Adventures in Little things that bring happiness

Ok - so a few days ago I decided I was going to leave my knitting comfort zone and make a stuffed animal. I had yet to find a pattern book that called to me like a Siren in the night, but finally I found it! Amigurumi Animal Friends is that book. So wonderfully simple, yet so painfully adorable. I also love that it uses all skills needed to make pretty much any animal that the heart desires rather than just the 9 featured in the book.
So- with pattern in hand I bravely started on my new project. What resulted was so much better than I ever could have imagined. Our neighborhood now has a new friend. His name is Sketch and is a wompy little owl that really likes adventures. This works out well as so do we. Alas - I present to you, Adventures in Little Things that Bring Happiness: A picture history of Sketch's first days

From the first day Sketch was around We just knew he was a curious sort. He spent a while gazing longingly out the window, breathing in the fresh air and hoping that someday he too would get to go out into the world and see all that it has to offer. We were a bit worried at first, since he is made of wool; wool does not take kindly to wood chips.

So he helped me sort socks (since the girls both rejected my offer to let them help). Turns out Sketch dislikes sorting socks as much as I do. The socks are still in a pile unsorted. We moved to the office (also known as my "room of awesomeness") 'cause he was curious about his beginnings.

He saw a little bit of my yarn stash and got really excited about the possibility of a new friend that he could share his adventures with. Little does Sketch know... that's not even the half of it.

Since it was nice out, Soph decided that the park would be a good place to do some school. All of us thought it would be pretty lousy to leave Sketch home on his first day with us; we brought him to the park with the promise that he would avoid the wood chips. Soph taught him subtraction, it was a win win.

After school was somewhat completed and our friends came to the park Soph thought it would be nice to share the joy of swinging with Sketch. Due to his small stature and her fear of dropping him in the pit of doom (read as wood chips), she wrapped him up and coddled him while swinging gently so he wouldn't fall.

It started to get chilly at the park, so we went to our friend Kristine's house. (She is the wonderful soul who taught me how to knit and is now my enabler in all things wool and knitting) Sketch had a serious case of "Stash Envy". Not that I can blame him; I'm jealous too. He had a nice time cuddling with the alpaca, merino and all the other goodies that live in Kristine's cabinet of amazement.

Sketch was unaware of the concept of "fiber", since I don't know how to spin. He's a bit upset that I don't have a fiber stash.

Sketch was pretty hungry. I let him have some of my Chicken Curry from Noodle Bar and needless to say the poor bird is addicted. We're all pretty addicted to Noodle Bar, so we don't judge.

Sketch was curious as to what I was doing on the computer. Conveniently Sketch agrees with me and thinks knitting sweaters is scary. It has been decided that I will stick to smaller projects so that I may actually finish them. (I think he just wants more clothes and friends, but that's just me)

During the night, I finished up Soph's animal. I can only imagine Sketch's excitement when he woke up to find that he had a new little friend. (Please note- I realize that owls are nocturnal, Sketch and I are both quasi nocturnal so it's ok - we would both be entirely nocturnal but realize most good adventures require daylight)

Sketch's next day began much like his first.

We went to the park to do some science. Sketch was really curious about what was going on but had a bad feeling about the dirty water from our sink or float experiment. He steered clear until the water was dumped and then got a little closer to check it out.

The park is always more enjoyable with some sweet tunes. Turns out Sketch likes Florence and the Machine too - I knew I liked this bird.

After seeing all the awesome wools and nice cotton/wool blends in the stashes Sketch thought that maybe he should try his hand at knitting. Little guy learned the hard way that knitting is pretty hard when you don't have thumbs... or fingers for that matter. He did enjoy how wonderful the Alpaca felt though.

Then along came his new friend Gordie. Sketch was very displeased when Gordie got all up in his wool and started cramping his style. They will have to learn how to play nice.

He then tried to abscond with Kristine's awesome owl pencil case (used for knitting supplies... what else?) He didn't get very far.

He then went on safari.

He learned about the importance of caffeine and recycling. Both are very important for survival.

When he saw the cherry blossoms he was drawn to them. He felt very at home in the tree, but discovered that pollen makes him sneeze. (I feel ya Sketch)

Since he had so much fun swinging yesterday, he thought he should give it a go on his own. Turns out it's hard to pump your legs on a swing when you're a little owl. He hung in there though.

And lastly -

He played a game of tags with Bee and her friend Elle. I do believe it is now time to head to Monarch Knitting. I think we both may be in heaven.

Adventures in bad decisions that make good stories

Every now and then, one of those days comes along where we are faced with split second decisions. Yesterday was one of those days. Everything started out situation normal. A friendly gather of moms and our kids at the park for some play time in the sun (for the kids) and a bible group/knitting session for the moms. We must have been pretty content working on our awesome knitting projects, because it took us about 10 minutes to start wondering where the smoke alarm we had been hearing in the background was coming from. Now... I'd like to point out that our smoke alarms go off easily - We all live in cookie cutter military housing and you could probably set a clock by when everyone's smoke alarms are going off. It usually has something to do with cooking breakfast or dinner - but this was around 11am and that should have been a clue to us that something wasn't quite right. Eventually we start to try and figure out where this sound is coming from, fearing that perhaps in our rush to get our kids out the door we had somehow managed to set our own houses on fire. Turns out it was coming from the house directly behind where we were sitting. (This speaks volumes to the sound insulation of our homes, and I must say I'm a little relieved that I know the whole neighborhood can't hear me when I'm yelling at Soph and Bee) So once we start putting the pieces of the puzzle together we realize the lady who lives there is also at the park and is completely unaware that the alarm is coming from her house - after all, it took us a good 10 minutes to notice and we were much closer to the sound than she was. While we were all sitting and knitting, she was actively playing with her son - making us look bad, yet I am somehow totally fine with that.
I digress.... So one of our group informs her that her smoke alarm is going off and she runs into the house; as soon as she opens the door smoke comes rushing out. Now - logic and reason definitely dictates that when there is smoke billowing out of a building it is best to call the fire dept and not enter. Clearly logic and reason were not on our side, as one of my absolute dearest friends Alister (which is not her name, but more of a term of endearment) ran into the house immediately following the resident so she wouldn't be alone. When neither came back out after about 15seconds I then ran in after both of them. Seriously?! I have no idea what made that seem like a good idea at the time, especially since the end results could have been horrible. Thank God that everything was fine and that the only negative results of the adventure was a trip to the ER after poison control informed us that we could have been poisoned. Oopsie.
Just in case anyone is concerned at this point - there was no fire. She had made the same mistake that all of us with kids have made a hundred times over. Pacifiers were boiling on the stove and she forgot. What resulted was a saucepan that had no water, but charred black plastic completely melted to the bottom. It was a nice saucepan too.  So - here is what both me and Alister learned from this adventure :

