Claire dug down to get into this “cave” on the deck.
I think using the table on the deck as a snow fort is pretty clever.

Then, when we shoveled the front, we built this one!

Happy Snow Day, Denver!

A scientific explanation of Paper Chromatography, as defined by good ol’ Wiki, can be found by clicking here.  But, it’s basically watching the pigments in a marker (or other ink) spread across a paper dipped in solution.

This is an experiment I learned about years ago, and it’s so fun and easy to do.  I’ve wanted to do this with Claire for a while now, but I never remember.  This morning, she reminded me, so we got out our tools.

1) Cut strips out of paper towels.

2) Draw a line on the paper towel strip with the marker. (One color per strip.)  This example shows black, but we did six colors at once. NOTE: Be sure to have a piece of scratch paper underneath the paper towel when you color the lines. Also, color both sides of the line (flip the strip over and color the line from the back, too) for the best results.

3) Dip your paper towel strip into a glass of water. Be careful NOT to submerge the line.

As the water “climbs” up the paper towel, the color separation starts almost instantaneously depending on the marker or ink you’re testing.

This photo was taken about 15 seconds after dipping.

4) Leave the paper towel strips in the water long enough for the colors to spread nicely. Here, you can see that we’ve done a bunch of colors at once.

5) That’s it! When the color has stopped spreading, hang them to dry.

All of them are really cool, but black is always shocking and beautiful to behold.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3 ...to 540

Almost halfway...

Taking Shape...150 pieces left

Only the tricky pieces are left...

Success!

But, when Reality presents you with the option to totally enjoy the moment, I’m quick to choose that, too.

Plus, there isn’t a beach in sight, and we’ll get our chance to frolic in less than a month.

The weather people have been predicting a Snowmaggedon of sorts for us today.  Yes, it was 80 degrees on Monday!  But, this is Colorado, the epitome of the Wild West.  Who knew they were referring to the weather when they said that?

Sure enough, it snowed.  It snowed enough that everyone got all flustered, but my new car was made for this weather, and we didn’t slip or slide once.  The trickiest part about this storm was the fact that the Fall Colors have yet to actually FALL, so the wet snow has wreaked havoc on the large, mature, leaf-laden trees.  On my route to school, I noticed some downed limbs.  Oddly enough, on my way back home along the same route, I saw MORE downed limbs!  I’m just glad they waited for me to pass before crashing to earth.

So, what’s a beach lover to do when faced with snow?  Embrace it.  Play in it.  Take cool pictures of it as the light played with it on the trees.

Yay! Snow!

Hard at play

I played outside with Claire for a while. Then, Daddy took a turn. They built a snow ET!

Crisp and Clean

Copper and Snow Lines

Of course, the fact that it will be near 60-degrees by the weekend makes it pretty easy to enjoy now.

The skies were blue.

Huzzah!

In years past, I’ve been to the Renaissance Festivals near Minneapolis, MN and Kansas City, MO. They were a BLAST, and so much fun.

I knew that Colorado was rumored to have a great one, too, but we’d never had a chance to go! The summer schedules have never aligned properly, and I’ve wanted to go for so long…and then, we had Claire. The thought of lugging a baby around the Renaissance Festival was not something on the top of my priority list. The thought of chasing a toddler around the Renaissance Festival, even less so.

Well, fast-forward 5.5 years, and she’s finally old enough that we thought we’d give it a try.

It was a HUGE success.

She wanted to wear a princess costume, so we obliged. Gone are the days when Momma dressed like a wench and chased Highwaymen, but after seeing what a success this was, I can see us investing in costumes in the future. No, I’m not kidding.

We had such a fantastic time!

Claire got to ride a llama. Yee Huzzah!

She met a really big knight.

Our hobbies intertwined when Daddy bought me a new journal for our Letterboxing adventures.

With over 100 images collected now, the one I have is almost full!

Claire is also the proud owner of a “real” wand. She is beside herself with joy, but trying really hard to contain herself so that the Ministry of Magic doesn’t send us any owls regarding the Unauthorized Usage of Magic by Underage Wizards.

Today, by comparison, has been rather boring. Claire has been forced to deal with commoners AND muggles, much to her dismay.

Such is life after the Renaissance Festival.

The olive is in bloom!  Claire and I went outside to investigate, and the fragrance is intoxicating.  You can hear the bees buzzing as they busily work.  We had fun taking pictures with Eva of this beautiful moment.  (This photo hasn’t been edited…just uploaded directly from Eva.)

What a fantastic surprise!

Well, one of my friends sent me this comic, and I LOVE it!

Yep, that pretty much sums it up!

As if naming her and personifying her isn’t the first clue.

She’s never let me down. She was a great introduction into the SmartPhone world.

But, June 2009 was a long time ago. In technology years, Glenda has reached retirement age. Because she IS such a smart phone, as soon as I started researching other options, she started twitching every now and then. When she realized her actions were backfiring and it made me research even MORE, she started acting like a perfect little angel almost all the time.

Still, I could tell it was time.

I’ve wanted an HTC EVO since the day I saw one last year. I even put my name on the wait list at the local Sprint Store and they called me! But, I wasn’t ready for the switch, so I let mine go to the next lucky person in line.

Fast forward to my birthday. Daddy and Claire had cooked up a plan, and Claire was going to give me a new phone for my birthday!

Originally, Claire was very distressed at the mere possibility of letting Glenda go. She was distraught. This way, she got used to the idea of Glenda retiring and someone else taking her spot.

I think the resemblance is uncanny.

Meet Eva.

She’s an EVO.

She also looks like EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) on WALL-E, and he pronounces her name, “Eeeee-vuh,” so that’s why we’ve spelled it with an ‘a.’

She’s not Glenda, but she’s awesome.

So, I’ve got my very first Droid for my 37th birthday. I wonder how old Luke Skywalker was when he got his?

This year, we wanted to do something a little different.  But what?

Claire’s Valentine’s Day Party is tomorrow, so on Tuesday, we started looking online for ideas. Because of all the drifted snow, we were trapped at home, and we were limited to the craft supplies we already had in the house.  We had no pipe-cleaners.  (That ruled out about 97% of the ideas we found.)  We had no candy.  (That ruled out another 2%.)

Then, one thing led to another (as is often the case when you’re poking around online), and we stumbled upon the instructions on how to make Origami Butterflies. This would be perfect! Claire was wanting to personalize each Valentine, which is against the “everybody gets a Valentine, BUT they can’t be personalized” rule. So, I decided to make each butterfly and she worked on writing HER name in little hearts which we attached to each butterfly.

I had butterfly printer paper, so we used that.  It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would to make 16 origami butterflies, and the end results are great!  Plus, I know how to make them now by heart! Bonus points for learning a new skill that will keep someone occupied in a restaurant while we’re waiting for our food!

Something tells me the ancient Japanese Origami Masters didn’t have a butterfly assembly line in place and incorporate a BlackBerry as a paperweight.

Imagine this, times 16.

We even made some tiny ones for ourselves with the scraps we had left over from making the printer paper into squares.

Claire made this one all by herself!

If you’d like to make these yourself, here is a link to the video! (I tried to embed the actual video, but youtube is giving me fits.)

The guy in the video makes things very easy to understand, and we’ll be doing some of his other creations too.

I’ll warn you…once you start making origami butterflies, you may have a hard time stopping…as is evident by the fact that we’ve turned napkins, paper towels, and old grocery lists into beautiful little butterflies already!

Have fun!

Time to make a snowman!