Sunday, October 3, 2010

Fall Party-

We had a Fall party this weekend with the kids. They really enjoyed dressing up, and they say that necessity is the mother of all invention- I was amazed at what I could make with 1 pillowcase, 1 container of bias tape, a lot of hot glue, a box and a toilet paper roll could make. Reagan was easy for a costume, a princess and we already had the princess dresses. So it was simply making her a crown out of a hanger, ribbon, parts of left overs from my wedding dress, beads from a necklace and a couple flowers and buttons. Daniel however... Robin Hood was his costume. We only had the bow and arrows of his costume. So I set to work. I made him a shirt, a hat and a quiver for his arrows all from the items listed above. It was my first hat ever so I made a few mistakes and now know a little better how I would make it. But when your winging it... The quiver was probably the easiest. I just cut out a circle of cardboard and glued it to the bottom of the paper towel roll and then covered it with remnants of the pillowcase. Then I attached a sling to it made of bias tape. I used like5 or 6 sticks of hot glue on the whole thing. But I think I did a pretty good job and he looks like Robin Hood. And he now has a dress up outfit so maybe he'll stop wearing Reagan's princess dresses.
One of the things I really appreciated with this Alaska Kids party was that it wasn't a disguised Halloween party. So many times people say they are having a "Fall or Harvest Party" and really it's just another name for a Halloween party. I don't celebrate Halloween. I think it's a horrible holiday- If you want to find out more about it click here-(Halloween)and it will give you some idea of the origins of Halloween. I have chosen not to since I was a teenager. So it was very nice to enjoy fun food, good friends, beautiful if windy weather and just look at my beautiful Princess and handsome Robin Hood!

Update on Daniel

After trying a couple of medications for his ADHD- The first of which made him VERY sleepy and the second of which made him stay awake for 20 + hours a day for a couple days in a row... Then the doctor on vacation and I could get anyone to return my calls... I took him off meds for 2 weeks and wow! We don't want to go through those two weeks again! Long story short, not only does he have ADHD but he also has a Mood disorder. As of yet we haven't categorized the mood disorder but it's likely something along the lines of bi-polar. He's now on medication for each of these and is doing fairly well. Time out worked for the first time ever this week! We are still fine tuning and he will continue with his therapy. But he is doing SO much better. We were sad to hear of another diagnosis added to this little guy who already deals with high cholesterol, asthma, vision problems, speech problems. But we are glad that he is getting help so that he can function and be happy.

We also had his hearing retested and found that while he hears alright he is right on the edge of not being able to hear well enough. Since he is going through important stages of development, has fluid in his ears, and has speech problems the audiologist thought we should follow up with an ENT doctor. We did that and decided that Daniel would get tubes. He goes in for surgery this week for that and we are hoping that that may make a difference with his hearing and speech.

So that's the news on our big little boy.

The Harvest

This was not a good year for garden's anywhere in Alaska I think, but I did get something for all my hard work though and to that this post is dedicated.














My potatoes all 15 lbs. There was about 1-2 potatoes per plant. We were worried there wouldn't be any as we never saw them blossom.














The carrots- 2 gallon size bags of normal size carrots and 2 quart size that are only good for throwing in soups but I still saved them because they are perfect for soup. I just throw them in, don't have to cut them or anything.














I had to show you this zucchini. I have been growing zucchini forever but I never knew there was such a thing as "globe" zucchini. Paul says they look like little green apples, and this one is a little more oblong than the other 2 we got this year. But it was a little fun. I think I like the regular size better for cooking just because slicing these they are just a little too big.














Also in the harvest- A few very small onions (most of them were picked by others), 4 small celery plants, a total of 4 very small peppers, dill, oregano, parsley, basil, a hand full or two of green beans, a few peas (I would have had a lot more if the moose hadn't eaten them.














And yes I did get tomatoes. This is a crappy picture but it was the first of many very small (grape tomato or smaller) tomatoes. I have one plant I am keeping in my bedroom seeing how long it will last. There wasn't enough, nor were they big enough to do anything with but we enjoyed them.

Alaska Airplane Museum

A month (or two) ago not long after the Elmendorf Airshow, we went to the Airplane Museum. It was another one of our rainy summer day's this summer and I was looking for somewhere to go with the kids. We had free passes from the library's summer reading program so that made it even better.
Alaska is the home of airplanes in the U.S. We have more airplanes per ca pita than any where else in the U.S. Why is that? Alaska is HUGE. It's like 3 times the size of Texas and only a couple of roads. To many places in AK you still can only get there by boat or by plane. The skies about Anchorage are filled with airplanes at anytime of the day. There are 4 or 5 airports in Anchorage alone (we live across the street from one). The only way to get things up to remote locations is to fly them in- Caribou for instance. Or we saw another picture of a cow being led out of this tiny airplane. It really is incredible.
This one was fun. Daniel and Reagan got to move the tail and rudder about.














Daniel liked this one until Reagan sat down to fly the plane on the other side. Because the plane can be flown from either side she could do anything she wanted with it and when she pulled back on the handles and he wasn't watching it would scare him to death. This is one of the trucks that they use to guide the planes in and out of where they need to park. Daniel decided that he needed his fireman's hat for the job.

Anchorage Museum

About a month ago the kids and I checked out the Anchorage Museum with our kids group - Alaska Kids. They have a whole kids section called the Imaginarium as well as a regular museum and planetarium inside. On the first day we only made it into 2 of the rooms. We've since explored other parts of the museum but there is still much more to see. We bought a year pass as it will be a great place to take them during the winter when we need to get out of the house.
Reagan's favorite place is the first picture. It's like a water bed and supposed to be the ocean and they get to jump and play on it. Since her favorite thing to do (after singing) is jumping this doesn't surprise me. And it reminds me of the many hours (Oops, did I say hours?) I spent as a kids jumping on Mom and Dad's water bed. Remember Erin and David?
One of Daniel's favorite places is this little boat area. What kid isn't going to want to play in the water? There is so much to see and do here. They have Jelly fish and a turtle named "Chomper". The kids learn about how volcanoes are made and make them out of wax. What happens to houses in an earthquake? How to make a hot air balloon rise. Daniel wants to go every week.

Last post about April's visit to AK



I've been a real slacker about posting so I'm going to try to attempt to catch up today. So starting where I left off at... On April's last day with us we went down town for the evening and she took me out to dinner. I introduced her to snow crab and my sister who is allergic to everything including shell fish decided she loved it. Luckily she had her EPI pen nearby but thankfully she had no need for it.

And then what could a current and a former Nanny do but go to see the new Nanny McPhee movie on opening night? It was really good and had us rolling with laughter.

We were SO sad to say goodbye to April later that night. Paul was at drill so we had to take the kids to the airport at midnight to drop her off. Daniel is already asking when she can come back to visit. We love Aunt April.