so what do YOU do when there's a tornado watch?

You play with bubbles, of course. The humidity was really high, so the bubbles lasted forever. For your information, here is a great bubble solution recipe that I found on the giant bubble wand package:

24 ounces (3 cups) dishwashing liquid (original blue Dawn works best)

3/4 cup corn syrup

12 cups water

Mix and play!

There were tornadoes very close to us, but none in our immediate area. Still under a watch until 8:00 am this morning, with severe thunderstorm warning for the day.

Doctor Who Paper Art!!!

These are just too, too cool! Here is link to the website to print and cut.

As soon as I make one, I'll take a picture and post it :)

i want one

Do they make these Mom-sized? Although, it is kind of creepy for little kids to be riding around in a killing machine. They should make a TARDIS-mobile version.

i wonder if these will work with Legos...

Character Options, who also make Zhu Zhu pets, will be releasing the first ever Doctor Who construction toys this spring. Think Legos or Playmobil style play. I love the little Cyberman...never though a Cyber could actually be cute. The smirk on 11's face is pretty priceless. Wonder if they'll go back and do sets for 10 and 9 as well...

Ilsa, who is my Lego girl, already has these on her wish list.

More cool toys from the London Toy Fair 2011:

we caved...

...and bought a video game player -- we chose a PS3. For YEARS we have said we wouldn't. Neither of us grew up with video games (well, I did win a Nintendo - the grey box that played the original Super Mario Brothers - on Wheel of Fortune in 1991, but rarely used it).

Ingrid and Ilsa are having a blast playing "Super Rub-A-Dub". Leave it to me to find a game based upon rubber duckies. Chad is enjoying shooting at bad guys (too loud for me...I leave the room).

punkin carving

"You didn't tell me you were going to kill it!"

- Linus from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

caramel apple recipe recommendation

If you love caramel, you MUST make this recipe...the caramel is stupendous! You will never look at a plastic-wrapped caramel cube again. I used Honey Crisp apples (of course).

just for fun = how the "up" house could really fly

How Pixar’s Up House Could Really Fly

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this bag is not a toy

When Mommy is sick*, children invent their own games.

They've been going at this for about 15 minutes now.

*This time it is a sinus infection. To the "10 things for which I am thankful" list, I add an 11th: STRONG antibiotics.

memories, like the corners of my mind....

I was laying awake in bed last night thinking about really random stuff from my childhood. These are some things I remember with fondness...

1. Tang orange "juice", you know, like the astronauts drank. I liked the grape and grapefruit kind, but orange was most authentic.
   


2. Those dessert sticks -- there was vanilla, chocolate, and (horrible) butterscotch. They were individually wrapped, about 3 or 4 inches tall, and kind of tasted like pudding, but were sort of like a really really soft Tootsie Rool. These were cool because again, the astronauts ate them. I can't remember the name. Oh please help me remember!
   


3. Chinese jumpropes -- the springy kind


4. Sunday night church...EVERY Sunday night, and in the summertime, the Jr. High get-togethers like ice cream parties, ice-blocking on hills, playing "Make Me Laugh" and singing around the campfire.
   


5. The candy counter at Meredith's Five & Ten Cent Store. I got to choose a few pieces from jars it was handed over the counter in a little tiny blue bag. I made it last a few days.
   


6. Being the only kid in gradeschool with plastic lunchboxes every year...my Dad was a plastics engineer. I had a yellow Snoopy lunchbox with a blue thermos that leaked. One year I had an orange Fat Albert lunchbox with a thermos that leaked.
   


7. When fruit leather first appeared at the grocery store, and it actually was made from fruit.



8. Going to Grandma's house. I miss her so much.



9. My parent's big honkin' 1973 Buick Riviera. I used to bring my sleeping bag on long trips and stretch out completely in the back, just like I was in bed.
   


10. Iowa Test of Basic Skills week at school. It meant one thing to me: GUM in the classroom!
    


11. Grape Bubble Yum.
    


12. Bazooka gum.
    


13. Fruit Stripe gum.
    


14. Mom trying to convince me that sugarless Trident fruit flavored gum (the kind in the orange package) tasted just as good as 8, 9, and 10.
    


15. Riding lime green Free Spirit (my Mom worked at Sears) banana seat bike without a helmet. (I know, I know, I know...of course I know after Chad's accident, but those were carefree days, weren't they?)



16. Freakies cereal.



17. For that matter, cereal with GOOD prizes at the bottom of the box.
    


18. "Banana Splits Adventure Hour" (the TV show) -- "Danger Island" (Uh oh, Chongo!"), "New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (I wanted to be Becky), and all of those other Sid & Marty Krofft shows like "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters", "The Boogaloos", "Land of the Lost", "Dr. Shrinker", "Electra Woman & Dyna Girl" (I always had to be the older, less cute EW, because my alpha best friend Lowell demanded that she be DG).

a roll o' fun

Cheap entertainment rules! This was a good 1 hour bit of fun. Are these the Two Towers, and if so, which girl is Sam and which girl is Frodo? The paper towels were reconfigured into a castle, a boat and a dragon's cave.

silly mommy

Anyone out there watch -- ahem -- put on "Charlie & Lola" for their little ones? If not, "it's worth giving it a go." It's a really clever animated children's series from the UK, based upon the series of children's books by Lauren Childs of the same name (she also wrote the "Clarice Bean" book series).


Anywayz....Ingy has loved it since she was almost 3, when it used to be on Playhouse Disney (I don't know if it's still on because, well, see my rant a few weeks ago). There is a character that the children like to watch at the movies and read in comics. For 3 years now, I have thought his name was "Fat Cat." Ingrid gently corrected me today, "No Mommy, he's BAT Cat." I had to prove it for myself, so I turned on the subtitles. I think it's time to get a hearing test.



PS Lauren Childs' website is really clever! Check it out...

wagon train 2

The train has grown to include an engine, a passenger car, a boxcar and a caboose. It took a little bit of assistance to turn the thing around.

Ingrid said goodbye to her best friend here in Tucson, Faith. Her family is moving this week. The part of military life we just don't love: saying goodbyes too often.

I took Ingrid and Ilsa to The Mall aka, the Temple of Doom, yesterday after church for Santa pictures. We're not a Santa family per se, but we have done this every year since Ingrid was a baby. The pictures are often humorous and do create a sense of continuity for the girls. This year, Ilsa decided, "NO!" She ran away crying. I think she has the right idea. To paraphrase Linus, "That's not what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Finally, a new Ingridism: Hippobottomus - a big bottom. Maybe she has seen me eating too many Christmas cookies.

wagon train

This little activity lasted about an hour. Fun stuff.

candy, candy, here we come!

To quote our neighbor upon seeing the girls, "Steph, you've got your hands full tonight!" It was like two racehorses at the gate...Mama, is time to go yet? Is it now? What about now? (And this was at 4:00.)

performance art

Watch this...you won't be disappointed...it'll put a smile on your face!