Halloween 2013

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Happy Halloween, everybody! Well, happy day-after-Halloween anyway. I'm so excited to share the girls' costumes with you this year! They had very interesting ideas, and I think their looks turned out great! Without further ado, here you go!

(Click on the picture to see it bigger.)

Can't quite tell what they are, exactly? Not too surprising, since they were both combination costumes. Pumpkin was a ghost-owl*-vampire while Penguin opted for zombie-vampire. Here are some close-ups of their faces.

Fun, huh?!  I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with (and what we accomplish) next year!



*Barn owls are white, so that helped with the ghostiness!

Woo-hoo!

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

So this happened today, on the last day of the first session of swimming lessons... 

That'd be my 8 year old daughter jumping off the low diving board... and my 6 year old daughter leaping from the high board!  Penguin said today, "I want to try the high diving board now!" So she climbed up, looked around briefly, and then just jumped right off!  No hesitation, no "maybe not today; I'm coming back down," just JUMP!  

It was so much fun, she did it again, several times, sometimes even with the two of them trying to coordinate their jump.  Well done, Penguin!

Hat Day

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Our Little Princess

You can't see it here, but she's wearing a shirt with a picture of Sue the dinosaur's skull from the Field Museum in Chicago.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Ok, so it might be a bit belated, but Thursdays are always crazy for us because it's the day I volunteer the entire morning in the girls' classrooms (alternatively).  Then I do lunch duty at school, followed by a short break at home which includes making supper bento-lunch-boxes for the girls to eat after their tumbling classes in the evening.  THIS week, tumbling classes were picture day, so, of course, classes ran long & we weren't home until after 7pm, which means streaking through baths & stories to get our need-their-sleep!-ers into bed.

But fortunately,  Valentine's card prep happens before Valentine's Day, 'cuz this is what the girls and I conspired upon for their valentines...

Hope your day was filled with love and gratitude and friendliness 'cuz you know I adore you all!  Happy Valentine's Day to YOU! 

Guessing Game

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Over time, I've been reading the girls the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder as part of our pre-bedtime routine.  We alternate with selections by Mr. Kluges like Charlotte's Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and 50 Favorite Fairy Tales.  We're currently up to Little Town on the Prairie. 

Tonight, Penguin and I were talking about the books, and how I'd read and reread the only one of the Little House ones I owned, Little House in the Big Woods. We got to talking about Laura and how excited she'd been to get a rag doll for Christmas.

"Oh," said Penguin, "and in the next book or maybe a different one, remember when they got that... thing for Christmas?!"

"What kind of thing? What did it look like?"

"I forgot the name, but it was round, and they each got one... and the back looks like a radiator!"

"Is this something you play with like a toy? Or maybe something to eat?"

"No, you don't eat it! It's round, and kind of brownish."

Let's see if YOU can guess the mystery Christmas present! Lucky for me, like a bolt out of the blue the answer popped into my head, and then her description made perfect sense. :)       

Wordless Wednesday - Summer Sisters

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

 

Happy Halloween

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Happy belated Halloween to you all!  I figured I'd better share a picture of my trick-or-treaters 'cuz they were darn cute, if I do say so myself.  Definitely my easiest year so far as a costume designer - they both wanted to be cats.  Well, they both did until Penguin saw a leopard print velvet leotard with long sleeves and legs at a second-hand store, when she promptly revised her wish to the larger, fiercer "cheetah!" version.  Fine and good, we visited a Halloween store where we found a suitable (actually quite nice) mask/tail combo... and then Pumpkin admired it so much I got her the matching mask/tail set in black rather than make her use the headband ears and elastic tail we had in the dress-up bin.  But they were adorable and warm, thanks to suitably colored fleece sweatshirts we already had, so it was all good. We even did an extra block this year in our quest for candy - my girls are getting big! :)

 

I don't think she learned that at Sunday School

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

At lunchtime today, I had this conversation with Penguin. She's been asking similar questions, putting things in order lately, so I wasn't too surprised by the beginning anyway.

 
Penguin: Before there was cheese, there was.... 

Me: Milk? 

P: Yes, and before there was milk, there was.... 

M: Water?

P: And before there was water, there was...? 

M: Nothing really - water happened pretty early.

P: Before there was water there was? 

M: Well, water was around pretty early on the world.

 
P: What was before the world?

M: God. 

P: Before there was God there was? 

M: Nothing. Before God was nothing. 

P: Before nothing there was?  

M: God. 

P: No, before God there was? 

M: Nothing. 

P: Before nothing was? 

M: God. What do YOU think was before nothing? 

P: Unicorns. 

M: Unicorns?! 

P: Yup, space-traveling unicorns.

August's trip to Minnesota

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

 I know, I know - awful blogger, never updating, guilty am I. BUT skipping merrily over that, let me bribe you with PICTURES! Since I got my new laptop, it took us a while to figure out how to download our camera onto it, but now that it works, hooray! Let me share with you some pictures from our trip to Minnesota in August, featuring Pumpkin's 8th birthday, a trip to the MN Zoo and their featured Dinosaurs! exhibit, and, as the main reason for our trip, a wedding in the family.

The birthday girl with one of her two cakes that weekend thanks to the grandmas!

Us four with Grandpa Pet & Grandpa Pharaoh and a zoo statue of lions

Oh  no! It's a big ol' T. Rex!

We better run!!!!

I love Pumpkin's imitative face on this one!  Also, FYI, they're wearing  their Dino Girl dresses/tunics from Jusami 'cuz their mommy planned ahead.

I love that they had this at the end so you could see how the dino models worked... and control them yourself.

