Friday Favorites...Qwirkle

We have a new favorite game around here.  It's called Qwirkle.  And it's something that everyone loves, which is rare these days.

The kids are at ages where it's hard to always agree on movies and games.  Chris has definitely grown out of most cartoons. He'd rather be watching Jurassic Park or something with a lot of action.  As you can imagine, he's not a big fan of playing the Curious George board games or Go Fish.  He's into games that I enjoy, like Cranium, Munchkin, or Bang!.  Analiese is also growing up a little, and though she's still a fan of most Disney animation, she really prefers watching movies like A Little Princess or Annie.  She's outgrown Candy Land, but still really likes Guess Who.  Sicily on the other hand loves Curious George board games.  She also loves "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" the game.  She loves cartoons, especially Tangled, and has no interest in what she calls "real people" movies.

I love all of these stages for different reasons.  I love playing games with Chris.  I love listening to the music of Annie with Analiese.  And I love watching Tangled almost as much as Sicily does.  But you can see how this is a bit of a dilemma when it comes to family time.  Trying to decide what to do when we were all hanging out had become incredibly frustrating. Then we found Qwirkle.  Actually, it was a Christmas gift this year.  And it has been a wonderful gift.

The object of the game is to match patterns of blocks.  If you place the 6th block in a pattern you make a qwirkle and get bonus points.  It's simple enough that a 7 year old can play it.  But it has enough potential for strategy that an 11 year old can play it.  And if I'm honest, I really enjoy playing it as well.  7 to 30, we all really  like this game.  I have gotten up some Saturday mornings to find the kids already up and playing Qwirkle around the dining room table.  All three of them!  I think that says a lot.  It's become a Friday night regular around here.

 I highly recommend this game.  We have yet to get tired of it, after several months of continuous play.  And anything that promotes time spent together as a family is worth every penny.

Heartbroken Man Hate

I'm feeling a country-star approved level of heartbroken man-hate this week. My line has been crossed. I spent a lot of time wearing nice and understanding. It hasn't gotten me anywhere. I think I'll try on angry for a bit and see how that plays out.

Really, I'm not a long-term anger kind of girl. I'm the melancholy, cry it out and then" put on a good face" sort. But short-term, serious, Scotch-Irish anger, that I've got.

So today feels like a day for a little music. Heartbroken man-hater music. Don't you agree? Here's one of my current favorites. Enjoy

Friday Favorites, Back to School Humor

My favorite section of the newspaper is the Comics. Sure I read the rest, because I should, but I read the Comics because I want to. I don't know what that says about me.

This is one of my new favorites. It's a strip called Freshly Squeezed by Ed Stein. It's about a 30-something couple, their middle-school son, and the wife's parents, who have recently moved in due to the recession. It's a funny look at the dynamics and quirks of having multiple generations living under one roof. I smile every time I read it.

This week's series is about back-to-school and since that has been our theme this week I thought I'd share a few. If you have kids going back to school, or if you have ever been a kid going back to school, these should hit you just right. Especially the bit about the school supply list. The list gets longer every year and I keep getting emails with additions. I've been to Target four times this week and I already spent well over $100 a few weeks ago on the original list. {Hey School, I want my kids to have everything they need to be good learners but you aren't the only one with budget cuts!} There. That's my rant about that.

The last strip is for those of you with boys. I'm pretty sure my son really would rather go naked than go shopping for new clothes. After ten minutes or so he get's that glazed over man look where you can tell that he's no longer mentally in the store. During one of our back-to-school shopping trips, he became so checked out that I started picking up pink things and Hello Kitty gear asking if it would work. All I got in response was, "Sure, whatever. Can we go now?". Oh, boys.

Well, here you go. Enjoy a little Freshly Squeezed...

Happy Friday everyone!

Friday Favorites...Ikea

By this point of the summer, I am usually pulling my hair out. The kids are starting to argue more. The constant noise is grating on my last nerve. The house is trashed. It's time for a change of scenery.

Yesterday that change of scenery came in the form of a mini Swedish vacation. Yes, I'm talking about Ikea. I love Ikea. It's not about the mass produced ceramic mugs or the cheap sofas, although those things are great. The things I'm most in love with are the free childcare and the ability to have a crazy shopping spree for $10.

If you've ever been to an Ikea without children you probably don't know that it's a parents escape paradise. You walk in, hand your children over to the smiling girls in the yellow shirts, and are free to shop at a snails pace for the next hour. Then because everything is so cheap you can justify filling the shopping cart that you are idly leaning on and feel like you've been on an outrageous shopping spree. That is my idea of stress relief.

