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This Crazy Life

What’s going on, you ask?

  • We are headed camping this weekend. We reserved last minute so all we could get was the “group” site which holds up to 75 people (and 15 vehicles). Three families are going so it’s not toooo ridiculous. I’m calling it The Jamboree. I can’t wait. But of course this makes lots of work … to get ready for camping … again. The kids are beyond thrilled and not just because I got them new buckets and bug catchers.
  • My darling over-achieving husband added to our workload yesterday by getting MORE bedding plants at the nursery. He was there to get tomatoes and came home with a bunch more flowers to add to the beds. I was a bit peeved because remember how I hate gardening? Still do.
  • We braised a pork shoulder in Dr. Pepper last night … oh. my. word. We were supposed to take it camping with us but we underestimated how much it would cook down. Unfortunately we were left with about a cup of insanely tasty pulled pork and that will feed … maybe the kids? Maybe me? Not all of us though. Plan B. Costco also has pulled pork.
  • Speaking of cooking, you have probably noticed that the Cookbook Challenge has fallen by the way side. I had fun with it at first but then it got to be a chore, so I chucked it. I have enough chores. I’ll share a recipe when I really really love it. The end.
  • We found a piece of land we’re very interested in. There are about 15 hurdles (big ones) we have to jump through  and very few of them come with guarantees, but we’re very seriously looking into it.
  • I have been pretty slacky on the whole being healthy thing, but I had a serious talk with myself and decided I would correct this. It is actually going pretty well and I’m pleased with myself. Of course this is only Day 3.
  • Relatedly, I am really enjoying running right now. I’ve been chilling more about mileage and just focusing on having good enjoyable runs. Matt and I did a great session at Table Mountain on Saturday. I want to get out to more trails. I love the scenery and the peace.
  • Tabby is doing a photoshoot with some friends on Friday for an outdoors gear company. They will apparently be some sort of team and may appear on a box. The important part (to Tabby) is that they get cash for their efforts. The kid is big on saving money and this thrills her to the core.
  • Ben has a nasty abrasion on his face. He tripped and fell face first this weekend while running … on the side walk. He has been wearing a bandaid over it all week. It looks pretty cute and quite rakish on him. They do feel fast though!
  • I am behind on so many things and trying to get my act together. Work is pure madness right now. I have two very big projects I’m tackling right now and things are falling through the cracks at home as my work hours go longer and it follows me home.
  • I am very much looking forward to a few minutes of peace tonight when I get my hair cut.
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PVC Pipe, Physics and Flying Marshmallows

This weekend we not only gave the kids guns … we made them for them. While at Maker Faire, Matt and I succumbed to the pretty displays and bright lights and allowed Tabby to bring home a Marshmallow Shooter kit. I had no ethical qualms about this you understand – just financial qualms over paying $20 for a few bits of PVC. But it was a neat souvenir and since we got home she’d been begging to build them.


So when we knew we’d be at our friends’ house all evening on Saturday I grabbed a bag of mini marshmallows at the store and we brought the kit with us. This is a ridiculously easy kit to put together. You just snap together a few pieces of PVC and err … that’s it. You load a mini mallow into the mouthpiece of the shooter and puff some air in and it zooms off at an impressive speed. As they’re marshmallows, the projectile doesn’t really hurt anyone. The dads got into it big at the BBQ and kept shooting the kids who would then look down for the marshmallow and eat it.There also may or may not have been a shootout at our house between my sister, Matt and myself after the kids went to bed and everyone else had gone home on Sunday night. I’m not at liberty to say.

If you want to build your own marshmallow shooter, and I recommend you do because they’re all kinds of fun, here’s an instructable to show you how to do it. Though even that isn’t really necessary. You take 1/2″ PVC pipe and connect it with Ts and elbows and such until you have the configuration you want. You have to have only two open pipe ends one for blowing air into and one for the marshmallow to exit and you can do just about whatever configuration you want and see what works best. Don’t glue the PVC – not only is it unnecessary but PVC glue is pretty toxic and definitely something you want to avoid if you can!

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The Weekend

It was a nice long weekend. The kids went to stay with my parents while Matt and I had a date. The kids missed their grandparents and had a great time hanging with them while Matt and I ran errands in peace and went to see American Reunion, which was fun … and as it’s at the bargain theatre, CHEAP. Yay.


In the morning we picked them up and went right to a birthday party at the train museum. They both had a wonderful time.


