Utter Momsense

Sunny California

2012-02-03T12:15:00.005-07:00

I thought I posted this a long time ago, but I think I was waiting for more funny quotes. Anyway, these pics are from Christmas break.

Uncle Joshua is the coolest. He is teaching us to be K'nex masters.

Uncle Lance and Aunt Rachel are pretty cool, too. We are pretending we are in Japan!

This is a real beach! We want to go swimming, but it is 50 degrees!

Wes: "I am really enjoying this pepper but I think it might kill me."
Onyx: "Grandma is full of a googol kisses and a million hugs."
Sapphire: "Pick me up and spin me!"
Quartz: "I wish it it was a slush day so we could stay home and go sledding."

2011 Christmas Letter

2011-12-13T20:31:00.001-07:00

Landaker2011 Christmas Letter

Thisyear we have watched our kids transform before our eyes fromdependent little homebodies to real ”big kids”. Quartz isleading the big kid revolution as he learns to curl ribbon, makescontraptions with LEGO motors, and does home science experiments. Onyx has entered kindergarten and is learning to read, and has beenworking on building from every LEGO instruction booklet everypublished. Sapphire is old enough to make her own dinosaur chicken,paint pictures, and go to her ”Growing a Scientist” class withmom. Andrea has enjoyed their kids' new independence and interest inbig kid things, as well as her own projects at home. At work, Weslead several projects, and at home he set up amateur radio equipment.

Wewish you a joyous season, and a happy new year!

TheLandakers (Wes, Andrea, Quartz, Onyx, and Sapphire)

TMI Quotes

2011-12-04T18:59:00.001-07:00

Fun at the Library

Quotes:

Q: "I love my burp when I just had brown sugar oatmeal".
O: "I don't want to do my chore but I'm doing it anyway."
S: "What if there was a googol o'clock?"
A: "Biscuits, we eat them for our dinner // Biscuits, we eat them for our lunch. Biscuits, they won't make you any thinner // Please eat them up, because I made a bunch."
W: "I need to wash my hands because I was playing with the kids. You know, because you're supposed to wash your hands after handling raw meat."

SNOW!

2011-11-26T07:11:00.001-07:00

Yes, here in Albuquerque we go crazy over 1 inch of snow on the ground. We even try to sled on it:

We build alien snowmen with it.

And we make snowcones at 8am with it. We have to hurry, because it's all melted by noon!

Happy Birthday, Sapphire!

2011-11-10T20:58:00.001-07:00

Sapphire's three! She likes to draw and make crafts, play make-believe with her brothers, help mom with chores, and read books with dad.

Sometimes she joins me for yoga


We made LEGO guys of our family for the top of the cake. She liked the herb tea in her tea set more than the cake

We played pin-the-mouth-on-Hello-Kitty

Andrea: Wes, do you remember if giant rats are safe to eat? [in Nethack]
Sapphire: I want to play the Curious George game on the computer.
Quartz: You are the most insane mom I ever heard. [for letting them have huge pieces of chocolate cake]
Onyx: What if there was a LEGO battery as big as this room?
Wes: The basting will continue until morale improves.

Halloween and Quotes

2011-11-01T18:25:00.001-06:00

First, our Halloween costumes!

From l-r: Lisa as Renaissance beauty, Onyx as Pharoah Mummy Amset-Ra, Sapphire as ghost, Andrea as mad scientist, Quartz as C3-PO, Wes as Renaissance doctor. The Renaissance costumes are actually from Assassin's Creed 2 (courtesan and doctor). Well, I suppose I could be an Abstergo mad scientist. Yeah, sure, why not? :-)

I am actually rather proud of some of the sewing exhibited here -- mostly Lisa's skirt, which is a circular tablecloth with some lace curtains added; and my lab coat which is patterned after a too-small lab coat from the thrift store and made of white pleather. It's nice to have a long jacket that fits!

Andrea: "Would you like to be my -- er, *try* my latest experiment?!"
Onyx: "If I take off my shirt, you will see gold coming out of my belly button."
Wes: "Whatever, I'm a cursed princess!"
Quartz: "I AM RUDE!!!"
Sapphire: "I am a big girl that wears underwear!!"
Sapphire: "If a bear comes in our house and wants to eat me, I will run away."

Dentist Love

2011-10-20T18:58:00.003-06:00

Sapphire went to the dentist for the first time today.

She grinned when she got to sit in the dentist chair. She grinned when they made it go up. She grinned when the chair tipped back. She grinned when they counted her teeth. After they cleaned them and put on fluoride, she grinned when she got a new toothbrush and got to pick a prize. Then she asked when we were coming back.

We love Fake Camping!

2011-10-09T09:58:00.005-06:00

Kids Quotes for the week:

Quartz: "I never get a day off!"
Onyx: "I can see inside my head right now. I have an alien brain."
Sapphire: "I'm your pet frog!"

We went up to the mountains for a wonderful evening picnic. It was cool, but not cold, we built a fire and had hot dogs and s'mores, found a geocache, and played hide and seek with flashlights in the dark. Then we came home and went to bed. Onyx calls this "fake camping," and likes it a lot better than real camping, where you have to sleep in a tent all night long and wake up in the cold.

Wes also shot some great photos of everyone in our family. The kids didn't quite know when to smile for the group shots:

...but they had no trouble making silly faces for our silly shot.

Quarantine

2011-09-29T22:09:00.000-06:00

I finally finished and tested the parlor LARP I've been writing called Quarantine (kind of like a murder mystery, but without the murder). It went over pretty well, so I'm posting it here in case anyone would like to make use of it. "Quarantine" takes place in a futuristic setting with good ol' sci-fi staples like faster than light travel and anthropomorphic aliens, but also has plenty of intrigue and mystery.

So, anyway, check it out if you like that sort of thing. It takes minimal preparation, is for 6 players, and lasts about an hour or two.

Gotta train 'em early...

2011-09-21T15:12:00.001-06:00

Gotta train 'em early...to be geeks. First, they must know how to create their own costume for an occasion other than Halloween:

Then, they must attend gatherings of fellow geeks, such as a local convention or Renaissance Faire.

Next on the list: quoting from favorite geeky movies, such as Star Wars, or the Princess Bride. :-D

Amazing Customer Service

2011-09-12T10:58:00.000-06:00

Sometimes it seems like companies have forgot about one crucial element in their business -- the customers. We had a bad experience with Hotwire on a vacation where they wouldn't give us a non-smoking room (it finally got resolved through the Better Business Bureau and American Express, who were quite helpful, but Hotwire was very annoying about it).

Usually you just expect decent customer service, but once in awhile you get blown away by a company who does it right. In this case, I need to recommend to you Cedar Works, the company who made our wooden playset. We bought one about two years ago, and it's held up really well, but some of the rubber on the chains was getting sticky and oozing. I figured we'd just deal with it, but I sent them an e-mail in case they had some snazzy idea. They are replacing all the affected swings totally free. So awesome! :-)

School and Bubonicon

2011-09-07T14:05:00.001-06:00

Quartz and Onyx are both in school this year, and I love how they are good friends at school! They play at recess, and sit next to each other on the bus, and seem to get along really well at school.

Shhh, this was actually the 3rd day of school

Since Wes' mom is in town, we thought we'd take advantage of her and let her enjoy the kids for a weekend while we went to the local sci-fi convention, Bubonicon with our friend Lisa. The theme was steampunk, so we all dressed up and had a great time seeing all the costumes and listening to George R. R. Martin and geeking out with other fans. I wish there would have been like a masquerade or parlor LARP or something, but it was still pretty fun.

weird angle and lighting, but it's the only picture we got

And now, for some quotes:
S: "Mom mom mom mom mom mom mom, baby doll is going to bed" (to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star")
O: "It was just a little bit fun" (talking about pedal boats)
Q: "Do we each get to eat seaweed? Yum, yum, yum!"
A: "That's totally going on the blog!" (when Wes said something funny that I can't remember anymore)
W: "Wesley: romantic bourgeoisie space pedagogue" (magnetic poem)

Birthday Party!

2011-09-07T13:53:00.000-06:00

OK, this was a long time ago (mid-August). But somehow school has made things busier, even though there's less kids at home and they both ride the bus. I guess I'm finally getting around to all the projects I've been putting off all summer ("I'll wait until the kids are in school").

So, Quartz and Onyx had a joint birthday party with a LEGO theme. I'm not sure for how many years they will want to do joint parties, but I'm happy about it because it feels more worth it to put in all the effort (without feeling like I'll have to do the same thing again for the other kid next time).

I'll just let the pictures do the talking now.

Build the coolest Duplo tower you can in 5 minutes!

I made a treasure hunt for the kids

Snacks under the play set

Blowing out candles on the LEGO cakes

LEGO Parachute Craft

2011-08-08T08:19:00.000-06:00

Remember parachute guys? The strings always got all tangled, and the guys were always some weird color of plastic with an uncomfortable grimace on their face . . . but it was so fun to launch them off the balcony again and again and again.

Make your own with just two simple components -- a LEGO minifig, and a plastic shopping bag.

1. On your plastic shopping bag, find the seam on the handles. This marks the middle of the handles, so your minifig will be centered. Punch or poke a small hole near the inside edge of each handle right on the seam.

2. Put your LEGO guy's arms through the holes you poked. Tuck it right under his armpits.

3. Drop from a high vantage point, and watch your minifig land safely!

Railrunner & Museum of Folk Art in Santa Fe

2011-08-03T13:11:00.000-06:00


Waiting for the train

Yesterday we took the Railrunner up to Santa Fe, ostensibly to go to the Museum of International Folk Art, but actually just because everyone wanted to ride buses and trains. We took the 10:47 train up, ate a nice lunch, used the train's bathroom (several times) and arrived at Santa Fe around noon. It turns out that our Railrunner tickets also worked for the bus system, so we took the M bus to Museum Hill for free. They had a free paint-your-own-ceramic-tile activity, which was pretty cool, and that also led to free admission at the museum. Since my friend Lisa was with us taking pictures, you get a rare photo with me in it. :-)

Now, if you've ever taken kids to an art museum, you know that it's pretty nerve-wracking. You want them to enjoy the museum, but you want to make sure they DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!! Well, luckily the museum had a few areas where kids could touch things, so we interspersed playing with looking and it went pretty well. Everyone's favorite room was the Girard Wing, with dolls and toys and art from all over the world from the past two centuries or so. They had a lot of them arranged into little villages or houses, so it was fun to peek inside and imagine living in a different world. They also had an Andes Mountains exhibit that was pretty cool, though I think it would have been cooler if they had a dress-up area or a make-your-own mask area or something more hands-on.

On the way back we played go fish on the train and thought about the difference between folk art and pop art and fine art, and their relative importance and impact on our lives today. Well, the kids were more interested in going all the way to the back of the train and seeing how fast they could run without falling down the stairs (result: had to hold mom's hand back to our seat).

It was pretty tiring, and we didn't get back home until 6pm, but it was a good trip, and everyone loved the train. The kids want to make this an annual summer thing, and I think that's a fine idea.

Let's make Sushi!

2011-07-26T20:24:00.002-06:00

How can I claim to be an otaku and a cook yet have never made my own sushi? I guess I didn't like it that much before, but after ordering it several times and having a hot summer, cold sushi has sounded very refreshing. So I decided to give it a try! There's a lot of good websites about making sushi, so I read them thoroughly before giving it a try. I made sure to get as authentic ingredients as possible (thanks, Talin Market!), but decided to try some original recipes (because I never pass up a chance to make life more exciting).

So, pictured here is most of our sushi feast (regular california rolls not pictured). Luckily I had some help from my friend Lisa; it wasn't too hard, but kind of tricky to get them to stay closed and time-consuming to cut all the ingredients. In the upper left we have Baja Sushi (imitation crab, green onion, cilantro, avocado, green chile), which elicited an "Oh, wow!" from Wes upon tasting it (the highlight of my day). On the upper right is plain kid sushi, in the middle some onigiri-shaped sushi (apparently, if it's made with sushi rice, it's sushi, even if it's shaped like onigiri?), and on the bottom is TonTon sushi. Yes, it's a Japanese/Star Wars pun. "Ton" as in "tonkatsu" refers to pork. These sushi have bacon, cilantro, avocado, green onion, carrot, green onion, and green chile. We were all skeptical, but everyone that liked sushi liked all of them (Wes, me, Lisa, and Quartz. Sapphire and Onyx just ate the rice balls).

Victorian Thank You Cards

2011-07-24T16:41:00.000-06:00

Since Victorian=steampunk=cool, I thought I'd make some old-fashioned thank you cards out of Victorian art online. Here they are for your enjoyment. They are sized to print out properly on regular letter-sized paper, which you then fold into card shape (who else remembers making and printing cards with dot matrix printers? so fun!). There is a color version, and a black & white version, in case you want to color your own (it's kind of fun).

Victorian Thank You Cards

Quotes and Swim Lessons

2011-07-19T18:02:00.000-06:00

Onyx: "Wouldn't it be funny if a chain restaurant was where they gave you chains on a plate and you ate them?"

Sapphire: "Ai-ya. Are you serious?"

Quartz: "I really do have super powers. I'm not pretending. I have a switch in my brain where I can turn them on and off. If I don't turn them on, I can't jump as high."

Everyone is learning a lot in swim lessons! It's so cool to see them actually swimming, after years of getting used to the water and dog paddling around. :-) Sapphire loves her little class where they find treasure under the water and do alligator walking (walking on hands in shallow water). All the same, I'll be glad when swim lessons are over; four weeks, every week day, is a bit much. Maybe next year I'll shoot for an earlier or later time that won't take up the whole morning quite so much.

Lego Books and Family Vacations

2011-07-13T15:54:00.000-06:00

Now that the boys are older, I've been trying to find different ways to spend time with them that we both like (blowing bubbles and playing peek-a-boo just don't cut it anymore). One thing we've both enjoyed is making Lego books. The boys make up a story, and build legos to tell the story. Wes or I take pictures, and then print them out with the boys' words to make a book. This also has added benefits of helping with reading, etc. Here's one of the books we made:

Treasure Quest!

For the first part of our vacation, we stayed with my wonderful Uncle Dave and his wife Melissa. Their kids are about the same age as ours, so they had a great time playing together and building Legos, as you can see:

We went to their neighborhood Independence Day parade, which was pretty fun. Quartz pulled the wagon the whole way! It was nice and cloudy, too, which we thought was quite refreshing.

