One day our son made a fun party Christmas hat. He painted some green card-stock paper while I cut a red fringe out of a strip of red paper. Next I staypulled the green paper into cone shape and glued the fringe around the bottom. I added a thin rubber band to hold the hat on his had, and it was finished. He liked the hat so much that he almost wore it to his school Christmas party. He looked as cute as our daughter in her Christmas outfit.

I'm glad we didn't give away the Christmas cactus in the summer (it looked like a boring cactus then) because now that it is blooming with bright pink flowers, bringing a little bit of summer into the house.

Another craft I worked on as making a Settlers of Catan game for my sister. I made the game in 2003 for myself, so I knew what materials I needed and how to improve my design. Instead of painting the tiles, I computer designed my patters, printed them onto transparent shipping labels and stuck them onto the tiles. This saved a lot of time painting and made the tiles all look the same. For building cost cards I stuck my designs to the cardboard from the bottom of the Russel Stovers chocolates because it happened to just the right thickness. Here is my second version of catan in action for the first time.

My sister May and her friend and my brother visited for Christmas this year. One Saturday before my brother arrived, a few of us decided to go to Boston and look around with one of my mother's friends. We walked around and saw a park , the Paul Revere cemetery and the state's capitol building.

As Christmas neared my son and husband made a fun gingerbread tree out of cookie stars that my son helped me make. I tried to make a gingerbread house from chocolate cookies, but the cookies were too crumbly and nice to eat, so the house fell apart before it was finished. At least it still tasted good.

This was our Christmas tree. Here is my husband holding his stocking, me holding my stocking, and both of us helping our daughter open gifts. Our son had so much fun he wouldn't sit an pose for a picture. Later we visited his grandparents, and our daughter enjoyed sitting on her nona's lap for a while. I got a new camera which is green in color, which is nice because my favorite color is green. My brother also got a new camera, so we took pictures of each other taking pictures. My husband enjoyed playing smash brothers with my brother and eating all the nice sauces he got.

November 30, 2009

One day we went outside and picked up apples off the ground from the apple trees in the back yard. We had so many apples that we still had a barrel full of apples even after my father made four or five gallons of applesauce. We didn't want to waste the apples, and we didn't want any more applesauce, so we gave a barrel of apples away free on craigslist*. (minus the barrel) Amazingly so many people wanted them that they were gone within the hour I posted the note.

Our daughter turned three months old this month. She dosen't fit well in the laundry basket by herself anymore, but sitting with her brother makes the basket seems more fun. She likes sitting with her toys better than trying to crawl.

Before thanksgiving our son made a styraphome and candy turkey in school. He was so proud of the brightly colored animal that he woulnd't let it go the rest of the day and carried it around for a few days. On thanksgiving we ate the regular New England meal of real turkey, potatoes and such at my moth-in-law's house. It was very tasty.

October 31, 2009

At the deerfeild fair circus this year we saw the flying Walendas preform a trapeze trick while we ate lunch. For the first few hours, I carried our daughter in the baby carrier and looked at all the art buildings and concession stands while my husband took our son to see the animals. Our sonloves feeding and petting animals anywhere. Later, my husband carried our daughter and looked at the concession stands while I went with our son to pet the animals and have fun on the rides.

The weather is perfect for walking in the woods or along the road. My husband and our son enjoy visiting a rocky area down the street that was cleared for construction, but abandoned because no one bought the land yet. Sometimes, when they are on a walk without me, I take pictures of myself. But usually I really like going on walks, so I come along, bringing our daughter in my baby carrier. Being fall, the leaves on the trees are beautiful and colorful, and the last few sunflowers are blooming in the neighbor's garden.

For haloween, our daughter dressed as a beautiful flower and our son dressed as a knight. Instead of going out collecting candy, we visited a church party where our son had fun sliding on an inflatable slide, which is probably more fun than walking around asking for candy.

