It's H!!

Merida, from Pixar's newest movie Brave

That hair?  Yeah, that's definitely her.

Now, don't think that just because our daughter looks exactly like Merida that we're going to take her to see Brave. We're NOT. 

Why???

1)  PIXAR DOESN'T MAKE THESE MOVIES FOR KIDS.

  They say so themselves!  I don't know why people think that just because a movie's animated means that it's created for and appropriate for children--and especially young children.

2)  My H is so sensitive to anything "dark" that she bursts into tears at the sight or sound of it.  Seriously.  I got a phone call from Ms. L, her teacher's assistant, today saying she'd turned on Babe: Pig in the City as part of their "Friday Fun Day", and H started to cry.  Admittedly, that movie is freakish if you ask me.  Ms. L thought so too and turned it off after about 15 min.

DISNEY does NOT make movies for kids.  

They make movies that they want to see, just as many creative people do.  If it just happens to be child-appropriate, lucky them.

However, just because we're not going to take H to see Brave, doesn't mean that S and I won't go see it. ;) In fact, we're looking forward to it, especially since we have a daughter who looks so much like the main character!

Check out this fantastic vid on Disney princesses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFnVLz6tffQ

Apparently there's another H look-a-like out there.  

See what she posted on her blog:

http://waltdisneyconfessions.tumblr.com/post/17767546389/merida-is-the-first-disney-character-that-really

AIG

Yay!  We've started the process for having H evaluated for her school's Academically and Intellectually Gifted program.  I'm hoping this will be the next best thing to homeschooling her.  I know she could be much more challenged in school, at least in reading and writing.  She's at a second-grade reading level in kindergarten.  Their journal entries at the start of the year were "I see a cat." when her brain was thinking, "There's an orange, white, and black cat over there.  I wonder whose it is."  It was painful to see her dumb down her typical answers to questions in order to fit into that simplistic paradigm.  Yes, shorter answers are easier for young children to write, and I know you have to start somewhere, but, again, oh, how it hurt to hear her speak like a Dick and Jane book.  Also, her teacher hasn't had her students practice writing in any serious way, so H's handwriting is often atrocious, even though she can formed her letters very nicely when we sit down with her to review them.  Am I over the top, or should a six-year-old be able to write her name legibly?  I finally got to help out a little in H's classroom on Monday, and I had a hard time deciphering nearly every name written on the little "hats" I was helping the children with.  Somebody please tell me they will focus on handwriting more in first grade!!  I know it's not as essential these days as it used to be, but it certainly shouldn't become a lost art.

Sorry to rant.  It's just frustrating seeing my daughter doing totally easy stuff the whole year long.  She was writing her letters when she was two and a half, albeit only capitals at that time.  You'd think that four years later she'd have finally been taught by either us or the school how to properly write them--consistently!

DIY - Ta Da!!!

someday we'll paint a jungle mural in the panels

How do you eat a whole elephant?  

One bite at a time.

DIY Photos

Day 3

First a tour of our sad-looking bathroom, thanks to our photo-taking cell phone.  Our camera was MIA.

cute shower hooks I used for color inspiration

the fated cabinet

trashy looking wall previously decorated with lotion by a certain unnamed child (the cheap paint absorbs everything and comes off the wall if you try to clean it)

close-up of nasty, previous paint job and rusty, old electric heater

sad-looking vanity area and the hanging storage that I love my husband for hanging up for me at the start of this project!

ugly but functional closet

cute little H taping the wall where we hang our towels

love the house...not exactly what I was looking for, but had to keep it ;)

She's very proud of that house, as am I. 

After work comes play!

ok, so it wasn't much work, but, ya know . . .

newest game: tug-of-war!

Day 4

we're done!!!

with coat #1 of blue paint, that is. . . .

;)

S took over for me when N needed to eat, and I sent H in with the cell phone to take pictures :)

after the kids were in bed I painted the final layers

sorry, no picts of me

someday I'll post the "after" picts!

;)

Danke sehr!!!

Vielen Dank, Tina und Stefan!!!

Each year we get an awesome package from my German sister Tina and her husband Stefan.  They always outdo themselves!  I wish our packages to them were half as nice!

As it was a Saturday, S & H were filthy from doing yardwork (but H still ran to her room to put on one of her dress-up "princess" dresses for the excitement of such a special package), so please forgive us our appearance!  ;) At least Lil'S was fresh and clean from his bath.  You should have seen him when he came in the house, dripping wet, after helping Daddy wash the car.  What a grin he had on his little face!

trucks + books + candy = complete happiness

candy, thanks, and cute clothes

more cute clothes and Thanks from all!

(Apparently Lil'S thinks "nah" equals "thanks"!)

;)

H tanzt zu deutsche Kindermusik nach ihrem Bad.

He is risen!

Thought I'd do something a little different and share with you some of my favorite Easter time pictures and paintings.  I hope you enjoy them.  

 

DIY, Day 4

We painted the cabinet doors!  Yippee!

We also painted the shapes on the wall where the towel hooks are.

