Thoughts on the Grammys:
I love Adele. I love that she went through this horrific breakup, and sunk down into this mire, and clawed her way back out, and the result is this fabulous album. And this was just the cherry on top. Unrequited love is the absolute most heart wrenching experience-I wish that I had this CD as a teenager. And I love that she just stood there and sang-no over the top theatrics. I can appreiciate the visual art form that some artists have created, but a great song (and a great singer) doesn't need them.
The Grammys has completely thrown away the idea that they are an awards show at all. There are tons of Grammys given out, yet the viewing public basically has no idea. It is mostly just a very long concert. Which is fun to watch. But, in that case, why not throw in a few more performances? I like Sir Paul and the Foo Fighters as much as the next person, but I would like to see some others get in there rather than watch them perform twice.
Speaking of the Foo Fighters, I sit in amazement at Dave Grohl. Here is a guy who could have just gone and been a drummer with a band, who could have just been satisfied to have been in possibly the greatest band of a generation, and yet he didn't-he goes out and does this great rock music and he even looks like Kurt doing it and he does it anyway.
Country music always gets the short shrift (is that the word I want?). I do not understand why it is hard for other musicians to enjoy country music, to my ears it is the most natural, most beautiful sounding music that exists.
I'm sure that there will be controversy over the Whitney aspect to the whole thing. They certainly seemed to be obsessed with it, to the point that others who have passed away were a mere afterthought. I love Whitney, she is my all time favorite singer after Judy Garland. I am so sad at her loss, sad for her daughter and her family, sad that she died the way that she did. Oh, and Jennifer Hudson-wow. She looked stunning (and she sang well too).
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Our winter solstice tree...
Finally, we all seem to be feeling better (well, except for Nicholas, but he's almost there). So back to blogging.
We have a winter solstice tree. It is yet another after Christmas tradition that we have started that I love.
We have 3 Christmas trees (4 if you count the tiny one in the hallway between the girls' rooms, but I don't). The nicest one was my parents. It is an artificial tree that is beautiful (they really do exist). Heaven knows how much they paid for it. They got it when I was 13, and it still looks as lovely as it did then. So all that nonsense about how artificial trees aren't eco-firendly is a bunch of bunk, in my opinion. It is our family tree, the one that lives in our family room and the one that has the most presents underneath it. It is decorated with all different kinds of ornaments-ones the girls have made, ones from our vacations (we always get ornaments wherever we go), ornaments from our first Christmas together, things like that. It has colored lights and a popcorn string made of styrofoam packing peanuts that my mom and dad strung the first year that they were married. The tree topper is a star, because my grandma always had a star on her tree.
Our second tree is what we lovingly call "the pretty tree." It is meant to look pretty through the window. It has white lights (to match our ourdoor lights). The ornaments all go together (I got them several years ago at Kmart, they are part of a Martha Stewart collection). Most of them are pink. And then we put all of our Wizard of Oz ornaments on it. So we sometimes call it the "Wizard of Oz" tree. The topper for it is Glinda, and then we have ornaments of all the major characters (except for the Wicked Witch, which the girls and I have decided needs to be remedied).
The third tree is a real live Christmas tree. I decided two years ago that, while I loved our trees, I wanted the girls to have a memory of going and picking out a real tree. We live right down the road from Morrison's Christmas Tree Farm, so off we trek one weekend in December. I have fallen in love with Norwegian Fir trees from this experience (they don't lose too many needles and they are a lovely, old-fashioned looking tree). This is our literary tree. All of the ornaments on it must be related to a book. Tinkerbell is our tree topper, and we have a train that goes around it. It has colored lights and red beads for popcorn. The first year that we had it, I decided that I wanted to really string popcorn for it. This task proved too difficult for me. They all just broke to pieces.
All of the presents under the literary tree, as you might have guessed, are books.
When Christmas is over and we take all of the trees down, we take the real tree (in the stand) outside and stake it down. (We discovered that because it is so windy where we live, it is best to really tie it down well.) This becomes our winter solstice tree.
We decorate it with various things. Nick makes a suet ball out of melted lard and birdseed. Put a Chirstmas hook in it and it will stay when it hardens. This year he also made some in the muffin pan and we set them around the tree. We also take pine cones and cover them in peanut butter, then cover them in birdseed. (This is a fun task for the girls, but messy-we make them wear latex gloves.) And we cut up apples and oranges and hang them.
We have all kinds of birds come to our tree and we truly love watching all of them. I would love to have more wildlife-perhaps a deer or some squirrels which we know live here-but I've never seen them eating anything.
A good book to go along with this is The Night Tree by Eve Bunting. It is a Christmas book but I save it until we do our solstice tree.
It was a dream of mine since I was a kid to have this tree. I read about it in one of my Christmas books and I just thought that it sounded so fun. It is as fun as I imagined.
We have a winter solstice tree. It is yet another after Christmas tradition that we have started that I love.
We have 3 Christmas trees (4 if you count the tiny one in the hallway between the girls' rooms, but I don't). The nicest one was my parents. It is an artificial tree that is beautiful (they really do exist). Heaven knows how much they paid for it. They got it when I was 13, and it still looks as lovely as it did then. So all that nonsense about how artificial trees aren't eco-firendly is a bunch of bunk, in my opinion. It is our family tree, the one that lives in our family room and the one that has the most presents underneath it. It is decorated with all different kinds of ornaments-ones the girls have made, ones from our vacations (we always get ornaments wherever we go), ornaments from our first Christmas together, things like that. It has colored lights and a popcorn string made of styrofoam packing peanuts that my mom and dad strung the first year that they were married. The tree topper is a star, because my grandma always had a star on her tree.
Our second tree is what we lovingly call "the pretty tree." It is meant to look pretty through the window. It has white lights (to match our ourdoor lights). The ornaments all go together (I got them several years ago at Kmart, they are part of a Martha Stewart collection). Most of them are pink. And then we put all of our Wizard of Oz ornaments on it. So we sometimes call it the "Wizard of Oz" tree. The topper for it is Glinda, and then we have ornaments of all the major characters (except for the Wicked Witch, which the girls and I have decided needs to be remedied).
The third tree is a real live Christmas tree. I decided two years ago that, while I loved our trees, I wanted the girls to have a memory of going and picking out a real tree. We live right down the road from Morrison's Christmas Tree Farm, so off we trek one weekend in December. I have fallen in love with Norwegian Fir trees from this experience (they don't lose too many needles and they are a lovely, old-fashioned looking tree). This is our literary tree. All of the ornaments on it must be related to a book. Tinkerbell is our tree topper, and we have a train that goes around it. It has colored lights and red beads for popcorn. The first year that we had it, I decided that I wanted to really string popcorn for it. This task proved too difficult for me. They all just broke to pieces.
All of the presents under the literary tree, as you might have guessed, are books.
When Christmas is over and we take all of the trees down, we take the real tree (in the stand) outside and stake it down. (We discovered that because it is so windy where we live, it is best to really tie it down well.) This becomes our winter solstice tree.
We decorate it with various things. Nick makes a suet ball out of melted lard and birdseed. Put a Chirstmas hook in it and it will stay when it hardens. This year he also made some in the muffin pan and we set them around the tree. We also take pine cones and cover them in peanut butter, then cover them in birdseed. (This is a fun task for the girls, but messy-we make them wear latex gloves.) And we cut up apples and oranges and hang them.
We have all kinds of birds come to our tree and we truly love watching all of them. I would love to have more wildlife-perhaps a deer or some squirrels which we know live here-but I've never seen them eating anything.
A good book to go along with this is The Night Tree by Eve Bunting. It is a Christmas book but I save it until we do our solstice tree.
