CRAZY HAIR DAY!

Today at the kids' school is Crazy Hair Day--perhaps my kids' favorite special day of the year. They plan what to do with their hair for months ahead of time. T has been growing his hair since Xmas, in anticipation of cutting a mohawk for Crazy Hair Day. However, when this week arrived, he got all teary at the prospect of cutting off his mop (he loves to thrash his head in time to Green Day). So we took the conservative route and simply did tiny ponies all over his head, and then sprayed glitter hairspray all over. C. had received some wash-out hair dye from the Easter Bunny last year and she saved it all year for Crazy Hair Day. So we colored her hair last night, and then I put it up in tiny braids, which she took out this morning, resulting in funky, kinky red hair. It was getting in her face, though, so we put it in two poofy ponies on the top of her head. Here's a pic:

And a close-up of each of them--C's is before we did the ponies:

We also had C's 11 YO well-child check yesterday (and got her camp form filled out). She is 56" tall and weighs 81 lbs--both between the 25th and 50th percentiles for her age. No growth spurt yet, but she's waiting...

Completed Pottery

As promised, here are pictures of the completed pottery from C's party.

First, the birthday girl's mug (penguin conductor with a violin & a flute):


M1 made a container (featuring pegasus, unicorn & butterfly) to hold pencils on her desk:


V made a cool colored mug:


M2 made a "marble washer" (soap dish):


E decorated a plate because her mom collects them:


And mom made a chili pepper mug for dad:

Mom to an 11-year-old

Eleven years ago today, at 12:46 pm, C. was born and I became a parent. This began an amazing journey, which changed just about everything about me. I don't think I'd recognize myself eleven years ago. My children have taught me so very much. And C. was (and is!) the guinea pig! We tease her that first children are for making mistakes so that we can be perfect parents for the rest. She's been a very patient kid for all of this.

Because the kids had a half day of school last Friday, we had her party then. She invited four friends over and first we had lunch:

Then we went to A Touch of Glaze to paint pottery. Here are some pictures from that adventure:

(I'll pick up the finished pieces tomorrow and post pictures of them then!)

After pottery, we headed back to our place for pizza and cake (C. chose chocolate with raspberry cream filling):

And here's one picture from this morning, when she opened her gifts from her siblings:
After school today we'll do the rest of her gifts, and go out to eat (she chose Qdoba).

UPDATE: She's opened her gifts and here are pics of the birthday girl, modeling two new outfits:

Book Meme

I have been pitiful at blog posting, but really wanted to write SOMEthing this weekend. Luckily, I found this cool meme at Pancake Goddess's blog. Before judging me too harshly, realize that I only started reading fiction for fun again about six months ago...

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
(One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez )
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
(Angels and Demons – Dan Brown)
(Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk)
(Neuromancer - William Gibson)
(Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson)
(The Secret History – Donna Tartt0)
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
(Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides)
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
(The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath)
Dune - Frank Herbert

Sockapaloooza socks finished!

Yay! I finished my socks and I'm pretty happy with them! I was very very worried about NOT calling myself a "beginner" when I saw all the amazingly beautiful and complex socks that everyone was making. And then when I started browsing the beginner links and found really fancy stuff, I got even more concerned! But I think I did fine.

Here's the finished, washed, blocked socks, along with the yarn left from one skein (My sock pal wanted shorter length socks):


Here's a close-up of the pattern on the leg:


And here's a picture of DH modeling them (my sock pal has feet larger than mine, so I couldn't try them on!)



Now the details:
Yarn:
KnitPicks Color Your Own Sock Yarn, dyed with Wilton paste coloring in moss green, brown and orange, dyed in my microwave by dipping portions into mason jars of each color.

Pattern:
Essentially the two-at-once on one 40" circular needle pattern found at:
http://webdesignsbybarb.com/tostetoes. I used a size 2 needle and made them with 64 stitches around and knit just as the pattern said (including the reinforced heel) until the leg part. I then decreased back to 60 stitches and used the zigzag stitch, as explained on October 4th in 365 Knitting Stitches a Year . I finished with a K1P1 ribbing.

