Manic Melissa

Are my Kids Eating the Pencil, Markers, Crayons, Glue Sticks and Other School Supplies?

2012-02-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

And if not, where do they go exactly?

When we moved to our new house one of my first projects I completed was this area for the kids to keep their school stuff. I bought the fabric pockets at the Container Store for this project. The hook and basket combo I bought there several years ago. I just used name tags to label the pockets because that way I can change them next year.

For some bizarre reason I thought this would help them locate their homework, do their homework and then take their homework to school and hand it in to the teacher.

All it has really done is allow the children to easily locate the pencils, markers, crayons, erasers, scissors and then... I don't know what they do with them.

When asked the kids are all completely flabbergasted that the stuff has all disappeared. None of them ever use the school supplies in the cups and when they do, they always, ALWAYS put them back.

Not even a week ago these handy dandy flea market find cups were filled with all kinds of school supplies. As you can see, they are now mostly empty. Logically there should be a large pile of pencils, markers, glue sticks, crayons etc somewhere in my house but there isn't.

My first theory: A school supply sucking black hole located somewhere in the kitchen. Which leads me to question why the black hole is always leaving dirty dishes on the table. This theory isn't the best one because it's very picky about what it makes disappear. Mechanical pencils and glue sticks are it's favorite. It won't eat broken pencils and backpacks left under the kitchen table don't get devoured either.

At around the same time the cups all turned up empty, all the chap stick disappeared as well. With that clue another theory might be that one of the kids has opened a mobile commissary for their school friends out of their backpack since none of them own trench coats. I know they don't have trench coats because I haven't picked them up off the floor in the kitchen. Yet another thing the black hole won't suck up, coats. This theory breaks down in that none of them is sporting extra cash to spend.

OR and I'm leaning toward this explanation, the kids are eating the school supplies and washing them down with chap stick to make the whole kit and caboodle pass more easily.

A Pinterest Pin Done My Way

2012-01-18T16:24:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been a little obsessed with Pinterest, a new site that lets you arrange the sites you bookmark like a pin board. One of the projects I really liked was a way to organize and store earrings and I finally got around to doing it.

I made this one for Taylor, but I think I need one for me and Dee Dee is thinking she might need one as well.

To do this little project I painted a frame we already had.

Then, with Chris' help I stapled rug canvas to the back of the frame. This was a little harder than I thought it would be because the squares were kind of big and my stapler kind of sucks.

Rug canvas is the material used for latch hook projects. I originally had planned on using the plastic canvas used for cross stitch projects, which would have probably worked better. Unfortunately I couldn't find a plastic canvas that would fit the frame I already had. Since frames are expensive, I decided to get a little creative. The rug canvas turned out to be a good choice. The squares are large so it makes getting the hooks in easy and it's fairly stiff so the squares hold their shape while you are pulling on them to make the backing tight on the frame.

To hang the jewelry I used some fancy Christmas ornament hooks I bought on sale. They are very pretty, but S hooks would have worked just as well, maybe better. But they weren't just laying around my house like the ornament hooks were.

At this point, I'm going to do a little bragging. Everything you've seen so far, you probably have already seen on the net. Maybe you've seen the next little step I did, but I don't want to hear this wasn't an original idea, so please don't tell me who thought of it first:) Hook earrings weren't a problem, but I wanted Taylor to be able to hang her stud earrings as well. (How twelve am I, the word "stud" makes me giggle). To accomplish this I cut rectangles out of the aforementioned plastic canvas used for cross stitch. I bought the canvas with the smallest holes available. Then I ran a hook through the mesh of the plastic canvas and we put the earrings through the holes. I was afraid that the small posts would slide right through, but they didn't.

This was an easy sneezy project, I think it looks good and something that can be used for a long time.

I need to do this for myself and the other girls in the house but one thing I would change is cutting the cloth a bit longer. I was trying to accommodate the fact that this frame had a wire for hanging and didn't leave much material on the sides for stapling. Next time I'm going to use a generous amount of material to make it easy to pull across the frame so there isn't any sagging. It's easy enough to cut after you are finished stapling it all into place.

Let it Snow!

2011-12-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

When we lived in the apartment we made snowflakes every year to decorate the window. This year we did the same, only we also decorated a lot of the doors as well as the big window in the living room. It also made for a lot of...ummm... snow in the living room!

Look What I Did:)

2011-12-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

A little update. I realized I hadn't posted pics of the finished stockings so here they are:)

One of my life long dreams... (Ok, maybe more of a goal) I've had for the last few years has been to cross stitch a stocking for everyone in the family. I finished stockings for Taylor

and Olivia

I started one for Chris and then lost interest for a while but the last few months I've been into it again and finally finished the stocking.

In that time I also acquired a program that lets me design my own cross stitch patterns and so the stocking I stitched for Lucas is one of my own designs. Now I just have to work on stockings for Dee Dee and myself:)

Early in the Morning

2011-12-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

Early this morning Chris got up to see the eclipse of the moon.