It was a dream of mine since I was a kid to have this tree. I read about it in one of my Christmas books and I just thought that it sounded so fun. It is as fun as I imagined.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
I don't like sick days...
Felicity is sick today (actually she was sick yesterday and it has carried over into today). It is no fun at all having a sick child. Particularly at this particular part of the sickness, where she is feeling better enough to want to be up and doing things, but still too sick and weak to actually do anything. So we have spent our morning watching PBS, and now we have graduated to Barbie movies (Barbie movies, for those of you who do not know, are really, really boring).
Anyway, I am not a fan of medication in any way, shape, or form. This kind of drives my parents nuts-"why can't you just give them some cough medicine?"-but I'm pretty firm about it. I just don't believe that medication helps all that much. I will use Motrin for times when they seem excessively achy, or when they have a headache, but it's pretty rare.
However, I do believe in a few things that I have found work out fairly well. Number one, for coughing, a spoonful of honey. This seriously works, I have used it myself. So for days that we have a lot of coughing, there are several spoonfuls of honey given.
Number two, Vicks vapor rub. When I was a kid, my mom put this on my chest. I put it on my girls feet and then put socks on them. I'm pretty sure that it works the same way, but the girls don't mind as much if it's on their feet.
Number three, a humidifier. I have found that this helps to alliviate a stuffy nose; however, you have to be diligent about keeping them clean.
I am also a huge believer in yogurt. I try to have the girls eat yogurt several times a week. And I also give them chicken noodle soup when they are sick, if they are wanting to eat an actual meal. Other than that, I try to stick with fruit and water. This morning Felicity ate some oatmeal. The key is blandish foods. Fruits are mostly water, and they are things that the girls actually enjoy eating. Once she gets down the soup, if she is still hungry, we'll go to some vegetables. No meat until she is feeling much, much better.
I use saline drops if the girls seem stuffy and unable to breathe at night. I also use a saline cream for under their nose, that is supposed to help with the rubbed raw feeling after a day of nose blowing.
That's about it. We use Benedryl or Claritin when Betsy has a watery eye, running nose reaction to what we assume are allergies.
So, anyway, back to Barbie and her magic pegasus...
Anyway, I am not a fan of medication in any way, shape, or form. This kind of drives my parents nuts-"why can't you just give them some cough medicine?"-but I'm pretty firm about it. I just don't believe that medication helps all that much. I will use Motrin for times when they seem excessively achy, or when they have a headache, but it's pretty rare.
However, I do believe in a few things that I have found work out fairly well. Number one, for coughing, a spoonful of honey. This seriously works, I have used it myself. So for days that we have a lot of coughing, there are several spoonfuls of honey given.
Number two, Vicks vapor rub. When I was a kid, my mom put this on my chest. I put it on my girls feet and then put socks on them. I'm pretty sure that it works the same way, but the girls don't mind as much if it's on their feet.
Number three, a humidifier. I have found that this helps to alliviate a stuffy nose; however, you have to be diligent about keeping them clean.
I am also a huge believer in yogurt. I try to have the girls eat yogurt several times a week. And I also give them chicken noodle soup when they are sick, if they are wanting to eat an actual meal. Other than that, I try to stick with fruit and water. This morning Felicity ate some oatmeal. The key is blandish foods. Fruits are mostly water, and they are things that the girls actually enjoy eating. Once she gets down the soup, if she is still hungry, we'll go to some vegetables. No meat until she is feeling much, much better.
I use saline drops if the girls seem stuffy and unable to breathe at night. I also use a saline cream for under their nose, that is supposed to help with the rubbed raw feeling after a day of nose blowing.
That's about it. We use Benedryl or Claritin when Betsy has a watery eye, running nose reaction to what we assume are allergies.
So, anyway, back to Barbie and her magic pegasus...
Friday, January 6, 2012
Wise men seek him still...
Okay, I'm trying to be better about doing this. Tonight we had our Three Kings celebration, which is one of my very favorite things that we do as a family, so I thought that I would blog about it in hopes that I might inspire others to take it up.
First off, our celebrating begins on December 26. We get out the wise men and start them on the journey to Bethlehem.
Okay, I'm going to back up-to Advent. We have an Advent wreath (which is very easy to make, you just get a plain wreath and place the candles around it, you can get the candles cheap at Hobby Lobby). We read our Advent readings on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, light the candles, and set out the appropriate part of the manger scene. The first week we get out the stable and animals, the second week we get out Mary and Joseph, the third week we get out the angel, and the fourth week we get out the shepherds and sheep. On Christmas Day we light the Christ Candle and place baby Jesus in the stable. And then on the 26, the wise men start their journey. They go from our back door, through our family room, and living room, and they end up in the stable today, on January 6, which is Epiphany.
If you want to do this with your kids, I suggest getting a manger scene that is durable and you aren't fussy about. We have 3 different manger scenes in our house. One is Precious Moments and it is pretty to look at and not to be touched. One is Fisher Price Little People which is totally to be touched and played with, so that the girls are learning the story with their own hands. And then we have this set, that we use for the Advent season. It is the manger scene that my grandparents used to own, and they didn't want it any more, and gave it to me. It is nice, but nothing that I worry about the girls breaking.
Okay, so every day we move the wise men. New this year, we bought a book called "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by Olivia Price. It contains an ornament for each of the 12 days of Christmas (which are the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany). It's a cute book, with different readings on each page. But I mostly wanted it because I wanted to have a small tree and hang the ornaments up, 1 every day until the 6th. We bought a pre-lit Christmas tree at Wal-mart after Christmas and used it for this. I loved adding this to our celebrating because it helped the girls count the day, kind of like an Advent Calendar (don't get me started on Advent calendars, we have 5 of them, and I am obsessed about them-I'll do a blog all about them sometime).
Also I write down what I remember of my dreams each night for the 12 days. Supposedly it correlates to the year-like December 26 is January, December 27 is February. I don't really think that it does, but I dream a lot and it is fun to write them down. The girls even wrote down some of their dreams this year. (They don't really know yet that other moms don't do these things!)
Anyway, this all leads up to today-Epiphany. I cleaned the whole house today, that is step one. Then I made a King's Cake (there are specific recipes for them if you want, but I just make a cake that we feel like eating, this year it was a spice cake, per my dad's request). All you have to do is make a cake, and then add a bean (I used a dry lima bean). Stir it in the cake mix and bake it. Then after dinner my parents come over, we all get a slice of cake, and whoever gets the bean is the lucky one for the year. That person is blessed. Last year Nicholas got the bean and he had a great year (after all, he got a job that he loves). This year I had the bean! Pretty cool stuff, and the girls love it. We also read the story of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12).
Then we bless the house. We light an incense stick and carry it around the house, blessing every corner and nook and cranny. When we have covered every inch, we send Nicholas outside with chalk and he writes "C+B+M 2012" above both doors. (It stands for Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, the supposed names of the Magi). This shows that our house has been blessed.
It's all a little silly, and my husband is a great sport for putting up with me, I know. But it's great fun and we enjoy it.
First off, our celebrating begins on December 26. We get out the wise men and start them on the journey to Bethlehem.
Okay, I'm going to back up-to Advent. We have an Advent wreath (which is very easy to make, you just get a plain wreath and place the candles around it, you can get the candles cheap at Hobby Lobby). We read our Advent readings on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, light the candles, and set out the appropriate part of the manger scene. The first week we get out the stable and animals, the second week we get out Mary and Joseph, the third week we get out the angel, and the fourth week we get out the shepherds and sheep. On Christmas Day we light the Christ Candle and place baby Jesus in the stable. And then on the 26, the wise men start their journey. They go from our back door, through our family room, and living room, and they end up in the stable today, on January 6, which is Epiphany.
