Happy Valentine's Day

Delivering Valentines at Summerfield Retirement Home

Daphne's getting to be an old pro at this
This guy asked if she was married

James?

Predictably hanging back and observing. He made exactly one valentine this year, and was pretty firm about the fact he wanted to keep it. Not that this stopped him from getting what he could out of the deal...
And yet, right before we left, he had a sudden change of....well...heart...
And look what one lucky lady got!
A small but strong Valentine crew

My Funny Valentines

If you're gonna celebrate a Hallmark holiday, it's not a bad way to go.

(Year 1 and Year 2)

Our Penny Play Kitchen

I can't remember if it was my idea or Daphne's to make a play kitchen. Over the years I've come close to buying used ones from Craigslist, and occasionally a nice wooden one has even sat in my "saved for later" shopping cart on Amazon. But I could never bring myself to buy one. They just take up so much space, you never know if the kids would actually use it or it would just sit there.

Then one day I was inspired to (maybe) make one, so I Googled it. But that involved wood, nails, and/or finding an old cabinet to refurbish, etc. A bit out of my league.

But I'll tell you what's solidly in my league. Construction paper, a few brads, and the laminator at work. And general cheapness. I'm all over that.


Daphne liked the stove so much that a few weeks later she wanted to make a sink and dishwasher. She designed the sink and I put it together, and then she did the dishwasher herself (there's a spot in the back for soap too!) Kind of covering up some of the stove burners here, but who cares.

When stuff's in the oven or dishwasher, it just goes under the table. Daphne also mentioned drawing what's cookin' on the oven "glass" with dry-erase makers. We'll have to try that!

Just fold up and stick in the closet when you're done. This also keeps it a "fresh" toy that doesn't just become a piece of furniture that blends in to the background.

Spot o' tea, anyone?

January Happenings - The Series, I Guess

I knew I hadn't done a blog post in awhile. Although I didn't feel I had much to report, I still figured I was due to post something, lest I let "The Ts" wither and die. So I sat down to post. And I decided to call it "January Happenings." Huh. This struck me as strangely familiar. After a quick search of my past posts, I found this.

And thus, a tradition is born!

Let's see, what have we been up to. Weird random stuff mostly.

"Growing" crystal trees,
starting compost piles in the living room,
getting outside when it's not too cold or wet,

organizing (and reorganizing) bowling for 80 or so Presbyterians (again),

sewing summery bags,
and in a strange flurry of domesticity and green-ness, cutting up all the old Gerber burp/diaper cloths and sewing them into "unpaper" towels to try to go "paperless kitchen." Is that gross? Just weird? Anyway, looks like I should have saved some domestic energy to clean that window....
And that's just the photo documented happenings. You can imagine the thrill and and intrigue of the happenings that didn't get photographed.

And on an even more random note, does anyone else have (or had) a 3 year old that does stuff like this (for looonnnggg stretches of time)?


(I'd lost my voice for 4 days, which is why I was whispering. I'm back now.)