The boy has outgrown the play area. So after we dropped the overly excited girls off (they love the ball pit and the wooden shoe slides) we bought a box of cookies and walked around laughing at funny products and funny people. We shopped for a future cousin in the baby section and laughed at funny looking stuffed animals. We lounged on sofas and hugged super soft pillows. We just talked for an hour. It was lovely.

When the hour was up, we went back to get the girls, who were sad to leave. Then we walked up to the restaurant and ordered four 99cent bowls of meatballs. We found a table and sat back to watch the movie that was playing.

I'm telling you, mini-Swedish-vacation. That's what it is. We all left much more relaxed than when we left. In fact, we were all so happy when Steven got home that he said he felt like he had been seriously deprived of some good leisure time.

Don't worry, honey, we'll all happily go back. It might be a happier place than Disney World. Ok, that might be stretching it. But it runs a close second in my book.

Friday Favorites...Sleep Talking Man

So here's our nightly ritual with the girls:

After dinner they both take a bath.
We wash their hair, get wrapped up in towels and quietly brush their teeth and hair.
Then they pull clean pjs from their drawer and get dressed.
Looking all fresh and clean, they each pick a book, one of which will almost always be about a Disney princess.
I sometimes read in a lovely British accent and Steven trumps me by reading with a different silly voice for each character.
Once we've read books, we give each girl a kiss and a hug and tuck them in tight. And they peacefully float away to dreamland.

Hold up. No, that's not right. That sounds too easy. These two girls don't go peacefully anywhere.

What actually happens is:

They take a bath after dinner.
Usually one of them hits the other with a rubber duck.
That, of course, results in tears and yelling.
The one who was hit will then pull the other one's hair which will lead to more tears and yelling.
And this will lead to me yelling.
So we will wrap up in towels and shuffle off to their bedroom completely forgetting about brushing teeth.
There will most likely be no clean pjs in their drawer because I'm behind on laundry, again.
So I'll pull dirty ones out of the hamper and get more tears because princesses don't wear dirty clothes.
Then I will see their wet heads and remember that we haven't brushed their hair.
So they each sit on my lap and endure the tangles being brushed out which will bring more tears and yelling.
When those tears are dried they will each pick a book, one of which will truly almost always be about a Disney princess.
Then Steven or I will speed read through it because we are too frustrated by the tears and yelling at this point for voices.
Most likely it will be me because Steven will still be downstairs cleaning dinner off of the floor.
Finally we will give them each a kiss and a hug and tuck them into bed.
Then we sit at the top of the stairs and wait because ten minutes later one of them will need to potty or need another kiss or a drink of water.
Then ten minutes after that they will think of something that they just have to say.
Then ten minutes after that Analiese will tie a stuffed bear to her blanket and lower it down from the top bunk to Sicily on the bottom bunk and Analiese will cry because Sicily has stolen her bear and her blanket in one quick grab.
An hour later my little sprites will be sound asleep and I will head downstairs to finally spend a few minutes with my husband before we both pass out.
(Chris puts himself to bed in the middle of this dance. Ah, the responsible first child.)

And that is how I spend most of my nights. Sounds fun, right? No? Well, your right. It's not. Which is why my husband decided to cheer me up last night with this.

http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/

Some people think it's fake. I don't care. It's hilarious and makes me wish Steven talked in his sleep. More importantly it made me laugh in the middle of the crazy hour we call bedtime around here. So that is why it is my Friday Favorite this week. I hope you like it.

Now, I'm off. It's almost bedtime. Let the dance begin.

Friday Favorites...Art

I saw this on another blog and fell in love immediately. It touches my heart and makes me smile happy smiles. I knew I had to share.

This is particularly poignant to me as I am in the process of pulling together a collection to open my own Etsy shop. I am very nervous about it but I think it's time to jump. Will I sink or will I float? I guess we'll see. Stay tuned for more details later this month.

Happy Friday!

Friday Favorites...Nearly Wordless Blogs

It's been a while since I brought out a Friday Favorite. I actually have several drafts sitting there that never got posted. Things you should love but I never got around to telling you about. Fridays have just been very busy in the every-day-is-busy-at-the-end-of-the-school-year kind of way. So I start a post and then it gets left until Sunday when I think about it again. Sunday Favorites just doesn't have the same ring to it.

But it is 10am on a summer Friday morning and I'm still sitting here in my pajamas with a cup of coffee. (I have a love/hate relationship with my children growing up. Right now I'm loving that they are starting to sleep in!) So I have no excuse for not sharing something lovely with you.

