Draperie dilemma

Sometime ago I fell in love with IKEA's Stockholm Blad curtains in green. In Jersey I finally had the perfect space for them and so I bought a two-panel pack. In the new house I am trying my best to work them into our decorating scheme and now feel I have done so to my liking, having bought a second set of curtains so the front windows of the house are the same.

Of course, now the question is which curtains should we use for the back of the house? I'm vacillating between the same leaf pattern in neutral shades and the red and orange striped panels, both are pictured below.

A good sign

I took it as a good sign I should be heading to bed soon when I just spent five minutes digging through every corner of the fridge looking for the cheese I had already put on the counter for the kids' lunches. A person should know better than to shop at both IKEA and Target in one day, well, at least my credit card is feeling full and satisfied with itself.

Easter egg-o-rama!

Well, we maybe took a minute or two out of our busy project time this weekend to color Easter eggs and celebrate Darby's third birthday. It's funny to think he's three already, and it's funny to try to put monster stickers on Easter eggs, as you'll see in the video below. With so much going on I did forget to buy birthday candles for Darby's cake (I barely remembered to buy the cake), so I improvised by using pipe cleaners with red for the base and yellow for the "flame." What I lack in memory I hope to make up in creativity. Thanks to Rod and Mary for making the trip, staying with us and helping to celebrate a weekend-full of fun family events.

The wonders of egg-dyeing marvel the next generation

The results - the dark green egg started out as a brown egg and was dyed in blue. Who knew?

Taken during the five minutes they both had their mom-knit sweaters on. 

Ain't got time to blog

Troy's parents are at our house this weekend and as a result we have been kicking some butt and taking some names. Don't let their friendly smiles fool you, these two are serious project people, and we love them for it. Here are some photos to prove it:

Troy earning his keep...

I think it's safe to say Darby is back in a puzzle phase.

Now where are the snowpants?

Working on the drill skills

Darby loves his new take-apart truck, complete with its own AA-power drill. We're hoping these skills will come in handy down the road.

As you can see here, I am not exaggerating on the size of the truck!

Case closed

We closed on our new house today! Everything went smoothly and we can't wait for our things to arrive by really huge trailer tomorrow. You never really know how much stuff you have until someone shows up to move you with a full-on semitrailer and asks if they can have an extra day or extra help to get the job done. All that after you've spent a month or two purging, editing, organizing, AND you only moved in one year earlier! In any case our big haul of stuff is coming tomorrow, and we are very excited.

Today also happens to be Zada's kindergarten registration day, so after our closing, we drove over to the school to file the appropriate paperwork, well, most of it - her birth certificate or passport and immunization record are all en route. She should still make the cut, provided I prepare her other papers as promised. One form actually said it is for her "permanent record." Yikes, no pressure there; it's a good thing we're already married and the cars are in good shape, this is about all the commitment I can take for one day!

That's a big boat!

The other day as we were throwing rocks at the lake, we saw a boat making for the Duluth harbor. We raced the boat from Brighton Beach to the canal and with the help of I-35, versus the city streets we once had to take, beat it handily. 

American Integrity as it appeared from Brighton Beach, northeast of the harbor - the video provides a much closer view.

Beauty and the Beast

Naomi, Zada and I were girls on the town last night and attended the national tour of Disney's Beauty and the Beast at the Duluth Auditorium. In spite of the Beast's "roaring" (Zada's word) and Gaston's nastiness, we all heartily enjoyed the show. Zada was not the only little girl dressed up like a princess, but maybe the only one who when asked about her princess outfit could reply, "My grandma made it for me." 

Good puzzle weather

After a nice Sunday brunch the whole family headed up the north shore of Lake Superior to Two Harbors, where we met the foul weather head-on. Although our plans to walk the breakwater were quickly reworked, Todd and Zada were brave enough to throw in five minutes' worth of rocks. The huddled spectating over, we all hopped back in the cars and continued far enough north to enjoy pie and coffee at the Rustic Inn.

A little cozy regrouping at home was next, culminating with Grandpa Buzz and Darby finishing off a 100-piece solar system puzzle. With Sammy's pizza and salads on the way for dinner, this could be one relaxing evening. (My money is on everyone's being asleep by 9 p.m., whether in bed, on the couch or sacked out in the Lazyboy.)

Go 'Dogs!

If Minnesota can be called the state of hockey then Duluth might be its unofficial capital city. This year residents of this northern city have been blessed to cheer for the Duluth East Greyhounds in their runner-up performance at the boys high school hockey state tournament and now the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are Division I NCAA men's hockey champions.

All by myself I listened to the Greyhounds game online in March and tonight I joined my family in cheering to the 'Dogs to their first ever national championship!

A timeless occupation

At the zoo?

Really?! Yes, my mom, the kids and I went to the Lake Superior Zoo yesterday, shocking because I cannot remember the last time I was there, and my mother had sworn off the zoo ever since a scarring childhood incident involving monkeys and what they've been known to throw. Everyone looks like they're having a good time here, a fine reward for our efforts, and we saw more animals than we expected to, though many, including the big cats, were cuddling together and napping. Not a bad plan, my furry feline friends. As for us, we were glad to have grabbed our hats and gloves and soup was definitely on the menu for lunch.

Boats and birthdays

Darby at the Great Lakes Aquarium playing with the boats again reminded me of those developmental checklists:
• Engages in imaginary play (check)
• Shows interest in how things work (check)
• Stays "dry" for hours at a time (hmm)

At least it can be said I am developing at a normal rate as this time I brought a wholesale change of clothes, socks and shoes for Darby, if this keeps up I might even be ready for kindergarten in the fall.

Hopefully Zada will be ready for kindergarten in the fall as she is now officially five years old! It may seem like we've doing up her birthday for a while now, but really, why not?

Showing Grandma Ginny just how to wear the birthday tiara

Grandma wonders if she will get her turn with the tiara for her 90th birthday in July

See, that's how they make crayons!

On our way west from New Jersey, we stopped in Easton, Pa., home of the Crayola Factory. It turns out this "Factory" is more like a Crayola-themed children's museum instead of the actual factory I was imagining, but we still felt we got our money's worth out of the visit. There was a live show within the museum demonstrating the crayon-making process, which I found fascinating and Troy and the kids did not. For my interest in this whole business, I blame Mr. Rogers and the film he showed about how crayons are made, and apparently so does Crayola since they had his sweater framed on the wall next to a blurb about his 1996 visit. Take that! Boom!