Knifty Knitter

Tonight I picked Miss M up from Karate (way too cute, btw). We picked up some cheesy bread from Papa Murphy's and headed to my house.

I put the pizza in and we started knitting! I borrowed the "Knifty Knitter" from my sister (she won it from Michael's last year) and I showed Miss M how to use it. She's currently working on a maroon colored hat. Later will come a scarf (if we can figure out how to get the hat off the loom - ha!)

We had some pizza, I gave her some gifts from Las Vegas and she enjoyed wearing a few of my bachelorette items.

"Miss M IS Sassy!"

It was a low-key mellow night but very good. She was very chatty and calm and happy to see me and I was happy to see her too.

Movies & Swap Packages

I participated in a swap last month called "It's a Wristlet World." My Swap partner Tami was so kind and thoughtful (and incredibly talented, I might add) and made a wristlet for Miss M as well as for me.


She was very excited to open the package that came all the way from California and loved the wristlet as well as the goodies inside. Particularlly she loved the sparkly lip gloss. She even created a thank-you card for Tami that night.


After the wristlet excitement we watched AquaMarine which was the movie she picked out earlier in the day. It was full of teeny bopper girls and cute lifeguard boys and a mermaid and it held her transfixed! I was knitting during the movie and she kept saying "That looks really cool." and "That looks like so much fun." so I think we will be doing some knitting next week.

I'm going out of town tomorrow so I won't see Miss M this week but I do plan on sending her a little postcard and maybe picking up a trinket or two.

Next up: knitting? or some kind of crafting when I get back.

Mac & Cheese in pictures...

Here are the pictures (at long last) of our Macaroni & Cheese making experience...hopefully I will be caught up soon!

Karate & Mac and Cheese

Tonight I went to watch Miss M's karate class. First of all, I never imagined karate to be "cute" but holy smokes. You get some small kids in their white uniforms (I don't know what they're called) and you end up with cute. Her class is for 7+ so there are bigger kids in it as well. In fact both of her siblings are also in her class (ages 10 & 12).

They did some basic moves - sort of in a sequence at the beginning of the class. It was awesome to see Miss M's snappy moves and her fighting stance. The rest of the classes consisted of "skits" which the class was broken into groups and they had to come up with but they were decidedly un-karate-like and more like kids running around fighting with fake guns & light sabers which I thought was odd. She said it was the first time they had done that. Hmmmm....I think maybe the teacher was a bit lethargic?

After karate we went to my house to make dinner. I had Miss M help me read the recipe and get the correct ingredients out. She helped measure & stir and layer the noodles & cheese in the casserole dish. She crushed up some crackers for the topping and poured the milk on the top. Unfortunately I am an idiot and I turned on the oven but to WARM instead of 350. So, we sat there for 30 minutes with the thing not cooking! I cranked it up to 400 when Steve noticed this (finally!) and we ate rather soupy mac & cheese after that. Ah well. We also made green beans and chocolate pudding.

It was fun to have her over for dinner. It was nice that she & Steve finally got to meet each other. She helped me set the table and we used our new dishes and I think she had a good time. We even squeezed in a viewing of one of my favorite Dr. Suess cartoons The Lorax.

Next up: something "artsy craftsy" next week. Possibly sewing a blanket for her new Build-a-Bear-Workshop-Bear

Pictures coming later...

The Ant Bully

Last night Miss M and I went to The Ant Bully. I was hoping to get into a 'cheap' afternoon showing but the latest one was 4:45 and that conflicted with plans that she already had with family. We went at 7:05 instead.

When we walked in I said, "We can either get popcorn now or we can get an ice cream cone after the movie. You choose." Well, she was hemming and hawing and couldn't make up her mind so we went and sat down.

This is the first time she got pouty & "mad" at me (Not really, but...). She wanted to sit in the front row as every kid on the planet wants to do. I'm not sure why that is such a big deal, I did it too, but it is. But as the paying adult I do not want to sit there for an hour and a half with my neck cricked up (this one is particularly close and looking straight up)...so I picked a row which she didn't like then we picked an in between row but she was still annoyed with me. Oh well, as soon as the movie started she seemed to forget about it so I think it was all okay.

1/2 way through the movie she said "oh the smell of popcorn is making me huuuuuuuuungry." So I said we could go and get some...which we did. She gobbled it right up!

The movie was okay. Not was cute as some but the story was really good and it had a lot of star power in the vocal cast. I enjoy all sorts of movies so I was just happy to be in the theater. The last movie I saw in the theater was Brokeback Mountain back in January! Sheesh. I was due.

Next up: I'm going to watch her karate class and then bring her to my house to make dinner.

Spirit Valley Days Parade

Last night was the annual Spirit Valley Days Parade. Spirit Valley is a neighborhood/area on the west side of town (Duluth is very long and skinny so there are several of these different kinds of areas). Miss M had commented after the 4th of July how much she LOVED parades so I thought it would be a good thing to do.

Her Mom called me yesterday afternoon and said that they (herself & her two other kids) were also planning on going to the parade so why not just meet there. That was nice because it gave me a little extra time to work out in between work and the parade.

We sat, however, in the blazing sun. Staring directly INTO the sun for an hour and a half wasn't that fun. I didn't have my chair with me so I brought a blanket & Miss M & I sat on the curb which proved to put my butt right to sleep. The parade was so-so...not a lot of neat floats as I hoped but mostly politicians, local businesses and Shriners (I always like the Shriners!) There were some good dancers & gymnasts, a great bagpipe & drum band and a group of "older" ladies who did a tap routine (they were actually quite good and looked cute in matching pink 'mod' outfits complete with pink go-go boots!).

It's hard though to spend quality time with Miss M when here Mom, brother and sister are around. They upset the dynamic. It's supposed to be time for US when they're there it just becomes like normal family time + me hanging out. I prefer to do things with Miss M alone.

That being said we had fun grabbing candy and chatting and we set up plans to go to a movie on Sunday. Just the two of us.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so there are no pictures. Oh well! Maybe next time...