K-Wiggles' first day of skiing.

K-Wiggles is, in some ways, my most athletic kid. Since the day she was born, she has been kicking and fighting and wiggling her way into amazing shape. Seriously, this three-year-old has a six-pack that would make a young Arnold Schwazenegger jealous! I can remember when she would lie in her crib on her back, raise both her feet straight up into the air, and then slam them back down onto the mattress so hard I thought the crib would collapse. And that was what she did for fun when she was happy -- don't ask what she did when she was mad. Are you starting to understand why this child was swaddled until well past 8 months of age?

Anyway, the funny thing about it is, K-Wiggles has not taken to the snow and sliding sports like I would have imagined. She has a strange tentative streak in her makeup somewhere. When walking on snow and ice, she tends to drop to all fours and crawl really fast. Her first (and only) experience on ice skates involved similar dropping to the ground. And until today, she had no interest whatsoever in going skiing. I think Daddy J put her on skis once, or maybe it was just in the ski boots, and she was so wigged out that we haven't tried it again.

But for some reason, today she wanted to go skiing. Ok, we'll go skiing. So we dropped Miss D off at ski school for her regular Saturday all-day lesson (more on that later, maybe?). K-Wiggles and M-Moo and I went and had a nice breakfast at No Worries Cafe (since the kids had made their own breakfast out of cheese-flavored sun chips while I was lazing in bed this morning!).

Then we ran home to grab our ski clothes. Then up to The Canyons to see if Canyon Mountain Sports (the ski shop there) still had the two pairs of kids' skis that Daddy J had seen but not bought a few weeks ago. Of course they don't, but what they do have is a bunch of pairs of brand new Dora the Explorer kids' skis.

Thankfully, they were having a 30% off sale, and we found some pink bindings that were 60% off and I managed to get out the door for a lot less than I would have thought for two brand-new pairs of kids' skis. We sent the skis off to the shop to have the bindings mounted and rna over to Pizza Hut for a quick lunch.

By the time we finally got up the hill, it was 2:00, and we had to pick up Miss D at ski school at3:15. Well, everyone actually got their skis on. (I won't tell you about how M-Moo apparently made a mad dash down the bunny hill while I was working on K-Wiggles skis, landed in a heap at the bottom of the lift, was helped up by the lifty and a couple of other skiers, and managed to bloody her lip, all while I wasn't looking -- not a good feeling to turn around and "where's M-Moo?").

The girls and I worked it out so that I would have K-Wiggles come down the hill a little ways to me, then get her stationary, and then have M-Moo come down the hill to me. Thankfully I had an edgie-wedgie in my pocket, 'cuz K-Wiggles needed that. She can't shuffle her feet... something about each foot sliding independently and not feeling confident to pick up her feet or shift her balance much. But once the skis start sliding, she's ok. We even worked on getting her to turn the skis to me, and she did it!

All in all, we took one hour and made one run down the beginner hill (me walking in my ski boots -- wish I would have left those home and wore my Sorels... could have left my skis in the locker too). We made it over to the lodge to pick up Miss D and all made it down the gondola safely. I'm sure you can picture in your head the circus that was me with three kids and four pairs of skis trying to load onto and off of the gondola. I'm quite surprised we didn't wind up making our way back up the hill because we couldn't get organized to get off the gondola in time!

Oh, and the best part? K-Wiggles did NOT want to stop. She wanted to do it again and again and again. So hopefully, next week Daddy J will be home and we can do it one-on-one with the littles while Miss D is in ski school.

And finally, Miss D had another great day in ski school. Her coach, Zak, took his group (two or three kids this week, I'm not sure), on Saddleback and they skied some honest-to-goodness Blue terrain. She's "this close" to moving up to the "Blue" team -- just the next level of ski-learning progression.

Everyone was asleep by 5:30 tonight. Now it's 8:30 and I'm going to bed too.

Oh yeah, it was 38 degrees and sunny on the hill this afternoon. Doesn't get any better than that for teaching beginner skiers!

More photo prints

Have I mentioned that I'm excited to have my photo printer up and working (I realigned the print cartridges the other day and that fixed whatever alignment problems I had on that one pring of M-Moo) (I also printed a 40-page text document today -- my other printer is on the fritz -- and it spat that out lickety-split). I find, though, that it adds another layer of complexity (read: learning) to edit my photos in Photoshop for printing. All I've done until now is edit photos for the web; totally different.

But while I was searching for this photo of Miss D that I wanted to edit and print and add to my rogue's gallery, I looked through some of my early Photoshop-edited photos. All I can say is "I've come a long way, baby!" Now I want to go back through all those "learning" photographs and re-edit them to suit my new eye and tastes.

