Flip Out!

J+M+J

We were at the store just in front of the main doors where there was a stand of flip flops. Maria had been itching all week to get some, and now she had just made her selection. Mom and I had also chosen a pair each, since they were only 2.50. As we proceeded through the store, we came upon another stand of flip flops, all different styles from the first and under five dollars each. We began to look through them eagerly, deciding which ones we would buy.

“Sarah, here’s some more over here,” Mom said, standing by an entire wall of flip flops.

“Ooh,” I said, as I turned around and saw wall of shoes behind me. I walked around the shelf, and found another, and another, and  yet another wall of flip-flops. I was amazed at the vast selection, and I realized that this was why I never see the same pair twice on the feet of other girls. I raised my eyes and saw a large, brightly colored sign above my head that said: ‘FLIP OUT!’. That pretty much sums it up.

We ended up with several different varieties, all really cute with little ornaments on them:

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Halloween

J+M+J

Sadly, this year there was no All Saint’s Eve party  so we decided on Oct. 30 that we would be going trick or treating. For lack of ideas, the boys immediately decided that they would be exactly what they were last year. So, I set The Illustrated Book of World History on the kitchen table and asked Alexander if he wanted to be King Tutankhamun. “Is that a mummy?” he asked, very concerned.

“No, no, of course not,” I answered.

“But he got to be one when he died,” John Paul (who talks too much) put in.

Alexander’s eyes grew wide. “Uh-Uh, I’m not being him,” he firmly announced.

I questioned him about several more historical characters, including Caesar, a viking, a king, and Sitting Bull. He didn’t want any of them. So, I handed him the book and said, “You look through it, I have to go clean the kitchen countertops.” Not five minutes later, he told me he had found something, a Roman Centurion. I though it was a great choice, and began to form a plan in my head as to how to do it.

I wasn’t able to work on it until the afternoon of Halloween, and Alex pestered me every five minutes until then. Finally, I collected materials I thought I would use: a red tunic from past All Saint’s Eve parties, a red turtle neck, a red cape, and cardboard. I put the turtleneck and tunic on him, and then went to look for some string in the  All Saint’s Eve box. Instead, I found some shiny grey fabric left over from  Maria’s Joan of Arc costume. I knew this would be a perfect substitute for the cardboard. I cut it to the right size, made a head hole, and put it on him. Alex began to ask when I was going to be done making the costume, even after he had been so excited to make it. I told him to give me five more minutes, and put a belt around his waist, a sword in his hand , and a helmet on his head. Voila!

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Joseph decided to be Robin Hood, and his costume was easier. Here he is with Johnathan, who made his own costume:

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I wasn’t planning on dressing up this year, but after making Alex’s costume, I decided I had to because I couldn’t stand watching the other kids in their costumes for the kids who came trick or treating to the door. With the bed-sheet tunic I used for Shakespeare camp, a piece of brown fabric, one of Mom’s shirts and an hour’s work on the sewing machine, I had a costume! (And I was so glad I did, because it turned out some of my friends were trick or treating in the neighborhood and they invited me along!)

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I am dressed as Éowyn from the Lord of The Rings books, which I read this summer before watching the movies.

Maria made her own princess costume.

Maria put together her own princess costume.

This is Landon in his own homemade Darth Vader costume.

This is Landon in his own homemade Darth Vader costume.

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Kid Talk

J+M+J

Maria-“What happened to the crib? The mattress is higher.”

John- “It has an adjustable waist!”

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Joseph- (singing to no particular tune) “What’s your name? What’s your name? What’s your name?”

Sarah- “What are you doing, Joseph?”

Joseph- “I’m singing ‘what’s your name?'”

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Adventures in Cooking: Maundy Thursday Lamb Dinner

J+M+J

Ever since my friend commented to me that her older sister was making lamb for supper on Maundy Thursday, in commemoration of the Passover Supper that Jesus ate, I have wanted to try it out. Last year I forgot about it, but this year I was on the ball, and we did eat a leg of lamb for supper. It turned out very tender, and even Maria (who had insisted she wouldn’t like it,) ate a good portion.  Joseph must have really liked it, because he inhaled it even before he ate his bread and butter, usually the first to disappear off his plate.

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Pysanky

J+M+J

A few weeks ago, Maria, Landon, and I had the privilege of going to a class were a woman gave a lesson in decorating pysanky. (pi-san-kee) Pysanky is a Ukrainian method of decorating eggs by dipping them in dye, covering the areas you want to be that color with wax, and then dipping it in another color and repeating the process. The finished result is gorgeous. Here are some photos of eggs not done by me to show you how elaborate these can become.

Pysanky is also very symbolic. This egg features designs of three lines meeting and three ovals meeting, and represents the Holy Trinity

Pysanky is also very symbolic. This lovely egg features designs of three lines meeting and three ovals meeting, and represents the Holy Trinity

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This egg has fish, a symbol of Jesus and Christianity since the Roman times.

This egg has fish, a symbol of Jesus and Christianity since the Roman times.

Now, for pictures of my egg. On our eggs, we did two different designs. On the first side, we did a design that was taught to us by the woman who was doing the class, and on the second side we did what ever we wanted. Here is the first side of my egg.

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The other side.

The other side.

 

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Dull, Drab Winter

J+M+J

Nothing has happened in the last few weeks that was important enough to devote a whole post about it, so I am going to collect the small events of the past week into one post.