This year I decided to make something other than a cat on my pumpkin. I thought about making a tropical sun set, a Sierpinski gasket and the TARDIS, but ended up choosing to carve a rose. I probably should have scooped the leaves deeper, but with only a carrot peeler and a kitchen knife as tools, I think it was good enough. I didn't think our son should use sharp knifes yet, so instead of carving a pumpkin, he colored his pumpkin with markers.

September 30, 2009

Our son started attending the local preschool at the beginning of the month. There are six children in his class and the teachers are very nice. His teacher says he really enjoys the music and story time, but I think his favorite part might be outside play. He also started going to the fun music class that my mother just started teaching.

It seems that I saw a lot of small bugs and animals this September, most of which I don't remember since I didn't take any pictures. However, I do remember the large yellow and black spider web lurking in the flowers and the strange stripped snake I saw crawling though the grass (milk snake). I don't often see large spiders of snakes wandering around, so I enjoyed seeing both.

Just for those who like kid pictures, I took a picture of; our children together, our daughter beside the "jelly cat" my sister sent, one little smile caught on camera, one of me outside, and one of my husband.

Near the end of the month our son got a bridge for his train set to keep him laughing when it's too cold to be outside playing ball. He makes the thomas trains go both under and over the bridge until it's time clean up his pile of toys and go to bed.

Near the beginning of the month while my son and I were on a walk down the street I took a picture of my son walking on the nearby rock wall that has a flat top.

This summer my mother became certified to teach Musikgarten music classes for babies and young children. She wanted to start her classsses right away, so asked me to make her a web page. After looking at other sites to see what she needed and taking a few pictures to match her theme, I designed her page. I discovered the very reliable and inexpensive host called fatcow.com and made thye page renaudmusicstudio.com.

One day I received a coupon for a free maternity picture at the local babies-R-us photo center. I didn't really think about having my picture taken because I don't look very big, but since it was free I decided i might as well go. The two best photos were these: One black and white and the where I'm in a sitting pose.

One week after the picture was taken, August 19 our new daughter Talia was born. It was a fast birth and the midwife let my husband catch Talia and cut her umbilical cord. Afterward, we all held Talia. Our son likes to kiss her gently. I used one of my favorite pictures of her to make thank you cards.

After our daughter was born my mother-in-law had a baby shower with her friends, and as the month passed, various relatives also gave us baby items. The clothes were all cute, and mostly pink. One of the more creative items she received was a diaper cake. When I started taking the "cake" apart, I discovered how the cake was made and how long it must have taken to make. The diaper cake is basically a pack of diapers which have been rolled, tied and placed together with the other diapers in such a way to make them look like cake layers. After the basic layers are put together, decorations are added to make it all look pretty.

July 31, 2009

Near the beginning of July, my mother made her first professional fondant cake for a friend's wedding. Wedding cakes are made in stages, all which are fun to watch. After the cakes are baked, they are covered with crumb frosting and set to dry a bit. Next goes a thick layer of frosting and then the fondant is rolled and place onthe cakes one layer at a time. After the fondant, decorations are placed and then the cake is done. Although this sounds easy, after watching the entire process, I can tell you it is a long difficult project to get a nice looking cake.

Since everything from movies to games are all changing to wide screen, my husband finally bought a nice wide screen monitor for the computer. It looks very nice, espicily with all the interesting operating systems he's been installing recently.

In the middle of the month my sister's family and my brother came and visited. Before arriving, they had a trailer shipped to the house for my father to assemble so they could take his electric car back to Indiana with them.

My sister's family and my brother had a busy schedule involving horseback riding, mountain climbing, visiting the beach and other various things.The cousins enjoyed playing and painting together durring the day. I went along to climb Mt. Monadnock. Our group was unusual; it consisted of my older sister carrying her baby in a carrier, two kids; 3 and 5, a 8 month pregnant woman (me), my brother, my sister's husband and my mother. The reason this is unusual, is because this particular mountain is not an "easy trail" mountain, but the kind where you actually have to climb finding footholds and literally climb up the side.