Anyway, here's the photo of Miss-D that I printed. It was from our old point and shoot digital camera, so at 8x10 it's actually not as crisp as I would like. But I loved the expression on her face, so I printed it to hang with the other two (of M-Moo and K-Wiggles) and hopefully tomorrow I will hang them on the dining room wall and take a picture to show you all! (Oh yeah, those who received our holiday cards might recognize the photo as one that I used on the card, re-edited).


I also have three more frames that I want to use on that wall to showcase the kids' art projects. Miss-D did a lovely watercolor today that I think would look fantastic framed. And K-Wiggles's scribble pictures are, well, colorful! M-Moo is in more of a "dark" period, where all her artwork comes out over-saturated and, well, dark. But I still think it will be fun to have the kids hang their artwork in the dining room near the pictures. We'll see how it turns out. I've been indecisive about that wall for the whole 2.5 years that we've lived here, so it will be nice to have something there, anything!

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Today marked the start of the VISA Freestyle International skiing competition at Deer Valley.

And tonight was the first time there's been a concert on Main Street since back in 2003. Back then, it was War, playing for the final America's Opening World Cup concert (though we didn't know it was the last one until after the fact, when Park City Mountain Resort announced that it wouldn't be holding America's Opening anymore).

The concert tonight was Michael Franti and Spearhead. It was a great concert, and not even that cold (last time it was about 2 degrees and windy... Brrrr!). Tonight it was 22 degrees, we got parking right by the concert, and had a really fun time. I hope they'll be doing more concerts on Main Street in the years to come.

M-Moo's portrait

A while back I posted a photo I had taken of K-Wiggles at lunch one day. I got a shot I liked of M-Moo too, but hadn't had time to edit it. Tonight, I finally got time.

So here's the edited shot of M-Moo. I printed it on my fancy new printer, but this time little lines showed up all across the picture (I'm assuming that's a problem with the cartridge alignment, but I haven't had time to look into it -- I'm just bummed that after printing only 3 pictures, it's already not working right. *sigh*)

Anyway, onward and upward... I need to get some frames so I can start a gallery on my dining room wall. Now if I could just decide what color -- black (clean and modern), oak (to match the woodwork in my house), cherry (my favorite and matches my dining room table). Decisions, decisions.

The third level of tantrum hell.

So I was thinking a while back that I've pretty much been through the wringer on the whole tantrum thing. I mean, Miss D was a two-year-old when the littles were infants. K-Wiggles pretty much brought down the barn on the tantrum thing for 6 months, waking up every day basically throwing a tantrum and not stopping until well after she was asleep (I swear, the girl threw tantrums in her sleep!). I was just the other day talking about how nice it is that K-Wiggles now comes up in the morning and is pleasant and happy and fun to be around, and the frequency and intensity and duration of her tantrums have diminished significantly.

So enter the M-Moo tantrum. M-Moo is by far my most stubborn child (and they're all three stubborn, dagnabbit). She also knows how to push my buttons probably better than any of my children (though Miss D is close on some days).

Tonight, we got in our jammies extra early, had a nice breakfast-for-dinner, and were playing trampoline on the living room furniture together, interspersed with wild and crazy singing and dancing. When it was getting close to bedtime, I did the usual transition/warning stuff. And then I said "ok, everybody, let's go brush teeth."

Apparently, I said this in some kind of secret code that completely pissed off M-Moo, because she immediately said "no." Ok, I'm pretty go-with-the-flow on a lot of things, but brushing teeth is one that I don't let go. So I explained that M-Moo had a choice, she could either get her toothbrush, or I would get it for her. She just said "no," so I went and got her toothbrush.

And thus started the Great-Toothbrush-Meltdown! This child tantrumed for a solid 45 minutes. First it was that she didn't want to get her toothbrush, ok, I got it. Then she didn't want to pick a toothpaste, so I picked for her. Then she didn't want to brush her teeth, so I brushed them for her. Then she didn't want to go down to bed, so I carried her down.

Then, upon getting into bed, she decided she wanted to brush her teeth. Can you say stalling tactic? *insert mama-head-exploding icon here*

Well, that train had already left the station, so I patiently explained to her that I was so glad she wanted to brush her teeth and that she would get another chance to do that tomorrow.

To make a long story short (ok, too late again!), she tantrumed in her bed for another 15 minutes while I read Miss D a story and K-Wiggles, bless her heart, laid in her bed looking at her book and wondering when her sister's head would fly off her body.

Finally, I heard pathetic whimpers of "mama" instead of the blood-curdling screams I'd been hearing. So I went in to hear M-Moo say "mama, can you put my blanket on?"

*insert slapping-forehead icon here*

Can someone please explain to me the psychology of the three-year-old tantrum and why a child who will not make a simple decision just wants to scream and holler about whatever decision I make for her?

Oh, and I forgot the part where I patiently stood by her bed while she said nothing (except maybe "go away), but if I made one move toward the door the blood-curdling screams would start again. Am I crazy, or am I being manipulated here?! (No, don't answer that, I already know).