During the summer I can have any where from three to ten kids in my house at all times depending on how many of the neighbors have retreated from the heat in my living room. That makes my summer days full of noisy words. So I retreat to places with few words. Two of my very favorite blogs are nearly wordless. If you are over-worded as I am, you have to check them out.

Habit is a photo blog with wonderful captions highlighting emotions we all feel. It captures the little moments in life. The great cup of tea, the sadness of a moving box, the first steps of a baby. It's life in pictures. I love it because it makes me smile every time. (habitblog.com)

ThxThxTHx is a posted note thank you a day. It's a collection of thank yous for all of the random things in life. It makes me laugh and simultaneously makes me grateful for the little things that make my upside down life lovely. Being reminded to be grateful for everything from tears to friends to the steering wheel is a good thing that we could all probably use a little more of. (thxthxthx.com)

So I hope you find a few less words in your life today and a little more gratitude for the simple joys of life.

Happy Friday to you all!

Friday Favorites...Jamie's Food Revolution and The Art of Simple Food

We have spent the last two months eating recipes from this cookbook, Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver. It is exactly what it says: simple, delicious, and affordable. In the past two months we have eaten out less and honestly eaten better than we would at most restaurants. And I'm no chef. (Though if I'm completely honest, a vast majority of my day dreams involve owning a bakery in a small town. Kind of boring day dream, I know. I'm not the superhero type.)

The recipes are really easy to follow. I've learned to make Indian curries, my husband's favorite, that rival a few local Indian restaurants around here. (Is my humility bursting from the page here or what!) I repeat, I'm no chef. I give full credit to the recipes. A lot of the recipes use similar ingredients so by staying stocked up on those staples I save money. My kids are eating soups full of veges and loving them. It doesn't hurt that the pages are full of the Naked Chef himself. Ah, crush.

It's just simple stuff, like pastas and how to roast a chicken the right way. But sometimes simple is best. I think home cooks fail a lot because we try recipes with terms that are way over our head. Then we think we can't cook. But you can, you can cook good, nutritious, pure earth food. You just have to know the basics. I've pared my little culinary adventure with this book:

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters really breaks it down. Each chapter tackles the absolute basics of good cooking. I'm talking technique, like how to cook fluffy rice and dried beans. How to make chicken broth, polenta, and custard. And most importantly I've learned what a poached egg is. Some of you might be laughing but I didn't grow up knowing any of that. This has been a wonderful learning process for me. Knowing the basics, I feel like I can cook anything now. When Steven and I go out for a date I can tell what's in our food and how it was cooked. I love knowing that. And I love that it's so incredibly simple.

Both of these books allow you to go to the farmer's market, know what you're buying, and go back home to prepare a lovely, delicious meal. You can finally make peace with your oven. Who doesn't want that?

Friday Favorites....

We love this game!

Curious George Hide and Seek Zoo, it's a board game with a little hide and seek thrown in. Bonus, you get to wear animal masks. I play this game no less that 5 times a week. Sicily loves it. She especially loves the part where the man in the yellow hat says, "oh, no george! the animals have escaped from the zoo!" because that means she get to put on her mask and go hide. She love to hide. Even the older two kids get into it. It's really fun.

So here's how it works. There's a walkie talkie and on your turn you push the button to get a message from the man in the yellow hat. Most of the time you have to draw a card to help an animal. You spin and try to earn the card. Typical board game, right? Only sometimes the man in the yellow hat says the animals have escaped and everyone else runs off to hide. The walkie talkie counts for you, then off you go to find the other animals so that they can come back and finish the game. Every kids game should have a round of hide and seek thrown in just to get the wiggles out.

I highly recommend this game to my mom friends. Granted, you know that we're a little biased toward anything Curious George related. We've like it so much that I'm going to check out a few of the other Curious George games to see if they are as much fun.

So check it out! I hope you like it too.

Help for Haiti

We are in the middle of a celebration weekend here in our home, and we'll get back to that tomorrow. But there are mothers out there in the world with celebration far from their minds. I'm sure you've heard about the horror in Haiti. I think all of us hold our children a little bit tighter when we hear news like this, especially when we see pictures like this. Sometimes my heart breaks with the helplessness I feel that I have to comfort these people.
There are some things we can do, however. There are ways that we can jump outside of our safe homes to help those in the middle of this crisis. Prayers are always effective but we can also give of our resources, even when we have little to give.
Today, during friday favorites, I'm going to share some of the crisis relief funds that I love and hope that you visit one of them.

• I love the Hands and Feet Project, being an old school Audio Adrenaline junkie. They have of course been affected, though they are reporting that no children have been lost.
  
