kirstencan

Spaceman room

We've given Thomas' room a little update:

My friend, Whitney, made these rocket and number vinyl stickers for me based on the pattern in this fabric I bought to make his new curtains.  I love this fabric. 

I love any cool 'boy' fabrics!

I got him the IKEA rocket pockets (which, by the time I made up my mind to get them were on clearance for $2.99) to store his little stuffed toys.

The original border was something my sister helped me paint on his wall when he was a baby.  Moons and stars.  Very sweet, but he's not a baby anymore.  I thought adding the rockets might make it 'cooler' without having to repaint his room.

Here's the little brother drooling over the Star Wars Poster.

The other framed Star Wars pictures are pages from DK Star Wars books in inexpensive IKEA frames.  He's still using the $5 quilt on his bed, but most days we flip it over to a solid blue to match a little better.

His hanging chair and space figures fit in perfectly, too.

I think it's a fun little update to his room.  He likes it, too.

First day of school!

It started off sweet:

And just kept getting better.

 

I kind of can't believe how well our first day went.

 

 

A sweet end to a sweet day.  And a big relieved sigh from the mama.

 

(What?!  You don't feed your kids sugar all day long on school days?  Huh.)

Extra cool was that the boys did great with Quiet Time today, which is a must for my sanity.  The icing on the (cup)cake was that while I had no expectations to be able to exercise today I not only found the time, but when I popped in a Cosby Show DVD to watch while I Nordic Track-ed the episode was called 'The First Day of School'. 

Awesome.

Last day of summer

Just a quick post today - I've been trying to get everything ready for tomorrow (Wednesday)... our Back to School Day!

Tonight will be our Back to School Nite, with a feast (our homemade pizza), Family Home Evening including blessings from Aaron, and explaining the new routines for tomorrow.  That should be fun.

I've been making lists (lots of lists), charts, laminating stuff, organizing drawers and closets, etc.  And I still have so much to do.  Like a trip to the library and the grocery store tonight and some kind of special after school treat to make.

I'm a little nervous about this year mostly because Thomas can be SO stubborn.  Getting used to our new routines and breaking our summer habits (you know, like staying in pj's till noon, doing whatever we want and not having to do very many jobs) will be an adjustment for everyone, but especially him.

A few of my goals for this year:

*Exercise - I don't worry about Princess, she dances and goes outside to play all the time, but I need to start thinking about ways to exercise inside with the boys when it gets cold.  And just finding a morning routine that works for us and includes time for exercise and a shower for me.

*Prepare ahead of time - part of the reason I liked the workbox idea was that it will make me prepare at least the night before, but my goal is to plan out what the kids will be doing for history and science three weeks ahead.

*Go to book club - I'm trying out a new one and it's been fun.  But I really need that grown-up conversation.

So much to do... and I have this very distracting pile of sweaters over here that I swiped from my little sister's giveaway pile.  They're waiting to be altered or turned into other things.  Very distracting indeed....

Lunch to go

**Thanks for the anniversary congrats - and Angie, I posted a wedding photo a few years back at the big 1-0.  You can see it here if you want!**

We recently spent a day at the zoo with friends and took lunches to eat there.  It was the first time most of our bento boxes got used - which was fun.

I took photos before I finished packing them up, wanna see?

Here are Princess and Thomas' bentos all ready to go:

Princess: homemade macaroni and cheese, hard-boiled egg (we tried to use an egg-mold to make it a heart shape but next time we need to try with bigger eggs), raisins, and animal crackers.

Thomas: hummus (with tortilla chips packed separately), raisins and graham crackers

And here's mine and Monkey's:

 

I had multi-grain crackers with laughing cow cheese, blackberries from our garden and graham crackers.  Monkey had plain pasta, a fresh orange tomato, blackberries and animal crackers.

Not perfect nutrition-wise, but probably better than if I'd just packed PB&J sandwiches.  I think I make more nutritious lunches bento/muffin-tin style.  Also definitely not very traditional bentos at all - but I'm okay with that, I just think the containers are so very cool.

I loved filling these.  Probably because I don't have to pack my kids lunch every day (another benefit of homeschool).  Bentos make you think differently about lunch.  If any of you have done the muffin-tin lunch thing, it's a similar kind of planning, really.  My kids LOVE lunches like this.

Bentos look small, but you can fit more than enough food in there and they're so great for non-sandwich meals and for using up leftovers.  I love that they're reusable, so they are way less wasteful than other ways to take your lunch (individually packaged snacks, etc.).

Not to mention how cute they are.

But the cutest thing (though not as cute as the baby giraffe - holy cow that little guy was adorable) was when my kids + their friends all broke out their bentos at the zoo.  Gotta love that!

