Twenty Questions

Mr. Phil is going to be profiled in a local newspaper, and they sent us some questions to answer beforehand. I though you might like to see them. So what would your answers be?
Here are the questions:

1. Full Name...
Philip Spitz
People know you as...
Mr. Phil


2. Date and place of birth:
March 25, 1964in Hollywood, CA

3. Occupation:
Family Entertainer, specializing in Magic, Balloonology, and Comedy. 

4. How long have you lived in the area?
I moved to NH in 1996 to be near my future wife. Thirteen years here, twelve married to her!

5. Who was your most influential role model?
Bruce "Charlie" Johnson, a clown, writer, and circus historian based in Olympia, WA. 

6. Where is your favorite place to go or your favorite trip or your favorite
hike?
Disneyland. I grew up near it, and I still feel that it is one of the few places of pure illusion. For that brief time you are there, you step out of your world and into theirs. 

7. Favorite local business?
Laconia Public LIbrary - that's where it all started. 

8. Favorite food?
Mexican! I grew up in San Diego surrounded by it, and I still love it.

9 Favorite book?
Barry Mitchell's "Creativity In Magic"

10: Favorite movie?
Do I have to pick just one? The Princess Bride - I can't think of anything to put above it on the list. 

11. What do you spend too much money on?
Magic, of course. And books. 

12. What is the dumbest thing you ever did?
Dressed up as the Easter Bunny. There used to be a picture, but not anymore! Muahh- Hah-Ha-Ha!

13. What is your fondest memory?
Holding my first-born daughter the night she was born - just minutes after she was born, actually. She was so tiny, and so amazing. 

14. What item is no longer available that you would like to see return?
Jolt Cola with real sugar.

15. What do you think makes the Lakes Region a good place in which to live?
Its hometown feel. It isn't a city, it's a town. 

16.  If you could change one thing about the Lakes Region, what would it be?
The traffic on Rte 3!


17. If you could change one thing about the state, nation or world, what
would it be?
I'd bring back good manners and courtesy. 

18. If you were to try a different profession for a day, what would it be?
A First-grade teacher. 

19. If you won the lottery, what would you do?
I'd help my friends and family, of course, but I'd really like to find some people to help anonymously. Pay for a month's rent, a tank of oil... something like that. And would it be great if that caught on and spread so everyone did things like that?

20. What would you like to be remembered for?
That I made people laugh. That I took them away from their mundane lives for a while into a place of joy and laughter. 

Friday Fun Night

We started out with the kids all playing outside until they were ready to come in and have hot cocoa. Then for dinner... 

Make your own pizza! Johann had the cutest, of course. 

Papa supervises Glady's bacon application. 
We had games, and drawing. We all love Gobblet because it is simple enough for Pippa on up to play, but challenging enough for Phil and I to play one another at a whole 'nother level. 
Pippa's working on her valentines already. Johann said he was, too. "I'm makin' love."
And yes, Juliet did beat her father one game out of three. Yay Julie!

Snuggly Guys

FaceArt

I was painting the girls (and boy!) last night, and talking to Mom on the phone, and she wanted to see what I had done, so here are the pics! I did two rainbow faces because I am thinking about competing at a conference I am going to in a bout a week. Very nervous about all that, it will be my first such thing. But the kids are great, Glady is TEN today! I can hardly believe we've had her for a decade!

Early morning quiet

I am enjoying a quiet morning moment. I have my warm, cuddly boy in my arms, wrapped in his favorite blanket. Pippa is sitting at the table with a dot-to-dot and enjoying some hot cocoa. I'm letting Phil sleep - we are enjoying the luxury of vacation. 

Soon the house will be busy with life - kids clamoring for breakfast, Phil and Dad wanting their coffee. We will be getting ready to go out into the cold world, but for the moment the whole house is wrapped in quiet, like a big fuzzy blanket. 

Christmas Revelries

Pippa gets her favorite Christmas beverage. Johann and his very patient Best Friend, Thaddeus. 
Juliet and Glady play their new Bakugan game. It's a cross between marbles and math and looks like fun! The hotwheels launcher is Johann's.
Juliet with her new ukelele! She was so excited. 
The girls opening presents. 
This was earlier - Stocking time!

So it's Boxing day... Where does that name come from, anyway? The kids keep asking us and we don't know either! Glady's dancing to her iPod tunes, Juliet is in the living room trying out her Ukelele (who she has named Fruity), and Johann and Pippa are chasing each other thru the house. Phil has run out on an errand or two and I think Dad is hibernating in his room - he got a copper bedwarmer from Nana and he came out this morning to fill it up and I haven't heard from him since. 