Ben in particular enjoyed the cupcakes. Continue reading “The Weekend”

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Happy Trails to Preschool

Last Thursday, Miss Tabitha said bye bye to Preschool. She donned her homemade chaps (her preschool is a kids “ranch” and so there’s always a bit of a western theme there) and sang a bunch of fun songs about the farm/ranch and her days at her school. The last song was a “Happy Trails” and we were invited to sing along with the kids. It was almost as bad as Pomp and Circumstance for eliciting tears.

Then she was capped (with a cap made from a paper plate and paper bowl) graduate of preschool and handed a diploma. She, and all the other kids, told us what they wanted to be when they grow up. Tabby said “ballerina” which is the very same thing she’d told me a few days before when I’d asked. The answers were great, ranging from policeman (or “cop!” as said by one sweet looking little girl) to princess to wedding planner to super striker to mom.

She will actually be back at preschool in just a few weeks, this time with her sidekick Ben, to attend the daycamp program they have, but otherwise, preschool is done and before we know it she will be in Kindergarten officially. It was probably just because she graduated, but all weekend she’s looked bigger, older, more grownup to me. I miss her as the little girl who toddled around with her binky, but I love the big girl she’s become.

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San Fran Days 3 and 4

By Sunday afternoon we’d had enough Maker Faire – well Matt and I might’ve been able to stay a bit longer, but the sun was hot and the kids were exhausted – Ben in fact fell asleep on Matt’s shoulders walking back from the fair – and so we went back to the hotel and had naps. Immediately following naps, we loaded in the car and headed south to Campbell, CA where we visited my Uncle Ted and Aunt Susan. They have a lovely home in Campbell. Ted is an amazing crafsperson and has restored a number of Model A automobiles. He currently has three: a sedan, a coupe and a pickup. They are all in amazing condition and we were all treated to a ride in the sedan. It was the first time a carseat had been in there!!

After the car rides, the kids went crazy running around their backyard. They were loving having room to move and they loved their gardens (things were very well watered) and their tangerine tree. It was quite a disappointment to hear that they wouldn’t be able to grow one back in CO. Then we were treated to a lovely dinner and of course wonderful company. After dinner the kids conned Aunt Susan into reading them a dozen books or so (I have a suspicion she wasn’t too hard to convince) and Matt and Ted talked shop. Once the kids were entirely exhausted we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we drove into SF to meet up with our friends, Donna and Ed at the California Academy of sciences. It’s a beautifully built building with some really wonderful exhibits. We got to see a planetarium show that talked about the eclipse of the sun (which had been the day before) and the Transit of Venus, a truly once-in-a-lifetime event that will be happening on June 5. We also loved the amazing rainforest exhibit and the beautiful aquariums.

But perhaps our favorite exhibit was the penguins. These African Penguins who reside at the California Academy of sciences include in their number one male penguin over 29 yrs old (about double the normal life span of one of these guys) named Pierre. A few years ago, he molted but didn’t grow any of his feathers back. He couldn’t swim much because it was too cold and the other penguins started to shun him because of his appearance. Eventually, his keeper decided to see if she couldn’t help him out with a wetsuit. Not only did it get him back to normal penguin life, but it also allowed him to grow back his feathers. It was a really cute story and we got to see the penguins be fed. The kids brought home a book about him which has been well loved already.

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and went to downtown San Mateo which is a nice little area. We had lunch at a funky pizza shop with TVs installed at the ends of the booths (the kids watched Sponge Bob) and checked out a giant toy store. And after the longest wait in a security line ever, we flew back to Denver.

Just about every trip we go on with the kids is easier. This time we only had one carseat on the plane since Tabby is in a booster now and they cannot be used on a plane. We also had no diapers and that was a big big deal. Even little things like the fact that I packed only one sippy cup for each of them and they can each carry their own backpacks is a pretty good deal.  It is really great to be able to show them the world.

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We Have a Winner

As chosen by Random.org via Rafflecopter, Liz is the winner of the $50 gift card to Uncommon Goods! Congrats, Liz and thanks to everyone for entering, but especially to Uncommon Goods for the Giveaway!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I will be back tomorrow … or maybe Monday with a wrap-up to our San Fran Trip.

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San Fran Days 2 and 3 – Maker Faire

Before I get down to telling you all about Maker Faire, another reminder to enter The Giveaway to Uncommon Goods for $50 towards any of the great things they have to offer.

Now now now, on to Maker Faire. The fair organizers, Make Magazine, bill it as The Greatest Show and Tell on Earth. And that’s a pretty good description. Everywhere you look you see AMAZING things that people have built.

