Got our castle...
Got our wigs...
Showing posts with label things to do. Show all posts
Showing posts with label things to do. Show all posts
8.1.11
Bear Hunt
We went on a bear hunt at the Children's Museum Exhibit currently housed in Tulsa Historical Society.
The yellow bear. His task for Arthur was to draw a picture of what he sees outside the window.
With a little coaching from Daddo, it wasn't too hard.
The garden center is right across the way.
We reward bear hunters with ice cream round these parts.
All the bear hunter's life brought him was empty fame. No paparazzi, please.
Have I mentioned we love museums? We are getting our Philbrook membership renewed this year.
5.1.11
Day at the Zoo
2011 to-do: buy more family memberships.
Hub is going to be home full-time with the kiddos every day and few things are more challenging than keeping a fun routine with two young children, one being an infant. I used to get the worst cabin fever when stuck inside all day with the little girls I kept a couple of days a week, and finding interesting places to take them where I didn't go crazy trying to keep them both corralled was a drag sometimes. This year, we had Philbrook and Tulsa Zoo memberships, so anytime the guys got restless, they would pop up to the museum or had the zoo as an option. Tulsa really is a good place to have a family because there is a lot to do and unlike my BFF in St. Louis, it doesn't take forty minutes to drive anywhere we want to go.
A couple of days before Christmas, we had an amazing pretend-summer day and so we headed to the zoo. It was beautiful; I kept remarking to Justin how amazed I was at the weather and didn't want the day to end. I was like a parrot. Although we love snow (it is our consolation prize), winter and the Yorktown Owens are not friends.
Artie doesn't travel without Mr. Flarvel-Flarvel these days. Arthur has also been cultivating his pretend-pout.
Flarvel-Flarvel rode in our bike trailer with Arthur and Gowey (Flarvel-Flarvel is pals with Gowey, Arthur's imaginary girl ghost friend), which we use as a large stroller sometimes. He loved all the animals
What a terrific name!
Inside the Children's Zoo.
Arthur understands that chimps are not monkeys but apes and that they care for their babies, eat and play in ways that are much like ours because we are "related."
Penguins are our favorite animal.
It was another lovely day for the Yorktown Owens!
8.8.10
Table Collage Revamp for Roo
We love our neighborhood. Our neighbors are amazing, lovely people and constantly doing nice things for each other and looking out for one another.
Case in point, during the terrible ice storm of 2008, I was pregnant and giant and slipped on the ice. Although our street was an ice-carved ghost town, three women rushed from various homes to my aid within seconds. It was astonishing.
One of those women was our next-door neighbor Mary, whose son is former city councilor Eric Gomez, and they are both all around great people. Recently, Mary loaned us a little kid table her grandchildren had outgrown, an indefinite loan as she might want it back if she has any munchkin additions to the family. Arthur loves it: it's just his size and he loves eating meals there, drawing, even reading the newspaper (we're not sure why or how that works either but he enjoys it nonetheless).
Case in point, during the terrible ice storm of 2008, I was pregnant and giant and slipped on the ice. Although our street was an ice-carved ghost town, three women rushed from various homes to my aid within seconds. It was astonishing.
One of those women was our next-door neighbor Mary, whose son is former city councilor Eric Gomez, and they are both all around great people. Recently, Mary loaned us a little kid table her grandchildren had outgrown, an indefinite loan as she might want it back if she has any munchkin additions to the family. Arthur loves it: it's just his size and he loves eating meals there, drawing, even reading the newspaper (we're not sure why or how that works either but he enjoys it nonetheless).
The table is great, but the kindergarten classroom primary colors, its taped and battered reminders that it's been well-loved, and Arthur's own artistic additions to it were starting to grate on me, as the toddler hub has become a staple in the great room. If the table was to stay, something must change.
And then, as I was trying desperately to arrange the back room of the house, which has since Arthur's birth become our communal craft/sewing/music room (literally my violin hangs on the wall above my Singer and next to a giant Kustom amp), the Mod Podge spoke to me.
I popped over to Mod Podge Rocks to see if I could find something similar to what I was envisioning, where I found terrific inspiration from cuteness diva Kristi. A short phone call to my girlfriend Eva, a couple of Cuba libres and a dozen and a half stories about our adventures in the crazy Jamestown house in the 90s later, we had this in the works:
We pillaged my wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, paint samples (Arthur picks them out and "buys" them when we go shopping at the home store...he loves it and the checkout clerks are happy to "scan" them...I've been hanging onto them like any good Level I hoarder waiting for the right change to use them) and vintage greeting card collection for colors and patterns and even characters we loved and then mod podged them to the table. Because the surface of the table is a bit puffy, they kept wanting to peel up, wrinkle, and bubble, so it was something of a challenge, but we were hardcore.
When we finished the job, we attacked our table with stickers and other clip art. We even hit it with a few inked-up stamps. After Eva left, I coated the whole thing with glitter podge.
Although we plan to coat it with the world's thickest layer of polyurethane, the final project looks like this up close:
I popped over to Mod Podge Rocks to see if I could find something similar to what I was envisioning, where I found terrific inspiration from cuteness diva Kristi. A short phone call to my girlfriend Eva, a couple of Cuba libres and a dozen and a half stories about our adventures in the crazy Jamestown house in the 90s later, we had this in the works:
We pillaged my wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, paint samples (Arthur picks them out and "buys" them when we go shopping at the home store...he loves it and the checkout clerks are happy to "scan" them...I've been hanging onto them like any good Level I hoarder waiting for the right change to use them) and vintage greeting card collection for colors and patterns and even characters we loved and then mod podged them to the table. Because the surface of the table is a bit puffy, they kept wanting to peel up, wrinkle, and bubble, so it was something of a challenge, but we were hardcore.
When we finished the job, we attacked our table with stickers and other clip art. We even hit it with a few inked-up stamps. After Eva left, I coated the whole thing with glitter podge.
Although we plan to coat it with the world's thickest layer of polyurethane, the final project looks like this up close:
I will probably finish the chairs later this week when I can recruit more Eva. The best part is that it took about an evening and was super extra fun to have the kids help while we sat around chatting it up.
If you try this project, be sure to poly coat it, and post a link to pics for me!!!
Find lots of cool mod podge projects on Mod Podge Rocks.
8.7.10
All the pretty colors...
I woke up this morning to see that some little gnomes had left me a present in the front window. They must have been inspired by this Filth Wizardry post. Check out that family's blog...aren't they super? Our window isn't quite as fabulous as theirs, but it sure does brighten up our living room! I think Johnny Cash is even smiling a little for once. Look carefully...
You may have noticed the papel picado hanging in our living room and wondered why it's there. Need I remind you that we take bubble baths in the swimming pool and practice indoor glamping? Maybe we've been to a few too many Flaming Lips concerts.
2.7.10
Eric Carle post for Noah
My little blue-eyed extra awesome nephew Noah Michael John loves Eric Carle, so this post is for him.
These are the EC books we are reading so far this summer (at least until we pay our library fines!), but here's an idea for The Very Lonely Firely: make some adorable firefly lanterns with instructions from The Long Thread. Thank heaven for bloggin' mamas!
And if you can read Japanese, you can spend some of your kids' college fund on awesome merch from this Japanese web site.
I meant to post more links, but my own little hungry caterpillar just woke up from his nap. Have fun, people! Peace and love.
Part of the whole going to school to teach English includes lesson building...each book is taught as the foundation of a unit, hopefully an interdisciplinary one. As an undergrad, I found this part of my education intolerably dull. As a mom, I am really darned glad they made me do it.
So today, I am going to post about a few books we've been reading recently and include some extras for your child's experience with them, whether you are doing the whole home-ed thing or just like us enjoy doing a little extra with the books you read.
