Our Week With a New Addition

If I ever design a house, it will totally have stained glass book windows in the library.  Or literary theme stained glass windows.  Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Sandra Boynton's characters...  

We brought home so many books we had to use 2 cards.  

And make 2 piles.  

Hannah hasn't been able to wear regular pants in years.  I decided to try something.  I picked up a pair of clearance uniform pants, husky size, a couple sizes up from what she wears in other things, from the boys section at Target.  She tried them on and they fit around her prosthetic.  So we cinched up the elastic in the waist (a lot) and I marked where they'd need to be hemmed.  One side is noticeably shorter than the other, but they appear even when she wears them.  

See?  And there's her Year of the Rabbit shirt, too.  This opens up a whole new world for her, clothing wise, so I'm anticipating some more hemming in my future.  The downside is that Katie won't be able to wear her hand me downs.  Even if I removed the re-hemming, Katie's not at all "husky."

Me:  I'll just take a quick picture of the jammies I made for grandbaby Kasen...  

Grumman:  No.

Sigh.  

There we go.  Finished and mailed!  I have 3 more pairs cut out, but it may be a while before I finish those.  

Fortunately, Zach & Heather made a smaller version.  This is Nolan, who's brand new.  I don't like this business of being 2 time zones away from the grandkids.  

Some scrap-kins.  Napkins made from scraps.  Kitty calico reverses to gray flannel, floral reverses to purple flannel.  I have some more napkins cut out, too.  Bunnies, which will hopefully be done in time for Easter, and a Mulan print.  

Speaking of holidays, we've been enjoying Lunar New Year.  I'm never going to be the mom who whips up a traditional ethnic meal from scratch, but I can Trader Joe's like nobody's business.  

And I signed the school up for goodies from Panda Express.  Activity books, coupons, stickers.  This went over well with the kids.  

If you remember the paint project I showed the first half of last week, the finished project is the bunny lantern in the upper right corner.  I did this (over 2 weeks) with everybody from K-5th, and I think they turned out great.  All different, but pretty.  

The first week, the students painted with cosmetic sponges on the back side of the lantern printouts.  We let those dry, and then the next week, they cut the lanterns out, added a bunny for Year of the Rabbit, and used gold marker to write 2023, then added red yarn to hang them up.  

When I told Paul, "I Crikey-ed 50 bunnies this morning," he said I should have just Crikey-ed 2 and waited.  

Speaking of making things, I searched and searched for book theme conversation hearts online, but didn't really find what I wanted, so I made these on PicMonkey.  I laminated them so I can re-use them in the future.  

Sometimes when I have an extra bit of laminating pouch, I stick in a piece of scrapbook paper, or a chunk of map to make bookmarks.  This time, it was a piece of a destroyed copy of Are You My Mother? that I laminated for a bookmark.  I find it so amusing I have it taped to the book return crate for the time being.  The white pieces are blank laminated bits that were left over after cutting out my conversation hearts.  I think I'm going to let the 6th graders decorate them with Sharpies.  

Milestone visit for Hannah.  She gets to change to annual visits with the doctor at Shriners, instead of every 6 months.  

We're going through a lot of books these days.  I'm 22 books into the new year already.  I've noticed I read a lot more in winter than I do in warmer months.  

I'm currently 33% through this one.  Young Winston Churchill has just escaped from captivity and found himself alone in a hostile country.  I'm thinking this is a book I should have read before seeing the Churchill War Rooms in London.  His toy soldiers and other bits of memorabilia would have had more meaning for me with the back story.  

 

Pictures from Churchill War Rooms last summer

Oh Grumman.  

So... a while back, Grumman would occasionally bring me a sock.  Then he started bringing me the occasional kitchen towel.  One recent morning, I woke up to find he'd hauled ELEVEN bits & bobs up the stairs to my bedroom door.  Methinks he really wanted in.  

I can carry scissors for a whole class with one hand.  The talents I am gaining amaze me.  

February is Dental Health Month.  We got toothbrushes & paste from Colgate, and I added a printable book from Twinkl and made up little gift bags.  I wanted to put stickers in them, but I restrained myself for budgetary reasons.  

My not quite finished February bulletin board.  I'll be making the koalas with my 3rd graders next week.  I feel like this one will only be done for a couple weeks before I switch it out to St. Patrick's Day.  

Fortunately, it seems like time is moving faster now that we're back in schools and hitting all the crafty holidays.  I feel like CNY, Valentine's, St. Pat's, and Easter will see us through to Spring Break.  And, I heard that both Annaliese and Brianna plan to visit home (at different times) this year, so that gives me another something to look forward to.  

Our Meet the Grandbaby Week

First up, proof that I finished the silly bulletin board I showed unfinshed last week.  

I used Crikey to cut the ornaments, and then I glued on printed book covers of various Christmas books we have in the library.  