This incredible invention, The Ragtime Castaway Band, welcomed everyone to the fair (did I mention we were there at opening both mornings, waiting on the countdown? yea. we were) with its music. It is a robotic band contained in a hut. All the instruments you see above hang form the ceiling of the hut. There are a few other instruments surrounding the edges on the ground. They are all controlled robotically and they play some really fine music. Just in case you were wondering, the first tune of the morning was the Original Star Trek Theme. Very appropriately nerdy. Continue reading “San Fran Days 2 and 3 – Maker Faire”

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San Fran Day 1

So before I get started on our CA adventures, I wanted to remind you to check out the Giveaway I’m holding sponsored by Uncommon Goods. There’s a $50 Gift Certificate up for grabs, so it’s well worth your time to put in an entry!

So last Thursday we headed for the Left Coast. Matt has been wanting attend a Maker Faire since the first one 5 years ago and finally we were able to get to the right city at the right time and do the Maker Faire thing (and I will tell you all about that tomorrow). After a nice flight in, we grabbed a late dinner and headed to our hotel. Everyone was exhausted, but of course the kids were up early the next morning. We grabbed some snacks at Trader Joe’s – the hotel was right across the street from one (yay!) and headed into the city. Continue reading “San Fran Day 1”

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Uncommonly Good + a Giveaway!!

Uncommon Goods has long been one of my favorite places on the internet to find those amazing off-beat gifts that you don’t see just anywhere. So when they approached me about doing a review and giveaway on my blog, I was thrilled! Over the years I’ve ordered some great gifts from them, and happily have received some hilarious gifts from them … in fact, one of my favorite onesies the kids wore came from Uncommon Goods! (you can see it here modeled by Tabby) – so I knew I was in for some fun. They allowed me to select a couple of items for review and I had a heck of a hard time choosing.

I am a sucker for cool lunchboxes so one thing I wanted to check out was the Box Appetit Lunchbox. This is one really well-thought-out lunchbox. The body of it is a good sort of flat bowl shape and worked great for my salad. It has two removable compartments, one pretty small for something like a condiment and one larger for a side dish or half-sandwich – good and versatile. The lid also has a clip for the fork that it comes with as well as a depression that you can use to put sauce in for dipping! The whole thing is dishwasher safe and microwavable (up to 2 minutes). It is roomy without being too big and worked well for my entree salad.

The other thing I selected was Wildlife Bingo – for the kids of course. French and Spanish Bingo are huge hits at our house – both kids beg to play them, and I thought they’d love this as well – and I was right. Each card has 24 full color photos of wild animals and their name below them. There is also a matching card to be drawn out randomly and marked on the card. These cards besides having the name of the animal give facts about it including things like what it eats, where it lives, etc. The kids and I played two rounds and had a great time. I think it would be a fun one to keep in the camper and bring out when we’re in the woods.

It was fun checking out Uncommon Goods’ products but I felt bad that I didn’t select anything specifically for Matt! They have some really great gifts for guys so maybe I can find him something for Fathers’ Day.

Last but certainly not least, they are giving one of you the opportunity to win a $50 Gift Certificate to Uncommon Goods. So check out the giveaway below. You can enter up to three times:

  1. Tweeting a link to one of Uncommon Goods’ family pages (listed on the left side of their site – things like “for her” or “for him”
  2. Follow Uncommon Goods on Pinterest
  3. Like Uncommon Goods’ Facebook Page.

Good luck! I will be announcing the winner on Friday. Thanks so much to Uncommon Goods for this great opportunity!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Photo Hanging Board

First, I must say, this isn’t really my project. This is Matt’s project. Inspired by a few things, including the jewelry boards we’ve made before, but equally by this pin from a house tour on Design Mom, I asked Matt if he would make me a large board for our dining room where we could hang photos. Matt was more than equal to the task and worked at this diligently in the bits of spare time he comes up with. It is a very nice frame and the chicken wire is recessed (rabbited) into the back of the frame so it all hangs nicely on the wall. It looks even better in person than in this photo.

I love any photo display solutions that are easy to change out. Frames are nice and all, but I am terrible about going through the effort to pull them down, open them up and change out the photos. Then our house ends up with tons of photos of the kids at one age because that was the last time I did photo framing. And displays like these go very well with our house’s design aesthetic. This is in fact, replacing one such display, our photo line. It was great … but I think this is better.

I won’t even begin to tell you what Matt did in his woodshop to accomplish this because I have no idea. But you could achieve a similar look by using canvas stretchers (from your art supply store) as we have done with our jewelry boards. You glue them together, stain, attach chicken wire to the back and hang. Voila!

A huge shout out and hug to my awesome hubby for making this happen!!

Nannersp
Visit Nannette’s site and check out the other great Pinteractive projects.