When the Fairies Dance you have to Smile!

I had a delightful Saturday this past weekend. Got to spend it with 8 little gals all 4 and under who were at my daughter's house to help Sydney celebrate her birthday. Being four... wow, can't remember being four. That was, after all, in 1959, I think I got a puppy but I am not completely sure.

Syd, however, had a marvelous time. A highlight was when "the birthday fairy" arrived. One of the youth from our church is a high school junior who dances at the studio where Syd takes class. She graciously consented to come and fill the role! She was absolutely convincing as a fairy and the little gals fell in love with her! Kudos to Taylor Plodzien for being one very classy gal who made all those little people smile. The photos will tell the rest of the story.

My Biggest Fear - An Online Project

I have been noticing people using blogs of late to accomplish some interesting things. Surely this has been going on for some time now, but it came to my mind most obviously when I went to see Julie and Julia. Here was a young woman finding herself by setting up a cooking project and then blogging about it. Now before you get worried that I am suddenly going to go domestic and start cooking up a storm, never fear! Ed's dominance in the kitchen is TOTALLY secure!

Recently I stumbled across a new favorite blog project, this one is still ongoing and has me fascinated. There is a young 30-something in California who has pledged herself to the task of only spending $1 on 1 outfit per day for an entire year. She sews... and sews with abandon, actually. And so she goes to tag sales and thrift shops and picks up whatever dress or clothing item that $1will buy and then revamps it into something marvelous... or at least something she's willing to wear out in public. Her blog New Dress a Day is SO much fun to follow because she posts before and after photos and a lot of things in between. Try peeking at it the next time you feel like there's nothing in your closet. She also has "theme weeks" where she focuses on one particular type of cast-off clothing... "Bridesmaid Dress" Week was particularly hysterical and she got some really cool clothes out of it!

So what will my project be? Nothing quite so impressive... but nonetheless I think very worthwhile. I have known for a long time that I am a "saver" of things. In fact, I come from a long line of "save it you may one day need it" types. (Ask my kids about their grandma who collected boxes. Yup, just empty boxes!) I live in a house, that by my modest estimate might have 1700 sq. feet of space if you count the 3/4 basement underneath it. Here's where the fear comes in.... I don't want to someday have to have my daughters have to clean out my numerous stashes of "stuff". I caught an episode (actually TWO episodes) on Oprah last week that were focused on the problems faced by folks known as "hoarders"! Now I am not even the teensiest bit close to that horrific issue... in fact, I didn't even know what a hoarder was until about a year ago when I learned that one of my dearest relatives was battling the problem. I had to go look it up and find out what it was. But the TV episodes got me thinking about stuff... in the very literal sense. And all my stuff makes me feel just anxious and heavy. SO, I have made a pact with myself - I am going to try a pitch a minimum of two bags of "STUFF" each week until I can't find anything else to pitch. My ideal would be one bag to trash and one to charity... even better would be TWO to charity and keeping my stuff out of landfills. (Fits my ideal of being green and all that jazz!) When I can, I am going to post a photo of the stuff and tell where it went.... sounds good.... where the stuff is just boring to look at, all you'll get is maybe a photo of something related or prettier to look at.

So here goes.... WEEK ONE of STAUDE STUFF GONE: (ironic isn't it, considering what I named this blog several years ago!?)

This week... the first week of AUGUST: I pitched out ONE full bag of just plain trash out of my office and donated 3 bags to charity. Two of the bags were full of clothes I hadn't worn in over 3 years. The THIRD bag was the fun bag. It went to the library. It was full of computer software that I no longer have a computer to run anymore!!! Does anyone out there need a copy of "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego" for a Mac Classic? Well, go to our Library's book and AV sale next May and you can probably have my old one for $1!!! I filled an ENTIRE bag with out of date software... some of it in its original and UNOPENED packaging! Yikes! And that is the secret to how I got ONE whole empty shelf in one closet in my home; something that feels like a really good start!

Thanks for listening, dear readers, and wish me luck!

Banilla Makes the Day Alright!

Today was good day that got made even better by some super after school time spent with Sydney. I picked her up at her sitter's house and we went off on an adventure. (Papa was at the farm spraying our grapes.)

First stop... Lyon's Custard for a cone; more specifically a "Banilla cone" because that's what Syd told me was her favorite. Syd polished off her first full-fledged kid cone. She managed not to let a single drip hit the ground (or her shirt)! Throughout the adventure, she kept saying, "Oh Grandma! This is so tasty!" Then she would giggle and keep right on slurping away at it. It took her almost a half an hour to eat a cone, but she did it! (and had the occasional slurp of my strawberry one as well). The other discovery was that Syd thought going to "Lyons" Custard meant we were going to be with some LIONS... as in growls and eats people! So I had to show her that it was a name of a place that just sounded like big cats! Funny!

We followed our cones with a stop at the library next door, where we stocked up on Dora books. Then we came home and played in the garden for almost an hour before her daddy arrived to pick her up. We now have a ritual... we come in, put on our "garden clothes" and our garden shoes, put on our sunscreen, put on our sunglasses, and then out we go. Syd spent an hour watering her flowers and moving "soy-il" from one bucket into another.

I am really liking all our new "habits!"

You get an Inch... You Slide a MILE!

Syd came over to play on the sled this morning. Our next door neighbor has a modest hill in his yard that has become the "orientation to sledding" hill for the newest generation of intrepid snowbunnies! (It seems like yesterday this was Gret and Katrina! In fact, we think our sled might be close to 30 years old!) Here's a collection of shots of all the fun a little snow can bring!

The Day I Flew Down the Hall

In all the hoopla over getting snow, I forgot to mention my strange adventure of this past Wednesday. Every year, our Physics students study aerodynamics and pneumatic principals. Part of this involves sailing down the hallway in the "air powered flying saucer" a.k.a. the "flying car" or hovercraft. Usually, I manage to get out there to watch and snap photos for yearbook. This year, however, the teacher Mr. Linn turned to me and said, "So do you want to try it?" If you know me at all you know what my answer was.
I am proud to say I went nearly 60 ft before I settled softly onto the floor.

The "car" rides on a its own little pillow of air provided by a repurposed vaccuum cleaner running in reverse. It is SO much fun as well as being a rather silly way to learn science. SO I have seen the future and ridden in the air car, which may not be up to the standard of The Jetsons yet... but one can dream!

A Good Use of Leaves

I am not a fan of leaf raking... that said, there is ONE sort of leaf raking I AM a HUGE fan of... it's the sort of raking that leads to photos such as these. Enjoy these, and then go find a toddler tyke or several of them and RAKE up some fun!

Syd shows real potential as a leaf raker!

She buried herself this deep without ANY help from her grandma!
Like I said, she has GREAT potential as a leaf lover and raker!

Fun with Friends Who will Work for Wine!

Spent a delight weekend just past with good friends from Ft. Wayne. We were together earlier this summer in Indiana to celebrate their daughter's wedding and decided we had to get together again before the summer was over. That weekend coincided with the bottling of our 2008 Seyval out at Rolling Meadows! We spent the day filling, corking, labeling and sealing the new vintage into its bottles and then we had a really nice lunch provided by Gret and Leon who came out to the vineyard to enjoy the afternoon. Two customers made the day an all around success! This new wine is a winner... but sharing it with old friends made it even better!

Time for a little Magic!

Ash is all business while working in the water area!

The whole Harrmann gang interacts with an exhibit
based on their favorite book, Goodnight Moon!

Today's adventure involved the Magic House a fabulous place of exploration and adventure in Kirkwood, MO. The place is simply amazing... kids can explore science, careers, imagination, and creativity and so much more. It is one of the most popular places to take kids in St. Louis. We even ran into 3 of our students chaperoning a group of kids from St. Charles while we were there! Asher was in his element, virtually EVERYTHING was geared for the 3-5 set, although we found plenty for Gabriel and Rhylah to explore and enjoy as well.

Rhylah is absolutely entranced by the fish...she'd have stayed right here all morning if we'd let her.

Rhylah loved the fish, the tot lot, and water toys. Ash did it all (as you can see from the photos)
Gabe found anything that involved climbing to be totally cool.The place was packed with kids, but everyone got along quite nicely, taking turns and smiling with joy at one another. I don't think I heard even one kid crying the whole time I was there... although Ed says he may have seen a couple.

Ash tried out his car repair skills.....

... and his construction engineering skills.....

... and his cobbler skills! I think he has potential in all three!

The hardest part of going to the Magic House is getting your kids to leave... ours left quite politely. We followed the visit with Happy Meals and the day was complete. Then home for naps... ahh... sleeping munchkins, every mom's (and grandmom's) secret joy!

The boys climb off the 3 story tall beanstalk, high five their mom, and head for lunch!

"Can You Come Out and Play?"

Here we are by the famous "Phil the Gorilla" Statue.. a St. Louis Zoo photo landmark!

The motto of our own St. Louis Zoo is "Can You Come Out and Play?" and believe me, EVERY kid in St. Louis was taking that to heart today! We had a classic St. Louis area spring day today. Sunny, light breeze, 74 degrees... PERFECTION! So off we headed for the zoo. It was a veritable stroller convention, but everyone was so mellow and just loving being outside that it was the MOST fun! Everyone was grinning, making sure all the "little people" in the crowd could see, taking turns, it looked like a toddler manners workshop or something along those lines. Loads of grammies and papas were strolling about with tots in tow. Syd LOVED it.

Once inside, we got her the obligatory Zoo Safari hat and off we went! She watched people as much as she watched animals. We saw: seals, prairie dogs, monkeys, giraffes, camels, gazelles, and all the birds we could find (since her daddy doesn't enjoy birds... we saved the bigger slow moving critters for when she takes HIM to the zoo next time!). She saw a peacock spread his tail, saw ducks and pelicans swim, and a giant hornbill hop! She got very good at watching for movement, and after that, anything that moved had her undivided attention. So in answer to the zoo's question, "Can you come out and play?" - our answer is a resounding, "YES!"

Sydney is totally "in the moment" on a snack break! Watching people and seal lions at the
same time as having a good animal cracker! YUM!

We are looking at Toucans, the "Fruit Loops" birds! Syd got SO excited by their bright colorful bills.

Papa can always be counted on to give you a boost to see better.

Yeah, I know she's showing way too much cookie in this shot,

but she was having such a great time that I had to share it!
Oh, and yes- she left her safari hat on the whole time!