Build-A-Bear Mania

Grandpa Tractor and Grandma Harbor came over last Saturday evening. Grandpa helped to fix the bathroom door that had to be broken last week when Ezra locked himself in there. He had lots of help with the fixing.

Now, on to the reason for this post...
Since before Ezra was born, Grandma Harbor has been waiting to take someone to Build-a-Bear workshop. For Ezra's 3rd birthday he got to go with her (and grandpa)! His birthday is not until Thursday, but this has been one long week of celebrating.
Here we go!

Making the decision about which type of bear to choose. Yes, I realize that is a dinosaur he's holding in the above picture. Most of the choices were bears, but not all.

Hmmmm...hard decision.

Sorry Miss Kine, not your turn tonight. But she had fun being part of the experience!

Time to fill the bear with his stuffing.

Checking it to see if it has enough stuffing.

Washing the freshly stuffed and stitched bear.

More decisions. How shall we dress the bear? First he went for a fire fighter uniform. Then he was distracted by a hard hat. We searched for clothes to go with it. Uncle Heffay insisted we incorporate the wife beater top.

Dressing the bear in his construction worker outfit.

"I want my bear to have theeeeese!"

Uncle Heffay showing the dressed bear.

Ezra's favorite part was the "newborn" bear shower. He kept taking all the accessories back there to "wash" them. His other favorite part was the accessories. He wanted his bear to have everything. He finally settled on a hockey stick and puck and a skateboard with flames for his bear to play with.

The Build-a-Bear Bear Promise posted above the cashier. Just before checking out, the bear is taken to a kiosk to have his "birth certificate" printed out. Ezra got to name his own bear. When asked for the name, with full assurance he requested to name his bear "Petunia". So, Petunia he is. Petunia the construction worker, hockey playing, skate boarding bear!

Daddy and Ezra waiting in the checkout line with the finished Petunia.

Petunia is finally finished. He's boxed in his home and ready to go with Ezra to the new play area at the mall. They ended up staying there for an hour and half. One tired boy and one tired bear were taken home for a good night's rest! Thank you, thank you, thank you for a special birthday present Grandpa Tractor and Grandma Harbor!

Photo Shoot

A month and a half ago we had belated one year photos of Caroline and preemptive three year photos of Ezra taken by our friend Constantin. It was a gorgeous fall day and the backdrop of our historic train station and surrounding area was radiant. Caroline fussed and cried and made poor Constantin work for his money. He did a lovely job of capturing all the non-smiles she gave him. Ezra cooperated--as he always does for photos. I've been fighting the Internet all day to upload some of these huge files to blogger. I'm losing the battle. But I can at least give a small sample of some of the shots. Maybe some other day I'll be able to upload more. Enjoy.

These are the un-cropped versions. Now we have to decide which to print and make a trip to Costco. What a blessing to have so many photos of the little people we love more than life itself. Thank you Lord!

Why dads are SO much cooler!

Here is our last project. Craft-stick snowflakes. They are not that exciting. But the kids still have fun with them. Simply glue four craft sticks into the shape of a star. Give the kids some glue, glitter, etc. and let 'em go to town.

Finished products can be hung with string from the ceiling or on a Christmas tree. Alternately, attach a magnet to the back and hang it on the fridge. They also can be written on and used in place of a card in a cookie basket or other holiday gift. Quite simple, short time filler, minimal materials.


Now on to the title. Dads will always be cooler than moms. They come home from work ready for some fun. They are sick of adults and ready for the kids. They are not yelling at the children, they are willing to be horsies, readers, silly...and most important lately--tent/fort builders!

Notice the doll and animal collection. They set up shop for the long haul!

Peek-a-boo!

Mr. Cool himself. Boy do these kids love their "dadda!" He is asked after all day long. When told that he is at work first thing in the morning they must search the whole house just in case I am lying. He is greeted with hugs, kisses, slobber and many, many, many words when he comes home. And he continues to come home...thank you!

After tents, diaper boxes were all the rage. Notice diapers are the only apparel needed for this kind of play.

The next day Caroline continued the box play. They both have a nasty cold and cough and are awake often at night, not napping well and feeling pretty rotten. This means she's usually pretty cranky. But I stuffed her in the box with her dolls, blanky and a coupla pillows and she got cozy, drowsy and happy. She even let me take out her pa-pa for one picture.

She got progressively more relaxed...

And then cried until I held her in my arms and rocked her to sleep. I was able to leave her on the couch to snooze.

Nothing sweeter to a mommy's eyes.

And while she snoozed, I was able to finish this...

Buttermilk-lemon pie with a meringue topping. It's an old Taste of Home recipe that I've liked for many years. I am a meringue failure. This topping used to be runny as all get-out. Any cookies I tried to make had to be scraped off the cookie sheet and transferred straight to the trash. Then my mom clued me in to a little secret. Use the kitchen aid mixer instead of my hand beaters. Simple. Wonderful. The answer! Caroline later got into the fridge with a little help from Ezra and stuck her hand into the meringue taking out a huge handful. Here's another little secret--it holds little girls hair in place better than any gel ever made : )

Also, that hour snooze on the couch ended when Ezra shouted at her until she awoke and said sweetly, "she awake mama, see, her eyes is open." She never napped again that day. Grrrr...
I have so much more to say. None of it important. Caroline finally stopped crying. Ezra was put into bed for the 10th and final time. And Tadd walked in the door after a rare 13 hour day. Bed is calling...

Comfort

When it's low 40's and raining around here, I feel the need for a comfort post! Below are some items that bring me great comfort. Some of them I use all year long. Others are just for the winter season.
And now, my first of many plugs for Trader Joe's. Someday I'll dedicate a post to "my favorite Trader Joe's items" and have some sort of contest for those delicious items. For today, I bring you: "Trader Joe's Organic Creamy Tomato Soup". This was introduced to me by my dear sister-in-law down south a couple of years ago. I don't think she even knows the love affair she sparked! I was never a huge tomato soup fan as a child. It was simply something to dip my grilled cheese in. But now--oooh, la, la. I dream about it. Creamy, smooth and delicious. These little boxes of heaven are rarely in stock at TJ's. You have to arrive before 11 AM, or get there right as the box boy is unpacking a new box if you want to get some. Last week Tadd was able to score me 6 boxes--he left one lone box for some poor woman like me who was having a craving. Haha. As a bonus, Ezra loves this soup and frequently licks his bowl to make sure and enjoy every last drop. If you have a TJ's near you, try some! If not...Costco makes a pretty good version.


Ahhh, the "things" that bring me the most comfort of all. This picture didn't turn out the way I wanted, but it was the only one that would take before the shutter clicked forever closed and the battery died.


A few seasonal lovelies. Sorry about the poor picture quality and lighting. I'm still figuring out the camera (and will be for the rest of my life).


Reminders of that holy night when the greatest Comforter the world will ever know came down from Glory to be a man.

I'm still at loose ends as to what I need to finish this outside display. I had a pine tree in a huge clay pot behind them. But, my dear one decided it needed to move to another empty spot out front. I hear that poinsettias don't like the outdoors in the cold, so that idea was nixed. I'd love any suggestions! As an aside, the sled below was made by a student of mine a few years back and given to me as a holiday gift. He was not an easy student--but he was full of love and seeing this sled always makes me smile. And way up above in the picture below my tomato soup rave is a soup mug also given to me as a holiday gift by a student. It's perfect for heating up a cup of soup in the microwave.

We made the difficult trek in to Michael's and Costco this morning. We purchased LOTS of craft materials and it was all I could do to get Ezra to climb into bed for his nap without doing all the projects first. Upcoming posts should be filled with our results, if I remember to take pictures. Also, I keep looking for an opportunity to take a picture of my fully-clothed little boy...but they're hard to come by. Until next time...enjoy your little comforts in your own home!

Snowmans

Yesterday afternoon we started the winter crafts. Ezra's been begging to do "projects", so I pulled out some ideas from my old classroom. These cotton ball snowmen are fun to make and take minimal materials. The first step is not pictured. On black construction paper trace three graduated circles one on top of each other with white crayon. Next, fill in the circles with glue. It's fun to spread the glue all around with your fingers, like so:

(yes, she ate some)

Next, break up cotton balls and fluff with your fingers. Press the cotton fluff onto the glue in all three circles. My kids hate the feel of cotton as much as I do as evidenced below. We all had a good case of the goosebumps after this step.

The fourth step uses paint in this version of the project. We used tempura paint to add eyes, nose, mouth and arms to the snowman. In an alternate version, you can skip putting cotton on the top circle of the snowman and simply use crayon, marker or pencils to add his face and arms. You can also cut out facial features and body parts from construction paper like we did in my classroom. We love pain in our house and use any excuse to get it out.

Those are eyes all over the snowman in the above picture. Daddy thought the snowman was bleeding.

The final step is to take white crayon and color in snow on the ground and falling from the sky. You can use either white or yellow to add stars and/or clouds to the sky. Both colors show up well on the black paper.

The finished products drying and waiting to be hung on the refrigerator--where all projects should go!

P.S. I know, I know, Ezra rarely has pants on in this blog. He DOES own pants and he does wear them. However, he wears them at times when I don't have the camera out--like in the morning right after he gets dressed and when we go out in public : )

Be Thankful...

...that this is the end of the Thanksgiving posts!


As the vacation drew to its close, some folks had to face reality and homework. Urgh. For Heffay, that meant Paradise Lost. For Brettskis, labs to write up. And for daddy and Ezra, hmmm...I'm not sure what to call the project below. Bonding time, I suppose.

Ezra wanted to add his own touch to the lovely guitar playing man daddy drew.

She won't let go of this look.

The kids heard that multi-tasking is all the rage. And boy are they good at it! Until clean up time arrives...

Miss Car-kine noticed that I had the camera out.

We relaxed, relaxed, relaxed all week in Gig Harbor. Friday morning, my mom and I did get up to go shopping semi-early. We skipped the masses waiting at the doors for opening time and arrived fashionably late to the mall (7:30). We weren't looking for anything in particular, just some dress clothes for Ezra. Good deals were found, however. And back in the Harbor, grandma bought Caroline the cutest little outfit ever and also some little pink Robeez boots. I'll have to post a picture of the outfit some other day. Saturday night the four adults and two toddlers went to the YMCA for a swim. Both kids had a blast and we rounded out the evening with a Mexican food dinner. Talk about full of food and ready for a good night's rest after that. And Sunday afternoon we headed for home and reality.