Christmas eve in the kitchen

How to you fill the looooong day before Christmas?  Cooking and eating worked pretty well for me.  I started early this morning making cookie dough, then Parker and I cut them out and baked them.  She made it nearly all the say to the end before getting bored.  I have pictures of her helping...I'll put those in a different post.

After we iced cookies, it was time for a special fancy Christmas eve appetizer I've never tried to make before.  Shrimp Dumplings!  I had shrimp in the freezer, and the other ingredients on hand, so if these never got made, I was only out a couple bucks for the wonton wrappers.  They were great - just like at a restaurant.

Next it was time for pizza.  (I bought frozen dough). Parker had canadian bacon and onion and we had canadian bacon, onion, mushroom and pineapple mango salsa.

And now I'm going to SIT DOWN for the rest of the evening and help Parker track santa on the NORAD site.  

Christmas eve cookies

Parker is literally skipping in circles with excitement.

New Tradition - Elf on the shelf

In case you don't have little kids, or you live under a rock, there's a new thing sweeping the nation at Christmas time. Elf on a Shelf. I suppose this was a tradition in some families, and then some genius relized the opportunity for profit.  I knew about it last year and resisted, but this year I caved. Lots of Parker's friends were coming to school talking about where their elf was each morning.

It works like this:  This little elf sits up out of the way somewhere and reports back to Santa whether or not they've been good.  They aren't allowed to touch him or he loses his magic.  And somehow, magically, each night he changes locations.  Some elves in some homes are VERY creative and mischievous (waaaay to creative, in my opinion - just google "elf on the shelf ideas"...I guess some folks don't have enough to do during the holidays?!)....ours just basically hides, although one morning he tried to do a little fishing. 

So between this and her Playmobile advent calendar (pictures coming soon)....where she gets a little tiny toy that eventually makes a scene....she's super excited each morning and pops out of bed bright and early, instead of sleeping in.  Guess all that sort of backfired, but that's ok - at least she's waking up in a super cheerful mood and is semi-occupied for the first half hour of the morning.  

Now what someone needs to create is the summer vacation "advent" calendar.  A new toy each morning for 3 months.  Where do I sign up?  

Holy cow

A week ago, I suggested that Parker build a nativity out of her stuffed animals, and this is what she came up with.  

Polly the polar bear is Mary.  Bailey the waterdog is Joseph and DQ the cow is Baby Jesus.  

Also in attendance: Wylie the white cat: sheep.  Halloween cat: camel.  Pinky the lion and Rainbow the dog are shepherds.  Not sure if you can tell, but they have shepherds staffs made from pipe cleaners.  Foxy, Candy the bear from Canada and Melissa the bear: 3 Wise Men.

Duchess is the angel and also the narrator.  

Today's artwork: more ponies

Here's today's drawing....more ponies.  Full disclosure:  Twilight and Fluttershine are ponies that she sees on cartoons, they aren't made up, although decorating their hooves and adding horn might be.  So technically, I guess these are unicorns.

Zebra dress

Today's fashion pic: Lindsey the zebra wearing a sleeveless top, a skirt and a headband, all made from dryer sheets.

Slinkie Box hotel

The Slinkie boxes turned into a hotel, not apartments.  Here they are - in the back against the wall.  I'm a little concerned about the overhead at this hotel....there are 3 receptionists.

The horse that is stuffed into the barbie gown is the main receptionist.  The assistant is the little rabbit (?) with the laptop sitting on the overturned bowl.  You might have to click on the picture to see it close up, but notice that Parker has clipped a little barbie flip phone on it's ear so it can work the phones.

Break Begins.

Good think it's break time, because I'm worn out!  Today was the last 1/2 day before Christmas break and even though it's a 'non instructional day' (the principal says "why pretend?") , it was super busy.  We started off with an awards ceremony that I helped produce to recognize the students that participated in the PTA's art contest.

 Parker won a blue ribbon this year again for her artwork, and she'll be advancing to the district level of judging. (It was also pajama day). 

 After the ribbons, they did a "decorate a human tree" and selected 5th graders got to decorate the principals.  It was very cute and the kids loved it.

    Then the kids watched a movie in the classroom while the moms set up the class parties.  I made a Roll A Snowman game.  It was a big hit!  

Parker's teacher gave everyone Slinkies as a gift.  Parker collected all the boxes she could and brought them home to build an animal apartment house.  (you can see the slinkie cast aside next to the tape.

