Troublesome Little Elf

By now, everyone is probably sick with all the Elf on the Shelf photos floating around the Internets in December. But I was going through my Christmas photos (finally!) last night and doing my monthly external back-up when I happened to spy this one photo of Rupert's Shenanigans that I absolutely loved.

Rupert is our Elf on the Shelf brought to Cyra when she was in kindergarten, before the huge Elf on the Shelf bandwagon was formed (OMG please tell me that doesn't make me hipster!). After a pretty rough November in which said kindergartener was misbehaving, Santa brought Rupert to keep an eye on things.

For the most part, Rupert just moved around, watching...watching...like the burning eye of Sauron. That is until 2012 when Rupert decided to have some "fun" and got into plenty of trouble: TPing the Christmas tree, dying all the milk green, using all of Cyra's bodywash taking a bubblebath. You get the idea.

This past Christmas was probably the last that Cyra will be a firm believer in the Magic of Christmas. And Rupert, willing shenaniganer that he is, was a willing participant. That is until some of the other toys in the house got tired of his crap...

A Paizo Goblin, a Dalek, and Sebastian from Black Butler all ganged up on Rupert and Irish Princess Barbie (Rupert's love interest) and tried to feed Rupert to a collection of evil monster miniatures.

Cyra, the calm, collected kid that she is, came out in the morning and just shook her head.

"Oh, Rupert," she said softly, "What have you gotten yourself into now?"

Friday Photos

On their birthdays I encourage the girls to choose an activity for us to do. A few years ago it was camping. Camping in November and then again in January. Fun but cold. For Cyra's birthday this past November she opted for bowling.

There are three things that we know about bowling:

1. We love it!
2. We rather stink at it.
3. Scott isn't allowed to partake in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Period.

How much polish do those floors get and can I get someone to do my floors like that?

STRIKE!
Sort-of.
Almost?

Is there a rule that all bowling alleys are a bit on the grungy side? I don't mind really, for the most part, but come people! GooGone is a major staple! Also there was a huge label on this ball return warning of the dangers of sticking your hand in the hole to retrieve the ball yourself. (Did that just come out naughty? Or am I just being thirteen again?)

I love racks of things. Guns, books, crafts, antlers, bowling balls. I especially love how all the balls gleam under the lights.

Heh heh. Gleaming balls.

I am the first to admit my immaturity.

And finally, my little decade old peanut with her big feet. Rather like a puppy I think! Big feet and gangly legs, she's got tallness in her genes and boy! are her growth plates working overtime lately. She can wear a ladies size 7 shoe and she is nearly as tall as I am.

Yeah, I bet you caught on to the date of these photos. November. Yup. I admit it. I pulled old photos. Ancient ones really. Almost four months old. But to be fair and honest, the past few weeks have been boring photo-wise.

Friday Photos

Alright so these are older photos from December, but I figured that since Blogger and I were taking a break and all, I'd go pull some funny shots I would have shared if I could have.

Every year I buy a gingerbread house kit from Wilton. I know I might lose some of my baking cred here, but I really don't like gingerbread all that much and for me rolling out dough is a pain. The kits are relatively cheap, offer an afternoon of shenanigans (and yes, it always ends with shenanigans!), and the end result is a pretty "creative" center piece during the lead up to Christmas.

This year I got the mini village kit with four tiny houses and another kit to make trees. What started out are a serious endevour quickly degenerated into a nonpareil food fight with Ashleigh and I slinging sprinkles across the table at each other. Cyra was definitely not amused. In fact, she was so serious and determined to make her two houses perfect that she didn't even throw one sprinkle! And she yelled at us to "stop acting like children."

Jeesh. Ten year olds are so bossy.

This was our finished project. I used two lemon Starbursts and molded them into stars for the tops of my trees. Ashleigh and I got crazy with the decorating and ended up making a mess.

Notice how the right side looks as though it has been attacked by the Cake Boss if he had broken all his fingers and his arm in three places and was psychotic. Yeah. That's Ashleigh's side.

Now the problem with leaving out an edible decoration, we've discovered, is that our dog Junie likes to counter surf. Nothing is safe. And though she has gotton much better about behaving now that I watch her like a hawk all day and keep the counters and tables free from temptation, I knew that a tray laden with sweet cookies and icing would be her downfall. In order to keep our village safe, each night I would slip it into the oven.

Surely nothing could go wrong with that plan.

Nothing that is until a few days before Christmas when I forgot to take it out and preheated the oven for dinner...

