Hiking Season Has Begun

We went to Fort Mountain State Park on Sunday. It was a little chilly, but we made it through without any hypothermia. G climbed a bunch of rocks and is learning how to plan his routes. There were many eagles flying around, and we thought one of them looked like a bald eagle - they are found around here occasionally. It was hard to tell, but they were beautiful nonetheless. That part of the state is a little rural, so there was nothing happening on Sunday. I watched for a loooong time before I finally saw a vehicle on one of the many roads down below, and I was happy to know I live a little closer to "civilization."

Zurt!

I invented a new amigurumi tonight, and I'm thinking of selling it on etsy. I'll provide the link when I have one in case you would like to try your own. Also, it hailed a LOT today so we videotaped it. Just after we did, we learned that there was a lot of storm damage in downtown Atlanta, including a possible tornado at the Georgia Dome and CNN Center. Anyhow, here's what we saw:

New-gurumi

I keep seeing these cute "softy" books - books for a craft called nuigurumi, which is like amigurumi in that you are making dolls, but it's a sewing version, as opposed to crochet. They look super easy, so I decided to try one. It's a somewhat sloppy version of one I saw on the Aranzi Aronzo web site, but maybe they're supposed to be sloppy, er, homemade-looking. Here's my first attempt, having drawn everything freehand and guessed at the sizes. It took about an hour from start to finish. Oh, and I painted the dress, too, if you can't tell: Speaking of crafting, here's a picture of Xavier with his new Muno: Yesterday, we had a terrific day for the park and kite flying. Bun brought a soccer ball and Daddy brought a Buzz Lightyear (inflatable!) kite: And finally, and I personally think we should call the Guinness World Record folks, something amazing happened at playgroup yesterday. SEVEN, yes SEVEN 2- and 3-year-olds played in total silence together. You can hear the one-year-olds in the next room... The room, yes Nancy, gets cleaned up before we leave. This is why playgroup is for the MOMS:

Muno

There hasn't been a ton to post lately, so here's a video of G and Christopher and a couple photos of my latest amigurumi creation.

Oh yeah, I should add that Muno is a character on Yo Gabba Gabba!, a super silly show on Nick Jr.

Painting The Town

IMG_0683, originally uploaded by mpgangle.

Heather, Rebecca, and I were among the first to christen Sips N Strokes, the new "art night out" place in East Cobb. I was so slow that I earned myself a "Type A" t-shirt. When the teacher, Wendy Lovoy, saw how far behind I was, she actually said, "Woah!" She encouraged those of us who were obsessing over the circularity of our circles to go paint the wall instead so our paint could dry for the next step! What started out as clean white walls ended up a big ole' mess. We had a total blast and are looking forward to going again.

The scene

We were there

Poor Kristin, whoever she is. We burned her art.

While standing in line to clean off brushes, R turned around and THWACK! threw her palette against the brick wall. It turned out to be the best art of the night.