The reunion was at Bear Lake at a giant hotel/house that was very nice. The kids loved swimming every day, and we got to play volleyball, search for a geocache (unsuccessfully), and ride "personal watercraft" (also known as Waverunners, or inaccurately labelled "jet skis") at the lake. It even rained for us. The kids love the pillowcases they got to decorate, and it was so good to see everyone. It just felt like home, even though we were only there for four days. :-) Unfortunately, I had so much fun I didn't really take any good pictures . . . so here's a mediocre one:

Zoned-out kids trying to play Super Smash Bros.

Aliens, Horror, and Dead Tree Comics

2011-06-23T07:24:00.001-06:00

The boys turned Sapphire into a turtle

Sapphire: "My doggy wants you, mom!" Mom: "Get in line, doggy."

Quartz: "What would happen if you ate a bug? What would happen if you drank pee?"

Onyx: "I made up this game. It's called Ae-wi-wens [Aliens] Attack. You have three lives. You charge up your powers by not stepping on the lines on the tile. I have all my powers!"

Guest staying with us (to kids): "Please don't do anything to horrify me."

Wes: "Comics in the newspaper are the ones that weren't funny enough to be on the Internet."

Onyx: "I love everyone in our family, but you are my best friend, Sapphire."

Travertine Waterfall Hike & Father's Day Card

2011-06-09T16:26:00.000-06:00

First, if you have small children that haven't done Father's Day cards yet, here is a little Father's Day sheet I made. You can fold it in half, write "Happy Father's Day" on the front, and have your child fill out the inside (or fill it out with them).

Our hike started out badly. Sapphire had fallen asleep in the car, so she was quite grumpy when we arrived at the trailhead. "My feet hurt! Carry me!" I did end up carrying her for most of the hike, but she stopped crying . . . I'm never sure if I should just be tough and tell her she has to walk, or if I should just enjoy snuggling with her while I carry her around.

Things livened up when we found this snake sunning itself on the path. Looks like a gopher snake?

We also went and found a geocache; I should have looked at the terrain difficulty first (4 star), as it was quite a trek uphill amidst cactus and rocks and loose dirt. We made it, though, and right by the cache was this cool cactus flower (looks like a claret cup?):

Sapphire somehow got some tiny cactus spines all over her rear, so I carried her the rest of the way to the waterfall. It was pretty wimpy, but there was running water and greenery. The boys loved climbing to the top of the waterfall and climbing back down.

Sapphire liked eating her lunch by the "caves".

Portal Cake and Cliff's Amuseument Park

2011-06-05T16:21:00.000-06:00

A friend of ours had a birthday last week, so we decided to surprise him with this Portal cake:

I thought it turned out pretty good, though if I made it again I might use darker frosting for the borders of the portals.

On Friday we went to Cliff's, Albuquerque's amusement park. While it is certainly smaller than any other amusement park I've been to, it's well-kept and has a good variety of rides, and most importantly, the lines are short! Onyx and Sapphire loved the carousel and the bumper cars, and Wes and I took turns riding the thrill rides with Quartz. His favorites were the Rattler and Galaxi roller coasters. My favorite was the Cliffhanger. I think Wes' favorite was the log ride.
Onyx was big enough for some of the more exciting rides, but he didn't really like them. He said of the log ride, "That was kind of fun. I think I want to do that . . . maybe once a year."

We had lunch before we got to the park, and then left around 4 to have dinner at Taco Cabana. Since the park is so small, the parking lot is also small, and it's no big deal to leave and come back. After dinner and a few more rides, Onyx and Sapphire went home to bed with Dad, while Quartz and I rode until it got dark and we got tired. Quartz, of course, didn't admit he was tired until he was in bed, but he actually slept past 7am the next day (a rare occurrence).

A Few Out-of-Context Quotes

2011-05-27T21:04:00.000-06:00

Quartz: ...and that's the story of the grown-up and the two aliens.

Wes: I bet you can find it. It's shaped like a coffin.

Andrea: Actually, farting is allowed in our house. But hitting is not.

Onyx: I am playing pyramid-locked-up. There's two good guys, Shoelace and Amset-Ra.

Sapphire: I am a sandwich! Eat me, eat me!

How To Make a DIY Costume Gas Mask

2011-05-16T15:11:00.001-06:00

In case, dear reader, you have ever longed for a gas mask of your very own with which to protect your delicate scentsibilities [sic] and strike fear into the souls of your enemies, have no fear! With a few simple household items and craft tools, after a few hours you too can look intimidating while breathing in nicely filtered air! (NOTE: gas masks are for costume use only and not intended for use in warfare or for protection from hazardous materials)

Here are the materials you will need:

Materials:

An old duffel bag, or other source of flexible PVC/vinyl-type fabric
A spice jar from Costco (the square ones with bronze colored lids), or other source of lenses and cool gas mask accessories
Two mason jar rings and lids (not wide mouth)
Some straps (from old duffel bag)
brass brads
respirator (medical or hardware store)

Tools:

Dremel and/or Drill
X-acto knife
hot glue gun

First, paint your respirator to fit the look you want. We were going for a sort of steampunk look, so we painted it brown.

Drill holes in your accessories to make them look like filters.

We sanded our accessories slightly to help the paint stick and give them a more grungy, metallic texture and painted them a brassy color (it took several coats). This is a plastic kids' cup from a birthday party a while ago. The spice jar lids are already a nice bronze color, so they didn't need any painting, though we did paint the little inside cap, that already has holes, to match it.

While the other parts are drying, cut out your PVC to be about the size and shape of your head. Hold it up to your head, and place the jar rings in the right place. Mark where they should go.

Now, using an x-acto knife, cut a circle out of the PVC the same size as the smaller part of the jar lid. Then, flip the jar lid over so you are using the large side, and cut slits at 45-degree intervals to make it easier to glue the jar ring on to the PVC.

Place the jar rings over the holes. Using a hot glue gun, glue the mason jar lids to the PVC. Since you cut eight flaps in the previous step, it's not too hard to just glue one flap at a time.

For the lenses, use the spice jar, or some other kind of rigid clear plastic you might have lying around. Trace two circles around the mason jar lids onto opposite sides of the spice jar.

Next, cut out the plastic on the lines you made. Try and smooth out any rough edges, and make sure it fits inside the mason jar rings. Hot glue them in.

Next, you can attach the straps to the mask using the brass brads. We used the respirator's straps to go around the back of the head, and then added one additional strap on the top of the head to help the gas mask's shape.

After the paint has all dried, hold the mask up to your face and put the respirator where you want it. Mark where it should go. Glue it onto the bottom half of the mask, and cut off any excess PVC.

Last, add your accessories to the respirator. Hot glue them in place.

Guess who this is?

Yard Sale on Saturday!

2011-05-03T11:36:00.000-06:00

We're having a yard sale on Saturday, 8am-noon if anyone wants to come and sell or buy stuff. I have never done a yard sale of my own, so I'm excited, and the kids are getting very into it.

I have to take pictures of the kids playing happily together to remind myself that it does sometimes happen. It's so much easier to remember the arguments, sometimes . . .

Easter Glee

2011-04-25T13:45:00.000-06:00

How can little plastic eggs make kids so happy? I don't know, but I sure enjoy their glee at finding them.

Pyramids, Mummies, and Coffins, OH MY!

2011-04-21T14:52:00.004-06:00

We did haircuts on Saturday, and everyone got to choose a prize from my prize bin for their cooperation. Onyx's was a Lego mummy, and ever since then he has been all over pyramids, mummies (usually flying ones), pharaohs, coffins, and scorpions. We built a Lego pyramid together, complete with coffin and giant scorpion:

When we go to the park, we are flying mummies setting traps to protect our pyramid from the evil mummies, or something. I haven't figured out what makes a mummy evil or good. But any game where you get to have giant pet scorpions that eat guns and bullets is pretty cool.

We also made pyramids for lunch. "Your lunch is an ancient pyramid, with two red obelisks rising out of the sand. Giant scarab beetles crawl over the rocks, and snakes slither across the golden sands". (The pyramid is toast, the sand is scrambled eggs, the beetles are raisins, the rocks are peanuts, the obelisks are strawberries, and the snakes are crunchy green beans). They thought it was pretty cool, but I still couldn't get Onyx to eat any green beans or strawberries. :-)

Quartz has been really into riding his bike lately. We found one at a garage sale with gears and hand brakes and everything, so he rides around the neighborhood almost every day (still on the sidewalk, though...). I'm glad he enjoys a sport that I like, too, and we can do together.

We pretty much just walk around all day looking cute

2011-03-31T09:56:00.001-06:00

It's amazing how much more fun it is to have a 2-year-old when you don't have a baby to worry about. Or maybe it's just Sapphire that's fun. Either way, it is so fun to watch her take care of dolls and animals, paint, build Duplos, ride her scooter, and follow the boys around.

Quintessentially Six

Onyx says "The only things I like are Legos and LittleBigPlanet." We're trying to help him branch out into other areas of juvenile fun, such as board games, playgrounds, and frolicking, but sometimes he's resistant to these strange pasttimes. Once he starts he usually enjoys them, though.

Quartz has lost a lot of teeth, as you can see, and also likes taking pictures. He has been enjoying soccer and riding his bike, as well as building with Legos and trying to get Onyx and Sapphire to play make-believe games with him the way he wants them to.

Etiquette 102?

2011-03-27T18:34:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I think that I am rude without realizing it. There are a lot of social rules that don't really know. Or it could be I just don't really care about other people that much, and this is how it manifests itself. For example:

If I'm calling a friend, and her husband answers the phone, should I chat with him or just ask for her?
Is it rude for kids to play with other kids' toys at the park?
Do I need to remember all the names of parents at, say, soccer, or just their kids' names?
How close does a friend need to be before I should remember their birthday?
If we invite someone over, and they don't invite us over, does that mean they don't want to be friends, or they are just busy?

Did I miss a class at college or something? Or are there not actually rules for these sorts of things? :-D

Spring Break!

2011-03-20T15:59:00.000-06:00

First, can I just say I love spring? As a kid, there weren't really very many seasons, just "more foggy-and-rainy" and "less-foggy-and-rainy", so I really enjoy the sudden burst of color and life that accompanies spring in a more temperate zone. It's like fireworks that you can watch all day long.

And now, for a travelogue.

For spring break, we headed south. Our first stop was to have lunch at Elephant Butte Lake. It was a beautiful day, and the lake, though low, looked fun for boating on and wading in. Quartz took this family picture; I think he did a good job, despite the fact that Wes and I both have that worried, are-you-operating-the-camera-correctly look on our faces. :-)

We drove a few more hours to go camping in City of Rocks - in the middle of the flat, shrubby desert, all of a sudden a group of big rocks juts up out of the ground like apartment buildings. They're great fun to climb on and walk through and find hideouts in.

This was right next to our campsite; the next photo is zoomed in

I wonder where Sapphire learned to make faces like that?

The wind was pretty strong around dinnertime; our fire burned through three logs in one hour, so we had to hurry and make s'mores right after dinner. Nobody complained about that. We found a geocache, and the kids explored the rocks. They felt quite independent -- Quartz had a two-way radio so we could keep in contact with them, and with the huge rocks they felt like they were far away even if they had only walked for two minutes.

Wes took this nice sunset picture

The next day we broke camp (Quartz loved that phrase) and headed north into the Gila mountains. The drive up was a long, super windy forest road, so it took two hours to drive like 40 miles or something. But at least it was forest, so we enjoyed it. We got a cabin at the Gila Hot Springs Ranch, which turned out to be in RV park, so, not really a wooded secret getaway, but that's okay; it had a small playground. It also had a goat farm nearby with uber-cute kids goats cavorting in the grass.

We headed over to the Gila river to collect rocks and wade around. Wading was everyone's favorite thing about the trip, I think.

The next day, we went up to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings. They were home to 30-40 people for some time about 1100 years ago. It was pretty cool because they were built inside caves in the mountainside. Quartz enjoyed doing all the requirements to get his Jr. Ranger badge, and he now wears it whenever we go hiking.

Not sure why Onyx sometimes hides for pictures.

Then we headed home. Everyone was pretty tired out, in a good way..

Nope, Quartz isn't tired, not one bit!

So, it was a great trip. We want to do more (closer) camping this summer!

Quotes of the month

2011-03-16T18:55:00.000-06:00

A: "Sapphire, you're eating so much! Where are you putting all this food?!"
W: "She's turning food into little girl."

O: "This lego ship doesn't go the speed of light. It goes the real speed of light which is the speed of lego."

S: "I want snuggle with that bear. I want snuggle with another one. HUUUUUUUUG!"

Q: "NIMO NIMO NYEMO!"

W: "We are going to play the not whining game. Starting now, everyone who has not been whining when the round ends gets a surprise."
Q: *sniff, sniff*
O: "I almost never whine!"

Q: "You are like bank robbers stealing from your kids!"
W: "No, we are like the government giving you a fine for breaking the law."
Q: "Fine! I guess you'll see how mad I am when I go and live in the backyard!"
A: "I'll call you when dinner's ready."

S: "Hold me!"
A: "I'm carrying this laundry basket right now; would you like to help me?"
S: "Hold me first, THEN do laundry!"

Valentine's Treasure Hunt

2011-02-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

My mom started the family tradition of doing a treasure hunt on Valentine's day! Today I made one that is just right for a beginning reader, though I just noticed it's not very Valentinesy. Well, here's the clues if you want to use some in your own treasure hunt (click "Read More" if you want to see the clues).

[ Clue #1 -- start ]

This small hunt won't take hours;

Look for pink little flowers.

[ Clue #2 – pink flowers ]

Orange is this food's hue

At Halloween we carve it, too

[ Clue #3 – pumpkin ]

Outside there is a small house,

It is much too big for a mouse.

[ Clue #4 -- playhouse ]

When you climb into your bed

This is where you rest your head.

[ Clue #5 – pillow ]

Now find this, if you are able --

a drawer below a little table.

[ Clue #6 – kid's table ]

Do not stop, you are close

Look where you can make some toast.

[ Clue #7 -- toaster ]

One last place for you to look

Look where we put the library books!