A delicious sweet smell wafted out from the over as I was chopping up a pepper. And all of a sudden it dawned on me: The Village!

Pulling it out of the oven I couldn't help but laugh. Cyra came running out to see what was so funn an nearly burst into tears.

"It's okay," I told her. "Look, only the icing roads and my stars seem to be melty. It'll be fine."

Unless, of course, you're the dingbat who pops it back into the oven that night and promptly forgets about it until Christmas morning, when once again, the oven required some preheating. This time, however, distracted by the chaos of the morning, I didn't remember until I was about to put in the blueberry stuffed French toast.

"Cyra," I cried out, "I did it again!"

"MOMMY!" she hollered from the living room as she rushed into the kitchen shiny new presents temporarily forgotten. Her shoulders sagged a little in defeat and my mom stifled a giggle. I couldn't help it. I burst into laughter. Cyra glared at me for a second before running back into the living. She returned a few seconds later camera in hand.

"Here," she sighed. "You might as well take pictures of it."

One of Crya's houses completely collapsed, but the others stood up well.

My handmade stars, on the other hand, didn't fair as well.

The lesson? Always check inside your oven before you preheat it. Or maybe just don't store things in your oven in the first place.

Photo A Day - Happened This Weekend

It was Cyra's birthday this past week. A whole decade old. I find it quite disconcerting how quickly she is growing, not just in age, but in maturity, attitude, and jeesh! height! The girl is one inch shy of five feet. She is six measly inches shorter that I am. When she was born she was long and skinny and the doctor and nurses commented that she'd probably be pretty tall. At each yearly check-up she is off the charts in height.

Sigh.

We didn't do much for her on her actual birthday since it fell during the week. She requested an oh so fabulous bacon wrapped meatloaf for dinner and instead of cake I made tapioca and stuck a candle in it. The cake would wait until Saturday when she would have her party.

This year she opted for a small one with her two best friends. And that was fine with me (budget, budget, budget!). The only thing she really wanted to do was to go bowling. She talked about it constantly for weeks leading up to her party. So as soon as the girls arrived, off we went to the bowling alley!

I love bowling balls. Shiny and colorful! Just begging for a photo op!

Cyra's big feet! No, really! She's already wearing a women's size 7!

The cake, of course, came later!

Chocolate cookies and cream cake with cookies and cream vanilla frosting and (not pictured) a scoop of cookies and cream ice cream. Can we sense a theme here?

Friday Photos

Yay! Friday Photos Returns! Triumphantly? Well...maybe. This week I am featuring photographs of games that we have played over the past few months.

Monopoly is one of our favorites, unfortunately since it always takes us forever to play, we often never declare a winner. Scott won't play this with us because once (a really freaking long time ago) my mom and I cheated taking money from the Bank when he went to use the bathroom. Jeesh! It wasn't like we were going to win anyway! He had hotels on every side!

Risk is another game Scott doesn't often play with me. I'm working on a blog post about it...but let's just say, for now, no one like screaming jihads. Even when its only little plastic army pieces.

I'm green and I totally own South American. All those drug lords are working for me now! (Umm...not really okay? Remember it's just a game - so if there are any drug lords reading my blog...I totally Do Not Own You...or any property in South America at all. I've never even been there!)

Clue is one of my all time favorite games. Mostly because I win. A lot. It is one of the few games that I can consistently win. And that makes me supremely self-satisfied.

I love this photo because it took about twenty shots to actually capture the die bouncing across the board so perfectly. Sometimes awesome shots just happen...sometimes you need to make them happen!

Also this is me winning. I always play Colonel Mustard. Always. And I love it when I am the suspect!

A few years ago, Scott and the girls got me Munchkin for Christmas and every so often they add a booster pack. We have so many Munchkin cards it is almost impossible to play with them all. Up until June of this year, we always played with post-it notes to track our levels. But then I watched this episode of TableTop (and if you aren't watching Geek & Sundry - SHAME ON YOU!) and lo and behold, they played Munchkin on an offical Munchkin board! I didn't even know those existed. Being crafty and perpetually short on cash, the girls and I made our own board! And we use our D&D miniatures as our tokens!

The object is to get from level 1 to level 10 by defeating monsters. It's a spoof of D&D and it makes me laugh every single time we play. The girls and I try to gang up on Scott because if he is playing, somehow he always wins!

The more I look at this, the cooler it gets. Now, I wonder if I can add a 3D effect to the board...maybe some pop-up walls and doors that really open?