One of their favorite parts was touching the sharks & manta rays & trying to reach in to touch the anemones.  And yes, we DID see a child (not ours!) stretch and reach so far she fell in! The zoo volunteers keep towels at their station. :)

Hello, monkey!

We are fierce girls who ride on wolves!

The wedding

With this ring....

Mr. Kluges's side in a rare group photo - y'all look so NICE!

Us with the bride - doesn't she look gorgeous?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The First Day of School

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

I have excellent news!  Mr. Kluges has gotten my camera to talk to my laptop!  Yay for pictures! Now, I won't go overwhelming you all with the entire summer's worth in one day, but now at least I can share the girls' first day of school photos with you.  Pumpkin, who recently turned 8, has started 3rd grade, and Penguin, 5 since May, is in half-day kindergarten.  When did they get so big?! 

 

Cook's Helpers

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

We've started a new thing here at the House of 42 Doors.  It's summer, you see, which means the girls and I are around the house & each other pretty much ALL DAY LONG.  We've got swimming lessons in the morning for now, and tumbling for one evening a week for 6 weeks, but that's it.

Do you know what happens when kids get bored? They bicker.  They whine.  They fight.  They get a TEENY bit annoying...even to their loving mother.

Now, I'm definitely all for letting them figure out what to do to entertain themselves much of the time, 'cuz boredom isn't all bad!  But all these hours DO allow for a lot more opportunities. Opportunities for them to learn some responsibility, some household skills, some LIFE skills.

One of those opportunities is getting to be "Cook's Helper."  I think strongly that if you eat, you should know some rudiments of cooking!  The girls have been alternately responsible for table-setting for a while now, but this is a new evening responsibility (aka chore).   

And they LOVE it! 

Sure, we're still a bit in the honeymoon phase, but while one child takes care of setting the table, the other is my assistant.  They get to wash potatoes (with a rubba scrubba),  cut up tomatoes (with a real, sharp knife... and a little more help for the 5 year old than the 7 1/2 year old!), wash lettuce and rip it up into bite-size pieces, choose between two different noodle dishes, cut up almost a pound of mushrooms, run out to the garden to get specific herbs, etc.  Heck, my 5 year old turned two carrots into carrot ribbons with a real vegetable peeler today!  

I'm right there.  I'm supervising.  I explain and demonstrate the task as needed, and I watch like a hawk at the beginning to make sure it's suitable and that I haven't misjudged the child's abilities, dexterity, or carefulness.

But you know what?   

They take it so seriously.  This is real work.  This is a genuine job that needs doing.  They respect their tools (especially the sharp ones) and use them with care.  They are so INVOLVED with their task.  My 5 year old spent probably 20 minutes carefully cutting up almost a pound of mushrooms with a butter knife.  (And then she thoroughly enjoyed eating them sauteed in butter with a sprinkle of salt!) 

They are learning so much - cooking skills, refining their dexterity and fine motor skills, gaining experience with unusual vegetables from our CSA, respecting potentially dangerous yet useful tools, and being contributing members of our household.

Yup, I think "Cook's Helper" is here to stay!

 

Happy (Belated) Easter!

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Thanks go out to TNGreatAunt for the (as always) adorable dresses, and to the Easter bunny for the yummy & fun eggs. :)

....and they're off!

The Easter Bunny left a note that the pink & blue eggs were for Pumpkin
while the yellow & purple ones were for Penguin.

Sometimes the Easter Bunny wasn't very tricky.

Why find your dress shoes when Mommy says you can go hunt eggs?!
Grab whatever pair's the closest!

Happy Valentine's Day!

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday, spent with your significant other, your family, and/or your own lovely self! I adore you all, by the way!

Here's a picture of the valentines my girls gave out. The one of Penguin is a preliminary version - the final one had five hearts going down the left side, reading "Happy" "Valentine's" "Day" "From" Penguin. I can't take credit for the idea.  I first saw it on Filth Wizardry, but it's all over Pinterest now, too.  So fun!  Plus, even Penguin's 4- and 5-year old classmates know who it's from without having to try to puzzle out a name.

WW - It's Snow Fun

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

WW - Last Friday was Super Hero Day!

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Little Miss Manners Remembers Them All

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Penguin is a big fan of writing thank yous. She's got all of hers done from Christmas already while the rest of us are about half-way done. (Of course, the ones Pumpkin has done aren't the same ones that I've done... so none of them are out the door yet, but progress had been made, really.)

We were going through the list we'd jotted down of which presents came from which loved ones, and I told her she was done.

"No, I'm not!" she insisted.
"I think you are, honey. Who do you think we've missed?"

Oh, yeah. I suppose The Jolly Man in Red does deserve a thanks, too, doesn't he? Bet the number of wish lists he receives every December rather outstrips the number of thank you letters that arrive in January though.

Dance recitals and concerts and speaking parts, oh my!

(c) 2011 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

NaBloPoMo #19 - Xmas Rejects

(c) 2011 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

We attempted to accomplish one of my least favorite holiday things today.

The taking of the Christmas card photos.

Last year I got off easy, since we just used the church directory family photo. No need to figure out holiday outfits early, no need to convince the girls to HOLD STILL and SMILE, no, not like that, a REAL smile and LOOK at the CAMERA please and...

Hopefully I got enough good shots today (I'm NOT a photographer!) to pull together a decent Christmas card, but I thought you might enjoy seeing a few of the rejects.

 BLURRR!

 'Cuz who doesn't wonder what the end of their sash tastes like?

Getting your picture taken is simply HILARIOUS, isn't it?!