of broken rules & red-clad wizards

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my rule has long been, no holiday goings-on until the first of december. yes, i am one of those people who constantly occasionally rants voices displeasure at the barrage of christmas items & decor appearing long before the season has even begun. but come on! ornaments on sale alongside hallowe'en costumes?

well, it would seem that all it takes to break me is a tiny elfling sweetly asking if we could go see santa today please. & so we did.

being a great old man of 14, thehobbit did not wish to be seen on film. i did attempt a few photographs, but he managed to ruin them all by scowling at me. except for the above. don't his shoes look happy? (yes, i did cut elfling's beautiful long hair off. i am still in mourning, so do not wish to discuss it.)

the grove is my favorite place to go each year. it is such a beautiful center, & they decorate it stunningly. if you are in los angeles, go earlier in the season, & never on a weekend, or it will be too crowded to enjoy.

faced with the man himself, elfling could not even brave going inside the cottage. instead, we stared at him through the front door, then later through the windows.

he did wonder how it was that santa was up in the sleigh at the same time he was in his cottage. manlyman replied with ooh look at the tree!

i could not get the entire tree in my shot. it. is. huge.

trolley was dressed fancy for the season. elfling refused to ride, even though he loves trolley.

this is how he prefers to visit trolley. with bars keeping them safely apart. toddlers are so odd.

the fountain is a favorite of the entire belfry clan. it dances to music, & there are koi in there!

on our way home we had to pop into a mall for something, & you'll never believe who we ran into. santa! how ever did he manage to get there so quickly? santa is clearly the greatest of wizards.

~peace.

confessions of a tape addict

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hi, i'm kat, & i am addicted to painter's tape. we are using it near daily now. in addition helping pass the time on our road trip, we have: decorated pumpkins, decorated one another, taped things to other things all over thebelfry, created pictures on the table in the dentist's waiting room, & constructed roads.

this is the most recent highway, courtesy of thehobbit.

it was played with, off & on, the entire day. yes, even by my great old man of fourteen.

who, of course, declined to be photographed.

i most especially loved the wee hill.

in researching i have learned that painter's tape is basically blue low-tack masking tape. which is good, because a) regular masking tape is a fraction of the price of the blue stuff, & 2) we need more. a lot more.

notes of note :: if you are going to buy the low-tack masking tape, you need to make sure it is truly the lowest. anything too sticky will ruin surfaces when pulled away. 

~peace.

impromptu art day

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monday we packed a basket with sammiches, grabbed our cameras, put on comfortable shoes, & went on an unplanned outing to lacma. 

usually we avoid a good portion of their exhibits, as we aren't huge fans of modern, contemporary, expressionism, & the like. (fortunately, my dear pom does not often read this blog, or she would be yelling at me for that last.)

this time we did meander into some of them, & whilst we did not like most of what we saw, there were a few things that caught our collective eye. even in the surrealism exhibit!  my intent was to actively search for something in each exhibit that i did like. in some cases it was quite difficult, but i did manage, & am glad for it.

after that we enjoyed a leisurely lunch out of doors, soaking in the sunshine, & snapping photos. just out of the shot (above photo) was thehobbit, taking a photo for his woefully neglected tardis blog.

i could have spent many hours just sitting amongst the streetlamps, & would have, but a school group descended, which was my cue to get out of there, & fast.

next we went to the exhibits that we do love: european sculpture & painting, ancient art, impressionism, & so forth. inspired by all we saw, we decided to get our paint-groove on in the children's gallery. happily there were few people in there, so it was a lovely, quiet way to end our day.

it was interesting to see our different ways of expressing ourselves: i painted a realistic tree, manlyman sketched the chinese dragon that was painted on the wall, elfling clearly was inspired by the jackson pollocks he'd seen, & thehobbit played minecraft on his ipod.

heading back to the car we stopped to get our yayas out. in one of their courtyards is this giant thing. the yellow bits are long rubber strands, that stretch. people are encouraged to play within it. i am sure you can guess which of us had to be pulled away when it was time to go. really? you guessed thetoddler? nope. manlyman.