Anyway, just thought I'd share a thankfully not-so-typical bedtime at Casa Llamedos.

Mama's Observing

Miss D has been asking me to "observe" in her classroom since last fall when I did it in M-Moo's classroom. At the time, we had some concerns about M-Moo's comfort-level in her classroom and were wondering if we shouldn't move her (either back to toddler class or to another early childhood class).

The time has just never been quite right to do it (what with me trying to work during the mornings and such). But this weekend I promised Miss D that I would come and observe.

So this morning I stopped by the coffee shop and picked up three lattes (one for me, two for the teachers) and spent the hours from 9:00 to 12:00 with Miss D and K-Wiggles in Montessori-land.

K-Wiggles was the single-focus child today, and her "work" for the entire morning was something called the "step board." I tried to find a picture of it online or a video of someone doing it, but I think I must have the wrong name for it, 'cuz I couldn't find it. I e-mailed her teacher so when I find it I will update this post to show you what it was.

Miss-D has been working on recording her "hundreds board." Here is a video of what she was doing, except she was "recording," which means that she was writing all the numbers down on a checkerboard piece of paper.


The Hundreds Board Montessori Material -- powered by eHow.com

After that, Miss D was doing some work with the "movable alphabet." Here it is, except at Miss D's school they have a set of small objects that they lay out on the mat and then spell the word that goes with the small object. Then they "record" the work by writing each of the words on a piece of paper, then putting each object away and its letters away as you write the word. Miss D was really quick at spelling all the three-letter words, but took a little longer to write the words down. She is working very hard at forming all her letters correctly.

Montessori Movable Alphabet Activity -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

It was a good day and it's always fun to see the girls so absorbed in their work at school.

Youth Development Ski School

Miss D had another good day at The Canyons in their Youth Development ski school program. This was her second week (there will be twelve sessions for her this year). She goes from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., which is a darned long day of skiing for anybody, but especially for a not-quite-5 year old!

She says she had a great time. Her coach said she followed instructions well and was easy to coach. Daddy-J waxed her skis this morning so she wasn't the slowest in her class (good thing, 'cuz it was wet, sticky snow today).

She has worked her way up from Red to Yellow to now being almost finished with the Green level. She can make wedge turns on green terrain, load the lift almost by herself, get up by herself when she crashes (though she keeps telling me she doesn't crash!), and can ski and stop in her own personal space (no, really, that's what it says on the report card!). She's well on her way to making it to Blue level by the end of the season! I can't wait to ski with her again soon!

Oh, and she has a stinky sense of humor (I can't imagine where she got that from). Her coach, Julieta, said that a couple of times when she crashed she would lie on the ground and wait for Julieta to take off her skis and hike back up the hill to help her. But just before Julieta would get there, Miss D would pop right up and get up all by herself, cackling to beat the band.

She sure is funny, that one!

Ian's 5th Birthday

Today's big adventure was going to our friend Ian's fifth birthday party. The party was at a place called Jungle Jim's Playland. We had been there once before, when the littles were still in their "baby buckets" and Miss-D wasn't much more than 2. Can't say we had much fun that time, but boy oh boy did we have fun this time!

(I took my camera, but I realized afterwards that I didn't have it set up right and so I got very few decent shots. I did spend about an hour this evening playing with all the settings so that next time I'm trying to shoot action shots indoors with flash, I'll know better how to set up the camera to hopefully get some better shots. A whole bunch of the following shots are blurry as all get out, but I'm posting them anyway!).

Everyone started on the carousel. We had two rides on that, and then M-Moo and Miss D wanted to move on to the swings (the next ride over). K-Wiggles, though, decided to stay on her horsey and just ride and ride and ride. I caught her petting her horsey more than a few times and I'm pretty sure she was talking to it too. Note to self: I really need to get that one into riding lessons ASAP.





All the girls liked all the rides, much to my surprise. They did the carousel (see above), the swings . . .








the teacups . . .



the airplanes . . .






and the roller coaster . . .





Miss D gave me a flash forward to ten years from now by how much she loved driving the bumper cars! (These photos are all blurry, but I still like how they portray Miss D's enjoyment of the bumper cars!).





After WAY too many rides...

we sang Happy Birthday to Ian and then we all had pizza and ice cream cake.










After that, we played a few games, won a couple of prizes, and then it was time to head home.

Happy Birthday Ian!

Another Fitlow Friday Field Trip

This year, the girls are in school Mondays through Thursdays, leaving Fridays free for our semi-homeschooling, quasi-unschooling, fun field trip Fridays! Last semester, I was pretty good about planning something fun to do on Fridays. We went to Red Butte Gardens. We went to the zoo. We went to This is the Place Heritage Park. We went to the Museum of Ancient Life.

Then, somewhere along the way, Fridays got busy and we weren't doing as many cool fieldtrips on Fridays. So this Friday, I decided to hike up the britches and get back into the fray (how's that for mixing metaphors?!).

Miss D and I decided that it was "dinosaurs" for this past Friday. We've done the Museum of Ancient Life and, while the girls could happily go back there a hundred times (it is cool, I admit!), I wanted to try something different. I considered the Utah Fieldhouse of Natural History in Vernal, but decided I didn't want to try getting everyone moving early enough to make the two-hour drive there worth it. Also, our friends from Steamboat had tried to go there recently and it had been, alas, closed (of course, it WAS Sunday and this IS Utah, but still!).

So I settled on the Ogden Dinosaur Park. I'll tell you up front that I have no pictures. While shepherding my 3 kids through an outdoor dinosaur park is not as hard as it used to be, I still wasn't up for trying to do it while lugging along my camera.

We had a great time! The kids loved the little indoor museum. They have a REALLY cool animatronics dinosaur exhibit upstairs that shows a young T-Rex trying to eat a couple of triceratops babies for a snack and a triceratops mama defending her babies. The girls and I sat in front of that exhibit for a good half an hour, talking about what the T-Rex wantd to do and why, and how the mama was acting to scare off the T-Rex, and how one baby was hiding behind a tree and the other one was sticking close to mama, and all kinds of stuff like that. It was really fun and cool.

The rest of the museum was ok. It's very small, but they do have some good fossils there. But the real attraction is the outdoor dinosaur park. They have a large (I don't know how many acres, but it's big!) outdoor park with water features and hiking paths. Scattered throughout the park are very real-looking life-size dinosaurs of different kinds. There are plaques all around telling about the different dinosaurs. In the pond, there were ancient duck dinosaurs, apparently some kind of ancestor of modern ducks, as well as modern mallard ducks swimming around them.

They also have recorded noises for the "jungle" that was Utah at the time and a lot of the different dinosaur noises (imagined, I suppose, but still cool). It was a little chilly the day we went and we had left our jackets in the car, so we didn't stay long, but it was still a great afternoon.

Since we were already in Ogden, we decided to go to Union Station in downtown Ogden and see their train museum. All the way up to Ogden, along I-84, we had been watching and counting the various trains coming and going. The train tracks run right along the highway and the girls love watching for the trains. The train museum was quite interesting. We saw lots of artifacts from the heydey of train travel. The girls got to climb up into the passenger compartment of an old steam train. We saw a really long multi-room model train display, mimicking the great meeeting of the trans-continental railroad. There was a great room with real railroad equipment including the front end of a locomotive where the girls could go inside and blow the whistle! There was also a set of model trains the girls could play with.

We also got to see the FrontRunner trains coming into Ogden from Salt Lake. Soon the FrontRunner will go all the way from Ogden down to Provo.

Anyway, all-in-all we had a great day. We met G'pa Larry and Daddy-J for a yummy barbecue dinner in Salt Lake at Pat's Barbecue and then headed home, happy and tired!

It's good to be back on track with the Friday Fieldtrips. Stay tuned for more adventures in the months to come!

Mini Meat Loaves Success!

I found this recipe in Better Homes & Gardens (the sitter left a copy at the house!). Daddy-J and I both love meatloaf, but we never make it because it takes too long to put together and too long to cook. But this mini meat loaves recipe looked like just the ticket. Ready in 22 minutes, start to finish, with a vegetable (we did broccoli instead of the green beans).

My kids even ate it. M-Moo and K-Wiggles asked for seconds! I'd say that's a success!

• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup purchased pasta sauce
• 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped if large
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 oz.)
• 1 12-oz. pkg. fresh green beans, trimmed
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• Crushed red pepper (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to boiling. In large bowl combine egg, 1/2 cup of the pasta sauce, bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons of the basil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add beef and 1/2 cup of the cheese; mix well. Divide beef mixture in four equal portions. Shape each portion in a 5-1/2x2-inch oval. Place on 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Spoon on remaining pasta sauce and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 15 minutes or until internal temperature registers 160 degrees F.

2. Meanwhile, cook green beans in boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Drain; toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil and red pepper. Serve with meat loaves. Sprinkle all with remaining basil leaves. Serves 4.

Nutrition Facts

• Calories 496,
• Total Fat (g) 29,
• Saturated Fat (g) 12,
• Monounsaturated Fat (g) 13,
• Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 2,
• Cholesterol (mg) 145,
• Sodium (mg) 742,
• Carbohydrate (g) 25,
• Total Sugar (g) 8,
• Fiber (g) 5,
• Protein (g) 34,
• Vitamin C (DV%) 26,
• Calcium (DV%) 30,
• Iron (DV%) 27,
• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Jackson in pictures.

