Springy time...

Well, spring must have started up here in the far north, because this weekend our town hosted six garage sales. SIX. And people don't even have garages here.

Well, I do, but its not a garage. Its "the MAN shop" and there are no women allowed. Or that's what I tell annoying girlfriends and wives who try to bother the men when they're playing poker. Lately though, its more of a catch-all for all season junk. Once its cleaned out though, its a man shop. Last year for Christmas my dad gave my husband a booty calendar. With chainsaws. I don't understand man-humor.



Anyway. Saturday morning I woke up and saw that the apartment complex across the street was having a double family sale. I picked up some junky boy-toys for Coltrane, of the wrestler variety, an extra pair of rubber boots for all the extra kids running around, a set of pyrex lasagna dishes, and some hand warmers. I also found a mini collapsible moon chair that the kids have been fighting over since I brought it in.



But we didn't really hit the jackpot until Sunday before church. Elsa and I stopped over at a sale and got a POGO stick (seriously), a pair of Keen shoes and two cookbooks for less than ten bucks! Our family gets a pair of rubber boots, and a pair of keens (the Newport H2's) every spring. Just like we get a pair of dress shoes, and tennis shoes when school starts. And a pair of boots when winter comes...and a pair of sports (basketball, wrestling, etc) shoes during the season. When one doesn't fit a child, then it'll fit someone else. So, this year, Maddie, Kaisa and Koy got new Keens, because mine and Dean's still fit. And Max fits Koy's from last year.



We've been grilling anything and everything we can (pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, caribou dogs, moose sausage, fish, ribs, musk ox backstrap, etc) and our annual summer iced tea container is out and filled every day with the BEST INVENTION EVER. Seriously, whoever came up with cold brew tea bags...you're my hero of the day. Thank you!



Dean and the boys have been cleaning our yard so the trampoline can get put up and then we can really have a bunch of kids over. Even though we still have some snow on the ground and the ocean is still frozen...spring is SLOWLY making its way north.



Maybe by next week we can go outside without hats on!!!

A nod to my youth...

Paper dolls have always been a Finnish tradition. I remember playing with them while growing up and making my own "doll clothes" with the card-stock dolls I had.





Nowadays though, they're much more commercial. Magnetic dolls with hundreds of outfits, too many to choose from with enough time left over for actual imaginativel play. Finland has a long history of girls and women playing with simple, yet fun paper dolls.



Well, not anymore. Thanks to the World Wide Waste-of-time, last night I found EXACTLY what I was looking for. And early this morning the girls were nice and chatty, talking about what their doll was, where they worked and what sort of family they had.





They each chose ONE sheet of cardstock that I had printed out for them and now, the table is once again...craft zone.



This, obviously, is one of my favorites...



Hmm, I should get some undies like that. I wonder what Hubs would think! :)

Doesn't Everyone's...

...yard look like this in the springtime?



Or, is it just mine?!



Bikes, bikes for everyone but me...how many bikes do YOU see???



P.S. It's seagull egg eating time. And Kaisa would have eaten the ENTIRE thing if it hadn't been for her BROTHER who came in whilst the gals were playing out, and quietly peeled and ate the WHOLE thing. She cried, she was so mad. :)

Pokey little puppy

That is still the best Poke-something in my book. He was around before Pokemon fever hit my kids.





When Koy was younger we had every single VHS tape ever made with three Pokemon episodes each. He LOVED to watch the show. He used to say he was Brock because he had dark skin. :)





Now that Max is here, and we still have one young-ish child, the Pokemon craze is still rampant at our house.





After Max's Pokemon themed party Kaisa declared that she wanted to have a Pokemon Party, "But only with pretty pokemon, mom!" We'll see. I like to embrace the fact that we can have GIRLY parties still.





The number one kicker during Max's birthday party was the "FIND THAT POKEMON" scavenger hunt. You can read about it here or check out pictures on Cathy's Blog . I was lazy/tired/too busy to take out my good camera, so all my point and shoot camera photos will have to do. By the way, I agree with Elsa...that Jake is a CHEATER! He totally hid the clues in hard to find areas of the backyard. Under snow even! Just so his team could win! (Except Jessa was the one who found the Treasure Box full of candy, so too bad Ducky...your plan didn't work!)





Of COURSE, at all our birthday parties, we have to play Eskimo Bingo. Clara won a "Bug Catching" kit and she has been catching flies all weekend. Maybe I'll get her a Butterfly Garden for her birthday. I wonder if they ship to Alaska.





Anyway...in closing, the super random, super contest winner just so happens to be...GAIL. :) GPC, email me and I'll send you your leather and beaver beaded keychain. :)



P.S. it was Rayquaza. Oh, and Happy Birthday Maxie!

Hello Monday!

What I was going to write during my lunch today was how mad I was that the girls stayed up so late. I was going to complain that they woke me up at 12:30 am, then 2:00 am, then 4:00 am, then I finally elbowed Dean after four and made him tell them to get to sleep. I was going to complain that I was tired. And cranky. And had to make my own espresso this morning.





Because after an awesome birthday party filled with making our own flower/feather/crafty headbands and clips, we played Eskimo Bingo, and opened presents and ate butter cake with cream cheese frosting and Birthday Cake Ice Cream. Then Maddie and Kaisa had a slumber party, with the agreement that they'd go to bed by at LEAST two! Six girls giggling all night doesn't constitute a good nights rest for me!

But they didn't. And I was tired and horrible this morning.



