Growing Up Guacamole

I think I remember

2010-12-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

how to do this blog thing.

Olivia's Wishes for 2010

2010-03-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

They were cleaning out the classroom the other day and Olivia came home with what she had written for the new year.

I Wish for 2010
by Olivia Jones

I wish poor people got more food.
I wish people won't cut down trees.
I wish I could learn how to ski.
I wish I had a dog.
I wish I could drive.
I wish my brother would leave me alone.
I wish I was a superhero.

Olivia the Oompa Loompa (and cook)

2010-02-07T10:06:00.001-08:00

Olivia's school play this year is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. One of my all-time favorites. More than anything she wanted to be an Oompa Loompa, they have the *best* songs. So, no speaking parts or solos, that is fine.

Also, they gave her the part of a cook which wasn't in the movie, so wasn't requested, but turns out to be a lot of fun too. It is when they interview Augustus in Germany about getting a golden ticket and the cooks are serving him food during the song "I eat more."

Being on the costume committee for my volunteer hours, I got to be in charge of the cook costumes. We bought 16 yellow aprons and chef hats from Amazon. I decorated them with ribbon to look like lederhosen. What do you think?

And here is the Oompa Loompa costume. I had to make the pink wrap skirt. I was pretty proud of myself for a novice sewer. I made up a pattern so it's lined (and reversable for later after the show is over) with elastic in the back. It doesn't *really* wrap, I didn't want Olivia having to mess with that back-stage, just looks like it. She can simply pull it on and off because of the elastic in the back. Go me.

The wig in itself is it's own story, maybe for another day...

Poor Penelope

2009-11-04T23:07:00.000-08:00

Olivia and Noah each had their own room, each containing their own closet neatly stocked full of baby things to come home to when they were born. Penelope had one big basket stuck up on a high piece of furniture. And I think there is a box of baby toys and a bouncy seat hidden away in various random spaces around the house too. Today I organized her necessities in the little bit of closet space she gets in our closet. Poor third child, this is all she gets. Yep, that is a blue, plastic milk crate.

But look, she even has a toy to look at while getting her diaper changed. Although her "changing table" looks an awful lot like our bed...

Halloween 2009

2009-11-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

This year Olivia wanted to be an American Indian, and had a homemade look picked out from a book she has. I was excited to actually make a costume and use some creativity this year versus just picking up the hotest Disney character from the store. She got asked if she was Pocahontas all day anyway. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. The braids are made using black tights, what a clever idea, huh? I got it done in the nick of time the night before I was induced.

Daddy made Noah's costume the night before Halloween in about an hour as he continued to insist on being "a bag." And he still got tons more comments than Olivia's costume I slaved over. Oh well. The story behind Noah's costume comes from the Veggie Tale movie Minnesota Cuke: The Search for Noah's Umbrella. Larry the Cucumber is wearing a bag over his head and say, "I'm doomed to a life of shame," which cracks up Olivia and Noah to no end. If this doesn't make any sense to you, don't worry, my kids are weird! But I like them that way.

Overall a fun, sucessful, and relatively inexpensive Halloween!

Noah's first day

2009-09-13T20:33:00.001-07:00

I was more nervous for Noah's first day of school this year than Olivia's because I just never know how he's going to do. He seemed excited about it, but with a new teacher and new room and new kids, it could go either way. I'm happy to report it couldn't have gone better!

But, first, some support from his family the morning of the big day. It was the first time he's gone to school in the morning, something we'll both have to get used to. Oddly his schedule is mixed though, two mornings and one afternoon. I can live with that.

He practically ran into the room and started chatting up his teacher right away. He had something to add during every part of the day, circle time, etc. The snack was fruit kabobs he enjoyed helping to make himself.

Although I stayed the whole time, he was ok leaving me to go outside to play while we had discussion time with the teacher. Overall, I couldn't be happier. I'm still nervous about the first time I leave him there for the whole time. This will happen on thursday when I work in Olivia's classroom, so daddy will have to take Noah to school. I'm going to assume he'll do great, and wish for the best!

It is just not fair my kids are getting so big and grown up!

Second grade

2009-08-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

My little baby girl is in second grade! I'm not sure if I should admit the day came with more relief it's finally starting than weepiness for me. She is in a "loop" where she has the same teacher, classroom, and classmates as last year. She had a great year last year so I'm sure she will this year as well and we were all looking forward to it starting, especially me. Noah and I dropped her off, bought our Scrip, and had a leisurely trip to Safeway and now I'm blogging. Definitely not a morning I would be having during summer vacation.

But one big new addition to the classroom this year was individual desks. What big kids! Olivia seems happy to see it with her name on it and her own box of supplies ready to go. Here she is seated next to the girl with the desk next to her. Aren't they cute with their various stages of baby versus big teeth?

Noah was with me wishing her well and had to get in on the picture taking. I can't believe this time next year he will be starting his first day of kindergarten!

And here is Olivia showing off her own box of supplies from her desk with her name and everything, and Noah cutting it up in the background...

Ah, 3.5 more blessed hours of school today to get stuff done with my little man while Olivia is enjoying friends, fun, and maybe even some education.

Olivia's Office

2009-08-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

Olivia's bedroom is already the largest in the house, but I guess she needed more space of her own. The need for privacy is going to get really bad when baby #3 gets here.

If you can't see the sign, it says, "Olivia's Offece Do Not Enter." Of course Noah wanted his own office too then. But he wanted to set it up in Olivia's room. Olivia had to explain he couldn't keep her out of it then. So he decided that no one else *other* than Olivia could come in his office. Monkey see monkey do.

Summertime fun

2009-08-18T15:31:00.001-07:00

Here is what Olivia and her friends decided to create one lazy summer day. A play dough solar system. Complete with rings, moons, stars, suns and all kind of accurate space stuff. I was pretty impressed they had the initiative to do this on their own. Travis printed some stuff from the Internet about the planets for them and they were off.

Who needs school? Other that mommies that is!

What I've been doing instead of blogging

2009-06-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

Basically carting Olivia from one activity to the next. She hasn't hear of something she doesn't want to try. And seeing her enjoy it all is worth it, I think. Still, I'm glad it's all over for the year. Here is her year in performances...

First, in December was Nutcracker

Then March was the school play, Wizard of Oz. I made her munchkin outfit AND hair accessory. Not quite as talented as her friend's grandma who mader her dress, but not too shabby either.

May was her performance for her combo tap/jazz/ballet class to We Go Together from Grease with the same friend. Probaby my favorite of hers all-time. The hand jive plus other classic 50s moves through in, who can resist?

Few weeks ago was the talent show for the last week of school where her and 3 friends danced the jitterbug. I made their matching skirts.

Then, finally the last one tonight, hip-hop she takes with her best friend since ages ago in kindergarten. Here they are backstage showing off their bridges. They got to dance on stage with their scooters. Super cool stuff.

All that this year plus violin and AWANA every week and the science fair. I am so glad it's all over. We are not doing this much next year. Ok, she's already signed up for Nutcracker and definately will be in the school play, taking violin and AWANA, but I'm saying "no" this year to the talent show for sure. Probably. Maybe if another mom wants Olivia in it with her child and does most of the work...

