Mom to Mom Mondays - And we're back...

One-and-a-half months to fully recover from the Holidays, the flu, a visit to the E.R., and other exciting adventures before getting back into routine.

Some days, I still find it hard to believe we have three mini people... and they're all still alive!

Stephen definitely introduces "craziness" into the mix.

But his charm offsets most of it :)

Unfortunately, Calvin and Charissa have outgrown their charm to offset what we discovered the other night on our carpets upstairs:

It is the return of the Sharpie nightmare. A few years back, Calvin had gotten a hold of a black Sharpie and masterpieced on every single cushion of our light-tan microfiber sectional. It took me an entire day to remove the marks.

He was 3 and didn't know any better.

Now that he's almost 7, we expect better judgement from both him and Charissa.

I was horrified to say the least. I wanted to be angry and laugh at the same time. As bad as it was, it was funny on some level... like the "life-would-be-too-hard-if-we-didn't-find-the-humor-in-it" level. Apparently, they thought it would be a good idea to sneak out of bed and label everything...

Normally, I would scold Calvin for spelling such a simple word incorrectly. But in this case, it was one less letter to clean up. In total, there were 12 labels. It took us massive amounts of rubbing alcohol and rolls and rolls of paper towels to remove the lettering. There are still splotches, but they will have to wait until my arm muscles recover.

Seriously. Really?

Just you wait guys, when you have kids, there will be no pity from us ;)

Mom-to-Mom Mondays: Making Memories

It's that time of year when I get all giddy about putting up the Christmas tree and lights together with the kids...

...and feel so blessed to be making cookies with little people...

Adding to this year's decorations are 30 ft. of tinsel garland wrapped around our banisters and gold stars popping out from our dining room wall:

These were inspired by this tutorial. If you're looking for some easy, last-minute, and cheap holiday decorations, here is one to try!

Materials:

• Square pieces of paper (mine measured 6"x6") Any kind of paper will do, but I used glitter cardstock.
• Scissors
• pencil
• Exacto knife and cutting mat
• Glue

Directions 1. With the front facing up, score along the middle of each side as shown:

2. With the back facing up, score along the diagonal as shown:

So now you should have something like this:

3. Using a pencil, draw a diamond as shown:

4. Draw a square as shown:

The lines you made in steps 3 and 4 are to help you draw these next series of lines that will guide you on where to score.

5. Draw lines as shown below in orange:

6. Using scissors, cut down the center score lines, stopping at the intersection of the inner square and orange lines:

7. Score along the orange lines and fold:

8. Overlap the flaps and secure with glue (I used hot glue since cardstock is pretty thick.)

9. Ta da!

Repeat with the remaining flaps:

10. Turn it over and you're done!

Leave as is, or put two back to back for a more "star" effect, or stack a bunch together to make "trees":

Use as centerpieces, on the mantel, as wall art... the possibilities are endless!

Happy Birthday!

Charissa is officially five today! I can't believe she's gone from this:

to this:

Definitely looks better with hair.

I don't know how it happens, but we always end up throwing three parties each time one of our kids has a birthday.

Last Sunday, it was a cooking party at Tops:

complete with 16 kids, a new dress:

self-made and decorated cupcakes:

and of course, hand-made favors of chocolate-chip-and-sprinkles pancake mix:

and little-people-sized aprons:

And to keep the family tradition of going to Red Robin, we had a birthday meal with the grandparents before they headed out on vacation:

Nothing like an onion ring tower and ice cream cake to say "happy birthday!"

And then because it felt wrong not to do something on her actual birthday today, I made her an easy two-layer lemon box cake, with cream cheese, ricotta cheese, and sugar frosting... with, as you can see, a butt-load of sprinkles:

Yummy!

Happy birthday to my little girl!

All images and graphics in this post are copyrighted. Please do not use without permission. Thank you!.

Mario Time!

Mario!

Princess Peach!

Mario time!

...and Stephen...

...who was supposed to be Baby Mario. But after spilled applesauce on his red shirt, and utter refusal to wear his Mario cap unless he constantly had a marshmallow in hand/mouth... kind of had to scrap that idea... maybe next year...

Oh yeah. And Princess Daisy:

Calvin Mario took this picture on my iPhone. Nothing against Jeremy, but most of his shots capture me at awkward moments (pictures taken at a friend's costume birthday party)...

