Is there a word that means the opposite of harmony?

I can't even watch this without cracking up. These girls just kill me.



This video would have been even longer, by the way, but my arms got tired of holding up the camera. They kept at it for another 15 or 20 minutes. I can't decide what I like best, the way that Ree's songs go on and on and on forever, the fact that she kills off the bee in the first mermaid song, that neither girl is thrown by the other's simultaneous wailing, or how Ro's last song incorporates parts of Ree's song when I would have sworn they couldn't even hear each other over the din.

Classic. Can't wait to hear what their music-school graduate dad has to say about this one. (He's traveling home from London right now.)

A fun Thanksgiving craft: turkey-drumstick hats

If your kids are anything like ours, the idea of a day centered around eating and talking is a yawner. So we spice up our Thanksgiving with some kid-friendly activities. We make and decorate gingerbread houses (that was our new tradition as of last year) and also do some kind of Thanksgiving crafty thing. This year we're going to have everyone at the table make and wear turkey-drumstick hats. Classic!! Just warning the guests in advance... heh heh.


I found the instructions online and we had a ball doing a couple of practice hats today. These turkey heads are hilarious! You can make them too, with stuff you have sitting around the house. Here's what you do:

Grab some big brown grocery bags, white paper napkins, small brown lunchbags (we didn't actually have any of these lying around, but we did have plenty of "art projects" the girls brought home from preschool, so I ruthlessly peeled off faces and stickers and reused the priceless art), tape, scissors, stapler, and scrap paper.


For the headband, cut a 5" wide strip from a grocery bag and fold it in thirds lengthwise. Wrap it around your head to see how big you need it, cut off the excess, and use tape or staples to secure.


To make each drumstick, trim a lunch bag so it's about 7" long.


Fold the bag around your fist and kind of scrunch it into shape, then stuff it half full with balled-up scrap paper.


To make each bone, unfold two white paper napkins and crumple one napkin into a ball. Drape the second napkin over the ball and twist it to form the narrow part of the bone. Insert this end into the stuffed bag. Twist and tape the two parts to secure them.




Staple the legs to the headband and use tape to cover any staple ends inside the band.


If you can get your sibling or a relative to wear one too, bonus! You're not laughing at them, you're laughing with them, right?


I'll update this post tomorrow with a picture of the whole table wearing their drumstick hats. Hee! And if anyone makes these (or any other nifty fall crafts), please leave a link in the comments or email me a picture. We'd love to see what other crazy folks are doing during turkey day. Happy Thanksgiving!

The longest catchup post ever about a slew of "big" things

I am so insanely behind, and really want some of this stuff documented for the girls later on, so I'm just going to have to grit my teeth and throw up a bulleted post. Let's pretend they're somewhat-related "Big" things, K?

♥ Big Girl: Ro suddenly decided to keep her pull-ups dry at night, and furthermore wanted a sticker chart (with a prize of her choosing) to chart the progress. And I'll be danged if she didn't do it. She has now kept her pull-up dry for five nights and declared that she's ready to give them up completely. She is so proud of herself that she had to call everyone and tell them this morning. (If you got one of those phone calls, thanks for being so sweet and celebrating with our girl.)




♥ Big Humungo Leaves: My dad and I took the girls to the park the other day and found the mother of all Sycamore trees. Has anyone ever seen bigger leaves?




♥ Big Helpers (Sort Of): The girls made me lunch all by themselves yesterday. It was the most unsanitary, scraggliest lunch I've ever seen. And I ate every bite. Little sweeties.


♥ Big Achievement: We were playing at a neat park in Santa Cruz last week when Ro made it all the way across the monkey bars for the first time!


♥ Big and Getting Bigger: TubaDad was grumbling and backing up files for hours the other day and apparently thought it was quite amusing to make this graph of my picture directory. Yeah, yeah...


♥ Biggest Fans: I never thought I'd say this but I went to Target today and bought a Kellie Pickler cd. I know, I can't quite believe it either. It's just that Ro and Ree are Kellie Pickler's biggest fans. When asked why, Ro sighs and says "I just yuv da way she sings" and Ree grins and says "She knocks my socks off." Heh. They dance like crazy and turn our family room into a little toddler mosh pit when I put the cd on.





Whew. Now that everything has been documented, regular blogging can resume.

Up, up, and away!!! A product review for capes.

We just reviewed some superhero capes from ittybittyladybug.com and I am dying over how much fun we had and how awesome the pictures were. Seriously dying. I posted all the info on our product reviews site, so click here for the full review and all the insane aerial photos! Here's a teeny preview, hee!:

The lost birthday photos

A few people have asked about the much-talked-about birthday photo shoot and the resulting pictures. Where are they? Well, shoot, the reason I never posted the pics is because I never took them. I know, what the heck?! I take pictures all the blasted time and yet for the girls' milestone day, their birthday for heaven's sake, I just slack off? Eh. It happens. Instead, here are a few photos that I took of the girls a month or two before their birthday and never posted. I had dragged my old orange canvas into the family room and was playing around thinking that I'd figure out what worked and what didn't in time to rock that birthday photoshoot. Yeah... Oh well, at least we have these ones:













Ro (in pink) was more feeling more creative, so that's why you see more variation in her poses. Little Ree (in yellow) was pretty much only interested in getting a lollipop. :-)

Alrighty, now just wait until you see the results of the Christmas photo shoot I have planned. That one is really going to be great! My tech support guy (TubaDad) has already been given my wishlist of gee-whizzy effects, and he's pretty sure he can figure out how to do it all...