The Flying Leathernecks

Okay, there is actually nothing dangerous about this post.  I just thought this would be a cool picture for if I'm ever in a mood and can put it as my profile pic on Facebook.  I get the feeling like there may be a day.  Or I can have it as the picture that pops up when you call me.  LOL

Our very first official No School for the Summer Day was spent a Marine Museum.  Not fish marine, men Marines.  There is a fun little museum just 150 yards past the main entrance to the Miramar base that is free to the public.  It's called the Flying Leatherneck Museum.  We took Poppa there because he's ex-Army and likes all that airplane stuff.  He especially enjoyed the "Name that Plane Quiz," which was basically a bunch of model airplanes painted black that you matched to a check list.  He got 48 out 52 right.  This place was perfect for him.

Inside the museum is filled with old uniforms and WWI and WWII memorabilia.  Most of it looks like stuff found in Great-Grandpa's attic that isn't really neat, just really old.  Their prized possession is a complete Woman's WWI Marine Uniform.  It's one of eight in the world.  My favorite was the complete first pilot uniform ever.  It had that really pretty white scarf that you see in all the pictures.  What was the purpose of that thing?  I imagine it would get in the way considering all the planes back then had open cockpits.

 Once you go outside, you get to the good stuff.  Retired helicopters, airplanes and a couple of other assorted vehicles. I say assorted vehicles because they have four wheels but are not cars.  Most have to do with big guns.  If you have boys, you should totally come to this place.

The girls had fun.  BG climbed around on the one plane that children are allowed to climb on.  It took a while to get her off of this.  I basically had to promise her that she could use the camera. 

One of the nice things at the museum is that 2/3 of the way through, there is a covered bench area.  LG and I hung out in the shade while Poppa looked at planes and BG ran around taking pictures and collecting rocks for LG.

LG spent most of her time practicing her walking skills.  She was more interested in the rocks on the ground than the airplanes.  She would collect them in her hat and I would dump them out.  She has absolutely no interest in airplanes, uniforms or big guns.  Lava rocks... lava rocks are cool.

More Cupcakes

 It seems that my cupcake skills have improved.  These cupcakes are way prettier than my last attempts at making pretty cupcakes, here and here.   The secret to my success is Cat.  

Cat is a mommy from the group and a professional cake decorator.  Actually, Cat is a scientist in the UK, but here in the states for a couple of years on mommy leave.  Her hobby is cake decorating, so she's making some extra money doing what she loves.  I love that.

Cat had a playgroup at her house and had everything ready for us.  All the shapes had been made, frosting was in the tubes, sprinkles were on hand.  She showed us what supplies we would need and how to make our own shapes and that buying the kit at Michaels is really the best way to go.  But since it was a baby playdate, there wasn't a lot of getting messy getting done.  I painted the butterflies myself with painting powder, but the rest of it is was just putting what you want on the cupcakes.

BG assigned who got which cupcake.  BG, big butterfly.  LG, little butterflies.  Mom, the daisy.  Dad, well, you kinda know which one he got.  These were also our Father's Day dessert.  Yummy.

Other Father's Day happenings?  We went to a Padres game with both Grandpas.  My dad spent a few days with us before heading out for his summer vacation road trip.  We got together with DH's family and had sightseeing and going to a game. 

Mommy Groups

Just a quick Mommy Group update.  I haven't gone to a Blue Group event since April.  So whenever I talk about the mommy groups, it will be referencing the Red Group.  Which is great, because I like them so much.

Little Lion - "Molly"

Here's Molly.  According to my records on Ravelry, I finished this project on June 27, 2009.  Did I mention that I'm backlogged?  I actually scanned through my projects and found that there were a few that were never blogged for some reason or another.  Take Molly for example.  I didn't want to blog about her until I had my whole animal rock band assembled.  Then I would have a really cool blog post.  

This was obviously an unrealistic expectation of myself.  But I did cast on the elephant drum player last night, a whole year later.  I'm rewarding myself with a new project for finishing two WIPs this week.  That means that I have only two project actually on needles left and then I will be WIP free!  At least I think that is all I have???  This doesn't count a blanket that was frogged and will be started again at some unknown date. 

Molly is a modification of the Little Giraffe pattern.  I love Stevie so much I thought that it would be easy to make other animals from the same pattern.  Basically I knit this without long legs or a long neck.  I deleted the horns and added a big bushy mane.  Instant Little Lion (rav).  She also got a long rope tail instead of the braided tail called for by the pattern.  Because Molly is a rebel like that. 

