thought of bacon, or their little brothers riding on motorcycles or teaching each other various ways to make the aforementioned noises. Among James' friends, there are a few girls. One little girl sits at his table, and she always says 'bye' to him when she leaves. The other day, she said goodbye and James just stuck his head down and wouldn't respond. When we got in the car, he threw a paper up in the front seat that had hearts all over it. Well, let me tell you....how fast can you say 'handsoffmysonlittlekindergartengirl!!!' Alas, James informed me that she had made pictures for several of the kids, but I do think he was a little embarrassed by it. Today his teacher called to give us a mini-progress report. He hit way above the benchmark for identifying letter sounds, and above benchmark and average for letter recognition. No surprise, she said he likes to ask questions to make sure he heard things right. She also said he always behaves, which of course was good to hear. I think James' primary concern right now is learning to read. He wants to read so badly!

Tyler and Wasabi Peas

Jeff brought some wasabi peas home from work yesterday. Tyler wanted to try one. He made a really awesome face when the heat hit him, then chugged on his sippy cup. Then he went for another, and another, and another. He must have eaten at 20-25 of them. After each one, he would take a drink and then slam back another one. It was so funny (and unbelievable) that we had to take a video.

13 Years

On this day back in 1998, we had our first date. Jeff was a whopping 17 years old and I was robbing the cradle at 18 years of age. Its a wonder Jeff ever wanted to see me again after he saw my car. It was pretty awesome the way the wiring was all funky. The horn would honk if I pushed the blinker wrong, or randomly when I was shifting gears. Yes, it was a standard transmission. You could also electrocute yourself if you touched the horn and the window trim at the same time. I used to occasionally leave me keys in the ignition with the doors unlocked, but still, no one ever stole it. It was with that car that we went on our first date. Sweet ride, eh?

Houston, We Have An Egg!

Big Martha, the last of the chickens, finally laid an egg!!! I was quite excited to find an 'easter egg' in the nest box on Saturday. She had been hanging out in there, squawking away, and I just knew she would lay an egg. We can't decide whether it is considered green or blue...but its cool, none the less. 

My Husband Can Beat Up Your Husband

 Jeff informed James today that he could rip a Philadelphia phone book (~3" thick) in half. I laughed. I figured he was just messing around. Well, we found a dusty and unloved phone book in the garage. Does anyone use a phone book anymore? Anyway, Jeff went to work trying to rip the phone book in half. It was pretty amusing, really. There was a lot of grunting involved, but not a lot of anything else. The phone book remained in tact. Of course, I was really laughing at this point. I just knew he couldn't do it. He replied with a 'You don't think I can do it? Just watch me!' After expending quite a bit of effort, a small crack appeared in the phone book. I was still skeptical. Jeff kept at it and sure enough, he ripped the phone book in half! Consider me officially impressed (and proved wrong). I think we make quite a pair. Jeff can rip a phone book in half and I am armed with a monster rolling pin. ha, ha!!

Good Surprise/Bad Surprise

I found this picture on the camera. Jeff must have taken it. Good surprise!

I found 4 eggs in the chicken coop yesterday, which means that Chicken DUMBpling laid an egg! Woo! I thought for sure that chicken was going to take years to lay. She has a tiny comb and is dumber than a box of rocks. Poor thing can't figure out how to get back in the run, even after she watches the rest of them run in. She never roosts to sleep. She just conks out on the floor, sometimes on the lawn mower. She always gets pushed aside when they get 'treats.' But! She laid an egg yesterday. Good surprise!

...and then...the bad surprise. I got out of the shower and heard Tyler at the door saying something that sounded suspiciously like 'I pooped on Katie's floor.' Turns out, he did. Bad surprise! Aren't you glad I didn't post a picture of that one?

The Coat

 This is my cheesy 'are you taking a picture or not????' smile

Here is the coat I finished! Thanks Jeff for not telling me the collar was flipped up. ;) The nitty gritty details are on the crafty blog.

Tyler and His Chickies

I Could Get Used To That

For the first time since we started our preschool 'co-op,' today was my day to be footloose and fancy free. Last week Tyler faked me out with a stuffy nose, so I kept him with me. Did he end up getting sick? Of course not. He was a little peach, though. Anyway, to spend my 1.5 hours of kid-less time, I decided to stop at Home Depot and get a can of spray paint. It is for a project that could turn out very nice, or very ugly. Four dollars are on the line here, folks. We'll see. Side note: I must be getting old. They let me buy the paint without checking my driver's license. Little to they know I will be out tagging railroad cars tonight with my robin's egg blue rustoleum!!! Just kidding. Was I going somewhere with this? Oh, yes, my morning off. After procuring said spray paint, I headed over to Barnes and Noble where I got myself a cup o' peppermint tea and plopped myself down with a few books from the Art section. It was nice. I do feel sad to see that B&N has deteriorated to a run-down looking version of its former self. The chairs were literally threadbare, with stuffing protruding from the arms. I opted for the (hopefully) less germ-infested wooden chairs, only a short distance away from a shoeless man sleeping in a chair. Not sure what that was about, but hey, I got to drink an entire cup of tea while it was still hot!

A Questionable Way To Entertain Your Children

It's even more fun when you can roll Dad in the barrel!

Go-Cart!

James has been wanting a go-cart for a looooooooong time, relatively speaking. He is 6, afterall.

 We found the plans from Family Fun, which is one of my favorite magazines.

The other day we measured and marked out the sides, seat and seat back. James loved it! He didn't even realize he was practicing handwriting. Sneaky mom.

