My favorite treeschoolers!

So… remember yesterday when I just casually mentioned that everyone loved Katherine's Blossom Tee that Sunshine made... even television costume designers? Here is the rest of the story…

It's no secret that we are huge fans of Signing Time. We've been buying their products supporting their efforts for years, but most specifically, supporting their latest project, Rachel and the Treeschoolers. We have enjoyed these shows deemed "too educational for TV" so much that when the opportunity came up to be a part of the show, we jumped at the chance. It happened that one of the filming locations was in the same city and on the same weekend that my grandmother would be celebrating her 92nd birthday. The perfect opportunity for some family fun! Since they only film ages 2-10, both Cupcake and BigBoy were able to participate.

 

First up, BigBoy played the piano for them and filmed quite a few lines. He was really good at delivering lines on the first take. He might end up in multiple episodes. While he was being filmed, they decided on an outfit for Cupcake. We brought the Blossom Tee that Sunshine made for her with a little skirt. They loved it! The costume designer even went upstairs to chat with Sunshine about it, she loved it so much. The crew had already filmed so much pink on other children earlier and they like to have a color variety in the show, so putting her little green dress over it was a perfect compromise. They tried to get some solo shots of the Cupcake, but the boom (mic) was really bothering her so I'm not sure how successful those were. Then they moved on to some brother/sister scenes. One of them was with a paper airplane. The one you see being filmed below was doing an experiment with oil and water.

 The tall guy is Rachel's husband, Aaron Coleman). He is really tall!

 That's Alex's mom in the white visor. She was the director for the shoot and such a nice lady. 

 The lights didn't bother Cupcake as much as the microphone. 

 And then came play time! Rachel put on her Signing Time gear so the little ones would recognize her. She talked to everyone and took pictures. It was such a great experience. These people are the nicest, most down to earth people! Everyone was so friendly and helpful. It couldn't have been a better experience. So exciting!

 

Just a little souvenir from the scenes he filmed.

 Exciting and exhausting...

We can't wait for these episodes to come out. I think they will make excellent Christmas presents, don't you? (Hope everyone in the family thinks so too!)

Become a backer today!

Please consider supporting these amazing people who are trying their hardest to make smarter shows for little ones to enjoy even though the television execs told them nobody wants that. Who doesn't want intelligent fun shows for their little ones with songs that don't make you want to stab your ears? Cupcake loves the first three episodes. I sure hope there will be more.

You can watch the first three episodes in their entirety on YouTube right now!

A Rainy Day

Plants and Flowers

Incredible Insects

The Many Faces (and boots) of Cupcake

Would you mind offering a quick prayer for my brother, Brian? Today is his birthday and the first one without his sweet bride. Thank you!

I had to include the boots! They are very special to her, or so she tells me. Literally. She actually came up to me and asked the other day, "Can I have my rain boots? They are very special to me."

It's Potty Time for Miss Cupcake meaning that we've begun potty training. (Did you know that there is an app for that!?! Calling Rachel is her favorite thing to do.) Things are going very well. She hasn't been my easiest to train… that would be Miss Shortcake who pretty much taught herself just by watching her older siblings. But she certainly hasn't been the hardest (we won't reveal who that was because I'd like for him not to hate me forever).

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

The other day, Cupcake saw her very first rainbow in the sky! She's always loved rainbows thanks to Rachel Coleman and the colors of the rainbow song. In fact, for a while, I thought her first birthday was going to be a rainbow themed birthday.

I know that rainbows don't really have anything to do with St. Patrick, but since the rainbow is linked to leprechauns and Irish folklore, I decided that we would have a Rainbow Day. (Next year, we'll cover the theological symbolism of the shamrock, I promise!)

I found this tutorial about making a cute little cloud and rainbow softie and whipped one up yesterday.
Not your typical Roy G. Biv rainbow… we go with Rachel's version for the littles because it fits with the song: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Purple and Blue. If you've ever heard Rachel talk about why her song is out of order, you know that she says, "If you can think of a rhyme for 'purple', you can have my job!"

Miss Cupcake has also reached that age where she needs some "busy work". Since our weather is so unpredictable, I can't always rely on her getting outside to play everyday. I've seen ideas for toddler busy bags and similar things and if you have any suggestions, please send them my way. The first one that seemed super easy to do was the idea of a fabric scrap box. Many ideas said just cut scraps of fabric and put them in a old wet wipe box. I decided to make it a rainbow box.

Simple scraps of fabric cut with pinking shears.