• Compassion International has set up a specific relief fund for the children in Haiti
• Samaritan's Purse is a fund both Steven and I love
  
• And of course, always an excellent resource, The International Red Cross

Hope you find this helpful.

Friday Favorites...

I have a new favorite. Actually it's an early Christmas present. Steven let me open one of my presents early so that I could use it for the holidays. I'm so very excited about it. It's a Canon powershot SX120 IS and it's awesome.

I have been whining about my camera all year. For good reason. It started deciding when it would work, and it rarely wanted to work when I wanted it to. I put a lot of thought into which one I wanted and of course the one I wanted was one of those nice $1500 Nikons. But being reasonable, this one was a very close second. It does everything I want it to. I've been playing with it all week. It's so much fun to have a new toy. I know that a lot of you wonderful family members chipped in on this one, so this is a big Thank You! I love it! Merry Christmas to me!

And speaking of Christmas, before some of you start to fill you childrens stockings, I wanted to let you in on the best place to buy children's art supplies. Stubby Pencil Studio is the place to go for quality eco friendly art supplies for kids, that won't break your budget. I highly recommend the color pencils. They're what I use to teach at the studio. They have great pigment. And the rock crayons are perfect for little hands. Stubby Pencil has become my go to for our art supplies, because kids deserve quality supplies too.

I guess with this post I'm kicking off the Christmas season. Tommorrow we're putting up the tree. Laying down in front of a twinkling Christmas tree in a quiet night house is one of my very favorite things. I love Christmas.

Friday Favorites

Who doesn't love the sight of a shabby, hole filled blanket? Or a slightly over loved stuffed animal? I do. A well worn lovey is a beautiful thing. I love that a soft blanket or a teddy can instantly soothe hurts and calm fears. Sometimes, I want to be an old worn bear. Just think of all of the love poured into that bear. I'd take a little shabbiness for a little of that love.
We have some very worn loveys around here. I love that when I pick them up they smell like my children. (Most of the time. Sometimes they just smell like they need a bath.) Here are some of our favorite overly loved blankets and toys.

This is the blue dog and a very soft army blanket. On most Saturday mornings you can find Chris wrapped up in this blanket watching cartoons. Chris is very sentimental. I think the main reason that this blanket has become a favorite is because it's from Grandma White (his great grandmother). He doesn't get to see her much and it reminds him of her. The blue dog has a back story as well. I have a baby picture of Chris with the blue dog. I believe it used to smell like vanilla. Nine years later it does not. I've tried to put it away a few times now, but I gave up. It seems this blue dog has a permanent place on his bed. I love being reminded that in all of his "coolness" he's not so big that he won't tuck a little blue dog under his pillow at night. Shhh! Don't tell his friends.


This is Jack. Jack's been around for awhile. He rotates on and off of Analiese's bed. It's actually hard to choose just one stuffed animal that's her favorite. She's very attached to them all. Jack made the blog today because he happened to be holding the blanket. This soft pink blanket is the real lovey. It's been around since she was a baby. She's gets in a mild panic when we can't find it at bedtime. This blanket has been mended many times and it still has its fair share of holes. It has been left in the tree house and rained on. It has gone on many trips. It has been to the hospital too many times in six years. And it comforts my tender hearted little girl. I'd say it's a very good lovey indeed.



But there is no lovey in the world as worn and cherished as Sicily's bunny. Oh, the bunny. I think that in a fire this is what I would run in and save (after the kids, of course). Though I don't think I would have to. This bunny has an invisible sting attaching it to Sicily's hand. It used to be pink. Now it's a nice shade of off white dirty. When I check on her at night it's usually over her head. Sometimes when she sneaks into bed with us I wake up with it over my head. I've decided to stop thinking about what kind of germs this thing is carrying. For the first three years the bunny didn't leave her sight. This past year I've found that during the day the bunny has spent increasingly more time on her bed. My little girl is growing up. She's even tried to go to sleep with other stuffed animals, but she always makes her way down the hall within a few minutes asking me to find her bunny. Shabby little bunny. It makes me happy.

Friday Favorites...

I thought I would let some recent pictures of Sicily help me with Friday Favorites this week. That girl is dangerously cute. And she knows it, which might be more dangerous!

Around here we judge our days by how many episodes of Curious George we watch. Every day is a one episode day. In fact it throws us off if we don't start the day with George. Two episode days usually mean that mama used George as a snooze button. Three George days mean that our afternoons are starting to unravel. But a four George day, well, those are the popcorn for dinner in front of the tv days. I love George because even my oldest will sit down and laugh at George's antics. That means that a moment of chaos can be stilled for a moment of peace. And I won't lie, I have been known to laugh out loud during an episode. We all love George. My curious little monkey is an especially big fan. She sleeps with a George toy, dresses up like George, and I read a lot of Curious George before bedtime.

