Category Archives: kiddie-do

littles

Posted in it's cool to school, kiddie-do by

only a very teensy bit of learning has taken place in our household since we began the move A WEEK AGO. pretty much the only thing darla has learned is how to work streaming netflix on her own. and i’m not joking about that. the girl had way too much television while hubster and i were throwing things in boxes.

but

i can’t say that’s all bad. she’s gotten some good viewage these past coupla days. H.R. Pufnstuf and The Littles! the expansion of her imagination from these two programs alone makes it worth it.

i improvised a little lesson the other day during a packing break. we wrote a letter to “the littles living in our house” because darla became concerned that they wouldn’t know we are moving. she helped me with the verbage and got the spelling of her name correct both times. we sounded out other words and all that good stuff. i tried to impart basic letter writing knowledge, etc. i hope to have her help me write out some of these letters i’m promising myself will happen in 2012. gotta get back to the old quill and ink blot instead of just relying on this old magic box.

that’s what darla is calling the computer now. she actually told me “TV is magical” and i died a little inside. eh, sometime you do what you do right?

littles letters

membership

Posted in kiddie-do, Travels by

our cosi membership pulled through for us in yet another city. here’s our morning at the indiana state museum last week. i was loving some hoosier history.

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IMG_15491. robert indiana sculpture

2. gazing upon the old L.S. Ayers holiday display

3. feeling how a gargoyle is carved from indiana limestone

4. loved the indiana art gallery

5. daddy daughter cheeseface

6. getting a curiously strong after lunch mint at Yats. seriously some of the best food indy has to offer is at this restaurant. spicy thai peanut etouffe??!! it was good.

7. momma daughter love

giving good arting

Posted in kiddie-do by

well now i can finally share these projects our girl did for the grandparentals. they’ve been gifted and well received.

this was a nice project for darla. i have to admit i got a little micromanage maniac about the letters in the corner so i drained some of the fun out of it with being crazy but she had a good time with the rest of the canvas.

super simple.

put some stick on letters on a canvas. paint over them. pull them off. fun, personalized art. voila! art school here we come.

DartLA

reusable christmas

Posted in kiddie-do, Run Da House by

every year i make a big deal about saving the wrapping paper and reusing it. and then christmas comes again and i loathe, LOATHE, dragging out that bin of crumply old paper. we seldom seem to use any of what i’ve saved.

so this year, and future years, i’m finding ways around it. we’re reusing materials and re-purposing. we’re not going to wrap any of the presents for the nuclear family. it’s all just going to be sitting out on display on christmas morning just like the good old days. here’s some of what we’ve come up with for this year:

recycle

our main sources have been old nautical charts courtesy of salty sailor mike, discarded darla masterpieces and brown paper prettified by my snowflake obsession. they’re everywhere!!!

repurpose

i was trying to steal this idea from lovely things but i decided to use my snowflakes instead of doilies because we have about 500 coffee filters still to be used. if it doesn’t snow here christmas morning maybe i’ll just throw them all on the front yard.
reuse

i like reusable boxes and bags for christmas but i tried to maximize it up by decorating sturdy boxes in non-specific wrapping. that way they can be used for multiple holidays. does your family sit around on christmas morning and talk about what was put in what same box 20 years ago? mine does. smile.

drawing with dadwatching the master

getting d involved with coloring her own wrapping paper is one of the ideas we need to amp up next year. she wants to be in the center “helping” with everything and this satisfied her slightly. we are tearing off long strips of paper every third day anyway so might as well put it to another use before pitching. yeah, i just admitted to throwing away my child’s art. ya can’t keep it all.

we were all set on boxes, stuffers and tissue paper due to the amount of shopping i did online. for an extra pop of color i tore out pages from old magazines and added them to the stuffing. it feels good to know that we’re only wrapping half as many gifts this year and practically all of our materials are reused or recycled.

next year i’m campaigning for all family members to have an individual basket with their name on it and everyone will just come in and place the unwrapped gifts in respective baskets. think about it….

i will give you all the gift of time. time not spent wrapping gifts.

flashlight self-revelations

Posted in kiddie-do, parenting apparently? by

i guess it’s only natural to become introspective in the dark.

the video quality during this flashlight disco dance session wasn’t the best but the punchline is in the audio anyway. these sessions are therapeutic and entertaining all at once.