I'm thinking we might paint some rainbows later and make some sticker rainbows. We are also planning on Potato Soup for dinner with Irish Soda Bread and a Rainbow Fruit salad. The big kids are going to watch this documentary, St. Patrick: Apostle of Ireland,  on Amazon. (I've previewed it and while it could be better, it's not that bad, once you get past the weird St. Patrick's Day Parade featured in the first few minutes.)

Final hours!!!

Here is your last chance to say you backed the most successful children's show campaign in Kickstarter history! Episode 6 is 50% funded! The original goal was only Episodes 2 & 3! Whoo hoo! Rachel and her family have been doing amazing things during this campaign... including attending her oldest daughter's wedding! If you don't know Laura's story, you can read it here. Rachel says that Laura is the reason she started writing songs! What a gift Laura has been!!! Rachel Coleman... mom, birth mom, Emmy nominated, ROCKSTAR!

They were such babies!

Day 1: I remembered!!!

This is what I was going to tell you about on Friday!

Have you heard about the Rachel and the TreeSchoolers Kickstarter Project? It's Rachel Coleman. You know... Rachel from Signing Time! We have loved all of the Two Little Hands products. And I'm pretty sure we were the first to have a Turtle Rock birthday party! We've just introduced Cupcake to Potty Time {affiliate link}. She loves reading the "Hopkins potty book"{affiliate link}. Well, you didn't think that this amazingly talented family was done, did you? They are working on putting together a complete pre-school curriculum that has been deemed "too educational for TV". Yeah, they're pretty proud of that (as well they should be)! But that means that if the project wants to get off the ground, they need backers. If the TV execs aren't going to do it, then it's up to us to demand better quality shows for our kids and support them. You can get a sneak peek below:

Check out their Kickstarter Campaign. They've got some great rewards for different donation levels. After only 6 days, they are over halfway to their goal! This is going to happen! Tweet it, share it, blog it, spread the word!

Oh, and while I was poking around on Kickstarter, I found this Zach Braff project about a movie he wants to produce. It's already more than fully funded so, watch for it! Here's the synopsis:

"Wish I Was Here" is the story of Aidan Bloom (played by me), a struggling actor, father and husband, who at 35 is still trying to find his identity; a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he'd always dreamed he'd be as a little kid. 

When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids (ages 5 and 12) and the only available public school is on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them. 

The result is some funny chaos, until Aidan decides to scrap the traditional academic curriculum and come up with his own. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn't find.
It was written by my brother, Adam, and me last summer.

Day 1 of the 7 in 7 blogging challenge!

Sea World 2008

So I was telling my MIL about our trip to Sea World and when I mentioned that they advertised "Holiday Shows" during the week of Thanksgiving she asked, "Which holiday would that be?" Really, who can blame her? In today's world where people refuse to sell Christmas trees or Christmas gifts, Christians feel like our holiday is the elephant in the living room. Everyone is celebrating it, but we're not allowed to talk about it. So, I was pleasantly pleased to be able to give my MIL a positive report regarding these holiday shows. They were Christmas shows! And they even said so!!!

While the sea lions were trying to help their trainer find her Christmas cheer, there was a Miracle being celebrated over at Shamu's stadium. They opened the show with Christmas caroling singing a mix of religious and secular songs. Then we turned our attention to the JumboTron to see the wise men seeking the newborn King and to listen to the announcer talk about the miracle of the child born to save us all. Wow. It really was a beautiful show.

But, the dolphin show was a particular favorite.

Due to the heavy acrobatics and diving skills in this show, it was the same one you can see year round. There is no way a Santa hat would survive a 30 foot drop! There is a man who performs a funny water skit before the show starts and then acts as a "silly master of ceremonies" throughout. BigBoy dubbed him the Chicken Man since he pretended to be too scared to dive into the pool at one point.BigBoy loved him! He wanted his picture taken with the Chicken Man afterwards so we made our way through the crowd in order to snap a shot. While they were smiling for the camera......this little baby beluga came up to the glass to say hello. BigBoy, when telling the story later says, "That's the baby beluga that wanted to be in my picture! I love him." We waved and signed "whale" at him (I am assuming "beluga" has to be fingerspelled) and even taught the Chicken Man how to sign whale (he asked).

Actually, thanks to Signing Time #9 The Zoo Train, we signed to the penguins, the dolphins, the star fish, the ducks and the sharks from a distance though (too scary for BigBoy and too far to walk for Mom and Grammie!) Hey, we're not wimps! We had just been walking since 9:30 that morning and thought 7 hours was plenty!

Thank you Grammie for a lovely Thanksgiving memory that is threatening to become a tradition!


P.S. That plug up above for Signing Time is my gentle reminder that awesome, educational Christmas gifts are just a click away!!! We have been so blessed by the two sets we own and I know they would benefit so many other families! I don't get a commission, I just really love their products!

