Saturday, April 5, 2014

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday is all about me discovering something that is different. I don't want to post things that you and I have more than likely heard before. I want to find something different. It could be from another country, someone singing from the streets of NY, and more.

This week I'm putting up something that you may know. The group is called Pomplamoose. I've heard of their songs, but I wanted to show case their videos as something different.

Source
They are an American musical due, which features Californian multi-instrumentalists, real life couple Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte. They started the summer of 2008, and sold 100,000 songs online in 2009. I think that's a pretty big first year jump! They are known for mixing rock music sounds with electronic and jazz.

Happy Get Lucky


Like a Million



Check out Pomplamoose's website.
Like their Facebook page.
Follow them on Twitter.
Follow them on Instagram.

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Friday, April 4, 2014

Random Little Tid Bits

  1. Isaak doesn't walk anymore. He jumps, bounces, and runs into things. He looks like a drunk 5 year old when he runs into stuff. 

  2. Isaak's obsessed with kissing, and eyeballs. He jokes about kissing people on the lips, and laughs. Oh we've corrected him. I remember Mica doing the same when he was Isaak's age. When we ask Isaak what he wants to eat? He says, "Eyeball Soup" and giggles like it's the funniest thing in the world. It must be Kindergarten humor. 

  3. Sometime I should make him some eyeball soup just to see what he'd say.

    Source - It would have to look more realistic than this one though.

  4. Mica had a dry spot under his chin. He's never been dry there before. I had him apply coconut oil for awhile. Then we tried lotion. Now he has a huge pimple there. Poor kid! It's too early for puberty. I've been putting a hot washcloth on him to try and get it to go away. Honestly I'm at a loss for the poor kid. If lotion and coconut oil don't fix the dryness issue, and clog up his pores, what's a boy to do?

  5. I like rules, but only sometimes. I'm not big into blogging rules. For instance I don't like when people say on their blog, "You have to put WW in front of your post, and put my badge on your blog to link up." I don't have time to put your badge on my site, and what makes your site so much better than others to have a special WW badge? Sure have it, but why demand it? Often times I link up, and just comment. They usually are the ones that never comment back anyhow. 

  6. I eat 4 times a day now: Breakfast, 10 AM snack, lunch, 3 PM snack, and dinner. Sometimes I miss eating a snack after dinner. For 1 of my snacks it's usually humus and veggies, or gluten free crackers. Apparently many of my students have never had Humus before. I've heard a lot of, "What's that?!" When I tell them they stick their noses up in the air and say, "Yuck!" I think humus is GOOOOD! 

  7. I should start drinking my steamed veggie broth in front of them. It looks way worse than eating Hummus.

    Have you had Humus? Do you like Hummus?
Homemade Hummus made by Daddy with Pine Nuts on top.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

April Fools

I usually don't play a whole lot of tricks on April Fools Day.

Thinking back there was only one year where I played a few. My Dad (Grandpa) took Metamucil to work every day. I poured it back into the container, and replaced it with salt. Then I tied his 1 pair of shoes together. He has 15 AAA (super narrow) clown feet, so he has to special order his shoes. He was super made about me tying his shoes together. As far as the Metamucil went, he thought one of his students did that. He was concerned that someone was out to get him, so I came clean. Then I was in trouble.

He should have known that I would get him someday. He played enough tricks on me. I was just getting him back. ;)

This year I brought April Fools Day back.

I saw way too many wickedly fun ideas online to not try them out.

My rules are:
  • Nobody gets hurt!
  • I'm not too wasteful with my tricks.
  • I don't play too many tricks. Pissing people off isn't my thing. I just wanna have fun.
At 10 pm on April Fools Eve I took Isaak potty, while Daddy moved Mica into Isaak's bed. I then moved Isaak into Mica's bed.

In the morning they both said, "Why am I not in my bed?" We asked them the same question. Then said,

"April Fools!"

They didn't think that was very funny. We did.

I asked both boys at different times if they wanted a Brown E and they both said, "Yes!"


"April Fools!" 

That's when Mica lost it and cried because he didn't have tricks for us. 

The Brown E's came to work with me. 
  
Just about everyone here fell for them. Just about everyone helped assist others for falling for the Brown E's. I heard, "Oh man that's not cool! I was really hungry!" and "These aren't gluten free Brownies!" 

I also gave my students a fake term paper. Only a few didn't fall for it. I had handouts, a PowerPoint with examples. I told them administration wanted me to implement it because there isn't enough papers in the classes here for accreditation.  I was to write a 7 to 8 page paper about a current design trend, or product. 

I used this as an example:



I gave them all the requirements, and asked if they had any questions?

No one said anything. I saw a bunch of them taking notes as I talked.

 "April Fools!"

Did you play any tricks on anyone this year? 
I know Theresa did at Theresa's Mixed Nuts check it out here.

Crying and Crying Again

Mica rarely cries. He's a pretty happy kid overall.

On April Fools Day he sobbed because he couldn't think of any pranks to play on us.

The day before he said he had tricks to play on us, but I guess they left his brain, or he never had any tricks officially planned to begin with. I gave him a hug, and told him it was ok. I said, "Mica you have all day to think of something."

Then on Wednesday Mica was sobbing for 15 minutes because he didn't want to go to school to eat breakfast. 

Our boys just don't eat breakfast at school. They don't eat there for a few reasons.

  1. It's free. Sounds like an odd reason right? Who doesn't like free things? I'm a blogger, I love free things. I also know our country is in some serious debt. I personally don't agree with free breakfast during the school year, and free lunch during the summer. 

  2. Do I feel bad for kids that do not get breakfast? Yes! I really wish those parents thought about that before they had them. Maybe they could apply for free, or discounted meals. I just don't think they should hand them out for all of US's public schools.

  3. When my kids eat breakfast at home I'm in control of what they eat. The school already has them at lunch time.

Breakfast came up because Isaak's teacher included a note that for this week she'd like for the kids to come eat breakfast in the classroom, which is a special treat, so he was going.

We told Mica he had a choice: 1. Eat something small at home (spinach leaves, fruit and water), and eat breakfast at school, or 2. Eat a full meal at home, and wait in the car with Dad until school starts. Mica  chose to go eat at school.

After I gave him his snack basically, he decided to change his mind.

Anyone want to guess why he didn't want to eat breakfast at school?

I was thinking he was bullied, or something. Nope!

He didn't want to sit next to people that eat cereal. WTH! He cried about it for 15 minutes. I said, "That's most of American kids, Mica! That's what your Dad ate growing up!" Mica called them, "Weird cereal eaters!" 

No judging on the color of their skin, what clothes they wear, or their religious beliefs. Nope! He was judging them based on what they eat. Odd!


Get this! Last night after dinner the boys were both still hungry, so I offered them cereal, and they both ate it. I kept calling him the, "Weird Cereal Eaters"!

This morning we gave the boys a choice again...because the Kindergartener's are hanging out in the classroom all week in the morning. Mica looked and saw that they were having cinnamon rolls. He said without a tear, "I want to eat breakfast at school today." 

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

WW: Artsy {Linky}

Mica created this image - King Tut.


Isaak is so proud of this continuing paper project. The trouble is, I have no idea where to put it. He's not finished with it yet.


I had the idea to have the boys make me a wig out of Duplos.

Mica came up with this:

Isaak came up with this:


The Apel's The Apel's The Apel's The Apel's The Apel'sThe Apel'sThe Apel's

Monday, March 31, 2014

Film Streams - Tim's Vermeer

This weekend we drove over to Film Streams. It's in the downtown area of Omaha. I've never been there. They are a nonprofit organization that feature independent films. I usually don't care for documentary films, but am starting to grow an appreciation for them because Daddy loves them.

I just love painted signs on brick.


There were a few tags on the wall. I love tags when they are good ones. Some graffiti is art, while other tags look trashy. 


As you can see the tags were certainly purposeful and well done! Hitchcock 9: The Manxman is playing there.



We were meeting up with Aunt Angela to take Apel boy 1 and 2 to the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Isaak was pretending to be Spider-Man. He wanted me to kiss him because he was upside down. No I didn't. He has an obsession with kissing. Kindergarteners!
   

What one does, the other has to do to. This one better watch it. He's growing, and his head is close to the sidewalk. YIKES!


Off the Jr. Apel's went. We were able to enjoy our movie.


We saw Tim's Vermeer. It's about a guy that is obsessed with trying to figure out how Vermeer painted his art. He set up the whole space to create Vermeer's staged room to paint. Penn and Teller are in the movie to, which adds some humor here and there. Tim's never painted and he decided to create Vermeer's studio, and created a machine to use to paint.



A Wedding

On Saturday we set out to go to a wedding where we only sort of knew the people that were getting married, and their kids.

