A Majestic Plastic Bag and other Fine Fragments!

Topic of the week

Curiosity

The desire to learn or know about anything. 

To explore, question, and wonder.

It's Friday so you know what that means. Time for our weekly installment of fragmenty goodness.

 Brought to us by Mrs. 4444 over at Half-Past Kissin' Time.

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If you have been following my blog lately you know I have been taking a decidedly environmental slant lately. In my green travels I came across this HILARIOUS Mockumentary entitled "The Majestic Plastic Bag." Enjoy!

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I'm headed to Bloggy Boot Camp tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it. Primarily for the 8+ hours of Adult interaction. In my pre-mommy life I attended a lot of conferences and trade shows and really loved it. In addition to, hopefully, learning a few good bloggy tips, I feel like I'm flashing back to my old life. I have no interest in going back there full time but a little visit will definitely be fun. Check back Monday for my re-cap of the event.

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I learned a couple of good pre-schooler handling tips this week.

When a preschooler asks you to cut out the balloon she drew, she DOES NOT want you to cut on the lines. I was supposed to cut away from the line so the line remained visible on the cut out -- "mommy you ruined it!" tantrum and tears were my penalty. I will not make the same mistake again, although I'm certain several other choices can and will net the same result!

Sweets has a cold so the housebound crafting and activity extravaganza has created quite the mess in the house. I generally try to get one thing picked up before we move on to the next thing but given The Girl's usual way of approaching clean up [This is her version of the Clean up song..."Clean up, Clean up Everybody Everywhere.Clean up, Clean up, Everybody do MY share!"] it doesn't always go so well! This week however, I came up with a brilliant plan! 

I asked Sweets to pick up while she was pretending to be our 13 year old next door neighbor and miraculously she very successfully cleaned up the playdoh, paints, and various other projects she had going in the garage. We will be repeating this game as much as possible!

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Last week I told you that my friend Tamara was coming for a visit. The reason for her visit, her Dad's funeral, was very sad but the visit was SO GREAT. Oddly enough, Tamara actually lived here many years before we met in New York. It was really fun having her show me all her old haunts. Of course we were left wishing she would move back, or us back to New York because we had so much fun together.

She has a four year old who didn't come with her on this trip so my girl spent the entire time telling her all the things she should tell Natasha when she got home. We are going to try and foster a little pen pal friendship between the girls and Sweets is totally embracing the idea of making mail for her friend.

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I forgot to tell you this last week. A couple of weeks ago my neighbor and I hosted a block party on our street. It was a total blast getting to know all the people I had actually NEVER seen on my street! I moved in here six months ago and had only met two or three families and when I mentioned to Sarah, one of the people I had actually met, that in my old neighborhood we had had a block party in the summer she said that this street had had one a couple of years ago and it would be great to do it again. 

It was actually pretty simple to do and I would highly recommend you do it too! Sarah and I picked a date that worked for us. Dropped off flyers (which both of out three year olds thoroughly enjoyed doing!) with a "save the date" and estimated cost (for city permit to block the street and a bounce house for the kids) then followed up with an RSVP flyer and asked folks to bring a side to share and their own grill items.  We started at 4:00pm and while we thought it might go until 7:00pm, we still had a pretty good crowd at 8:30 when they came to take the bounce house. The kids LOVED being able to ride their bikes in the road and lots of fun was had by all (I think we had about a 75% street turnout!)

Since the party there is a general feeling of community and general happiness on the street. Everyone drives more slowly, people say hello to each other and neighbors I never knew before drop off peaches and tomatoes from their gardens. When I think of the neighborhood I grew up in, I refer to the "fabled land of Easterly street" because of all my good neighborhood feelings. By making this block party an annual event, I think I may daughter may be on her way to her remembering her own fabled land!

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My Sweetie and I just recently got introduced to Mad Men. We were looking for something to replace our 24 addiction. We are so totally hooked. We ordered the past seasons on our Apple TV so we have been watching an episode a night. The second our girl hits the pillow we look at each other and say "The show!" and we convene in our family room for our daily episode. Yesterday we finished season three. Only four shows to go and we have completely caught up. We are sad.  

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Oh, one more preschool tip for you... if it has been quiet for a while and you aren't certain if the pink glitter glue has been put away.... be afraid... very afraid!

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Have a great Friday Everyone and do visit some of the other friendly fragmenters.... always a tidbit or two worth reading!!!

Next Post : My Bloggy Boot Camp recap!

My Thirteen Virtues of Great Parenting are:

Fun, Discipline, Creativity, Love, Wonder, Listening, Curiosity,Compassion, 

Trust, Acceptance, Empowerment, Humility and Flexibility

This week is all about Curiosity. Next week 's topic is Love.