Mochi Time Again

Mochi is one of those cold-weather foods. It's been getting real cold lately so it was time for our first mochi of the season. The kids like sitting around and watching it come along. The excitement dies after we make several batches but the first one is always fun.

Raccoon Hangout

The other day my brother was over and he says there's something out there in the trees. I say, squirrels? No, something bigger. Coyotes? No, smaller. Maybe raccoons? So we go out there and turn on the lights. Whoa, a LOT of raccoons all hanging out! It was the first time ever that I had seen so many at once. It was a trip. ^_^

Softies

...hand-sewn by Abby and her friend Katie. Aren't they cute? ^_^

Sage's Cute Scab

Sock "Monkeys"

A join effort by Emi and I to make some sock "monkeys" (more like "bears") for her social studies project on Rhode Island. They sure turned out funky lookin'! ^_^

Idyllwild Blaze

Emi's soccer team has been doing pretty good this season. Four more games to go in the regular season, the team's currently in third place. Emi's gotten more aggressive this year and has grown as a player. I have been given the role as "assistant coach" for the games and have gotten more involved this year and has given me and Emi something to share.

CANstruction

Emi became a Jacketeer (a group of students who have earned 200 points in their middle school career by participating in school athletics, extracurricular activities, leadership roles, academics, and good citizenship) this year and the advisor thought it would be fun to go see the CANstruction exhibit at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. She is hoping to bring CANstruction to Idyllwild someday and these girls be part of the original group to start this great cause on our hill. There are seven Jacketeers this year, all the them girls and good friends. CANstruction is a charity committed to ending world hunger. It is an international community service project by the design and construction industry to benefit local food banks where teams of architects, engineers, designers, contractors, and/or those professionals mentoring students, associations, or businesses compete by designing and building structures made entirely of canned goods.

The car full of girls who talked and laughed for the entire two-hours-each-way trip.
Donating a canned good got you a free ticket for the carousel. So we all brought extra cans so the girls can hand out tickets to small children.

Kermit the Frog (3000 cans)

We coincidentally ran into the man of the OC Food Bank, the man responsible for breaking down all the canned structures the next day.

Pink dress (8000 cans).

Crush, from the movie Finding Nemo. (12,000 cans)

Close up.

Angels Stadium (6000 cans). This one gives a good idea on how large the pieces were.

Cheshire cat (6000 cans).

Hammer & Wall (1240 cans).

Stopped in shops as we passed them. ^_^

Space shuttle (2200 cans).

Smart car (9900 cans).

Apple store...they coulda hung out here for hours.

Pac-Can (4809 cans).

"We CAN recycle" (3222 cans).

The Emerald City (2850 cans).

The Jacketeers (minus one that couldn't make it.)

Dinner at Ruby's where we got the Balloon Man to swing by our table and make the girls balloon animals.

Allie's turtle.

*

Opportunities like this bring the girls closer and I'm glad I was able to help make this happen.

Gourd Craft Workshop

I've seen pictures of gourd crafts and I just really liked how they look. Especially the simple ones with nice earthly colors. Although I read about the process online, I just couldn't make the next step to buy the supplies and try it at home. And then I see there is a gourd crafting class offered in town, and there aren't too many classes like these up here. It was reasonably priced, $35 for a six-hour class, all materials included. I ask Abby to join me and off we went.

Uncleaned gourds.
The instructor's finished gourds. Aren't they beautiful? And we get to make these!??

My gourd...before...

The gourd is washed and starting to look nice already.

We drew in our designs with pencil and then used a wood-burning tool. This was a lot harder than it looked, the curves especially were tricky. I was so glad I didn't decide to have a design covering the entire gourd. ^_^

Abby handled the woodburning quite well.

And then they are inked with a Q-tip.

Yes, this part was a bit tedious and long... and my question of 'why six hours?' was answered.

Abby used black paint for her background so she got to use a paintbrush.

Drying them after spraying them with polyurethane.

Some gourds by others from the class. Everyone's gourd looked nice.

Those are some nice looking gourds we brought home. Abby kept saying she has fun. She is turning into a mini-me. Emi's art class is doing a gourd project soon and is going to a gourd farm. I think I might tag along. ^_^

Another See Chick

Marmu's back, this time she's staying. Me and the girls, Hammi the Hamster, our seven hens, and now Marmu makes 12 females in our household.

AYSO 3v3 Labor Day Tournament

Emi played in the 3v3 soccer tournament this year. A smaller field, no goal keeper, and no offsides. 30-minute games. On Saturday she had three games, it was so hot, nearly 110*F in Hemet. There were two Idyllwild teams in the tournament, 1st round was Idy vs Idy. So I thought that would be a good game to ref my first game. Ended up reffing three games total, I was real nervous and made some wrong calls but overall it was a good experience.

Emi's team placed 3rd, the other Idy team placed 2nd. Despite the heat, they played well and were in good spirits.