Gotta Love Juggling

After a fondue dinner, we three headed to the library for The Big Fun Show - comedy, juggling, general nonsense - where Mateo laughed himself silly over a roll of masking tape. And other people laughed themselves silly over Mateo's laughter. I think he had too much candy at school.

Great.

Great's funeral was today. One of the most common memories people shared of her was how she could make something out of nothing much at all. She had a wonderful creative intelligence.
Some of my Great-est memories:
Lemon drop candies
The smell of eastern European soup. What is that? Kasha? Barley?
Trouble – the board game
Making things with chicken bones and google eyes
Her light blue trailer
Crocheted (or knit?) slippers
Soap operas on the tv
Her dog, Cubby
Kleenex rolled up in her sleeve
She passed away on February 8th at the age of 100. What a long time to live. Mateo and I waved at her among the stars on a candlelight hike tonight.

Deck the Halls with...

...recycled CDs, magazines, and fake snow! I changed out the fall decor at the library for winter -- upcycled style. I purchased silver Christmas bulbs, silver icicles, and a bag of fake snow from a local thrift store and coated the bulbs and some scratched CDs with spray adhesive, then rolled them in fake snow (shredded wax paper or plastic grocery bags - I can't tell which). These were hung (along with the icicles) from the ceiling with filament. I also folded some magazines into "trees", spray painted them silver, added a little fake snow and glitter with spray adhesive and voila!

Christmas Countdown update

The Christmas countdown is going well - we're halfway done and Mateo still enjoys it. Sometimes we do "big" activities and sometimes we do "small" activities, and sometimes Mateo likes the "small" activities as much or more than the "big" activities. For example, he took a pass on going to see Santa when he was in town. He said he just wanted Santa to pick something out for him. It was a surprise to us, but we respected his decision. Of course, a few days later we ran into Santa out of uniform in the grocery store and he told Mateo that he was on the nice list (even though he doesn't always listen). It was a much more magical experience than going to see him along with everyone else. Other things on the countdown have included a special day with Gabby and Papa, a playdate with Jadin, baking muffins, decorating the tree and a Christmas campout.

The Great Tree Search

We cheated a little bit this year and bought a pre-cut tree. But we did buy it from a local tree farm and enjoyed their cocoa, cookies and ENORMOUS model train set.

Printing Press at MCBA!

We've taken a lot of classes at the Center for Book Arts, but the one Mateo most talks about is the one where he used the printing press. And why wouldn't he be excited about that? After all, it's a BIG, HEAVY piece of equipment that takes your WHOLE BODY to use! Today I surprised him with a trip to the cities after school to take a pressure printing class using the printing press. Let me tell you, he did a great job waiting his turn and printed as many sheets as Miss Ellen and time allowed.

Christmas Countdown

I saw this idea on another blog, but it was MUCH fancier. I tailored it to work with our supplies, available time, and attention spans so we could celebrate the excitement of the season every day from 12/1 through 12/25. Mateo counted out the envelopes and printed them with a dot marker and I added the numbers after they had dried. Then we counted them again and hung them along the railing. Every morning Mateo checks the envelope of the day to see what special activity is in store! We kicked it off on 12/1 with Story Hour at the SCF library followed by a trip to the store to buy something for the Giving Tree at Mateo's school.