Although I did take my DSLR camera with me to Jackson, I somehow misplaced the SD card upon which all my fabulous photos are recorded by the camera. *sigh*

Luckily, Daddy-J brought the itty bitty camera and we got these great shots...





The tram at Jackson Hole ski area. Carries 100 people per trip (and boy is that thing packed... you could lift up your feet and not fall down; talk about sardines!).



We saw this sign on the way back to Jackson from Flagg Ranch (up by Yellowstone). Took a picture and had a good chuckle!



But they were so not kidding! (And no, we don't know the lady in the car ahead of us who got out to take pictures -- I shot this from safely inside our car).





And then just up the road from the moose, this guy was taking a nap, got up just to say "hello." Daddy-J took this shot from the road. The bison (buffalo?) was probably 150 yards in, hence the poor picture quality.




And these are the Grand Tetons. And no, I won't translate that from the French for you -- go look it up.

Ten Things I Learned in Jackson

1. Jackson, Wyoming, at about 6300 feet elevation, is COLD! Like, 7-degrees-at-11-o-clock cold.

2. The summit of Jackson Hole ski resort, at about 10,400 feet, is WARM! Like, 38-degrees-at-11-o-clock warm. Weird, huh? I guess they call it "inversion."

3. The Million Dollar Cowboy Saloon is a cool, fun bar, with great pool tables! Corollary: Girls rule, boys drool, when it comes to playing pool!

4. Elk are large creatures, even when viewed from a distance at the National Elk Refuge.

5. Moose are very large creatures, especially when viewed walking down the road outside our condo. Oh, and moose in Jackson, Wyoming are much, much, MUCH bigger than the moose that inhabit my neighborhood. Seriously!

6. Buffalo/bison are unbelievably large creatures, and they take naps on the side of the road -- who knew?

7. It takes about 4 hours, round trip, to drive from Jackson, up to Flagg Ranch (near Yellowstone), and back, and every restaurant or eatery on the way there and back serves food only at the weirdest times, none of which coincide with when a person driving said road might actually want to eat. (But there are two good Thai restaurants in Jackson -- go figure!).

8. Nikon D40 DSLR cameras don't work so well when you forget to bring the SD card that goes in them. Corollary: not one store between Jackson and Flagg Ranch carries SD cards -- at least not in winter!

9. Daddy-J and Mama-V suck at sharing a queen-sized bed with real sheets on it! (Technically, I already knew that one!)

10. Vacations away from the kids are great, no matter what you go and do. (Ok, technically, I already knew that one too!)

40th Birthdays.

No, no one here is turning 40, nope, no way, no how.

Well, ok, Mama-V will turn 40 in 2009. And Daddy-J will turn 40 in 2010. In between, and to celebrate, we're trying to figure out a really fun and memorable trip to do together.

I found this a few days ago and think it just might fit the bill: White Room Adventure Tours.

The owners of the company live in Boulder and it sure looks like they live an adventurous, outdoorsy life, huh!?

Good thing is, we've got time to save our pennies.

M-Moo.

I posted pics of K-Wiggles from our lunchtime photoshoot the other day. Here are the outtakes from M-Moo's turn in front of the camera!






I'll try to post a good one later!

Skiing in Jackson, Wyoming

Daddy-J and I are up in Jackson, Wyoming, with some friends of ours for a little ski-weekend trip. Two years ago, we went to Sun Valley with this same couple and had a great time. Last year, we were supposed to go to Jackson and work wound up getting in the way. So this year, we're back on for Jackson.

We're pretty excited to be here, as neither of us has ever skied Jackson, despite the fact that we've lived only 4 hours away from it for 9+ years and we've been to Jackson many times in the summer for frisbee tournaments.

The weather is warm and sunny, for skiing, anyway, so it should be some great bluebird days! We brought our snowshoes too, so maybe we'll get some hiking in as well.

And thank you to Naomi for staying with the girls all weekend!

Book Review - Bright, Shiny Morning

I really enjoyed this book. It is definitely a non-traditional narrative, which is not usually my piece of cake. There are, I think, 5 main narratives, none of them interwoven with any of the others, so it's kind of like reading 5 novellas. And then in between each chapter, there is a one-paragraph page that gives a little snippet of the history of Los Angeles. All of the 5 main narratives are about people living in Los Angeles. There are also intermittent pages of descriptive stuff, like all of the freeways in Los Angeles, or 100 Good Things You Never Knew about Los Angeles, stuff like that.

I'm not very good at explaining just why a particular book captivates me (just ask Mrs. Verzier, my 4th grade reading teacher -- I love reading books, but I'm hopeless at book reports!). But anyway, this book was very good. The writing style is odd... doesn't use a lot of punctuation. More than once I had to go back and re-read a sentence as its meaning could be quite different once you put in the (maybe) intended punctuation.

