Teapot Woes

Got to pottery class last night, and found my teapot in pieces. Well, more pieces than how I left it, anyway. First, I saw that it was not on the bisqued pot shelf. Then I saw it was still on the shelf WAITING to be bisqued. THEN I saw the handle was in pieces next to the teapot, with a note: I found this broken (from the kiln person). SO maybe my handle didn't hold after I attached it , and it fell off as it dried. BUT - then I see there is a chunk out of the spout. Sigh, I guess someone bumped it, broke the handle and pushed the spout into the shelf post. I wasn't happy, but these things happen, crowded shelves, many different users of the lab. SO we find all of the pieces laying around, and my lovely teacher starts to piece it back together. She gets the spout done, and is working on the handle (which doesn't want to go back easily, unfortunately) and I take off the lid, and notice that the inside lip of the lid is also broken off. AND THERE ARE NO PIECES INSIDE THE POT. So - someone took off the lid, broke it (I assume accidentally!), then put the lid back on. We found the pieces of the lid pushed behind some other pots. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. My pot was manhandled! Then we noticed several other pots that were broken too. So sad. I was way too distressed to take any pics of the damage. We repaired it as best as we could, and I ended up making a new handle, going across the top instead of out to the side (as a mug would be - my original handle idea). You'll see if it ever gets finished. Now, with a brand new handle, and a 2 week old pot, the clay drying times will be all messed up, so I need to go each day and spritz the dry pot to match drying of the wet handle. Maybe I can put it in the kiln Monday.

On a good note, the kids' pots turned out great!!!!!! Owen's is the mug, and Elise's is the small cup. They are thrilled, and ready to do another (this was a project to keep them occupied, probably while I was throwing my teapot or an attempt thereof).


This morning I noticed my children outside standing together and undulating their arms together. (I have no idea why they were out there - I sent them off to change clothes and brush teeth and hair!)
SO I went to get a closer look (and grabbed my camera of course!)

They are making a giant shadow spider. Cool!

Sara and I had dinner last night at Chipotle in honor of her bday, the kids came with me til John could pick them up. Aren't they charming?

Owen lunch this morning, my second attempt at a bento box-type lunch. He liked it yesterday, we'll see about today: hummus, apples, cheese wheel, olives, crackers, snap peas, mini-oreos (I let him pick those out :-).



Elise lunch today: watermelon, olives, snap peas, fontina cheese, hummus, pretzels.

Elise's lunch yesterday, her idea: kitty-face tortilla with olive eyes, asiago cheese ears, cantaloupe nose, clementine mouth, chedder shreds whiskers. Meow!

Next folder: Owen Bday 5 - The Spiderman Years! I counted no less than 4 spiderman costumes from all the pics.

Silly Bday boy!
Note the cool spiderweb ceiling!

The Spiderman cake, of course (John is the cake expert in our family).

1, 2

3

4

There might have been more that I didn't get on film....

Millions of Peaches

John got a half bushel of peaches from the west slope last week, so we have been eating a lot of peaches.
Today I made up a cobbler. I haven't tasted it yet, since I am taking it to a friend's house for dessert, but I am awfully tempted to. It smells amazing!

Mmmmmmm... here is that cobbler. I used 4 large peaches, orange juice (instead of lemon as the recipe called for), succanant as the sugar both on the fruit and in the dough. In the dough I used whole wheat flour, butter, and baking soda/cream or tartar as I am out of baking powder.

Owen found a four-leaf clover today at recess. Then a penny on the walk home from school. That boy is lucky! If we played the lottery, I'd take him with me to buy the ticket.....

Next folder: January 2005 - visit from Grandma and Grandpa Poneleit at the Museum of Science and Nature:

First Day of School

We woke up this morning and found this sign on our door

Kids were ready for school EARLY!

Owen showing his new front tooth:

They both have the exact same expresion here - sometimes this freaks me out!

Lining up in front of school

Walking into school


Coming back out again-

Look at this beautiful girl!!!!!

And back again at home.


Next folder - she was just this little girl Christmas 2004:

The spiderman phase was still going strong for Owen (see Elise pic above, on the wall, all the spiderman drawings and spiderwebs!)

Shopping with babies in cart and in sling!

Last Day of Summer Break

Here are some more of summer's lovely flowers, courtesy of Elise and A: Today the kids made bread, sort of an end-of-summer break sendoff. We made a big bowl of dough, then split it up into four balls. Lots of kneading:

And more kneading:

And the finished products!

I heard they tasted best with honey and butter.
Yesterday and today Owen made these cork people:

Now they are all working on them. Cute, eh?

Next folder - November 2004: Elise Bday 2 and Thanksgiving with Great Grandma Welty:

Still Raining

Okay, well, it just slowed down and finally stoppped. We have some sun right now, oh, I see a bit of blue sky peeking through. Those of you who have seen our sweet tiny little trickle of a creek, this is what it looks like today. There are flash flood warnings all over the metro area. I just have to grumble a little about the weather, us Coloradoans are so spoiled when it comes to weather, we have warm sunny summers and mostly mild winters, with an amazing amount of sunny days. A few hours of rain and everyone gets grumbly. We are way behind for precipitation so far this year (although we had a great year for snowfall, and were actually ahead at the end of the snow season) and then in the past 2 days we get inches of rain. They actually had enough snow at Eisenhower Tunnel to close I-70 for a while yesterday. This morning we turned on our HEATER. It is August! Was it just last week that we finished our record-breaking 90+ degree days streak?

Bathroom leak is fixed. It was a clogged drain, combined with a blown seal under the toilet. Luckily 99% of what leaked out was bath/showerwater. No wonder my tub has been draining so slowly lately. Thanks John!

Went outside to play with the manual focus on my camera. Can you believe I have had this camera 8 months without learning how to use the manual focus?

Owen started working on a weaving project today. I have been planning to make a loom for the kids, and here he goes and just does one himself. I love this guy. He has promised me an ankle bracelet out of it.

Next folder - October 2004:

Trip to Steamboat Springs, hiking:

Playing on the cool playground:

Playing in the leaves at home:
Going to Lair O' the Bear with Grandma and Grandpa Poneleit:

Swingin' at home: