Philately

My nine year old boy is a cub scout. He's working his way through the bear book right now, and I love watching him find new things to be interested in.

Like stamps!

He discovered that you can earn a belt loop (very exciting to have tons of little metal belt loops packed onto those cub scout belts) doing this. I decided to be generous and donate some of the stamps I randomly happen to have to the cause.

When he was trying to figure out where to put the stamps, I remembered this great picture from Martha Stewart Kids that I had torn out years ago (sigh. How many other great projects did I not tear out? Come back, Martha Stewart Kids! Is it wrong to miss a magazine so deeply?)

(And while I'm scanning old MS Kids pictures, look at how sweet this little album is -

And this!

And - are you kidding me?! Have you seen this sweetest dress ever?)

Oh my, I'm getting distracted.

Back to business: does anyone want to swap post-cards with us, to trade some stamps? Email me - it could be fun, right?

Rip the Page

{Full disclosure: as I type this, my children are playing wii with their friends, and it's a beautiful day outside}

...but, that being said, I do totally look forward to summer as a time where we have more hours in the day - and hopefully more energy! - to maybe painlessly incorporate some educational activities into the mix.

I love this book that Shambhala/Trumpeter has put out - Rip the Page, by Karen Benke. They sent me an advance copy and we have been loving it. I covered our dining room table with big paper, and have been encouraging the kids and their friends to sit down for a minute or two as they pass by, and add some semi-guided graffiti.

The book has great starts to help children think and write more creatively: ideas like, think of names for your toes and fingers (which might prompt your children to think even further, and name their bums, as mine did) - or silly haikus - or fortune-cookie fortunes (this is a great activity to do in the car).

And, I've got to say that I love, lovel, love that this book is realistic. Each little activity and project is totally doable: no sit down and have your kids write ten pages in the middle of the summer type of thing (not to say that I don't totally admire any parent that could orchestrate such an event). Which is why it's been tucked in my diaper bag, and comes with us whenever we head out. Love this book! Thank you, Karen Benke!

Next up:

MUMMIFYING CHICKENS

Happy Birthday, Agent N64

Meet Agent N64.

And his sidekick, Agent Root Beer.

My little boy just turned 8. Sigh! So big. We had a secret secret agent celebration. Fun and easy on the budget. When the boys came, they all got mustaches, hats & sunglasses (found on the cheap at an online party warehouse store) and were photographed for their top secret spy passports.


Then we went on a REALLY LONG spy treasure hunt around the neighborhood (I love treasure hunts). I coded the clues so it took them awhile to crack the messages at each of the stops.


Look, they are nervous that they'll be caught.


And then time for this crazy concoction. Can I even tell you how many cans (that's right, ladies, cans) of frosting I had to use to get this baby to stick together? It wasn't looking so good so I had to send my husband out for some last minute dry ice. I am a great believer that dry ice on/around a birthday cake can redeem even the most sorry creation.

But the best part of the whole thing was making the invitations. We'd typed up a secret memo with all the information except my son's name, & a note explaining that in order to find out the identity of the birthday boy you'd need to hold the document under a heat source (with a parent, of course. We don't want any invitations on fire.) E. signed them all in lemon juice, which works like invisible ink. I wish I'd saved one...

we love star wars

Did any of you happen upon the hilarious article in Wondertime this month about fathers, sons, and Star Wars? Here are a couple of the pictures they published with the story... so funny and yet oh so familiar. So here's a little shout-out to all of you moms who have at least 2 plastic light-saber duels a day. Hopefully you occasionally win!

decorating with the force

I rarely seem to write about my son, mainly because I don't do much sewing for him (by his request :) ). But since we repainted his room from traffic-cone orange (which was his favorite color for 3 long years) to this nice gray, we've been having lots of fun getting his room together. My mother-in-law, who is an AMAZING seamstress, made this most cozy of flannel quilts for his bed. How lucky are we? I love it. It is so amazingly comfy to snuggle up in the blanket.

The second picture is the project E and I worked on this weekend. It's the Death Star, made out of a styrofoam ball, strung up along with some star wars lego creations and a Bobo Fett action figure (he wears a jet pack, in case some of you are wondering how he is able to fly without a ship). The original plan, which would have been perhaps more "artistic," was to make a bunch of Tie fighters out of black construction paper, swarming around the styrofoam death star. (Have any of you ever googled "star wars ships" and "origami"? It is shocking how many people out there are skilled at such things). We quickly discovered that Star Wars origami is harder than it looks, and went to plan B, stringing up toys we already had.

The last piece of the room that we are working on: window coverings. I've rejected the 7 year old's suggestion, star wars curtains, and am trying to figure out something without strangly cords or that's too expensive. Any brilliant ideas out there?