Journey through Today

Went to dance class.

Went to soccer.

 
Will started soccer VERY grumpy, then forgot that she was grumpy and played happily for almost the entire game, then fell down and remembered that she was grumpy again.

Bought the girls some winter clothes (thank gawd for Goodwill!). Leggings + long-sleeved shirts + snow boots + heavy coat = warm little girls this winter.

 
Still must sew the long-promised flannel nightgowns and long skirts.

Watered the dinosaur fairy gardens:

Found some juice glasses at the Recycling Center that will be the basis of teeny tiny little Strange Folk fairy gardens next week. Am also thinking about creating fairy garden DIY kits.

Adopted two of our four former foster kittens--Gracie and Spots. Good thing that we'd told the shelter we were coming back for them, since as we walked in we spotted a third foster kitten on her way out, with a bright new red collar on her neck and in the arms of a very happy little girl. Fortunately, I managed to muffle the children as they squealed, "Hey, it's Bitey! Hi, Bitey!". Wouldn't want the new family to be warned about that particular kitty's particular bad habit until they were all well at home, at least.

Drank coffee.

Cleaned the living room.

Rearranged furniture until I was able to realize my dream of having the living room stereo, including the record player, in reach of the babies. Was rewarded by babies' insistence on listening to the Alvin and the Chipmunks' Christmas album several times:

Played Monopoly Junior. Skunked by Will.

I've demanded a rematch for tomorrow.

Tied Tutus for My Two, Too

The plan was to tie some tutus for my tent at Strange Folk, but somehow, amongst the GeoSafari and the gumdrops and bamboo skewers and Magic Tree House and the Mythbusters, only these two tutus for my two got tied:

Gotta have your priorities, you know.

Strange Little Busy Bees

What have I been busy doing? Why, getting ready for Strange Folk! Many, many things have to be done before next weekend.

Have to put together the chia in a cup kits.
Have to water the cups o' chia already planted.
Have to water the dinosaur garden, as well:

Have to make signage.
Have to make record bowls.
Have to find the Pumpkin+Bear business card stamp.
Have to read some tongue twisters:

Have to sew colored pencil rolls.
Have to sew an I Spy quilt.
Have to tie, not sew, some tutus.
Have to tie some tutus for my two, too:

Have to put together an I Spy quilt kit.
Have to put together the clothespin doll kits.
Have to put together the color-your-own bunting kits.
Have to color an example, so everyone knows how cute they come:

Have to figure out a Barbie dress pattern.
Have to figure out a balancing butterfly pattern.
Have to get that toy fossil triceratops out of its slate prison!

Have to bake the crayon pops.

Have to go get some geodes.
Have to drill holes in colored pencils.

Have to take pictures on a sunny day.

Have to play Quirkle when it's cloudy:

At this rate, have to have a margarita tonight after the little pumpkinbears are sleeping.

Beware the Terrible Cat Monster

Willow is terrified of all feature films. Whether they be adventure or comedy, cartoon or live-action, she hates them.

This is tiresome, and has fairly ruined Family Movie Night.

Recently, my Matt had the idea that, since Willow mainly watches documentaries, perhaps she just doesn't understand the concept of acting. In the nature programs, when the lion chases the gazelle and the gazelle runs in fear, it's cause the gazelle is about to be actually eaten, you know, but when the hound chases the fox and the fox runs in fear in The Fox and the Hound, nobody's going to get eaten, and yet Willow finds this scene, especially watching the victim's fear, VERY upsetting.

And don't even get me started about how hard she sobbed watching the old lady dump the fox off in the nature preserve. What is up with you and your childhood abandonment issues, Disney war machine?

And that's why in their free time Matty and the girlies are making themselves a movie.

I am uninvolved in the process, but it apparently involves script-writing, costuming, the foster kittens, the whole shebang.

Here's a clip from the dailies:

Stay tuned for the trailer.

Another Page in Sydney's Scrapbook

Save the Date!

Blue Celery

Willow was given a science workbook, and in that science workbook she found perhaps the most ubiquitous science experiment among all science experiments: celery and colored water.

You will need:

• leafy celery. This was actually hard to find, since it seems that most grocery celeries have the leaves cut off--my theory is that the leaves begin to spoil before the stalks, and so impedes the celery's shelf life. Next spring, we may try to grown our own leafy celery for science experiments.
• liquid food coloring. For cooking and baking, I use professional-quality food coloring gel or paste, but liquid food coloring is often the best for crafting.
• clear glass. We used a Mason jar.

1. Remove a leafy celery stalk from the rest of the bunch, and cut off the bottom half-inch or so with a sharp knife. I cut my stalk at a diagonal, to expose more of the stalk to the water.

2. Fill the glass jar 1/3 to 1/2 full of water, and dye it a dark color with several drops of food coloring. Blue and purple and even a dark red work well:

3. Set the celery stalk in the water, and let it sit all day.

As the celery stalk sits in the water, it acts like any plant, in that it draws water up into its leaves. Because this water is colored, very gradually, over the course of several hours, you will begin to notice spots of color in the leaves as the colored water reaches it. Over time, these spots of color will become larger and more numerous:

If you have a microscope, you can cut a thin slice off of the celery stalk to examine, and also a section of the smallest and thinnest of the leaves. The leaf section is especially dramatic at around 600x, at which magnification you can see the cells, but also very clearly the veins through which the blue water is traveling, now set apart from the green leaf in blue.

And now you may add to your mental picture of what our messy living room table looks like, a jar of celery sitting in colored water, for this experiment apparently often bears repeating.