Christmas Eve we had a Family get together at our house. Nana and BoPop came here for a change, and we had munchies and chatted and opened a present each. It was very nice to have them over, I think it may be the first time I have entertained them here. The kids certainly enjoyed having them to cuddle up to and talk to. After they went home we looked at the icy rain and scratched the trip to church we had planned. Glady in particular was very disappointed, but the weather has been atrocious and we weren't going to take any chances. We all got into our pj's and cuddled on the couch and Papa read the story of Jesus's birth aloud and answered all the questions the kids had. I think we answer the same questions every year, but they always ask. 

Christmas morning Johann danced around singing "Sinta came! Sinta came!" when he saw the stockings. I must say the jolly old elf outdid himself this years - the girls each got watches and Barbies in theirs, and Johann got hotwheels and lots of playdough. The adults got Lindt chocolate. MMMMMM!

After breakfast (egg-nog french toast) We started to open the gifts under the tree. This year we carefully did one at a time, the girls taking turns playing elf to deliver the gifts. The girls got clothes, and books, and lots of other fun things. Their big gifts from us were an iPod shuffle for Glady, a Ukelele for Juliet, and a CD player for Pippa. It was a musical Christmas! This year we had given the three girls each a budget for one adult each and it was a riot to see waht they got us. Pippa gave me a Fondue pot. Juliet gave Grampa a watch, and a bee that buzzes Jingle Bells, and a hankie. Glady gave her Papa a Nerf N-Strike Tactical Unit - six guns that shoot nerf darts. Oh, boy, was our afternoon interesting!

Dad went up to his folks house in the afternoon, and we all played and napped back here at the house. I started cooking relatively early, as we had missed out on our Thanksgiving Feast and I wanted to make Christmas good. We had stuffed pork roast, yorkshire pudding, Colonial corn pudding, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes and gravy, squash with marshmallows on top... it was very yummy! Oh, and Wassail punch from a colonial recipe for "Weaker Wassail" that was suitable for the kids to drink. 

What a morning!

everyone was trying to get out the door at once, Phil to his delayed show, the girls to school (also on delay) and Dad to work. Oh, and before they left, we had to dig 18 inches of snow out of the driveway! So it was a little nuts. Yesterday was quite a snowy day, with lots of very cold wind - a couple of pipes froze on the east side of the house, but they are ok this morning since the wind changed. It's just Johann and I now - I have a ton of work to do so I can't stay on the computer long. I need to clean the house since I've invited Nana and BoPop over on Christmas Eve. We already wrapped most of the gifts, thank goodness. I have some baking to do - not a lot, since I'm not doing a lot this year. And Office stuff, as always - especially since we've lost five shows to the weather this year. I can reschedule most of them to January, so they aren't a total loss... Sigh.

more fun pictures

Christmastime is here again

we decorated the tree finally last night! The tree is a colorado spruce Grampa planted in the garden a while back and it had gotten too big - we had to cut it in half to get it in the house! We had planned on having it up last friday but with the ice storm it got frozen to the driveway and it took a couple of days to thaw it out and get it ready! LOL oh, well. The kids had a blast decorating it. We've had small trees for a couple of years now, because of the baby. But he is finally old enough to leave it alone (mostly) and even helped put ornaments on it. The girls love doing this, and we watched Charlie Brown's Christmas while we put them on, and drank egg-nog. 

A Big Day!

We finally put bunk beds in the kid's room today - and carpet! They are all so excited now that it is all done. We have been putting this day off and off because we are afraid Johann will climb up, fall off, and hurt himself. But all their beds fell apart over the last couple of months due to wear and tear, so we had to do it. It look nice, though, and they have lots of storage space now. Hopefully that will help them keep it tidy!

It was a First!

Battle Cattle! the game where cows are armed and armoured and wage war with Milk bombs and methane gas. Mama and Pippa teamed up for Risk. 
Pippa and Juliet like to blow on their dice before they roll.
Ahhh... Hot cocoa, Family, and world domination!

We had Family Game Night last night, since the girls are out of school today. The girls voted for Risk, so we spent a couple of hours happily playing the very first Family Risk game! It was a blast. We didn't play out the whole game because it got really late. Of course, we did have a little sportsmanship issue at the end when it became evident that one young lady was about to lose... Actually, that is part of why we play games together. Not jsut because it's fun, but to teach them how to lose - and to win. And how to play to win. The young lady in question had been trying to take care of her Papa and thought he wouldn't attack her countries in return. *Sigh* we can't and won't play to lose with them, it would be unfair to them. So after the game of Risk got packed away, we pulled out the Battle Cattle and played a quick round to reinforce the lessons... and all in all, we were up until almost 11pm! LOL - Pippa was up with me at 6:30 this morning, but everyone else slept in for another hour. 

