Parties, Plants, and Poetry

Hey Everyone!

We've been busy.  

First of all, St. Patrick's Day was a blast.  We kicked off the weekend with eating green.

Green marshmallow pancakes....they look a little moon cratered.

Gooseberry Jam

Green Apple

Asparagus

Ira pretending his asparagus in a dragon tongue

Green Smoothie

We had a mini St. Patrick's Day Party with our preschool coop friends at our place with a clover hunt and counting activity, a pin punch G for Green, and a Rainbow assembly/letter clue activity.  Oh! And of course Irish dancing!  I've decided that with the origin of the holiday, we'll celebrate St. Patrick's day, not only as Irish pride day, but also as International Missionary Appreciation Day.  So, we had the Elders over for dinner with a recent member friend for Corned Beef, Cabbage, and (none-Key) Lime Pie.  Yum!

We are overly ready for Spring.  It's still pretty cold here, and today we got a little snow and hail.  Pleeeaaaaase Spring! Cooooooome!  

In order to somehow summon the season, we've started growing things inside.

Anthony and Ira planted some flowers and vegetables together. 

 Day 1

Notice the snow on the bushes outside.

Day 3

Beginning to show already! Ira wanted to check on them about 4 times a day.

Oh...these boys make me smile.

Day 7!

I don't know what it is.  I've been wanting to throw a Beatnik Party for months!  It probably has to do with my conformist behavior lately.  You know...I'm pushing 30, have a mini-van and house with vinyl siding.  I was just craving a little dose of counter-culture I guess.  

Here's a copy of the e-vite.  

Hey Cool Cats, 

  If you dig poetry reading and black turtlenecks, you are in luck.  Come hang with us for some pre-hippie counter culture.  Here are some tips to enjoy the evening to the max.

 

1. Bring a poem to read.  Serious or humorous, short or long, self composed or well known.

2. Wear some black, maybe a beret or sunglasses.  Make it comfortable, something you can play "interpretive dance charades" in, and participate in finger painting some abstract expressionism. 

3. Be ready to sit on the floor...not only because it seems beatniky, but also because we still don't really have furniture.

4. Bringing your kids is a-o.k.  We'll put on a movie, or let them run wild, or let them participate reading an excerpt from Dr. Seuss. 

5. We'll sip hot chocolate, and have a couple of finger foods ready.  If you feel like bringing something, go for it. 

Also, does anyone have bongo drums, a string bass, or can play jazzy improv trumpet?  Eh, I know.  I thought I'd ask anyway.   

  O.k.  by now this party is probably either sounding really fun, or extremely weird.  If it's the latter, we won't take it personally if you have to "wash your hair" that night.  We'll think of another excuse to hang out soon.  But otherwise we'll see you soon Dady-O!  

  -sharon

p.s.  I only ended up sending this to one rep of your family. Spouses are obviously invited. :) 

Not surprisingly, not everyone was interested in "Interpretive Dance Charades."  But some people were, and it was a blast! Here are some of the poets.

This is one of my good friends who is hard core.  She had her wisdom teeth taken out two days before this, and still came. 

A reading of Billy Collins, one of my favorite poets.

A self composed piece, and commentary on the irony of the situation.

We also had some Calvin and Hobbes, Dr. Seuss, and "Popcorn Popping" recitations.

A poem by Jack Kerouac...actually I think she's "interpretive dancing" the word "think."

 Anthony reading another Collins piece.

 To eat, we had some modern art inspired desserts. 

Peanut Butter Jackson Pollack Brownies.

Piet Mondrian Pound Cake.

 A few people have asked me about the making of the Mondrian cake, so here's a few more images.

Here's the link I used as a guide, only I made 1 1/2 times a Joy of Cooking pound cake recipe.

http://ronnas.blogspot.com/2012/03/step-by-step-mondrian-cake.html

 In other news we've gotten a few things done on the house including finally replacing our ugly chandelier.

Before

After

Ira is a Dragon.  That's right.  Beyond dragon-like and in the actual realm of dragon.  He prowls, scowls, and growls at good friends and complete strangers alike.  But in more pleasant news, he's started eating vegetables!  Two weeks ago, he wouldn't touch anything in the category, and then over night he was suddenly eating broccoli, asparagus, carrots, tomatoes, sugar peas!

 

You get the idea.  It's very happy. 

He's started to dress himself, and likes to wear his pants like this when he gets the chance.  

Don't ask me why.

Eliot is cute as ever.  He has figured out how to go down stairs, which is good, because he can now make his way up the stairs in no time at all.  He really likes to use his bib to play peak-a-boo, loves to play with Ira, and is almost sleeping through the night.  Hallelujah! 

Anthony is making yogurt again!  This time with whole milk and a yogurt maker, which is about a million times better than our old powdered milk and crock pot method.  The kids will eat it without even adding honey or jam, just plain, delicious creaminess.  Ant's been pretty busy with work, but enjoying it.  

I've finally gotten my vaccines and sent in my visa application for my trip to Africa, and am chipping away at my huge long list of fun house and kid projects.  

Peace out and have a good week everyone!

February

Happy March!

February was a month full of....

 Love.

Valentine's French toast.  Ira has been a huge fan of making valentine's ever since the 14th.  He doesn't seem to care that the holiday is long since gone. 

Here are our little love bugs.  This was after a joyschool lesson I did on lightning bugs.  I love Eliot's face here. 

February began with Anthony gone for a week, and ended with Anthony gone for a week.  I know it could be much worse, but we're still hoping he doesn't have another trip for a while. 

During his first trip, we were lucky to have a visit from cousin James who just moved back to Michigan.  It was nice to have some fresh energy for the boys.  James ran around in circles for at least 20 minutes at a time playing "dinosaur tag" with Ira.  And ever since, Ira will occasional say things like, "Mom, I think you should stop being you and start being James."  

 We've had a healthy amount of snow lately.  Fortunately the electricity only went out for a few seconds at a time. 

And yes, those are Ira's shoes on Eliot. 

Ira helping Mom shovel. 

Ira likes to spray the snow different colors.  This particular day he chose yellow and I was too lazy to explain  to him why this was a disgusting choice.

The major highlight of February was a visit from Anthony's parents and youngest brother Mckay.  

I can't believe how few pictures we took while they were here, especially with the amount of playing we did.  We got a tour of the GM building in Detroit, got the Rouge Ford Factory Tour, went to the Henry Ford Museum, the Children's Hands On Museum, and ate some amazing (not too spicey) Ethiopian food in Ann Arbor.  

They were also able to help us reface our old kitchen cabinets to put in the laundry room.  

Let me rephrase that.  By "help," I mean to say they did all of it.  Mckay and Valine did the refacing, while, Paul, Ant and Mckay hung the cabinets.  I was usually playing with the kids, or taking a nap or something.  

Here are the laundry room results. 

 

Before

During

After

 I'm pretty pumped.  This is the first room in the house that we've "finished," probably because it's tiny and requires no real furniture.  We've prioritized working on the house with the most functional places first (kitchen, laundry room, closets) even if those places aren't really ever seen by anyone but us.  My Mom always says "Beauty follows function."  And bringing order spaces like this feels sooo beautiful to me. 

 Ant was rapidly trying to assemble stuff before he left on his trip to Connecticut.  But while he was gone, I was able to assemble one of these, 

and this, 

and this.  

Yep, I was pretty proud of myself.  It's not easy assembling a bed with a 3 year old "helping" you and a baby crawling all over you trying to eat the screws.  But now Ira finally has a real bed, and Eliot can graduate from the pack-n-play to the crib.  It's kind of a sweet bed.  In a year or so, we can flip it over to make it into a bunk bed for when the boys start sharing a room.

Ira did very well with the transition from 5 adults to 2 kids, to 1 adult to 2 kids last week.  He was pretty demanding and whiny when the Quinns were here...I think still recovering from his cold.  But last week he decided to be a helper and was generally very cooperative.  He even finally took initiative in the potty arena. He's been "potty trained" for a year, but last week he decided he wanted to do it all: light, t.p. flush, pants pulling, hand washing...it's a really involved process when you break it down!  And he's got it all down pretty well. Woohoo!

Eliot is a doll.  He's usually so mellow I'm afraid he gets neglected sometimes.  He's definitely improving with eating solids the past few days which is awesome.  He's also started biting people for fun.  Not so awesome. 

Anthony has mastered Valentine's day.  He surprised me with a baby sitter so we could go out to dinner and had chocolates and flowers ready for me.  :)  We were also able to get some cheep tickets with some friends to go to a Pistons (Detroit's Basketball team) game.  Fun stuff.  

Alright, bedtime.  Peace out all!