however, elfling did ignore the thing's request. i just cannot take my menfolk anywhere ;)

~peace.

in which i elect to make a change

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there have been big changes in our homeschooling this past week. as wonderful as the charter was, it just was not a good fit for thehobbit. over the summer we had discussed pulling him, but ended up renewing for high school (gasp! my wee hobbit is a high schooler.).

only two months into the school year, & it was obvious that we had made the wrong choice - so we pulled him. rather, i, pulled him, & later informed manlyman. that is what he gets for abandoning us for a week-long pga thing in florida. i can get up to all sorts of mischief when left on my own.

now we are free to homeschool as we once did, with thehobbit studying what he likes, at the pace that suits him best. he is more thrilled than i can say. thehobbit was never happy making the switch to the charter, but we had our reasons for insisting. those reasons crumbled in the face of an increasingly miserable hobbit.

no longer tied to the charter's requirements & schedules, we have been poking through our personal library, looking for what to study. first up - the election! the timing is perfect, what with the presidential elections looming.

i found some general election information for thehobbit, as well as a few other things that i thought would be interesting. enjoy! (if i stumble upon anything new, i'll edit this post.)

* the electoral college (kids discover) - printable.
* everything american government - book.
* presidents - fandex.
* suffragists (kids discover) - magazine. (free resources go along with this - scroll to bottom of that page.)
* the donkey & the elephant - article.
* presidential election (brainpop) - mini movie & printables.
* the democracy project (pbs) - website.
* election 2012 (scholastic) - website.

~peace.

through the eyes of a hobbit

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of  late i have been finding photos on my camera that were not of my taking. thehobbit has been sneaking my camera, taking a photo or two, then putting it back - all without my even knowing. even whilst we are out & about!

he thinks he is being ever so funny. i think he's got the makings of a world class pick-pocket.

i know i have said this eleventy billion times, but i love seeing the world around me through his eyes.

it's not the same as when he was small; then it was much more random. & quite a bit lower to the ground. now it is the more practiced eye of a great old man of 14.

i simply adore this one!

not so much this one. this photo gives me the creeps. teens are weird. 

~peace.

in which i was thwarted

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do you remember that pumpkin photo shoot i did back in october? well, i attempted the same thing today with a giant crate of watermelon. what a difference eight months makes. elfling still thought it would be great fun to be plopped into a crate of produce, but he had no desire to sit still for the camera.

nor look at me when i asked him to.

thehobbit offered to try taking a few, but didn't think it was necessary to taking a few good shots. (it's not like it was a crate of cars, or something.)

refusing to be thwarted, i took back the camera, & tried one last time.

perfection.

except for my thumb in the lower right corner.

thwarted.

sigh.

~peace.

unicorns & rainbows

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can i just say how much i adore life with these boys of mine? when i was pregnant i felt sad that they would be so far apart in age. i felt as though we'd jipped them both of growing up with a sibling, as manlyman & i had. in time i realized that they had not been jipped. in fact, these are some lucky boys indeed. 

thehobbit adores his bebe brother, in a way that is part sibling, part parental. when elfling learns something new, or does something adorable, i see thehobbit reacting the same was as manlyman & i: with a joyful sort of pride. as if he too is responsible for the shaping of this tiny creature. which, i suppose, he is. an unexpected joy for thehobbit, is getting to relive the joys of his own childhood. just as he's tossing off the last remnants of that time, he is finding himself drawn to blocks, stacking boxes, giant legos, & hours spent singing goofy songs.

as for elfling? well what little guy wouldn't love having a third parent? elfling has one more person to comfort him, one more person to carry him, one more person to rock him to sleep, one more person to imitate, & one more person to love him beyond reason. even better than if thehobbit actually were an actual parent - he is still a kid, so vastly more fun to play with. 

please don't think i am saying it's all unicorns & rainbows. 13 year-olds don't like their artwork scribbled upon, nor their intricate lego contraptions broken. &, oddly enough, teens are not exceedingly fond of having toys tossed at their heads. for. no. reason. what. so. ever. 

life is not what i'd imagined it would be like, that's for sure. it is much better. mostly ;)

thanks for letting me gush.

~peace.