I do recommend it, though I hesitate to give it highest marks, just because it is so different and that might turn some people off.

Skiing! ... and other stuff

Mama-V got to go skiing today! I had a really fun day. I got to go skiing this morning for a couple hours with my BIL David and my nephew Austin and his friend/cousin? Andrew. Austin is a maniac, going down the hills with so much speed and not too sure he can turn or stop. But he survived the day, and I think the only casualty was a bent pole!

Then I picked up the littles and we had a nice PB&J lunch. I spent a big chunk of the afternoon resolving an issue I've been having with burning backups of the kids' DVDs. I think I finally got that worked out.

And finally, I hooked up my new photo printer and made my first print. I printed out a nice, big, glossy 8x10 of this shot I took of K-Wiggles at lunch:


You KNOW how hard it is to get a good photo of K-Wiggles!



Usually I get a lot of this kind of stuff...

Cheese!


Funny faces?



You want to what?


Oh, SMILE?!



So you can imagine how impressed I was that I actually got a second good shot of K-Wiggles today at lunch:




Haven't had time to edit these yet (except for the first one, the one I printed) but I'm excited to have the printer working and some prints to make and frame and put up around the house.

Karate

Miss-D had karate again today. She seems to be really enjoying karate. Sometimes she gets a little crazy in class and doesn't pay attention, which is a little unusual for her! But most of the time, she's working pretty hard. We don't do much practicing at home, and she only goes once a week for 1/2 an hour, but she does seem to be "getting" some of the moves and things.

For now, all I care about is that she enjoys it. Oh, and her teachers do a great job of making the parents happy -- sending all the kids out to their parents at the end of class to give them a great big hug and say "I love you!" And the first two rules of karate are: 1. Always obey your parents. and 2. Always clean your room before you're asked.

We're still working on "living" rules 1 and 2!

Working, working, working

Today and yesterday, I spent most of the day in a deposition. I wish I could tell you anything interesting about this deposition, but I can't. Nothing interesting happened. The witness decided that she didn't know anything about anything. This isn't necessarily a problem, except that rather than asking about the universe of things she DID know, we had to spend two days nailing down the entire universe of things she DIDN'T know. Takes longer. And is definitely far more boring.

So there. Now those of you who wonder what I do for a "living" (besides raising my three kids) just got a little window onto my working world.

Yep, that's it.

Friends in town.

We had visitors this weekend. The R's are a family from Steamboat Springs, CO -- Carrie & Tony and their three girls, Melissa, Lauren & Olivia. They are a crazy skiing family, just like we will be again someday (once we get all the kids skiing!). The funny thing about the R's is that their Melissa is a singleton and their Lauren & Olivia are twins (they are ID, whereas ours are fraternal, but still!). Melissa is about 25 months older than Lauren & Olivia, just like Miss D is 19 months older than M-Moo and K-Wiggles. Sounds familiar, huh?

Of course, the R's are a fast-forward vision of life in the future for us, because their girls are about 6 years older than ours! Thus, we love having them come to visit, so we can see how much easier our life is going to get as the girls get older. On the other hand, I'm not so much looking forward to getting a preview of life with three teenage girls here in just a couple years! Oh well.

Anyway, the R-girls are members of the Steamboat Springs Women's Ski Jumping Club (ok, tha'ts probably not the name, but it's close). They do ski jumping! We have a ski jump here in Park City. In case you didn't know, there are not a whole lot of ski jumps in the U.S. Heck, there are only six or so towns in North America with ski jumps -- Park City, Steamboat, Lake Placid, Calgary, Vancouver, and one bizarre on in Michigan where the skiing hall of fame is.

So the R's come here to Park City twice a year for ski jumping competitions. And they stay here with us. It really is fun to see them when they come (and sometimes they come in the summer on their way to California or other parts).

Every time they come, I vow I will take a bunch of pictures, 'cuz no matter the fact that they've been here at least 5 times or more, I have not a single picture! This time I even got my camera out and left it on the bar in the living room to be sure I took pictures.

But no. Not a single picture.

Luckily, Carrie snapped one...

Olivia, Keegan, Melissa, playing on the rocker! That's it, but at least it's proof they were here!

Happy Football Day!

Today, I got a nap (yay!) and went to G'pa Larry's to watch football. Nothing much exciting to report, but boy did I have a good day!

Daddy-J took the girls out to make a special surprise, but I can't tell you what it was yet! I can say that it turned out awesome!

Skiing success.

Two skiing successes today. First, Miss-D had her first day of ski school. She was on the hill from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. She was one tired kid at the end of the day, but her coach said she did great! He asked us to put some wax on her skis, as she was lagging her two companions on the flats, but other than that, they rode the beginner chair the whole day! Even more important, she said she had fun and can't wait for next week! Yay!

Then, Mama-V got to try out her new skis today. They are short, quick, and like to go fast, but they still did well in powder/crud and making big turns too. They will take a little getting used to, but I like them!