The Internet makes being a mom so much easier!
In the classroom
How to throw a hungry caterpillar party
Here's another one and yet another.
Hungry caterpillar snack tutorial and a cute little printable to go with.
And have some caterpillar cakes while you read it!
An art project suitable even for littles
How to throw a hungry caterpillar party
Here's another one and yet another.
Hungry caterpillar snack tutorial and a cute little printable to go with.
And have some caterpillar cakes while you read it!
An art project suitable even for littles
Classroom ideas
Fun art project from one mama's blog (although this clearly won't work with smunchkins, Roo likes watching us draw so much that we actually do the art and let him "help")
Fun art project from one mama's blog (although this clearly won't work with smunchkins, Roo likes watching us draw so much that we actually do the art and let him "help")
Learning colors printable worksheet PDF from the Eric Carle page
Brown Bear connect-the-dots pdf
These are the EC books we are reading so far this summer (at least until we pay our library fines!), but here's an idea for The Very Lonely Firely: make some adorable firefly lanterns with instructions from The Long Thread. Thank heaven for bloggin' mamas!
And if you can read Japanese, you can spend some of your kids' college fund on awesome merch from this Japanese web site.
I meant to post more links, but my own little hungry caterpillar just woke up from his nap. Have fun, people! Peace and love.
30.6.10
Ways to Beat the Heat with Shorties: 3 Ideas
Hubs and I have lived in Green Country our whole lives...in fact, our families have on both sides, going back for generations. Both families are Native American...specifically, Cherokee. You would think from all the years here, we'd be used the the extreme temperature seasons that come with living smack dab in the middle of the country, but when the heat hits the asphyxiating, dry, nostril-burning 90s each summer, I am somehow always both astonished and indignant. Summer is my favorite time of year, but Oklahoma summer can turn bayou so quickly, and the whole thing just makes me tired.
I see the mommies riding their littles around in toddler rickshaws and other such apparatus, but I can't do it. Each day, I sigh as I pass my dusty bike. Even at 7 or 8 in the evening, when my workday has been over recently, it's still ungodly, stiflingly hot. And I have a pretty sweet rig:
I know, right? I even have one of those 1970s seats that mounts right on the back of the bike, since that trailer is a LOT to pull (unless you are headed to the grocery store...then it's perfecto).
Anyway, the point is, I work many long hours and after closing my text books and heading home, I am just not up to par with the badass mommy bikers.
Even the park is miserable most days. Coming up with fun things to do out of the heat has been a challenge, and today I am sharing three of our favorite ways to entertain ourselves for those of you who might also be dodging between cabin fever and summer hell.
1. Start a rock band (dance-a-thon optional).
We're lucky to have lots of instruments here (hand drums, trap sets, violin, piano, didjeridoo, other various percussion, guitars, bass, etc.) but you don't need them. Little kids are naturally into percussion, so now is the perfect time to take advantage of it (and focus their energy on something they can really bang away at, free of penalty). We use everything we can think of...make shakers out of rice and cans, use pots and pans, etc. The whole family can get down....it's a noisy blast.
If you aren't sure where to start, check out Wild Music's Sound Activities section, which has several suggestions and instructions.
2. Bubbly pool.
All the neighbor kids dig this, too. We fill up the regular old kiddie pool with tons of bubbles using a little bubble bath or a mild, all-natural dish soap (just a little). The trick is to put the bubble making solution in very early and direct the hose so it hits the bubbles as they are made. They multiply like crazy...it's a blast.
3. Urban glamping.
Basically, set up a tent in your house and glamp that baby out...cover the floors with blankets to make them nice and posh, bring in some furniture and a nice dinner and whatever else you can think of to cozy it up. Arthur liked it so much that he now has a smaller tent living in his bedroom. Naptime is a cinch these days!
So what are you all doing to keep cool these days? Please comment!