If you want to do this with your kids, I suggest getting a manger scene that is durable and you aren't fussy about. We have 3 different manger scenes in our house. One is Precious Moments and it is pretty to look at and not to be touched. One is Fisher Price Little People which is totally to be touched and played with, so that the girls are learning the story with their own hands. And then we have this set, that we use for the Advent season. It is the manger scene that my grandparents used to own, and they didn't want it any more, and gave it to me. It is nice, but nothing that I worry about the girls breaking.
Okay, so every day we move the wise men. New this year, we bought a book called "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by Olivia Price. It contains an ornament for each of the 12 days of Christmas (which are the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany). It's a cute book, with different readings on each page. But I mostly wanted it because I wanted to have a small tree and hang the ornaments up, 1 every day until the 6th. We bought a pre-lit Christmas tree at Wal-mart after Christmas and used it for this. I loved adding this to our celebrating because it helped the girls count the day, kind of like an Advent Calendar (don't get me started on Advent calendars, we have 5 of them, and I am obsessed about them-I'll do a blog all about them sometime).
Also I write down what I remember of my dreams each night for the 12 days. Supposedly it correlates to the year-like December 26 is January, December 27 is February. I don't really think that it does, but I dream a lot and it is fun to write them down. The girls even wrote down some of their dreams this year. (They don't really know yet that other moms don't do these things!)
Anyway, this all leads up to today-Epiphany. I cleaned the whole house today, that is step one. Then I made a King's Cake (there are specific recipes for them if you want, but I just make a cake that we feel like eating, this year it was a spice cake, per my dad's request). All you have to do is make a cake, and then add a bean (I used a dry lima bean). Stir it in the cake mix and bake it. Then after dinner my parents come over, we all get a slice of cake, and whoever gets the bean is the lucky one for the year. That person is blessed. Last year Nicholas got the bean and he had a great year (after all, he got a job that he loves). This year I had the bean! Pretty cool stuff, and the girls love it. We also read the story of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12).
Then we bless the house. We light an incense stick and carry it around the house, blessing every corner and nook and cranny. When we have covered every inch, we send Nicholas outside with chalk and he writes "C+B+M 2012" above both doors. (It stands for Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, the supposed names of the Magi). This shows that our house has been blessed.
It's all a little silly, and my husband is a great sport for putting up with me, I know. But it's great fun and we enjoy it.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Thanksgiving books...
This is an actual snipet of a conversation heard in our house earlier this evening:
Me: "Thanksgiving is so easy because we only have a few books and 3 movies."
Betsy: "Yeah, with Christmas we have like 3 books and 3 movies every day."
And this is very true. The difference between us, though, is that Betsy would end this conversation by saying, "Let's just skip some of them." Which is when I wonder how she is my kid. Because, no, we are not skipping any of them.
Thanksgiving is a lovely, easy holiday around here. The older I get, the more I love it. It is such a simple holiday. It is just about being grateful, eating, and being with your family. What's not to like?
We have a smattering of Thanksgiving books around here. (We have books for every holiday around here, from April Fool's Day to Chinese New Year.) Here are the best of the best:
1. Beyond Turkey by Debbie Herman and Ann D. Koffsky-a nice overview of the holiday, its origins and facts about it. This book also has a lot of activities included.
2. Giving Thanks by Jonathan London-a lovely book about a dad and his son walking through the woods and giving thanks. It's a nice reminder that we need to be grateful of this blessed planet that we are priviledged to live on.
3. An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott-we are big time "Little Women" fans around here. This story is in a similar vein.
4. The Thanksgiving Door-one of our favorites. Ed and Ann are an elderly couple who accidently burn their Thanksgiving dinner, so they go to a restaurant whose door is open. In the meantime, the family who own the restaurant don't know what to do about these people who have wandered into their Thanksgiving dinner. An excellent book about the true meaning of thanksgiving and family.
5. The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty. A very cute story about Mini, a pilgim girl who wants to be helpful but who is too little.