Going Buggy

2009-06-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being a stranger to my blog, but our lives are buggy in more ways than one. Other than being very busy, Olivia just finished a unit on bugs for school. The first graders then performed a short play called Going Buggy. She knows more about bugs than I have ever learned.

And they got many, many guests in their classroom including bees, ants, and silk worms. She's always been comfortable with bugs, but this was just the topping on the cake. Today she found quite the catch, this vivid catepillar in our backyard. We have no idea what kind it is, but it was caught and put in a safe place to share at school. After that, perhaps she'll release it and leave it alone. The poor thing has been hanging around my fushcia for a few days and the kids haven't exactly kept their distance.

I'll try to be better about keeping some current pics on here. You can tells it's been awhile when Olivia's hair is several inches longer than in the last picture. It doesn't help our new computer starts a bazillion new windows when I try to log into my blog. Excuses, excuses, I know...

My little Young Author

2009-03-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

Olivia's teacher invited her to participate in a event sponsored by the school district to honor young authors called the Young Writer's Exposition. Her and her teacher took one of her stories and published it by adding a cover page, dedication page, illustrations, and binding it. Then Olivia got to go share it with others on a saturday and even meet a real published author.

Here she is holding her book at the event.

And sharing it with the group

Well, yes, of course I know you are dying to check out her book now, aren't you? Here is the front cover. It's called The Day I Went On My Favorite Ride by Olivia Jones 2009. The illustration gives a hint as to what that favorite ride turns out to be.

Inside the front cover there is even an About the Author section. It says "My name is Olivia Jones. I was born in California. I live with my brother, Noah, age 4, my mom and my dad. I want to be an author when I grow up. I like to do art. I like to play a lot of things. I like to write and read." Then it restates the title and is even dedicated to "My Grammy." Quite the honor.

And here we go with the story. Should I retype the whole thing? I guess so, below each page is the print on each...

One nice vacation, I went to Disneyland. I was scared to go on "It's a Small World." But, my mom made me. When it was over, it was my favorite ride!

After awhile, we were going to go on the next ride. It was the Jungle ride. I wasn't too sure about that. I said, "Daddy and Noah can go on it and if they like it I will go too."

After awhile they came back. I asked, "Did you like it?" They said, "Yes! There was a part of the ride where a waterfall landed on our heads!" So I said, "No, I won't go."

But daddy made me go on the ride. When it was done, I liked it!

That day at Disneyland, I learned that sometimes mommy and daddy know what I will like even if I'm not sure.

And that was the best day of my life!

I remember that day vividly. You can imagine my retelling might have had some different emotions involved. I definitely prefer Olivia's version. And it was well worth it for how proud I am of my Young Author! Quite the illustrator too, isn't she?

Winchester Mystery House

2009-03-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

The Winchester Mystery House is a historic home a few miles away from our house. It's unique for many reasons, and I could talk about it all day, but I'll let you read the link to satisfy your own curiosities instead of boring you to death. I'll just show you the pictures from our tour one rainy day last month.

Among the interesting architectures include a staircase to nowhere

and a doorway to a solid wall

But I guess that happens when you are constantly constructing a home for 38 years straight. It still wasn't finished though...

But it included beauty as well as idiosyncrasies, such as the stained glass

We all really enjoyed the tour, but I think I enjoyed it the most even though Olivia as the one who had begged to go on it.

Well worth the price of admission if you ask me!

Signs of spring

2009-03-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

I had daffodils blooming last month which just made my rain filled days. I'm so glad the sun is out now, I even have the good cheer to update my blog. What's even better is that these were planted two years ago, nothing like daffodils blooming that I didn't have to do anything for. Olivia and I even planted some more bulbs this year for the future returns.

Warning: Pink munchkinness overload ahead

2009-02-01T23:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am way too proud of myself for making Olivia's munchkin costume almost entirely by hand and am going to shamelessly post a million pictures of it. Plus, she's so cute, I couldn't decide which ones were best.

To be a munchkin (along with any other kindergartner or 1st grader who wanted to be) in Wizard of Oz, I had to make Olivia a full, gathered, ankle-length outfit with a petticoat underneath. She got to choose her colors and of course she chose hot pink with electric blue as an accent color. We had a really fun daughter-mother outing where we picked butterfly themed fabric and an easy-to-sew pattern. Here is the outcome.

I was way too concerned with making it too small and it wouldn't fit, so I overcompensated and it fit like a tent, so the belt was an add-on to make it fit more snug.

She was also required to do something fun and crazy with her hair OR wear something matching on her head. Since we are keeping her hair short I opted for making something. I made a triangle scarf type thing with elastic to keep it snug with matching fabric. I definitely wanted something comfortable she could re-do herself and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. You can kinda see it from the back view.

For the petticoat I got a skirt from a thrift store and sewed some sparkly pink fabric from the remnant bin around the bottom. It shows just enough and matches perfectly although the camera doesn't catch the colors very well.

The shirt underneath was from the thrift store as well. Luckily her tennis shoes fit the requirements for black shoes and I found matching socks in the Target dollar bin.

It even passes the mobility and comfortably test shown by practicing some of the movements that she'll be doing in just over a month.

Watch out Wizard of Oz goers, you might be blinded by cuteness.

Under the wire

2009-01-31T20:59:00.000-08:00

to get at least one post in this month. I've become a blogging slacker mostly due to Facebook. I think I might give up on-line social networking for lent. When does that start?

In any case, we are really busy around here with other stuff too. Olivia alone is in two different dance classes, taking two different music classes, and in one play. Hip-hop, tap and ballet combo, keyboard, violin, and Wizard of Oz. Whoah mama, what was I thinking? But she is enjoying all of it, so how can I say no?

She did an impressive science fair project last week as well. I did take pictures and I'll try to get them on here before lent starts. ;)

Olivia's hippy school celebrated Christmas

2008-12-24T20:26:00.000-08:00

I might have to stop calling Olivia's school hippy and even start start calling it traditional. The last day of school before the holidays all the kids got to wear their jammies to school. That isn't traditional? I don't know, but the kids sure love it and they are adorable. They invited the parents a bit early to pick the kids up from school and we all shared hot cocoa and watched the kids sing us Christmas songs. Man, I love Olivia's so-called hippy school! (Just ignore that they don't get grades and call their teachers by their first names.)

Olivia and the pink pajama girls serenading us with Frosty the Snowman.

Olivia getting her hot cocoa with candy cane and marshmallows and gingerbread man cookie. Yes, Olivia's hippy school has a nutritious food policy, but they are allowed to break it a few times a year. When they break it, they really break it.

They even let Noah join in the fun and he is always up for some treats.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the simple pleasures of the holidays!

I think he likes it

2008-12-24T20:24:00.000-08:00

Aunt Jennifer's Christmas package came with two unwrapped, stuffed snowpeople. Noah seemed to like his very much. Thanks Aunt Jen!

Happy Winter Solace

2008-12-24T20:19:00.001-08:00

No, it's not some hippy holiday I'm now celebrating. For some reason this year Olivia and I have been talking about the first day of winter and when it happens. And I've been watching each day out our backdoor a volunteer sunflower plant about to bloom. And have been amazed these two events happened simultaneously.

I'd like to be able to give credit to our wonderful California weather, but we've had our cold spell with freezing temperatures. I think this has more to do with some mutant strain of sunflower that can handle every and all temperatures.