More recently, during the Birthday Fiesta O' Fun (I swear on all that is holy, unholy and only slightly sacred I will be posting about this soon) Sara and her husband introduced the girls and I to Settlers of Catan. I vaguely knew about the game, but I hadn't ever played before. But I have to say...I am pretty sure that Santa will be bringing this to Someone because Holy Monkey Butts was it fun. They had the travel edition which seemed friendly albiet a bit small, so I'd be interested in playing a full sized version!

Also during the Birthday Fiesta O' Fun we played a game Sara got me for my birthday: Zombies!!! Trapped in a town infested with Zombies you have to make your way from the Town Square to the Helipad killing zombies and backstabbing other players to do it. Along the way, if you can make it, different stores have bullet and life tokens that will increase your chances to survive.

Players build the town as you go so often the town itself makes no sense whatsoever!

Fighting zombies is mandatory, but luckily only one zombie can occupy any one space - so no crazy hoards piling up on top of you. 

Sara taught me how to play Cribbage just about forever ago. When she went to Japan, I was Jonesing to play so I taught Ashleigh. We don't play it as much as I played with Sara (which was very nearly all the time) but it is a highlight of my day when we do play.

Ashleigh already off to a strong lead!

Coming into the home stretch...Ashleigh still in the lead and even though it was my crib, she had a really strong finally hand and took the game! Curses!

G is for Gamer

My brother started playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons around the time when I was 7. It seemed like every weekend, a group of teenage boys gathered around the dining room table and spoke in such strange tongues: THAC0, d20 and hit points, experience and loot. They cast spells and killed monsters. It was exciting and thrilling. I always tried to linger when they played. Here was a game I thought that suited me perfectly: one with words and imagination. I might not have fully understood the concept, but I longed to play.

“Can I play with you?” I would ask.

“No. It’s only for boys.” He told me.

Despite being told “no” I would sit in the corner, next to the out of tune piano, hoping for a chance to play. To my mind, it wasn’t fair that Erik got to have all of this fun. If he was my big brother and supposed to watch out for me, I reasoned, then surely, he should allow me to join them at the big table. Occasionally, he would let me play with some of the miniatures or his dice. I loved the heavy weight of the tiny characters. My brother would painstakingly paint each one; the colors making them come alive. The clatter of the dice rolling across the table and the boisterous laughter from the boys always filled me with a longing to join in. I would sidle up next to Erik’s chair and ask questions. Typically this resulted in me getting banished from the dining room.

Years went by and my brother continued playing with a core group of friends and I still wished I could play. I would ask occasionally, but as I got older, so too did my big brother. He went to college, moved out and was suddenly a grown-up. No longer just my brother, he was an adult, with adult responsibilities.

In high school, one of my best friends had a younger brother. Donald was three years younger and although annoying at times, I adored him as a little brother. By the time he started high school, I had all but given up on ever playing D&D with my brother or anyone else. None of my friends ever showed an interest in it. But suddenly, Donald and a few of his friends started talking about and I begged him to let me play with them.

Maybe it was because I was always at his house and had gone on vacations with them, but whatever the reason, Donald agreed. In fact, he seemed enthusiastic about it. That was the year I spent more time with my best friend’s little brother than I did with her. It was weird at first, but I quickly adjusted. We did just what my brother had done: play D&D. I got to use words like THAC0 and make imaginary heroes that would save the day. Characters died and we mourned. Villains were defeated and we rejoiced. We played through the night, and since I had a car we would often end up at the local diner at three in the morning looking for snacks!

After I graduated I spent more time working than socializing and out little group fell apart. I went to college, hoping to find a group to play with again, but it wasn’t until I met Scott that I found kindred gamer. Ironically, even though D&D was one of the deciding “should we date” factors, we never really played together until after Cyra was born when I assembled a group of gamers out of new friends I had made at Flagler.

I am lucky and grateful that both my girls are interested in gaming. They have their own sets of dice and are ready to start rolling!

March Photo A Day - Toy

I wish I had my Lego's from when I was little. Back when Lego's were inexpensive and sets were more free style than structured and organized.

Lego sets today are fun, don't get me wrong, but I like building my own spaceships and boats. Recently (daily if I am being honest) Lego's explode all over my living room.

Aliens chasing a shark-riding Princess. She is missing her "princess hair," which was stolen by the alien on her left.

Yup. The shuttle crashed into a castle. It was not pretty.

But most of the castle inhabitants escaped onto the nearby pirate ship.