*in case you all can’t translate my child as well as i can she says “why do i have to be this way?”

a commons holiday celebration

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, kiddie-do by

we finally figured out how to control our wild child last night: freeze her into submission.

we ventured to the columbus commons holiday fair for the opening night. mainly because of the fireworks. i will go to ANYTHING if fireworks are on the bill. it turned out to be quite a nice family event, even if we were all frozen solid after only an hour. i am yet to be disappointed by anything the columbus commons people have put together. I guess the only disappointment would be the overcrowded food truck fair they had in the summer but you can’t knock people for putting on too successful of an event. and i got my food truck fill last night. momma wins again.

well we got darla down to the fair long enough to ride the carousel, eat off some trucks and see the fireworks before splitting. darla was simply too cold to want to run around too much but despite that she was having a wonderful time. All Columbusites? Columbusans? Columbusonians? yeah i like columbusonians. All Columbusonians should try to check it out this weekend. here’s a schedule. take a looksie.

if you decide to go bring along your own hot beverages. the fair sold out last night and i wish we’d had some lovely hot cocoa to sip as we strolled through the lighted displays. I recommend the carnitas tacos at Mojo Taco truck and mike had the curried chicken fries from Tatohead. one of the tastiest things i’ve had in an aeon.

happy holidays!

homemade holiday decorations DOS

Posted in kiddie-do by

more family craftiness that i now sit back and say… “why did i think this was a good idea?”

we use a sombrero as a tree topper instead of a star or angel. why? i don’t know. it’s what we had handy last year. also, i think the traditions around the mexican christmas seem very fun and lively.

so we use a sombrero.

this year i thought it would be a good idea to hang streamers in festive mexican colors around the house.

it looks like a pinata threw up in here.

but it’s been fun and it’s certainly not something you see anywhere else. probably because it doesn’t really look that tasteful. but we have fun doing it!

it involves a lot of taping and cutting. the end result is rather festive, especially when coupled with a popcorn garland. regular christmas colors can get a little boring after a while.  it’s also making me want to do a homemade pinata for christmas. they do that down in mexico for christmas, yes?

homemade holiday decorations

Posted in kiddie-do by

 

we’ve endeavored to make our own winter wonderland decorations for the house again this year. we add some pieces to our holiday decorations annually but making them is by far my favored option. what better to do while sitting around watching the classic holiday films than string some popcorn garland or cut out snowflakes over breakfast. here’s our first project:

coffee filter snowflakes

this is a throwback to first grade. all that is needed is a package of coffee filters, some white thread, scissors and tape. we’ve had a really good time experimenting with shapes and using it as geometry lessons for darla. “Darla, repeat after me: line of symmetry.”

just fold the suckers up, cut shapes and unfold to see what ya got. we then flatten them under a stack of books for a couple hours before we string them up and affix to the ceiling with packing tape. scotch tape seems to be too wimpy. also, we cut the strings to all different lengths so the falling effect looks more real.

it still gets oohs and aahs from darla.

i thought i was all artistic edward scissorhands until our art school friends came to town and really showed me up. can we say ‘minor in snowflake art?’ actually my friend james did say that. and then the following morning darla said “james is a good snowflaker” over breakfast. soooo, with this activity, not only can you make beautiful holiday decorations AND holiday memories but apparently you can make up new words too.

my friend katie posted a link from michele made me for making snowflakes out of junk mail which i think is brilliant and must be added to our project list. maybe a garland out of these to add to the falling flakes?

doing up a birthday

Posted in kiddie-do by

i’m going through friend withdrawl now that the last of our friendly out-of-town visitors left yesterday. luckily we had a birthday to celebrate yesterday and st. nic’s day to celebrate today. more on darla’s st. nic’s feast day presents to come.

here is some of what darla and i put together for papa man.  unfortunately i forgot to take a picture of the finished product. sadness over that. darla dictated that michael have a pink cake for his birthday and the wonderful father, who is secure in his manhood, of course acquiesced. he even helped darla ice it. hey, a man can do what he wants on his birthday and icing a cake with your girl has to be a fantastic birthday memory. darla also helped create the homemade cake toppers. birthdays are just so much fun with a little one around to help.

 our mirth on his day of birth: