Pippa's Birthday!

I can hardly believe our little girl is 7 already. We spent this morning before Phil had to leave for his show getting the food ready for tonight's party. Unlike Glady, who asked for steak for her tenth birthday dinner, Pippy requested Lunchables! Oy, our little goofball strikes again. And then she wanted pizza, so we decided to surprise her with both... we made our own lunchables up, and created a pair of pizza pies like no other. Phil had the idea to cut the ham and salami into shapes - ham bears and salami hearts! The pizzas are sugar cookie crusts with virulent pink frosting and gummy fruit toppings, and a scattering of "Cheese" made from white chocolate. Right up our creative little girl's alley.

We have a couple of gifts, but she will get to pick out her own ukelele later. Glady loved her visit to the Vintage Fret Shop so much we decided to repeat it with Pippa. So we will have three little strummers. Now we have to teach them more than "Row, row, row your boat"!

Morning Musings

Juliet - who loves to have her face painted! She chose the fire butterfly and then posed for her shots.

The girls down at the brook - throwing sticks in the waterfall to see them go over

False Hellebore shoots - the leaves are perfectly accordion-pleated as they appear.
One of Dad's girls on an alder catkin. They collect pollen from them, and other wind-pollinated plants at this season when there aren't many flowers out.

I am taking a couple of minutes to update with more than just a few pictures. Life is busy here, as always. I don't know what we would do if there was nothing to do! LOL... that sounds funny. Johann is running through the kitchen calling for me to be his potty buddy so the crabs won't get him... He calls spiders crabs. While he was on the potty he chattered away, telling me that if I found a crab on my bed I should call him so he could kill it with his foot.

Phil is sleeping - he has a migraine. He had the tummy bug that has been going through the house yesterday, poor guy. Glady started the parade a week ago, and it has been working it's way through us all. So I'll let him get some rest - it's a quiet day, no shows, so he can take a little time to recover.

Dad's off training to become a census mapper. He went straight to Laconia from Concord, where he was drawing blood at the nursing home. He lost a full time job, but would up with 4 part-time ones! He actually likes it, though, because he has more time at home during the day to work on the garden and his bees and the like. He and the kids were able to tap our maples and make syrup this spring - the first time in the almost 20 years we've been here that we have bothered to do this! We ended up with a couple of gallons. The kids loved it, too.

The girls have gone off to school. Glady is excited because the Lego Robot enrichment program is afterschool today. She is in the gifted programs, so a few times a year she gets to be part of special programs like this one. Juliet is in occupational therapy. She has a form of kinestethia that means she doesn't balance well, or write easily (we were afraid it was dyslexia, but testing ruled that out.), and feels like she has to move all the time to keep track of her place in the world. That's why she is such a wiggle worm. Pippa started her very first chapter book last week - a Pony-crazed Princess book her Aunt Pam had given her. She told me she wasn't going to read chapter books until she was in third grade and I said no daughter of mine was going to wait that long - and once I showed her the book she realized that she could do it! Her teacher sent home a note a couple of days later saying that Pippa is now "an excited little reader".

I took them down to the brook on Tuesday looking for frog eggs. We didn't find any, so we'll try again next week. We did catch a bunch of tiny dragonfly larvae and caddis fly larvae and some snails to put in the little aquarium. I had moved all the fish to Dad's big aquarium, so we can keep pond critters in there without them all being eaten.

It's 8am and I need to finish up my morning routine. I've been really blessed recently by being able to download podcasts of Marla the FlyLady and Dave Ramsey to my iPod. It certainly helps the dishes become less of a chore when I have something to listen to! They have inspired me to try a little harder to keep my house and get even better than I had been. In almost twelve years of marriage and ten of kids you would think that I would be further along than I am. I have a shiny sink 6 nights out of 7 - and Phil helps a lot, there. My bed is made every day - but the laundry lives on the couch more than I would like (Phil calls it Mount Washing-done). I rarely can look around and not see something that needs to be done. Somedays it overwhelms me, and I think I just can't do it all. I hate that I get sick all the time, and have to take naps almost every day. I don't know if I really was stronger before, or if that's just what I remember, but I certainly feel like my body can't take what it used to. I get so tired.

Johann has decided to make a finger puppet by himself, so I am off to rescue the carpet from glue!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Dad asked for - and got! a homemade Red Velvet Cake.The Crocus have been blooming their little hearts out for a couple of weeks now.

The very first Daff is ready to pop! I've been waiting - I though it would happen by Easter.

We celebrated Dad's Birthday today - a couple of days late, but with his schedule we didn't have an evening with him home until tonight. We found out yesterday that little Carter was born on his birthday. Yay! Congratulations Paul and Nikki!

I think Spring is finally here - I sat on the stoop for a few minutes tonight listening to the Peepers sing their little hearts out.

Grampa Bob

His name was Robert Earl Fales and I am guessing that this picture was taken when he was 18. I came across it while cleaning out the box of pictures I have been accumulating for years - and I am not sure why I ended up with it. You can see his wicked sense of humor in his eyes, can't you?

Different kind of morning

Pippa and Glady are home today for the morning -they both have dentist appointments a little later. Johann is delighted to have sisters here to pal around with. He doesn't like being alone, and will often ask them in the mornings to please stay home today. I can hear them out at the kitchen table playing with legos. I gave them my regular size legos that I had bought myself in college a week or two back. They have a huge supply of duplos, the toddler size version of legos, but there is just something cooler about the regular ones! They think it is funny to be playing with toys Mama bought for herself when she was s grown-up. Phil and I got them little packs with men in them, pirates and cops, wince they didn't have many guys. Dad was pointing out that when he had legos as a boy, there weren't guys, or much of anything besides the blocks. Today there are a lot of cool gizmos for them to add to their collection.

Speaking of collections, Glady went with us to the Vintage Fret shop earlier this week to pick out her ukelele. She was overawed by all the different instruments. She fell in love with a folk harp that was almost as tall as she is, and with the Double Bass, an instrument almost taller than her Papa! She picked out a pink uke that looks like a mini version of Pinky, Phil's first uke, and named it Lollipop. Johann got a kazoo, and played it in the car all the way home.

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.