Halloween 2012: Jane as Flapper

Good gracious -- my 11 year old is getting to be waaaaay too grown-up looking. 

Wish I had taken a "before" picture of the ugly jumper and jacket set from Saver's we cut down to make her dress.

First Snow of the Season

Ellen (literally) made a new friend. Meet Emma, the Snow Girl:

Ellen says that Emma is Charlie's big sister. Here's Ellen with Charlie, a snow friend she made last January:

The Making of Charlie, January 2012:

Crazy Hair Day

We've felt deprived for years, but this year our school had a crazy hair day!

Zuzu:

Adam:

Ellen:

Delicious Vegetables and an Entrepreneurial Venture

One day, walking into the store with Ellen, I had a flash of inspiration.

Me: "You can choose any vegetable you want, and I will buy it for you."
Ellen: "Any one I want?! Yay, yay, yay! I want broccoli! Broccoli! Broccoli! Broccoli! Yay, I love broccoli!"

(I know this wouldn't work with every kid. It's some fluke of crazy luck that it worked so well with mine.)

Today I remembered my little trick again. Adam chose baby carrots:

And Ellen chose baby bell peppers:

They shouted exuberantly as they were digging them out of the bags and ripping into them as soon as we got into the car.

When we got home, I said, "Adam, please help me bring in the groceries."

Adam: "You bring in the groceries all by yourself, and I'll let you have some carrots."

Then Ellen came to me holding a little red plastic bin. She said, "I'm going to have a pepper seed sale!"

Me: "You're going to sell pepper seeds?"

Ellen: "Yes, so people can buy them, and plant them in their garden! Do you want to buy some, mom?"

Me: "Well, I think it's a little late to start peppers from seed this year, and I'm not sure those would grow. And we already have some pepper plants in our garden."

Ellen: "I mean, to save them for next year! It's a great time of year to buy pepper seeds to save to plant next spring."

Me: "How much are you planning to sell them for?"

Ellen: "Four quarters or one dollar."

Me: "For how many seeds?"

Ellen: (Holds up six fingers.)

The product:

Harvesting more product:

Waiting for customers:

The empty bin is to hold money. ("Mom, I am going to make so much money!") I can hear her out there calling, "Pepper seeds for sale! Four quarters or one dollar!"

I almost forgot to add: while we were in the store, I overheard Adam say, "Ellen, you're what's called a 'sidekick.'" And, "If I die, you take over driving the ship."

Sunday Afternoon Phone Camera Scenes

Ah, Lazy Sunday Afternoon, how I love thee.

Why hello, hot stuff.

Feel free to serenade me. 

Oh, OK, OK. Yes, I'll stop taking pictures of your daddy and take one of you.

Yes, OK, one of US, then.

OK, OK. Yes, I'll pretend to bite your leg again, and yes, I'll take a picture of it, if you insist.

I am, after all, nothing but a camera slave to a six year old.

Need Advice on Choosing a Spouse? Adam's Here to Help.

After Adam had been enthusiastically belting out variations of this original song for 45 minutes or so, Peter decided it should be documented. Adam was not dissuaded from his choice of lyrics by any of our comments about whether the song's advice was legal, possible ("if you're your mother" ?), or sound, but at least he did choose to title it "Bad Advice of Love."

2012 Valentines

This year Zuzu brought home the cardboard box her teacher had given out to decorate and said, "I want to make mine a yellow submarine."

Well, OK then.

I love how she pulls these ideas out of the air, like her circus tent box a couple of years ago.

The design was hers and I helped her build what she wanted. One of the things she explained was that she wanted it to have a top "hatchet" for the valentines to go in. It was fun to abandon what I was supposed to be doing and get involved with a creative project for the night.

Jane made her robot box with no help from anyone else, except for getting Ellen to drink half of one of those four cans of V8. Her original design was scaled back slightly after the yelling and tears from Adam when he discovered she'd covered his crayon box with duct tape for a robot foot.

Once again, I was perusing the Target dollar spot when I saw something I thought would make a nice non-candy valentine for the kids to give out:

We put the erasers in bags and Jane typed up some tags:

Ah, Young Love

Jane brought this home from school. 

Front:

Back:

She said, "Oh, yeah. That's from the boy in my class who likes me." 

I wonder if he has a sister or if he had to go far out of his way to obtain the puppy-with-purple-fairy-wings valentine that was the perfect counterpoint to his message.