6. Thanksgiving in the Barn by Nadine Bernard Westcott-the girls would be mad if I didn't include this one, because it is their favorite. It is a pop-up book.
If you are looking for more books about the actual first Thanksgiving, I recommend The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Greene (especially for little ones), Pilgrim Cat by Carol Antoinette Peacock, and The Magic School Bus at the First Thanksgiving (Betsy is a huge Magic School Bus fan and I highly recommend them all).
Another very nice book to add to your collection is Over the River and Through the Woods illustrated by John Stven Gurney. We only know 2 Thanksgiving songs around here-this one and "I'm Gonna Eat on Thanksgiving Day" by Laurie Berkner. (I think that it's on her Waddya Think of That CD.)
Also we have some fun books that feature characters that we love. We have them for most holidays.
Giving Thanks (Care Bears) by Quinlan B. Lee
Clifford's Thanksgiving Visit by Norman Bridwell
Just So Thankful (Little Critter) by Mercer Mayer
Blue's Thanksgiving Feast by Jessica Lissy
Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit! by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Our 3 Thanksgiving movies are A Peanuts Thanksgiving (a classic that everyone should own), A Garfield Thanksgiving, and A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving. All of them are wonderful.
I am very blessed this Thanksgiving, with my amazing husband and my wonderful girls encompassing my life, and with the ability to share my life every day with my other favorite people, my parents and my sister and her family. For me, there is nothing better in this whole world.
Me: "Thanksgiving is so easy because we only have a few books and 3 movies."
Betsy: "Yeah, with Christmas we have like 3 books and 3 movies every day."
And this is very true. The difference between us, though, is that Betsy would end this conversation by saying, "Let's just skip some of them." Which is when I wonder how she is my kid. Because, no, we are not skipping any of them.
Thanksgiving is a lovely, easy holiday around here. The older I get, the more I love it. It is such a simple holiday. It is just about being grateful, eating, and being with your family. What's not to like?
We have a smattering of Thanksgiving books around here. (We have books for every holiday around here, from April Fool's Day to Chinese New Year.) Here are the best of the best:
1. Beyond Turkey by Debbie Herman and Ann D. Koffsky-a nice overview of the holiday, its origins and facts about it. This book also has a lot of activities included.
2. Giving Thanks by Jonathan London-a lovely book about a dad and his son walking through the woods and giving thanks. It's a nice reminder that we need to be grateful of this blessed planet that we are priviledged to live on.
3. An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott-we are big time "Little Women" fans around here. This story is in a similar vein.
4. The Thanksgiving Door-one of our favorites. Ed and Ann are an elderly couple who accidently burn their Thanksgiving dinner, so they go to a restaurant whose door is open. In the meantime, the family who own the restaurant don't know what to do about these people who have wandered into their Thanksgiving dinner. An excellent book about the true meaning of thanksgiving and family.
5. The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty. A very cute story about Mini, a pilgim girl who wants to be helpful but who is too little.
6. Thanksgiving in the Barn by Nadine Bernard Westcott-the girls would be mad if I didn't include this one, because it is their favorite. It is a pop-up book.
If you are looking for more books about the actual first Thanksgiving, I recommend The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Greene (especially for little ones), Pilgrim Cat by Carol Antoinette Peacock, and The Magic School Bus at the First Thanksgiving (Betsy is a huge Magic School Bus fan and I highly recommend them all).
Another very nice book to add to your collection is Over the River and Through the Woods illustrated by John Stven Gurney. We only know 2 Thanksgiving songs around here-this one and "I'm Gonna Eat on Thanksgiving Day" by Laurie Berkner. (I think that it's on her Waddya Think of That CD.)
Also we have some fun books that feature characters that we love. We have them for most holidays.
Giving Thanks (Care Bears) by Quinlan B. Lee
Clifford's Thanksgiving Visit by Norman Bridwell
Just So Thankful (Little Critter) by Mercer Mayer
Blue's Thanksgiving Feast by Jessica Lissy
Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit! by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Our 3 Thanksgiving movies are A Peanuts Thanksgiving (a classic that everyone should own), A Garfield Thanksgiving, and A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving. All of them are wonderful.
I am very blessed this Thanksgiving, with my amazing husband and my wonderful girls encompassing my life, and with the ability to share my life every day with my other favorite people, my parents and my sister and her family. For me, there is nothing better in this whole world.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
A freckle-faced, red-haired girl...
We are getting ready for Halloween around here. Betsy is dressing as Pippi Longstocking, and Felicity is dressing as Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
Felicity's costumes are hand-me-downs from her cousin Mallory. Mallory and Felicity are our girly-girls around here. Every year Mallory picks out a new princess costume, and then a few years later Felicity wears it. April goes for the nice, Disney-store costumes, so they hold up well. So far Felicity has been a clown (which is a family costume that we all have to wear our first year trick or treating), Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Snow White, and now Belle. Mallory has been Cinderella, Rapunzel, and this year is being Ariel, so we have a trove of costumes still to go through (Felicity can't wait to get her hands on the Cinderella costume).
Natalie is stuck being the clown this year.
Betsy is always interesting when it comes to her costume choices. She, of course, had to be the clown one year and also the Dorothy costume was hers. That was back when she was 2 and I could still pick out her costume for her. Once she hit 3, she started picking out her own costumes. She has been the Tin Man, Glinda the Good Witch, Tinkerbell, and a doctor. This year she is so excited to be Pippi. It was an easy costume to put together, really. We bought a red haired wig (the package said it was to dress up as a rag doll) and put wire in it and braided it to make Pippi's hair. Then I just picked out a denim and plaid dress that looked Pippi-ish from her closet, and we bought some striped tights. She's going to wear my boots.
(There will be pictures on my Facebook page, if you are interested in seeing it.)
We love Pippi around here. We have read Pippi Longstocking (the original book) by Astrid Lindgren twice. It is my favorite of the Pippi books. There are 2 sequels, which we are just finishing. Pippi on Board and Pippi of the Sounth Seas. The South Seas one was obviously written at the request of children wanting to know what Kurrkurrdutt Island is like (it is the island where Pippi's father is a canibal king).The books are a bit dated and certainly not totally politically correct. But they are very well-written, clever stories with a girl as the heroine, which I'm sure is more than half the reason Betsy likes them.
We also have the movie The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking. It is an okay movie. I liked it a lot as a kid, so I understand why the girls like it so much. As an adult, I find it somewhat cloying and nowhere near as good as the books. But there is nothing objectionable in it.
Felicity's costumes are hand-me-downs from her cousin Mallory. Mallory and Felicity are our girly-girls around here. Every year Mallory picks out a new princess costume, and then a few years later Felicity wears it. April goes for the nice, Disney-store costumes, so they hold up well. So far Felicity has been a clown (which is a family costume that we all have to wear our first year trick or treating), Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Snow White, and now Belle. Mallory has been Cinderella, Rapunzel, and this year is being Ariel, so we have a trove of costumes still to go through (Felicity can't wait to get her hands on the Cinderella costume).
Natalie is stuck being the clown this year.
Betsy is always interesting when it comes to her costume choices. She, of course, had to be the clown one year and also the Dorothy costume was hers. That was back when she was 2 and I could still pick out her costume for her. Once she hit 3, she started picking out her own costumes. She has been the Tin Man, Glinda the Good Witch, Tinkerbell, and a doctor. This year she is so excited to be Pippi. It was an easy costume to put together, really. We bought a red haired wig (the package said it was to dress up as a rag doll) and put wire in it and braided it to make Pippi's hair. Then I just picked out a denim and plaid dress that looked Pippi-ish from her closet, and we bought some striped tights. She's going to wear my boots.
(There will be pictures on my Facebook page, if you are interested in seeing it.)
