Winter Break

we have had a lot of time on our hands lately...some of you may have heard of the school closings and "terrible" storms in our area lately. my mom called me worried that I drive carefully, etc, etc. the truth of the matter is this...on valentine's day, our schools were closed! alan's work had a delayed opening at 10:30 am! we decided to drive him to the train station rather than making him ride the bus as usual. boy were we surprised at the 3" of snow! that's inches....not feet. luckily we had a valentine's surprise in store to bust the boredom (in the form of the cranium superfort -- photos pending.) the next day, alan's work had delayed opening again, as did alexander's school! the bus never showed to take him, so i drove him. school was scheduled to open at 10:30 and we arrived at about 10:25 only to wait in line for nearly 20 minutes with all the other parents dropping off. don't know what the deal with the busses was. the roads were clear and dry. i have no idea what the problem was, but due to road closures in our area, i arrived home at 11:15. alexander's bus brings him home at 11:50. what a wasted morning!
friday the 16th, schools had a scheduled day off for parent-teacher conferences, and remained closed monday for president's day and tuesday for a teacher prep day! we had a LOT of time on our hands. here's how we filled some of it....

hadley brought me the "doodle" a couple weeks ago and proudly said "i drew daddy!" sure enough, she did! looks just like him, don't you agree?

we have been spending a lot of time with lucy, the neighbor 2 doors down. she is sophie's age so they get along wonderfully. the other day, lucy and hadley were having a snack and hadley was telling lucy about her "brubber" asked me, "who's my sister?" when i told her she didn't have a sister, she was indignant, and said "sophie's my sister". "sophie is your cousin", i corrected her. she looked REALLY upset for a second and then said "lucy can be my sister. she is my sister friend." glad we got that settled. :)

alan had president's day off, so we braved the cold (but not too cold) and went into new york for the day. we visited the met and met our friend tom for dinner at chow fun. (walking to the restaurant, we passed another restaurant and alexander said "this place doesn't look very fun"). tom graciously put up with children climbing on him, chattering non-stop, and acting like robots. you're a great sport, tom!

we found a FREE family pass to the met online (you can't beat that!) so we splurged at the gift shop. hadley got a "degas ballerina doll" for a whopping $6 and alexander chose a harmonica for $5, which he informed me he will "practice every day until i'm as good as bob dylan." what an awesome kid!

we stopped for a snack at the met cafeteria and hadley's ballerina danced on daddy's head for about 10-15 minutes.

after that, the armor!

isnt' this just cool? there's a cooler photo of 3 of the 4 riding knights here.

i was fascinated by the jousting armor. it featured special plates that were screwed and/or bolted on to the regular armor, as you can see here. also notice the helmet. i have NO IDEA how they could see at all inside this thing. note the little lever that swings out on the right. it's for resting the lance on!
another view of the same knight. notice how the extra plate curves to better deflect the oncoming lance. and you can also see the little window that opens for them to talk. it has cute decorative punch-outs so they can breathe.

another set of jousting armor. i love the big bolts, especially the one on the face, which bolted the face guard onto the helmet. there are also screws around the neck, because the helmet was too heavy for them to hold their heads up...it had to be screwed to the breastplate. again, no idea how he sees, but this guy had a little string for someone to pull to open his talking hole. (probably not the technical term.) alexander went crazy for this stuff. hadley was bored and had to be taken elsewhere. i tried to get some pics of the little guy with the armor, but i ran into 2 problems. #1--low light and no flash allowed plus a moving 5 year old = blurry. #2--little guy was just a bit leary about standing too close to the knights, know what i mean? they are a bit too lifelike and slightly scary, even inside glass cases. :)

this is the actual field armor of henry VIII! henry the freaking 8th! how cool is that? huge guy, no? i'm a geek and just could NOT believe the met has a set of henry the VIII's armor. cool!

Love is in the air....