Whatever the cause, it's enjoyable in quite a curious way.

Nutcracker

2008-12-15T20:29:00.001-08:00

Olivia got to perform in the Nutcracker this year. Before you are too impressed, it wasn't some big fancy professional version or anything. It was with the city recreation department. They had classes for all different age groups to be the different parts. Olivia was in the youngest class and got to be a Garland Girl. She took a class once a week to learn her part and had a week of rehearsals and just finished the performance weekend where she was in 3 of the performances. The cast did a really good job and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Here is Olivia waiting backstage to go on. This was the middle of the 3 shows and I was working backstage.

Here she is sitting on the floor and the closest I could come to getting her to do a pretty ballerina pose. Her dress is pure fluffiness.

Olivia and her two friends from school who were Sugar Plum Fairies. I think I will be able to get Olivia to work hard in ballet classes all year just to be able to be a Fairy in the production next year if I want. :)

It is physically impossible to get a good picture from the audience without being able to use the flash, but here is an idea of the cute flower garlands the Garland Girls got to dance around with. I *think* Olivia is on the far right.

The whole thing was a lot of fun, but had me really torn as to whether to encourage her to continue with dance classes or other things. It's not something she's extremely passionate about, although she does enjoy it. One part of me thinks we should keep trying different things in case there is that one thing she can't live without doing we might find; but then again if she keeps taking dance classes it is good experience for all kinds of performing or even sports like cheerleading and the school plays she might do some day. So I think that another dance class will at least be on the schedule for this winter. :)

Christmas in the Park

2008-12-15T19:17:00.000-08:00

Last week Noah's preschool class had another field trip. I pulled out Olivia from school a bit early so she could join us again. We went to Christmas in the Park in beautiful downtown San Jose.

We rode the light rail to get there. The kids had a hard time staying at a safe distance while waiting for it.

Once there we enjoyed looking at all the decorations.

One of the biggest attractions was the train.

Fun for all. And the kids didn't run me too ragged at all. :)

The Big Event

2008-11-22T19:47:00.001-08:00

Or in other words, We Are Really Into Themes.

Olivia's 7th birthday party is based on one particular book, Nate the Great Talks Turkey with Help from Olivia Sharp. Nate is an 10-year-old detective. But today he was an 34-year-old software engineer trying to solve the case of how to entertain 26 kids on 1/7th of an acre with less than 1000sq ft to work with.

Nate the Great somtimes needs help on his cases from his "cousin" Olivia Sharp, the very posh San Fransician detective with a personal chauffeur. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry, neither did half of our party guests.)

Here is your first clue.

I think my guys really pulled it off rather well.

The first thing you must know about being a good detective is that eating pancakes is essential to solving the case.

The next best thing to talking turkey is eating one. That is why the cupcakes are attempting to replicate them with candy corn and Hersey kisses.

Well, everything can't go exactly according to theme. Sometimes you just need a bouncy house.

We all had a blast and a great day, there were tears and spills and falls, but it's all part of pulling off a killer birthday party in the land of 1st grade.

And when it's all over

2008-11-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

it's not all over. Birthdays are the gifts that just keep giving.

After the party ended our neighbors felt no need to go home and why only use candles once? They always go better on the second cupcakes of the day...

But there is a limit to all the fun and finally Olivia needs some downtime with her new Hello Kitty throw and Webkinz Red-Eyed Tree Frog that "she's always wanted."

But this is not how the day ends. Poor Travis is in the other room attempting to play Clue Jr with Olivia and Noah while I'm blogging with a glass of wine. How do I get away with this stuff?

Hangin with my homies in my birthday crown

2008-11-22T18:40:00.000-08:00

with one shoe on. Has a good beat and you can dance to it, huh?

This was supposed to be my Happy Birthday Olivia post, but the picture just screamed rap song, sorry.

I'll attach the sap to the end, my baby girl is now 7 years old. Wah. I cannot believe she is halfway to 14, that's like high school. Impossible. A big 1st grader. That baby kindergarten stuff is so last year. But birthday crowns are fun enough that I can cling to the fact she's still my little girl, right?

Signs of Halloween

2008-10-23T16:13:00.001-07:00

It was my turn today to bring the kid's snack at Noah's pre-school. They suggest something that the kids can add some kind of spread and topping to. In the spirit of fall and Halloween, I made buttermilk biscuits that the kids could decorate as pumpkins using pumpkin butter, blueberries, raisins, and dried snap peas for the stem. I don't know if they came out perfect, or even if the kids enjoyed them that much, but Noah and I had fun rolling the dough and making the biscuits together this morning.

As we were working on them, I looked out the kitchen door to the outside patio and saw this...

A black cat sitting on our neighbor's roof. Halloween indeed!

Noah's first field trip

2008-10-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Noah's first year of pre-school is going very well. And I'm not just saying that because now on tuesdays from 12:30-2:30 both kids are in school and I'm free as a bird for those two precious hours a week. But enough about me.

Noah seems to be having a great time in school and I really like his teacher and the other families and kids in his class. He is even using the potty very well there although he is very concerned with privacy and will move walls to get it, literally. But that is another humorous story.

Yesterday he had his first field trip with his school, a local pumpkin patch. It was a fun time even though it wasn't one with tons of bouncy houses like he would have preferred. But they did have a petting zoo with goats, a baby pig, bunnies, and chicks. He tentatively pet the smallest of those, and didn't freak out too much about the larger ones. :)

And there was a lot of other fun things to check out too.

But the highlight of the field trip was getting to paint his own little pumpkin.

And ride a hay "horse."

Olivia even came to join us when her school came out and enjoyed the fun.

My two babies are now big kids in school. It's just not fair. Wah!

Finally, birthday party pics

2008-10-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from Noah's birthday party. I cannot believe my little baby boy is 4 years old. Wah.

He had a dinosaur party with about 5 friends and it was a lot of fun. I found candles that were in the shape of dinosaurs and wrote, "Happy Birthday NOAH-saraus" on his cake.

We even found a dinosaur pinata which took forever to break open, but the kids enjoyed trying a little too much.

Noah going through his look of tootsie rolls, tootsie pops, and dinosaur figures from the pinata.

Olivia enjoyed the decapitated head of the pinata.

Overall a fun day, the ones I hope we remember for a long, long time.

Twin Day

2008-10-01T09:55:00.001-07:00

Today was twin day and Olivia's school and her friend and her decided to go all black. Black Suessical shirts from the play last year, play skirts, and black shoes. Her mother and I asked them if they'd like to do their hair the same too and they both said they both prefer to wear their hair down. What big girls!

I think even their purple and pink sweatshirts make them look cute together.

A bunch of the boys were wearing their Suessical shirts with blue jeans. Olivia's teacher was wearing blue jeans with a white t-shirt which a bunch of other kids matched to. They all looked so great all coordinated together. 1st grade is so much fun! I hope they are learning a thing or two also...

What to give an engineer

2008-10-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

More like what to give a child of two engineers. Oh man, I love this toy. Noah and I are having a ball making up different configurations. I'm particularly proud of this one. The marbles roll down each and every run. All 10 of them. So rewarding. Is it pitiful I'm a little too much into this?

