Category: Uncategorized

William brought home this drawing of a truck yesterday. I was impressed, but then, I’m easily impressed by my children’s art. Not bad for a 5-year-old, what?

Katie wanted to be a helper in the kitchen today. Yes, she insisted I wear an apron, too.

Rubber boots are standard apparel here in the Northwest. I mentioned in the family Christmas letter that I purchased 6 pairs for the family since moving here, but I didn’t mention the havoc this wreaks on the mudroom. So here it is, for time and all eternity:

Tonight’s FHE activity: snowflakes! Irony #1: there is very little snow in Seattle. #2: this was supposed to teach the kids (according to the lesson plan in the Friend magazine) that we are all unique and loved in the eyes of God. Brian could not help but point out that the belief that “no two snowflakes are alike” is untrue. To which I retorted that no two snowflakes can occupy the same space at the same time and therefore have unique experiences despite being molecularly identical

FHE at Shoreline House: Come Prepared For Scientific Debate.

The flakiness:

As I type this, the boys are scurrying around upstairs, hiding all the stuffed animals in random little nooks and corners.

“Then, when we’re finished,” explained Jeffrey, “Eleanor will walk around with the rubber band gun and hunt them all down!”

Eeep?

 

My youngest sibling, Alex, got his Eagle Scout Award last week.  This was a very big deal for my parents, and they all requested that we come to his Court of Honor.  (And a two of my cousins, Kim and Erin, were there too!  I haven’t seen them in a few years, and it was great to coo over their babies.)

For Jeffrey, it was two of his loves combined: he loves being a Cub Scout, and he absolutely worships his Uncle Alex.

I made sure to spiff up Jeff’s Scout shirt for the occasion, collecting all the little beads and neckerchief slides and sewing on those impossible arrow points.  (Who invented those dumb arrows?  Not anyone who knows how to sew, surely.)

Jeff shadowed Alex the entire evening.

My dad was able to represent the Scout Council and give Alex his award.  (Isn’t his hat awesome?  Brian and I both come from big Scouting families).

Alex’s Eagle Scout Project was building this enormous concrete fire pit in the city park behind my parents’ house.  To celebrate the end of the event, everyone had fun torching marshmallows to death in the new pit.  There were benches and everything — an impressive project.

Alex gave his Mentor award to my mom (who, to tell the truth, did a lot of work to get this project done).  D’awwww!

And now Alex gets to go off to the Blair Atholl Jamborette — an international Boy Scout event in Scotland.  And he gets to wear a kilt!  AND I NEED PHOTO EVIDENCE OF THIS, DO YOU HEAR ME, ALEX?

Status update from June 4, 2012:

I’m teaching Eleanor how to knit mittens on four needles. It’s actually easier than making a plain ol’ scarf — and way more exotic (to her). Who’d like a pair?

Eleanor has always been very interested in textile crafts.  Last Christmas she made potholders for just about everyone she knew.  She’s discovered string games and loves weaving big loops of string around her fingers to make different shapes.

Knitting seems like a no-brainer.  And we started her off with a little doll-sized scarf about 1 1/2 years ago, but it hasn’t been a hit.  Let’s admit it: scarves are boring.  Then I found this book called Sunny’s Mittens on Amazon.

It’s a picture book about a girl learning to knit mittens under the tutelage of her Nana.  The illustrations are SO 80s and the text is a touch awkward, but it does an excellent job of explaining Swedish “Lovikka” mittens to a child-adult team, explaining what the child can do alone, what tricky bits the experienced knitter should do, and hints for making the knitting easier.

I was so excited that I went out and bought some wool yarn (you have to use 100% wool, as you felt the mittens at the end).  The only skein the yarn shop had was massive, but it was a good price, so I decided that I’ll make mittens for other kids when Eleanor gets done with hers.

The shopgirl at the yarn shop wound the skein on her machine for me.  This is what it looks like . . . Eleanor calls it “The Wheel.”  I included the plastic cup for scale.

Status update from June 5, 2012:

My friend Chris (spouse of Susan) made this logo for our new home — I love it! Only six weeks to go, and I’m there . . .

Yeah, and I’m really going to miss Chris and Susan, now that you mention it.  And I suppose the moniker “Shoreline House” is going to stick.

Status update from June 10, 2012:

Brian and I put a gallon of ice cream on the counter. We told the kids it would take about 20 minutes for it to soften enough to be scoop-able. They obviously thought that would take too long — five minutes later, we found the children had opened the ice cream and were hammering it with a meat tenderizer in order to soften it.

The crazy thing is, it worked!

For the record, it was Farr’s Brownies on the Moon, which is just like Rocky Road, only with little brownie chunks instead of nuts.  One of my favorites, so I don’t blame them for being proactive about this.

Status update from June 11, 2012:

For your consideration: The Clan.

My sister, Liz, decided to make an extended trip to Utah this summer, and my mom made it a point to get a new family group portrait taken a.s.a.p.  Why?  Because the old portrait (from December 2010) has my brother’s ex-girlfriend in it.

What?  IT’S THE TRUTH.

Anyway.  Don’t we clean up well?

The photographer said she “only had to swap out 6 of the heads.”  Which made little phantom spiders do a fox trot on my spine.