Now to get the powder boards mounted and find a powder day to go skiing.

New skis for Mama!

Some may know that all our skis (ok, all the skis we were currently skiing) got stolen out of our ski locker over the summer. After haggling with the insurance company (who keeps receipts for skis bought at a ski swap over two years ago?!), we finally got money to go out and purchase new gear.

My two pairs of brand-spanking new direct-from-the-factory-rep skis arrived today!



First up, the Volkl Attiva Fuego:

Aren't they purty? These are supposed to be my "all-mountain" ski, the ski I will ski most of the time, good for light powder, crud, bumps, and groomers. They are a step up from what I was skiing last year, and I'm excited to try them out!


And for powder days:

I think these ones are super cool-looking too! These are my fat skis, for floating on deep powder days (at least I hope so!). I've never had a real powder board before, so I'm looking forward to getting some real snow this year and getting out in it to test these babies out.

We got some nice Marker-AT bindings, which means your boot locks into the binding for when you're skiing, but you can unlock your heel for when you want to go hiking up the hill, in the back-country or even just at the gates inside the resort.

Anyway, I've never had brand-spanking new this-year's skis before, so I'm pretty excited.

Hope I get some ski days in soon! If nothing else, I'll be taking both pairs to Jackson Hole next weekend for our little ski-getaway with some friends.

Hooray for Carpools!

Ok, so this is a total "fluff" post, just about some random things going on in my and the girls' lives. Most of you may know that my kids started in Montessori somewhere between 18 months and 2 years. This means Miss D has officially been in "school" for 3.5 years now. All this time, she's had a nice little 9-12 schedule, giving me just a little break from the "joy" that is full-time SAH parenting ("loving every minute of it" -- hmmph).

Anyway, Miss D has been begging, pleading, whining, crying, cajoling and pretty much doing every other annoying thing she can think of for at least the past couple of months trying to get me to send her to "lunch bunch." Let me explain. Our school has a toddler program. It's for kids 18 months to 3 years old. It's strictly 9-12. Some go M-W-F, others go T-Th, and a few go M-T-W-Th-F.

The next level up is called early childhood. This is for kids aged 3-6 years old. It essentially goes from pre-school through kindergarten. In the early childhood classroom, there is the standard 9-12, they go either M-T-W-Th-F or (new this year, yay!), M-T-W-Th. Then there are two more programs in the afternoon: enrichment and elementary prep. These run until 3:00 p.m. Any kid can sign up for the all-day option. Depending on whether they "have their workbook" (which is something they get when the teacher decides they're ready to do more writing and reading than they do with the regular classroom materials) determines whether they are in "enrichment" or "elementary prep." It's the same montessori stuff, just a little more advanced lessons in the elementary prep, getting them ready to enter first grade.

So anyway, at about 11:30, the kids in each early childhood class at our school (we have two classes) split into "lunch bunchers" and "home teamers." Home Teamers are the kids who go home at noon, whereas Lunch Bunchers are the kids who go eat lunch and then go to enrichment or elementary prep for the afternoon. Makes sense, right?

Miss D has been asking me for months (actually, now that I think of it, she started asking me last year) "why can't I go to lunch bunch?" Last year, I asked her what she thought lunch bunch was, and she couldn't tell me. So she switched to asking why her friend "Sydney" couldn't be a home teamer -- obviously had more to do with wanting to stay and play with her friend.

This year, she got a little wiser and figured out what she wanted to do as a Lunch Buncher. "Mama" she says, "I want to go to lunch bunch so I can work on my workbook." Ok, that sounds good. So I told her that if she committed to do 2 pages of her workbook every day, I would send her to lunch bunch.

She did pretty well, I have to say, so this past Tuesday she started lunch bunch.

What does this have to do with carpools, you ask? (No, I know, you didn't, but it was a nice transition, huh?). Well, two days of doing the "drop-off-at-9-pick-up-at-12-pick-up-again-at-3" and I was about ready to drop kick the lunch bunch thing. I mean seriously, by the time I drop off at 9:00 and get back to the house to work, I have about 2 hours before I have to leave again. It's worse in the afternoon. By the time I pick up the littles, get them herded into the car, home, fed lunch, I have maybe 1.5 hours before I have to leave to pick up Miss D. Ok, this sucks!

Enter Jackie, Carmen, and Anna. Carmen is Miss D's friend in school. Jackie, her mom. Anna, her little sister. Carmen is a Lunch Buncher. Anna is in the toddler class. Jackie, Carmen, and Anna live sort of in the same direction from the school as we do. Jackie is doing the same dumb drop-off-pick-up-pick-up-again routine that I'm doing (mind you, she's been doing it since September!).