Our Living Room, before the Holidays and Decorated for the Holidays.

2011-12-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

This first year of decorating has been fun. The new living room is bigger than the one at the apartment which makes it more fun. It's especially nice that we no longer have to wedge the tree topper between the ceiling and the tree.


The living room when you walk in the front door, before.

and after.


Across from the TV before,

before,

and after.

Across from the piano.

and now.

Another before

after

and after.

Thanks for visiting;)

Halloween 2011

2011-10-30T23:46:00.000-06:00

This year Taylor wanted to be Flo, no a zombie, wait... Zombie Flo from Progressive! The Progressive site actually provides templates so you can make your own Flo costume. We printed out the tags, bought the apron and Chris stenciled it and then we bloodied it up. A white polo, white pants, wig and hairband with appropriate gory makeup finish the whole thing off. She's received a lot of great comments on her costume.

Lucas wanted to be a vampire. I told him there wouldn't be any sissy, sparkly vampires in this house, so he went as Dracula. I had made the cape a couple of years ago so all we needed to do was get a vest, a shirt and a little bling to finish off the costume.

Dee Dee wanted to be a zombie princess and then she wanted to be a doll, so we've done a couple of different versions for different events.

Olivia couldn't wait to try out the Cleopatra costume we got as a hand me down. She looks great in it and gets a lot of oohs and ahhs over it.

And yes, that is some one's homework everyone is standing on.

Halloween, a Retrospective

2011-09-14T17:35:00.003-06:00

It's that time of year when the kids start thinking about Halloween and I start to wonder where my glue gun has gone to live. Taylor was talking about all the things she's been for Halloween and it was kind of hard to name them all. So I thought it might be fun to go back and relive those great moments with all the kids.
2001

We bought these little onesies and the hat, so cute.

The scarecrow (Olivia) and clown (Taylor) costumes were hand me downs, although I made the little scarecrow hat and had to make the clown hat a little bigger for Taylor's giant noggin.
2002

We bought these costumes. Olivia was thrilled to be a ladybug in a pot, Taylor, not so much.
2003
Hmmm... I seem to be missing something...
2004
And here too.
2005

Madeline and Lucas were Raggedy Ann and Andy. We used clothes they already had and I made the wig for Madeline. For Lucas I just glued some yarn to his hat. These might be my favorite costumes of all time.

Olivia was Cat Nape' a popular cartoon at the time. She was dressed in an all black sweat suit, I made the ears and tail and the mask. Cat Nape' was a cat burglar, so the mask was important. Taylor wanted to be a flower so she wore a white sweat suit, I made the leaves and petals out of foam sheets. And then since Olivia had a mask she needed one as well.
2006

Madeline was a cute little princess with a homemade crown, the dress was one we had from a previous year.

Lucas made an adorable cowboy.

Taylor was a great fairy princess. Olivia wanted to be a mermaid princess so I made the tie on fish tail and the star bikini. I thought it looked great with the white T shirt underneath it.

2007

I really loved the costumes the kids chose... well OK, Madeline's was a bit 2007 but the rest were really fun. Taylor was a ghost, a white nightgown from the Goodwill, some makeup and she was ready to go. We also ratted up her hair for that really scary ghost vibe. Olivia was a bat, I took apart an umbrella to make the wings and attached them to a black sweat suit and then made her some really big bat ears out of a black foam sheet. Lucas was a spider, the arms were his arms, his legs and then I used some black tights stuffed with poly fill to make the other legs. The fake legs were attached with a string to his arms so they moved when he moved his arms. I painted a glow in the dark spider web on his black sweat shirt just for fun.
2008

A witch, a hatching flamingo, a firefighter and a fairy entered a bar.... I mean went out to enjoy Halloween. The firefighter costume and the fairy dress were both bought. I made Madeline's wings, they were very sparkly. Taylor originally wanted to be an egg, then a hatching chick and then she fell on her head or something and wanted to be a hatching flamingo. I was able to buy a mask for this and then added the feathers, made the wings, the neck is made out of a pink boa and the egg shell bits were paper mache'. All of this was attached to a skirt I made out of pink fabric and some elastic. A black sweat shirt, pink sweat pants and pink shoes finished off the costume.

For Olivia I made the witch's robe, the hat out of paper mache' (although I would just say buy one, they are cheap and making one wasn't as easy as I thought) The belt and then we bought the socks because accessories are important, even if you are an evil type of witch.

2009

I'm just going to cheat for this year.