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Another favorite around here that is Handipoints. Handipoints is a website where parents can build responsiblity charts for their kids. The kids build points by doing chores or having good behavior. As the parent you can set a certain point goal and when the kids reach the goal they get a treat. All of that is great and has really helped with chores around here. But the real bonus is Handiland. When you sign up each kid gets a cat. As they earn their points they also get bonus points that they can spend on their Handiland cat. Then they can go to Handiland and play games, dress up their cat, and meet other "cool cats". It's safe, fun, and adds a little extra incentive to chores. My kids are more excited about the bonus points than their real points. We love Handiland. Although, now that all three kids want on the computer I've had to assign computer time (including time for myself or I don't get to use the computer!). Sicily is a little computer savant. She quickly picked up using the mouse and getting around the internet. She's a smart one!

This picture doesn't have a favorite attached unless you count sleep as a favorite. (I do, by the way.) It was just too sweet not to share. The older two start school at 7:20. This puts us getting up at 6:30. Most days Sicily sleeps in, but occasionally she'll get woken up. This is one of those days and after a few minutes she was falling asleep in her cereal bowl! I put her back to bed and she slept for another hour. Sweet Sicily.

Friday Favorites

Every summer our elementary school asks the students to read at least 50 days of the summer. They get a chart to keep up with their reading and if they reach the goal they get to be part of an ice cream party at the beginning of the school year. Today we took down our reading charts so that they can turn them in next week. (The older two will be getting ice cream. And the younger one will be getting a special ice cream date with mommy!) While we were looking over them, I decided to ask the kids what their favorite books are right now. And I'm so very glad that I did! I think it will be fun to look back and see what stories they loved at these ages. They picked some very good ones!

Chris loves the Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne. He said his favorite of the series was Christmas at Camelot. (The one in the picture is the one he's reading right now, Night of the New Magicians.) These books are great. I especially like them as a chapter book series for boys because unlike some of the other series out there right now, the characters are curious and witty without being disrespectful and crude.
I've also started introducing him to some of the classics. This summer I bought him Treasure Island. He surprised me today when he said that it was one of his all time favorites. Score 1 for the classics!

Analiese chose Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner. If you haven't read this book you should. It's pretty funny. Get ready to use your best story telling voices for the read aloud because this book definitely calls for nothing less!
Her second choice was Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor. If you have a girly girl like I do then these are the books for you. No character captures the true over the top daintiness of a 6-8 year old girl quite like Fancy Nancy. Warning: After reading these books you may find that your little girl wants to leave the house in big pink boas. Or maybe that's just my drama queen.

Sicily chose Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. We've had this book since Chris was little but she's the one who has really loved it. It fits. She is a wild thing. Of course this is a classic and for good reason, it's wonderful. If you haven't heard, let me be the first to tell you that a movie version of this great book is coming out this fall. I'm pretty sure that I'm more excited than the kids! The previews look awesome. The wild things look like they popped right out of the book. It's on the calender as a must see.

I couldn't leave out my favorites! I love this little story. The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton is on the top of my list right now. It's about a little house in the country that wonders what it would be like to live in the city. Over time the land around her get developed and before she knows it she is in the city. She becomes neglected until one day when a little girl notices her. The little girl's family decides to move the house back to the country and the little house is happy again. I think this book appeals to my secret desire to live in the middle of nowhere. It's really a very sweet story.

There are so many good children's books that it's really hard to stop at these. There are so many more I want to tell you about. I think it's story time.

Friday Favorites

I decided to start something new. I'm going to call it Friday Favorites. There are so many things that we love and really shouldn't keep to ourselves. So I thought I'd start sharing them with you. I can't promise I'll remember every week (I do still have three kids you know) and I can't promise that it won't be a completely random selection. But I hope you can sort through it and find something that you love. And here we go.

We love this cd! The title track (Catch the Moon) is really beautiful and perfect for little girls. It also has classic children's songs like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star but they're just so pretty. My girls love to put on princess dresses and prance around the kitchen. But mommy gets tired of the Disney Princesses Songs (quickly). This is one I never get tired of.

This book was a great read, not to mention full of great recipes. I've used so many of the recipes that it now lives on my cookbook shelf.

My Calphalon omelette pan is the one piece of cookware that I guard with my life around here. I love it! And the omelettes practically cook themselves. ps: It will help you make excellent crepes too!