[ Prize – on library book shelf]

Going Nuts and Bananas

2011-02-09T13:49:00.001-07:00

Sapphire has made a picnic

Quartz and Onyx have made guns

Q: "Have you ever gone nuts before?"
O: "I don't know how."
Q: "Going nuts is the same things as going crazy."
O: "Ohhh. Can you help me go bananas?"
Q: "I don't really feel like doing that right now. Maybe later."

S: "I turning big!"

O: "I'm Atrillion! I can eat things people can't eat!"
Q: "Could you eat the whole world in one bite, Atrillion?"
O: "I . . . don't know if I did that."

S (putting on dress): "I look like mom!"

Q: "Let's brush our teeth"
O: "Oh, now bacteria won't steal our teeth!"

S: "Is that bacon?"
A: "Yes."
S: "I love bacon!"

W: "I got more work done at home today than in a whole week of sitting in my office. They should have snow days more often!"

W: "Onyx, the toilet's saying, 'Come pee in me! I'm way better than your pants!'"

At-home Winter Fun

2011-02-04T08:30:00.001-07:00

With school cancelled for four days in a row due to snow and cold, I decided to brainstorm some indoor things that the kids will enjoy. Now you can enjoy them, too, if you've got a hankering for free indoor fun.

Decorate for Valentine's Day! Cut out hearts & decorate them and tape them up all over the house for that elusive "yes-three-kids-live-here" look!
Play hide and seek with flashlights (at night)
Dance party! If you don't have a playlist of dance music, try Pandora's "Dance/Club" station and tweak it to your liking.
Have a building contest with material of your choice (legos, tinker toys, toothpicks and marshmallows, pipe cleaners, cardboard and duct tape, etc). You can give a theme or a time limit and at the end everyone shows off their creations. I like to have candy for prizes because I'm evil like that.
Youtube surfing with the kids can be fun (and sometimes educational). Try these to start with:

Fill jars or glasses part way with water and tap with a butter knife to make chimes. Yes, this requires some guts.
Pretend to visit a new place, like the bottom of the ocean, Antarctica, or the moon. Bunk beds with a sheet over the side or closets work great for a pretend camper van.
Make homemade pretzels, and let the kids shape them into letters, sculptures, or whatever and put on their own toppings (seeds, nuts, spices, etc).
Decorate your own wrapping paper to use later. There's the good ol' potato stamps (or use sponges if you want them to be reusable).

What are your favorite cheap indoor activities?

Quick Cute Quotes

2011-01-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Andrea: Sapphire, go get some clothes for today.
Sapphire: Sapphire get big clothes?
Andrea: How about Sapphire-sized clothes?
Sapphire: Sapphire big! Sapphire get big clothes!

Sapphire: Mommy, big? Mommy big?
Onyx: Yeah, mom's gigantic.

Mom: Let's make bird feeders!
Sapphire: We helping birds! Birds come our house!

Quartz: 3-PO, R-2! Wookie, wookie hair-do! Bang, bang, Death Star! Vader's fleet won't get too far!

And now, some photos:

The reason Sapphire is not allowed to play with markers for several months

Onyx and Sapphire are enjoying the new washing machine.
I have to sneak in and do laundry when no one's watching or I'd never get a turn to use it.

Onyx is teaching Sapphire how to play Mousetrap, with surprising success

Riddle Solutions

2011-01-13T13:16:00.001-07:00

Alright, I'm posting the riddles and their solutions for any interested.

_____________________________________________
_ _ _ _ _

I just can't decide
Whether I'm tall or wide.
One after the other
We all work together.
One of us is as small as a cat;
Together we are much taller than that.

STAIRS
_____________________________________________

_ _ _ _

Nose first, I drown.
Tail first, I sink.
On my back is no good;
on my belly I rest.

BOAT
_____________________________________________

_ _ _ _

Full of teeth, but never eats,
run through raven or cornsilk sheet.

COMB
_____________________________________________
_ _ _ _

Bedecked in white, I stand supreme,
adorned with flowers like a queen.
Though with praise I'm often showered,
I await my turn to be devoured.

CAKE
_____________________________________________

_

Always in traps, never in trouble.
Often in baths, but not in a bubble.
I'm never in drama or tragedy,
though surely the stage holds a place for me.

THE LETTER 'S'

Cheapest Trip to Japan Ever

2011-01-08T18:02:00.001-07:00

If you ever wanted to go to Japan, but just don't have the money/time, our weekend was probably the next best thing you can find in New Mexico! After dropping the kids off at Grandma's (thank you, Becky!), we had dinner at Kohnami restaurant in Santa Fe. They even have tables where you can kneel at them Japanese-style, if your knees and back will allow it.

Then we headed up to Ten Thousand Waves, which, despite feeling very foresty and secluded, is actually only 5 minutes out of Santa Fe. The rooms are decorated with simple elegance, with themes ranging from Southwestern-Zen to Sailor Moon to capsule-style in an Airstream trailer. It was kind of expensive to stay the night, but, hey, it feels cheap next to plane tickets. We put on our yukata and made our way up to the baths, where we soaked for awhile, looking up at the stars and enjoying the contrast between the frosty air and hot hot soaking tub. We weren't quite spendthrifty enough to try the massages there, but they all sounded good, even though the way they called them "treatments" made me think of Dollhouse in an eerie way. We finished up by sleeping in . . . ahhhh . . . and getting breakfast burritos.

The kids had fun at their slumber party. First Grandma took them swimming at the Rio Rancho Aquatic Center, where Quartz went down the waterslide "like twelve times" and Onyx and Sapphire enjoyed the shallow water. Then they went out to Burger King, stayed up late, and slept in Grandma's bed (Onyx & Sapphire) or on the couch (Quartz).

I thought the kids would miss us more than they did, but I guess from their point of view we weren't gone that long. :-)

Old-Fashioned Riddles

2011-01-06T15:01:00.001-07:00

We made up these riddles as part of a puzzle-solving role-playing game. I present them here for your enjoyment and/or frustration (click "Read More" if you want to read them, and post your guesses if you like).

the puzzle-solvers

_ _ _ _ _ _

I just can't decide
Whether I'm tall or wide.
One after the other
We all work together.
One of us is as small as a cat;
Together we are much taller than that.

_ _ _ _

Nose first, I drown.
Tail first, I sink.
On my back is no good;
on my belly I rest.

_ _ _ _

Full of teeth, but never eats,
run through raven or cornsilk sheet.

_ _ _ _

Bedecked in white, I stand supreme,
adorned with flowers like a queen.
Though with praise I'm often showered,
I await my turn to be devoured.

_

Always in traps, never in trouble.
Often in baths, but not in a bubble.
I'm never in drama or tragedy,
though surely the stage holds a place for me.

Meal Planning Sheet

2010-12-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

You know, I love to try new things, but sometimes I just want to have a list of things we usually have for dinner. When I'm in the store or making up the meal calendar for the week, it's sometimes hard to remember. So I looked through the meal calendar for 2010 and concocted this list. For dinner, I try to at least have a protein, starch, and fruit/vegetable, so I've organized the list that way. This list is mostly for me, but if you find it useful in planning your meals, great! :-)

Plan-a-Dinner Sheet

You know, I thought we ate a lot of different things, but this list is not that big . . . :-/

Is it too late for a Christmas post?

2010-12-28T12:56:00.003-07:00

Wow, we enjoyed our Christmas vacation so much I totally forgot to write anything about it.

Here's a few things I don't want to forget:

1) Best Homemade Present I Received - Quartz gave me some papers stapled together and wrote on it "A Book For Makeng A Book". We made a story together about the police catching some motorcycle thieves.

2) Best Homemade Present Overall - Definitely the knitted stuffed animals from Aunt Susan - an armadillo, loch ness monster (though Quartz insists it's a plesiosaur), hammerhead shark, and doll-sized horse! This has stepped outside the realm of cool and into the realm of awesome.

3) Most Fought-Over Present - Sapphire's Duplo house. Everyone wanted to build it at the same time.

4) Most Popular Activity - Building Legos. There were days when it was eat-sleep-legos all day long. :-)

5) Person Whose Picture Is Most Likely To Be Posted For No Other Reason Than Being Cute - that would be Sapphire.

6) Person Most Likely To Ask to Have His Picture Taken - Quartz! Here he is with a backdrop he painted and his Atlantis Legos -- pretend it's under the ocean.

2010 Christmas Letter

2010-12-22T22:44:00.001-07:00

In case you didn't receive this earlier, here's our Christmas letter:

How do we measure a year such as 2010? “Days” are too coarse, too commonplace. We could measure it in trips to work or school, or bowls of cereal consumed (or cleaned off the floor), but I would rather measure it in new words Sapphire has learned, LEGO creations the boys have made, hugs from Quartz after a hard day at kindergarten, or from Onyx before an easy day at preschool, books read, games played, goodnight kisses, date nights, and days spent with those we love.

We hope your year is full of not just life,
but of all the things that we live for.

Love,
The Landakers

Eavesdropping Results

2010-12-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Eavesdropping Results:

Quartz: "DECK THE HALLS WITH BELLS OF HOLLY!"
Onyx: "That LEGO thing is very cool, but not that cool. I want to buy it."
Sapphire: "I do it by self. I want help mommy! I DO IT SELF!" ::stamps feet:: "Mommy Helping Me!"
Andrea: "Let's pretend that I'm your mom that you love, and talk to me about that again."
Wes: "Flamingos are cute, and flamingos are pink, but the real question is, would one fit on the grill?"

Anthropological Surveillance Notes

2010-12-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

Our cultural observation of the Landaker household continues. I can now surmise with some certainty each person's role in this small society.

Sapphire, The Town Crier - Tells in a loud voice what everyone is doing; repeats until acknowledged, e.g., "Quartz wearing that shirt!" "Mommy carrying me up the stairs!" "Onyx putting Legos on head!" "I doing this!"

Onyx, The Creator - Often hides away in his basement laboratory and emerges with a new creation, e.g, "This is the king's castle! It has two drawbridges with chains and a catapult, but not a portcullis. This is the jester. He's in jail because he was taking apart the castle."

Quartz, The Police Officer - Notices rules infractions; reports to the Mayor and Sheriff, e.g, "Mom, Onyx is dropping Legos on the floor" or "No, Sapphire, the small fork is not for dad! It's a kid's fork!"

Onyx's Imaginary Friend

2010-11-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Onyx, as the middle child, doesn't get as much attention as Quartz or Sapphire. So here is a post entirely about dear Onyx.

Onyx has an imaginary friend named Atrillion. He is sometimes accompanied by his friend Eviss. They are Star Wars guys. Atrillion and Eviss get to do all the things Onyx wishes he could do. If Onyx sees a Lego toy that he likes that is very expensive, he says, "Atrillion has that. He bought if from a store that is only for Star Wars guys and it costed one dollar". If Onyx has to wear his seatbelt, he says, "Atrillion never wears a seatbelt. He rides on top of the car and never falls off." If Onyx wishes he could have a birthday more often, he says, "Every day is Atrillion's birthday except school days." Atrillion has a space ship called the "Sign Catcher", and he eats cake for every meal.

Here is a story Onyx told me about Atrillion, transcribed exactly.

"There was a sea monster. It had lots of tentacles. It killed Atrillion's hand. It was trying to get Atrillion but it did not. Then Eviss was on the sea monster and then he tried to kill it but he did not and Atrillion fell in the lava pit and then they pulled the little stick with a hole in it and then they saw his hand. Then they got him out. Then the sea monster got smaller until it turned into a not very big dolphin, and then the crane picked it up and put it in the lava pit."

We Love Halloween!

2010-10-31T23:36:00.000-06:00

I love Halloween. Not really gory stuff, but dressing up, and visiting neighbor's houses for the sole purpose of getting candy and showing off cute kids, and eating said candy, and pumpkins and bats and spiders and all those great living things.

Anyway, Halloween's over now, but we'll remember it with our pictures!

pumpkin owners, from left to right:

Andrea, Onyx, Sapphire, and Quartz.

In case you're wondering, I am a steampunk inventor, Wes is a wizard (squizard?), Sapphire is a monkey, Quartz is R2-D2,and Onyx is a ghost knight. Whew!

How to Make Divided Skirts or A Long Full Skirt

2010-10-29T17:24:00.001-06:00

I've been working on a steampunk costume, and have found a dearth of free instructions for making divided skirts (this pattern looks interesting, but way too many buttons for a lazy seamstress like me). For the shirt, I used these instructions for making a women's ruffled shirt out of a men's shirt (only mine has cap sleeves instead of being sleeveless).

How To Make Divided Skirts

(or, a long full skirt)
(click Read More for the instructions)

1. You will need about three yards of 60" wide fabric for a size 12 or smaller skirt (more fabric might be needed for a larger skirt). Twill is comfy and sturdy; knit cotton is not as durable but very comfortable. Velvet or faux suede could also be used, depending on how fancy you want your skirts.

2. If you have a skirt that already fits you that you can use as a guide, you can fold it in eighths to get a pattern for the panels for your new skirt. If you don't have skirt this style that fits, you can make a pattern for the panels like this:

For a size 12 long skirt, I used t=6 and l=40.

3. Now fold your fabric in fourths lengthwise, and cut four of your pattern out all at once. Cut four more to make a total of eight panels. If your pattern is larger than mine, you will probably need to cut these out differently (maybe fold the fabric in half, or thirds).

4. Take two panels, wrong sides together, and sew down one long end. Put another panel, wrong sides together, on one end and sew down there. Put the fourth panel, wrong sides together, on one end and sew down one end. This will be one leg of the skirts. Do the same thing with the other four panels for the other leg of the skirts.

5a. If you just want a long skirt and don't want it divided, then you can place these two large pieces together, wrong sides together, and sew up both sides. Skip to adding on the waist and hemming in step 9 below.

5b. If you want divided skirts, then take each leg of the skirt and fold it in half, right sides together. Cut off the triangle part of the unsewn edge to make these two panels into rectangles instead -- this will make it so you don't have so much fabric bunching up on the inside (see Diagram 2).

Diagram 2

6. Now you're going to make the inseam -- this is the part that goes from the front under your crotch to the back. Find a pair of loose pants that fit you well, and fold them in half along the seams. The front and back won't be the same; that's okay, just use the back (it's bigger). It has kind of a J shape (see Diagram 3). Overlay this onto your skirt leg that is folded in half, right sides together, and cut out the J shape. For the other skirt leg, flip the first one over and overlay it onto the second skirt leg and cut out the same shape (but since you flipped it, it will be mirrored).

