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Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

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What the Moms Club Means to Me

In Family, Fun on April 29, 2013 at 6:00 am

Last week the Pottstown/Pottsgrove Moms Club held an open house at the Heather Place playground. Despite earlier predictions for rain, the day was beautiful.

Elly had went to sleep with a low-grade fever, but she woke up in good spirits. So, away we went to the party.

I joined the Moms Club when Elly was 18 months old because we would go to the playgrounds and nobody would be there. I felt like I either needed to have another child so Elly could have a playmate (and I so wasn’t ready for a 2nd child. Heck, I’m still not quite ready for a 2nd child) or I needed to find some other people who had kids around Elly’s age.

The Moms Club had a weekly playgroup for moms and their children that were around Elly’s age. It was great for Elly. She had always been a social butterfly, but she really blossomed when she finally got to make some lasting friendships.

Several side benefits occurred including learning how to share, experiencing time away from Mom, and learning kid games like tag and run away.

The surprise was learning how supportive the Moms Club was for me.

Elly had been a baby who hated sleep and thought most food was poisonous. It was so reassuring to hear that Elly was not the only baby in the world who held fast to these notions. More importantly, it was just a phase. Elly would grow up. She would learn to eat better and sleep better.

At 3, Elly does eat better. She is still picky, but she will eat more than just French fries although they remain her favorite food. She is a MUCH better sleeper too though she has still never slept through the whole night. But what started as a nightmare of waking up every hour on the hour now has turned into only waking up once in the night.

Now when Elly and I attend Moms Club activities, Elly runs off to play with her friends. I pull up a chair, relax and chat with some pretty awesome women whom I am proud to call my friends.

Perhaps feeling the way I do, it is only fitting that I have been nominated to be the next president of the Pottstown/Pottsgrove Moms Club.

If the Moms Club sounds pretty awesome to you, check out your local chapter.

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Sunday Snapshots (of serenading)

In Fun on October 5, 2012 at 2:38 pm

On the steps of the Pottstown Library, Elly spotted a man with a guitar. He was idly strumming while chatting with his friend.

Once he noticed that he had a captivated audience, he stepped up his game and started playing Run Around Sue.

Then, he asked what songs Elly wanted to hear. He started off by playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Then, Elly really started to smile when he sang her favorite song, Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Such fun!

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Sunday Snapshots (of tug-o-war)

In Family, Fun on July 22, 2012 at 6:00 am

 

What you are missing are the peals of laughter from Elly as she tries and fails to get the stick away from Jake.

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Hooray! A New Camera!

In Fun on July 19, 2012 at 10:58 pm

All my life I have only used a point and shoot camera.

These past 5 years, I have been using a Kodak Share camera. It was great in the beginning. Over time I outgrew it. I was no longer just taking pictures of knitting and sewing projects. I was chasing after Elly, trying to catch every cute expression and every new milestone.

The Kodak failed in me in several ways.
It was horrible at taking pictures in low light, which accounts for our entire house.
The flash distorted the colors of the pictures I took. The first thing I typically did before shooting was to turn the flash off, which meant I lost a lot of pictures to blur, but at least they looked better.
The maximum amount of pictures it could take back to back was 3. Once I snapped #4, an hourglass popped up with the word “processing” underneath.

Then, the camera started to break. I’m not sure it was built to take pictures every single day like I do.
Half the time when I pushed the On/Off button, it didn’t turn on.
When it did turn on, sometimes it froze and wouldn’t allow me to take a picture.
That was the nail in the coffin. The rest I could put up with, but I demand that a camera turn on and allow me to take pictures. So, it is now headed to the landfill.

Meet my new camera.

It’s a Canon Rebel XS (purchased from eBay used). I purchased the body only. Then, I bought a new lens, a 85mm f1.8 Canon lens. It’s touted as being a great lens for taking portraits, which will be perfect when taking pictures of Elly.

Elly got a new camera too, a Vtech Kidizoom.

Don’t you just love how the background is blurred?

And it can take black and white shots.

Though I have to read the manual to figure out how to duplicate this shot. I don’t know what I did, but I love it!

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Introducing Baby Gertie

In Fun on July 13, 2012 at 6:58 am

Last week on our way home from the Hickory Park pool, I pulled over to check out a yard sale. Boy was I glad I did.

I found the perfect table to sit in our living room next to our wing back chair. It was a steal at $2.

