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Doug wrote a web utility that mimics the Mac program Stickies, basically post it notes for your computer. His utility lets you log in using your Google ID and save notes on a webpage. It is pretty cool. Check it out

A great tutorial on Cocoa Knits for making rag yarn for knitting something like this:

(I was drawn in by the cool bath mat, too.)

I’m kind of amazed that there are not google-able alternate instructions for installing the Burley Kazoo considering it is one of the more expensive trail-a-bikes on the market and someone who is opting for this one is likely to have a bike that can’t handle the pannier rack attachment. Anyway, put two Doug’s on it, and we’ve got it all figured out. Doug’s GT mountainbike doesn’t have pannier rack holes, but it does have funny decorative holes in the seat stays which the boys repurposed to hold the pannier rack with some washers and random bolts. We were missing a bolt for the stabilizer bands, which was thankfully the same size as the steer-tube bolt on our unstable razor. With an hour of brain power, some cannibalized toys, and a handful of random bolts and washers, the men got the trail a bike together and plopped Will atop. It took a lap around the block before Will warmed to the bike, but he’s now in love.

We’re pooped.
A bunch of rowdy pirates came by our house to dig for booty.

Blowing the cannons: (Amazingly, we didn’t burn down the ship!)

Party Details:
I baked for 10 hours, yesterday. Doug swabbed the deck. And the kids followed us around sticking fingers in freshly piped icing, leaving smudges on anything shiney, and dribbling toys. Our standards of cleanliness are a lot lower these days – last year, I bought touch up paint and washed then painted all the smudges off our walls. This year, I simply made sure that any job too tough for the Magic Eraser was camouflaged by shadows or well placed furniture.

The Invites were hand drawn pirate maps tied with red ribbons like scrolls. We aged the paper by running the edges over the burners of the stove. The few we had to mail were sealed in regular envelopes with candle wax.

Because all of our friends nap around noon, we opted for a morning party with bagels, cream cheese, cheeses and fruits. Not very pirate-like, but easy and pretty. I wish I had pictures of the platters, as the fruit certainly looked dramatic.

We had 40 guests, so I made 1 cake and 48 cupcakes from Birthday Cakes – Paw Paws Caramel Cake, Comfort’s Coconut Cake, and Gramma’s Texas Fudge cake (because I never pass up the chance to experience “Texas”). I made the caramel cake by the book, but iced the fudge cake with chocolate buttercream. The coconut cake was the inside of my pirate ship and after fondling the fondant all night, I don’t think we’ll be eating that. Here’s all the cake:

We drew up four pirate maps and hid 4 boxes of things around the yard. The four eldest each got to open a map and direct the group to the hiding spot. The treasures were bandanas, gold hoops and eyepatches, daggers by doug, and a chest filled with necklaces, rings, bracelets, chocolate gold coins. I thought for sure the bandanas, eye patches and earrings would be filler, but the dads and the 4 year olds were eager to tie them on. Of course the daggers were a hit, and you can see from the picture above that by the time we got to the treasure chest, everyone was fully in character.

This was the last stand for our trusty compost bin box house. We topped it with a pirate flag and called it a pub. Then, packed it up after the party and sent it off to be recycled.

The pirate ship/Dell server box didn’t survived 20 kids. Doesn’t Will look just thrilled? You’d never guess it was his birthday.

The highlight:
Will told me this morning, “I don’t want to be a pirate. I want to be Captain Batman.”

The trail-a-bike Will’s grandparents bought him arrived, today. When we returned from school it was sitting on the front porch in it’s shipping box. Not one for surprises, he had opened the box before I was even out of the car. “Now I can push daddy up the hills?” Smart kid.

We picked out the Burley Kazoo because the reviews I read said that other trailer bikes had inferior attachments which lead to unstable bikes and in some cases, detached copilots. Our bike rides are exciting enough without those events. While I type, the boys are quietly assembling the attachments and readying the wheels. I suspect we’ll be riding to the soccer game on Saturday. … That is if we can figure out how to attach the pannier rack. Woohoo!

On another note, my brother’s house was hit by lightening. I can’t imagine what he said/did that was so bad… Anyway, the damage to the electrical system in his house is apparently too extreme for the helper or the electrician they called, and they were referred to one of the larger chains who should have the tools required to troubleshoot and identify what will need to be replaced. What an ordeal. At this point, it seems most of the electronics survived. Thankfully they were insured, leaving them out the deductible and time it will take to get everything back to working order.

A new William started at school this week, and to allay confusion, one of the teachers asked Will if he’d like to go by Will, Will D, or William. To which he responded, “Just call me Diego”. And all the surrounding kids piped up, “Call me Diego!” “I want to be Diego” …

For dinner tonight, we made rainbows. I’ve been trying to think of ways to get our kids to eat colorful veggies, and looking at the mango/pistachio/yogurt combination I was snacking on, thought, “hmmmm, I wonder if we’ve got a rainbow of foods?”

Our rainbows were:
blueberries
dried cherries
red bell pepper
cherry tomatoes
valencia oranges
mango
apricots from next door
cheddar cheese
saturn peaches
walnuts
turkey sticks (gerber)
2 whole wheat pretzel sticks
pistachios
frozen peas

Other good rainbow foods:
spinach, snap peas, snow peas, broccoli, edamame, honey dew, cucumber, mushrooms, banana, eggs, apple, pear, brown rice, cheeses (brie/monterrey jack), dark breads, nuts (pine nuts/sunflower seeds/almonds), jicama, plums/pluots, grapes, watermelon, salmon, shrimp …

Will was just as excited about eating as he was about helping and I had to fill up several of his mini muffin cups 3 or 4 times.

Nothing interesting to say, here, just wanted to post a link to The Greywater Guerrillas site as now that our yard is filled with pretty flowers, and looks like adults maintain it, I’m thinking about how we could keep it pretty without harming the environment.

We’ve been making birds nests from the angel grass in the neighborhood then leaving the tiny nests in bushes as tho a tiny bird had been there.

Angel grass turns brown and lets off long sticky seeds during it’s dormant months.

When you run your hand (or clothing) through the grass, you collect a wad of sticky seeds.

To form a nest, you press the seeds into a “C” shape, then bring the ends of the C together to make an O. Smooth seeds over the center and place in a tree for the pixie birds to find.

Will carried a very convincing little nest like this with three white tic tac “eggs” around for hours the other day trying to convince people that it was a real nest with real eggs. He then ate the “eggs”. Shell and all.

Nottingham University has put together a bunch of short videos posted to YouTube describing each of the elements in the Periodic Table. The videos are amusing and really interesting. Too bad science classes focus so much on boring textbooks. I know a little boy who will find these videos really inspiring!

And because we need another song in our lives: