Pepper Paints

Checking In & Checking Out

Broken humerus snowboarding with friends today.

Lucky he had a helmet on!

Bad timing!

We are leaving for an Unschoolers Conference at a water park for a few days, we have a quick ski trip planned, he has several circus performances coming up, helping out with a music video in the girls breakdancing class, and he and Joe were going to Jackson Hole for snowboarding and snowmobiling. (which may still be possible if he heals in a timely manner).

Ginger is sick and I spent most of the day at the hospital with Jake,  so packing and shopping for our trip is not happening. So, I will be cramming in what I can tomorrow and then off for a few days of R&R. I’ll be back next week, hopefully with better news. Or at least I’ll be well rested.

Shaving Cream

My sensory loving kids love the mess that shaving cream can become!  We started off with cookie trays turned upside down for trays and a squirt of shaving cream.  Then I added a bit of tempra for color.

Then we placed a piece of finger paint paper over the top to make a print.  Freezer paper works well too.

Then it the shaving cream started covering feet and legs..

At this point I went in to finish dinner and took the camera with me.  I could hear them squealing with delight through the kitchen window and when I came back out they were completely white!  All except for eye balls.  I didn’t get a final shot but I am sure you can imagine the sight.  A quick dip in the baby pool and it was all gone!  Before bed tonight Ginger told me next time she wants me to put grubby clothes on and have a shaving cream fight with them.

Tonight Joe and I attended the Opening Reception for the Fine Arts Exhibit of The Ohio State Fair.  One of my photographs was accepted in the show.  I felt so proud to be brushing elbows and guzzling all the free local wine we could with the other artists!  If you are local and are planning on attending the Fair-check out all the great art in the Fine Arts building.  My photo is on the back wall in the case.  You can even purchase it!

4th of July Fun

I really wanted to make a flicker flash badge and post it in this spot but apparently wordpress won’t let me-so this is my homemade version with out the cool flashness!

Yesterday was a  very s l o w day.  My kids had post party meltdowns, all three of them-they are so sad that is all over until next year.   My Mom came for dinner so we BBQ’d and ate cake under the big top again.  Today the tent will come down, the tables and chairs all put away,  and it will look quiet and once more.   Note that I said “look” quiet-we are not really a quiet bunch.

Today I also get to drop my fair entry off.  One of my photos made it into the Ohio State Fair fine arts exhibit.  I am sooo dang proud.  I remember walking through the exhibit the last few years really wishing to participate.  Last year I made a verbal commitment to Joe to enter.  And I am so glad I did.  I know I posted a while back about encouragement from friends, and I just wanted to thank Abby again for encouraging me!!

My big kids will be at circus camp for the next week-Jake the next 2-so the crafty posts may be sparse.  Ginger is my easy going gal so I plan to  drag her round on some early morning photo adventures this week.

I Have No Spine

I am spineless! I may talk big and and loud but when it comes down to confrontation and conflict…well I shrink in the face of it. A couple of Saturdays ago I ran into a friend with very high “organic and healthy standards” at our Farmer’s Market. Her kids were shoveling delicious strawberries into their mouths hand over fist. I asked her if they were organic and she said when she asked the farmer he told her they do not spray and that they were as close to organic as you could get without being certified. Well, if that was good enough for my friend, Sheri, this was good enough for me! I even went a step further and asked for their card and directions so that I could go and pick these “organic” strawberries for $2/lb.

And pick we did! When Sheri saw my blog post she inquired where we picked such delicious looking strawberries and I told her from the Farmer at the Farmer’s Market! Well, good Mom that she is, she called and asked a few more questions and it turns out that those strawberries aren’t organic at all. They spray fungicide and insecticide and my kids and I, as well as my friends, all ate the berries straight out of the chemical patch! Ughh!!!

So my plan was to catch that farmer in a lie this morning and yell at him with all my motherly madness. But when Abby asked them if their berries were sprayed they said, “Yes.” They were honest. With that, my fur settled down and I walked away with my tail between my legs. I couldn’t say anything because well… after all my “no spray mentality” was hear say. Although I know he lied to Sheri, well he didn’t directly lie to me. At least that’s my spineless excuse for not roughing him up. So, sorry Abby for not giving you a good blog post full of blood and gore. Maybe next week. Or in my case, when I grow a spine.

But hear were some of todays highlights

I was so excited to take this and 40 other photos of these fish in a bowl that I have no idea what they were doing at the Market! Besides looking pretty!

A brass band was visiting this week

And here is what I hauled home this week!

I am pretty sure this weeks quarter recipe will be an excellent beet and cumin recipe that Joe and I love! So stay tuned.

We Have A Winner!!!!!!!!!!

Insert drum roll…………………………………….

And look what she won!!!!

James Cooter the cat not included!

Thanks for all the great comments!  This was fun, maybe we can do it again soon-even before post 200!

Yesterday was a day fit for water!

Molly noticed the rainbow and of course, I ran for my camera!  I took about a hundred photos!!

Later in the day we headed to some water fountains to play with some friends.

There was a bigger fountain located on the other side of the mall.  The teenagers led the tweens over there like ducks in a row.  Jake was laughing so hard he could barely keep up!

Then it was off to Thursday potluck.

I need to make another pot of Joe-it’s been a slow morning!!  I need more caffeine to get me moving today.  There is some painting on the agenda for this afternoon.

Nasty Neighbor!

WARNING REALLY LONG RANT!!

We have lived in our house for about 4 1/2 years.  We fell in love with the huge yard and the fact that a bike path and 13 acre park are in our back yard.  The house itself is OK, actually more than OK, but all those quirky things that surprised us at the open house are the things that drive me crazy about this house now.  But really we bought for the yard!  We were familiar with the neighborhood as we were only moving about a mile or so north-west of our old house.

We moved from a smaller house and yard on a street with stay at home moms and kids running wild.  We loved our neighborhood and our neighbors; block parties in the summer, Oktoberfest in the fall, a progressive holiday dinner in the winter.  It is what this little pocket of a city we live in is all about.  I assumed all of Clintonville was like this.   Boy was I wrong!

Within the first week of moving, our single, lady neighbor was full of questions, and not the kind of get to know you questions you usually ask new neighbors.  More along the lines of; what are you building?  Will that dog kennel smell?  Can you move that rabbit hutch that is on your side of the fence that I can’t even see but my only child, I mean dog can smell and it is making him upset?  Can you not stack your wood so high, it scares my child, I mean dog.  Later that week, my mom and her dog were visiting and Sammy the dog was chained up out front in our shady front yard when my nosey neighbor came over and yelled at my Mom for leaving the dog chained up outside all day.  Hmm, did I mention my mom was just visiting.  “What is her name?”, I asked my husband.  Oh well I guess there’s plenty of time for that, we have only lived here a week.

Then we started getting these funny  letters and valentines addressed to us from our dogs asking us to let them live in a world with out chains.  There was no return address either.  We received letters from the police department warning about our dogs excessive barking.  Hmm, we do live on a park were strangers and strangers with dogs are often walking on the bike path behind our house. Luckily we never had to pay any fines.   We had visits from the dog warden telling us of complaints they received about the way we keep our dogs.   He checked out our kennel and our dogs and  scratched his head at  the complaint.  We also have a gas house on our property that is a small single story building that is an invitation to any 10 year old boy to get on top of and throw walnuts off the roof at his little sister.  That is until a cranky voice told him to get down.  “Who told you to get down? “  “Our crabby neighbor.  What’s her name anyway?”  “I don’t know son.  But we have only lived here a year.”

Later that summer my husband and kids started building a tree house in an area of property that we maintain but technically don’t own.  They set the posts and put the platform up.  The following summer they finished the tree house complete with a front porch to watch baseball games going on in the park as well as fireworks on the 4th of July.  All who passed by were eager to share their childhood tree house stories and admired the craftsmanship and the time my husband and kids spent together working on it.   We hung a  rope and a hammock near by and  it really started to feel like home.  Until that week we received a letter from the park telling us to take the tree house down, a neighbor had complained.  “Who?”  I asked.  They couldn’t tell me but it didn’t matter anyways since I don’t know that  #$%&*! s name anyways.  So down came the tree house.  We salvaged all the pieces and covered it with a tarp for the winter.  We talked about finding a new place to put it, closer to the house and two weeks ago the project began again.

Right in the side yard between our house and the crabby nameless neighbors house!

She was out of town most of that weekend so when she came home and found a large bucket truck idling in what she claims is her front yard and posts about 10 feet in the air looming over her fence-she freaked out!

Once again, She Who Shall Remain Nameless, barked requests and questions our way.  And sure enough the code enforcement man was knocking on my door yesterday.  He asked me some information and took a photo or two and got back to me later in the afternoon with the news that we are in compliance with all tree house building codes.  Sorry, name that I can not bring myself to type, but this is the house that Joe built and we are thinkin’ of painting your side pink and running electricity to it so we can light it up and play music just at the legal level!

Really we have tried to be nice and neighborly.  We know you are bitter and lonely.  We are sorry your Vegas marriage only lasted 1 week.  We tried to help when you were out in the yard, in the pitch black screaming because your only friend, I mean dog, killed the neighbors, sisters cat he was watching.  We showed our concern for your dog when he was gored by a deer while running of leash in the park.  Funny, isn’t there a leash law?   We didn’t make you move your flower bed or garden wall that is on our surveyed property by a good 4 feet.  But this is our neighborhood now.  We will make this yard our own.  Complete with vegetable gardens fruit bushes and trees in that  sunny front part of our yard that you have been cutting for all these years yet we pay the taxes on.  You will move that garden wall to make room for my expanded strawberry patch.  We will put that treehouse up in our very wide side yard and my kids will laugh, scream in delight and run wild with their friends in this north west side of Clintonville.

Happy Birthday Joe!!!

This weekend brought a belated party for Ginger

A celebration for my husbands Birthday

Look Scooooooooooooooott , (in the orange), you made it to pepperpaints!!

And a new member to our family

Welcome James Cooter.  My husband wanted an orange cat for his birthday, so 3 year old James Cooter came home with us today.  That really is his name, not assigned by us but knowing how important it is for an adoptee to keep his name we decided to leave it.  Besides we like it!

Happy Birthday Joe Joe!!