Out Dang Spot! Out I say!

Inspired by Lady Macbeth, I got the spot out of my camera! Macbeth said an ocean wouldn't clean off that spot, luckily I didn't have to go to those lengths. But, I did get it out.

There has been an annoying spot, actually a couple of them, on every picture. No matter how many times I wiped off the lens, the spot wasn't going anywhere since it was inside my camera. And it appears in every photo! Not exactly enhancing the picture neither.

Here are some photos showing the spots that I've been annoyed by.

Sometimes it blends in with the photo; sometimes it makes my adorable little kids look like they are badly bruised.  It is too much of a pain to photoshop every picture! So, I've just left the dust spots.

Today, I thought, "I should google that". Ta Da! The solution popped right up and it was easy too!

I found the instructions here: http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Digital-Camera-Lens-with-a-Vacuum-Cleaner



I followed the instructions on the web site with the exception of carefully rolling the saran wrap to make a sausage roll on the end. I just wrinkled it up a bit and wrapped it around the hose and the lens and held it.  I let the vacuum suck on the camera lens and poof! Spots are gone!

Here's my test picture:

Thank you, Google! 

Pajama Pancake Birthday Party

Gracie-Pie turned SIX!!! Hard to believe she is six already (doesn't everyone say that every year about their kid reaching a new age) True, though, time flies when you are having fun and Gracie is 100% fun!

Last fall we had three birthdays in a row to celebrate, and celebrate we did! Charlie turned a year old in August, Libby turned three in September and Fenna had an October birthday. Poor Gracie had to wait until spring, but she didn't forget that she was due a big party too! I asked her for some birthday party ideas figuring she would want a princess party and hoping we could grab some cupcakes and do it at the park. I'm all for easy parties. She had a completely different idea:

Gracie suggested that we have a pajama pancake party. All her friends could come in pajamas and not even brush their hair. I pondered the idea and thought, hmmm... pancakes are cheap and easy, she won't drive me crazy all day waiting for her party, it'll be over before noon and they'll have all day to run off the sugar high...You know what, kiddo, that actually sounds like a good idea!  So, that's just what we did!

Early on Tuesday morning, the day before her real birthday, we had her pajama pancake party.  8:30am.  It's ok, you aren't the first person to think I'm crazy.

One thing I dislike about birthday parties are all the presents. Everyone brings a gift for the birthday kid, and nobody else gets one. So, there's the one overwhelmed kid who learns to feel entitled and 15 jealous kids. Plus, the birthday kid gets a lot of crap that the birthday mom does not really want her kid to own. And, in response, birthday mom has to set out a bunch of thank you goody bags for the gift giving guests. In the goody bag is a bunch of junk they'll just toss out before the end of the day. Eh, it's all a bunch of hooey if you ask me.

My favorite part of parties are the friends and getting together, watching the kids play and have fun together, visiting and mingling amongst the adults, everyone smiling and having a good time being together. That's the celebration! Gifts, arg.

But, it is a birthday party and in the spirit of birthday parties, we have to have gifts. Gifts are fun and exciting and they are a big part of how birthdays are celebrated. We decided to do it just like we did for Libby's birthday: a gift exchange. Everyone brings a gift, they all trade, everyone gets a gift. Nobody gets 15 gifts, nobody gets none, no goody bags. For Gracie's birthday, we decided to do a book exchange to celebrate her new reading skills. This might work best with the age range of kids.

We invited most of our friends from baby group and Gracie named off several classmates that she likes best. We ended up with 35 people in attendance, and only a couple of the moms wore jeans. Everyone came in pajamas! It was great! The kids loved the pajama party. A couple of little girls told me how they decide which pajamas to wear. Pajama fashion!

I baked cranberry bread, pumpkin bread, and cake pops. We had eggs and sausage. We set out fresh fruit too: strawberries, bananas, apples and cutie oranges. And, I made three different kinds of pancakes: Apple-cinnamon, banana, and white chocolate with chocolate chip.  The cake pops looked so easy, but they were a complete pain in the arse! Maybe there is a learning curve involved, but they were sure a lot harder than they look. With Fenna's help, we managed to bake and decorate over 40 cake pops, and we made a stand to hold them up. This wasn't nearly enough! People gobbled them up and wanted more. Apparently, they didn't taste too bad. Our party guests were hungry! They all ate well and loved all the pancakes and all of the food. It was great!  We also went through a gallon of Sunny Delight, half gallon of apple juice, a quart of orange juice and three pots of coffee.

After everyone seemed to be well fed, the kids were screaming and running through the house like a bunch of wild animals in pajamas. I had a gate across the stairs to keep children from going upstairs and being out of view, and we had Fenna's bedroom door shut downstairs (as usual to keep the kids out of her personal space) and the door to the laundry/garage shut also. Those doors also had child-proof doorknob covers on them. But, kids went up the stairs, into Fenna's room and into the garage. They were hyped up and not staying out of closed areas of the house. Unbelievable! Between flipping pancakes and riding herd I was pretty busy.