I see the mommies riding their littles around in toddler rickshaws and other such apparatus, but I can't do it. Each day, I sigh as I pass my dusty bike. Even at 7 or 8 in the evening, when my workday has been over recently, it's still ungodly, stiflingly hot. And I have a pretty sweet rig:
I know, right? I even have one of those 1970s seats that mounts right on the back of the bike, since that trailer is a LOT to pull (unless you are headed to the grocery store...then it's perfecto).
Anyway, the point is, I work many long hours and after closing my text books and heading home, I am just not up to par with the badass mommy bikers.
Even the park is miserable most days. Coming up with fun things to do out of the heat has been a challenge, and today I am sharing three of our favorite ways to entertain ourselves for those of you who might also be dodging between cabin fever and summer hell.
1. Start a rock band (dance-a-thon optional).
We're lucky to have lots of instruments here (hand drums, trap sets, violin, piano, didjeridoo, other various percussion, guitars, bass, etc.) but you don't need them. Little kids are naturally into percussion, so now is the perfect time to take advantage of it (and focus their energy on something they can really bang away at, free of penalty). We use everything we can think of...make shakers out of rice and cans, use pots and pans, etc. The whole family can get down....it's a noisy blast.
If you aren't sure where to start, check out Wild Music's Sound Activities section, which has several suggestions and instructions.
2. Bubbly pool.
All the neighbor kids dig this, too. We fill up the regular old kiddie pool with tons of bubbles using a little bubble bath or a mild, all-natural dish soap (just a little). The trick is to put the bubble making solution in very early and direct the hose so it hits the bubbles as they are made. They multiply like crazy...it's a blast.
3. Urban glamping.
Basically, set up a tent in your house and glamp that baby out...cover the floors with blankets to make them nice and posh, bring in some furniture and a nice dinner and whatever else you can think of to cozy it up. Arthur liked it so much that he now has a smaller tent living in his bedroom. Naptime is a cinch these days!
So what are you all doing to keep cool these days? Please comment!
29.12.09
Yorktown Owens Heart Philbrook Museum
We would like to thank all the little elves that brought us sweet little pressies, both old and new.
We are especially grateful that Santa brought our family a membership to the Philbrook art museum, so now we won't have to look at the calendar to determine if it's free day when we want to go.
For my non-Tulsan readers, Philbrook is a pretty rad museum that's quite close to our little Yorktown hobbit hole, with gardens possessing magical properties of teleportation right into Lewis Carroll's merry luncheon with Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, the Cheshire cat and the Dalai Lama. Matter of fact, it would be a magical spot for the Arthur's Adventures in Wonderland party we are planning for his birthday.
Arthur loves the place. And J and I love it too; most of my friends probably don't know that I have a degree in Humanities as well as language arts...and the boy's Grammy and Papi are artists...and we love free places to hang out as a family...oh, and our walls are literally overrun with art...anyway. it's a sweet, rocking gift. Remember this, people: memberships and gift certs. Eco-friendly, family friendly.
Here are some pics from a summer visit to Philbrook with the Abot and big J. The museum is housed in what was once the Phillips' (of Phillips Petroleum: read: big-time Tulsa oil tycoon/philanthropist family) mansion. As a little girl, I used to fantasize about living there; we would walk through from room to room and I imagined myself playing piano in one of the sitting rooms, surrounded by frescos and lush vistas and 17th century French tchotchkes, one of which I recently learned bears a depiction of one of my great-grandsisters.
17th century French tchotchkes
Yorktown Owens are unanimously nuts about this Tony Oursler installation:
And the museum recently hosted the most incredible modern appliance-as-art-exhibit. I forget what it was called. Alls I know is I should have brought my big purse that day.
So now you know. Museum memberships are great gifts. And if you are in Tulsa, check out the Philbrook at 21st and Peoria-ish. There's a pretty sweet park over right next to it, and there's lots of other free coolness there for the economically challenged, including the Tulsa Historical Society and Garden Center, which includes the Linnaeus Garden and these amazing greenhouses.
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