I forwent the decision to return both of the Home Depot synthetic brushes in order to simply get the dumb project completed--or closer to completion, that is, more on that in a moment.  I decided to keep the 2" brush and use it, so we'll just return the $10, 2.5" brush.  (They're not even that great of brushes!  Am I just a cheapskate!?)

Why "closer to completion"?  Well, I thought it'd be fun (and probably outta my league) to paint a jungle motiff on the door panels:  a palm tree in each one with a tiger in one and a monkey in the other that match the style of the shower hooks.  It was either that or let H go at it with some colored paints.  The shapes we just did with the towel hooks won't exactly go along with the jungle theme, unless I figure out some crazy way to make them fit in, but I don't think I'll be able to pull that off, especially considering that one of H's "shapes" is actually a house.  Oh, yeah, we have yet to paint on the door and window, but Monday's another day--and H's out of school then still.

Someday I'll get pictures up.  Someday!  Right now it's time to feed a munchkin . . . a very cute, very hungry munchkin.

DIY, Day 3

Okay, so, really it's Days 2-3. . . .

Continuation of Day 2
Find out how much money your husband spent on the stuff you asked him to get at Home Depot during trip #2 (polyester/nylon brushes, $18; painters tape, $5; polycritic protective finish--bad idea--$18; grand total: $43!!!!) and make a plan to return everything but the painter's tape on the next trip that direction. (Gotta save time and gas, folks--especially gas when it's $4 a gallon!!)
Take pictures of bathroom for blog while I brush my teeth.  Brainstorm design ideas while lying in bed, waiting to fall asleep.

Plan for Day 3
Pack the kids into the car around 9 a.m. and drive the 20 min. to the nearest craft store.  (There's gotta be one closer than that, seriously here.  Well, I guess I don't live in Idaho anymore, huh. . . .)  Pick up cheap-o foam brushes.  Paint the cabinet doors during nap time.

What actually happened on Day 3
Woke around 8 a.m. (thank you, children!), realized I couldn't follow plan for Day 3 with S having taken the car to get to the dentist for a broken filling before the man leaves town, sent H to get dressed, fed kids, snacked on the gingerbread book sitting on my kitchen counter (that book is another post), and retreated to the bedroom to get dressed.  Just as I finished getting dressed, I heard a knock on the door.  Who in the world could that be?  Oh!  Lil'S's language therapist.  Guess it's good S took the car, eh?  Wipe Lil'S's gushing nose, sanitize his hands--poor kid still has his pink eye cold that I really don't want to share with anyone--and sit back to nurse baby boy while observing Lil'S's therapy session.

Progress did still occur on the project, however.  Once Lil'S and N were down for their naps, I worked on prepping to paint around the towel hooks.  (No, that's not exactly moving the cabinet project forward, but, hey, this is impulsive DIY, remember?  And what else was I supposed to do, not having a car?)  Removed hanging towels, removed 2 hooks, finally got H into the bathroom (she was finishing her lunch), showed her how to unscrew a hook, helped her unscrew a hook.  Showed H how to wash the wall afterward, and let her wash her area of the wall.  Put H and myself down for naps!   After naps: feed everyone, show H how to tape wall, tend to toddler and infant, check out H's performance, take pictures of H's fantastic job with her posing alongside. (Sorry, you'll just have to wait to see them until S gets them loaded to our computer.)  Endlessly debate the whole foam brushes / expensive brushes thing.  Hmm . . . I wonder if I could borrow some. . . . And, of course, blab forever about the mundane details of those whole, eternal endeavor!

Plan for Day 4

Get brushes (Does Walmart carry foam ones?  What about Target?  I know it has simple roller ones.) and paint shapes taped onto the wall and front of cabinet doors.

Can you see why I don't typically even attempt to tackle anything that could be termed a "project"?
;)

DIY the Impulsive Way

So, I've tossed around doing something crazy to my "armpit of the house" bathroom just for the sake of having something else to look at over the next however many years it'll take us to save up the money to remodel.  Well, last night, after a morning spent touring a little local art shop and a bit of UNC's art museum, I sent S off to Home Depot (which we really see as the Walmart of the home improvement world; many of the items we've purchased there have broken or had other problems, so I don't recommend shopping there if your project is really important to you) with a request that he pick up paint to match the yellow and one of the blues of two whimsical shower hooks (they're super cute, aren't they?) we have and a paint brush.  H and I were going to paint the bathroom--just that one, small wall!  Okay, just the bathroom cabinet . . . 's doors!  Knowing myself, we'd have to start small, see how that goes and what we learn from it, and then work our way up.

Yes, I did say H was going to help.  It might end up being blue and yellow (ha, and likely green) splatters all over the place, but at least it'd be something, and the way our bathroom is and it's current paint job, I really don't think it could get much worse.

S surprised me by actually getting the paints color-matched to the hooks, instead of just having Hannah find a paint that was close--and he bought Behr, not just some cheapie brand.  Ooo!  Guess we'd better do a good job, eh?!

Day one - get paint and brushes
Day two - get painter's tape and polyester/nylon brushes, return bristle brushes; tell 6-yr-old that if she naps today she can help paint during tomorrow's nap time
Day three - don't dare type it for fear it won't happen. . . .