Diagram 3

7. Keeping the skirt legs folded, right sides together, sew the straight part of the inside of each skirt leg.

8. Turn one skirt leg right side out, and put it inside the other one, matching them up so that they are right sides together, corners together, etc. Now pin the two skirt legs together, taking special care to match them up at the bottom seam. It should make a sort of U shape. Sew this where you've pinned it.

9. Try on what you have so far and see how it fits. If you can't get it on over your hips, don't worry, there's an option to add a zipper (you will probably need this with the divided skirts).

10a. Elastic/drawstring waist option: Fold over the waist enough to make a slot for the elastic. If the waist will be too low, you can use a separate strip of fabric and attach it to the skirt waist. Sew almost all the way around, leaving a little space for the elastic to go through. Cut a piece of elastic (I like 1" wide) the circumference of your waist, thread it through the open spot, and sew the ends together. You could also use some ribbon if you want a drawstring waist. Close up the hole. Proceed to hemming, step 14 below.

10b. Zipper & Button option: Cut a strip of fabric for the waistband about 3" wide by (circumference of skirt waist+4") long. Fold this in half, right sides together, to make an even skinnier band. Cut a piece of interfacing the size of this and pin it to the fabric. You should have 3 layers: interfacing, fabric, fabric. Sew around the ends, but leave most of the bottom open. Turn this right side out, so that you have fabric, interfacing, fabric.

11. Make a buttonhole near one edge of your waistband. Most sewing machines can do this quite handily with a buttonhole stitch (test it on scrap fabric first).

12. Use a seam ripper to take out the seam where you want the zipper to be (I put it in the left side seam). Rip out just enough to fit your zipper in. Sew the zipper in to this seam according to the zipper package directions.

13. Pin the waistband to the skirt, starting at the non-buttonhole edge, right sides together, and sew them. You should have some extra waistband where your buttonhole is; this is fine. Try on the skirt and mark where you want your button to be; add a few extra for looks or for an adjustable waist if you like.

14. Try on the skirt and mark where you want to hem it. I like to just fold the fabric under twice about a half-inch wide, pin it, and sew that with a zig-zag stitch. It's quick and easy.

15. Now wear your swanky new skirt!

Too Funny to Forget

2010-10-21T10:24:00.000-06:00

I don't know why I'm posting these embarrassing moments. I guess they are pretty funny, and my job here, after all, is to entertain you, dear reader. :-D

1) "I know it sounded like my son said, 'I could beat you up', but what he actually said was, 'I could beat you up the slide.' I think he wants to race with your son."

2) "Do you have this in a smaller size than A?" (in the Victoria's Secret dressing room)

3) Serving broccoli with caterpillars in it to guests, and not discovering it until dinner was almost over (If you, dear guest, are reading this, I am so sorry. I hope you just hate broccoli and didn't even try it.). I now wash and scrutinize broccoli very carefully before and after cooking it.

Duplo Fingers!

Fall Camping in Jemez

2010-10-17T18:59:00.000-06:00

We took a final camping trip a week ago up to the Jemez National Forest. We found some geocaches, did some watercolors, played hide and seek, and played around the campground. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for smore's, and played flashlight tag. The boys enjoyed sleeping in their own tent and asking mom to tuck them in after using the bathroom in the middle of the night, and Sapphire enjoyed babbling in her sleep all night long. It was pretty cold in the morning, so our sausages, oatmeal, and hot chocolate tasted really good!

Then we headed up to Bandelier National Monument, where we took a short trail around to some cliff dwellings, where the kids enjoyed climbing on the ladders and poking their heads out the windows. Sapphire lay down on every ledge saying, "I sleeping this bed." The aspens were golden and beautiful, but it was too early for most fall colors.

Conclusion: We need to go camping more, but when the weather is a little warmer!

Cardboard & Duct Tape

2010-10-02T08:41:00.000-06:00

In the winter sometimes we get bored, and I feel like making something. So here's some of our cardboard + duct tape creations -- maybe someone will find one of these useful!

-Swords & Shields: make two the same shape and glue them together to make a fairly durable toy weapon. A popsicle stick between the two layers helps strengthen the sword.
-Cell Phone: a flip cell phone with number drawn on and a pretend screen
-Space Shuttle: cover a large box with butcher paper and let the kids add the flags, windows, and NASA logos.
-Race Cars: make doors in large boxes by cutting down and over, then bending the flap out. Make a steering wheel by cutting out a large circle, then cut out three triangle-shaped pieces to leave a small circle in the middle. Attach with a brad fastener, toy nuts and bolts, or real nuts and bolts. You can also cut out pedals and attach them with a strip of cardboard bent partway in half and some duct tape. Then they will depress like real pedals.
-Castle/Rocket Ship: get a huge box (furniture/hardware stores will often give these away free, call up and ask), add doors & windows, let the kids decorate with (washable) markers.
-Car Ramp: this works great with the sturdy pallet boxes from Costco. Cut the box into a ramp shape by cutting from one corner to the opposite corner on each side.

Ren Faire, Quotes of the Month, Gardening

2010-09-19T16:33:00.001-06:00

We went to the Santa Fe Renaissance Fair this weekend; it was great! Smaller than the Faire I went to in California 17 years ago, but also nowhere near as crowded, and everyone was very friendly and having a good time. It was supposed to be the Spanish Renaissance (not the English Renaissance), but other than Queen Isabella, everything was pretty much a mish-mash. Belly dancers, Spanish storytellers, fire dancers, jesters, caber-tossing, SCA combat demonstrations, Celtic dancing, Baroque gentlemen, cowboys, and pirates all made appearances. They even had an area with games for kids; they got to shoot some air cannons at the pirate ship, and aim bean bag catapults at the castle. The Fire Dancer was pretty cool; I mean, what could be cooler than hula hooping while doing the splits except hula hooping while doing the splits and your hula hoop is ON FIRE?! :-D We saw Teatro Paraguas doing some storytelling-with-actors-and-guitar; the narrator was especially skilled. The SCA rapier demonstration was neat, too.

Of course, since I'm a total geek I made everyone in our family dress up. Probably about 1/2 of the attendees at some sort of costume, so we felt right at home. Sapphire loved her little dress and hat, thankfully (though she was still mistaken for a boy, twice). The boys were brave knights escorting us around and protecting us from dragons and brigands at the faire. I was thinking that the ren faire is way more fun than the State Fair -- if we feel like going to a fair in September next year, I think we will head on up to Santa Fe! :-)

I know you've been waiting on the edge of your seat for more funny/cute quotables, so here's a ration of them from me, especially for you:
Sapphire: "Ma cute me, pee", which means, "Mom, scoot my chair closer to the table, please".
Onyx: "There's a Star Wars guy I made up named Quadrillion, and he is quadrillion years old and has quadrillion light sabers. And they are all red, and he's a good guy. He's like a kid."
Quartz: "In LEGO Star Wars, it's kind of annoying if you don't have any light saber guys and you're fighting droidekas and there's like five of them, or even one of them. It's hard if you don't have any guys with light sabers."

Gardening Notes: Successes this year include carrots, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, basil, mint, tomatoes, and spicy peppers. Unsuccesses include zucchini, corn, beans, radishes, watermelon, and beets.

YASAI BANZAI!

Hiking and Soccer!

2010-09-11T15:41:00.002-06:00

We went on a picnic and a little hike in the Sandias for Labor Day weekend. The weather was cool, and the trail was short and fun.

I love these portraits Wes took of us near this cool pine tree!

Today was the boys' first soccer practice and game! It was hard to remember to pay attention to the referee, but by the end of their game they had markedly improved in ball-chasing, kicking, and whistle-waiting. Sapphire even kicked the ball around a little. I think we all got sunburns!

Prickly Pear Harvest

2010-09-09T19:43:00.000-06:00

Fall is the season where I most feel like I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Most other seasons, it could be any medium-sized city with suburbs on the outside, but in the fall there's Balloon Fiesta, chilies roasting, the State Fair, and . . . prickly pear fruit ripening!

Technically called the "tuna", these fruits have a sour-sweet taste kind of like strawberries or pomegranate. They are ripe when they start to look a little shiny, are a deep color (red, orange, or purple), and animals start to eat them. Prickly pears are native plants, require no extra watering, and make great food! While you can also eat the pads, I'm going to talk about the fruit today.

So, you're looking at those juicy, ripe tuna, wondering how to turn a ball of spines and seeds into something edible? Here's how!

1: Harvest
Use tongs to twist off the fruits and put them in a bucket or large bowl or something. They should twist off easily -- if not, they're probably not ripe and will be sour.

2: Remove Spines
The small spines in light-colored clusters are called glochids, and yes, they do hurt and are hard to see! There's two ways to remove them from the fruit:
A) Scrape off with a knife under running water -- this works well if you're just going to eat a few and need the spines completely removed. Hold it with tongs in one hand, and scrape the skin with a knife to remove all the glochids.
B) Burn off spines using a gas stove, grill, or lighter -- this works well if you're going to strain out the juice or are processing a lot of them. The spines don't always burn completely away, but the sharp part at least becomes removed so you don't have to worry about it anymore. Or, if you do this outside on concrete, you can roll them around on the concrete while you burn off the spines and they will come off the rest of the way.

3: Remove Seeds and Skin
A) If eating plain, cut the tuna in half lengthwise and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Then you can slide your spoon between the fruit and the skin (kind of like a kiwi) and eat it!
B) If making jelly, juice, or fruit leather, you can boil the tuna in a little water, mash them, and put them through cheesecloth to make a nice liquid. Careful; the juice stains!

I like to mix the jelly with plain yogurt for prickly pear yogurt, or pour it warm over pancakes.

That's it! Maybe not always worth the work, but give it a try if you are curious!

Quartz's Birthday, Onyx's Pasttimes, and Sapphire's Colorful Language

2010-09-01T07:06:00.001-06:00

Quartz turns 6 today! Happy Birthday, Quartz! We already had a combined birthday party for him and Onyx, but he is very excited to get to bring a treat to his class. We're making doughnuts!

He really likes school, and makes his lunch every day. I feel a little bit guilty about making a kindergartner make his own lunch, but this way he gets what he likes. I told him a healthy lunch has a protein, starch, and fruit/vegetable, so this way he can choose whatever he wants that fits that criteria. He usually packs crackers, ham or a boiled egg, a piece of fruit, and a cookie.

Onyx is looking forward to starting preschool in a few weeks, though he also likes having all the Legos to himself. He and Sapphire build with Duplos together every day -- I love when she tries to play with his creation and he says, "Here Sapphire, I'll build something for you to play with". His latest interest has been building huge castles, as you can see. Quartz and I made some red dragons to go with them.

Sapphire is learning so many new words every day! Her recent, interesting acquisitions include, "Dagoba", "Guybrush", "rock monster", and "pig ride" (for piggyback ride). You can tell she has two older brothers!

Places Not to Use CFLs

2010-08-22T07:52:00.000-06:00

We just had a bunch of CFLs go out that were not that old. It turns out there are some places where it is NOT more efficient to use CFLs instead of incandescents (though you could always get LED lightbulbs if you still want to be really green).

Places you should NOT use CFLs:
1) Places with a lot of humidity (ie, near a shower).
2) Places with a lot of vibration (ie, on the garage door opener)
3) Places where you turn the light on for just a minute or two (like the garage or laundry room).
4) Places with a dimmer switch

I couldn't find this information anywhere else online, so I thought I'd share my enlightenment. :-D

------------

Also, the boys were just arguing over who would win in a fight, Darth Vader or Arthur Weasley. And between the two of them, they've spilled liquids four times already, and it's only 7:30am . . .

School Begins!

2010-08-21T12:42:00.000-06:00

Quartz is now a kindergartener. I guess that makes me a "parent of school-aged children". Onyx and Sapphire are enjoying the additional attention during the day, Mom is enjoying the additional peace, and Quartz is enjoying school and taking the bus! So far so good . . . :-)

San Diego and Gardening

2010-08-11T20:47:00.000-06:00

We loved our vacation to San Diego! My parents rented a great place close to the beach, so we could play there whenever we wanted. The kids mostly liked the sand, and Wes and I liked boogie boarding. We all liked collecting shells and looking for crabs and starfish.

Legoland was great -- I just wish we could've done more there! Everyone's favorite ride was the Technic Test Roller Coaster, except Sapphire, who liked the little train. The other favorite activity was the Castles play area -- it was like a big castle with nets and slides and bridges all over. Miniland was also cool -- we especially liked the Las Vegas and San Francisco models. The car behind Wes in this photo is made entirely of Legos (though it is hollow). Wow.

Wednesday we went to the Birch Aquarium, which had some great tidepools and local plants and animals. We finally got to put names to the jellyfish, kelp, starfish, and other creatures we'd seen. They also had a great seahorse exhibit, and the cutest (only?) little baby squid you ever saw.

Thursday we went to Seaworld -- we liked the Arctic exhibits the best, especially the penguins. Ahhh, penguins! The walrus was also amazing -- so huge. Everyone liked the roller coaster -- Onyx was so scared during it but afterwards said it was his favorite thing. We went home at dinner time, and after putting the kids to bed, Wes and Joshua and I headed back for a final look at some of the aquariums (whee, tree frogs!), and a ride on the rapids (we got soaked), twice.

After a few more days of beach-going, kayaking, and just hanging out, it was finally time to head home. But we had time for one last adventure -- visiting Wes' brother Ralph and his wife Susan in L.A. The kids especially loved the ride around the block on Ralph's super-cool motorcycle. We loved relaxing in their beautiful backyard and the great Mexican lunch we had (Wes is now obsessed with mole).

Now that we're home, we've been finishing up a few summer things before school starts -- playing in the backyard, building with blocks, playing with friends, and working on the garden . . . speaking of which . . .

Attack of the Squash Bugs! Ahhhhh! I've been picking them off with chopsticks and then squashing (heh heh) them. While I was working I gave Sapphire two zuchinis to hold. The next time I looked, she only had one. I looked all over and haven't found it, so I'm guessing she had a yummy snack. O_O

Quartz has been learning about cussing. He says, "We don't say what the he**, we say 'What the helicopter?'!" I didn't make that up.

Playground Workout

2010-07-08T17:02:00.001-06:00

Quartz has tennis lessons this week (and he has been loving them), so Onyx and Sapphire and I have gone to the park next door to play every day. I decided to try and get in shape a little better, so I've been doing the Playground Workout. Works best in the early morning when there's no one else there; it feels pretty weird to be working out around other people (hmm, I wonder why? I don't feel weird riding my bike, and I see people jogging around all the time. Must be because the movements are so artificial). Exercising in the morning has helped me feel more motivated to get things done (even though I feel sore all over).

So, mostly for my own reference, here's the exercises I've been doing. I generally don't count reps or anything (I can't stand counting); I just keep going until I feel the muscles get pretty tired):
- Warm-up (usually by walking to the park and then jogging around it a few times, arm circles, etc)
- Squats
- Pull-ups on the monkey bars (lucky if I can do 2)
- Stair stepping
- Lifting and lowering self on parallel bars on the bridge
- Swinging on monkey bars hand-over-hand
- Bouncing on tip-toes
- Dips (hands behind on a ledge, lower and raise self)
- Jumping on one leg
- Swinging
- Stretches (especially arms & stomach)

Doesn't take too long, I can keep an eye on everyone, and I feel stronger, so I guess that's a good thing. Probably won't keep it up after tennis lessons are over, though . . . :-)

What do you do for exercise?

Electronics, Construction, & Embudito Spring

2010-07-06T10:49:00.001-06:00

Wes got an electronics kit and has been teaching the boys all about resistors, capacitors, charge, LEDs, current, etc. They get to attach the wires to the springs where he tells them, and then push the button to make a light go on. I think the favorite activity was making the circuit go through everyone in our family, so we had to be holding hands for the light to go on.

The kids watched a construction video that showed how houses were made, and they decided they wanted to build something. So I got out the scrap particle board and they nailed together a small bench. When the bench fell apart a few days later, they got to use the claw end of the hammer to remove all the nails.

Our latest easy hike was to Embudito Spring; a nice 2 mile hike. The first part is kind of steep for little kids, but the rest is not so steep. The trailhead is at the eastern end of Indian School. We saw lots of cicadas, daddy long legs, stink beetles, and even a diamondback rattlesnake. He was just laying there on the trail, when Quartz yelled, "Snake!". We were probably four feet away; I didn't even notice it until Quartz yelled! Whew. The little stream was fun and refreshing for little feet, and the rocks were exciting to climb for bigger feet. We're having fun this summer!

Flower Girl

2010-07-01T14:47:00.000-06:00

We had a great trip up to Utah for my sister's wedding! Her husband's family is so cool (ALMOST as cool as our family, :-D ), and the reception was beautiful and simple. We loved the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point -- I was pleasantly surprised by the well-made skeleton dioramas and the plethora of actual fossils on display (trilobites! crinoids! stromatolites!). Next time, though, I'll make sure the kids have a snack BEFORE we go in, because once you go in, there's no place to eat until the very end; it's a very linear museum. Sapphire got quite cranky. I took a video of her rolling on the floor yelling "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." I'm sure someday I'll think it's cute. :-)

We also got to play mini golf twice. I think Utah Valley has the highest number of mini golf courses per capita than anywhere else in the world.

Oh, and if you go to Wallaby's in Utah Valley, make sure you go to the one in Lindon. The one in Provo has no snaggers (sausage), and no nifty down-under decor, though they both have great southern-style barbeque.

Summer FUN!

2010-06-18T23:18:00.002-06:00

All right, time for a fun post (let's get that rant from last time farther down the front page)! It's summer, and we have been playing hard!

First, the kids have been building things. Race car tracks, train tracks, car garages from blocks, Lego space police cruisers, Lego car carriers, Lego semi trucks, Duplo army bases, Duplo doll houses, and blanket forts. Even Sapphire is getting into it now that she can put Duplos together. The boys insist I take pictures of everything they make so they can remember how to do it.

We also tie-dyed some clothes. Onyx wanted more army clothes, so we got some brown and green dye, tied the shirts (and socks, and underwear), and dyed them outside. I thought they turned out pretty well (even though I forgot to do light colors first). My hands were black for a few days afterwards, but I think it was worth it.

Then we've had swim lessons! All three kids are swimming at the same time, so I enlisted Wes to take pictures on his day off. Quartz spends most of his time underwater, so his pictures didn't come out as good, but Onyx loved showing off his "alligator walk", and Sapphire loves to splash-swim. She insists on carrying her towel around her shoulders before and after every lesson.

And soon we'll go on our trip to see my sister get married! Yay!

Rage, rage, go away (Toilet Troubles)

2010-06-08T09:17:00.001-06:00

I am writing about this embarrassing and bodily-function-filled incident in the hopes that it will help my rage and frustration subside. Feel free to not read its disgusting and gruesome details.

Lately Onyx has had trouble using the toilet. He goes up to his room, is quiet for awhile, and then calls down, "Mom, I peed on the floor". You would think that I would notice him going upstairs to do this, but usually I am just so happy that no one is fighting that I try and get a few things done in the few "precious moments" that I have. Plus, Onyx often goes off to play by himself and does not pee on the floor, so it's not always positive indicator.

Today I was out front pulling weeds. Onyx went in the house. Later, I hear, "Mom, Onyx is covered with poop." Well, we clean it up, he sits on the toilet for awhile while I read him a book, but when nothing is forthcoming I leave him to get dressed while I help Sapphire, who is still sad because she got poked by the cactus (she seemed more offended than hurt).

Big mistake. "Mom, I pooped on the floor" from upstairs. And this ain't no dry-rabbit-dropping-style, this is full, my-momma's-been-feeding-me-whole-grains gloppy goodness all over Onyx and the carpet. I lost it. I have never swore at all, let alone in front of the kids, but I yelled at him why couldn't he just use the bloody toilet (I blame my current reading for that choice of epithet). He seemed sad and claimed it was an accident. "I thought I didn't have any poop".

I still feel like yelling. The carpet stinks despite four passes with carpet cleaner and a washcloth. Onyx is taking a bath by himself, but I'm sure in five minutes I'll hear, "Mom, I peed on the floor" again. I feel like he's old enough to just go use the toilet when he needs to (though lately we've started making him use the toilet when its obvious he needs to but still is not going anyway). Do I need to shadow him all the time like a toilet ninja? Lock his door with a big sign on it with a picture of a toilet? Give awesome rewards for using the toilet (we already have a star chart he does not care much about)? Shower Onyx with attention and positive reinforcement so he'll feel so good he'll just want to use the toilet all the time? Just laugh and think about how in a few years he'll just always use the toilet?

I don't know what to do, and I think that makes me the most upset. Plus, there's the whole control issue where I sometimes operate under the delusion that I can actually influence what my kids do. I can try to manipulate him into doing what I want, but my amount of control is limited. I remember this age with Quartz, too. He had similar pee troubles, and similar issues of wanting lots of attention and throwing a fit when he couldn't have his own way.

In an hour or two I might be ready to laugh at this, but right now I feel like I need a long bike ride, or twenty minutes with a book, or a vampire to stake, or maybe just a long rant on the blog.

All Wet at the Zoo

2010-05-30T21:40:00.000-06:00

Sapphire sometimes likes to play dress-up. Mainly she just puts on different hats and carries a purse around.

We enjoyed a trip to the zoo the other day -- lots of baby animals to see! The baby chimp played chase with Sapphire and I while the boys waded in the water. Quartz took close-up photos of a peacock, and almost got knocked over by its tail. Onyx climbed all the rocks and said, "Mom, take a picture of me!"

After we fed the ducks, Quartz was trying to show me a cool bird (black-crowned night heron), when he fell in the duck pond. He was carrying the backpack with lunches and stuff in it, so I think that made him lose his balance. Luckily, it was a warm day, and so we just washed his clothes when he got home and aired out the backpack. I knew one of my kids was going to fall in there sooner or later . . . :-)

Biking Buddies

2010-05-18T17:48:00.000-06:00

We like to ride bikes! The boys rode about 5 miles on the Paseo del Bosque trail. We saw two ostriches, three llamas, two burros, two horses, a camel, some geese, several whiptail lizards, and a duck. Apparently there are some farmers with exotic animals near the trail! :-)

Casting Call!

2010-05-07T12:54:00.000-06:00

If you look at the pictures first, you have probably already noticed that Sapphire is sporting a trendy new fashion accessory. It is so trendy we had to put one on her doll as well. The purple cast is not available in stores, however. In order to obtain one, you have to fracture your leg. The way Sapphire did this was to slide down a slide with one leg tucked under her; her shoes gripped the slide while gravity pulled her downward and her leg fractured slightly. While this method did produce a small fracture that does not seem to hurt too much, I cannot recommend this method for any wishing to imitate Sapphire's new fashion choices. You might try simulating your own cast with mommy or daddy's old socks, but the effect will not be as vibrant, attention-getting, nor as immobilizing as a true Purple Cast. This item, like all bizarre fashion, will disappear in 3-4 weeks but will be remembered forever.

I haven't posted a picture of the boys in a while, so here's a pic of us all reading together. Can you tell from the photo which people did not take a nap?

Grilled Dragon

2010-05-02T16:19:00.000-06:00

Family Nicknames:
Wes - Wizard Lizard
Andrea - Echo Gecko
Quartz - Spunky Monkey
Onyx - Boggy Froggy
Sapphire - Funny Bunny

It would be cool if we actually used these nicknames, but we don't really. They sure sound cool, though. :-)

Oh, and did I mention it snowed today?! Weird . . .

We just played The Heroes of Hesiod with the kids twice this weekend - a fun, DnD-esque mini adventure. Quartz loved it, Onyx liked it but got bored, and Wes and I had a lot of fun, too. "Fireball! Mmm, grilled dragon . . .".

What is art?

2010-04-22T11:37:00.000-06:00

Will people get made if I write posts without ~~baby~~ kid pictures? I don't know; and I'm not sure I'd be able to handle the wrath of my seething masses of fans, so here's a pic just to be safe:

So, I guess Roger Ebert says video games can't be art, and of course many gamers disagree, so I started thinking, What is art, to me? Because I don't think there's a universal answer to that question. One person's art is another person's trash (banned books, anyone?). But, to me, art is something that evokes emotion, and through those emotions you learn or are reminded of something important. Whether its entertaining or has puzzles or is made by more than one person is not as important to me as its effect on those who experience it.

So here's some examples of non-traditional things that are art to me (though maybe not to everyone):

Dinosaur skeletons, carefully arranged to be accurate and interesting, evoke a sense of awe, amazement, and desire for knowledge. Most of all, they convey how much we don't know.
My son's drawing of himself playing, with me in the house watching over him. He wants me to love and watch over him, but wants to be separate, too.
In the finale of one Buffy season, a character sacrifices herself to save her friends. This is a common theme, but what made this so artistic was that you felt admiration, sorrow, pride, angst, and a hundred other things and suddenly you felt like you knew what real love and friendship meant, not just the words, but the emotions, the commitment, the acts -- this is how a true friend feels, and you want to love more, and love better.
A bee, buzzing from flower to flower, oblivious to me and pretty much all humans, but appreciating the pollen and nectar, intent on her job, working hard with the hive to feed, build, and grow. When I see this I want to work harder for my own "hive"
In some video games, there are sometimes battles you cannot win, for plot reasons (I'm thinking specifically of Dragon Age & Deus Ex). The characters try their hardest, use their best skills and all their determination, and you use your best strategies, but you just cannot win. You feel powerless, defeated, inadequate -- but you do not quit. And the defeat that seemed like it would ruin you is often instead what lets you find out truth, find out what your real goal should be, and tells you what you need to be.

So, what is art to you?

Hikes, Birthdays, Easter, and More Quotes

2010-04-14T18:36:00.002-06:00

April has gone by quickly! Let me sum up.

On April Fool's day a good friend of mine watched the kids for a few hours while I took a hike ALL BY MYSELF. I had never done this before, and enjoyed it very much. I did the Domingo Baca Canyon trail. It was very very windy, but not too cold and the stream was pretty. I know no one comes to this blog looking for pictures of me, but here is one anyway, with the city of Albuquerque in the background. I saw lots of interesting lichen, some desert moss, several types of prickly pear, some gorgeous rocks, plenty of juniper and pinon, 1 robin, 1 mourning dove, and 1 blue jay.

For my birthday, we went out to eat at our favorite local seafood restaurant, Pelican's. It was a Friday, so it was kind of crowded even at 5pm (their early bird dinner crowd), but we got squid for an appetizer and their tasty bread kept everyone happy while we waited for food. The house vinaigrette is the best I've ever had, and their coconut shrimp with raspberry sauce was delightful.

As if that wasn't enough pampering, after putting the kids to bed Wes gave me a mysterious clue. It was the start of a 30-clue treasure hunt, full of fake latin and cryptoquotes and picture clues and unscrambles and ASCII conversions and word ladder puzzles and more. It was awesome! And the reward was FFXIII, so that was awesome, too. :-)

Sunday was Easter, and there were lots of eggs hidden in the backyard for the kids to find. Rather than attempt to describe their cuteness with mere words, these pictures will do a much better job.

Then, the next weekend, we went to the Japanese Hana Matsuri (Flower Festival) at the botanical garden. They had taiko drumming, karate demonstrations, and origami and ikebana displays. I think the drums were our favorite.

Wes: You can tell how fancy a salad is by how much work you have to do to eat it. The fanciest salads are just whole tomatoes and cucumbers and other vegetables and a head of lettuce, and they give you a knife and let you chop it all up yourself.
Quartz: I can count to 10 million by millions. 1 million, 2 million, 3 million . . .
Onyx: I'm playing Misfire. It's a video game, but we don't have it yet. In the demo you can eat ice cream. The last level has a machine gun.
Andrea: I'm SO glad that's a raisin on the floor.
Sapphire: Mine.

In Which The Landakers Learn Many Things While On Vacation

2010-03-21T21:15:00.000-06:00

For Spring Break, we took a trip to Southern New Mexico! We drove down on Thursday and went rockhounding in Rincon, then spent the rest of the day camping at Aguirre Spring Campground in the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces. Friday we headed east, stopping to play at White Sands National Monument before heading up to Spruce Cabins in Cloudcroft. The drive from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft was beautiful, with a gradual transition from high desert to pinon juniper to ponderosa pine forests (and NM's only highway tunnel). We had planned to play in the snow, but we ended up just hanging out at the cabin instead, and had fun despite everyone being a little under the weather.