It's probably no coincidence that Noah received this toy from a friend whose parents also graduated from Georgia Tech. Hmmmmmm.

Olivia's Walk-a-thon

2008-09-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

Olivia put her effort into doing laps for her school's walk-a-thon. Too bad we stink at raising money for it and didn't put any effort into that. Oh well, there is always next year.

We still love our school's traditions though even though we are cheap! ;)

Noah Goes to School

2008-09-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

I feel bad Noah has been in pre-school for weeks and I didn't blog about his first day. It was probably the anxiety of him not being potty trained that kept me from it. But he's come a long way in that department, thank goodness, and we celebrated his birthday at school, so I think it deserves a blog post.

He is only in school twice a week, tuesdays and thursdays from 12:30-3:30. It's a parent participation and I stay and help on thursdays. I had wanted a morning spot to better coordinate with Olivia's school schedule, but they were full, and this way I get some precious free time once a week. Not that I'm that confident leaving him there alone until he masters the potty a little more, but he is close if not there, amazingly.

But enough about the potty! He's having a good time and doing well in his little class. It's mostly play based, but they do good developmental activities that are fun too. They have a yummy snack with as much juice as he wants, yee haw.

Here he is in the birthday chair on thursday celebrating his upcoming birthday.

And blowing out the cupcake shaped candle.

My big guy! I'm so proud of him!

My new favorite shade

2008-09-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

Fabulous Fig. What do you think? Is Revlon's description accurate?

Ha ha! I promise I didn't buy it because of it's name and the fact it's fig season in our backyard. Longs Drugs was having a Buy One Get One Free on Revlon lipsticks and it was very similar to my long time standby Rum Raisin.

Hm, I might have a thing about yummy tasting lipsticks, huh? But I definitely won't be wearing guacamole green eyeshadow this winter.

Go Giants!

2008-09-08T18:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a great time at a San Jose Giants game. For those of you who know your baseball, no, that isn't a typo. The San Jose Giants are a field team near our house. Much easier to accessable than the San Francisco Giants not to mention a million times cheaper. The tickets were free. But that wasn't all the freeness, they were handing out free Drumsticks and little bats. Here are the kids enjoying their free ice cream.

Olivia even got her bat signed up the mascot, Gigante. Noah was mesmerized by him, from afar.

But the best part for me, other than the beautiful weather and the kids sitting in the stands nicely the whole time, was the beer batter being struck out in the 6th inning which means half price beer, woo hoo!

Still knitting

2008-09-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

I actually took a break from knitting a bit this summer, didn't even take a knitting project with me on our two week trip to Georgia, amazing. But the break didn't last long, I'm back at it and have several projects in the works, even during the hottest part of the summer. Dedication, I tell ya.

Most recently I finished a purse. No, I do not need another purse, but I've been dying to knit this one. I'm so glad I did, very fun and overall I'm happy with how it turned out. The design is called Brea and the pattern is free for anyone who is interested. The knitting was actually quite quick and fun although it looks complicated. The worst part is always sewing it all together and sewing the lining in.

I am pretty impressed with myself for using recycled yarn from a thrift store sweater (the yarn was leftover from a sweater I knit for Olivia, got my use out of that one!) and an old belt from a rummage sale for the strap. The button and lining came from my sewing stash, so they were probably bought new at some point long ago, but still, not bad.

When a house becomes a home

2008-09-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to pinpoint the instant when your house becomes your home, but I'm also pretty sure that picking out house numbers and mounting them on the house must be up there on the list. It might have something to do with the cumulation of all the house projects we've been working on lately, but they are no where near done either. There is just something about seeing those numbers on there.

Yeah, we've had the house for well over 3 years now. When we bought the place the house numbers were on the garage door. The garage door we replaced almost exactly 2 years ago. It isn't so much that we've been ashamed of the house for 2 years and haven't wanted house numbers, it's more that we've been waiting until we (and by we I mean Travis) finishes the outside stucco and painting to put them on. Still a long way to go, but little by little we are getting there.

Happy Anniversary to me

2008-09-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

I am so blessed to be married to a man whose main goal in life seems to be getting a picture of me falling in a creek. He took no less than 10 pictures of me crossing a teeny, tiny creek just in case I happened to fall in. Aw, I feel the love, don't you?

Don't worry, sweetie, it's only been 9 years, I'm sure if you keep trying you'll eventually get a pic of me doing something stupid. But you can be pretty sure it won't appear on this blog!

Keep Tahoe Blue

2008-09-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I see bumper stickers around the bay area with this saying on it. And I wonder what hippy thing they are talking about. Until I saw Lake Tahoe in summer. So pretty. Yeah, I guess keeping it blue would be a good idea. It's beautiful in the winter with the snow-capped mountains surrounding the lake, but in the summer it really strikes you when you are not freezing your butt off.

And we actually visited the watershed there that keeps the lake blue. I forget the name of it. If I had it would have actually been quite educational for Olivia since she is learning about watersheds at school. I really had no idea what a watershed was. Now, I kinda do. Something about wetlands and the plant roots filtering out the water that passes through before it gets to the lake. But I'm sure that bit of information won't last much longer in my memory than the name of it.

We also took a short hike to a kinda castle there. Very interesting story about the wealthy woman that owned and built it, and how the government completely jipped her descendant when they bought it. But I guess I should be glad they did since I'm sure I wouldn't be visiting the wealthy person that owned if they had not. In any case, it made for some pretty pictures.

Bowling + Ice Skating = Fall Fun

2008-08-29T10:01:00.001-07:00

I've been so into the activities through our city. They are not a big commitment since you only have to sign up for a short session and they are affordable. This fall our schedule is already pretty full, but I just couldn't resist letting the kids pick one class each to take.

Of course Olivia chose bumper bowling. She has only been twice but begs to go all the time. Through the city she gets to go for 8 weeks, an hour and a half each time, for only $79 including instruction, ball and shoe rental. That is an awesome deal. Noah is actually old enough for that class and I was SO tempted to sign him up too while I was fantasizing of an hour and a half of free time each week, but I just don't think he's ready yet for that length of a class. Maybe next year for him.

Noah decided on a Mommy and Me Ice Skating class on wednesday mornings while Olivia is in school. How fun is that? We get 6 weekly lessons including ice skate rentals for both of us for a total of $72, another great deal. Each class is an hour, the first half is instruction, the second half is free skate. I'm actually kinda excited about this, I figure I'll even get some exercise too.

So if I'm not blogging this fall you'll know I'm either skating around with Noah or we're watching Olivia try to get a 6lb ball down a bowling lane. Wish us luck!

Hottest Day of the Year Recomendation

2008-08-28T21:40:00.001-07:00

I would highly recommend your local library. Your local air-conditioned library. You know it's hot out when it's hard to find a parking spot at the library. But it's well worth the spot to get an hour of coolness.

Olivia dived right in and read while constantly changing positions on the padded reading area.

Noah and I had a better idea. Yep, my head was definitely bobbing too. It felt so good after sweating it all day at home.

Yeah, the library is still pretty cool even when it's not hot out, it's just extra motivation on days like these.

First Day of First Grade

2008-08-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

First grade just seem so grown up. She walked right up, hung up her backpack on the hook labeled with her name, and off she went. My big, little girl!