I opened the patio door and shooed the older kids all outside to run off some of that wild energy.  No wonder Gracie likes her school friends so much, they are just like her! Loud!

After they ran off some steam and all the adults had a chance to visit for a bit, I brought them all back in to sing Happy Birthday and get a cake pop. I couldn't get the candles into the cake pops since I covered them in melted chocolate instead of frosting and the cake pops were now hard as rocks (and yet, everyone loved them), some one suggested I poke the candles into a loaf of pumpkin bread. Perfect!

Time for presents! I herded them all into the living room and tried my best to get them to sit in a circle. My living room is too small for that many people and it was too chilly to do this outside, so they just had to make due with the small room. The circle looked more like the shape of scrambled eggs, but after trying for a while I just gave up. They were to play a game to exchange their gifts, but they were such a wild bunch who wouldn't listen well, so I just had everyone trade willy-nilly. I asked the moms to help and make sure their child traded and each kid had a book to open, and to make sure their children got something appropriate i.e. board books for toddlers and try not to give "Fancy Nancy" to a boy. I had extra books that I got when the bookstore at the outlet mall was liquidating their inventory, just in case the trading was a flop. The kids all traded and everyone got a great new book! One kid didn't want to trade, he was thrilled when I told him he didn't have to.  It was chaotic but it was awesome! All of the moms loved the book exchange. I heard some commenting to each other about trying it for their kids' birthdays too.

One mom who was asking me about the book exchange had some valid questions for me: How did the birthday girl feel about it? Obviously, she's happy and doesn't have any feeling of jealousy. She was smiling from ear to ear. How did I hear about doing this? Oh, I just made it up. It worked for Libby's birthday and it seemed to work again. Doesn't she want any other presents? Yes, she does. But we will give them to her. That way she only gets a few from us, and a few from her big sisters and grandmas and I get to control what those gifts are. I know her grandmas won't give her glitter glue and her sisters won't give her beads that her nephews will choke on. What are you getting her? A two-wheeled scooter, a tent and a movie.

I received a lot of thank yous and compliments for the party. People really enjoyed it. I'm so glad! I kind of figured they did since they all ate a lot and I had to kick out my last party guests at 2:30pm because I had to be somewhere. It was great! I love having an awesome party, what a fun feeling it is to know we had our house full of friends and everyone had a good time.

*afterthought: my camera sucks. Every picture is blurry! After destroying my last Canon powershot, my husband got me a Panasonic point and shoot. As you can see, it doesn't do a very good job at all. That's the last time I stray away from a Canon!

The Neglected One

It was recently brought to my attention that my blog is all about me. I looked back and it's true, I am the center of my own little world.  There are other people in my little world; they don't call me "Mom" for nothing!  This post is all about my blog-neglected teenager, Fenna.

Sometimes I forget that Fenna isn't really mine. She fits so well into our family that the family dynamic doesn't feel like it changed, it all just fits. She slipped into our family and found her place immediately and we're all quite comfortable.  I do not encourage her to call me "Mom" but rather by my first name because I am not really her mom, I'm her host-parent. Exchange students are often told to call their host parents "Mom and Dad", but I like the distance that using first names provides. We are her hosts, not her parents.

Having her call us "Mom and Dad" would emphasize the  a parent/child relationship in which she'd be the child. I already have enough of those! I think when a teenager is old enough and responsible enough to travel abroad for a year, she's old enough to be treated like a young adult rather than a child. So, we start with the names. I hope that using names instead of parenting titles is a good reminder that she is doing her own thing, independent, older, wiser, and all that jazz.

Of course, I am the mom of the house and I am her parent while she's here. I'm not shirking my duties by much just using my first name, just playing a little headgame with myself.

I think I neglect her in my blog because I don't want to spoil her fun of telling her parents and other stalkers about her grand adventures in America. So, I give her plenty of time to post on her own blog, or tell her people back home what she's been doing. By the time I have given her a chance to tell people before they hear it from me, then its old news and we've all moved on. That's my excuse anyway, and it sounds good so I'm going with it. 

A typical day with Fenna starts like it always did with my older girls and our last exchange student.  She gets up super early and gets herself ready for school, fends for herself for breakfast, packs her own lunch or snacks, takes her medicine and does her nebulizer treatment, finds her jacket where she tossed it the day before, gets her homework out of the printer and stuffs it in her bag... or not.  I roll out of bed when she's almost ready, just looking for her shoes and trying to decide if it is an A or a B day; I slide into my slippers, grab my coffee and we head out the door.  She looks fabulously awake and ready for the day (sometimes) and I am in my pajamas with my eyes barely open.  We leave for school shortly after 7am and she's there by 7:15ish. Classes start at 7:30 so we are doing pretty good considering I'm not awake yet and getting anywhere on time is a life-long challenge for me.

According to the teen, this is very different from how her days started at home. She says that her mom kept her organized, laid out her breakfast, reminded her to take her meds, and made her the best sandwiches ever to take for lunch. This is what happens when a kid from a Type A family comes to live with a Type B family. I might even qualify as a Type B- personality. I try to pass it off as a cultural norm. "Yes, American moms drive their kids to school while wearing pajamas and pillow-hair." I think she's buying it.

