As we get near the Fourth, Jim and I are planning for another bang-up holiday with two kids who dislike fireworks sounds.
We are packing up the hearing protection earmuffs for the Fourth of July party surrounded by highly munitioned kamikaze teens (and adults). We'll cut out before the real boomers are unleashed.
Then the Jones domicile will rock with crazy loud music until some little people have danced themselves into a stupor.
***Baby Toolkit is the irregularly updated chronicle of citizen geeks who are trying to raise the next generation of Americans with apple pie, multi-tools, and not too much screaming.
Things at Baby Toolkit headquarters have been pretty tough for the last few weeks. Our close relative (a mother of young children) had a massive stroke the day before Mother's Day and has not yet regained consciousness.
This is why Jim and I did not stalk our new hero, John Reyes, when he rode through our region last weekend on his multi-month bicycle journey to raise funds, awareness, and friends for Fisher House.
Fisher House is a great organization to remember this Memorial Day weekend. Fisher Houses are much like Ronald McDonald Houses, but they serve the families of wounded soldiers receiving treatment at military hospitals. Families of wounded soldiers can stay free while they visit and support their injured loved ones.
This is an important cause we can all assist this holiday weekend.
The Friday before Mother's Day, John Reyes departed from his hometown of San Antonio, Texas on a bicycle trip that will eventually take him through Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana. That's 20 states and a district.
This self-described "comic book nerd" will be riding through the hot months of May, June, and July in some of the nation's muggiest weather. Just reading his written itinerary is exhausting.
And he's doing this for other people, people who willingly serve us all- sometimes at great personal costs.
His fundraising target is $5000 for the trip, and he's currently at $1,220.
Please donate generously this Memorial Day weekend to John's Team Fisher campaign.
Bloggers, please offer John some publicity this patriotic weekend, July 4th, or when he rides through your area. Tell your friends about him on Facebook and Twitter.
Please check his itinerary to see if he'll be in your area. If he will be, can you send a message to local media outlets? Publicity for John's trip is also excellent publicity for Fisher House Foundation.
We're inspired by John's generous efforts and are quite sorry we couldn't meet him when he came through our area. Maybe you can say "hello" for us if he ends up in your neck of the woods (and offer him a cool drink or an evening meal).
Thank you to all those who give and have given to our nation through national service!
***Baby Toolkit is a couple of geek parents who think John Reyes is supercool for his compassion, generosity, hard work, and bicycle skills. We don't know him personally. We wish him safe travels and wildly successful fundraising.
*Yes, we still have a VCR because Richard Scarry DVDs are impossible to find while the VHS tapes are plentiful and cheap on the resale market. Also, the Raptor likes to trap her hand inside while using the flippy door for toy storage. Also, we use it to watch the excellent Notes Alive! Nutcracker.
**Yes, the title of this post was stolen wholesale from Keith Donahue's book. The book's title is easily its best attribute. Check out his earlier The Stolen Child if you're looking for something to read.
Baby Toolkit is written by geek parents who are having a hard time embracing the holidays. We're Amazon affiliates, so if you're just dying to buy something through our Amazon links we get a percentage of the profits. We have no affiliation with Precious Moments, the CPSC, or other media we mention, and we may get a cease & desist notice for the Firestarter cover hack, so you absolutely didn't see it here.
My favorite Halloween costumes have function beyond the holiday. Before his first Halloween, Ranger's grandparents gave him a cowboy outfit, so we just added a Western hat to complete the costume.
I found an old chef's coat at a thrift shop, so Jim and I talked about a mad scientist costume (in the spirit of Dr. Horrible), but that amused us more than it would Ranger.
Ranger follows the adventures of Mario in Kart , Tennis, and Strikers via Nintendo. When he saw the Flickr photo a Mario costume became a regular topic of conversation. I launched the hunt for a long-sleeved red shirt, denim overalls, white gloves, and a hat (or sewing pattern).
By Sunday, I had everything but the hat. Jim helped me search through pattern books for a good match and we settled on Simplicity 2808 (note for sewists*: this pattern is for adult sized hats as we're big-headed folk). Ranger's preschool Halloween parade was Thursday, so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights as an amateur milliner. The hat needed to look cartoonish, so all errors in tailoring could be deemed value-added features.
Jim fashioned Ranger's fine mustache from brown felt. I attached it to a loose-fitting loop of thin, soft elastic which fit over the ears and behind the nape.
Thursday's parade went well. Even the people who didn't know about Mario (like the nursing home residents who Ranger's class visited) loved his mustache.
On Friday afternoon, I noticed a long sleeved green onesie in the Raptor's closet hanging near her overalls. When I told Ranger about this, we both came to the same conclusion. On Saturday, Jim, Mario, and the Ranger hit the fabric store for more elastic while I sewed against the clock.
If you want to show off a homemade costume to people who will appreciate it, go to the fabric store on Halloween. Ranger got full rock star treatment from both staff and shoppers and EVERYONE knew about Mario. I think he preferred it even to trick or treating.
They returned home and one mustache later, the Mario brothers were cavorting on the front lawn.
Mario pulled out Ranger's golf set and entertained the neighborhood with some impromptu Mario Golf (why isn't this available for the Wii) while Luigi mostly laughed and pointed.
Luigi's hat is also an adult size large. I sewed a tuck in the back of the hatband to size it down. The large size makes her look more like Baby Luigi than Luigi and it leaves us the opportunity to reuse the hat set as the kids get older. Plus, I can wear it too.
Happy Halloween!
*Yes, this is an emerging word, but neither seamstress nor tailor really seemed appropriate and sewer (to me) always starts with a su sound and bears an entirely different meaning, so sewist it shall be. Feel free to suggest better terms. ***Baby Toolkit has received a Nintendo DS and a review copy of Mario Tennis from Nintendo. We have no fiscal interest in nor undisclosed relationship with Nintendo nor its parent companies. Baby Toolkit is written by geek parents who can be seen driving around town in felt mustaches.
photos: (c) Baby Toolkit, 2009. All rights reserved.
Ranger is no fan of fireworks. The sounds make him want to hide (which, when I think about it, is a perfectly reasonable reaction to explosions).
Last year, Uncle Punk suggested a novel diversion from the local pyrotechnics, even more loud noise. We cranked up the Ramones and danced until we were too tired to care what sounds might emanate from the neighborhood.
As we get near the Fourth, Jim and I are planning for another bang-up holiday with two kids who dislike 
fireworks sounds.