1. Any 6 year old will tell you it is a bad idea to run into a smoke filled house
2. Any doctor, firefighter or person with common sense will also tell you it is a horrible idea to run into a smoke filled house
3. Doing so will result in Poison Control telling you that it was a bad idea and you need to go to the ER.
4. The ER will tell you the same, but can be a highly entertaining adventure as long as you don't think about the burning sensation and nasty taste that just wont go away.
5. When put in a "fight or flight" situations both of us fight. Some people think then act, we clearly just act.

Like I said, thank God everything was fine, the air quality in the house is safe and none of us have been seriously injured - next time we may think twice before acting. In reality... we would probably do the exact same thing.

Adventures in a nutshell

We have had many adventures in the past 3 years. More than I could ever recall. For the sake of bringing folks up to speed, I decided perhaps a pictorial account of a few of our adventures was in order. Alas! Here we go... in no particular order.

May of 2009 we coordinated a "Safety Day" for the community. The idea was to teach the kids about fun things like stranger danger and other good stuff like "when smoke goes up, you go down". McGruff the crime dog made an appearance (you can see his nose behind my face) and it was a pretty great day.

The awesome Presidio of Monterey FD came out and let the kids work the hose. Clearly Soph is a pro.

Bee needed a little help, good thing the hubs is almost as good at manning the hose as Soph.

Most of the kids loved McGruff... Bee - not so much. She was pretty much terrified.

She does love cupcakes. Then again... who doesn't?

Every Halloween we host a big party for all our family friends. This was from 2009. The House in the background was our 3rd house in Monterey (we're on number 4 currently). Soph was a scarecrow and Bee was going to be a crow, while making her costume out of a witch costume she noticed the hat and well... I didn't have the heart to tell her crows don't wear hats. She was a witch instead.

Autumn is quite possibly our favorite season. I can't even count how many times we went to the pumpkin patch so we could acquire more pumpkins for baking, cooking and freezing. This picture was taking this past October at an awesome little farm about half an hour from here called Crystal Bay Farms.

The Hubs took the girls to another sweet farm called Uesugi Farms in Morgan Hill. They had some really fun things for the kid's to do. I'm not sure why I didn't go... kinda bummed out though because I definitely want to ride the cow train.

Bee is riding in front with our good friend and Soph is right behind them. Seriously, I missed out.

We often go to the beach. Yes... that is Bee in a jacket at the beach. Regardless of the sunshine, the average temp here is 53 all year. Surprisingly it is warmer now than it has been most of the year. Something is wrong when we go to the park and the girls complain that it's too hot when the temp is 70. I guess you could say we've acclimated.

We go to the park a lot. "A lot" may actually be an understatement. Our house is in the background (on the right). How can we not go to the park when it is literally across the street?! 

June 2010 Soph decided to participate in Operation Lemonade. Do not be confused by the sunshine. This was possibly the only sunny day we had the entire month of June. It definitely worked out in her favor (not so much mine as I ended up matching the playground equipment), and she raised over $500 for pediatric cancer research. If you are ever looking for a great cause check out Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

Every December the base has a "Winter Wonderland" Event hosted by the housing folks. Last year it rained... and rained and rained. This year, it was beautiful. I fully realize that all these sunny pictures make me look like a liar - I'm not. Really.

Santa makes an appearance, arriving on a fire truck. Very fun.

Our local neighborhood Patrol Car (PC) comes out for the occasion as well. Curiously enough, Bee wanted nothing to do with the man in red and everything to do with a RC patrol car that talks. 

Bee and her friend NZ running a muck at Winter Wonderland. Situation normal.

We've been to Disneyland quite a few times. Luckily I've been successful convincing my family that they want to "spend time" with the girls and now when they go down to LA to visit, they go to Disneyland together. Disneyland just isn't my favorite adventure. The girls love it.

And there you have it. In a very very tiny nutshell. If it weren't so late I could perhaps continue adding pictures - but it is, and I don't feel like it. I fully anticipate the adventures of the future to be far more entertaining - and with any luck they will be well documented. G'night and God Speed.

Adventures of Plenty... Take 2

Once upon a time... about oh 3 years ago (give or take), I started a little blog called "Adventures of Plenty". While the adventures of life certainly are plentiful, I've come to realize that most of them build character. Actually, most things in life that are adventures gone bad seem to be the things that build the most character of all. So - here I am. The (still) homeschooling, stay at home mom of 2 and Army wife, once again sharing my adventures with those who choose to follow along. Come along on our adventure, and perhaps through laughter you too shall find yourself building character. If not, well hopefully my exercises in patients and character building will bring you some entertainment - after all, sometimes that's all any of us really need :)