Monsieur Elliott Allan

There's a new baby in the family!  Darren's cousin's wife had a baby boy and that gave me an opportunity to knit a new hat.  Luckily, I had this lovely "Hue of the Moment" skein of Madelinetosh yarn called Road Less Traveled on hand.  As soon as the cute little Tea Collection shirt comes in that I ordered to include in our package of goodies we're sending north for the baby, this lil' human will be sporting the hat below.

UPDATE: The package is ready to ship!

I remembered I had a completed baby blanket ready to go so I'm sending that along with two board books, a toy, and a very cute long-sleeve t-shirt from Tea Collection because, apparently, I am not quite done buying things from that store.  

Project: Arbor Blanket

This picture was taken a couple months ago near the start of the Arbor Blanket project.  It took me three months working intermittently to finish.  There was only the one cone of organic cotton fiber and I got to watch it s l o w l y reduce in size, but there's a surprising amount left.  Perhaps I can make a cotton hand towel for the kitchen?  Anyway, the final stitch count is 96,782.  It is by far the highest stitch count of any project to date.  

Pandemic Christmas Tree Shopping

There is a Christmas tree lot in our neighborhood that magically appears after Thanksgiving that we've been going to for the past few years.  The older gentleman who runs it lives in a trailer on the lot to keep watch over the trees.  He's gruff but kind.  

Hen looks for smaller trees.  He loves that hat on his head.  

Today, Henry found our perfect tree in record time.  The pandemic makes shopping a speedy enterprise. We very much arrived at the lot with a get-in, get-out action plan.  

By nightfall, our tree was decorated with a few gifts for family and friends underneath. 

Hats for twins

I was completely inspired to knit up very basic hats (using Purl Soho Super Soft Merino Hats for Everyone! pattern) for the twins after picking up these buttons at a craft store. They'll be mailed out along with a few other gifts for the girls this week. The twins are six!

Books for presents are AWESOME!

Excellent finds at Powell's for Hen's upcoming birthday.

Summer camp is rapidly approaching!

Hen is going to his first sleep-away summer camp on Monday. He'll be gone for 7 days. Luckily, another mom told me about sending care packages a few weeks ago so I've been buying a few small items to stick in it. While we aren't able to send food items, small toys and books and other fun stuff are acceptable. Here's what Hen's getting with a pic of the homemade and hastily crafted postcard, too. The camp handbook advised not talking about how much you miss your child and how anxious you are for your kid's return so I talked about something I knew Hen would find funny - farts. More specifically, farts from the cat and his papa so...the likelihood is high that he'll laugh at that.

paper airplanes, pre-addressed and stamped postcards (for writing to mama and papa), two books (Spiderman and Choose Your Own Adventure), Mad Libs, green pen, emoji plush toy, silly putty, marbles, fart whistle, and a spinner

Santa visit

We visited Santa a few weeks ago to avoid crowds. It worked. There was one family visiting Santa when we arrived but no one in line behind us, which meant Hen chatted with Santa for a few minutes about the BB-8 without feeling pressured to clear out to keep the line moving. Once again, the folks at Bridgeport Village did an amazing job. Spoiler alert - this kid is totally getting that awesome robot toy for Christmas.

Christmas 2014 Pictorial

Santa came, he saw, he left a present in the tree

Mittens!

Books galore

Mac and cheese for dinner

Minecraft + LEGOs = awesome

Inspecting his sea sponge from Santa

One sweet boy with seeds

Hen has been saving seeds from various fruits and veggies we get and as a last minute gift idea he made a seed packet for Grandpa Gilroy. He wrote on the list that he'd come over in the spring to help with planting.

We have such a sweet boy.

Teacher Appreciation Week, Day Four

For the final day, Hen and I picked up kosher salted caramel biscotti treats for his teachers and gave a Cafe at the J gift certificate to his classroom teachers so they can have snacks, coffee, and/or lunch on us.

Teacher Appreciation Week, Day Three

This is my favorite:
My teacher is really good at "listening to the banana fone."

I found these labels online and thought they were a cute and easy way to dress up the fruit.

Teacher Appreciation Week, Day Two

Hen and I planted succulents into pots and then added these fun little cards created by a friend of mine from college. 

Teacher Appreciation Week, Day One

It's a short week so we only have four appreciation days to prepare for but we started off the week with a small token gift, which feels not so small because Hen has eight teachers throughout the week and wanted to include the other kindergarten teacher, too.

We made Thank You cards and bookmarks*, added individually wrapped Kosher snacks, and gave them each a little cash, excepting our gifts to Safranit Molly (our librarian, who got a copy of Bel Canto) and to Coach Christy (our P.E. teacher, who got a gift certificate to REI).

The goodies

Neatly packaged

So I don't forget, our list of teachers include:
Morah Celinda - Hen's primary teacher
Michael - Celinda's classroom helper
Morah Tara - the other kindergarten teacher
Morah Amalia - the Hebrew teacher
Morah Susanna - the Jewish Studies teacher
Morah Kim - the music teacher
Morah Sandi - the art teacher
Coach Christy - the P.E. teacher
Safranit Molly - the librarian

Phew. If there is a Hebrew word for coach, the kids must not have learned it yet. I picked up snack-size boxes of raisins to be included in the baskets they are putting together for the teachers later this week.

For the rest of the week, our efforts will be focused on Morah Celinda and Michael, who spend the most time with Hen. I picked up two succulents for Hen to plant this evening to take tomorrow. I hope to have him draw monsters for Wednesday. I'm still trying to figure out what gift to give on the last day. Any suggestions are welcome.

*I just made a bunch of bookmarks as prizes for the ORCA/BCCCA party Safranit Molly threw for the kids who finished reading the books on the lists. They are so easy and cute! Hen selected the paper used and I put them together. 

Christmas project underway

My sister is a fan of posting these daily reminders on Facebook of just how fast Christmas is approaching - for those interested it's 155 days away - so I decided I'd best start a couple of my projects. While walking by Paper Source I was inspired and with the little man's help we got farther down the road to having a finished product for under the tree.

Christmas 2012

Here are just a few photos of our Christmas day...

Hen and his chameleon - it wasn't the three-horned one he asked for because that request came too late to complete but the kid rolled with it and he and the chameleon are becoming fast friends.

Knit octopus by mama - Hen rejected the superfluous bowtie because octopuses don't wear them. It will be removed posthaste.

What I wanted to see out my window this morning. Too bad there wasn't a real blizzard.

A Hen favorite, right up there with everything else that he got.

Our little tree.

Enjoying his new police helicopter.

This year's books!

Opening Santa's present - an Elasmosaurus.

Christmas with the cousins

Christmas brunch at Brother Nick's

Christmas dinner at Jyla and Bobby's

Seventy-second Wordless Wednesday requires the best pair of fingerless gloves ever

Holiday crafts: Pine cone ornaments

Please note, if you are a grandparent to one Henry Finn, you should cease reading this post immediately. Thank you, The Condo Management


Earlier this week Hen and I started our holiday craft projects for the family. It was an overcast rainy day and just seemed like the perfect time for a little Christmas music (thank you, Pandora), a crackling iPad fire, and adhesive spray glue.

We gathered pine cones in Sherwood several months ago but I'm confident any craft store will have them on hand during this time of year.

I sprayed the glue, Hen applied the glitter. 

We tied thread to the top.

Voilà! Homemade sparkly pine cone ornaments!