So, I thought with school starting some of you moms might like some lunchboxinspiration for kiddos.  Check these out:

bento flickr group - there are several bento flickr groups - so cool!

laptop lunchbox flickr group - Laptop lunchboxes are similar to bentos, but are an Americanized way of doing it. 

Laeroport - A's first day of school lunchbox looked so yummy.

Amber's laptop lunch set - her kids lunches are always so carefully prepared

laptop lunch website

muffin tin meals

Now one of these days I'll whip up some little cloth napkins to keep with the bentos... then we'll really be all set!

13 years later...

Dear Aaron,

I'm still SO glad I married you.

And that you asked me.

I love you forever and ever,

Kirsten

A good evening.

Yesterday we picked a half gallon of blackberries and these:

Even without the zucchini this year (boo to the slugs!) we are enjoying the fresh garden goodies.  We may have to make orange salsa today.

After dinner I pushed the boys on the swing for... a long time.

The weather was delightful.  Not too hot, not too cool.  The weekends have been a little chilly lately - which is so odd for August - we're a little worried about our peaches ripening in time - but it was perfect for being outside.

One boy would climb up the slide while the other swung.  The red head would get to the top, say 'Uh-oh!  Oh no!  Oh bother!' and slide back down backwards on his knees.

His feet got so dirty that I called them 'Hobbit feet' so the little brother had to make his feet dirty, too.  On purpose.  And then pick grass to add to them to make them hairy.  Note to self:  double-check the boys' feet before they go to bed from now on.

After the kids went to bed Aaron and I sat down to a piece of absolutely perfect rustic blackberry pie (a la mode, if you were curious).  Aaron made it with our fresh blackberries. 

Delish.

And a great start to one of the last weeks of our summer. 

Swimming

Remember last year when we tried Thomas at a group swimming lesson?  He wasn't quite ready for that.  This year I wanted to get him in a semi-private or private lesson.  The place where Princess goes wouldn't do that, but luckily, my mom has a friend who will do private lessons.  More expensive, but it's really what the boys needed.

It's been great, actually.  The boys have each made progress.  Thomas has some coordination trouble so in some ways Monkey surpassed him, but each progressed - that's what we were hoping for.

One of the reasons I wanted semi-private was so that both boys could be in the water at once.  I couldn't imagine the struggle it would be to keep one boy out while the other boy swam.  Torture, right?

But this particular school lets the other kids get in the pool while they're waiting!  And it's been great practice for them, too!

So, at one end you'll find a little monkey hanging out on the steps.

And the bigger girl (who isn't even taking lessons right now -she finished her session with the other school last month) plays with dive toys (over and over and over) in the deep end.

That's a great setup.

At first I wasn't sure if it would be worth the money, but we really wanted the boys to try swimming lessons this year.  You know what?  I think it's been absolutely worth it.

 

Yesterday, Thomas even let his sister try and help him with his floats when he was done with his lesson - now that's progress right there!

 

All three have absolutely loved these lessons. 

Well, mostly.

At the Stadium

I met my brothers at the soccer stadium to catch a game this weekend.

 

 

 

Besides the gorgeous sunset - we won!

A Yellow Chair

I spotted this old chair in my neighbor's donation pile in their driveway and asked if I could have it.  It was brown, paint-spattered, and had some electrical tape wrapped around it.

I spray painted it (quickly and badly) a sunny yellow color.  I hate spray painting.  Such gross, gross fumes.

Anyway, I was hoping it would look okay for a senior photo shoot I was doing for a neighbor.

I think it worked.  Especially by the sunflowers.

Hooray for colorful props!

Now I would really like blue, red, and green chairs, too!  Better keep my eyes open, I guess!

Have a great weekend!

No more plain tees

In an effort to make my wardrobe a little more interesting I've been dressing up some of my plain t-shirts.

This is a quick appliqué around one side of the neck - the flowers were already cut and ready to go from another project that I didn't end up using them for. I'm lazy that way.  Or efficient?

I also did some quick bleach pen doodles.

Now, you never know what you're gonna get with bleach pens.  The above green faded to a cool yellow-ish, the below to a blue!

I think I'm going to add some more feather-y doodles to the above...

And this blue one didn't look like it faded at all, so I just washed it (some fabrics just don't take the bleach well) and when it came out it was bleached in an outline!  Weird.

 

I freezer-paper stenciled a Silly Walk tee with chocolate brown paint.

And quickly sewed on this robot patch to a corner of a red tee - like the flowers at the top, this patch was all done and ready to use - in my appliqué box.  All I had to do was sew it on.

 

And lest you think I've been doing purely selfish embellishing, here's a bleach pen robot I doodled on one of the boys' shirts.

::beep::

Because why keep your shirts plain anyway?

(BTW, 'Ultimate T's' at Target are on sale for $6 this week!  Go and pick some up - and while you're there grab a bleach pen!)