The camera doesn't love me.

And yes, I made our costumes. My kids... and I... aren't really into dressing up outside of Halloween, so I figured sewing them myself would save me a few bucks. But not without some sacrifices... like Calvin's constant slight wedgie due to a minor miscalculation in the crotch area...

SAAM like it hot! - Restaurant Review

On our trip out west, we ventured out to SAAM for our first molecular gastronomy meal where, as mentioned in my previous post, we got to blow "smoke" out of our noses. Molecular gastronomy = meal for nerds who love food. As defined on Wikipedia: Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that studies seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general. Molecular gastronomy is a modern style of cooking, which is practiced by both scientists and food professionals in many professional kitchens and labs and takes advantage of many technical innovations from the scientific disciplines. The term "molecular gastronomy" was coined in 1988 by late Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti and Hervé This. Some chefs associated with the term choose to reject its use, preferring other terms such as "culinary physics" and "experimental cuisine". I went thinking we would have some really weird food... "molecular gastronomy" doesn't exactly conjure up feelings of "yummy" or "romantic"... more like memories of your high school chemistry lab... but hey! We're adventurous :)

Not that weird right! It was yummy. And romantic :) Especially with the "dragon's breath popcorn" course:

And to satisfy your curiosity:

The "smoke" is caused by supercooled air coming out of your nose due to the popcorn ball being dipped in liquid nitrogen immediately prior to consumption. The popcorn ball itself was pretty everyday. I think the course was geared more towards entertaining the waiter ;) And... on a completely different note, I've created a new section entitled "Education" located on the left sidebar. I meant to post this on Thursday but forgot (was too busy sewing up costumes for the kids.) I've updated the "word families" page and added a page for free resources that I've found extremely useful in schooling our kids outside of school. Hope it can be some use to you!

Mom-to-MegaGeek Monday

So as you can probably guess from the title, today's post has nothing to do with crafts, home decorating, or mothering. It has a little to do with marriage. One of Jeremy's dreams has been to attend BlizzCon, a conference held for the 26,000 video game fanatics who managed to out-click a bazillion of their like-minded peers within 3 seconds after the tickets went on sale. And yes, we were two of those fanatics who sat in front of the computer with a trigger-happy finger.

Jeremy's 30th birthday present this year = Me accompanying him to this conference So off we went to Anaheim, CA. I decided to pick up knitting again to pass the time. And actually finished a 30-inch scarf for Calvin. That's 18 inches longer than my previous ditched project!

We got to sunny California two days before the conference and visited the "Original Farmers Market":

Complete with retro stools...

Hot coffee...

And a huge strawberry-banana-Nutella crepe...

...with a huge side of whipped cream...

We also ate at some pretty intense restaurants... where I got to blow smoke out of my nose...

But more on that later ;) Of course, being in LA, I had to go visit the fashion-garment-fabric district. Serious creative sensory overload...

Too bad I'm not making dresses anymore... so many possibilities... And we went shopping on Rodeo drive, and the mall... But this trip isn't supposed to be about me :) I tried "fitting" in with some geeky glasses...

Jeremy thought it was too much. Ha! So we went like this:

Not really fitting either, but there wasn't anything else. What I should have packed was something more along these lines:

Just looking at this girl made me cold:

Apparently they have a costume contest every year. First prize gets $3,000. Sheesh. Think of all the fabric I can buy with that money! hehe. The conference itself was pretty awesome, I have to say :) They seriously went all out with smoke machines, lights, computers, artwork...

These people are serious about their gaming!

Even sucked me in to wanting to try the not-yet-released Diablo III:

And enjoying my first Starcraft II tournament:

With $50K on the line, the games were intense! I think I need to go sew a princess dress now or something... :)

Try it Tuesdays - "Tie" Easy

So as mentioned yesterday, today's post is a simple tutorial on making a little boy's tie (ages 2-4 years). There are a handful of tutorials out there (i.e. purl bee's) that outline more proper techniques and steps in putting a tie together. They usually involve interfacing and some hand sewing, which if it wasn't for the two day time constraint and 12 little boys to sew for (and the fact that I really stink at hand sewing), I would have followed.

So...

