More May Swaps

The theme for the following two ATCs was "French-Inspired".
The floral background is digital scrapbooking paper that I finally learned how to make myself.  This deserves a post of its own.  I've been spending a lot of time lately on PhotoShop Elements.

The postage on this ATC is a copy of a French Valentine's Day stamp.  Apparently France celebrates the holiday by issuing heart-themed postage--how sweet!

 Same swap, slightly different elements.  The title and tabbed Eiffel tower are from a French kids' activity book.

This swap is titled "Text Me!".  The theme was open, as long as text was used somewhere on the card.  Not a problem!  The background did not scan well at all.  It is actually a scrap of lovely foil wrapping paper with a rose motif.

To add a bit more interest, I cut out two copies of the stamped butterfly and used a tiny bit of foam to slightly raise the upper wings. 

 ...and here are just a couple of the PCs I've received recently from PostCrossing.

This one is from the Netherlands.

Netherlands Postage

Happy baby PC from a Russian postcrosser.

Looks like Red Square on the upper stamps, but I don't know what the buildings on the lower stamp are.

If you do, please leave a comment!

A Mother's Day Treasure Hunt

It's a long-standing tradition around here to hide clues and make the Mom  (or Dad, if it's Father's Day) search for the prize.

Clue 1:

So..."number of children I got right away" (5).
The second part had me wondering.  Every other reader in the room seemed to know the answer already and couldn't believe it took me so long to figure it out.

Hmm...could it be that they were in on the planning?  At any rate, I finally came up with the answer.  "K" is the eleventh letter in our 26-letter alphabet.  The clue was "5K".  That could only mean one thing!

Clue #2 was hidden somewhere on the treadmill.

A logic puzzle!  This one was taken from a book and modified to fit members of our family.  Of the six people named, I had to figure out who the "giver" was.

This took me a very, very long time but I loved every minute of it!  Especially when I figured it out.  Sean!  Sean was the giver. 
What did that mean?

I looked from person to person.  "What does it mean?"  Nobody said anything.  I thought of the Amazing Race.  "Sean, do you have something to give me?"
"Yes!  I do," he said.

With that, he handed me Clue #3.

Hey!  I recognize that mouse-brown hair.  That's me, and it looks like I'm teaching school.  I'm writing science stuff on the board.  The next clue was either hidden in somebody's science book, or on the dry erase board.


I hobbled down the steps, limped into the classroom (my left foot is not fond of my couch-to-5K efforts, but I am continuing anyway), screaming happy children following close behind...to find Clue #4 written on the dry erase board.

"cara libro" it said.

Hmmm...must find the Spanish-to-English dictionary.
caro-face, opposite, ...and a whole lot of other words. 
libro I knew was "book".


Opposites Book?  We have several children's books that could fit that description. 

The clue-makers groaned.  They couldn't believe I didn't get it right away.

Not "opposites book?" I queried.  Ummm..."face...book?"
OH!  FACEBOOK.

Off to check my FACEBOOK messages.  There was one.  It was from Holly.

It read something like:   enw tincbae  which I quickly (ha!) deciphered to be "new cabinet".  Off I went.

Inside the new cabinet was Clue #6.  A tough one.  "A stamped clue!"  I was so excited.

What could it mean?  What could it mean?...What could it meaaaaaan?  I began spouting off phrases and words that came to mind. 

"Brain time"
"Thinking time"
"Time to Think"
"The Space-Time Continuum"

They laughed.  They rolled their eyes.  They couldn't believe I hadn't figured it out yet.  Finally they gave me a hint.  "What was the first thing you said?" and eventually I figured out that the design wasn't the clue, but the tools used to make the design was the clue. 

"STAMPS!!!!  The clue is in my stamping room!"  I was giddy.  Once again, I hobbled down the steps and limped into my stamping room, followed closely by six observers.  There it was--Clue #7 nestled safely under the brain stamp.

It was another jumble of letters.

To their delight, and my dismay, this one took way, way longer than it should have to figure out.

 "care mice?"
No.

 "camera?"
No.

 "rice came?"
No.

"crime ace?"
No!



Oh.
"ice cream!!!"

YES--off we all ran, back up the steps to the kitchen.

Clue #8 was set on top of a box of ice cream in the freezer.

Another scrambled word.  I was sure it was "fount", but since that made no sense I had to keep working on it.

Turns out, the word is "futon" and that is where the presents were hidden.  Behind the futon!

Liam wants to make sure I get to the futon.

Hurray!

They gave me wind chimes.  They gave me flowers and chocolate.  They gave me stamped cards, and not-stamped cards.  It was wonderful.

 Later in the day, Liam picked some purple flowers from the lawn for me.

Our center cabinet is waiting on doors and shelves, so this seemed the perfect spot to display the
beautiful cards and flowers.

