Friday, November 30, 2012

Fun Friday: Movies, Momentos, and Movember

 Today I surprised the kids by taking them to the movies.  I didn't tell them until we were getting ready to leave where we were going.  I had to tell them then because I was bringing our popcorn bucket and Halloween candy.

 We also put our FIAR ornaments in the mail.  This year Jack decided he wanted to do a lantern for Paul Revere's Ride.  (And some exciting news--for me, anyway--Mark Shasha, the author of Night of the Moonjellies, which we used for ornament inspiration a couple of years ago, left a comment on my blog the other day.  That might be the worst constructed sentence I've ever written, but whatever.  I was super excited.)

Have you heard about Movember?  It looks like Jack has.  This is what he looked like this evening.  That's pudding, by the way.

It seems that he sometimes channels his toddler self, but in a slightly more stylish way.

Read about planning for the holidays here.

Happy Friday!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Festive Friday!

 We set up our tree today.  I love listening to them get excited about the ornaments.  I need to just set the video camera up next year to record them talking about their favorites.

 We stayed home all day and finished up the evening with Christmas shows.

 Somehow I never take pictures on Thanksgiving.  There's usually a random shot or two from my parents' house, like the one above.

 And then a few in my sister-in-law's front yard.

 Alice was nervous about her brother being so high up.

Happy Friday!

(Check out Black Friday Math here!)

Black Friday Cookie Sale!

Kids do what they see, right?  That's Alice, wrapping up some cookie dough.  And maybe she sees me looking a little crazy sometimes.  I don't know how else to explain that look.  In the last month and a half I've made a lot of cookie dough.  And many wonderful people have bought a lot of cookie dough--enough that we have raised over $200 for the Brainerd Family's Adoption Fund!

The holidays are so busy and you know there are going to be lots of times you're going to need some kind of food to bring to a party or get-together or something to give to the neighbors or the mailman--not to mention something to feed your own family.  Let me do the mixing and you can have cookie dough in your freezer ready to go whenever you need it!

Snickerdoodle and Peanut Butter are $3.50 per pound or $6.00 for two pounds.

Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal are $4.00 per pound or $7.00 for two pounds.

Chocolate Chip with nuts and Oatmeal with nuts are $4.50 per pound or $8.00 for two pounds.

Ami is working on a cookie cookbook to raise money for their adoption fund and I have three of her amazing recipes to let you taste test!  If you place an order today through Sunday, for every two pounds of dough you order I will deliver a half dozen freshly baked cookies of your choice--Simply Sugar Cookies, Double Chocolate, or Cranberry Christmas!  So start making a list of all the people and places you'll need cookies for and then add in a few more pounds for yourself.  And you know what goes great with cookies?  Coffee!  Place your order now and enjoy!  Thank you so much to those who have already ordered!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

A Post About A Car

 I am not a car person and you're not going to hear me talk about cars much because I don't find them interesting at all, but bear with me.  

A few months after we moved to Omaha it became apparent that my 1991 Geo Prizm was not long for this world.  We went to the Toyota dealership and came out with a 2003 Corolla.  When Jay put $7000 down and assured me that there was also money left for groceries it was like finding out I was married to Daddy Warbucks.

 Friday morning, Jay took my car and went to get me a new one.  I felt kind of like this as I watched them drive off, but I tried to hold it together because I'd already done my makeup.

 Over the last ten years this car has been a dining room,

 a bedroom,

 and sometimes both at once.

 It's been a phone booth,

 a playground,

 a library,

 and a mobile real estate office.  (We don't let the grass get that high anymore.)

 It's taken us up mountains,


 It brought two of my babies home from the hospital

 and one home from a war.

 168,341 miles of adventures.

Friday afternoon he brought me...another Corolla.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Fun Friday: Books to Treasure

 Tonight we went to Books to Treasure!

 My kids thought it was pretty cool to ride in my sister's van.

 This year the author/illustrator was Mo Willems.  This is kind of blurry because I had to zoom waaay in.

 It was so crazy crowded!  We never sat down (which will please my grandma because she was concerned about us going there since they had bedbugs in one chair earlier this year) and there were way more people than you can see here.  There were even people upstairs watching over the balconies!

 The bright side to not having a seat was getting in the book signing line quickly.  If you have ever been to the downtown library, the line filled the downstairs auditorium and lobby and went back up the stairs to the main level.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were still people in line right now!

