We have moved.

No photos for a while (until we have internet access at the new house), but I just wanted to post an update.

We're slowly getting settled. We have beds and a table to eat at, so things are good. Bug is thrilled, as the first night we were there we got SNOW. We've had 3 snowstorms in the 11 days we've been here. Oh, and ICE, too. Did I mention that our shovel was 90 miles away for the first storm? That was cool. We now have a shovel, ice chopper and ice melt, so we're ready for anything.

Bug hasn't spotted it yet (and I've only had a brief glimpse), but we've got a bunny in the area. We see fresh tracks every morning. When we got home last night, there were even tracks on our steps. Bug found that quite interesting.

We're off to see the Holiday Train today. That's always fun. Bug's only missed it once, and that was last year. Hopefully it won't be too cold.

The Holiday Stroll

We are in the midst of moving to another town/state. A friend from our hometown visited the new house today and brought me and Bug back to our hometown for the annual Holiday Stroll. It was chilly, but fun. Bug and I started by having some chili. Hard to eat with mittens on!


The girl was READY for the wind.
The highlight of the night was seeing Santa. Our first glimpse of him came when we spotted him riding on the firetruck at the end of the parade. Yay!

I hadn't told Bug about one last surprise. After they lit all of the Christmas lights downtown, they also lit a tree on the bluff. Then they had a short, but cool, fireworks show from the top of the bluff. Very fun. She was thrilled. We also ran into Aunt Peg and Cousin Ben (who just shot his first deer!), so that made the night even more fun.

Keep us in your thoughts...

Bug's dad & I, that is....You see, Bug has entered the "made-up joke phase". Here are the jokes she told me this morning, before I was even out of bed:

Q: What looks like a window and has a shade?
A: A rotten egg.

Q: What tastes like chocolate and looks like shade?
A: Math.

Q: What looks like skin and has clothes?
A: Blood.

Q: What is a nose and has glasses and toots?
A: Bones.

Q: What can you watch and has very sticky tape?
A: A fox tooting.

So, you see what we're going through? These are all followed by lots of laughter from Bug.

Some videos that you must see.

We've got some friends who record CDs and tour, sharing their wonderful music. They just put up some live videos and I think that you should check them out. They are called Patchouli and we love them.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5cFsEWaB7CA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FWxR1ua33L4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YXqQURhk_0g

http://youtube.com/watch?v=U1w1Nt8XOfs


If you like them, check out their website and see if they're playing a show near you.
www.patchouli.net

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Bug LOVES the movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. A couple of weeks ago I came across a pattern to make a Jack Skellington doll. (the main character from the movie) She loved it. While working on that, I also came across a pattern for a mask modeled after Jack, as well. She saw a picture of it and said "Oh! I can be Jack!" I found a cool jacket at the Salvation Army and we were done. Easy, but scary, costume. She walks around in it saying "I'm Jack Skellington, the pumpkin KING!"

New friends

Yesterday I was out with my knitting group, finishing this Jack Skellington doll for Bug.


When I got home, I found out that she and her dad made a "new friend", too. First it was to be a robot, but soon became a crash-test-dummy. If you look closely, you can see the face that Bug drew on it.

Now she's a writer...

While helping Bug get ready for bed last night, I spotted two sheets of paper on her floor. I assumed she'd been drawing, but then noticed that they were covered with letters. As I looked more closely, I noticed that they were, in fact, covered in words. They seemed random, to me. I asked Bug what they said. (which is when I found out that while her spelling isn't bad and her letter formation is pretty darn good, her sentence structure is non-existent)

Story #1, according to Bug, says:
Poop is a mess.
Pee is a mess too.


Story #2:
No Nan was mad and he was mad.
I need to go to potty.

New hats!

I just finished the orange and black hat last night. It was going to be for me, but there was a miscalculation, and it turned into Bug's hat pretty early on. She was thrilled. We recently talked about lines: horizontal, vertical and diagonal, so she thinks it's cool that all 3 are on the hat.


I made the black & white one to go with her sweater, but not match exactly. I'm pretty happy with it, but like the orange/black one more.

She's an interesting child...

Bug was busy with paper, tape and markers yesterday. She asked for a bit of help on this one. She claims that it's a C3PO costume. Who am I to argue?

The boot is grand. (she only made one) She was busy for over 2 hours with paper and tape. It was amazing.


She was playing with her stuffed lizard (Liz) and informed me that Liz was thirsty. She then lifted her shirt and took care of the problem.

Imperial Storm Trooper

This morning Bug vanished for a bit and came back looking like this.

She said "I"m an Imperial Storm Trooper". Obviously. She's got her knight helmet on her head, a large, black kneepad strapped around her waist and her pink rubber rain boots. What ELSE could she be? Oh, and the giant cardboard tube? Yes, it's a gun. However, she pointed to the side and said "See the title? It says 'heart gun'. It shoots love at you."
I love this kid.

Droids

Bug has discovered this wood & plastic Brio building set that I picked up, used, a couple of years ago. She and her daddy have been building "droids". (she's got a serious Star Wars addiction going right now). She spent about 3 HOURS building them tonight. She'd bring each one in to show me. I should have taken more pics, but only got this one.(his black arms are hard to see, but they're there) I don't know what's up with her hair...weird lighting combined with needing a shampoo, I think.

While she was playing on our bed with her stuffed animals, I heard her say this:

He's jumping on the bed.
No jumping on the bed, I said....just like Mom.

It's good to know that she HEARS it, even if she doesn't DO it. Right?

A fun day!

We went to the Celebration of MN Children's Authors & Illustrators. Always a fun time. Bug's favorite, (next to Uncle Todd) David La Rochelle, was there. We got to hear him read his new book. We loved it so much that we bought a copy. While he was signing it, Bug said "When he's done writing, I'm going to give him a big hug!" She did.


