1/31 - Thomas the Tank Engine says, "Little Engines can do Big Things!"

Thomas went sightseeing in my office and thought it would be lovely to drive across the London Bridge.  Peep peep! (I am not sure about Lil' Gal's bow on him. Do you think he looks dapper?) 

How come every time you come around

My London London Bridge wanna go down

Later, we found a pile of Very Old Phones.  Thomas offered to take them to the scrapyard, but I think my coworkers had other plans for them.  Thomas was just trying to be Useful. They thanked him for his help.

1/30 - I C U, Bullseye

I think Bullseye the Robot is trying to blend in.  But I still see him.  Do you?

1/29 - Bullseye takes art class with Frog and Toad

They told him art takes a steady hand.  (Bulleye does not have hands!)
They told him art takes a clear head.  (Bulleye can do this!)
They told him art sometimes requires sweat and tears.  (This will make Bullseye rusty!)

Bullseye decided he would rather look at art instead.  Smart Bullseye.

     * Spelling words in bold.

[fun note for grownups -- the original photo had Frog (or Toad?) male-enhanced by some nice tagger in the BART station.  I have since made the photo suitable for younger viewers.]

Then we had dinner with Jeanine, who caught me up on all the news from my old job, and took Bullseye's name a bit literally...

1/28 - Bullseye thinks it rings a bell

Bullseye thought he would entertain my coworkers by ringing this bell.

It made a horrendous sound!  It was not at all the melodious, carefree moment he thought it would be.
Oops.

       *robust vocabulary words in bold!

1/27 - Bullseye the Robot gets a bright idea

His original idea was to hotwire this lamp at work into some kind of rocket transportation device, but I told him we did not want to anger Accounting.  So he used it as a swinging unit instead.  He found its velocity quite satisfying (until I told him to get down).

1/23 - Swamp Buggy gets a-wheelin'

The van is acting up, so Swamp Buggy and I are biking to/from BART.
(And we thought we were through with BART with the new job!  Argh!!)

1/22 - Swamp Buggy's obstacle course

Swamp Buggy thought this wall looked like some kind of fun green obstacle course and zoomed all over it.  Vroom!

1/21 - Swamp Buggy sees stars

They were doing some kind of team photo when we came into work today and had these balloons nearby.

Then we were happy because we got a leftover cookie from someone’s lunch meeting.  NOM!

1/19 - PAW Patrol party

It happened again.  I'm not quite sure how, but those little twins of mine have grown one year older (and cuter!)  I now have eight year olds on my hands.  Oh my.

We decided on a PAW Patrol theme, a show we enjoy watching (and re-enacting), about action rescue dogs with excellent vehicles and gadgets.

We started the festivities with the traditional "please bring a healthy treat" request from the teacher.  I'm not sure that I'd call these healthy per se, but they were not sweet, delicious cupcakes.  No.  I sent "pupcakes" instead.

Next up, one "pawty," which Lil' Guy kept hearing as "potty."  (He was not amused.  He lobbied for a "ruff ruff" party, but I am too juvenile to pull that off appropriately.)  We used printables from Nick Jr. for the invites and to decorate the house.  Thanks to Mama for her balloon and streamer wrangling!

"Pupcorn" holders:

I got dog bowls from the dollar store and used them to serve meatballs, little smokies, Scooby Snacks (graham crackers), Whoppers, etc.

And how cute are these lollipups?

We stationed every dog stuffie we could find (there were lots!) around the house as decorations.  For the goodie bags and prizes, I got stickers, dog collar bracelets, paw print stampers, some little plastic dogs, and Scooby Doo sour candies.

We played a few very fun games.  Lil' Gal set up a Fetch station for the kids to play while everyone arrived.

Our first game was Pin the Badge on Marshall.

Then we played Doughnut on a String, where the kids got to eat like dogs, with no hands.