Really Mica's sleeve does fit. It just looks like it doesn't because of how his arm is around Isaak.

Isaak is in their son's class. He's only been on playdates with him twice.

I questioned if we should go, or not go? I questioned why we were invited? Then I decided it didn't matter, we were invited. Who knows they could be very nice people. They seem like they are.

Their son likes our son, and vice versa. I was sure their son's face would light up when he saw that Isaak was there. Sure enough his face did light up. He ran to Isaak, and hugged him. He kept coming up, and saying, "Hi" to Isaak before the ceremony started. He had the hugest smile on his face. Seeing that made it worth it.

When the flower girl came down, she dropped fake flower petals. Isaak said softly, "Mom can I have one of those?" I said, "No. Leave it on the ground." He along with Mica kept trying to get just 1 petal with their foot. I think they ending up getting 2 each. 

It was an interesting ceremony. It was in Korean and English. The Mom is from Korea, and the Step Dad is from here. I love that our kids were introduced to a different type of wedding. My Step Grandma is from the Philippines, so I as a child was introduced to that culture often.

They had someone sing in English and a group of young adults sing in Korean.

Instead of having a unity candle, they had containers of colored salt. Each family member went up to pour a different color into the jar. It was a symbol that they were all one. Regardless of the color of their skin, they were one. I thought that was pretty cool.

When they did the sand pouring Mica and Isaak kept saying, "They are going to do a Science experiment!" I kept, Shhhing them. I have to admit it was pretty smart thinking on their part.

We didn't end up going to the reception. The rest of the day was pretty busy. Aunt Angela offered to take the boys to the zoo, while we headed to an art movie. I'm not sure how much food we would have been able to eat (being on a special diet). We wouldn't of known anyone to talk to. I was curious if the reception was different, or very similar to the ones we have here.

I wish I could ask the people in front of us about the white powdery cream they had on their cheeks. 3 of them had it on, and I don't know if it was a custom to wear that for a wedding, or what it was for. I of course didn't ask, and Google that answers almost everything isn't answering that.

Have you ever been to a wedding that was different from what you are used to? 


Off the Edge of the Map Book Review

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.
Off the Edge of the Map is about 11 Travelers and Explorers:

  1. Rabban Bar Sauma, Chinese Nestorian Monk
  2. Marco Polo, Opening the Door to the East
  3. Ibn Battuta, The Everlasting Pilgrimage 
  4. Admiral Ming Zheng He, Master of the Seas
  5. Hernán Cortés, Conqueror of the Aztecs
  6. Ferdinand Magellan, Captain of the Terrifying Voyage Across an Endless Sea
  7. Captain James Cook, England's Poseidon
  8. Sir Richard Francis Burton, Spy Soldier, Linguist, Swordsman, and Secret Pilgrim to Mecca
  9. Sir Henry M. Stanley, Dr. Lingstone
  10. Ernest Shackleton, Frozen March at the Bottom of the World
  11. Neil Armstong, Soft Spoken Test Pilot and Bridger of the Worlds

I like the stories in this book. Each chapter is a break up of a different explorer. If you want to skip ahead and read about a different explorer, you can. 

Some were on a religious journey, others were on a mission of trade, while others were on a voyage to walk the earth, hoping for discovery.

"Whether it is Rabban Bar Sauma, the 13th-century Chinese monk commissioned by the Mongols to travel to Europe and form a military alliance against the Islamic Caliphate; Marco Polo, who opened a window to the East for the West; or Captain James Cook, whose maritime voyages of discovery created the global economy of the 21st century, each of these explorers had an indelible impact on the modern world."

I always liked reading books about discovery. My Dad would tell me stories at night about different people in history. It was fascinating that one person in history was capable of doing so much! 


The book isn't too long, and it isn't too short. It's 216 pages, most chapters are about 15 pages long. Off the Edge of the Map is $8.09 for a paperback version, and Kindle version is $3.99. It's written by Michael Rank, who was #1 bestselling author of History's Greatest Generals. "Michael Rank is a doctoral candidate in Middle East history. He has studied Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, and French." It's good for anyone interested in history, and can be used as a learning tool in the classroom for older kids.




Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review. I did get products to help with the review.


The Apel's The Apel's The Apel's The Apel's The Apel'sThe Apel'sThe Apel's

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

If you have any questions about this blog, or want to get in contact with me please email me at: anapeladay@gmail.com