Although I still don't care for the colors (I'm not a brown and orange person ;)), I like the way the colors formed a pattern of sorts. I'm amazed that the socks look reasonably alike (more identical than fraternal). Finally, I like the scrunch kind of appearance that the pattern made. I hope my sock pal likes them!

Junior Art Docent

I had mentioned previously that C. was involved in the Art Docent program at the MAM. This is a three year program for grades 3, 4, and 5, which culminates in the 5th graders choosing a piece from the museum, learning all they can about the piece and the artist, creating a reproduction of the piece, and presenting all the information, along with their personal aesthetic response (in any other art form) at a final graduation. C.'s graduation was yesterday.

She choose Right After by Eva Hesse for her piece. She created a reproduction mounted on a wooden base (Dad cut things with the power tools, but she assembled it) and composed of fishing line and hot glue hung from hand-made "hooks". Here's a photo of C. presenting her research:

Here's a picture of her reproduction:


Here she is, reading the poem that she wrote for her aesthetic response.
(and the text of the poem):

Right After
by C.

You caught my eye, with your mystic look.
Your slick pattern of stars
Casts a beautiful shadow of circus tents.

Your life was sad, with an early death and lots of suffering.
The creation of you was like a rebirth,
For now you are the piece I so greatly admire.

I feel drawn to you. I have climbed into your life,
But will not change who you are
And who you will always be.


And here's a collection of pictures of C. with her piece, and some of her friends with their pieces. (Pictures aren't fantastic since you can't use a flash in the Art Museum)

Harry Potter Personality Quiz

This was kinda fun! Try it out--here's my result:


Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

I hate Mondays

I dont' really hate Mondays. I'm just a bit overwhelmed, thinking about this week coming up, and we had a very lazy weekend. I really shouldn't be online, but when has that stopped me?

First, the latest sock picture:

OK, I'm liking them more and more as I go along! I like how a "pattern" is appearing now that I'm knitting even. I'm still not sure about the natural-colored spots, but I'll reserve judgement till they're done.

Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of knitting done this weekend because I was drawn into the book that we might be doing for this month's book club, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I picked it up Sunday morning and almost finished it last night (had three pages to finish this morning!). I find it amusing that the timing worked out as it did. Our family is currently immersed in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat right now, with C. performing in the Children's Choir. (For those who haven't read it, the main character in The Red Tent is Dinah, who was Joseph's sister)

My house has again fallen into disarray, but I am using the excuse that my mom will be here on Thursday, so I'll be doing whole-house cleaning on Wednesday. I am doing laundry today, so it won't be a total disaster by then.

And tomorrow C. has her final Art Docent presentation at the Art Museum. I'll post more about it later, but this is the culmination of a three year program that C. was lucky enough to participate in. The fact that it falls during Tech week for Joseph is just another fun element!

Finally, here's a picture of M., nursing baby Molly. She has gotten SO into dolls lately. I can remember trying to convince C. as a toddler to "nurse" her babies, but the most she ever wanted to do was carry them in a sling. M. came up with this on her own, though she explained to me that she was just "PWETENDING to ning baby Molly cuz my bweasts aren't big like yours yet. " :)

Another sock update

Since A. asked ever so nicely, I am including some pics of the hand-dyed yarn, as it's knitting up so far. I was going to do a regular swatch, but then remembered I'd have to do it with circular needles to get it to look right and.... well, I decided to just go ahead and start the socks. As far as over-dying, I can just as easily over-dye an already-knit sock, right?

so here's where I am:


That doesn't show the colors very well, so here's a close-up:



I think I'm happy with the way they look, overall. The "problem", I think, is that I really really dislike brown and orange! So I don't know if I'll be happy when these are done or not! lol... If it's okay, I'll ask all of you blog-readers to let me know, when I'm done, if they look okay or if I should overdye them with brown.

And I have to say that this yarn ROCKS! omg, I was fighting with that stupid acrylic stuff... holes were big and noticeable, and the yarn wasn't flexible and... This is just such a pleasure to knit with! I'm not rushing at all--just enjoying knitting with it!