First stop was the playdough table. First grade is still cool enough for her.

Here's to another great year!

He can't wait for bedtime?

2008-08-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

Noah picked out some glow-in-the-dark stars at a rummage sale we were at. He actually said that he would go to sleep in his room by himself with them on the wall. I'll believe it when I see it.

We got them yesterday, but then I found sand from the sandbox in my planter and they got taken away for a day as a punishment. My plants can't grow in desert conditions.

When he woke up today he asked for them first thing. So we put them up while still in our jammies. Olivia and Noah got them way higher than I expected them to be able to on their own.

I hope they actually glow tonight in the dark. We will see!

Olympic Spirit

2008-08-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

Olivia and Noah are very into rooting for the US as we watch the Olympic every night. Really late every night. Travis is often asleep as the rest of us watch. But I have to admit, it's great. It's exactly the kind of fun stuff I imagined doing with my kids before I had them. I didn't imagine that Noah would call the swimmer with the yellow cap and swim suit the "metal man," but still fun even with the numerous explanations Olivia asks for.

With all the patriotic cheering going on we thought it would be a good time to iron on the letters we bought to decorate our bucket hats from the Target bargin bin months ago. The red, white, and blue iron-on letters clearly stated "looks best on light fabric," but I ignored that and used it on a red and dark blue hat. As a result Noah isn't quite as patriotic as Olivia's. And her letters don't really give the red, white, and blue visual they did in the package. Still, you get the point.

We wanted to put Team USA under their names, but we didn't have enough As. Go USA will have to suffice.

Obsession Update

2008-08-13T19:56:00.001-07:00

I've been busily potting up all my sprouts I started in the coffee filters in the window. I know the point of putting them in newpaper pots was that I could evetually just stick the newspaper pots in the ground without having to transplant them. But then I realized we have a 5 day trip planned at the end of next week and there is no way sproutings will last 5 days without water and I don't think newspaper pots will survive under the one little timed sprinkler we rigged while we are gone. So, here they are halfway potted up in lovely yogurt and other various type of containers.

They include Alysum, those are the biggest. Dianthus and coneflower look good. Snapdragons barely have their second set of leaves. And the latest added to the mix are Joe-Pye weed, catmint, black-eyed susan, and coreopsis. If they make it the 5 days I should have a good variety of periennals to plant in the fall and hope all winter that they come back in the spring.

You are never too young to To-Do lists

2008-07-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

Olivia just proudly showed me this list she came up with for tomorrow. I don't know if it because she remembers fondly us teasing Grandpa W for a similar list we caught him making once. But, I bet even Grandpa W didn't have an If-Then statement in it. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you are probably not a geeky engineer from my family. Ah, Olivia's first logic statement, I need to get out the baby book...

I'll interpret. I'd say she still has to do some work on her spelling, but if I tell you the truth, mine isn't much better. But then again, if you are reading my blog, you know that. Here we go.

Moning Thaes (Morning Things)
1. Teef Brush (Teeth Brush)
2. Read Book (I seriously just typed Reed Book, Olivia's spelling is better than mine.)
3. If Mom Sleep Wac Up (If Mom is asleep wake up.)
4. Eat Brafis (Eat Breakfast)

The funny thing is that her spelling is just like her pronunciation with her missing tooth. Almost as funny as the fact she is going to take care of her personal hygiene and read a book while I'm still sleeping my life away tomorrow. Don't call too early.

Two bookworms?

2008-07-31T22:18:00.000-07:00

Now that Olivia has moved on to bigger and better things, I guess Noah figured he had to take up the role of resident book worm. I can't believe I walked in the room and saw Noah deep in the middle of a chapter book. Before anyone calls MENSA, I'm sure there were some really good pictures in this book.

Reading is a tough job, gotta find a more comfy spot. Look at that lip, he must not have liked the turn the plot took at this point.

As I'm blogging, Olivia is reading this book to Noah. Too sweet. They don't need me anymore!

Ah, remember way back when

2008-07-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

Olivia performed a cute tap dance to Song of the Heart from Happy Feet awhile back. Ok, in May. I'm a bit late. But it was worth the wait because I just thought this outfit was so adorable and the dance was really sweet too.

She's already signed up for another dance class in the fall. This time a ballet one. She will be in The Nutcracker. Isn't that awesome? They have it broken down by age, I guess so that her class can be a nice small part fitting for their age. I am totally going to take advantage of this age where they are cute no matter the quality of the performance!

Aunt S, do you know where your babies are?

2008-07-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

I am officially in love with hollyhocks. It's like they stepped out of a fairy tale. These are ones I grew this year from seed in newspaper pots, but I think we all know by now how cheap I am. Not only that, but the seeds were free, grabbed from various different hollyhock plants I've met.

The only problem is that I'm not that faithful and I've met several hollyhock plants in the past year. So I have no idea who the parents are of these. Three are bright pink with double blooms and one is soft, light pink. So lovely. But who do they belong to. Hmmmmm. I think one are from seeds that came all the way from Aunt S's farm in Georgia. But which one?

The other is either from the hollyhocks growing at Olivia's school (maybe I shouldn't have grabbed seeds from them without asking?) or from my neighbor's green trash can, which I feel better about grabbing before they headed to the city recycling.

In any case, what an easy, cheap, treat to grow!

My new obsession

2008-07-26T13:26:00.001-07:00

If you pull back the curtains on my kitchen window you will see this.

I found a great tip about how to germinate seeds between the folds of a coffee filter. Just add water and put in a sandwich bag in a indirectly sunny window. In a few days you can see them sprouting. Amazing!

I've been playing with what kind of seeds this works well for. I've had great success with Alyssum, a nice, trailing plant that is still easy to control. Here is some I have to fill some spots around a planter. I grew this one from a packet of seeds cheap from a drugstore.

I grabbed a few seeds from the drying part of this plant, germinated them in the coffee filters, and transfered them to my newspaper pots. Here are the little babies hanging out on the grill getting used to the outside environment.

Wish them luck once they get in the ground!

I'm also trying some of my leftover coneflower seeds I got last year. Here is the plant I grew from seed last year.

And here are some of the seeds germinating in my coffee filters.

Fun hobby when you have no money for full plants. :)

Green Eggs and Toast?

2008-07-20T21:27:00.001-07:00

How would one make green ham anyway? We settle for green canola oil spread.

We've been having to get up early for VBS, which is always a bummer during summer vacation. Once the excitment wears after a few days I had to resort to green eggs and toast to get them going in the morning. Actually, it was Noah's idea and it worked wonders to get Olivia out of bed.

Olivia stired the green food coloring in the eggs, and Noah in the spreadable butter. Perfect!

Dr. Suess has NOTHING on me!

Bagged It

2008-07-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

It's kinda funny seeing your bathroom totally bagged up in plastic.

But it's all for a good purpose. Travis spent this weekend adding trim, caulking, priming, and painting the bathroom ceiling. I love, Love, LOVE the white-on-white look of the exposed beams. It was kinda a big commitment to paint our new tongue-and-groove ceiling, but I'm so glad we decided to, it looks great. In that one little room.