Friday the thirteenth:

I went to the physical therapist and got a bunch of new exercises. I originally went to the physical therapist for a pain in my arch when I walked a little over a year ago. We found a muscle that was very weak and strengthened it, and the foot pain quit except when I have walked long distances or stood a long time. (It is getting better all the time because I am still doing harder exercises.) Now I am going to her for the beginning of tendonitis in my shins, which is caused by the same muscle being weaker than the others and not doing its job when I jump or run. The physical therapist, whose daughter is training to be a professional ballerina in Pennsylvania/New York City, also likes to help me strengthen muscles to improve my ballet skills with exercises, so I got a bunch of exercises for my gluteus maximus to help lift my leg higher in the back. Ooh, my rear end is sore right now.

Friday the 13th-Sunday the 15th:

I counted birds for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. I counted: 23 pigeons, 1 red tailed hawk, about 30 geese, a mallard duck, and a great horned owl, which has been around our house for a while. Well, actually Dad saw the owl. I heard it a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t seen it.

Today, Monday the 20th:

I went shopping with Mom and Maria at the mall. I needed long sleeved shirts since I only had a couple of shirts that were long enough for me to move my arms around freely. We went into three stores and found absolutely nothing that fit me, because all the stores were stocking spring clothes. Phew! I can’t believe how long it takes to find nothing. Finally, we found something, but not long sleeved shirts. We found my Easter dress, which is really amazing, because it is extremely hard to find nice dresses for my age that aren’t to little girly.  Then it was back to the tiresome chore of finding shirts.  Just when we had about given up, we went into a store and found five shirts, just like that!

Then we went to Claire’s, a girly store in the mall, and Maria picked out earrings for herself. (She just got them pierced six weeks ago.) I will have pictures of her with them on later.

Well, those are the only things really worth mentioning. I am getting really tired of winter, it’s so uneventful. If it was summer or spring  and I didn’t know what to write about, I could go outside and take pictures of my garden. Sigh. Oh, well, at least the first day of spring is only 29 days away.

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A Charmed Day

J+M+J

It all started yesterday when I invited my friend Rebecca over for the afternoon. Right from the start, everything worked out just the way I wanted it to. Rebecca wasn’t doing anything that afternoon and her dad (her mom was gone for the weekend) consented to letting her come over to my house. When Mom and I went to pick Rebecca up, her dad said, “Stay as long as you want.”

A few hours later, Rebecca and I were tracing outfits with Maria’s fashion design kit. I commented, “Hey, when your dad told you to stay as long as you liked, you should have grabbed your pajamas.”

“Yeah, that would be a good idea. You should ask your mom if that would be okay,” Rebecca responded.

“It would be unlikely that she would say yes, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

Maria was in the room while we were discussing our far-fetched idea, and she liked what she heard.  When Mom came down to tell me that I would be babysitting because she was going to take Landon to swimming, Maria piped up, “Mom, Rebecca wanted me to ask you if she could have a sleepover.”

“MARIA!” Rebecca and I exclaimed simultaneously, laughing.

Mom said, “I have to go now, but we’ll talk about it later.”

“Well, that was more encouraging than a no,” I said, “but we shouldn’t get our hopes up.” I calmed an excitement that was growing inside me.

When Mom came back, however, I pressed for details. “So, what about the sleep-over thing?”

“Well, I actually talked to Rebecca’s dad already.”

“-And?” three voices in the room prodded for more information.

“He wants Rebecca to call him.”

So Rebecca was on the phone, and Maria and I listened anxiously. For a while it seemed the conversation was going to turn out for the worse, and Maria was making sad faces and thumbs down at me. But when Rebecca hung up the phone, she said, “It’s a yes!”

So, Maria ran up to tell Mom, who got on the computer to chat and ask my dad if it was okay. He said yes also, and we jumped up and down around the room with glee.  Then we jumped into the car and Mom drove to go get Rebecca’s necessities. John Paul shouted after us, “Don’t forget clean underwear!”

When we reached Rebecca’s house, we ran inside and collected her pajamas, a book, clothes, and toothpaste and a toothbrush, and of course, clean underwear. “Is there anything we are missing?” She asked me.

“Movies!” I responded.

We collected the movies and ran back to the car. As we were pulling out of the drive way, Landon asked, “Did you remember your sleeping bag?

“Oh, that and a pillow would be good,” Rebecca exclaimed as she jumped out of the car and hurried back inside her house and momentarily returned carrying a sleeping bag, a blanket, and her pillow. Then we drove home.

Since everything was going so well for us, we decided to try to get our friend Grace, who lives three blocks from my house, over with us. We called, she asked, and we got a surprising yes from her side as well. 

That evening, after the kids had gone to bed, we decided to goof around taking pictures. First Grace was the photographer.

 

This is what happened when we tried to take a sleeping pose picture.    GIGGLES!
This is what happened when Rebecca and I tried to take a sleeping pose picture. GIGGLES!

 

This one is much better. We finally got our faces to stay straight.
This one is much better. We finally got our faces to stay straight.

 

 

 

Grace and I hear the popcorn Landon is making for our movie, Prince Caspian
Grace and I hear the popcorn Landon is making for our movie, Prince Caspian.

 

Grace and Rebecca.
Grace and Rebecca.

 

Splits!
Splits!

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Three friends.
Three friends. In the left corner of the background you can see naughty Alex peeking out of bed

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Devouring popcorn! YUMMY!!!!

Devouring popcorn! YUMMY!!!!

 

WARNING: never leave three teenage girls unattended for an extended period of time. They may end up like these poor demented girls, who have now been moved to an asylum. :~)

WARNING: never leave three teenage girls unattended for an extended period of time. They may end up like these poor demented girls, who have now been moved to an asylum. :~)

 

ZZZZ... sleeping beauties

ZZZZ... sleeping beauties

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It's morning! That was fun!
It’s morning! That was fun!

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