Bug was thrilled that the balloon man was there again. It was a long wait for this balloon alien...then we got to do it again, later, after this one popped.

The new math?

Bug is enjoying reading and math. She's really got excited when she learned how to add. She made a drawing for her daddy. She told me it was a robot-bird. When she wrote that on the paper it came out "roobot+brd".
Last night Bug was talking with her daddy and she told him "kisses plus hugs equals love". How sweet is that?!

This was a bit odd....

Bug was very busy drawing earlier today. I asked her what she was drawing. Her reply? "Eye Cancer"...Here it is:

The love of reading.

Bug has been reading one or two books a day for the past two weeks. She's doing well. It's hard work, for sure, but she's so excited about it. Here she is, reading to me this morning.

Rock and roll!!!

Bug just rediscovered her electric guitar. Her dad told her she's got an amp, as well, so now he gets to bring that home this weekend as she "needs it".

School time!

Bug & I started our schoolyear on Monday. She was writing, so I suggested she write a list of things she likes to eat:

Here she is, hard at work on some math. The look on her face in these two photos is too funny.


Here's a happy girl. It was time to do a science experiment. She's holding a Gummi Bear. We had to measure it and then put it in a glass of water overnight. She correctly guessed that it would get bigger. She also learned the word "osmosis".

It's fair time!

We spent the day at a local county fair. It was a bit rainy when we got there and got VERY rainy for a bit, but turned into a beautiful day. We didn't tell Bug we were going, so she was a very happy girl when she spotted the midway. We'd taken her two years ago and she still talks about it.
Here she is on the ferris wheel. It was a very shaky ride and didn't appear to be very safe...of course, we didn't realize that until we were on it. It made for a cool picture, though.

Here's Bug and her dad on the family favorite: the tilt-a-whirl. We rode this many times. Early in the day the lines were short, which was nice.
Bug loved the dragon ride. The little girl with her grabbed Bug's hand while they were in line and asked "do you want to ride with me?" Then they were hugging.

The carousel is always fun...except when it crushes your foot! As I was helping Bug get on, another mom climbed on to help her kid. Well, I'm tall enough that I was standing on the ground while doing this and the whole thing shifted down onto my foot. It hurt so bad. I lost a bit of the outer layer of skin and I think I'll have some bruising. Not bad considering what it felt like. Bug was blissfully unaware.

Here she learns the joys of waiting in line.

Bug talked her dad, who doesn't care much for heights, to go on this ride. It moved quickly and lifted them way up in the air...occasionally dropping them a bit before going back up. Bug LOVED it. Daddy loved Bug enough to ride it twice!

Discovering that waiting in line can be a drag...or maybe it was having Mommy take one more pic.

Here's Bug checking out a rooster. She said that he was very soft.

How hot & humid did it get? Well....this llama was all over this fan....

We found a place for Bug to play. No, not a sandbox, a CORNbox!

Letterboxing

Bug & I have discovered Letterboxing. (http://letterboxing.org/) Basically, you follow clues to a hidden box. Inside is a book and a stamp. You have your own book and stamp. You stamp their book with your stamp/your book with their stamp. Bug even made her own stamp. We'll work on a better one someday. She was so excited, as you can see here:
But quite serious when it came time to stamp and sign the book.

Vomit.

So, Bug hurled last night. In bed. Came downstairs crying, covered in it. Lovely. Got her cleaned up, changed the sheets, all is well.
I was talking to her dad tonight and mentioned that she was drawing on her magna doodle and had asked me "does this say STOP?"...which it did. He, jokingly, asked "yeah, but can she spell vomit?" I asked her and here's what I got...

Bug says it's an alligator vomiting.

Picasso is dead!

Bug and I were looking at a book of art for kids. It had different artists in it and some of their works. First, we saw Jackson Pollock, painting. I said "he sure made some really interesting paintings, didn't he?" Bug, being Bug, picked up on "made" and said "did he DIE?" Ugh. I explained that yes, he had died....let's move on. Next up was Picasso....and she asked "is he dead?" Bug's daddy was there by this time, so he told her that he had lived and died many years ago. It was nearly 30 minutes later that we were able to leave the house to go to lunch. There was much crying. She was so upset. Hopefully we won't go through this with EVERY dead person we learn about.Oh, and while in Milwaukee she was given a couple of Hanson t-shirts. (it was that or Spice Girls) I told her "Bug, they were homeschooled". Ugh. Wrong phrasing. She hear the "were" and said "did they die?!"

Milwaukee

We took Bug to Milwaukee last weekend to visit friends and family. Here she is, "helping" with some yard work.

While at Record Head, Bug spotted a couple of Star Wars things that she needed to be photographed with.

On our way to yet another guitar shop, I spotted this mural on the side of a comic book shop. We stopped for a photo.
Bug is planning to be a science teacher, so when we told her that we were going to visit a "big science store", she could hardly contain her excitement. Here she is with her dad, outside one of the coolest stores on the planet.
She found this dust mask and had to have it. She decided that she'd wear it on top of her head, though.
Of course, a visit to Milwaukee isn't over until we get to play with cousin E.
Then, a quick goodbye with Grandma, and we were on our way back home.

Art

Bug spends time drawing every day. Here are some of her recent works.

First up is Charlotte and Wilbur. I can see that Bug needs to be exposed to more pigs, as poor Wilbur looks more like a horse.
Bug said that this drawing is "just a guy".
According to Bug, "this is the Death Star and it's sending electricity to Leia's planet". (we're a little bit into Star Wars these days)
This is a bull....wearing a cowboy hat.
Here we have Yoda, looking quite happy.