So here's what we learned on our very educational trip:

1) You can clean up just about anything with water and paper towels, especially if that's all you have. Anything you can't clean up, you can wrap in a plastic bag and save for when you get home (whee, presents!).
2) Vacationing while sick is not as fun as vacationing while well, Nyquil and Dayquil notwithstanding.
3) With the right portable chair, traveling with a bad back need no longer be as painful.

3) Strong wind is a lot more noticeable when you are sleeping in a tent and it pulls tent stakes out of the ground, doubling your tent over onto itself. It tends to wake you up. Also, the sound of approaching wind is much like the sound of an approaching locomotive (sans whistle).

4) While the incredibly soft gypsum sand of White Sands looks rather like snow, a toboggan-style sled does not work for sledding down sand dunes. Even saucer-style sleds had some trouble, as the sand is much less obliging than snow, obstinately sliding out of the way (like dirt before a bulldozer) instead of letting you ride roughshod over it. However, it is quite fun to dig and play in.

5) You can play hide-and-seek in a 300 sq. ft. cabin.

6) Alamogordo's Space Museum, while interesting and informative about humankind's space exploration, does not have much entertainment for the under 6 crowd. Fortunately, Alamogordo has a wonderful park (Kid's Kingdom) that does.

7) Playing in the snow sounds much more fun when everyone is well and snow clothing is not buried in the car under camping equipment. Checkers is a fun alternative.
7b) Camping equipment for 5 people is a LOT of STUFF!

Imagine all the people . . . as Lego Minifigs!

2010-02-28T17:10:00.001-07:00

Lego MiniFig Maker

Thanks to Sally for the link; we all had fun making ourselves into Lego minifigs. The boys created Sapphire's . . . can you tell we've been playing a lot of Star Wars lately? :-)

Quotes of the week:
Onyx: "I'm going to take a toilet break."
Quartz: "Knock-knock." "Who's there?" "Snow." "Snow who?" "'Snobody but me!"
Sapphire: "Nah, nah" (knock, knock)
Wes: "I need a picture of a yawning hippo, not a chomping one." (from the PS3 game Afrika)
Andrea: "You can't fight evil with dirty hands. Time to wash up!"

The difference between a pro and a probe

2010-02-23T16:16:00.000-07:00

Quick updates for each kid!

Quartz really enjoyed his grandmas the past few weeks (we had both come to visit). He likes showing everyone his Nerf guns and shield and learning to sneak around and surprise people.

Potty training Onyx has not been as bad as I feared. He still has accidents, but I think he really likes being a big boy in this way (his behavior has improved in other areas, too). The hardest thing was staying home all day for two days in a row, and not leaving Onyx alone for too long (that leads to accidents). We played a lot of Star Wars ("You are Yoda, mom. Use your Yoda voice.") and the kids took a lot of baths. Whew.

Sapphire is growing more steady on her legs, trying to run and keep up with the boys. She loves to climb, and climbed up the ladders on our play set for the first time this past weekend (which is kind of a shame because now I have to keep a really close eye on her in our backyard).

Onyx: "I love that so much, my tummy feels like laughing."
Quartz: "I want to say "Sure!" when mom asks me to do something and hold two Nerf guns and be a pro just like Uncle Joshua."
Andrea: "Grandma teaches our kids the best things."
Sapphire: "Uh, uh. Pwee?" ("Up, up, please")
Wes: "Coroutines, Continuations, and Closures are three things my programming language has to have."

Hidden Albuquerque

2010-02-18T23:15:00.001-07:00

Sometimes we go to a museum here in Albuquerque and I feel like I've already seen everything, explained everything, and read every plaque dozens of times. While sometimes a helpful docent or child's question or new perspective can make an old museum seem new, I also love to find new places to visit. So here's some places in Albuquerque I want to go sometime:

NM Phone Museum - a museum about phones? Sounds cool. Does it actually exist? I've never heard of it, but saw a blurb about it in the Alibi.
Coronado State Monument - this is not too far (Bernalillo), and we've never been there! Plus, the website says you can try on conquistador armor -- sweet. Watch out; closed on Tuesdays.
Museum of Archaeology and Biblical History - anyone been here? No idea what's here, but it's a MUSEUM! It must be cool!
National Hispanic Culture Center - it's probably cool, but I just haven't gotten excited about it.

My mom is here this week and it's so much fun! We went to the Aquarium and Gardens with wonderful weather yesterday -- so nice. Also, potty-training Onyx seems to be going well; after a few days of accidents and staying at home he now seems to be able to manage alright.

Recipes for a Week!

2010-02-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

Lots of people ask what we eat (since we don't eat dairy). So here's a sample week of meals (ho ho, I'm really just copying Julie, hoping some of her coolness will rub off on me):

Monday
spinach-basil pesto sans parmesan (similar to this one)
pasta (sometimes half whole-grain)
mini chicken-apple sausages
garlic bread

Tuesday
Tamale pie (see Joy of Cooking)
broccoli
bread and butter for picky eaters

Wednesday
pan-fried oat-coated fish (coat fish in flour, then egg, then rolled oats and fry in oil)
oven fries (spray sliced potatoes with cooking spray, sprinkle with cajun seasoning, bake @ 375 for about 40 minutes, turning once)
canned corn

Thursday
porcupine meatballs
baguette
canned sweet potatoes with marshmallows

Friday
out or leftovers

Saturday
Wes grills something awesome like Lemongrass Chicken
grilled vegetables, like sugar peas or green beans
fruit salad
muffins

Sunday
I pull some leftovers out of the freezer, like Wes' smoked pulled pork or split pea soup or something easy.

AND your reward for reading through all that is a cute picture of Sapphire:

Food Fight!

2010-01-26T09:26:00.005-07:00

Here's what you all came for: Sapphire cuteness!

::WARNING! RANT DETECTED!::
All right, so I think it's cool that grocery stores have self-check out. If you've ever been waiting in line with just a loaf of bread in back of 3 people with full carts, you know how useful it is to just scan it yourself, pay, and go. But there are times when self check-out is not appropriate, such as when a mom (guess who!) with three kids on the verge of exploding is trying to buy a huge cartful of groceries. Yes, I know it's only 8am. I shop at that time because it works with my kids' schedules, and the stores are not crowded. But, Smith's, could you please put the "customer" back in "customer service", and open up a checkout stand for me? Or, pay me for self check-out, since I'm doing your clerk's job! It wouldn't be so bad if you could scan things quickly, like the clerks can. But, no, every time you scan something, you have to put it in the bag and wait for the machine to weigh it before scanning the next thing! And, to make matters worse, every time there's an item that's a little bit strange (and, since I like to buy clearance items, this happens quite often), I get "An attendant has been notified to assist you". Assist me, really? How about assisting me by CHECKING OUT MY GROCERIES FOR ME?!
::END RANT!::

I should probably just ask them politely to open up another checkstand. But, that's not nearly as fun as writing a dramatic rant in my blog!

Quotes for the week:
Wes: "Why did the math teach decide to learn a musical instrument?" "He wanted to learn Peano arithmetic!" (if you get this joke, you're even geekier than me!)
Andrea: "Sapphire! You're supposed to take the eyes out of potatoes, not put potatoes in your eyes!"
Quartz: "How you spell Sapphire is C-E-O."
Onyx: "I have one hundred sixty one lives!"
Sapphire: "Bway! Bwake! Bye!" (upon getting her blanket and being taken up to bed)

Wes' favorite foods are sausage, bacon, and peppers.
Andrea's favorite foods are blueberries, cheese, and ham.
Quartz's favorite foods are pie, muffins, and soy yogurt.
Onyx's favorite foods are popcorn, craisins, and sourdough toast.
Sapphire's favorite foods are scrambled eggs, crackers, and bananas.
The hermit crabs' favorite foods are watermelon, banana . . . and crab.

Roly Poly Fish Hats

2010-01-17T08:07:00.001-07:00

Here is Quartz proudly showing off his latest LEGO set that he built by himself -- the Power Miners Command Rig. It took him two days to build, but he did it. He even lets Onyx play with it too (as long as Onyx shares his fire station with him).

Sapphire just keeps getting bigger and bigger . . . she loves to climb, and sit on chairs/couches. She feels like such a big girl when she sits on the couch and looks at a book!

Wes' parents and grandma are here for a little bit, so we had a great time playing mini-golf and riding the go-karts together. Sapphire loved the purple golf ball, Quartz got a hole-in-one, and Onyx is finally old enough to play mini-golf without someone holding the club with him all the time. Also note the awesome fish-hats Wes' sister-in-law knitted for us all -- so cool!

Christmas Vacation in Foggy, Yet Comparatively Warm California

2010-01-04T16:28:00.002-07:00

The day after Christmas, we hit the road to California! On our way we saw the Mitchell Caverns in the Mojave desert -- they are some pretty cool caves, and there's great cactuses and Joshua trees. If you're traveling I-40 between Needles and Barstow I recommend it.

We got lucky and the kids slept a lot of the way, though rarely at the same time. We managed to wear them out at the caverns and enjoy a peaceful hour or two.

At my parents house, we had the whole family there -- my two brothers and my sister and my parents! Pretty amazing. My boys were entranced by Joshua's big ball factory -- it's pretty awesome. They thought Joshua was the coolest person ever, and Quartz was always wanting to play with him, or talk about the relative merits of various Nerf guns, or talk about Legos or whatever. Joshua played with them pretty patiently, too.

Sapphire's favorite buddy was my mom. Sapphire's pretty used to doing her own thing, but once she found out she could cry a little and grandma would pick her up and entertain her and read her books and walk with her -- well, they were pretty inseparable. By the end of the trip, if I was holding Sapphire and Grandma walked by, Sapphire would reach out to be held by Grandma. :-)

We went to the Academy of Sciences on Tuesday -- luckily my parents are members so we could get in early before the big rush. The old Academy of Sciences was one of my favorite places. It's very different now -- very modern, with lots of ecological exhibits and things. It's very trendy and sleek, but I kind of miss the big roundabout, the old Africa animals, and the gemstone exhibit. Though, the simulated rainforest was pretty cool -- especially the tiny poison dart frogs and giant macaws. Lance was a great buddy to Quartz, following him around everywhere and reading displays to him and keeping track of him so I could focus on Onyx.

On Wednesday we met my grandparents in Sacramento at the train museum! The coolest part was going on an old Pullman car train and a dining car -- made me want to write a mystery party that takes place on a 1940s train or something. Quartz and Onyx were chasing Joshua all over and trying to tackle him or something -- Onyx even grabbed my grandpa's legs (something he was not really expecting), but it was pretty cute, actually. Everyone was such a good sport.

Then, on New Year's Eve Day, we headed over to Muir Woods for a splendid hike in the redwoods. It was so damp, moss covered everything and mushrooms sprouted from the ground, the dead trees, everything. My favorite were some bright red shiny mushrooms that turned orange when they released their spores. Brilliant! Quartz and Onyx got tired, but luckily there were some piggy-back ride givers on hand. Sapphire likes her new hat. Afterwards, we had a picnic at Muir beach (nice and NOT crowded), where Wes and I found some great rocks for rock tumbling, Quartz dug a hole as far as his arm would reach, Onyx found beach treasures, and Sapphire reveled in the glorious messiness that is sand.

But, lest you think we only went on trips, we also had plenty of time to hang out. And with not one, but TWO animated book readers, I even had time for a game of Magic: The Gathering with my siblings. AND we had time to see the Sherlock Holmes movie. I thought it was pretty faithful to the original, while having more action for modern sensibilities (or lack thereof). My parents also threw a rockin' New Year's Eve party, where they learned not to let Kim and I be on the same team for Taboo or anything involving guessing what the other person is trying to convey. There was also some great poetry, as people tried, but never quite succeeded, to emulate my dad's oft-imitated, never-duplicated poetry style.

AND now we're back. After driving so long at 79mph on I-40, driving in the city feels excruciatingly slow. And Albuquerque feels quite cold. And, while I love being back at my own house, it also means I have my own chores to do.

Lastly, here's a few priceless exchanges between the boys:
Onyx: I have gas.
Quartz: Thanks for letting mom know.

Onyx: Dag, dag, dag! ::pokes air with dagger::
Quartz: Daggers don't dag. They stab.

Christmas Morning!

2009-12-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

Build, build, build! We've been building all morning; Onyx's Duplo Fire set, Quartz's Granite Grinder and Bionicle, Onyx's dinosaur puzzle, put together and taken apart many times already! What fun!

Wes pored over his new book on rocks, Sapphire grilled us pretend shish kebabs on her play grill and played some drum music, while I snuck peppermint chocolates and packed up the car.

The best part? No tantrums this year; everyone happily opened presents with lots of thank yous and no complaining! What a nice gift to parents! :-D

Thanksgiving, and Arachnid Form!

2009-12-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with the Wards visiting us from Colorado Springs. On Thanksgiving we had a great turkey dinner with brined and smoked turkey (thanks, Wes!), and played Bomberman with some fun friends (Quartz has figured it out, but Onyx still needs to learn to run away from his bomb after he puts it down.) We had a great time at the dinosaur museum and the aquarium/gardens. The trains weren't running, but we got to see lots of awesome bugs and had a good lunch at the Japanese garden.

Sapphire is getting close to walking, but she's not there yet. She loves to climb up on the step ladder and play in the sink, but she doesn't want to come down. Instead she screams for someone to come and give her back her wooden spoon or something.

Last, here's some quotes from our family this week:
"No potty language. Let's use clean words!" --Andrea
"Stupid isn't potty language. It's a rude word." --Quartz
"I'm really powerful, and also very special." --Onyx
"Dad da da da!" -- Sapphire, when dad comes home from work
"That's what boys are all about -- sharing!" --Quartz, trying to get Onyx to share his candy with him
"Arachnid form!" --Quartz and Onyx, pretending to be shapechangers
"Calamari form!" --Wes, also pretending to be a shapechanger
"I might cast a flush toilet spell to flush the toilet" --Quartz, while pretending to be a wizard but taking a potty break
"I have spikes all over! I'm made of triangle armor!" --Onyx
"I don't want to say please, because saying please makes me not hungry!" --Quartz

What Shall We Do With a Tired Baby?

2009-11-26T05:08:00.017-07:00

(to the tune of "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?")