This was taken before the fun began.  Declan just woke up and is not yet in a treasure hunt mood.

He soon will be.

Thank you, children and Thank you, husband. 
What a memorable and fun day it was!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and Grandmoms and Godmothers!

Overheard in Math

Reading from the Math book: "Use a unit multiplier to convert 8 inches to centimeters."

"What unit multiplier will you use?"

blank stare

"Do you know how many centimeters are in an inch?"

"No."

"Go get a ruler.  Does it have centimeters?"

"No, it only has inches and millimeters."

"But you can get centimeters if you have millimeters, right?"

"Not on this ruler."

Who was it that said homeschoolers are smarter than public schoolers?  (I kid!  I kid!)

It's That Time of Year Again

 Next school year's books have all arrived.  Well, all the ones I ordered arrived.  I usually end up forgetting at least one book (usually more than one) for somebody.

Ordering in April for the upcoming year has worked well for me.  In years past I'd wait until summer to order, but by then it was a much bigger job to remember what everybody needed.

As the kids progress through the grades, we are able to re-use materials, so I'm kind of surprised that the stack of boxes is this high.  Part of the reason is that splitting the purchase across various suppliers saves money.  Rainbow had the best price I found for Saxon math.  Adoremus was running a promo, Emmanuel had cheaper prices for some things, and so on.  I was thankful for the ability to keep multiple browser windows open during all of this ordering!

Now to unpack and organize them.






 We still have a few weeks left of school.  Recently, Laurel drew these doodles during a science lesson.  We're currently learning about the circulatory and respiratory systems.

red blood cells

blood cells delivering "help" to an exhausted heart

Blood cells responding to the heart's increased activity
One little cell seems to have collapsed under the stress.

White blood cell attacking a pathogen

You're Four!

So big in some ways.  So little in others.  Being four means that you are able to express your thoughts so much better now.  You are starting to ask questions like never before--questions like, "Why is Jesus God?"

Until today, for about the past four months, your daily question was "Is TODAY my birthday?!?"  I'd say that no, it wasn't, but that you only had x-number of months or weeks or days to wait.  The day finally came!  You were so pleased.

You woke to find a blue, helium-filled balloon tied to your chair.  You got to pick your lunch (ham, cheese, mayo and liverwurst--on a bun), and your dinner (rigatoni).  Thanks to your big sister Holly, Team Umi-Zoomi greeted you from the top of your cake.

At four, your version of the ABC-song is terribly cute, but not entirely accurate.  You can spell and write your name, and the names of your siblings (with a little help).  Suddenly, you desperately want to go to (home) school like the big kids.

You remind us sternly that you "are not a baby anymore" if anyone refers to you and your younger brother collectively as "the babies".  Dinosaurs are your favorite thing to talk about, draw and pretend to be.  I am still "Mommy Brachiosaurus" much of the time, and you are "Liam Brachiosaurus".  Sean is "triceratops", and Declan is a "micro raptor".  Not sure what the girls are!

You're a happy, sweet boy with curly blonde hair (hair that you wish was not "yellow and curly") that tells me at least once a day, "Mommy, I love you and my Dad".  Whenever you intercept Daddy's morning phonecall, you assure him that when he gets home you will "give (him) a big hug, and a kiss".

Pure sweetness.  That's what you bring.

Happy Birthday!

On the Making of Birthday Cakes, and the Ticking off of a Baby

I had lots to do today, so Declan had to stay strapped in his high chair while I baked a birthday cake for his big brother.

When he discovered the cake, he began to swing his legs back and forth in concert, enabling him to scoot himself over to the counter.

He is the fifth of my children to use this chair and the first to move it virtually wherever he wants to go.

Getting closer...

So close!

 He was almost quicker than I was.















I had to get the ganache going, so while I did this:
















He did this.

When that got old, I gave him some baking utensils to play with.

I managed to get the crumb-coat on.












Then the final coat.  This was looking even yummier now.  The baby is blurry because he is already racing toward the cake.

 He scooted toward it...

















...and again got almost there...

 but this time, his big brother yanked his high chair back.

 He was not happy,

but the birthday boy was very happy indeed.


They can't all be happy at the same time.  It's a fundamental law of parenting.

Turtle ATCs

No end to the swaps.  Actually, I took a few weeks off from swapping to allow time to get other matters under control.

Here the background is a paint-chip thingy (what are those called?) that I lifted from the hardware store.  The turtle's shell is made from marbled paper that I was given ages and ages ago by a stamping friend who was big into hand-marbling paper for a while.  She made some beautiful papers.  Many of the ones she gave me were used as endpapers for sketchbooks, but I could never throw away the scraps. 

This little sea turtle is one reason why.