Adventures with My Sisters

I had fun with my sisters, Jeaka and Marian. They are so good to me! Here are a few of our adventures.

Heading to Blazing Needles, an amazing SLC yarn shop.

Going to Nothing Bundt Cakes with our sweet mama. We bought four flavors, then shared the quarters.

Visiting Orson Gygi, the COOLEST kitchen supply store Ever.

Super Auntie Jeaka and Super Auntie Marian took the Boogedy to a splash pool! Super Auntie Jeaka made visiting splash pools a priority during the Boogedy’s visit.

And near the end of the visit, Jeaka took him to Cookie Cutters to get his first ever haircut that I didn’t do myself. We chose to buzz it for the summer, which I think is adorable, but which he doesn’t like because he’s never had anything but long, “grupply” hair.

Here’s a picture of the big boy with his new “do”. We visited the playground near our old house, where we took him to play the first 3 years of his life. It hit home how big he is getting!

Matchstick Garden

Last night we went to the MARC plant store and bought four empty little pots  and a small watering can (and another 5-dollar orchid, truth be told). Today we set about planting the Matchstick Garden, a present from “Alexis!”

Rocks for the empties:

Scoopin:

Rippin:

Plantin:

Waterin:

The Boogedy was so excited about dousing things that we filled up the watering can and went for a walk, sprinkling plants along the way. When we got to the Key West Cemetary, he spent a bunch of time climbing on the cement graves and tossing the watering can off for the hollow boing-bonk sound. The fog was rolling in, and we spotted these curled up poinsettia leaves that the Boogedy thought might be bugs.

Glass Bottom Boat

A few evenings ago, we picked the Boogedy up early from school and went for a sunset trip on the glass bottom boat.

This kid is definitely mine, as he had no problem eating chips and salsa while sitting backwards on the prow of the catamaran.

Yes, he’s dressed up in a pirate costume, and he was very upset when he saw that it was a catamaran and not a schooner. Really sad that it was not a pirate ship.

As sunset approached, it became pretty chilly and breezy, and the Boogedy kept trying to climb under Zach’s shirt. In this photo Zach is threatening to climb under HIS shirt.

We saw a coral garden, sea sponges, and a huge sea turtle in a swarm of sycophantic remoras. I managed not to photograph any of those things.

The sunset was beautiful, but I didn’t see the fabled green flash.

The lights of the waterfront.

And a tired little boy who needed to be carried.

Advent Calendar

I decided to get excited about xmas this year. Often we try to travel, but that’s not in the cards this year (plus I don’t want to go somewhere cold and have to replace a wardrobe that I got rid of when I left Utah).

I subscribe to the wonderful newsletter from kids craft weekly, and inside the last issue was this beautiful idea: an origami advent calendar. I made 24 cups, here’s a closeup:

And this is where they are displayed in our kitchen.

Today we met the Boogedy at school with the December 1 cup. He was SOOOO excited. Inside was a tag that said “Pick out a Christmas tree!” He carried that cup and tag all the way to the nursery and picked a fluffy little island pine in a pot.

Here are the other tags I have made, with events and crafts and fun things to do. On days when I’m just not feeling the urge to do ANY of these things, the Boogedy will get a little square of deep dark chocolate, a real treat around here. Luckily, Key West is brimming with holiday events, many of them family friendly and inexpensive.

Many of these special ideas came from the newsletter. Do you have any other easy, cheap ideas for me to include?

Peent

I made potato stamps (“stampeters”) for the Boogedy today. I gave him nice, orderly dollops of “peent” and actually heard myself say “don’t mix them.”

Then I realized it was silly to even want that. I told him it was fine to mix any color and told him that they would turn brown when all together. He wasted no time finding that out.

But then I dragged the paintbrush over his “brown peent” and found the hidden rainbow. And it was beautiful.

And we thought it was interesting to see what happened when we took this frozen strawberry from the freezer.

Staying Entertained

Two things we’ve done lately:

Bowling with bumpers and a ramp:

The Boogedy believes that the best and most magical part is when the ball comes back!

Making our own beanbags:

Little fingers helped fill the bags with weevily chana dal:

Finished products (2 of polkadot/cupcake, 2 of lime checks/stripes, and 2 oranges/sunset plaid)

Playing toss, and trying hard to understand why we have to stand way over here on this paper and can’t just drop them in from above:

Stripey Monster

I knit this toy for The Boogedy during the course of our 5-day cross country move. The Boogedy has decided that this is a Mommy-and-Boogedy dolly, not a Daddy-and-Boogedy dolly. He ordered me to make a Daddy dolly. I asked him to say that in his nice voice, so he said “please?”

I used a pattern by Rebecca Danger, available here. This was a Really fun pattern to knit!

Too Much Fun

The fountain with a button to push (that’s the very best part)!

Enjoying someone else’s digging:

Zach surfing before the storm hits:

Zach looking for a lost beach umbrella on the dunes:

taking dorky self-portraits at dawn:

Making homemade pasta:

Mushroom-garlic-three-cheese stuffed raviolis in chicken soup!

Birthday Number 3

Some pictures from a little party for the Boogedy’s Big 3.

Birthday waffles:

Egg Spinner, a ridiculous invention (so Fall-of-Rome) that I just had to get because it’s up my kid’s alley! It’s like a salad spinner, but you put a boiled egg and some sticky food coloring in there and it comes out tie-dyed. The Boogedy insisted that everyone help on the last egg.

The pre-party tantrum about why HE should be able to take the pictures:

Sibling Rivalry

The Chibberty is such a kind, sweet, patient dog. But he’s still jealous of the little fellow who came along. Any time we drop the Boogedy off at Grandma’s house, the dog must situate himself in the carseat.