A Turtle Rockin' Birthday

They all flock to *Turtle Rock,On Turtle Rock they play !

Shortcake thought Turtle Rock was the perfect place for a birthday party! The waves in the background were made with some wrapping paper we found. We tucked some little cardstock turtles into the waves and hung some Styrofoam turtles like the one above from the light over the table.

I totally recommend making your own party hats! We made ours using these basic instructions. The Professor even joined in by making one for Shortcake's doll.

We had turtle races, too. The kids picked their competitors out of the waves and colored them. First we thought that the slowest should win but then realized how long that could last.

And of course, we had to make a turtle cake. Shortcake fell in love with this one when we were looking for ideas together. Mine had to have big brown eyes though, just like my big brown-eyed girl! Bigboy announced upon seeing it this morning, "I get to eat the head!!!" Um...ok.

Turtle Rock is the perfect place
It’s the perfect place to be.
Turtle Rock it’s not too hot
And it’s not too cool for me!

*If you don't know where to find Turtle Rock, then you need to get yourself to a library or better yet, just order it and you can visit as many times as you want. You will want to, I promise!

Look familiar?

These were our activities from last year and I am posting them again because last night was rough and I am paying for it today and... because everything is pretty much the same! Some updates in red.

Happy St. Cyril and Methodius Day, tomorrow! I am as fond of these two saints as any good Slavic girl with Bohemian and Moravian ancestry could be, truly. My wonderful, Catholic grandparents* were married in a church dedicated to Sts. Cyril and Methodius. I have often wondered how similar the Slavic language that these amazing saints used for Mass and preaching was compared to the beautiful language I often heard lilting around the old farmhouse where I spent many a summer day. My grandparents also spoke fluent English, mind you. Their parents insisted on it! They only slipped into Czech when they didn't want me to know what they were talking about. Considering my entire Czech vocabulary consisted of "grandma", "grandpa", "Merry Christmas", and a saying that when literally translated has something to do with a billy goat wagging it's tail, their secrets were very safe!

*This is not to say that my paternal grandparents weren't wonderful. They were wonderful in their own way, oh...and they were Baptists.
I have to admit it though, I just can't quite give up my affection for St. Valentine in favor of these two Slavic icons (pun intended). I know they were two amazing men, and we know more about what they did while on this Earth than we know about all 3 saints named Valentine.

But.....

....it's.....

.....Saint Valentine's Day, tomorrow!

I made heart shaped buttermilk biscuits this morning that turned out horribly dry. No pictures for fear that the flash would cause them to spontaneously combust. I have never had that problem with any recipe that calls for buttermilk before (insert pout here). I think I will stick with a tried and true recipe this year. If you have never tried Sunrise Scones they are melt in your mouth delicious!

I promised the kids heart shaped pizzas for dinner which means
Mommy doesn't have to cookwe can have a little fun later. Gotta love Papa Murphy! We are going to decorate chocolate lollipops for each other with mini M&Ms later (a little act of love and service). Actually, Lent has put a hold on all of the usual treats, but perhaps some strawberries and cream will count as a side dish, not dessert. I am also going to encourage them to make secret valentines to leave behind letting each other know what act of service they performed for the other person. The girls will, no doubt, offer to make the beds for the boys (something those boys desperately need help with!) but coming up with something for the boys to do might require some extra thought. Suggestions welcome as always!

We will read Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda which is one of my favorite books for this feast day. The illustrations look like mosaics in beautiful muted tones. Of course, it is a fictional legend but it does mention that he was a priest. While it does not have any examples of why he is the patron of romantic love, we always find a way to work it into the story by telling the children that the jailer probably knew of St. Valentine from the Roman soldiers who had been secretly married by him. (I had no idea it was a Catholic Mosaic book. I think I just might have to get that book. Done.)

BigBoy asked to watch Signing Time #4. He calls it "Love" because of the awesome song Rachel Coleman sings at the end. La-la-la-la love! Still true! BigBoy still calls this one "Love" and Rachel Coleman is still awesome. Have you been reading about her trip to Ghana? What an amazing family!

Lastly, a present for my valentine, the man who ignored his inner Cookie Monster and chose to marry me even though I am just above the Mendoza line when it comes to cookie baking. Did you notice how powdered sugar covers the
burntcrispy edges nicely?

He won't. Still true, too!

Considering how good these other cookies turned out the last time I made them, I think Husband will willingly wait until Sunday for a batch (or two). If you are having treats tomorrow, please enjoy them! Just because we have decided to celebrate without them doesn't mean I think everyone else should. It's just what works for us this year. Have a love-ly feast day, tomorrow!