Elly made out even better. She found a new baby doll to love.

Truthfully, the doll won’t win any beauty pageants. But, her carriage could make even Cinderella green with envy.

Not only can Baby Gertie be wheeled throughout the house in it, but it is truly magical. It has two air hoses in it that can move Baby Gertie’s hands up and down when the carriage handle is squeezed.

We had named Baby Gertie right away. Elly is obsessed with learning everybody’s names these days. Later in the evening while looking the carriage over, I learned that it had a name: “Karen and her Magic Carriage”. I asked Elly if she wanted to call the baby Karen, since that was her given name.

“No, she is Baby Gertie” said Elly. And so she is.

Baby Gertie is not allowed out of the house. I don’t think I could replace her if she was lost or tossed out of the car window as we have already lost a toy and a set of CDs that way.

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Sunday Snapshots (of Weavers Orchard)

In Fun on July 8, 2012 at 10:22 am

This was our 2nd visit to Weavers Orchard.

Though other children were picking blueberries, I had no luck in convincing Elly that we should join their efforts. Elly only had eyes for the animals.

When she wasn’t chatting with the goats and chickens, she was scaling the playground.

Unfortunately, even after only 6 hours in the sun, the wooden ladder and the plastic slide were hot to the touch.

After about an hour of playing and buying fruits from the Farmer’s Market, we came home to play in “Cookie Monster”.

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July 4th Fun

In Fun, July 4th on July 4, 2012 at 11:46 pm

Though Elly and I biked in the Pottstown parade (which is to say that I biked and Elly rode in her trailer), I have no pictures to prove it. Pity.

I did manage to capture a few moments from our afternoon get-together.


Zucchini chocolate cupcakes
Recipe here


Fruit salad
made from fruit purchased during our latest trip to Weavers Orchard

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Sewing Progress Slowed by Game Night

In Fun on June 21, 2012 at 5:16 pm

Progress has been slow on sewing a muslin for my dress. I blame Bananagrams and Can’t Stop. Dan and I have been playing one or the other almost every night after Elly goes to bed.

The first time we played Bananagrams, it took forever. We never finished it before bedtime. To stack the odds in our favor of completing future games, we upped the number of tiles “Peel”ed to 2 rather than the recommended one. We both lost the first game we finished. Both of us had words that aren’t in any dictionary. I had added a ‘y’ to joker, making jokery. It looked good, but it’s not a word. Dan had ‘sog’ and ‘qi’. He tried to sell me on ‘qi’ and I almost believed him. Then, when he was looking up ‘sog’ because I swore I had never seen such a word, he realized that not only was ‘sog’ not a word, but ‘qi’ was not either. Too funny!

Can’t Stop is a game that Dan printed out on our printer. To give the board a bit more stability, he then pasted it to a piece of cardboard using modge podge.

As usual, Dan wins almost every game we play. Maybe when he’s older, he’ll become senile and I can start winning a few games here and there. One can dream, right?

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Sunday Snapshots (of cake eating)

In Family, Fun on June 9, 2012 at 7:47 pm

We attended a birthday party for our friend’s daughter. She was turning 3.

Elly had fun playing at the water table, hiding in the cardboard house and running after Niffler the cat.

But the best part of any birthday is the cake.

No need to remove the wrapper on the cupcake.

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Hiding Indoors from the Heat

In Family, Fun on June 13, 2011 at 8:00 am

Last week it was too hot to play in the garden. After biking to the local splash park for two days in a row, I needed a break. So, on Friday we stayed home. It seemed like the perfect excuse to try out a craft idea I found on BabyCenter’s website: finger painting.

2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp and 1 tsp water
food coloring

Mix the water and flour together using a fork or mini whisk. If necessary add additional water, a teaspoon at a time, until you reach a good consistency for painting. Dye the flour-paint in your child’s favorite colors via food coloring.

Expect a mess.

I draped our dining room table with an outdoor plastic tablecloth. Then, I taped waxed paper to the cloth. I strapped Elly into her booster seat. To save her outfit, I hunted down Dan’s old apron. Finally, I stepped back and let the magic happen.



When she stopped painting on the wax paper and started painting the arms of the chair, I called a stop to the festivities.

Later in the day, Dan and I discussed setting up a craft area for Elly in the basement so that our dining room set might survive her youth.

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