I hear a lot of wonderful things about her mom. She sounds like the most wonderful lady in the Netherlands! I am not in the Netherlands which makes me exempt from any form of mom competition. Good thing too, I wouldn't win many awards. I hear that Fenna's mom is a wonderful chef, spotless housekeeper, has a successful career, did well in college, makes financially responsible decisions, is hyper-organized, generous, charitable, loving and kind. I'm fun.

To Fenna's mom:  I promise to only believe half of what Fenna tells me about you if you promise to only believe half of what she tells you about me. Deal?  The hard part of this deal will be wondering which half to believe!

Usually, I have a van full of runts when I pick Fenna up from school. As soon as we are on the street in front of the school, they are all pointing and screaming "Fenna's school!".  They search for her in the mob of teenagers that pour out of the campus gates and when they see her they all bounce in their carseats screaming her name. The second she opens the door, there is complete silence. Every time! They are super excited to have her back with us and she misses out on all of it. Maybe they don't want her to know how happy they are to see her again. Six hours is a long time to the little ones. I think they miss her.

This kid has the lightest school schedule! I'm sure all of her friends are jealous. She really only has two classes, the rest of her schedule is fluff.  Pretty nice since she's not interested in studying for hours every day after school. And, the fluffy classes give her a chance to learn life skills and develop interests in other areas besides lectures. She seems like a creative person and a hands-on type of  student. I applaud her school counselor who recognized her personality right away and gave her a class schedule that fits.  She has American Lit, American History, Video Production, Digital Photography, Foods, Drama and Dance. She had Colorguard too, recently she switched that class to Foods. The high school here provides a PE class period to all athletic teams so Colorguard was an actual class as well as an after school activity.  She's having fun being an American High School student. I think she'll have a lot of fond memories of school.

Fenna has some pretty cool friends. They are a worldly bunch. Really! There are six official exchange students in the high school, and a few unofficial kids from various countries, their host siblings, native Californian friends, and kids from other local schools.  They all like to hang out together, especially at the mall and the movies. They all seem like great young people so I'm not at all worried when she is hanging with her homies.  I'm happy that we don't have a parade of boys knocking on the door. Fenna is cute, but the boys are keeping their distance. Maybe she took my "kick 'em in the balls" advice. They might be frightened. That's ok.  She isn't a wild party girl neither. I can't even tell you all how much I appreciate her lack of a crazy irresponsible wild side! Whew!

When she's not in school or at the mall with her friends, she's mine mine mine all mine! What a lucky girl!  She gets to tag along with me on my many adventures, or not. I leave it up to her but she usually comes along even when we are going somewhere that isn't very exciting for a teenager. She's really a good sport. We go to the park several times a week. Guess how many pictures I have of Fenna going down slides? No. More. More. You are getting closer, but I'll bet it's more.

Aside from visiting an outrageous number of parks, she's come with us on other outings too. Places we've been together include: Disneyland (6 times!), Knott's Berry Farm, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park, Balboa Park, Seaport Village, Scripps Aquarium, La Jolla beach, Sea World, Pumpkin Farm, Queen Califia's Magic Garden, Bainbridge Circle, hmm... that's about it. Unless you count the malls: Escondido Mall, Fashion Valley Mall, Promenade Mall, Dos Lagos, La Jolla UTC Mall... there may be more. We have more places to explore, more adventures ahead! 

Since we are out and about a lot, we eat out a lot. I hear that people in Europe do not eat out very often. She loves to eat! I do too, so we're having fun trying lots of different eating establishments. We've been to Starbucks more times than I have been in all the years I've been in California. We've hit up every food court in every mall, ice cream shops, fast food, and my favorite the sit-down restaurants. We haven't been to a buffet yet; I'll be sure to take her so that she has a complete American dining experience.

It's fun having a teenager in the house again. I miss the teen girls being around. Keith and I both enjoy discussing the homework topics, hearing the quick-wit of a teen mind, and those one-liners just crack us up! She helps me out a lot too, which wasn't part of her exchange deal, but she does it anyway. Homework and chores aren't her favorite activities, but she makes up for it by helping me with the little kids. And when I thank her for helping, she usually doesn't realize she did much. Those little things are so nice though! She stays with the kids in the van while I hop out and run to the ATM, she opens the bathroom door for Libby when I 'm in the kitchen, she tells Charlie "No!" when my back is turned, she plays dolls, she watches Gracie when she is yelling "Watch this!" and she tells them "You can do it" when they are trying something new. I wanna keep her.

None of us are looking forward to June. We have to let her go back to the Netherlands whether we want her to go or not. Of course we don't want her to leave us! She's fun and funny and we love her! She loves us too. This has been the best exchange student experience we could have imagined, even better. I'm not just saying that because she's going to read this, we are all genuinely loving this year of having Fenna in our family.  Now, if we could just get a decent family photo before she leaves, we'll be able to say we had the perfect year.