But what a change five minutes makes. Early this morning, when I got to work, groggy and tired, the Search and Rescue squad was outside my door waiting for me. They wanted me to make a "Missing Child" sign, post it on facebook, and send to all the organizations around town.





This little girl, age 9, the same age as Clara who was dancing at four in the morning, had been missing since late yesterday afternoon. She was last seen playing out with one of her friends. I scanned the school photo for them, made them a sign, and emailed it to the major organizations here in town. Then I burst into tears.





How selfish am I, that I am mad because my girls are all sleeping soundly, safe and happy, albeit probably tired because I am going to wake them up in a bit? A slumber party is supposed to be fun, even if the parents are tired. After all, I was the one who said they could have sleepovers. I remember being that age, and we stayed up late too (I'm sorry Linda, May, Mary and Jackie!) and giggled and watched TV and snuck food and drinks with us. Shoot, I even snuck out to go walking with my friends (I'm sorry for tattling Andrea!), and my girls wouldn't do that! They just wanted nothing more than to dance and sing to the movie Hairspray at four AM! Who am I to deny them of that?!





So, now I am fine. The scare of the missing girl, who was found after a city wide search was called, woke me completely up and now I am just happy to have my girls, and yours (S, E and S) all safe and sound. And I think I'll probably let them sleep until one pm too! :)





And another thing. This is just another reason I live here. We have never had a missing child report that didn't end up with every organization allowing their employees who were non-essential (not doctors or nurses!) to go home, check their home, their yard, and their neighbors houses for that child. Every organization we talked to was allowing their employees to take OFF work for a half hour, an hour, whatever it took to bring this child back home. Because we are a city who sticks together in times of hardship, sadness and joy. We take care of everyone here. And that's exactly how I feel.





I think its time to go take the rest of my break and go hug all the kids. After they wake up this afternoon.

The Clara Doll

Do any of you ever make something once, then make another, and its even BETTER?

I do that all the time. Especially with crafty things, and sewing. I have never had lessons, or classes, just good ole life to teach me. Common Sense is what I told my friend who asked how I could make my own pattern off of something I saw fifteen minutes ago.



While I don't exactly know if its common sense, I think its just hanging around artsy people. My dad's entire family is artsy. I have an aunt who draws the most colorful and maurice-sendakey monsters that I am completely in love with. An aunt who has a "blue wall" that I covet entirely. And an aunt who can presumably make anything out of anything. Crowns out of wire and beads, butterfly platters for girls birthday's. Maybe its in the genes. I have another aunt who taught me what a water bong was and then we got into a psuedo accident where my photographic memory came in handy remembering the license plate. (But don't tell my dad that!)



In any case. I really REALLY hope my girls will inherit my need to CREATE things and SEW things and MAKE things. It's like an itch that never goes away. I am always looking at other peoples things and getting my own ideas.

Can I pass them off as my own? Or what?! Eh, what do I care? I live 30 miles above the Arctic Circle, who's gonna stop me?!

Here is my CLARA doll. She's made out of cotton and Clara and Kaisa decided that I should have made Kaisa's doll Clara's and Clara's doll, Kaisa's because of the necks and head shape. I told them to shutup and enjoy their free dolls! :)

Who's that Pokemon!?

That's my life right now. Pokemon Fever.

Everyone who has a son between the ages of 19 and 5 should know the basic Pokemon.



Squirttle, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Pikachu.

But only the more dedicated (or more into Pokemon their kids are) parents know (by osmosis), 1. their powers, 2. which type of Pokemon they are, and 3. what they evolve into.



Squirtle into Wortortle, into Blastoise - Water Pokemon, uses water to fight. Bulbasaur, into Ivysaur, into Venusaur- Plant Pokemon, uses poison to fight. Charmander into Charmeleon, into Charizard - Fire Pokemon, uses fire to fight. And Pikachu. An electric Pokemon, who uses electric shock to fight. Also in Pikachu's family, Pichu and Raichu.



Yeah. For real, I know this, not because I learned it on purpose. Its hard not to take information in when you have two ten year old boys talking non-stop about Pikachu's battle with Onyx and why Pikachu should win.



But, even more than the "main" Pokemon, I know the ones like:

Drifloon and Drifblim who are Ghost Pokemon. Buizel and Floatzel, who are water Pokemon and sound a lot like Flotsam and Jetsam from The Little Mermaid.



Who battles who and why so and so should win, and "Maija do you have a quarter so we can flip?" It's almost enough to make you crazy.



Almost.

Or, it might just be enough to make you learn all 493, download them every evening from the internet, print them out on Cardstock, make your own scavenger hunt sort of game, and make twelve Pokeballs out of felt, hot glue and velcro, and have the BEST 11th Birthday party "Find that Pokemon Hunt" EVER.





Yep, today is Max and Maddisen's birthday. And for the "Boy's Section" we're having a Pokemon Extravaganza. (Well, as much as an extravaganza as we can because we live up here and they don't even have FELT here!)





We used to be able to have their parties together, but this year they're ELEVEN. And we just can't have that!



Maddie is having a Movie themed party, which I'll cover tomorrow. We're going to have a sleepover and have mani-pedi's too.



Happy Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet twins. We thank God every day for you guys and can't wait to see you on Saturday! (P.S. the parties are on Sunday, between church and Kids Klub!)

*For those of you who can correctly name THIS pokemon:



I'll randomly (let Kaisa pick a number) pick the winner and they'll win THIS.



It's a leather and beaver beaded mitten keychain. Contest ends Friday at midnight, Alaska Time. Comment here to play.