We played Dogcatcher, where the kids took turns being the dogcatcher.  When they tagged someone, that kid had to go to the doghouse (predesignated area) until another kid tagged them out.  If the dogcatcher caught all the "puppies," s/he won.  (I just gave the kids that wanted to be the dogcatcher two minutes to catch as many as they could, then switched to another dogcatcher.)

We finished up with everyone's favorite canine version of Hot Potato.

Then, it was time for cake!!  I tried a technique I found on Pinterest for making the PAW Patrol characters in frosting.  Aside from having to make 11 different colors of buttercream frosting (which all tasted delicious!), and forgetting to reverse the image, it went pretty well.  The kids loved it.

Happy birthday, my sweeties.  I hope your 8th year brings you all kinds of joy.  You are my joy.

Love, Mommy 

1/17 - Chuck Chuck goose

I think the angry birds are trying to camouflage themselves on my desk…

(Who knew I had so many yellow things?)

1/16 - Mario and I win lunch

No, we didn’t win a free lunch.  But it was delicious (butternut squash lasagna) and made my coworkers say “Wow!” when they walked by.  #winning

1/15 - Mario tries to jump higher than a tree

These were smallish trees in an indoor courtyard that time forgot, as there were still poinsettias and holiday decorations up!

We wanted to try the deli there, so Mario jumped around from bench to bench and tree to tree while we waited for my sandwich.  (No, not really, Lil' Guy!  But I’m sure he was thinking about it.)

1/14 - Mario ruins it

Mario was so excited to see the Coliseum, one of the most famous places in Italy, right here at work.  He did a jump and a “Woo hoo!

1/13 - Mario finds a lucky ducky

He said he would ride that good luck duck as far as it would take him.  “Mario Good Luck Time!”

 Sadly, the cubicle wall was only  a few feet long.  And rubber ducks don’t fly.   #theduckstopshere
Still, some luck is better than no luck at all.

1/10 - Qui-Gon Jinn proves to be quite handy around the house

(Oh, this is still a kid-related blog.  You're in the right spot.  No worries.)

It turns out that Qui-Gon Jinn is very good at counting out the scoops of coffee.

But not so good at trying to fly a container of cherry tomatoes.  Go figure.

1/09 - Emperor Piglatine and the Wall of Minions

I can see why you’d want an army of minions to do your bidding, but something tells me these minions are not happy about working for Emperor Piglatine and his Dog Collar of Doom.

1/08 - Pikachu gets a lift

One of the joys of working from home is that you can wear whatever you want.  Which today, for me, was my skates.  :)

1/07 - Jake and the Nevereaten Fruit Cake

Jake said, “I won’t eat it! Not even if I were stranded on a deserted island!”

Fun fact:  One of my family's holiday traditions growing up involved the Norwegian version of fruitcake called julekaga.  My grandmother would make it every year and mail us a loaf, along with a variety of Christmas cookies.  We'd inhale the cookies, but the julekaga...  notsomuch.  If visitors came along, we'd try to fob it off on them:  "Try it!  It's Norwegian!"  They'd take a polite bite or two, but you really could not get rid of that stuff.

1/06 - Jake finds a car you can plug in

I knew they existed, but I hadn’t seen one being charged up!  How cool is that?

Jake also did a little table sailing while we waited for my lunch to be ready.  We didn't find any treasure but fresh air today.  Yo ho and we go!

1/03 - Santa Monkey doesn't like these earbuds either

Of course, it’s asking a lot of earbuds to stay in your ears for an hour while you’re waiting to ask your potential healthcare provider a question.

Guess I should go with the one that keeps hanging up on me? 

1/02 - Santa Sock Monkey is ready for a vacation

All he could find was this shiny little palm tree at my work.  He was very sad it didn't have bananas.

(I told him *I* was bananas, but he did not think that was funny.)

1/01 - Happy New Year!!

Wishing you and yours a very happy 2014.  May your days be full of laughter and your nights full of restful sleep.

May your blessings be many and your heart be full of joy and gratitude.

  

May you have enough and maybe even a little extra.

Hope your holidays were filled with wonder and family in all the best ways.