What shall we do with a tired baby,
What shall we do with a tired baby,
What shall we do with a tired baby,
Early in the morning?

Chorus:
Way, hey, and up she rises,
Way, hey, and up she rises,
Way, hey, and up she rises,
Early in the morning!

Change her diaper and put her back,
Change her diaper and put her back,
Change her diaper and put her back,
Early in the morning.

Snuggle in a blanket 'til you're sleepy,
Snuggle in a blanket 'til you're sleepy,
Snuggle in a blanket 'til you're sleepy,
Early in the morning.

Don't watch TV; it's just infomercials (etc)

Feed her some Cheerios while you doze off

Let her play while you take a shower

Make hot chocolate and have a party

Hold her close and watch the sun rise

That's what we'll do with a tired baby

This is one of the many ways being a parent is like being a pirate. :-) So, what do YOU do with a tired baby early in the morning?

Soy Sauce Chin

2009-11-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

Sapphire! She loves to snuggle with dad (I can't blame her for that). She also likes to play in the pantry. You can tell she was playing with the soy sauce container because she has soy sauce on her chin. She can now say a few words, like "hi", "mama", "dada", and "hug".

The boys and I built this castle out of Duplos together. They were pretty proud of it. The army guys go inside it, so they can shoot people trying to get in (says Quartz). The yellow pieces are slides so they can get down quickly. Unfortunately, Sapphire tried to stand up using it and it fell apart. :-)

Happy Birthday, Sapphire!

2009-11-10T20:23:00.001-07:00

Sapphire is one, hooray!

We just had a little party at home with a few presents and some cake. She got a cute little doll from grandma and grandpa that can go in the bath. Quartz made it crawl around like a scary ninja baby. She got some pop-bead things, which Quartz made into a necklace and a belt and made everyone wear (I'm sensing a theme here . . . ). She got a Mrs. Potato Head, which Onyx took most of the parts from and put them inside Mr. Potato Head. Then she crawled around to each toy in turn crying for people to give them back. She made cute cooing noises to the baby doll (and took a bath with it), chewed on potato head pieces and laughed at the boys putting on silly parts, and waved wrapping paper around for all to see.

I'm not sure why the boys loved her toys so much; maybe because we don't have that many "girl toys". Either way, it was a fun evening.

What is Sapphire doing now? She stands without support for a few seconds, she loves when people talk to her or make faces at her or say silly noises (which Quartz is good at). She likes to play outside or at the park, picking flowers and crunching leaves in her hands, and she loves to open and close drawers (though she sometimes gets her fingers pinched). She climbs up stairs really quickly, but never seems to want to climb down (though we're trying to teach her). She likes to eat peas, crackers, and blueberries. We love our little Sapphire!

Why do you read?

2009-11-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder, why read books (and, to some extent, experience other media, such as movies, some video games, etc)? It's not just that they're fun (though they certainly are that). I think that I read books to understand things and people in a way I can't get from everyday life. This is one reason I love SF/fantasy; when the world is different, the parallels between situations and human actions and psychology are easier to see. I tend to be a little too demanding of real-life settings -- if an author is not going to write about the fantastic, I want it to be as accurate and realistic as possible. Why do you read books?

Some situations I think I understand a little better after books I've read this year:
- being a leader, making difficult decisions involving people's lives
- "coming out"; struggling with one's sexuality
- struggling to control one's inner demons
- being in a loveless marriage and seeking comfort elsewhere
- being a widow
- questioning wartime morality
- being a new immigrant
- living in a remote village in Pakistan
- having a strong talent and deciding how to use it
- struggling against being manipulated
- living on a chicken farm in rural Washington
- trying to raise a child with disabilities
- rejecting the religion of one's youth
- having a vampire baby (hee hee, had to throw that one in there)

Some situations I don't really understand very well and maybe should read more about (any suggestions?):
- being someone who seems superficial
- being a redneck
- being single at an older age
- being a criminal
- abandoning one's kids
- being homeless

Most of those things I don't really want to read about, but maybe I should. Maybe understanding these types of situations better would help me to be able to love and help people. Thoughts, ideas?

Fall Fun

2009-11-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a saffron crocus blooming in our yard with fall leaves. The red strands are the saffron. I thought it would be cool to grow my own saffron, since it's pretty expensive, but you don't get very much from just six flowers! Then again, I don't use that much saffron, so it's not too bad.

Sapphire loves to push cars around. I'm not sure if she really likes cars, or if she's just copying the boys, or what, but it's very cute. She spends the rest of her free time climbing the stairs, where she hopes to go into the kids' bathroom and unroll all the toilet paper, wave the magic toilet brush wand around, and throw washcloths into the toilet.

We had one day of snow. Quartz was so happy there was enough for the two of us to have a snowball fight and snowcones. Onyx decided to take a nap instead. He says, "I'm a nice pirate that talks politely to everyone. Pirates hit bad guys. If there's any bad guys, let me know."

Hallowe'en Revelry

2009-11-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

Yay, Halloween pictures! I love Halloween! Costumes are fun, going out walking at night is fun, candy is fun -- I just love the whole thing.

Our costumes are (from youngest to oldest): turtle, frog, alligator, Venus flytrap, and the Biologist who captured us all as as specimens. It was really fun to have matching costumes; we'll have to do that next year if we can get away with it.

We had a trunk-or-treat at the church on Wednesday, where the kids got to play games and thankfully didn't win a pet fish or mouse (though Quartz was really upset about that).

Then Saturday there was a neighborhood party, with a cool magician and costumes and everything. We carved out pumpkins (Quartz cut his face out himself), and trick-or-treated from 6:30 to 8pm. We figured we'd spend our extra hour trick-or-treating. :-) The boys really liked it -- they got startled by a motion-sensing skeleton, and spooked by a fog machine, but the guy dressed as Scream was "not scary", according to the boys. Quartz gave commentary on the treats -- "She gave me tons of candy!" "I think this has milk in it" "Crackers with cheese? That's more of a snack than a treat!" "Mom, I got Nerds!". Onyx said, "Ribbit, ribbit, thank you, Happy Halloween!" Sapphire chewed on a package of fruit snacks and watched the boys happily. A fun time indeed.

Pumpkin Patch Party!

2009-10-24T21:22:00.001-06:00

We went to McCall's pumpkin patch for the first time today, despite having lived in Albuquerque for 6 years now. I think this is going to be our new fall activity of choice, over the State Fair or Balloon Fiesta. It is really fun for the kids (but kind of expensive)!

They started out with a "cow" ride -- there's a little train of about 8 of these cars pulled by a riding lawnmower. The boys love riding lawnmowers -- every time we go to the hardware store, they insist on sitting in one -- so they thought that was pretty cool.

Next the boys took a spin on these pedal go-karts. Quartz thought this was the coolest thing ever, like NASCAR or something. His little legs pedalled so fast, he really got going! He was passing all the other kids on the inside, acting like he was some sort of race car driver. Onyx took a more leisurely approach, but appeared to enjoy the go karts as well.

Next is the corn cannon. They load some corn, husk and all, into the tube, and then when you push a button, a burst of air shoots it out. How cool is that?! They also had pumpkin slingshots, and a large pumpkin cannon that shot pumpkins about 20 stories high before they splatted on the ground (or, exploded, according to Quartz). Though, it seems like kind of a waste of food . . . I guess that's what harvest festivals are all about, though -- celebrating that we have so much food we can afford to waste it by launching it into the air. Isn't there a town in Spain with a tomato-throwing festival along similar lines?

Sapphire's favorite part was the corn bin, where they had about 9 inches of dry, large kernel corn and shovels, buckets, dump trucks, loader trucks, etc to dig with. I buried her legs in the corn and she thought it was pretty funny. I couldn't believe how good that corn felt, sifting through my fingers. It's lighter weight than pea gravel, with a dry, bumpy texture, and it makes a nice "shhhhhhh" sound when you dump it out.

I don't have pictures from the giant slide (Quartz loved it; Onyx was too scared to go alone), or any of the inflatable jumping thingies, but they were very fun, too. Sadly, we didn't make it to the corn maze or the pumpkin patch, but there's only so much you can do in three hours. Next year!

Surveillance, Part 2

2009-10-18T18:30:00.001-06:00

Our anthropological research at the Landaker residence continues. This week we have observed the juvenile residents using a strange dialect to communicate with each other. The adult residents do not appear to understand this alternative vocabulary, but these words are steeped in cultural meaning to the younger residents. Here is a partial dictionary:

shusher-nutter - noun: term of endearment/ridicule? e.g., "Hey, shusher-nutter!"
wata-bidee - interjection: used to express uncontrollable energy, e.g., "Lunchtime? Wata-bidee!"
bucka-bucka-boo - interjection: shouted in a high-pitched voice, used to get attention of adults, e.g., "Look at me! Look at me! Bucka-bucka-boo!"
eee-boo - interjection: usually accompanied by intense jogging or jumping in place, it expresses the desire for a hug and exercise at the same time.

There appear to be many more strange words whose meaning we have not yet ascertained. We will continue to observe and report our findings here.

Siesta at the Fiesta

2009-10-11T15:45:00.001-06:00

On Thursday I saw the special shapes hot air balloons in the morning, and they boys were really interested, so we decided we would go see them up close on Thursday night. The boys loved the bus from the park-and-ride, and Wes loved the bratwurst. There was a cool NASA tent with an F-15 cockpit, and then we visited the art tent. Our favorite was the exhibit of butterflies, beetles, and other bugs. Sapphire slept for the first part, then woke up in time to eat some curly fries before the balloons started to glow.

Some nice people next to us gave us some extra glow sticks, which was fun. The balloons looked really neat at night, especially when they all turned on their burners together. We headed home before the fireworks (everyone was tired and antsy), but saw Friday's fireworks from our house. I don't think we need to go every year, but it was fun to go this year.

Onyx Onyx Bo Bonics Banana Fana Fo Phonics!

2009-10-05T06:06:00.001-06:00

I talk a lot about Sapphire and Quartz on here, so here's a post just for Onyx. :-)

Onyx's new mad word is "random". "Please put your dishes away, Onyx." "Random! You're so random, mom!". He likes to play police-pirates and monster-pirates. But, as he says, "I'm a good monster. I fight bad guys." He also says, "When I see a ghost, I will shoot it with a tranquilizer dart and then eat it up." Sometimes he plays with his friend Rock, who is "just pretend". Quartz thinks this is great fun and tries to tell Onyx what Rock is doing now, but Onyx will have none of that.

When he's mad that he can't do something, he will say angrily that he is not going to do that next time, like, "If I can't have more bacon right now, then the next time we have bacon, I'm not going to eat it!" That'll show mom! He likes to play games like Mousetrap and Uno, and his favorite chores are putting outgoing mail in the mailbox and sorting silverware.

Surveillance

2009-09-23T10:20:00.000-06:00

ATTN: Surveillance Department
Subject: Landaker Family 092009
The subject's surveillance equipment has been damaged due to high-frequency screaming, collisions with plush toys, and EMF interference from electronic devices. We were still able to extract some data; below are the surveillance portions that survived the equipment damage.

Sapphire: Da da na na ma ma! ::claps hands::

Onyx: This is a little bit dangerous. ::stands up on swing::

Quartz: I think I'm getting a little bit used to preschool.

Wes: Sylar is awesome.

Andrea: Good job eating real food!

End of Summer Wrap-up

2009-09-20T09:43:00.001-06:00

Lots of pictures today -- we've been ending the summer with lots of fun stuff, like playing in the backyard.

We signed the boys up for Prehistoric Preschool at the NM Museum of Natural History (aka The Dinosaur Museum). Quartz was skeptical, but the boys actually like it a lot. They do a variety of activities, and they are learning some things about dinosaurs I didn't know. It's on Saturdays, so Wes can come too. Here he is making dinosaurs out of pretzels. The boys thought this was hilarious.

We finally made it to Cliff's, our local amuseument park -- we'd been planning to go all summer (and had already bought tickets from Costco), but kept being busy with building the playset, going on trips, etc. It was a really fun trip. Cliff's is small enough that you don't have to walk forever and there were no lines and it wasn't too expensive, but big enough that there was plenty to do.

I also really enjoyed that, since it's in the middle of town, it was easy to leave for dinner, some better shoes for Wes, and a short nap for the kids in the car, and then come back for more fun.

I was worried that the kids were going to be throwing fits and that it would be stressful, but everyone had a great time. Sapphire hung out in the stroller and rode around on the Mom-O-Ride, Onyx tried everything but didn't like anything with a steep drop or really fast speed, Quartz bounced up and down and was so excited about riding the roller coaster and the log ride and the water slides, and Wes and I took turns riding with Quartz and hanging out together.

We plan on going to Lego Land next year; I think this bodes well for future amusement park excursions.

Finally, no post would be complete without a cute picture of Sapphire, so here she is. She crawls all over the house, can stand up on her own, and likes to eat prickly pear jello and zuchinni.

Paper Bag Pinata

2009-09-06T10:17:00.003-06:00

My mom sent some of our toys from when we were kids -- my kids are really enjoying them. I think the binoculars were Joshua's, and the Beanie Babies were Rachel's.

Everyone else has started school, but preschool hasn't started yet, so we get a few more weeks of summer. Quartz really misses his friends who are now in kindergarten and don't have time to play. But, he and Onyx have really gotten good at playing together without too much arguing. Quartz made sure to invite Onyx to his birthday party, "because he's my favorite friend."

Sapphire likes to babble and crawl! She explores the whole house, and takes apart everything she can reach (much to the dismay of the boys and their LEGO creations, puzzles, and train tracks). Onyx thinks she is talking to him, so we often hear exchanges like this:

Sapphire: Ahhhhh, da, da, da, da.

Onyx: I'm not a da da da, you're a da da da!

Sapphire: Da da da da

Onyx: Stop calling me that!

Quartz is now 5! I was having so much fun at his party that I forgot to take pictures. They decorated a paper bag with robot stickers to make it into a pinata (note to self: double-bagging is too sturdy for a paper bag pinata; use a single paper bag). Wes made a treasure hunt with clues for them to follow, which they thought was pretty fun once they figured out what it was. They played with squirt guns and on the play set, and we had cake. Quartz asked for kiwi strawberry cake, so here's the Strawberry Cake and the Kiwi Frosting. It turned out pretty good, though it was definitely a unique taste! It's also the only thing I managed to take a picture of. :-)

Onyx is still not interested in potty training. I'm trying to decide how long I'll wait before I just say, "The diapers will be gone in one week" and try that. But I'm not sure he has the skillz for that yet. :-/

Arizona Trip

2009-08-21T21:27:00.006-06:00

Warning: Long Post Ahead.