Glady's Days

Tuesday I got my first uke lesson!  I had the pink most, the brown least.   And I was sick!

Wednesday we accompliced something with Nancy drew!  Lots of stuff! 

Fall

Milkweed pods. 

The last goldenrod and aster of the season. 

British soldiers in their red caps growing on an old log. 

Chokecherries made almost sweet by frosts.

A wet bee rescued from a bucket.

A Nashville Rambler watching us from a bush. 

The ruddy leaves of maples.

A tiny caterpillar named Spike.

My daughters in the sunshine laughing.

The last raspberries of summer.

Thus is Fall and today, my favorite season. 

How many songs in a day?

Well, according to iTunes (our music library), 445. Wow. We had lost our old collection in the move from one computer to another, and we'd had more than a week on that, but we're re-loading CD's to get it back on the computer. Phil and I have been working on it off and on, and today I noticed as I lodaded up Trout Fishing in America's My Best Day, that we had exactly one day - with 445 songs on it!

So what's your favorite song or group?

Malapropisms

Johann, who is curled up under a blanket on the couch watching Blues Clues, has been a riot this morning. He wanted me to microwave his grapes. "They're cold, Mama! I want to make them warm!"

Well, I'm not sure what would happen if you microwaved a grape but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be good. We compromised on hot chocolate now and grapes later. It isn't all that chilly this morning, only 53* outside, but he hasn't gotten dressed yet. Potty training and naked boy seem to go hand in hand. We try, but yesterday, he went through 5 sets of clothes for various reasons, mostly that he takes off his clothes to go potty, and then puts them in the laundry. Go figure. 

We were in the bathroom earlier, and he was trying to pull a piece of molding off the corner by the tub. When I got upset and asked him why he would try to destroy the wall, he looked up at me and said "the crabs hide in there!" Now, he calls spiders crabs. We aren't quite sure why, but it is very funny. I told him they were hiding from him, like the dog does sometimes, and to leave them alone. 

He and the dog really get on quite well, considering that Johann loves to hug him and love on him, and the highlight of his day is to be allowed to give Thaddeus his treat. He takes the treat and runs up and down the house with it, dog bouncing along after him, Johann shouting in glee and Thad barking excitedly. It gets a bit loud, sometimes!

His other malaprop that has been cracking Phil and I up is saying "How?" when he means why. So a conversation could go like this:

"Johann, time for bed."

"How?"

Chuckling, the parent will say "go climb in your bed and lie down."

"How!?" with great emphasis.

"You mean why, kiddo. Because it's that time."

"How?"

And so on. He is such a little wiggle bug - always in motion. And he misses his sisters when they are at school. He loves to walk them out to the bus, and to be waiting to play with them when they get home. Pippa spent a half day at home the other morning and he was so happy he had her to play with. He doesn't do as well on his own as the girls did at this age. He has decided, though, that he is going to college and becoming a fi'fiter. 

The college thing has become a big deal around here. He talks about it all the time. He wants to take Thaddeus to college with him, and Nana and Bopop. It took us a while to realize that when he says college he means kindergarten. I think he got the word from Blues Clues, were Steve went off to college and his brother Joe moved in to take care of Blue. It will be two years before he goes to kindergarten, and I am thinking about getting him in preschool for a day or two a week. We could probably arrange a trade-out with a local school that has Mr. Phil in about 6 times a year. 

Well, I need to get my morning going again. The little man is still on the couch, but getting wiggly again. He won't stay there much longer. The big man is sleeping, trying to recover from a nasty head cold. We're all suffering from that one in one way or another. 

Juliet's Self-Portrait

I found this today while looking for something else - I don't always look at every one of her pictures. WIth a digital camera she can - and does - take dozens of shots at a time. So I had missed this one. 

Summer's last fling

We all - the kids and I - went down to the brook this week. I haven't been down that far all summer, and it was fun to troop down with my happy gang. They didn't want to come back up to the house - their response to "it's time to go" was "No, Mama, we haven't made enough  memories yet!"

Even though they are all in school and we had our first killing frost day before yesterday, the weather has been lovely. Today on the way down to Tilton, we saw the first real color along the way. 

