Embroidered Placecards

One of my friends has already started her Thanksgiving cooking...I figured that I needed to get on the preparation wagon. After his field trip to the Cooper-Molera Adobe when we stepped back in time and ground corn, made tortillas, branded leather, and embroidered, Riley decided that he wanted to embroider the placecards for our Thanksgiving table. So, he paced himself and did one per day. He just finished this afternoon...and now Nonna has enough time to back them to hide his stiches on the flipside. He is so proud of these!

Great job, Riley-ball.

California History

I have lived on the Monterey Peninsula, on and off, for almost three decades. I know that Monterey was the first capital city of California. I have walked by most of the buildings along the path of history countless times. However, the number of things I know about this history-rich area is severely lacking. Sad, I know, especially so since I actually have a degree in U.S. History. But as Riley - and every other fourth grader in the state - delves into the history of California, so will I.

Yesterday I chaperoned his field trip to the Cooper-Molera Adobe. It shares a parking lot with my usual haunt, Trader Joe's; though I am there at least two or three times a week, I have only ventured into that state park-run building and garden two or three times ever. What an amazing experience with docents leading us in branding leather pieces, embroidering flowers on burlap, making sisal rope, and more! Riley has agreed to help me embroider a few things for our Thanksgiving table. It's nice that he seems to be enjoying learning about California history as much as I am.

Barong Tagalog

For the first Arts Night at the boys's school, the instructions for the second grade boys: "traditional dress of any country or white shirt, navy pants."

Dylan wanted to be an Oklahoma cowboy. I told him that's not international, despite what Daddy and I joke about.... Then he wanted to wear his kangaroo hat because it's from Australia; I told him that that's not traditional. The poor kid was almost in tears.

I mentioned the Barong Tagalog that we had borrowed from Aunt Pia for other events. It's a traditional Filipino shirt for men and boys, letting him know that his is made of silk, but that in the Philippines the barongs are sometimes made out of pineapple fibers.

I have to recount this story from the first time Dylan ever wore a barong and am keeping my fingers crossed that once he sees it tonight, he'll agree to wear it for tomorrow evening's music performance. That would make my life so much easier.

In any case, Dylan was asking why he had to wear the barong.

Riley assured me that he could explain it. He said, "it's because we're HALF Filipino, Dylan."

Dylan, standing there in his underwear, was holding up his arm to arm, then arm to leg, looking very confused.

Finally he said, "Which half is Filipino, Riley? I look all one kind."

Captain Wombat is...a Weaponless Viking?!?

As a crew that dresses up multiple times a year, for various themed parties, our costume bins - yes, plural - overfloweth with good stuff. From horned Viking hats to fluffy feather boas and from pirate eye patches to Smurf hats, we have it all. But, still, choosing a Halloween costume is always torturous, complicated by the restrictions that the School places on the day: no masks, no weapons, and only facepaints that the kids can apply themselves. Can you say "disaster"?

Dylan, dubbed Captain Wombat by his teacher, decided that he wanted to be the dingo from the book Wombat Stew. He planned to carry his stuffed wombat in a soup pot; we glued some white fur onto an orange t-shirt and an orange tail made with a kitchen towel onto a pair of old sweatpants. He found a fuzzy little half mask in the costume bins. Maybe it's a lion. Who knows? But it's the right color and he likes it. Revisit the school rules: no mask.

Tears, lots of tears. Riley suggested we make a headband with orange ears. I told Dylan that he could paint whiskers on his face. No, he wailed, I need my dingo mask to make the costume be correct. Oh, brother!

So, he's abadoning the dingo costume for school altogether, but will be sporting the whole outfit - with mask! - at our Halloween camping trip this weekend.

But for his school celebration, he decided to be a Viking. Then I reminded him that he couldn't bring a sword. Remember the no weapons rule. More tears. He concluded that "if a Viking lost his sword, he would just stab his enemy with his horns." So, now he's okay being a resourceful, weaponless Viking. Fantastic!

Lesson Learned the Hard Way

Here's a parenting lesson I'm learning the hard way: when your child wins a gift certificate to a restaurant you wouldn't normally go to, just go. Go quickly. Because when you look for the thing two years later - and it's expired - you now have to go and you have to pay for it. Horrible.

That was the case with Dylan and his gift certificate to Chili's. Dylan received the gift certificate in kindergarten. One of my good friends, who Dylan calls Uncle Brian, had promised to take him to Chili's to use the certficiate since I wouldn't take him. It's been two years and we had still never picked a day for it. Finally we picked a day and, as I mentioned before, the certificate was expired. But when you tell a 7-year-old you're going to take him somewhere, you have to do it. Oh, and to add to the horror, Brian promised to take them to McDonald's for dessert. Seriously.

So we went. The funniest response to my reporting that I actually went to Chili's and McDonald's: "I thought your account was hacked." If only that were the case. Here I am with my vanilla soft serve...at the drive-through because Brian said he wouldn't set foot into McDonald's. He'll promise my kid an ice cream cone from there, but won't leave the comfort of his vehicle!

There you have it. My account was not hacked. I did, in fact, eat at those establishments. The cocktail was weak, the food salty, really salty. And the funny thing is that I have eaten all over the world, from questionable food carts on beaches in third world countries and my body has never reacted like this; twenty minutes after we ate, Riley, Dylan, and I were running for the bathroom, almost as if our bodies were yelling 'reject! reject!' Jake laughed, saying, "I guess my body remembers eating food like this."

All I have to say is: if the school hadn't done away with giving out gift certficiates to Chili's as a reward for never being tardy, I would make sure that we were late at least once!

Christmas Card Evolution

Here's the evolution of Christmas cards in our family: When Jake and I were dating I used to handwrite cards and include a printed newsletter of all of our adventures for the year. As a double-income couple with no real bills, our adventures were fantastic.

After we married, most of our expendable income was put into our home rennovation, so I still handwrote the cards and included a printed newsletter about our projects.

When we had our first son, I think all I managed was a newsletter with printed labels on the envelope. Then we had our second son, a mere eighteen months later, and life has never been the same since; because Dylan was born two days before Christmas, I don't think I even managed to get anything out. I think I sent out Valentines' Day cards that year.

Somewhere along the line I moved to emailing our Christmas letters. This year, I will still email the holiday newsletters, but I decided to create cards for mailing as well. I turned to shutterfly.com and couldn't be happier. It was so easy. A few clicks here, a few clicks there. And - like magic - our Christmas cards are on their way.

Yes, I know it's not even Halloween, but I am, after all, a serial planner.

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

A Pumpkin Sloth

Dylan has an unusual Fall Break project: make a character pumpkin. He decided to do the sloth from Eric Carle's Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth. Truth be told, it became a family project. Dylan designed the figure and painstakingly drew the sloth's face.

 I burned my fingers more than once on the glue gun wrapping the frame with fur.

And Jake cut out the claws. What a fun project!