I think for the most part we all had fun, and I took a nice picture of a mushroom.Unfortunately, getting up and down took longer than everyone expected. We folowwed the white dot trail on the way up and the white cross trail on the way down. We all made it to the top, where you can see for miles. Here is a picture of me at the top. The short version of our climbing story is that the slowest group ended up stuck near the bottom on the mountain after dark without a light (which is pretty dangerous) but some other climbers nearby had lights and helped them back to the base safely.

Another day, my sister, my mother and I went to the ceramic shop and painted ceramics, I painted a fun coaster so my glass can sit on the windowsill without making rings in the window sill paint. Thinking of paint, here is a picture of the cousins painting together.

On a hot summer day the beach is a fun place to visit. My husband enjoyed running in the waves with my son, while I mostly played with sand. My brother, sister and family (who don't get to see the ocean much since they live in Indiana) all did various things, including build drip-sand castles together.

June 30, 2009

At the beggingin of the month we celebrated my son's third birthday. He had two cakes, one cake durring a family party with a Thomas theme from his Nona-grandma, and I made a car shaped cake for him on his actual birthday. He also got a happy birthday shirt, a painting easel, some paint, a fun red truck with a fix-it man, and a few other nice things.

One day we desided to go to the beach for fun. After my son and I dug in the sand, I got a chance to see the sand sculpture contest scultpures. There were many contestents; a modernish sculpture, some ladies knitting, some various thins and a life-sized mario pirana flower whch won first place.

I made a nice green tie dye shirt for my son, as I have every summer since he was born. I didn't want to waste the dye, so I also dyed some canvas green with which my mother made a bag. I think the shirt looks cute and the he bag came out really great!

Recently the back yard has been a fun place to see things such as funny chickens called guinea hens roaming around, or the funny tall weed growing by the side of the house. One of the more noisy things to watch is my father giving my son a ride on his electic lawnmower.

Geocities is closing in October this year, which makes me sad, because I have enjoyed making pages on geocities since around 1998 (they started in 1994). Hopefully I will find free host which is as good.

May 31, 2009

Spring is finally here and pretty flowers are blooming everywhere. Purple lilacs and irises are very nice to look at, along with some little fushia flowers in the back yard. Pink and white flowers on a fallen apple tree branch made it easy to take some close-up pictures. I never really realized how pretty they were before. One day, while I was taking pictures, a wild turkey came into the yard, so I took his picture to.

I had a fun birthday. I got a tasty chocolate cake fom the cold stone cremery that layers of icecream in the middle and was covered in fudge instead of frosting. I also got a bendable tripod called a gorillapod, and a gift cirtificate that helped me buy an older modle "flip" video camera, which is very simple and fun to use, espicily of taking videos of my husband playing with my son.

One day I makde an origami kusudama ball as a wedding shower gift for one of the teachers at my mother's school. He wedding colors are red and white, so I tried to make the ball white with 1/3 red. I think it came out pretty.

The best way to get a free car wash is to teach your son that washing the car is a fun water game to play on a warm day--or at least that worked for me. My son had so much fun washing our car that we then wanted to watch his grandparent's car too.

Whenever I used the garden hose in front of the house, I always noticed some slates stacked up next to the house, so one day I put them into the wagon, pulled them to the back yard and made a little patio for the turtle sandbox to sit on. I think it keeps the bugs away from the sandbox a little more than when it was in the grass.

April 30, 2009

As soon as the weather warmed enough for the cellar to leak, my father (with a little help from everyone) dug a deep pit all the way down to the foundation so he could fix the leak from the outside. After several rainy days and a lot of work, he covered the crack with tar, blue tarp, and a few bags gravel before finally filling the hole back in.

My sister May was able visit for a weekend-- so the day before Easter, we made a big chalk egg on the driveway and decorated it in various ways. It looked interesting until the rain washed it away.