Happy Valentine's Day!

click to enlarge photos

i have been a busy little valentine's day bee this week! first we made valentine magnet sets to send to utah. by "we" i mean the kids helped for about 5 minutes each and i did the rest.

i think they turned out really cute and will carry a little valentine love to our cousins, grandmas, and grandpas. the thinking behind this was that the kids can use these to hang their works of art on the fridge with style! it was hard to get a clear photo in my light-less home!

two tins, packed and ready to go, with valentine message enclosed.

here is a tin with the foamies confettii we packed in each tin. sorry utahns, if this is a spoiler!

class valentines. we made 25 of these in just a few minutes. i'm really pleased with how they turned out! i think they are adorable and festive. i will print off labels saying "happy valentine's day! from, Alexander" and stick them on the back. contemplating whether it's worth a trip to staples to get printable labels or whether i should just stick them with glue or double-stick tape.

another shot of the class valentine packets. in case anyone is wondering, all i did was get some mini cellophane bags from michael's (candy-making section, near the sucker sticks), bought some valentine candy in bulk (valentine m&m's, conversation hearts, juju hearts), scooped in a scant 1/4 cup candy, cut paper tops from 12" scrapbook paper (size is 4.25" x 3") -- i used a paper cutter, so it only took a few minutes -- then just folded the bags down, folded each card in half, and stapled in the center. the kids had fun helping with the folding, stapling, and filling bags. they were really easy and look like we put some effort into them, when it was very minimal. i think i will use the candy bag idea again for small gifts and treats.

for valentine's day, i wanted to surprise alan (and treat myself) to a romantic new bedroom restyling. i couldn't wait, so i did it yesterday. here is the BEFORE photo. scroll for the after, my blog program messed up the photo order and i'm too lazy to go back and fix everything!

keep scrolling....

this is a (bad) photo of the throw i received from the mormonchic craft swap i organized. i love it! it's double layers of fleece, so it's extra soft and warm, and i love the embroidery detail on the front. it's chocolate brown with tan on the reverse that matches the embroidery. it arrived yesterday, just as i was putting finishing touches on my new room and it fit in perfectly! i was so excited! (photo of it IN the room and in context are below).

AFTER: (TA-DA!)

i think it turned out really nice! i was worried because i got a bit here and a bit there and i was hoping it would all pull together nicely -- i think it did! the walls in our room are sort of a soft, sage green, but with the new bedding, they look more like a pale aqua, which looks great!

view of the room from the doorway...notice my new and improved chair? yes, it actually WAS black before, but thanks to a few safety pins and a cream-colored twin sheet set, it looks great and coordinates much more with the room. you can also see the throw in action -- since the chair is a make-do fix, i think the throw makes it look much more finished and detracts from the fact that it's just covered in sheets! the funny thing about this is that i didn't even know i HAD cream-colored twin sheets until i happened upon them in a box last week. i have NO IDEA where they came from, but boy was i glad i discovered them!

a closer view of the chair with the throw.

finally, some pictures of me wearing my new favorite piece of jewelry, which is the necklace alan got me for christmas! due to an unfortunate shipping mix-up, it was not in utah for christmas, so i had to wait clear until the 6th of january to recieve it! there is a close up (but not a good one) below.

the necklace is tumbled garnets, which are my birthstone. i love the tumbled rather than the cut, faceted type because they remind me of pomegranate seeds. the center stone is blue topaz, which is sentimental to me, because i wore my mom's blue topaz ring at my wedding for my "something blue". i LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

have yourself a great valentine's day, and kiss someone you love!

xoxox

Blue Bird of Happiness

Alan gave this to me for my birthday! Isn't she lovely? This is the second version of Winter Witch that I own. This painting means a lot to me because it represents the struggles I have had this past year. Alan pointed out that the blue bird of happiness is flying TOWARDS her (I mistakenly thought it was flying away!). The bird has seen better days, but it's winging it's way back. :)

xoxox