I made up my own process using this pattern (You can also follow the instructions printed on the pattern. But I also found it to be too fussy for my goal of completing one tie in 30 minutes or less. Make sure you print at full-scale.)

(The tutorial is named "tie" easy... in Chinese, "tie" means "too"... get it?... "too" easy... ha. ha. ha.)

Since I didn't have my camera to take step-by-step pictures, I took the liberty of sketching it out for you. (Click on thumbnails for larger/readable versions.)

Very easy. You will need:

• 1 yard patterned fabric, cotton or cotton blend
• 1 yard lining fabric, cotton or cotton blend
• 1" wide fusible (hemming) tape
• iron, sewing machine, thread, etc.

I found that the fusible tape gave the end product enough heft, much like what you would have if you used interfacing.

Seriously. Easy, fast, and fuss free. Just the kind of sewing I like to do :)

Monday Celebration!

I can't believe my baby is turning two! (The above rendition of Stephen was drawn by Charissa.)

Okay, not a baby anymore...

A real boy boy who likes to eat...

...pick his nose...

...and run around the house naked while trying to put on Charissa's headbands...

In celebration, we threw him a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" birthday party:

Complete with lots and lots of balloons...

"caterpillar" grape and tomato kabobs...

and individual donut cakes... because at this point, Stephen couldn't care less if everyone else is having just as much fun as he is... and what kid doesn't like to blow out candles?

I think these slacker "cakes" out-do the Nutella sandwich cake I made for Charissa in terms of laziness.

For the favors...

I made ties for the boys and included glow-in-the-dark "caterpillar" bracelets and a bag of popcorn (because Stephen's favorite part of the book is the second page when "Pop! Out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar.")

For the girls, there was a butterfly ribbon wand, a popcorn "clutch" complete with a sequined caterpillar, and a caterpillar bracelet:

It was a lot of fun. I mean, how can you NOT have fun with 14 toddlers running around the house :)

Jeremy was able to be there for singing and "cake":

I know. Stephen has no pants on. Classy. I think he got them wet from playing outside. And I didn't feel like running upstairs to grab him another pair...

And I didn't plan on Jeremy and I both wearing stripes...

Tomorrow I will post a tutorial on my 30-minute little boy's tie!

Teach it Thursdays! Here we go...

...following in the tradition of the Yeh kids... (my siblings and I)...

(His elementary school offers free Suzuki lessons starting in first grade. I know right. I'm surprised I don't see more parents getting in on this!) I did give him a choice of either violin or cello, and I was honest with him: "Violin would be easier for me to help you since I know how to play, but the cello is a wonderful instrument too..." Maybe Charissa will end up playing the cello. (I've secretly always wanted to play...) Not much time today to write much, but here are the links to the second word family worksheets (click here for the consolidated word family page to be updated weekly):

• Word Families - ad
• Traceable Word Families - ad

Good night! (This mommy needs some serious shut eye!)

Mom-to-Mom Mondays - Girl Power!

One of my goals since having kids is making the time to exercise. Just 20 to 30 minutes a day. Equivalent to my morning round-trip of dropping Charissa off at school. Amazing how fast those minutes fly by when dawdling on pinterest, checking email, reading blog subscriptions, taking a nice hot shower... but then tortuously drag on when spent with Jillian Michaels or the dreaded treadmill. Anyway, I recently decided to get back on the treadmill, but this time, with the help of motivational singer Mandisa. I like to think of her as the Christian version of girl power ;) Not only are her songs encouraging, empowering, and worshipful, (many) are at the perfect tempo for running to the beat. I don't know if it's just me... or a musician thing... but I can't NOT run to the beat. It's like a weird tick :) At any rate, here is my running song list for those who may be seeking something to make 26 minutes of exercise a time to burn some calories and reflect on Him :) (Download spotify to play these songs for free!)

• Dance, Dance, Dance (Album: Freedom) - warmup
• Stronger (Album: What if We Were Real)
• Temporary Fills (Album: What if We Were Real)
• These Days (Album: What if We Were Real)
• What if We Were Real (Album: What if We Were Real)
• My Deliverer (Album: Freedom)
• The Definition of Me (Album: Freedom)
• Waiting for Tomorrow (Album: What if We Were Real) - cooldown