2010

For 2010 Madeline was sporting a witch costume we got as a hand me down. Olivia was a black cat we bought the mask this time around for a different look. Taylor was a corpse bride and a really creepy one at that. My favorite was Lucas'. He decided he wanted to be a weatherman. I had to buy a wig since at he time he was sporting a mohawk and aI bought him the little suit from a second had store. So people didn't think he was selling insurance we attached maps to the sleeves of his coat so he could give the forecast when people asked. The right side was the 7 day forecast which consisted of tornadoes, snow, rain and falling candy for Halloween. The other map was a map of the USA with the southwest on fire, the north frozen, tornadoes in the mid west and lightening bolts in the northwest. He got a lot of really great comments. (Note to self, next time save a copy of the maps because they were hilarious. )

Yikes! A big freaking hairy spider!

2011-08-20T22:04:00.000-06:00

So after discovering this dude in my kitchen sink I'm thinking about just boarding the place up, putting out a for sale sign and cutting our losses. I kid, mostly.

First Day of School!

2011-08-18T22:17:00.000-06:00

This is the first year they are all in school all day long. Taylor and Olivia are in 5th grade and Madeline and Lucas are in 1st grade.

A Funny

2011-08-07T21:42:00.000-06:00

One of the exciting things about getting a new house is getting to choose the paint colors. We still need to add another bedroom so for now Taylor and Olivia chose to paint their room bright yellow and blinding orange. Luckily the room is in the basement so I don't think this combination will result in retinal damage.

I've been dreading painting because the kids are so excited about getting to help out. Since the floor in Taylor and Olivia's new room needs to be replaced I decided to start there. I just knew they would get bored with the whole thing quickly and no longer want to help me. But alas, those kids really love to paint. Lucas did finally decide he didn't want to do it any more but the rest of them really hung in there.

One of the new toys I bought for the new house was the Black & Decker paint stick. Chris got to use it first, but then I went to town with it.

It worked really well and after about an hour this is what the room looked like.

Which is where the funny part enters into the equation:)

And the work begins.

2011-08-01T20:46:00.001-06:00

So I hired 4 people to help me out with the house. Sure they work cheap but they are expensive to feed and the whining...

Under that nasty pad are some pretty nice hardwood floors.

And the work continues...

We bought a New House

2011-07-29T20:29:00.000-06:00

Well, new to us, it's actually previously loved:) Here are pictures of the before and as we fix things I will add posts. It's a 60's ranch which has only had one owner from what we can tell from the paperwork. The older gentleman who lived there wasn't able to take care of the yard or much of the house so there is some work to be done.

The front door opens to the living room. Yes, the carpeting did smell worse than it looked, thanks for asking!

The kitchen.

The bathroom, it's uglier in person if you can imagine that.

And the main floor bedrooms.

And then there is more downstairs.

Another bedroom.

The family room, half of which we want to turn into another bedroom.

Yes, the owners did leave all this crap, even after assuring me they would get it all out. Grrr

But wait there is still more...
A large room with almost no purpose:

And a utility room.

And then back up the stairs:)

I'll keep writing about the changes we make, we think this is going to make a great home for us.

Alive for a whole decade!

2011-07-10T21:12:00.000-06:00

Taylor and Olivia turned 10 and for the big day they got their ears pierced!

Both were thrilled and were so brave. At the end they received certificates to commemorate the experience.

Rainbows and Sunshine

2010-06-26T16:26:00.002-06:00

I went to the store, when I went in it was raining. When I came out there were 2 full rainbows spanning the sky. All of which made me wax poetic...

Thought I'd Find Gold Here

But the Rainbow Kept Moving

Stupid Leprechauns

Bunnies, Beavers and Frogs with Chainsaws... Oh My!

2010-06-03T16:10:00.006-06:00

Ahhhhhhh went the shrieking girl, ribbit, plop went the frog and that was pretty much the theme of our trip to the Hudson Gardens, located Southwest of Denver off of Santa Fe.

We all know my love for the Botanic Gardens... lets face it, it has the most mentions of any other venue we visit regularly here in Denver. Plus, I get to share a lot of pictures of flowers I love. Chris and I had visited the Hudson Gardens a couple of different times before we had kids. The kids had all been to the free trick or treating event on Halloween, but we hadn't toured the gardens as a family ever. We thought it might be a good way to kill an afternoon and it really, really was. Given my love for the Botanic gardens, I'm going to say something shocking. Hudson Gardens was more fun for the kids and might edge out the Botanic gardens a wee bit in my favorites category. Hudson Gardens just seems more accessible to kids. They can walk down by the different ponds, they got to see some wildlife and there was a lot of room to run. At the Botanic gardens I'm always super jumpy my kids are going to fall into the concrete ponds and I'm not going to be able to get them out without damaging some sort of plant life. Here, I had far less concerns as it just seemed like there was more room to roam.

Although there were plenty of great flowers to see, On this overcast day, I really came to see the irises, since they were in full bloom at the time. They were gorgeous, the colors, the size and just the incredible variety they had at the gardens. It's not pictured, but all the different varieties had name plates so you could find the one you like in a catalog. Even the kids had a good time looking at the big flowers and all the colors.