But Travis did great and it won't be too long until the rest of the house looks the same. Unfortunately it's not the only project he has to do, but it's still nice to see it come along. I can't wait to see it in a room that we've painted some non-white color, like Olivia's new pepto-pink room when it is done.

I gotta say, I think I'm feeling a lot less depressed that we spent every last cent on our new roof...

Miracle #117

2008-07-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

Olivia is a headstrong little girl. When she wants to do something, or when she does not. One of those things included being bound and determined she would never, ever, in a million years ever put her head under the water. We've been gently coaching her since last summer to try little by little, blow bubbles, everything. But she was still pretty against the whole idea.

Until last week when I decided to say "no" to bringing her swim vest (that helps her float) to the pool that has a nice big 2.5 feet baby pool that is perfect for her to learn to swim because she can stand up everywhere, but still have lots of room to move around.

Well, lo and behold, without the vest keeping her head above water, but still feeling safe, she decided to put her whole head under, and now, watch out. She can do everything. She can swim across the pool with her head under, do somersaults and back flips in the pool, jump in off the side to over her head. It's amazing from a little girl who less than a week ago refused to even try.

Add it to the list of things she once said she would never do and now loves, ice skating, gymnastics, riding a bike... Ok, well, she still won't try riding a bike without training wheels, but now we have some amazing precedence that she will eventually someday.

She still has to hold her nose when she goes under which makes it hard to use both hands to swim. We got her this great mask that goes over her nose that she really likes and helps free up her hands. But our city pool won't allow them because they breath in the bad air in the mask? But they said nose plugs are ok so I'm on the hunt for a store that sells them before her swimming lessons start next week. I'm really excited because I think she will get so much out of the lessons now that she is much more comfortable in the water!

I'm not a turkey!

2008-07-10T03:18:00.000-07:00

Did you know in bowling if you get 3 spares it's a chicken. That fact is probably about the funnest thing about bowling for me. But Olivia loves it. So Grammy and Poppy took us bowling. Noah even played each and every frame.

It. took. forever.

Noah could roll his ball, sit down, eat a hanful of M&Ms, beg for more, all before his ball bounced back and forth across the bumpers enough to make it to the pins. But it was fun, and that is what matters. That and at least I wasn't awful enough to get beat by anyone who was using the bumpers. Everyone else doesn't count.

The vacation of a million lakes

2008-07-10T02:28:00.000-07:00

Well, almost anyway. It wasn't planned, but this year's trip to Georgia seemed to revolve around lakes. Let's all count them together...

Lake #1 somewhere in Fayette County and that is all I remember about where it is. It's on Papa J's property which is quite the experience and that's all I'll say about that. Pretty enough though it was even worth the walk back with Olivia complaining how hot it was and city-boy Noah getting spooked at every sound he heard.

Lake #2, same day at some park in Ducula, the-other-side-of-GA. Grandpa T. taught the kids how to fish. Does teaching a 3-year-old and 6-year-old how to fish sounds scary to you? It did to me. But despite my mommy instincts, we let them go with it. Olivia did surprisingly well casting or whatever it's called.

Noah, not so well. Good thing the camera has a good zoom, I was standing WAY back.

Lake #3, Lake Lanier, an actual decent sized lake someone reading this post might have heard of. Aunt J's boyfriend F was kind enough to take us out on his boat on friday. It was a lovely day and Travis didn't even burn, poor guy is the odd man out in the family with fair skin. The rest of us worked on our tans.

Lake #5, not pictured because I'm not sure it would really count as a lake. Does a lake in a housing development count? Let's count it anyway because we had a blast using Grandpa L's remote control boats on it. That is until Travis' cousin-once-removed (which would be Olivia's second cousin, I researched it) got attacked by red ants. Ow.

Lake #6, the infamous trip to take the big ol' black snake across the lake at Aunt S's farm. If you haven't heard of this infamous trip, scroll down a couple posts. But I had to revisit it because I got such spectacular pictures there.

Lake #7, Lake Blue Ridge not pictured because I let Travis take home our camera to get pictures of our roof-less house, but that is another post entirely. This one was with Grandma R (my side this time) and it was a lovely day on the boarder of Tennessee as we visited her log cabin in the mountains.

Lake #8, Ruby Falls. Ok, this might be a stretch, Ruby Falls is a waterfall found 1000 ft under a mountain, but it does sorta form a pool of water and I had to include it on my list. To get to it you take a elevater straight down into Lookout Moutain and then hike a little through mineral deposit formations, one that is likened to a donkey's rear end, I kid you not. Even so, it was a really interesting visit to wrap up our lake list.

Whew, and I didn't even touch on the Chatanooga Choo-choo yet! I'll spare you that one for another day.

Influences from Vincent

2008-07-10T01:11:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying putting together boquets from my garden this year. Here are two little boquets I made for Olivia and Noah to give to their sunday school teachers. I just thought they were very simple and lovely. Purple fountain grass, cosmos, and who can resist a sunflower?

When I went back to look at the pictures I noticed that in the background is a print hanging on our wall of a Vincent Van Gogh painting, Cafe Terrance at Night. The reason this struck me is that the sunflower in the boquet came from a pack of seeds called Van Gogh mix, inspired by his sunflower paintings, I'm sure.

Funny, it's not like Van Gogh crosses my mind often, or ever. But today I remembered his beautiful work.

My sunflowers...

And Vincent's...

Gerorgia, Sweet Georgia

2008-07-08T23:52:00.000-07:00

We such an eventful two weeks in Georgia (and Tennessee too) but unfortunately I'm so behind updating everyone on it. Not having a roof puts a damper on blogging. But I've been wanting to post pictures on one exciting day. I'm not sure if it's because I got exceptionally good pictures or because it involved a very large black snake.

In any case, on this day we did get to visit the first covered bridge built in Georgia in over 150 years. (Correct me if my facts are wrong, Aunt S. And I also have some pictures coming for ya of some pretty pink Hollyhocks...)

With a beautiful veiw from the "windows."

And the only reason we got to visit the bridge that day, a black snake beatiful in her own right. We walked right past her without knowing. When she was pointed out to us, we had quite a fright. Except the fearless Olivia who was all too willing to touch her while poor little Noah was shaking in his boots.

Aunt S. and A. carried us in their pick-up to take her to the other side of the lake, across the covered bridge. Olivia was tickled she wasn't even wearing a seat-belt. Never a dull moment for the Jones hippies when visiting The South! (Olivia rode un-seat-belted like 2 seconds and the snake wasn't poisonous, but it sounds exciting, doesn't it?)

Oliviadini

2008-06-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

Olivia performed in her school talent show today. The girl loves the stage. I actually tried to purposely not mention to her that she could try out. I mean, if she does everything as a kindergartener, what fun will 1st grade be? But her teacher happened to bring it up the day before try-outs and so of course I cannot say no to Olivia. And by try-outs I mean, show the coordinator your thing and get lots of encouraging comments. Her hippy school doesn't turn people down when it comes to participating.

But at least we did decide on a more low-key event like a magic trick versus the violin. There is always next year for that. And of course I am so glad I let her be in it, and I think she did really well for a 6-year-old. Travis and I were only bursting with pride a teeny-tiny bit. But not all the ooohs and aaahs in the audience were from us, really, other people liked it too.

Don't blink or you'll miss it!