We've planned for a while to visit Wes' folks at the Spring Valley cabin starting Monday, but then on Thursday before I thought, "Why waste the weekend?". I got on Hotwire, found a resort for $46/night in Phoenix, and we left Friday morning!

We expected Phoenix to be hot, but it wasn't too much of a problem since we planned to do outdoor things in the morning or evening, and indoor things in the afternoon. The only thing we missed was being able to just hang out at a park for an hour or so before dinner -- we ended up going to a mall instead. We had fun swimming at the resort each evening -- the boys are really getting good at swimming. They also had a little lake there with boats you could ride on, so we took a canoe out one morning.

The main reason I wanted to go to Phoenix was to see the Desert Botanical Garden. Onyx loves cactuses, especially saguaros, so this was a great chance for him to see them up close and learn more about them. Quartz and Sapphire liked it too, though it started to get hot around 10am (we got there at 8:30).

After that, we decided to go see the Hall of Flame museum of Firefighting. The main exhibits were lots and lots of old fire engines (like, horse-and-buggy fire engines to steam fire engines to modern fire engines), but they also had a really good kids' area and a fire engine the kids could board and try out.

On Sunday we headed up to Flagstaff. First we went to the Lowell Observatory, where the planet Pluto was discovered, among other things. It happened to be a free day, so that was handy. There was a small exhibit room with some space science type stuff, but the highlight was the tour. We got to see the really old gigantic telescope from when they first build the observatory in the early 1900s (Quartz even got to push the button to rotate the dome). It rotates on old Ford truck tires and has all sorts of great parts, like a saute pan for a scope cover, and a bicycle chain. I kind of wish we had come at night, though, so we could have seen something in the telescope. Lastly, they had an exhibit room where someone had sculpted figures to represent each planet. They were actually pretty cool.

We spent all of Monday morning at the Thorpe Park in Flagstaff. It was such a fun park; we played there for several hours. Plus, the cool weather felt so nice after Phoenix. The boys ran around playing Transformers, Sapphire chewed on sticks and crawled on the blanket, Wes lounged and played his Gameboy, and I enjoyed all those things, too. Then it was off to the cabin!

I really love this cabin. Two bedrooms, a nice kitchen and living room and bathroom, and several outdoor picnic tables and a fire pit, and some great things to do really close by. There's a meadow for birdwatching and exploring, foresty hills for climbing, obsidian and pumice for rock collecting, a pond for experimenting, and lots of shade for hanging out outside. Ralph brought his archery stuff, so we had fun shooting some arrows. Susan brought all sorts of great knitting projects, including an octopus and a sheep. The kids were never found without sticks in their hands. We stuffed ourselves with s'mores. We went hiking and found a geocache. We read while the kids played and showed off for their aunt and uncle and grandma and great-aunt (and the dogs).

We visited the Lava River Cave, but didn't hike the whole thing (kids were just too small -- there was a lot of rock scrambling with flashlights). It was still a really neat hike. They loved the adventure of using their flashlights for real and climbing on the rocks and exploring the cave. On the way there, Onyx said, "It's not a spooky cave." Then when we were climbing out he said, "It's just a little bit spooky."

The best part of this trip was that everyone got along pretty well. There were some arguments and whining, but mostly we all just had a good time together. Everyone was patient during the car rides (we brought Onyx's musical keyboard, and that was a GREAT idea; he and Quartz loved playing on it in the car). Sapphire is old enough to be staved off with snacks and toys, but not old enough to get into mischief, and the boys are old enough to handle missing a nap or waiting longer for a meal or something. I'm looking forward to when they grow up a little more and we can go on even more adventures together.

Pop Song Lyrics That Secretly Apply to Children

2009-08-01T16:19:00.002-06:00

Most pop songs are not about kids and parenting. But, being a parent, you can't help but hear some songs in a new way.

Is There Something I Should Know?, by Duran Duran, is now sung to a colicky baby.
"Please, please tell me now
Is there something I should know?
Is there something I should say
That will make you come my way?
...
Don't say you're easy on me;
You're about as easy as a nuclear war."

Bloke, by Republica, is about dealing with a tantruming toddler.
"So don't you tell me, I'm not listening
I've already heard it...
I'm gonna take you on, I'm gonna take you on"

Who Needs Sleep?, by Barenaked Ladies, is pretty self-explanatory.
"Who needs sleep?
(well you're never gonna get it)
Who needs sleep?
(tell me what's that for)"

You Can Do It, by No Doubt, is now about being firm and forgiving with your children and yourself.
"I know it seems
They're messing with your mind
But you don't have to go
Forward blind
So let the bygones be bygone
And let's make an end
To this sad, sad song"

Communicate, by BT, is now about teaching a toddler to learn to talk.
"Communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate now.
Communicate, communicate
Learn to use your words so we can..."

So is De do do do, by the Police.
"De do do do, de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do, de da da da
They're meaningless and all that's true"

Lastly, Little Star, by Madonna, actually is about kids (I think). I thought I'd end on a non-cynical note.
"God gave a present to me
Made of flesh and bones
My life, my soul
You make my spirit whole.
Never forget who you are
Little star
Never forget how to dream
Butterfly"

Happy Backyard Adventures!

2009-07-29T20:40:00.002-06:00

With the play set finished, we've been spending a lot of time in the backyard lately. They love the swings (especially the tire swing), and the big fort with the slide. It's been a train, a pirate ship, a Transformers base, a garbage truck, and a fire engine.

Yesterday we were about to have a snack. I set the strawberries and Sapphire down on the grass and went inside to get the picnic blanket. When I came back, here's what I found:

Quartz loved the strawberries, too, but he was a bit more serious about it.

A memory locked in words

2009-07-23T16:54:00.005-06:00

I want to remember times like this: being at home too long, everybody tired but nobody napping, let's take a walk or a bike ride or race dump trucks around the block! Helmets snapped on, windows closed, door locked, stroller ready, and nobody's arguing, just running, pedalling, racing. They stop at the corner to wait for me; I'm pushing the stroller and running too, pounding stay-at-home fever into the ground with every step. A stink bug! No, a stink beetle! Let's not argue; no, don't step on it -- it never even has a chance to squirt the toddler tyrant. Well, we're off again, and baby Sapphire's kicking her legs in silent joy, and Quartz asks if he can ride ahead. Just watch out at driveways, and Onyx asks me to push him up the "steep hill". I give him a little nudge with the stroller and he does the rest, pedalling, pedalling.

I look up and the sky is so blue I could dive right in and never touch the bottom, white deep-air cloud fishes glowing all around. A roadrunner! He runs with his head down, but I run with my head high. Past the neighbor's house with the rose bushes that smell like the best parts of summer, past their red shrine I know too little about, and the fountain that appears to be another sort of shrine, with Disney figurines posed prettily around it. Past the mailman, past the house that used to be for sale; Quartz wanted to buy it when he grew up. Onyx has stopped to pick juniper berries; Quartz is hiding behind a tall juniper shaped like a greek column. "Did you know I was there?", he asks with a grin. Then he's riding again, and Onyx is too, after solemnly handing me the berries, "I picked these for you," he says.

Then there's the time we rode around the block in July monsoon rains; just a sprinkle at first, but soon it was cold and windy and Sapphire's crying and Onyx needs help up the hill and the stroller's hydroplaning, but it's still an adventure, which is what we got out of the house for in the first place.

I don't want to forget when they strapped flashlights to their dump trucks and we raced around in the crisp autumn air, my sandals slapping and Sapphire-belly slowing me but not too much. Almost every October 2008 evening when it'd start to get dark, and the boys were cranky with energy, we'd have our flashlight walks.

I can't take a picture of this sort of thing, but I want to remember it. I never believed it when people said, "They grow up so fast!", but I'm starting to think it might be true.

Eavesdropping on the Landaker's

2009-07-12T09:25:00.008-06:00

First, let's get the formalities out of the way with a picture of Sapphire:

If you were eavesdropping on our family this past week, here's some things you might have heard:

Onyx says,
"I'm a pirate! I'm the Mommy Captain because I have a sword!"
"I like a kickboard better than Mom because I can swim all by myself."
"Quartz sleeps on the up bed, and I sleep on the down bed." <-- we got the boys bunk beds

Quartz says,
"The lava is as hot as the refrigerator is cold."
"Mom, count to a billion."
"Sulfurix, is that a banana? I told you to stop stealing yellow things!"

Sapphire says,
"Daada daa da da"
::big grin::

Dad says,
"What that movie needed was more Transformers, and less of that guy running around."

Mom says,
"Did you know that the first bathysphere was made out of cast iron, with windows of quartz?!"

Hmm, this post feels too short. Better post another picture of Sapphire, this time playing dress up:

Family Reunion!

2009-06-23T12:39:00.002-06:00

We're back from a great family reunion in Joseph, UT! We stayed at this cool old church that had like 7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms (a few families stayed in a nearby hotel) -- it was great because the kids could get their naps or go to bed early and we could still PARTY ON with relative friends (I mean that as "friends who are relatives", of course, not "people who are friends relative to everyone else").

Quartz says one of his favorite parts was getting to drive a boat on Fish Lake. This was actually a pretty nice boat (especially considering we rented it sight-unseen), seating about 10 people on comfy seats. That's Captain Melissa looking over his shoulder, BTW. Sapphire liked the boat just fine, but it was nap time, and that means she can't really think about anything else. Onyx was a little worried, but in the end he took a turn driving too and had fun. We saw lots of these big white birds that looked a little like pelicans, but with narrower beaks. Not sure what they were, but the weather was great, everything was green, and nobody fell overboard!

We also had a fun hike at Bullion Canyon trying to find the elusive waterfall -- some groups made it up, but after going on the wrong trail and back we were kinda too tired (and hungry) to finish the journey. It was a great hike, though, with wildflowers and a stream and pine trees everywhere.

We also did a lot of fun crafts -- perler beads, soap-making, and my boys' favorite -- marshmallow guns. The kids had a giant marshmallow fight one night on the lawn -- very fun! We also got to play Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution and sing karaoke (Wes joined me and my cousin Christina for some great harmony in the Cranberries' "Dream").

For Friday night, we did a scavenger hunt in the park. Then we had rented the Richfield Pool for our large group -- the big kids dove off the diving board and the little kids went down the small slide and splashed around. Luckily my parents were there to help our 3 little non-swimmers have fun without drowning. :-)

Builders, Builders!

2009-06-08T16:43:00.003-06:00

Onyx still loves to play with trains, though Quartz doesn't care for it as much. They usually have constant fights over blocking each other's trains and trains going too slow and stopping for water and blocking the other person's train. :-/

My favorite thing about Onyx these days is when anything bad happens, he runs to me and says, "Wanna huhmom!" which means, "I want a hug, mom!" If I try and give him a shoddy one-armed hug (usually because I'm also holding Sapphire), he'll shout, "Both hands!"

Quartz entered the LEGO Jr. Builder contest. The idea was to build some sort of plane and send in a picture of you and your LEGO vehicle. So here it is!

Here's a joke from the boys: "What do you call a lifting vehicle in a bacon factory?" "A porklift!"

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

2009-06-05T05:36:00.003-06:00

First, here's Sapphire engaged in her #1 past-time -- looking cute. :-)

The boys started swimming lessons this week at the city pool -- they have been doing really well! Onyx even follows the class most of the time, and Quartz is always showing his teachers what he can do.

Onyx has a fascination with the washing machine. He will help me put the clothes in, and then sit up there watching it fill up, then watching the clothes spin, for fifteen minutes or more -- usually until it gets to the part of the cycle where you have to close the lid.

We had a No Particular Reason party on Monday, with cupcakes and a few presents, and the kids got their own tent (hopefully for use on future camping adventures). Of course they wanted to set it up right away and sleep in it, so we set it up in Sapphire's room with sleeping bags and everything, and the boys played in it all evening. They were going to sleep in it, but decided not to at the last minute.

Which is slower, a camel, a crawler-transporter, or a velvet mite?

2009-05-27T17:08:00.010-06:00

Last Friday we all went to the zoo together. I thought it would be super empty, since it was the last day of school and a little rainy, but there were actually quite a few people there. Since Wes could watch Sapphire (and take pictures), the boys and I got to ride one of the camels. I was surprised how high up it is, and how much the camel . . . rolicks? rolls? undulates? Anyway, the ride was quite bumpy, but very fun.

Today Quartz yelled angrily, to Onyx, when he was riding his tricycle slowly around our yard and Quartz was stuck behind, "You won't even go as slow as a space shuttle carrier!" He is talking about the Crawler-transporter for the space shuttle, which has a max speed of 1 (one) mph. His favorite way to say something is very small is "small as a velvet mite". He says he is better at sneaking than Solid Snake (a character from one of Wes' favorite games, Metal Gear).

Sapphire likes to scream with delight when someone plays peek-a-boo with her. She also sucks her toes, rolls around, and chews on board books with gusto.

Onyx bumped into his fire engine while walking around, and said, very sincerely, "I sorry for bumping into you." When someone says he is cute, he says, "Yeah" in a resigned, matter-of-fact way.

This outfit was given to Sapphire by my ultra-hip cousin Christina -- I love the design! Her first cheongsam . . . I would have worn mine to match, but it doesn't work very well with nursing. Everyone at church thought she was so cute (and asked me where I got the dress). :-)

Life Without Video Games

2009-05-20T14:25:00.003-06:00

I recently heard from a kid I know that they aren't allowed to play video games in her family. I guess I can kind of see where this is coming from (waste of time, negative influence, etc). But, to me, that's like saying, "We aren't allowed to play board games in our family" or "We aren't allowed to watch movies in our family". I mean, yeah, there's some games that aren't for kids, and they can eat up a lot of time for some people (and I totally agree with having the kids pay for a system if they are the only ones that want one -- those are expensive!), but to ban them entirely . . . ? They're just another form of media, not something intrinsically good or bad.

I would rather my little girl played Neopets and Pokemon video games than watched Barbie movies, but I guess some people feel differently about that. :-)