Miniature trains, it was hard to tear Lucas away from this awesome sight. Hudson Gardens has a wonderful train garden with track that runs through a variety of plants and even a "replica" of old town Littleton. The trains, the tunnels, the little town, he was in heaven. If he could have actually played with the trains and cars and little people he would have never left the area. The train garden was a favorite for all the kids, although Lucas still talks about it a lot.

Down at the end of the garden, near the bike path there is "Monet's Place", with a lovely bridge, of course.

Next to the bridge is the coolest place ever... a frog pond.

Frogs, so cool yet so very scary when they jump. The frogs were really awesome, the numbers of tadpoles were astounding and the size of some of the frogs was just unbelievable. I can only imagine the cacaphony of ribbits that must occur in the evening with all those frogs trying to find someone to love. The funniest part was the reaction the kids had to the sudden jumps of the green amphimbians. We had multiple events of shrieking that made it sound like the frogs were mass murderers out on some sort of chainsaw rampage.

But for me, of course, the water lilies were the best part, so pretty and they didn't cause any type of high pitched screaming!

OK, I'll admit it, I'm not a big fan of evergreens. I don't like the texture (mostly sharp and painful), I don't like that other plants won't grow under big evergreens. And I don't like that they overwhelm the small scale plantings of the normal single family home. I really, really hate to see some cute house living in the shadow of some hulking spruce that will eventually fall during a windstorm crushing the house, a neighbor's house or a random car parked on the street. Fifty year old junipers are also another one I hate. Sure they were super cute when you planted them next to the sidewalk, but now they are trying to grab my kids and eat them while you try and cut them back as far as you can, turning them brown in the process. Not brown enough to be dead, on the contrary, the side facing your house is super green and looks great!

However, Hudson Gardens has a section of evergreens that is very well done and always makes me question my evergreen distaste. The garden does a wonderful job of playing with the colors and textures of the evergreens. Of course, the gardens also have enough room for these blocky plants to spread out and play well together. They aren't trying to eat some poor, tiny, cottage in the middle of a neighborhood built on single lots and competing with other plants better suited to the environment.

One of the most surprising thing to discover at Hudson Gardens was a real, honest to goodness, live beaver, just hanging out in one of the ponds as if we weren't just off of Santa Fe in Littleton. I was quite surpised to see so many different animals on this trip. At one point Dee Dee almost stepped on a garter snake as we were looking at a sculpture. The bunnies were by far the favorite, although I'm guessing the gardeners would love for us to never see a bunny there again. While we were there, the bunnies were busy snacking on new growth in the oval perennial garden.

The kids had a great time and we actually had to drag them out of there, they wanted to stay longer... that hasn't ever happened at the Botanic Gardens. I'm usually the one getting dragged out of the gates!

Dear Volkswagen,

2010-05-24T14:03:00.003-06:00

You suck. Here's a sampling of why you suck...

Child 1- (POW).... "blue one!"

Child 2- "Ow! You aren't supposed to hit, just say the color! OH (POW) RED ONE!"

Child 1- "Mom he hit me!"

My kids don't need a new incentive to beat the snot out of each other, especially in the car. They can come up with plenty of reasons without your advertisements encouraging them to slug each other and random strangers just because a Volkswagen of any type is within eyesight. Its even more annoying because the game is supposed to be about assaulting someone because you saw a Bug, not a minivan or any other random type of car you people might manufacture. Slug Bug at least limited the number of cars you could get beat over, Punch Dub is just stupid. Sure, I get a little vicarious joy out of your commercials and the random beatings that occur, but the reenactments by my kids are sucking the fun out of it for me. Perhaps Hug Dub would be better, it can still be considered assault, my kids like to hug until someone trips and falls down, but at least it would be harder for my kids to do in the car. Better yet, Don't Touch Anyone Dub... now there is a slogan I could totally get behind.

Your Invisible Friend Did What??

2010-05-01T21:19:00.001-06:00

Invisible friends... a right of passage for many younger kids, sometimes the bane of a parent's existence.

When Olivia was about 3 she had an invisible friend named Hotolita. Hotolita didn't talk much, do much, but she did have a book that Olivia needed to keep around at all times. The book was an old leather bound day planner that was given to me by my old job. At the beginning of each year we were given new ones and I kept the old ones to compare sales and promotions from one year to the next. Olivia found one of the older planners and liked to draw in it, so I let her keep it. One day she started to talk about her "Hotolita book" and was devastated she couldn't find it. I asked a bunch of questions... hot book? hot to where book? what?... luckily Taylor was there to translate for me and from that point on that is what we called that particular book, The Hotolita Book. Taylor never had an invisible friend, she just translated for Olivia's invisible friend.

Actually neither Chris nor I had invisible friends, although Chris told me he used to wish he had one. His complaint is that he was never cool enough to have an invisible friend. I didn't have invisible friends, but then I had a healthy social life with my very real stuffed animals. Each one had it's own personality and all of them had to sleep with me at night. The animals used to fight over who got to sleep next to me, so I would rotate them so no one would get jealous. Don't tell, but I did have a couple of favorites shhh...

Fast forward and now Dee Dee has an invisible friend named Nicholas. She has had this friend for a couple of years and Nicholas is much more developed as a personality compared to Hotolita. Nicholas, Dee Dee's friend is a little girl, just a bit older than Dee Dee and Nicholas gets to do and have everything Dee Dee doesn't. If Dee Dee wants a toy and we say no, Nicholas will be sure to have the coveted toy at her house. If Dee Dee complains we need a new car and we laugh, Nicholas' family gets a new car... you get the picture. Taylor and Olivia love to talk to Dee Dee about her invisible friend, even going so far as to help make things up about what Nicholas does, lives and even how she looks.

Lucas realized he needed to make up invisible friends to combat Nicholas, Nicholas was just one too many girls in the house for him. He first decided he wanted to be friends with the firemen down the street... he didn't have a really good grasp on "invisible" at that point. When I wouldn't drop him off for a sleep over at the fire station, Lucas threw a big fit and then he made up Boy. Boy isn't really well developed in personality, he mostly just wants to go to all the parties that Nicholas has. Occasionally Boy gets a cool toy, but for the most part Boy is only around when Nicholas is mentioned.

Nicholas lives in a big house and moves around a lot. Dee Dee lives in a small home, shares a room with her brother and doesn't get to travel past the state line all that often. Not only does Nicholas often live in nice neighborhoods we drive by (usually in a McMansion), but she also sometimes lives in Africa, India and occasionally China. Lately, Nicholas has been moving farther and farther away... I'm hoping she moves to the moon and stops talking to Dee Dee soon. As it turns out, Nicholas is a little bit evil, sometimes she draws on the walls and signs Dee Dee's name. Or she encourages Dee Dee to brain her brother with a doll. Nicholas is a trouble maker, an instigator and has caused some big arguments in the family.

For example, a couple of months ago, I'm driving down the road, listening to the radio and I hear some screeching coming from the back seat. Being the awesome mom I am, I turned up the volume to drown out the screeching. Then the screeching turns into arguing and I hear the names, "Boy" and "Nicholas" an awful lot. Realizing that I wouldn't be able to solve the problem by drowning Dee Dee and Lucas out, I turn down the volume of the radio, stare at them in the rear view mirror, swerve into on coming traffic, swerve back, stop staring at them and ask, "what the HELL is going on back there?" At this point I'm regaled with the tearful story from Lucas about how Boy can't go to the Halloween party Nicholas is having that night. OK, first, this happened in January which makes me wonder what Nicholas' mom is thinking having a Halloween party in January. Second, my thoughts were... "Seriously, how the hell am I supposed to mediate an argument between invisible, unreasonable people?" Since the screeching was about to start again I picked a plan that involved me playing along with the whole Nicholas debacle. I tell Dee Dee she can't be friends with Nicholas anymore if Nicholas isn't going to invite Boy to the party. I then wonder if that is the most insane thing I have ever said, or if "Don't put your finger in your sister's butt!" edges it out as being a wee bit more crazy.

That wasn't the first argument Nicholas has caused and it wasn't to be the last or even the best! Just the other day Nicholas turned out to be a huge problem when she turned Boy into a girl... Oh yeah, the one invisible friend gave the other invisible friend a sex change, out of the blue and while we were in the car. That time I deliberately swerved into oncoming traffic.

Sometimes Nicholas likes to cause trouble with the older girls too. After school the girls like to tell me about their day on the way home. In second grade Taylor had a teacher named Mrs. Bohm. At about this point in time Nicholas started going to school and her teacher was named Mrs Bones. It was amazing, every day Nicholas did all the same things in school that Taylor did during her day. Boy also went to school, but Boy just did all the stuff in school that Lucas did at home. Unless Taylor or Olivia had a really funny story to tell and then both Boy and Nicholas had the same funny story to tell. This would sometimes cause the girls to argue with Dee Dee and Lucas about what Boy and Nicholas did during the day and Dee Dee and Lucas would then have to defend their friends... oh look oncoming traffic.

So at this point I'm thinking of developing some sort of 12 step program for invisible friends... some sort of IFA (invisible friends anon). The meetings? A planning session for how to ummm... eliminate those pesky personalities. The twelve steps? For the invisible friend... off a short pier. Perhaps there could be some sort of "Strangers on a Train" scenario. One person backs over another child's invisible friend with their mini van, someone else flushes the other kid's friend down the toilet to sleep with the fishes... all accidental like. I'm not sure if killing off the invisible is a legal issue or not, but I'm keeping the alleged scenarios general, just in case. There might be moral issues about killing off nonexistent friends, but its gotta' beat the immorality of driving into oncoming traffic. Or the health issues involved with keeping your sanity by drinking copious amounts of vodka. Speaking of which, I seem to be out of vodka... I wonder if Nicholas' mom has been visiting...