I don't know if the photos will come through - I seem to be having a problem with uploading today - this is my second attempt. I'm a little bummed about that - this is my photo album to share with you all, friends and family. I love taking pictures - and Juliet seems to have inherited that, and she has a good eye for an eight-year-old. She took a nice series of pictures of Glady learning to make sushi tonight. I found a self-portrait 

Not a Real Job?

Why is it that friends and family persist in treating small business owners like dirt? I know we aren't the only ones to feel this - we've talked to many other entrepeneurs like ourselves that get this reaction. This morning, Phil left early to run a quick errand before "work" and ran into a long-term acquaintance. We've known her for years, but never closely, and certainly not to the level where we would confide our family finances to!
She asks"So, where are you off too?"
Phil, who is half in costume, answers that he is going to be the Hobo Magician for the day.
"Oh, so you still don't have a real job. So Cedar must be working, then."
"No, she's at home still, raising the four kids and running the office."
With a tone of disbelief, she queries, "Neither of you have real jobs?"
Phil, feeling disgusted and put-down, tells her that we are doing just fine running our own business and makes his escape.

Now, why do people do this? We work hard at what we do, pull in a middle-class income, and have the time to parent our children, to boot. They aren't in daycare all day, and even if I'm in the office a lot they still ahve access to me if they need. Running our own business is a lot harder tahtn simply holding down a 'real job' as we are responsible for not only one aspect of a business, but all of it. Phil and I make a great team. We've heard many envious comments from peers who wish they had a supportive spouse. Phil and I know that if we fall down on the job we make a big difference in our family's livliehood. In a 'real job' we could call in sick, slack off, not have to be constantly studying and training to keep up with the demands of our business. Do these people expect us to go out and get a "real job" so it will be easier on us? Or just because we don't conform to their viewpoint of what life should be?

I'm so frustrated and sick of this today. Even those who should know better if they stopped to think insist on telling my children - my kids! who don't need to hear about this, have the guts to talk to Phil and I directly! - that their father is lazy. OOOH!

Well, off my soap box for the day. I have too much to do today to dwell on this for long, and Phil has not only a long day today, but no time off until Aug 26. So for his sake I keep this house as peaceful as possible, and reassure him that I am committed to making this business a sucess. We've made it 8 years, this year will be our best ever, and I'm not going to let the doomsayers win. We're Good at what we do. We bring joy to kids and adults everyday and that is a worthy mission.

Busy Summertime

Juliet with the balailaika. Phil is learning to play it, my hands won't quite stretch to all the chords so I don't know if I will try. Juliet wants to learn to play Uke, like Phil and I. This was during the week and a half her sisters went to Pennsylvania with Nana and BoPop. Juliet got to be the princess while they were gone, and we celebrated her 8th birthday on 8/8/08!

I made pies with all the lovely berries the kids (and Dad and I) have been picking all summer long. Assembly-line production meant 4 pies for the freezer took no longer than one.

Johann is such a lovely little man! Fully potty-trained now, Wahoo! No more diapers. Here he gives Papa kisses.

Summertime!

Wow, it has been a while since I posted! Sorry, everybody. Life has been crazy, as we launched the Summer Reading Show June 24, after more than a month of preparation and rehearsal. Then came last week, the busiest week of the year, with 4th of July festivities. We did take time out for Family, though, and got together up at Toad Hill to meet Nikki, Paul's lovely bride.

Phil is doing well, considering the punishing schedule this summer. He's tired but not burning out, and not sick of his job (yet! LOL - poor guy loves doing this, but every sumer there comes a point...). You can check out our calendar at the website, www.mrphilandco.com, and be sure to check there through the summer, as we have hired a new web-guy who will be helping us upgrade the site. Woo-Hoo! that has been on our minds for too long.

The girls are doing well... mostly. Today they are driving one another crazy. Johann was having trouble with the heat the last couple of days... poor little doo-dad. We had to postpone his Birthday celebration because he wasn't feeling well. He did turn 3 yesterday, though! Yay! He's so big now - I can hardly believe it has been that long. The girls got haircuts Tuesday. They look adorable. My camera is broken, but I sill gat a picture soon to put up here. Glady went for just a trim - she wants he hair long and as she has been taking care of it well enough I don't mind. Pippa and Juliet got bobs - Phil calls it the mushroom cut! - and Juliet had long enough hair to donate hers to Locks of Love.

I am good. The heat isn't getting me down as much this year, and other than being really busy I have been enjoying summer. I will hopefully post again soon!