 Again I used Malabrigo leftovers from the Tulips Cardigan.   I love the fuzzy twisties that make up the mane.  The yarn does this naturally after a little playing with.  Kids playing, not me trying make it look right playing.  The pink isn't as pale as it looks in the pictures and she's gotten fuzzy all over from a year of diaper bags, toy boxes and drool.  You can check out before and after pictures on Ravelry (link).  I'm surprised she hasn't demanded a week at the spa yet.

As far as the Animal Rock Band goes...  Molly is the lead singer and plays a little guitar.

P.S.  The new Petite Purls is up.

Summer Vacation

I haven't been gone.  It's just been crazy busy around here. I've been taking trips to the airport, the DMV, the doctor, and the zoo on a field trip.  I have also gotten the Spring Cleaning Bug and have cleaned/reorganized the garage, BG's room and other things.  I've been entertaining guests and running around with the mommy groups.  I don't even want to talk about the multiple birthday parties and rush on end of the school year playdates.

Looking through my list of blogs that I read, I realized that of all the other bloggers that have children close to LG's age, I post the most.  And it takes work.  So, I'm not going to feel bad that I can't get on here more often.  I'm spending tons of time with my family doing things that we really enjoy.  And I actually have a pretty clean house, though it's never spotless.

I'll try to get to the backlog of finished knitting projects and other things when I can.  Right now BG is at the neighbor's and LG is napping on my lap and that's the only way I have time to type this up.  I hope that I can get a few posts written for you today and schedule them out over the week.

Summer Vacation can be tough.

Summer vacation has started and keeping two children entertained a job all in it's own.  Oh, and LG is walking!, so the only break I get is naptime.  I love naptime.

A New Kind of Stash

There is a knitting post coming, DH just has the camera in another state right now.  Meanwhile back at the ranch...

I think that I have figured out a solution to the low selection of books at our local library.  I'm going to get a card for the library of the town just south of us.  I checked out their website and it's just as confusing as our local library's website.  But they do have big pictures next to the titles telling you if it's a movie, book, CD and that is nice.  If there is a book I really want to read that my library doesn't have I'll be reserving it online and then driving the 8 miles to the other library.  Driving the 8 miles along the beach... past 2 yarn shops... I think I'll deal.

A few books that we have just finished.

For the girls, I'm doing something a little different.  We have a ton of toddler books and check out four board books every week for LG.  It doesn't really matter how many times we check out the same book, because we love all of them.  BG gets a good variety of EZ readers and chapter books.  Most of them I have never heard of.  Though, I think that we are going to run out of EZ readers at her level by the time summer is up and she's going to start repeating books.  That or suck it up and just read chapter books.

I've started buying juvenile read book series.  I've always enjoyed reading the juvenile series as an adult.  I think it's because I never really read books when I was a kid.  I remember my dad and older siblings reading all the time, but I wasn't interested in the books that they were reading.  And I was a cool kid, I wouldn't be caught dead in the school library.  I also always seemed to get the English teachers that were tired of grading book reports.  I've read Of Mice and Men, a bunch of the Shakespeare plays, and other required school reads.  I am still kinda bummed that I didn't get the teacher that read the Mythology book.  I've always told myself I need to buy that one for fun.  But I never participated in the summer reading programs and my schools didn't give us a summer book list like they do now.

I figure that when I buy the books, they are going to get at least three reads.  One from me, one from BG and one from LG, when she gets a little older of course.  I'm not going to buy every book we want to read, but some of the more classic or super popular series like Harry Potter, Warriors, and Lord of the Rings.  

 A New Kind of Stash

Here are some of the new books I've picked up.  I got the first 6 Warriors on Amazon and then couldn't help myself when I saw Percy Jackson for just $11 at Costco.  I also picked up one of my favorites for LG, the Bernstein Bears.  My favorite one is Forget Their Manners,  I loved reading these when I was in Kindergarten.  With summer coming, there is more reading around the house and less knitting.  It's hard to work with yarn while sunbathing by the pool.

And thanks to everyone that gave us book suggestions.  Desi, we thought the Catwings series was so cute.  Vicster, I'll have to keep Redwall in mind.  Swashbuckling mice might be fun to read when we are all done with our cat adventures.