Get Your Flying Machines at the Ready

Nothing like a balmy 49 degrees to inspire some kite flying, right? We got ourselves a couple drug store specials and waited until it was nice and gusty this afternoon to take the boys flying. Boy Wonder was just about Boo's age when he first met a kite, so I suppose it was about time.

But it wouldn't be our family without a few broken strings, a kite-eating tree, and an emergency potty break. Go figure.

Read on, friend...read on.

1. Picture it. Anchorage, 2012. Still snow on the ground, but not for the weather's lack of trying. Go, weather, go.

2. The boys and their pre-flight instructions. "Hang on tight. Stay away from each other. Hit me, your mother, or your sister with a kite and I'm knocking you out when you're 16. Got it?"

Notice the tree. In about three minutes, said tree is going to try to EAT Boy Wonder's stealth bomber kite. Thanks to dad, it fails. But it was sure close...

3. This is Boo and his bug kite. Have you ever tried to teach him anything? You can't. You can hint, cajole, and express concern that maybe he might want to hold on tight to his string or his kite will fly away.

Guess what?

His kite flew straight over those buildings in the distance. Guess who jogged down there (six months pregnant and all!) and yanked it free when it finally made its suicidal jump off the roof on the other side? Yep. Me. Super Mom. You'd have done the same thing if you heard the heart-breaking shrieks of agony from said know-it-all when the wind yanked the string from his hands and liberated the kite.

4. This kid's kind of a natural at this game. And oh my goodness, I just love that he still wears puddle boots proudly. I can hardly believe he's 8-years-old. Where did the time go? I wonder what sort of young man he's going to grow into...a scholar? A ladies man? Am I rambling? My bad. I get caught up when I start thinking about how quickly this one's growing. Great kite flyer, isn't he?

5. This is the point in the story where the Boo man noticed a fly near him. This is his scaredy-man freak out dance. He hates flies. And bugs. And especially spiders. I think the fly was traumatized after all the noise he made. Is it ironic that he picked out the bug kite himself? Just when we thought it was safe to return to the skies...

6. The second freakout of the half hour involved an exploding (or about-to-explode) bladder. Daddy had to convince him that boys do, in fact, pee outside from time to time. Boo was uncertain at first but now I wonder if he'll ever use the toilet again...

7. I love kites. Have you picked up on that? Oh, and can we have a moment of silence for the bug kite? A slip of Daddy's wrist while in flight and the thing shattered into three or four plastic, buggy pieces. You'll be missed fearless building-jumping bug kite. Go to glory, friend.

Have a blessed week!

Project! Spring Thaw and Easy Bird Feeder Craft

Little by little the snow is getting smaller and smaller outside. Now the banks may only come up to our knee caps instead of our thighs, but that's still something, right?

Outside our tiny back deck we have a group of birds that we've named "Bob, Larry, Bojangles, and Sue." Two were Veggie Tales inspired, and two were country music inspired. Go figure.

It's been a few months since we last saw them all, but we got to know them pretty well over the summer. This morning Boo saw one of them and just about lost his adorable mind in all of his excitement. He then informed me that they were incredibly hungry and we needed to feed them. Our last attempt to feed them ended up with a cheap yard sale dish falling off our balcony into the snow below, so we needed another option.

Yes, we had peanut butter, but we lacked pinecones. What do crafty moms do when there are no pinecones on hand? Well, they grab toilet paper rolls, it seems. No lie, there were about fifty different tutorials all singing the praises of feeding your wild birds with the likes of a Charmin roll. Guess what? In a house of five, we have PLENTY of those!

The craft couldn't get more simple and the photos show that even I could do it and snap photos at the same time. I even get the honor of introducing you to Bojangles in that last shot. He's my favorite, but that could be the Jerry Jeff Walker fan in me. It's true.

Ingredients and supplies? Too simple.

an empty roll or two from a toilet paper roll or a paper towel roll snipped in half

ribbon or string or purple yarn (like I had on hand)

peanut butter and some sort of spreading mechanism (butter knife? cake spatula?)

bird seed (had it!)

Tie a pretty bow through your roll. Spread on the peanut butter and apply seeds. Then get outside and feed your hungry birds!!

1. Our man Boo and our supplies.

2. I tied the string first and it seemed much easier that way!

3. The odd-smelling combination of peanut butter bird seed! It sticks to fingers, so be ready with the wipes.

4. Impatiently waiting for our lunch guests.

5. Mr. Bojangles! You're here! We've missed you!

Happy Spring to you, wherever you are!

Taking to the skies...

Here's a simple fact: kites make me happy. Verra, verra happy.

Colorful. Free. Suspended mid-air. Defying gravity and that a@#hole wind just off the mountain range...

Officially, a kite is a "tethered aircraft." Now if that doesn't make you feel sorta dangerous and official, I don't know what will... And don't get me started on the Asian tradition of "kite fighting." Aerial MMA???? Yes, please!

They fascinate me. I daydream about owning a flock of them and setting them to the skies all at once. A big, bright menagerie of dragonflies, phoenixes, lumpy weird boxes, and long streaming tales. And a cupcake. It's true, I saw a cupcake kite once and I WANT ONE!

The sad truth, however, is that I am a lousy kite flier...right up there with Charlie Brown, and at least ol' Chuck had the tree to blame for his troubles. I have wrecked, tangled, and shredded beautiful blue birds and ferocious supervillains alike. I seem to spare no character and no level of complexity in my kite trashing. It's a gift, really. One that's incredibly hard to reconcile against the immense LOVE I have for the damn things. Flimsy little harbingers of heartbreak, they are.

Despite my inability to fly a good kite, I never let a spring or summer pass without buying the obligatory cheap kite from the local discount store and hauling my family outside for an afternoon of running in mad circles and craning our necks back in hopes of catching some good air.

I have folders upon folders on my desktop of Boy Wonder as a toddler and preschooler out in the great wide somewhere with a kite and a string. (I was a single mama at that point and somehow managed to make ends meet with $55 in the bank for two weeks. Kites were economical entertainment! They made up for the endless dinners of hotdogs and mac and cheese...)

Even Boo, who got his very own kite kit yesterday, carries it around and demands for it to be built...so excited is he for his own flying lessons.

With an engineering student in the house, along with a first grader with an engineer in training's thirst for building and creating, and a toddler who refuses to be left out, I'm determined to track down supplies and make our own kites this spring.

I started here, at popular mechanics. I started here, but I didn't last long. A box kite. Sounds great, right? Well, until said engineering student is available full time to help with the project, this one is out of my hands. At least until I can identify what all the materials on the list even are... But you should definitely try it if you're feeling froggy!

Other sites for kite building can be found here:

• Kite Building at E-how

• How to Build a Pyramid Kite

• Simple Kids Kite

Stay tuned. We'll invent the baddest of the bad kites around the nest and post a tutorial for all you like minded "tethered aviators" out there. To the skies!!!!

So what's your love affair with springtime? Kites? Bikes? Kites tied to bikes? Wheeeeee!