Also, Happy Birthday to Oklahoma!  We had some cake this afternoon.  I am looking forward to watching this (Sunday) and reading this (whenever I get to the top of the library's hold list).
 
Housekeeping: 

Read this week's post at MetroFamily here

Amber is the winner of the easel and canvas!

Happy Friday!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Giving Away Some Little Things

 Five years ago today I made my first blog entry.

 We've come a long way since then!

To celebrate, I have a little (literally) giveaway!  When we were at Leonardo's yesterday I found these miniature easels and canvases.  I think they would be so cute on a windowsill or desk or in my case, on the counter above my kitchen sink.  The canvases were not cheap, though, so rather than go to that trouble, I'm probably going to give my kids little pieces of thick cardstock.  Maybe this would be a good place to show off some thumbprint art?  If you would like the chance to win, please leave a comment and a way to contact you in case you aren't someone I know already.  I will draw a name Friday night and contact the winner!  Good luck and thanks for reading!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Marland Mansion

 We took a road trip to Ponca City and Enid yesterday and today!

Our first stop was the Pioneer Woman--the original.
 
 Then it was a short drive down the street to The Marland Mansion.  If you've never heard the story of E.W. and Lydie Marland, here's the short version.  Marland came to Ponca City with his wife, Virginia, in 1908 after losing his fortune the year before.  The couple didn't have children of their own, so they eventually adopted Virginia's nephew and niece, George and Lydie.  After Virginia died, E.W. had Lydie's adoption annulled and married her.  The same year they married, they moved into this house (it took three years and $5.5 million to complete) and he lost his business in a hostile takeover by J.P. Morgan.  After a while, they couldn't afford to keep the house open, so E.W. and Lydie moved to the artist's studio on the grounds.  E.W. then became a congressman and ultimately the 10th governor of Oklahoma.

 This is where it really gets interesting.  A few years after E.W. passed away, Lydie left Ponca City and was not heard from for 22 years.  Before she left town, she had a man come to destroy her statue, starting with the face.  Ultimately, he took the pieces home and buried them instead of throwing them into the river as he had been instructed to do, and after his death and Lydie's death, his family contacted the estate and told them where it was buried.  They have a neat display about digging the statue up and reconstructing it.  This is the original statue and you can see the lines where it was repaired.  After Lydie had been away so long, her lawyer contacted her and when he went to meet with her she had lost all of her teeth but one and much of her hair and looked like a bag lady.  (I thought Alice was asleep when the tour guide talked about this, but she was telling Jay about it tonight, so apparently she wasn't!)  She came back to live in the cottage on the grounds of the estate (at this time the property was owned by a group of nuns) until she died 25 years ago.  I read this book about it last week and it was really interesting.

 On to the house.  It is crazy.

 How crazy?  This ceiling was more than $80,000 (in 1925 money) because all that shiny stuff is real gold.  (Photo by Alice, who liked the lights.)

 The kids liked this old-fashioned exercise machine.

 We took the tour (which you should definitely do if you go there) and Jack got to help out with the ropes.

 Sitting in one of Oklahoma's first saunas!

 Jack also got to work the elevator for us.

 I'm pretty sure the dumbwaiter was Jack's favorite thing.

 This is where they stored all the liquor since the house was built during Prohibition.  The tour guide told us it was so big it could store a year's worth of liquor, but we're not sure whose year they were measuring.

 This is the tunnel from the main house to the boat house.

 We saw a familiar statue!  When E.W. Marland decided to have a pioneer woman statue made, he paid 12 different artists $10,000 each to make a statue.  These statues then went on a tour and people voted on which one they liked the best.  Before he died he was trying to raise money so Lydie would be taken care of so he called Frank Phillips to see if he wanted them for Woolaroc.  Phillips gave him $500 each for them and they are on display now at Woolaroc.  A couple of years ago they had replicas made which are now on display at The Marland Mansion.

 We also explored the grounds.  This is a replica of the statue of George, Lydie's brother, that went along with the one of Lydie that was destroyed.

 We found the other end of the tunnel, too!

 We spent the night in Ponca City because the kids were feeling pool-deprived and I didn't want to try to do everything in one day.

 The kids had never had pizza delivered before, so that's what we did for dinner.

 This morning we got up and drove to Enid.  Alice entertained herself by tracing her hand and drawing donuts and Jack worked on math.

 Leonardo's had a missing boa!

 Alice's favorite thing was the doctor's office.

 Jack spent a lot of time working on Lego racing cars.

The weather was beautiful, so we spent most of the afternoon outside before our long drive home!