I can only hope that the gifts we have for her under the tree are as interesting as the boxes they are packed in.

Artwork

Just a quick post to share some drawing Parker did this morning. A horse, 2 uniforns and some penguins. Cute, huh?
EDIT:  Unicorns.  Not uniforns.  Thanks aunt Norma!

Finally!

Parker's front tooth FINALLY came out today at school.  It's been just barely hanging on for days and days, sticking out of her mouth, flapping around, and hurting.  It was painful if anyone (including her) tried to pull it, so we just waited.  It was extra thrilling for it to come out at school because she got to go see the nurse and get a special tooth box necklace to keep it in until she got home.

Recent sewing projects

Lucky for blog addicts, I'm on house arrest while our floors are being redone, so I'm getting some pictures posted.
I"m sure I've mentioned before that Parker is OBSESSED with stuffed animals, and all tiny animal figurines.  She builds them homes and dresses them up.  It's hard to find clothes for a tiny horse, especially when no one is interested in taking you horse clothes shopping.  Parker is finding ways to make her own....there's a puppy dog somewhere that has a tube dress made from the plastic bag that comes on the newspaper.  One saturday morning, she was struck with the need to actually SEW something.
So I found an old tshirt and had her trace out a pattern with a sharpie and cut it out.  I pinned and she sewed using my machine. 

Ta Daaaa.  The pattern needs some adjustment, but I'm told that the horse doesn't it mind it being non-form fitting because he just sleeps in it. She's been bugging me for a little sewing machine, but I'm thinking I'll just pass mine down, and ~I'll~ get a new one. 

Here's something I did.  Parker wants some "loungewear" made from  tshirt material, similar to some I have.  She's requested that I give them to her when I grow out of them, but since I'm hoping that won't happen, I found a youtube video tutorial that shows you how to make yoga pants out of an old tshirt. 

Notice that I salvaged the pocket.  It has a cool logo from an electrical company.

Ta daaa.  The finished product is just as sloppy looking and ill fitting as most of the home sewn stuff I see on the internet.  This pattern may need an adjustment as well.

Volleyball

Long time no blog (aside from the most recent one).  You can't believe how busy we are this year.  Not that much has changed, but it seems like I just run from one activity to an errand to another activity or meeting.  In fact, the only way I'm getting this blog post done, is to take my laptop with me while I'm waiting on Parker.

One thing that is eating up a few hour a week is VOLLEYBALL.  Parker is finally old enough to play in a rec volleyball league.  She tried soccer when she was 3 (?) but didn't care for being trampled.  She has always loved the game of throwing a ball or stuffed animal or ball of socks or balloon back and forth, and luckily she likes volleyball too. This would have been a long season had she not.

In 2nd grade, you serve overhand for your first try, and then you can serve it underhand.  Parker played her 5th game 2 weeks ago and she FINALLY got one over the net serving overhanded. Bob and I nearly lept off the bleachers.  She has a good strong underhand serve and she can bump a ball well when it comes to her...in fact the coach for the other team told her players "watch out - she's little but she hits big"...but the overhand serve has been really tough.  Hopefully now that she's had some success, she'll continue to do well.

She'll practice until dark if we let her.  Of course she needs one of us out there to watch, cheer, critique and feed her the ball.

All the other girls are wearing the traditional volleyball 'booty shorts' that look like short bike shorts.  Thankfully Parker prefers basketball shorts or running shorts.  I doubt I'd be able to find them small enough for her anyway.

BREAKING NEWS:  In saturday's game, Parker was AWESOME!  She had 2 or 3 overhanded serves that went over the net, one for a point at match point! (she didn't realize she was serving for the game winner until I told her in the car after the game)  She also hit nearly every ball that came to her back over the net too.  Her underhanded serve was solid as always.  They won the game, after being on a long loosing streak and they were all so thrilled!

 

Halloween Sneak Peek

Tonight was the neighborhood Halloween carnival and costume contest. I won...I mean Parker won first place in her age group. Several moms did quite a double-take when they saw her, expecting cute sweet Parker. She also has a stuffed animal also wrapped in fabric that is part of the costume. She also wanted to take her list with her in case people asked what she was, but I talked her out of it.

What I'm doing instead of blogging...

