by Robbi | Jun 7, 2014 | Alden, August, Fun Things to Do, Kato, Kids, Projects |
Hello all! Father’s Day is coming up soon, and as usual, we are planning a super-great surprise awesome thanks-for-you-you-are-the-best party for Matthew!
Just kidding. We usually completely forget Father’s Day, because, of course, I am supposed to be the one in charge of remembering. But this year I am ON THE BALL. No, really. I have the perfect Father’s Day craft project for you!
Golf Balls for Dad
So, I thought it would be fun to get a box of golf balls and have the kids decorate them. You know, because golf balls are so plain and white and otherwise not particularly interesting (though I once learned in a heated game of Trivial Pursuit that the average golf ball has 336 dimples. And not Shirley Temple, which was my wrong, albeit much more inspired, answer).
We got our box of golf balls (the kids won a coupon at Olympia Sports for running in the Sneaker Creeper) and our sharpies and set to work.
And immediately ran into problem #1:
Holding onto those suckers! Not ten seconds in, we had already lost two balls under the couch and had to hunt for another that bounced across the room.
August tried his hardest not to be distracted by the sound of retreating golf balls.
I guess we must have gotten those fancy long-distance balls.
Anyway. Once we got ourselves back in order and corralled the balls in a box with our pens, we set to work. Alden is a fan of multi-colored flower and heart creations:
while Kato is a virtuoso of the minimalist, flood-your-canvas-with-color-(preferably orange) variety:
August has yet to fully develop his style, which isn’t to say he hasn’t put some really thoughtful, focused and intense effort into his mark-making:
I am particularly fond of Alden’s “Hands Across the Golf Ball” piece:
That kid is so kumbaya, it slays me.
Soon enough, the balls were done (golf balls make a pretty manageable canvas):
While rooting around looking for wrapping paper (turns out snowmen and santa claus is all we’ve got) I discovered the perfect solution: coffee filters! Seeing as Matthew gave up coffee almost a year ago now, we still have a full pack of those suckers around and don’t have much to do with them.
We decorated them first:
And then added the finishing touches after they were all tied up:
We made a couple of very important discoveries that I will share with you:
1. It’s better if you use two coffee filters. Then you can’t see your golf ball through them, and you can decorate each coffee filter differently and it makes the little crepe flower at the top more interesting.
2. Coffee filters make great hats:
and, of course:
3. Hat shenanigans with your brother is hilarious:
And so, when we finally finished, we had some cute and festive little gifts for Father’s Day.
Of course, I neglected to mention the very important 4th item that we discovered – or should I say, remembered? And that is:
4. Matthew doesn’t play golf.
Alas. Matthew isn’t the manly sort who likes to go out and strike balls with clubs with impunity. Nope. Not even a little bit. So, as great as this little craft project is to do, you likely want to do it for someone who actually plays golf. So, we packed up these balls to send to Matthew’s dad, who is very much the manly sort who likes golf.
As for Matthew, I guess this means we’ll have to get to planning that super-great surprise awesome thanks-for-you-you-are-the-best party after all. Unless, of course, I forget about Father’s Day again before we can do it.
**Wait, what were we talking about?**
by Matthew | Feb 13, 2014 | Alden, Book Reviews, Kato, Kids |
This week we asked our duo of young critics to review a book that Robbi and I both had when we were kids and both remember with great fondness. The book in question is a collection of Richard Scarry stories, delightful little vignettes, some of which are narrative stories, some of which are single-page cartoons, and some of which are just collections of illustrations of things in a particular topic, whether airplanes or vegetables. Scarry is an amazing illustrator. He might be best known for his cartoonish “Busytown” style, but he’s an extremely skilled painter, as some of the stories in the book reveal.
As you can see from the title, this book makes big claims. The question was whether the kids would agree.
And so we sat down to read.
By all appearances, the kids seemed to be having a great time. As I listened to Robbi read, I heard various chuckles of amusement and contented sighs of appreciation. I was certain that we were moving in the direction of two thumbs up
But when we got down to analysis, things we a bit more murky.
Alden’s take:
“I like that it has a bunch of different stories in it. I don’t like all of the pictures, but I like some of them. I don’t like the picture when the girl crashed her car into the fountain. It looked like she got hurt. Also, the person draws cakes well. It has a good mouse story in it. The one that has a Papa Bear in it that couldn’t find his baby bear. Where the Papa cut the cake up. It has quite a few pages. Does that mean a lot? It’s too long to read all the stories. It’s sort of a tiring thing. I sort of don’t like that it’s too long, but I like the stories, just reading one at a time, but not reading the whole book in order. The end.”
Verdict: Thumbs up
I like Alden’s assessment: after all, what good is a book without expertly rendered drawings of cake and a good mouse story? I’m not sure why she was so glum at the prospect of reading the entire book at once. It is rather long and would take quite a few minutes to read in its entirety, but we have never subjected the kids to such extreme reading sessions, usually choosing 2-3 stories before bedtime. As for the girl who crashes her car into the fountain, I want to assure you that she emerges from the incident unscathed. As for the papa bear who couldn’t find the baby bear? You’ll be glad to know (SPOILER ALERT) that he was “hiding” on his papa’s shoulders the entire time.
Kato’s take:
“I don’t like it and it’s too long. All of the stories are nice. I like it because all these beautiful colors are in it. I like the page with the planes. That’s a jet plane. I like when the pig lands his plane in someone’s underwear. That’s so silly (that’s page 181 for those of you who are curious).”
Verdict: Thumbs down
Kato’s assessment was even more puzzling. Although he doesn’t, apparently, like it, he cited only positive attributes. I question the validity of the thumbs down verdict when he freely admits that “all the stories are nice,” that it’s full of beautiful colors, and that it features his favorite thing in the world—airplanes. His feelings ALSO seem to have been colored by a fear that we would make him read it all at once. Perhaps when I’m not looking, Robbi makes them read it all at once? Actually, given her enthusiasm for the book, this would not surprise me.
Regarding that pig who lands in someone’s underwear? Here he is.
That page is always the occasion for much giggling. Because, you know, underwear is hilarious.
After voting, Kato the detractor continued his seemingly positive critique.
Kato: I like the jet fighter planes. I like the spitfire.
Kato: I like this picture because he’s giving an apple to her.
Kato: I don’t like this picture because he’s not giving flowers to anyone.
Kato: I like that I can balance it on my head.
Kato: I do NOT like it when it falls on my toe. Ow! Ow!
And there you have it, our definitive analysis. This book is fun and colorful and full of wonderful things to look at, but it is also long, occasionally controversial (cars crashing into fountains, etc), and bound by the laws of gravity.
If you are inspired by the positives, the book is pretty easy to find.
by Robbi | Jan 14, 2014 | Alden, August, Fun Things to Do, Kato, Kids, Projects, Theme of the Week |
Well, hello there!
When we were researching volcanos for our theme of the week post on Saturday, I thought we could add a link to a tutorial on how to make your own volcano. I did some very nominal searching but most of the tutorials required that you mix up a bunch of dough and actually make a volcano. Nice idea, but we didn’t really have the time or attention span for it. So – I looked around and decided that we could do a quick and easy version.
Here’s what you need to do:
Get a flowerpot (with a hole in the bottom):
and some plastic wrap:
Add 2 Tablespoons of baking soda to your flowerpot (while covering the hole in the bottom with your finger):
Put the plastic wrap over the flower pot:
Secure it with a rubber band:
SECURE IT, I SAID!!!
Add 8 drops of dish detergent (this will increase the bubbliness of your lava):
Use whatever means necessary to protect yourself from vinegar stink:
Carefully measure out 1 cup of vinegar:
Carefully select food coloring for what color you’d like your lava to be:
Stir in the food coloring (I would tell you a drop count, but Kato was a bit overzealous. Let’s call the measure “a solid squirt or two”):
(it occurs to me now that it probably would have been easier to add the detergent to the vinegar instead of to the flower pot. You may now feel free to learn from my mistakes.)
Anyway – onwards. NEXT! Carefully pour the vinegar into the hole in the bottom of your flowerpot (oh, but only after putting your flower pot onto some sort of plate or dish that will contain the impending lava flow):
Be delighted that your volcano worked! Even though in the photo the lava looks white (it was much redder in real life!):
(By “much redder” than white we mean “pink”):
And we discovered the one gigantic plus-side to our method over the other construct-an-elaborate-mountain-out-of-dough-or-paper-maché methods: you can make your volcano really shoot out the lava by tapping the plastic wrap on the bottom like a drum. Sure, it’s not as realistic as a paper maché volcano, but WHEEEEEEEEEEE!:
Of course, there is a down-side to our method as well. If you happen to have any cuts or scrapes or hangnails or bugbites on your hands, you probably shouldn’t try out the drumming method. Getting vinegar in under your skin stings like crazy. Just ask Kato:
And then, of course, the other downside to shooting vinegar all over the room is that the room then smells like vinegar for the next 4 days.
So that’s it. If you want to make a quick and easy volcano, that’s how to do it. If you don’t have any extra flower pots lying around, you could also use a simple plastic cup with a hole cut in the bottom. Or pretty much anything with a hole in it – even just a bottle or a mug.
So go to it! Have fun! And if you have any great photos (or make any great discoveries) feel free to share them with us in the comments section below!
by Matthew | Nov 29, 2013 | Alden, August, Kato, Kids, Life |
Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We ate a lot. We stayed up late. Our stomachs are still groaning. Our eyes are still full of cobwebs.
I told the kids that they could watch a TV show while I went in the other room and worked for a while. When I came back to get a drink of water, I found this. Fortunately, the camera was nearby.
Of all the photos we may gently coax into being by placing children here or there, by making funny faces to elicit smiles, I am happy to say that this scene was entirely spontaneous.
This is the kind of love I hoped my kids would have for one another.
There are squabbles and disagreements, to be sure, but for the most part, these guys love spending time together.
Makes me happy. Makes me feel like we’re doing something right.
Or maybe it’s just the turkey.
by Matthew | Nov 15, 2013 | Kato, Kids, Life |
For a long time now, Alden has been studying Tang Soo Do, a Korean Martial Arts form practiced by Robbi’s Dancing With the Stars partner, Mark Pagano.
She has enjoyed learning how to punch, kick, block, and speak Korean. And I have enjoyed watching it happen.
Kato has also been watching. Cautiously, curiously, wondering what it’s all about. He is a kid who takes his time to study a situation before diving in. But earlier this week, he decided it was time to give it a try. And so Mark ordered the very smallest outfit available and Kato tried it on.
And then he stepped into the do jang (kind of like dojo, for you Karate Kid fans), just as class was getting under way. Fortunately, his big sister was there to show him the ropes.
While everyone else was practicing low punches, Kato expressed a degree of skepticism.
But when it came time for forward punches, he was starting to feel it.
His high punch may have lacked the power to shatter oak planks, but it was a beginning of what may someday evolve into a furious attack.
Kato was my sparring partner for the self-defense portion of the class. Here he is, executing a “low block,” meant to break the iron grip of his attacker (me) before fleeing to safety.
In Tiny Tigers (the little kid Tang Soo Do class), the focus is less about giving your attacker the beat down and more on getting yourself out of a dangerous situation; I approve.
Kato’s take? Tang Soo Do is fun.
The next class is Saturday morning. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
by Matthew | Nov 7, 2013 | Kato, Kids |
This is me and this is my friend Steve. You may think you’re looking at one of those pictures where the right and left halves are really mirror images of one another. But no – Steve and I just look a whole lot alike.
When Robbi and Steve were walking around on the streets of Chestertown earlier today, people kept stopping him and asking how I was doing. It was confusing to Steve, who felt less than fully prepared to answer the question. But it was comforting to Robbi to know that if anything happens to me, there is a stunt double available to step in and take my place.
His uncanny resemblance of yours truly notwithstanding, Steve is an illustrator – he and Robbi met in grad school at SCAD (check out his portfolio and consider hiring him to do some of that potential illustration work that’s been lying around waiting to be done HERE). And so, while I was at Dad’s Day at Friendship Montessori School this morning, Steve drew pictures with Kato. Some of their more notable contributions include a jet plane, a windsock, and several farting butts.
Kato drew this Rocket with many airplane wings on his own. But when he was done, he declared that it was not quite complete. Steve to the rescue.
Here’s why it’s good to have a professional illustrator as a drawing buddy. Though he was building on a solid foundation (Kato’s rocket drawing is most excellent), Steve’s contributions added that special something that turned it from a really good drawing of a rocket to a really, really good drawing of a rocket.
It’s that extra really that makes all the difference. That and an MFA, perhaps.