Today I am hoping we can cut out the pieces. Wish me luck! My building credentials are limited to being an honorary gusset inspector at the ripe old age of 8-ish, and building the chicken coop. The plans do look very straightforward, though, so I think we can do it! If not, we'll recruit Jeff to bail us out!

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Some of the goods

Last week we went to Lancaster and I bought, oh...a wee bit of fruit. Six half bushels of apples, a half bushel of pears and about eight pounds of Concord grapes. I made jam with the grapes, dried some of the pears and canned the rest, by way of Vanilla Pear Butter and Honey Vanilla Pears. Over the past week I have been doing the apples, and on Saturday my friend Jess came over and we kicked some major canning booty! All told, we got 34 quarts of applesauce, 18 pints of spiced apples and apples leftover for whatever ails ya. While I was cranking away at the applesauce, Jeff-the-engineer decided to make some sweet mods to my food strainer. After threatening reminding him not to permanently modify anything, he got to work. Next thing you know, I was cranking that bad boy with the cordless drill. Wee! That made things go quick. Super Jeff, to the rescue!

Cordless Drill Modifications!

The little puppy dog waiting for me to spill some (either that, or he's trying to figure out how to take the thing apart and build a bomb with it....yeah, that could be it. He is Jeff's son, after all.)

Random Chicken Picture: they are obsessed with toes! Actually, anything that looks like food is on their list of targets.

Random Randomness

• I am nearly finished making myself a double-breasted fall coat! I never thought coat making was within my capabilities, but apparently I was wrong. Pictures to come.
• James gave me approximately half a kiss when he went to school today. Was this the same kid who was crying everyday up until last week?! 
• Katie has turned our kitchen table into her own personal art studio. She made me 15 cards yesterday, no joke...I counted. There are about 9 million little shards of paper on my floor. 
• Tyler found the markers and 'decorated' the cedar chest. Um, thanks?
• We are having the most beautiful weather today. I think I should go outside and plant my garlic.
• In keeping with my morbid curiosity with polygamy, Jeff and I watched the second season of Sister Wives last night, courtesy of the library. It was just as weird as I expected.
• Our dryer is broken and I have an abnormally large backup of laundry. If I go missing, tell Jeff to look for me under the towering pile of princess undies and cowboy clothes. This could get ugly.

Brothers

James holding his sleeping brother's hand

James and Tyler on the way back from Lancaster

The boys found a wagon to climb on

And a picture of Katie for good measure!

Art Lessons!

Today marked the official start of our unofficial art lessons. We booked it back from school to find the kids arriving at the house. There were soon 6 excited kids running around my front yard screaming like banshees. Eric saw the ensuing chaos and jumped ship, or rather drove off in his speedy blue mini van. (Candi, you should have heard those tires squealing! Just kidding :) We got right down to business and started our project. When I saw the idea for this one I knew we had to try it. Here are a few pictures of the chaos fun.

 Noah

 Amanda

 James (he better not flash that look for school pictures tomorrow!)

 Katie

 Emma

 The Gang, minus Tyler

 Cheese! (James did NOT want his picture taken)

 Katie, on the other hand...

 Take my picture!!

 Emma and Katie

 Amanda

P.S. I forgot to take pictures of the finished craft. Duh! You can click on the link to see what it is supposed to look like. We took sandwich bags filled with red/yellow/orange hole punches and taped it into the window, so the leaves would 'fall.' They turned out really cute.

Afterward, the kids collected eggs from the coop and Noah grilled me on how chickens have babies. It was awesome. It went something like this:

Noah: Can we keep the eggs? We can't eat them because they are going to turn into baby chickens, right?
Me: No, you need a rooster to have baby chickens.
Noah: Huh? Why?
Me: Well, you have to have a mommy and a daddy chicken to have baby chickens.
Noah: Why do you need a mommy AND a daddy?
Me: Ask your dad.

I Hereby Dub Thee....

Tyler...the Pocket Sized Dictator. Tyler has been getting up at odd hours of the night, crying. Not really loud crying, but crying none the less. The trouble is, if I don't get him almost immediately, he will wake the other two first. Katie is particularly sensitive to noise when she is sleeping. There is nothing quite like having two kids up at the same time, crying. I try to avoid it. That leaves me with one option, at least for a sleep deprived mother. Plop the kid in bed next to me and go back to sleep. After all, he is pretty darn comfy to snuggle with. The trouble is that he is used to his crib, and seems to sleep better in there. When he is with us, he will sleep, wake up, sit up and say 'Mom,' then sprawl out on top of me and say 'tickle,' at which point I tickle his back and he falls asleep. Ten minutes later he wakes up again, and sure enough, he would like the same treatment he received earlier, with a side of snuggles on top please. At some point, he may scoot himself up so far that he falls, head first, into the crack between the bed and the wall. I wake up in a haze, see two feet sticking up from the edge of the bed, fish him out and settle him back down. This routine really has got to stop, but I don't think the Pocket Sized Dictator minds it too much. I had to remind myself this morning that every time I get to the point of thinking 'What in the world can I do? This has to stop! I'm going to lose my mind!!! Is it OK to give him horse tranquilizer?!?!?!?' that is when they go back to sleeping all night. Let's hope that it holds true this time.

In other Tyler news, he is talking up a storm and is quite adept at telling us what he wants (another reason for the new moniker). Some recent Tyler quotes:

Scoop me up! Hold me.

My blankie fell off (for the 1000th time). Wrap me up, peas!

No, I don't want that!

Put me down, Mom!

I want yogurt, and pea-butter. (he would live off that if he could)

No, Kay-ee, eee, eeeee!!!


And in other news all together , James went to school today with NO CRYING, no anxiety, no stress. Woooohooooo!!!!!! Thank you Lord!