Easter Sunday busy, but fun. We went to a fun church service, got lots of yummy chocolate in pretty baskets, and then we went to my husband's parents house for lunch. After lunch we went over to my parents house and helped decorate an Easter cake out of fondant. After the cake was finished and eaten, everyone left and we ended the day with the Doctor Who Easter special.

One week I found the old blue wagon ( from when we were kids) laying around and noticed it needed some paint. First, I debated wether to leave it blue or paint it back to the original wagon-red. In the end, I decided to leave it blue so when the paint chips it won't have as many contrasting paint layers. I didn't a before and after picture--which would have shown that my parents had painted the entire wagon blue-handle and all, whereas I painted the handle and wheel bars black. Later, while my son was pulling the wagon around, and I was taking pictures of dandilions, I found the wagon can make the difference between a picture and an interesting picture.

March 31, 2009

Recently we've discovered that our family will be growing larger, and today we got the first picture of our baby. The doctor says it is a girl, which is nice. (The little thing "floating" above the chest is actually a hand). Here is also a picture of here tiny feet.

It snowed today, so I decided to build a snowman (since I hadn't built one this winter). My mother didn't have school today, so she helped pack snow and roll snowballs. We all had fun, but my son thought it was more fun to throw snowballs than to roll them. When we were almost finished, we found a "snowman kit" in the basement, used the fake coal, carrot, and scarf. Just for fun, I added some pine cones to the finished snowman for hair.

Recently, if the driveway has been scraped a bit after a snowstorm, the snow melts and the driveway becomes dry enough to draw chalk pictures on. My son and I have always had fun drawing together, wether outside on the driveway, or with finger paint inside. Usually, for the painting, I squirt the paint, and then he scribbles his design into the paper.

The snow melts a little now, leaving behind large puddles of mud and swampy areas in the fields. In general, I try to avoid them (except to take pictures). Naturally, our son loves to run (with his rubber boots) into the swampiest areas-- the deeper the better. He doesn't even care if he falls and gets covered in mud.

My husband got a paintball marker recently. It seems it is cheaper if you have your own marker and he says it is more fun. He enjoys showing people his marker and playing with it by cleaning it nicly and then testing it my shooting trees outside. When he goes out to the local woods gaming place, he dresses in some old army uniforms and really enjoys himself.

February 28, 2009

For valentines day I found a diagram for a simple origami bag online*, and made a few small treat bags for a few people. We all got lots of candy and chocolate, and fruit roll-ups. I also got a pair of socks with hearts on them. I haven't finished eating my sweets yet, but I wear the socks all the time.

One evening, I started pulling our son around the floor on a blanket. He loved it and didn't want me to stop. But after a while I was tired and my husband had a turn pulling our son around. It was funny to watch, and we all had a lot of fun.

Recently my son's hair was sticking up all the time, so I decided to give him a haircut with our clippers. He was pretty good while I cut his hair, but he still squirmed a lot. After the hair cut I took some pictures while he was playing cars to show how fuzzy and fun his hair was to play fuzzy with.

January 31, 2009

One day, before my sister left, we went out side to build a snow man, only to discover that the snow was the kind of snow that is so hard on the top that you can walk on it without breaking through. So instead of a snowman, we picked up the hard top layer of ice--basicly whatever bits of snow "rubble" we could find and stacked them together to make a small fort. It took a while but was just as fun as making a snow man, espicly after we were done.

My husband had a good birthday and we went out to eat for supper as one of his presents. My parents got a recces peanut butter cake, and his parents got a chocolate velvet cake for him on the weekend-- which means we all ate to much tasty cake.

My son enjoys playing outside reguardless of the weather. He likes the igloo/fort and walking on the snow, and wearing his fun korean hat.

For a week or so, my parents and my sisiter went to indiana to go to a friends wedding. My younger sister was the maid of honor in the wedding and everyone said she looked pretty walking around in her fancy dress. I wasn't there, so I don't have any pictures, but this* is a link to pictures taken by the the bride's brother's who was the photographer.