Since I only needed about 10" of the second garland, I hung the rest on the stair rail at home to add a little festive touch.  This morning, I found it taken down by the cats, and then I found sparkly metallic cat hork later, so I guess that was a bad idea.   

Josiah and Miss M on Thanksgiving.  

Thanksgiving was a low key affair, and this was the only picture I took, lol.  Turkey was had.  Combs and shaving were optional.  

But the weekend after Thanksgiving, we got a whirlwind visit from Zach & Heather & Brayden & Kasen.  Kasen was asleep when they arrived, and it took a lot of self control to wait to get my hands on him, after already waiting over 4 months.  

There he is!

I know it's required by the grandmother code of conduct to think your grandkid is the best, but Kasen really is a happy, sweet, good-natured baby.  

You can even ask grandpa.  

So we visited, and we had lunch...

...then we played Snake Oil, and when Kasen started to almost make fuss noises, 

I did the Nai Nai bouncy sway thing for a bit.  

And he crashed out on me for over an hour.  :swoon: 

Then we had some dinner,  

Gave the tree a little pat, 

and all too soon, it was time to say goodbye for who knows how long.  :sigh:  

Fired up Crikey again this week, to make a star topper for my militree.  "Your what?"  

My militree (military tree).  It's got Air Force and Marine Corps and red & blue ornaments on it.  I've decided I want a bigger one next year.  I'll probably go 4', since my strand of red/white/blue lights isn't terribly long.  

The morning after putting it up, 3 ornaments were down, but the cats have pretty much let it be since then.  I think I've put one more ornament back on it since then.  

The girls each made a craft from a library book during Thanksgiving break.  They're now on the front room tree, which we have yet to decorate, because Fiona likes to climb it.  I feel like we really should give it a try, though.  

Josiah's phone died, too, so he bought his very first iPhone.  

While I was in Crikey mode, I started some ornaments.  They're not done yet.  The vellum (music notes) reacted poorly to the glue I used, so that one is trash, but I'm going to use scraps to test a couple different adhesives and see if I can find one that works better.  Paul suggested "Hodge Podge," so Mod Podge will now be called that forever.  Hobby Lobby didn't have piano or music note paper, or I would not have purchased the vellum.  I was trying to make an ornament for Hannah's piano teacher at school.  

I've talked about the website Art Projects For Kids lots of times, and shown the drawings Hannah & Katie have made from their directions.  I sprang for one of the murals, and used it with my students this week.  

Our Week with a Birthday

How is it October already?  School *just* started!  

Jack helped me take the cats to the local pet store on vaccine clinic day.  

Grumman was Not Having It.  As little Jack Jack used to say, "It froke him out."  

They both did okay, though, and we got Miss Fiona microchipped while we were at it.  

She was being very photogenic one day, so I snapped some pictures.  

Other times she just sort of sprawls.  

Having taken a dozen or so shots of Fiona, I look over and see Grumman watching.  

"Okay, Grumman, I'll take pictures of you, too.  Look at me.  Grumman."  

"Hey, Grumman!"  :kissy noises:  Nope.  

Not going to look at you.  :sigh:  Turkey.  

I've started making coloring pages to go along with the books I read aloud to the preschool-2nd grade classes.  It gives the first ones that check out something to do while they wait for the rest of the class to check out their books.  And I'm hoping it will help the parents see what the kids are getting from the library.  

Fire Safety Week is this week, so I pulled all the fire related books and put them on display.  Yes, the kids are absolutely allowed to check out display books.  In fact, I often go around after a class leaves and pull more books to put on the easels because the kids usually take the books where they can *see* the whole cover instead of just the spine.    

The bulletin board over my desk got an autumn upgrade.  

My October Notable Events bookcase.  As these get checked out, I'll replace them with autumn/pumpkin theme books.  In fact, I ordered a box of October books last month, and they shipped on 9/17, but they aren't here yet.  Grr.  Not happy about that.  But I'm hoping they come today, since they made it to California a few days ago.  

Someone had a birthday!  

Paul made her cake from scratch.  It was quite tasty.

Still not happy about the way they keep growing up.  Katie's birthdays always hit me a little harder than the other kids' because she's the baby.  I've never had the baby be so old before.  Every year, it's a little more letting go of parenting children.  Now it's mostly adults, with a couple teens and a tween.  

Speaking of adults...  Heather took time off after Kasen was born, then when she had to go back to work, Zach took time off.  The package I sent arrived safely, there's Kasen in the bib I Crikey-ed.  Now it's time for Zach Zach to go back to work, and Kasen is off to daycare.  

I'm a little sad, wishing I was close enough to offer to watch him.  'Cuz he looks like a cool lil dude that I'd enjoy hanging out with.  

Ugh.  Fuel prices are crazy.  

Milestone for Matilda!  She hit 10,000 miles on this morning's school run.  Took over 17 months, so that's one upside to the pandemic.  She definitely still feels like a new car.