We love Pippi around here. We have read Pippi Longstocking (the original book) by Astrid Lindgren twice. It is my favorite of the Pippi books. There are 2 sequels, which we are just finishing. Pippi on Board and Pippi of the Sounth Seas. The South Seas one was obviously written at the request of children wanting to know what Kurrkurrdutt Island is like (it is the island where Pippi's father is a canibal king).The books are a bit dated and certainly not totally politically correct. But they are very well-written, clever stories with a girl as the heroine, which I'm sure is more than half the reason Betsy likes them.
We also have the movie The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking. It is an okay movie. I liked it a lot as a kid, so I understand why the girls like it so much. As an adult, I find it somewhat cloying and nowhere near as good as the books. But there is nothing objectionable in it.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Walking into spiderwebs...
I have had a lousy week. One thing happened after another, culminating in a trip to the hospital yesterday with what ended up being a kidney stone. My kids are sick, the weather is lousy (especially considering that we had to sit at the football game Friday night in the rain so that Betsy could cheer), I am afraid that I have taken on too much with my volunteering for the year. I'm whiny.
Anyway, I did finish an excellent book last Saturday and had every intention of blogging about it before my nightmare of a week reared its head. It is called The Story of Charlotte's Web: E.B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic by Michael Sims. It is a really fascinating look at E.B. White's life. He was so interested in animals and spiders and really getting what he was talking about right.
Betsy and I have read Charlotte's Web twice now. I like to read it to her just before we go to the fair. It gives us such an appreiciation for what all goes into raising an animal. It is an excellent choice for kids who aren't quite ready to sit still for long periods of time because the chapters are quite short. (Betsy always says read more, we are used to long chapeters around here). It is such a moving book. Betsy cried the first time that I read it. It gets right to the point-Charlotte dies all alone, and no one ever knew that a certain spider had had so much to do with the outcome of the fair.
E.B. White based Charlotte's Web on his own farm and also on his childhoods spent in Maine. His whole life sort of culminated in this book. He also, of course, wrote Stuart Little. I read this to Betsy a while ago. My only experience with it prior to that was the movie with Michael J. Fox. The book is very, very different and downright odd. The biography illuminated me as to why and what White was trying to say. I think that I will get so much more out of it the next time we tackle it.
White wrote only one other book, The Trumpet of the Swans. We own it but have yet to read it. Sims only spends a few pages on it, so I still know little about it. When we get to it, I'll tell you my opinion of it.
I'm glad that it's Saturday, I'm ready for a new week. Hopefully it will go a little better...
Anyway, I did finish an excellent book last Saturday and had every intention of blogging about it before my nightmare of a week reared its head. It is called The Story of Charlotte's Web: E.B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic by Michael Sims. It is a really fascinating look at E.B. White's life. He was so interested in animals and spiders and really getting what he was talking about right.
Betsy and I have read Charlotte's Web twice now. I like to read it to her just before we go to the fair. It gives us such an appreiciation for what all goes into raising an animal. It is an excellent choice for kids who aren't quite ready to sit still for long periods of time because the chapters are quite short. (Betsy always says read more, we are used to long chapeters around here). It is such a moving book. Betsy cried the first time that I read it. It gets right to the point-Charlotte dies all alone, and no one ever knew that a certain spider had had so much to do with the outcome of the fair.
E.B. White based Charlotte's Web on his own farm and also on his childhoods spent in Maine. His whole life sort of culminated in this book. He also, of course, wrote Stuart Little. I read this to Betsy a while ago. My only experience with it prior to that was the movie with Michael J. Fox. The book is very, very different and downright odd. The biography illuminated me as to why and what White was trying to say. I think that I will get so much more out of it the next time we tackle it.
White wrote only one other book, The Trumpet of the Swans. We own it but have yet to read it. Sims only spends a few pages on it, so I still know little about it. When we get to it, I'll tell you my opinion of it.
I'm glad that it's Saturday, I'm ready for a new week. Hopefully it will go a little better...
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