So today I called Jackie and said, "Hey, why don't we switch off weeks picking up the big girls at school?" That way, one week I have to go back at 3:00 and pick up Denali and Carmen and drop Carmen at her house, which isn't that much worse than what I have to do already. But the OTHER week, I get to stay home and work from 1:00 when I get the littles fed their lunch until about 5:00 when Big Carmen (that's our housekeeper/nanny -- I LOVE HER -- but that's another post) goes home. Heaven?!

Ok, so little things make me happy these days. I still can't imagine what it will be like in September when the littles become Lunch Bunchers and I have all three of them in school from 9:00 to 3:00. It will be weird. Thank goodness they are still doing the M-T-W-Th option next year. I love not having to go anywhere on Fridays. Turns out we usually go on a big field trip just me and the girls, but it's so nice having it be our choice!

Wow, that one got long. If anybody actually read this far, you can have some of the shrimp and sausage gumbo I made for dinner tonight. Yummy!

"Indian Cauliflower Curry" and "Shrimp Sausage Gumbo"

I went on a cooking rampage this week. Well, not really. I ripped a few pages of "One Dish Supper Recipes" out of Good Housekeeping, made a grocery list, bought the stuff on the list, and actually made the recipes. Amazingly, they both turned out really well.

The Indian Cauliflower Curry was amazing. Even more amazing was the fact that both M-Moo and K-Wiggles really liked it. They ate half of mine the night I made it, and then tonight they ate a whole bowl each for their dinner. They ASKED for it. So cute!

For once, I made it pretty much exactly according to the recipe. Weird, I know, but it turned out well.



The Shrimp Sausage Gumbo was one that Daddy-J picked out. I'm not a huge gumbo eater (I don't think I've ever ordered it and I know I've never made it) so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Again, I followed the recipe pretty much exactly (wow, I can't get over how strange that is for me). And again, it turned out fantastic. Daddy-J said he thought it was one of the best gumbo's he's ever had. And he orders gumbo when we go out fairly often.

The kicker for me: it was even better the second day. I'm not a huge fan of green peppers and it was a little overwhelmingly green-peppery for me the first day. But after sitting for a day, the flavors melded and wowee was it yummy!

Anyway, I'm always looking for new ideas and I think both of these will make it into our permanent rotation.

Daddy love

Hair Do's

So I readily admit that I am no great shakes when it comes to doing hair. My daughter, Miss D, however, has been blessed with abundant, beautiful, gorgeous hair. Seriously, if this girl ever comes to me and tells me she hates her hair -- ever, just once! -- I will take her in and shave her head! Is it ok for me to be jealous of my daughter's hair?

Ok, enough comments have been made over her short 4.75 years on the planet that this child KNOWS she has gorgeous hair.

For Christmas, she asked Santa to bring Mama-V a book on doing hair! Can you imagine?

Luckily, Santa is one cool dude, and he found the above book -- fabulous hair -- that is geared toward the tween set and has lots of fun hair do's that don't seem to require 8 hands and a bunch of styling assistants to accomplish.

So Sunday was our first attempt at doing one of the styles from the book. Miss D chose the "Sporty Pony," which I approved because it didn't seem too hard. After gathering some tools (thanks Daddy-J for going out to the garage in a blizzard to find us a spray bottle!), and wetting and brushing the hair, we managed to get an approximation of what was in the book:


Not bad for a first attempt. Miss D was happy with it, and she spent the afternoon with G'Pa Larry and her hair was still mostly out of her face when she got home. Mission accomplished.

Oh no no no, not so fast. Of course, the Littles wanted in on the action. This despite the fact that M-Moo has been "blessed" with the finest, straightest, wispiest hair on the planet, and the fact that K-Wiggles absolutely detests having her hair done.

Ok, so into the Lion's den I go.

First, I create this approximation of "Sporty Ponytail" for M-Moo:


Not bad, and she left the ponytails in all day, which she usually doesn't do. I usually find her ripping the ponytail holders (and a bunch of her hair -- maybe that's why it's so thin) out of her head about 15 minutes after I painstakingly (and painfully?) put them in. Argh!

So things were going well, but of course K-Wiggles wanted hers done too. This is where I got a little cocky. I decided to try something called "Mini-Knots." The idea was to make three sections, pony them, then twist and tie into a knot. Cute, right? The picture was cute.

Well, this is what poor K-Wiggles wound up with:

I'll spare you the frontal version... she looks like somebody screwed pigs' tails onto the top of her head. Mind you, she thought it was darned cute and left it in all day. And she was so excited about doing it that she barely fussed at all while I was combing and gel'ing and ponytailing and twisting and bobby pinning.

I realized the full folly of poor K-Wiggles' hair do when we took it out later that night....














Wait for it .....
















Ok, here ya go:


Is it just me, or does this look like one of Nick Nolte's mug shots?


Yep, they could be cousins, huh?! Weird.