I love Dandelions!

2010-04-26T15:21:00.000-06:00

“If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.”

Andrew V. Mason

I love Dandelions! I know its an incredible, bold statement, in some neighborhoods it would be better to love E. Coli than the dreaded dandelion, but love them I do. Dandelions are the perfect color of yellow...happy, warm and buttery. OK maybe butter is the perfect color of yellow, but be that as it may... The flowers are soft and puffy and tickle your nose when you give them a sniff.

The seeds are incredible and possibly the best part of the plant. The poofs beg for a puff of breath to send them on their aerodynamic way. If the poofs are too new the seeds won't fly away easily, if the are too old, just picking them up has the seeds flying in all directions. Occasionally you find that perfect one that has the holding power to stay but the slights breath will send the little parachutes flying into the breeze.

The smell always reminds me of my own childhood and picking huge bouquets of them for my mom. I can remember the feeling of pulling the flowers up and the white sap making my warm hands sticky. My mom always greeted these short lived bouquets with the proper enthusiasm and put them in a jar of water to be enjoyed by anyone around for the next hour before the flowers closed up forever. Now, as a mom myself, I get to enjoy being on the receiving end of these generational offerings and it really does make me smile. Here's the thing, the dandelion is more than a nuisance in the lawn or a beautiful flower arrangement to any mom, they are also very versatile plants. They grow just about anywhere, even in spots where other plant fail because of the heat or foot traffic, they are
very drought tolerant thanks to their long tap root and every part of the plant is edible and purported to have medicinal value as well.

The serrated leaves can be used in a salad, the young plants taste a bit like arugula, the older leaves are bitter and better used for cooking. They can be baked, boiled or sauteed with a little garlic. The leaves are high in Vitamins A, C and K, Carotene, Lutein, Calcium and Iron as well as other nutrients. The leaves are also known as a blood purifier and can be used as a diuretic.

The flowers can be eaten in a salad, made into wine or dipped in batter and deep fried. That's right folks, dandelion flowers can be fermented into a wine. Can your fancy, shmancy rose you labor over, worry over and mourn when it's killed off by random frostbite, be made into an alcoholic drink... or deep fried? Not to mention a rose dies if you look at it wrong... a dandelion barely turns brown with the addition of herbicide or a good stomping. In fact in can be hard to get rid of these stubborn plants as the tap root will easily grow another plant if the whole thing isn't carefully removed.

That long tap root can be brewed into a drink that is something like decaf coffee... although if you've actually had coffee and like it, you might not be really wowed by it. The tea is said to have a lot of benefits including as an anti inflammatory and an aid to digestion.

All these great benefits are why our ancestors brought the plant over to the new world. The botanic name of the Dandelion is Taraxacum officinale which can be translated to mean, "disorder remedy". I might not believe its a panacea for every disorder that affects us or even listed on the net, but the vitamins and minerals are something the plant does contain in abundance.

So the next time you are thinking about spraying a dandelions in your yard, take the time to look at it a little more closely. That plant you hate so much brings joy to kids and there aren't many plants that can lay claim to being completely edible as well as medicinally useful. Yet the highly maligned, humble dandelion can do it all.

Earth Day (picture heavy)

2010-04-24T21:56:00.000-06:00

For Earth Day Dee Dee, Lucas and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Denver Botanic Gardens. DBG has hosted a free day to celebrate the Earth for the last few years. This year the day dawned rather cold, wet and blustery, it looked like we were going to have to spend all of our time in the conservatory just to stay warm and dry.

Since I was worried about the weather we left a little late and stopped by the dollar store to buy umbrellas and magnifying glasses for some extra fun. We didn't arrive at the gardens until about 11AM and at that point the rain cleared up, the sun came out and everyone and their kid arrived at the parking garage at the same time, like some sort of Earth Day miracle.

The gardens were beautiful, it had rained just enough to wash everything clean and leave sparkly drops on all the leaves and flower petals. The kids enjoyed the puddles and muddy trails that were left behind. The drops I liked, the playing in the mud and stomping through puddles I could have done without.
Dee Dee and Lucas were a little disappointed about the weather... new umbrellas beg for a good rainstorm. But then Dee Dee pointed out that umbrellas could be used to, "keep the sun off of us!" and everyone was happy. Dee Dee used hers quite a bit on the trip, Lucas just wanted to swing his around, so he ended up putting it away so I would stop giving him the evil eye.

It was hard for Lucas to decide if he was a "sthecret sthpy or a sthcientist", he finally decided on scientist rather than secret spy and immediately got to work observing things just like a scientist would.

This year was especially nice because the gardens are hosting sculptures by Henry Moore. I always enjoy when they have art in the gardens... it's like going to an art show without having the stress of taking my kids to an actual "don't touch that, OMG we can't afford that if you break it" art show Although, in fairness the kids would really have to try to damage some of these sculptures. I'm not saying they couldn't do it, it would just take a little more effort.

The Day was fill with flowers, fun and even a little art. When we left Dee Dee said her favorite part was the umbrellas. Lucas said his favorite part was parking in the garage. My favorite part....... well, all of it!

A Frozen Walk by Clear Creek

2010-01-10T00:01:00.005-07:00

Whenever we drive my husband to work we always pass this certain stretch of I70 that goes over Clear Creek. On bitterly cold days the water is always steamy and the trees and brush along the banks are covered in frost. This has intrigued me for a couple of years and I finally decided to stop and check it out. Dee Dee, Lucas and I dropped Chris off at work and then on our way back home, stopped and I took these shots before my camera froze up a bit from the cold. The temp that day was something like 23°F. We only walked for a short distance because none of us had gloves (bad mommy) but the scenery was breathtaking. My theory is the water is warmer from being released from the Coors Brewing Company which is just a couple miles up river. I'm sure it has all kinds of environmental implications, but it still made for some pretty pictures.

The 7 days of Halloween.... or something like that.

2009-11-03T16:28:00.001-07:00

This year Halloween was a lot of fun and lasted for several crazy days and a couple of insane nights as well!

Every year the big decision is what to be for Halloween. We usually start discussing it a couple of months ahead of time in case they want to be something really intricate. This year was pretty straight forward. We had a vampire, a witch (the mean kind), Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and a pirate.

Taylor decided she wanted to be a vampire pretty early on, so I whipped up a silky red vampire cape. Having the big stand up collar was an important part of the costume and the only thing she really requested. But she was also pretty happy to wear her fancy red dress since we don't go to a lot of occasions that require wearing a fancy red dress. We made the spiffy necklace out of an old brooch I have and a silver chain we had lying around. She made up lore about the necklace and how it was the reason she could go out in the daytime even though she was a vampire. Its just not Halloween without a little made up lore to go along with your costume!

Taylor practiced this scary stare for a long time, don't look too deeply into her eyes!

Olivia at first wanted to be a pirate, but then she saw a cute Dorothy costume in the Spirit store and decided that would be the ticket. Of course what sold it was for an accessory you could buy a basket complete with Toto. She almost changed her mind when I told her that we weren't getting the Toto basket...I'm not paying 15 dollars for a stuffed rat dog in a tiny little basket! After discussing it she decided she could use one of the animals we had at home and borrow a basket from Diane. I made the dress for her so it would be adjustable and fit over her coat if it was a cold Halloween. (It wasn't)

Dee Dee wanted to be a princess because she is always a princess, but then decided to be a witch... "a Scaywee witch!" So I reworked the dress I made last year for Olivia, bought a new hat and daddy painted her green so she could be a super terrifying witch.

Lucas was the hardest... he wanted to be a fireman, no- a policeman, no -a delivery man, no -a UPS guy. We finally found a pirate hat for cheap and told him he was going to be a pirate. At first he wasn't too sure about it, but he got on board the pirate ship after I bought him a pirate tattoo.... I hope he's always so easy to bribe:)

For the week before Halloween they wore whatever part of their costume that they wanted, but the first day of Halloween was on Oct 25th when we visited the:

Haunted Sorority House...

It was a dark and snowy day in the city of Boulder when the children ascended the steps to the haunted sorority house. Inside they found a chamber or horrors filled with pretty girls, games, crafts and worst of all... CANDY!

Every year the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house hosts a party for the kids that benefits a local charity. The kids always have a good time and this year was no exception. They had fun winning cupcakes, making bats and hammering golf tees into a pumpkin.

The second chance to dress up and have some Halloween fun occurred on Fri. October 30th. We attended the trick or treat street in Olde Town Arvada. This is one of my favorite events, all the kids are so cute dressed up in costume and the shops always have a lot of candy to hand out to all the ghouls and goblins who are out wandering around in the dark. Its a fun night for the parents, the kids and I think that most of the merchants enjoy it as well.

That same night we went to a Halloween party and enjoyed snacks, games, (including doughnut bobbing)(pirates really are cheaters), a haunted house and participated in a costume contest (we didn't win)

The next day was THE DAY.... Halloween! We went to another trick or treat Street in Denver at Highland's Square and showed off the costumes to friends in the neighborhood. Had we mustered up the stamina we probably could have easily visited a dozen different venues on Saturday. Lucky for the kids Chris and I were pretty much wiped out at that point! So we went home and took the traditional Halloween nap...its an important part of getting ready for Halloween night.

FINALLY we went trick or treating for real in our favorite neighborhood as soon as it got dark. It was a little cloudy, a little creepy and a whole lot of fun was had by all. The kids collected so much candy they complained about carrying their pumpkins and we were out long enough that the kids were begging to go home. At that point Chris felt like he had won a small but important victory in parenting:) It's always nice when you can end a fun evening with the kids being grateful to get in the car and go home.

I think I'm still a little exhausted from all the celebrating and I'm glad it's over but I can't help but wonder what costumes I'll be making next year...

School Snow Days

2009-10-29T21:04:00.000-06:00

Wednesday and Thursday the kids heard those 2 sweet words of childhood, "SNOW DAY!!" Snow dumped over Denver and the surrounding area for 2 days making a wonderland filled with snow angels, snow balls and lots of sledding. It was a little too wet for snowmen, maybe we can do that next time:)

Even daddy had some fun:)

mmmm....Beer.....

2009-05-10T16:44:00.000-06:00

So, today I woke up with the need to do something new and most importantly, not in the house. We got the kids ready to go, piled into the car and Chris said, "Where should we go?"

OK, planning isn't always our thing...

After some thought and a little driving around, I said, "lets go to Golden", we could always go to a museum or something. Up to Golden we drove, as we were passing the Coors plant it occurred to us that the brewery has a free tour and more importantly, free beer! Considering the Coors brewery isn't all that far away we've never done the tour. The brewery fit the bill perfectly... something new and it wasn't at our house.

The Brewery is located basically in or at least near downtown Golden, right on Clear Creek... fresh mountain spring anyone? Tee Hee, actually they assured us they use water from a source deep in the mountains, under the plant. This water is only used for cooling...

The kids were pretty excited to go, when we told them what we were going to do. It had all the elements of a fun time: It was up in the mountains (yes Golden is in the mountains and you better not tell my kids different... it saves me a bundle in gas not to have to go to an actual mountain town! LOL), we rode on a 'school bus' (Coors shuttle), we went in a big building, rode in an elevator and had soda... all the components needed for an adventure.

The tour is a self guided tour with a little device that tells one (uno, solo, solitary) person what is going on.. and you have to be over 12 to get one. Oh, joy, only mommy and daddy got the fascinating device, leaving the kids to argue who got to help listen. As a bonus, no matter how loud you try to make it, you have to hold it up to your ear to hear. Luckily the babies lost interest pretty fast and the girls were pretty good about sharing when needed, after the initial volley of, "ME, NO ME, MY TURN!!!" it wasn't too bad.

We learned the history of the brewery and I found it interesting they make everything there. The beer, the bottles and the cans. You really do learn something new everyday.

A lot of the plant was shut down since it was Saturday. But there were still some interesting things. The copper vats where they cook the grains was my favorite. It looked like the innards of some alien ship. The shiny copper vats put out a lot of heat and it was a little humid as well. There was also a high tech control room to monitor everything... all alien ships need one!

At the end of the tour we got to see some finished product ... for all of you who drink Coors Light, here it is coming off the line.

After about a half hour of looking around we found the lounge and enjoyed a fresh cold one... tasty...I had a Killian's Red.

The kids had soda and assured me that it was very yummy. Lucas was convinced he had found paradise, a factory that makes 'soda', where you get to see how it's made and then drink some and then ride on a 'soda bus'... I'm still not sure what tour he took.

Dinosuars...Where?!? (Picture heavy, because I can)

2009-04-25T20:45:00.004-06:00

Saturday dawned as a bit of a dreary day... clouds, slightly chilly and the threat of rain. Despite that, we decided to have an outing to the Denver Botanic Gardens, what with it being a free day and all. What we didn't know is the DBG had been invaded by Dinosaurs which made it way more fun than usual. (OK, its always fun for me... prehistoric creatures or no.) There was also a lot of construction, the parking lot was a big giant pit (literally... it was a hole in the ground surrounded by concrete) and the front entrance looked more like a disaster area than a metro spot of peace, beauty and tranquility. Luckily after oohing and ahhing at the crane,(the metal kind, not the feathered variety) preventing the kids from scaling the chain link fence and distracting them from staring at the construction workers while they tried to enjoy their lunch we made it inside the gardens where things were just as pretty and tranquil as they've ever been. Although my kids were able to take care of that pesky quiet, tranquil feeling:)

Right off we were greeted with hundreds of tulips in full bloom, as well as dozens of other blooming spring bulbs. All the bright colors immediately started to dispel some of the gloom of the day.

red tulips

grape hyacinths

fritillaria

scilla

pretty tulip

more tulips

dutch iris nestled in silver artemesia

daffodills

And there were spring blooming perennials showing their colors.

brunnera macroflora

drumstick primrose

pasque flower

aubretia

anemone

aspens with daffodils

evergreens in the oriental garden

The dinosaurs were made of some sort of colorful material and a few were quite large. Each was accompanied by a plaque that gave information about each dino. The kids were thrilled to run from statue to statue learning a little bit before they darted off again.

I'm not sure what kind of dinosaurs the above are... possibly sillious hammasaurus.

Above are my kids 'acting' scared... yeah they are going to be stage actors, there's no subtlety in their method at all.

there were even dinosaurs inside! As well as a lot of other pretty things. All in all the botanic gardens was a great way to light up a dreary day.