I'm making a Halloween costume.
Here are the specs I've been given:

Halloween planning started early this year (not that I'm any more ahead of the game than normal). Long gone are the days of cute lady bugs or bumble bees and store bought costumes.  This year, Parker is determined to combine elements of all the gross and scary things she can think of into one costume.  I tried to get her to draw a sketch (so she'd quit talking about it), but she did a list instead.
She'd like to be "a mixture of a vampire zombie ghost devel frankin stine".  She'd like "flowing sleves, worn out cloth, faded white dress" and "blood on teeth".  Also "fangs, but not the plastic colored ones", "poofy hair, black circles around my eyes, wings, and bolts on my neck".  Also spiders and fake eyeballs in her hair.
She's also requested a smoke machine for when she makes her entrance. Entrance into what I'm not sure.
Should be easy enough, right?  In addition to the costume, which needs to be finished by saturday night, I have to help make an "all about me" poster for school on Monday, and at some point we need to carve the pumpkin. 

Here's a pretty picture of her I took this summer but never posted. 

The back story on the shoes

It's been a busy first 3 weeks of school.  It didn't help matters that we started out the week recovering from jet lag and food poisoning (me) and about 40 lbs of laundry after returning from vacation.
While we were in California, we were wandering around La Jolla and Parker saw a pair of shoes she's been wanting forever.  I've been putting her off, but since school was starting, I figured ok. 

You don't wear socks that show with these kind of shoes, and since Parker's feet are about as delicate as a rose petal, there was a frantic search (by Bob - I was ill and couch-ridden) on the sunday before school started for just the exact right pair of teeny tiny socks for Parker to wear with her new shoes. NOT wearing her new cool shoes on the first day of school was NOT an option.   He came home empty handed, but called around and finally found a store that carried them.  So for the first day of school, we lubed up her feet with a non-chafing stick that runners use, and I went to fetch the socks while she was at school.

 "Canoe" socks.  Two flavors. 

All is now well with her shoes and socks....but those tiny socks are about the size of a walnut when they're all balled up in the laundry and it's just a matter of time before they all disappear and the quest will start over.  I'm hoping by that time the weather will be cooler and she will have moved on to boots.

better pics

Here are some better pictures.  More commentary tomorrow.  

First day, quick pic

Better safe....

She bumped her head twice yesterday.  Today she's not taking any chances.

Why didn't I think of this sooner?

Here's my last ditch effort to keep what's left of my garden from frying.  Nothing is really producing except for the jalapenos, but last year the tomato plants had a lot of new growth and fruit in the fall, so maybe they're worth saving.  Even when it's blazing hot out there, the umbrella makes it sort of nice.  If I could find some that I could hook a hose up to and have them serve as a sprinkler too, they might be a permanent fixture.

Looks like things are going to be cooling down!!

Getting Ready for School

We've passed the half way point in the summer and the weeks are going to start sliding by more quickly now....although the days are still pretty long.  Especially when it's 104F day after day.  I don't think I've posted a close up of Parker's missing front tooth, so here it is.  The big tooth is already growing in.  Also notice the feather.  I hope it'll pass dress code when school starts.

We did some back to school shopping the other day....she did a little fashion show for me.  This is going to be her signature look I think.  The bottoms are 'jeggings'....jeans+leggings.  And the plaid shirt is her new favorite.  She's found a loophole in the Can't Wear The Same Shirt Every Day rule by calling it a vest. 

More jeggings.  Notice the shoes.  I found white Converse on clearance for $4, and I let her paint them.

Here's a blast from the past.  2 years ago, before kindergarten, we did a similar fashion show.  I was trying to show her all the different ways she could wear all the cute clothes I had gotten her.  My plan was to print them out for a little 'look book' for her so she could pick out her outfits from that.  But the white 'backdrop' I tried to construct was too small and I was defeated and lost interest, so I never printed them or posted more than one or two.  I'm pretty sure this was the only time most of these clothes every saw the light of day. 

 

I tried to include a little slide show of all the rejected kindergarten fashions underneath this....hopefully it works. 

When Parker was a toddler, older ladies would come up to me in the grocery store and admire Parker and tell me to "enjoy it, they grow up so fast".  I never really found that to be true until lately, but I think I'm going to start going up to moms with 2 year old dressed in cute floral dresses and hair bows and let them know that their days of choosing their daughter's clothing are seriously limited.