She kept forgetting to bow when she was done, but at least she did the magic trick pretty well!

School Spirit

2008-06-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Wacky Tacky Tuesday at Olivia's school. You can tell from the picture the meaning. It was my workday in the classroom and I got waaaaay into school spirit week.

Olivia and I have too much fun picking out clashing outfits. I'm enjoying it while it lasts before she won't let me have anything to do with giving input into her clothes and tells me my opinion is so "out of it." I wonder how long that will be.

It's official

2008-06-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

Olivia knows how to read. It actually seemed to happen pretty fast. It's amazing to me that she entered kindergarten without even really knowing letter sounds, and now she can read just about anything, and easily and quickly enough to follow a book and understand it and be interested. And the best part for me is that it was all without lots of painful pressure from mom.

Nothing like curling up with a good book, and now Olivia knows all about that! I'm so happy for her and the whole new world that is open to her now!

Leaning Sunflower of Pisa

2008-06-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

Lesson learned, sunflowers need full sun. Can you guess which direction the afternoon sun is?

What Olivia has been up to

2008-05-25T08:42:00.001-07:00

Olivia recently found an activity sheet in a Veggie Tales coloring book that required her to decode a sentence. She was quite taken by the concept and we've done quite a bit of communicating by codes lately. I don't know where she could get this fondness for written puzzles and such. (Sarcasm in case you don't know me well.)

Here is the code she wrote for me.

And here it is after I solved it.

Not only clever, but very polite too!

Funny Olivia-ism

2008-05-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Travis and I had the song West End Girls in our head from Pet Shop Boys. Don't ask why. I think he had been telling me how someone had on a cheesy 80s radio station on at work. In any case, it was stuck in our heads and we were going around the house singing, "East end boys and west end girls. West. End. Girls." You know how it goes, right? Admit it.

Upon hearing us, Olivia had to clarify and told us, "I'm a girl, but I'm not west end." Ha! I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it's definately funny!

Reconstruction

2008-05-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

I got on a little kick of making new things from old ones. I was taking pictures of Olivia today in a dress I made for her out of one of Travis' old shirts and I realized that in the background were the old chairs I reupholstered for our patio. I thought it was a good opportunity to blog about both reconstructions.

First, Olivia's cute little dress. It's actually probably more like a nightie with the light, white fabric, but I couldn't resist her wearing it to church today.

The front was the back of the shirt, the back of men's shirt has a perfect little bodice for little girl dresses. And adding elastic to the old sleeves, and cutting them up, makes nice ruffly straps.

You can see the buttons that used to be on the front now button up the back of the dress. Looks so nice and I didn't have to sew a single button-hole.

And on to the chairs. Here is what they looked like when I bought them for $20 total off of craigslist. I love craigslist. As you can see, they were in awful shape and of course couldn't be used, but great price for some nice wrought-iron which I love.

After buying outdoor fabric and foam and tons of staples here they are behind Olivia. Not bad and a lot cheaper than I would have paid for new ones.

Both projects were a lot more involved than I envisioned, so I think I'll be taking a break from reconstructions for awhile. Especially reupholstery. It's months since I jammed a screw-driver in my thumbnail taking the old staples out and it still is a long way from completely recovering and looks awful. But I think I'll leave that pic off this blog.

My exciting life

2008-05-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

I bet you wonder what has been keeping me and the kids busy since I haven't blogged in forever. Absolutely nothing. I guess we have settled into a nice, little routine because the highlights of my days now consist of waiting for flowers to bloom. Literally. I have one oriental poppy flower that I check on a bazillion times a day watching the buds slowly open. They have the prettiest light, delicate blooms floating on tiny little stems. I spent all day yesterday waiting for the tallest one to open and then it tricked me and opened some time during the night. But I caught a picture of it this morning to show off the glamorous life I lead.

Here is the whole plant. You can barely tell, but it's growing in an old watering can. I love how it looks next to an oak barrel planter.

But I really can't complain about my hum drum days with my precious little shadow following me around whatever I do and making it fun. Here he is posing next to the poppy bloom. Always stealing the show.

Truth is, I have the gardening bug again and spending a lot of time outside trying to make a garden with as little money as possible and killing off lots of stuff. But it's fun. When I'm restless I occasionally wander around in back and admire the stuff that is actually growing. Here are a few more pics.

A little cosmos I grew from seed.

Calla lilly, dianthus, and my favorite fuscia I'm so proud of. It was a little $2 plant from a drug store, but it must be in the perfect spot because it's filled in nicely. Their colors are so bright!

Purple fountain grass, gaura, and yet another fuscia.

A close-up of the gaura. I love this plant. It has tiny little pretty pink flowers that attract butterflies and humming birds, is drought-resistant, and looks decent all year round. Really no down-side to it.

And if you are still with me, my sunflowers are getting really big! Somehow I timed them just right when I started them indoors and planted them out. I wish I had taken notes or something. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these when they bloom, hopefully soon!

Well, that's it, that's how I've been passing my days in between the dishes, laundry, car-pools, diapers, and worse the potty-training! I'm sure you're glad I at least have flowers to talk about...

Hot Cross Buns

2008-05-03T17:19:00.001-07:00

Olivia performed Hot Cross Buns for her first violin performance. I was very proud of her for being brave to perform in front of an audience. And if you turn your volume way up and listen closely you can even tell what song it is!

Spring Break '08 baby

2008-04-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Spring break isn't complete without a trip to the beach. How spoiled is Olivia? With her week off school we spend 2 days on the Tahoe slopes, another day riding rides at a theme park, and the last day at the beach. I don't think I can top this one next year. Except maybe if Disneyland and grandma are involved...

In any case, we had a good day at the beach. Although we were only there 2 hours tops. It was colder today than yesterday which means we were too hot in Gilroy and too cold in Santa Cruz. The microclimates take some time to figure out.

But it was still a lot of fun and I'm impressed how much Noah has changed since last time we went, he wasn't deathly afraid of touching the water like he used to be. But he still spent most the time digging in the dirt.

Olivia had fun as usual running from the waves.

And they had fun playing in the standing water that a nice neighborhood lady told me they called "polio pool" since it's probably so contaminated from whatever comes from their neighborhood. Thanks.

Back to school next week. Luckily monday is "Night during Day" day where they get to wear their jammies again, brush their teeth in school, and have a Midnight Snack. (They are studying M and N.) I'm SO glad her teacher planned a fun day or I might never get Olivia back in school.

The stinkiest theme park in America

2008-04-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Gilroy Gardens. Gilroy is the garlic capital of the world. Fortunately, it isn't harvest season.

But the rides do make you hungry. Such as Artichoke Dip, Banana Split, Garlic Twirl, and Mushroom Swing. We had a blast and got our season passes to make many more trips this summer.

The fun thing about the day was they were having a Scavenger Hunt with prizes. It was even more fun now that Olivia can read all the clues and we had fun with her friend from school and his family finding the prizes. The first one were leis for the kids.

Noah riding the merry-go-round

And Olivia on the Artichoke Dip

And my favorite part was the beautiful gardens, I'm impressed I can identify a lot more of the flowers and trees than I could a few years ago. One of the side benefits of home ownership and being responsible for your own landscaping. But I'm not exactly found of the weirdly grafted trees throughout the park...

To each their own.

Catching air in Tahoe

2008-04-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

This year Olivia stated she wanted to try skiing and she was going to go down the hill really fast and do a double flip in the air. Yeah right. Here are the pictures of us sledding down a hill off the side of the road.

Firstly, Noah, who didn't have quite as brave ambitions. He said he would go with us to watch. He started out helping me with a "snow head."

After watching Olivia a bit he decided to go down the hill on his bottom.

Then, on the 3rd sledding outing, he agreed to brave the sled with daddy. Go Noah!

But this year Olivia was our little dare devil on the sleds. She wanted to try everything. Even after a few spills that resulted in tears, she still wanted more. Maybe she is ready for skis next year...

Here is her jumping the little jump we found on the hill.

She loved every minute.

And had only smiles at the bottom, mostly.

Even mommy and daddy tried to see how high they could get.

It turns out that Tahoe snow is still fun, yet dirty, in April. It's funny leaving the snow and a few hours later getting home where it is in the 80s!

Already?

2008-03-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

First thing every wednesday at school, Olivia's class joins the rest of the school for "Open Sing." Noah and I often join them too. One of the songs they sing that always gets me is It's a Wonderful World. I'm always weepy at the line that goes, "I see babies cry, I watch them grow. They'll learn much more than I'll ever know. And I say to myself, what a wonderful world..." In fact, it was this song that made me loose it her second day of kindergarten, and it still does every week.

Little did I know that this line would become true so soon. Not only does Olivia know so much on the violin now, there is no way I could keep it all straight; but, tonight daddy decides to teach her chess, a game I never had the patience to attempt.

As I'm writing this blog I'm listening to her talking non-stop about which piece does which move and which one she should do to "a-tackle" (her version of attack) daddy's pieces.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's just not fair my little baby girl is growing up into her own little person. Wah!

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone. He is risen!

We got up bright and early this morning so Olivia could sing with the kids at church at both services. Since we were going much earlier than normal, I didn't get a picture with the easter basket. But I did get them playing with their bubble toys that came in it this afternoon after church.

Then they opened a package from grandma with new outfits. Very chic.

Then everyone was worn out from the long day and took an afternoon nap.

All in all, a pretty good day!

We're ready for the big day

2008-03-07T09:43:00.001-08:00

Today is Olivia's first performance day, I might have mentioned it once or twice. We all put on our show t-shirts to add to the excitement for the day and officially join the ranks of parents dedicated to the point of cheesiness.

I thought we should have a silly picture but I think when I said "Act like Suess" Travis thought I said, "Attack your Spouse."

Poor Noah is so left out on this blog. He's just too fast when awake to get many pictures of him! ;)

She's here

2008-03-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

The day we've all been waiting for, grandma L is here! She came in late last night, but Olivia was all ready to read her a bedtime story and tuck her into bed. Yes, Olivia is now able to read entire Dr. Suess books. Such a milestone!

And I'm enjoying grandma's visit too as she's playing trains with Noah and I'm blogging!

Guess it's bedtime

2008-03-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

I knew Noah was tired today from not napping for two days, but I didn't expect this. We have been spending a good bit of the winter hanging out in front of the wall heater. It's the coziest place in the house. I guess that is why Noah cuddled up there at 7pm and went to sleep on the floor for the night. Don't worry, I did move him to his bed! Not that his bed is ever a place he lays in by himself and goes to sleep or anything. No, the hallway floor is so much better.

Don't you love his very uncoordinated outfit. Is there anything else I could possibly display that I'm doing wrong with this mommy thing?

Stage make-up?

2008-03-05T19:21:00.001-08:00

We were given two pages of instructions for the "stage make-up" for Olivia's play. It included liquid and powder foundation, blush, eye liner, eye shadow, and lipstick. All this for all the performers, boys and girls. I just thought that was crazy, I don't want to buy all that stuff for her. I only wear lipstick and have nothing. Not only do I not want to spend the money, but I don't want to get her interested in the stuff.

My compromise was to just go get her a cheap stick of really girly pink lipstick and hope that was good enough. I usually wear more brownish shades which I didn't think would be good for a little Who Girl. We found a stick for $1 that we like, she practiced putting it on, and we headed to dress rehersal.

Well, even I could tell that all the other kids are going to look much better on stage with all the other crap on too. I might have to cave it and buy some cheap eye liner and blush. That stuff is not too expensive. And I might be able to dig up some of my old foundation. I'm not buying foundation for her, way too expensive.

The worst part, I brought her to the store to get the lipstick, and she wandered down the aisle looking at everything saying, "Oooo, I love this." I was so happy that she was still in the innocent years oblivious to what she looks like. I just hope she can hold on just a little longer and this doesn't start a trend.

In any case, here she is with her pink lipstick. Dress rehersal went great.

And here she is holding her bag for the "green room." Lipstick to touch up right before she goes on stage, and a wide-tooth comb she will never let anyone comb her hair with. And I guarentee she will be the least prepared performer in there.

Oh yeah, and Noah wanted to pick himself out a stick of lipstick at the drug store too. I put my foot down with that one and let him put on some of my chapstick.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

2008-03-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

Two saturdays ago it was raining and Travis couldn't work on the house so we planned a much more fun day at Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Olivia's favorite part is the tide pools where you can touch stuff. It's she adorable in her little slouchy Giants hat that actually belongs to daddy?

She loves the sea stars. I don't think you are supposed to call them starfish anymore because they aren't actually fish? Who knows.

Noah was a bit too timid to touch any sea life, so he was passified by getting his hands wet in the water and seeing how many surfaces he could get wet with them.

Noah was much more amused by the slide in the Sea Otter area.

And here is Noah peering at the jellies. I think they may be my personal favorites.

Olivia and Noah each got to pick one toy to bring home. Olivia picked the squishy, glow-in-the-dark jelly fish and Noah picked the Rainbow Fish sticker book.

Overall another great day in California. Except for the part when we got there and I went to get Noah out of his car seat and noticed his ear was oozing what looked like ear wax which the doctor told us on monday was a pussy ear infection. Poor guy.

Kids ice skating is hilarious

2008-03-03T20:04:00.001-08:00

It was like someone had thrown a netful of floppy fish on the ice the way the rink was full of kids falling at Olivia's first lesson today. But I was amazed at the way the kids would get back up and keep going. Except Olivia. She pretty much wanted to quit when she got on the ice and it just seemed scary like she was going to fall. My little drama queen even screamed several times at the top of her lungs, "I'm never going to be the kind of person that ice skates!"

But I was so proud of her, after a little cooling off, she decided to go back and give it a try. By that time it was the "free skate" portion after the instruction was over and they put out little plastic chairs for the kids to hold onto and push around the ice. Olivia loved this concept. At first I could not stop laughing because she would push her feet back and forth like 10 times to get the chair to move an inch. But I think she was holding it so hard she was pushing it down and it wouldn't move. Once she relaxed and loosened up she was able to get that thing moving really quick. Then she didn't want to leave and spent the last 30 minutes with her little plastic chair.

She even promised next week she would try the first half of the lesson with no chair too. I think she'll do better now that she's a little more comfortable on the ice. She really is growing up and becoming more determined and self-controlled. I'm really proud of her trying so hard on such a busy day.

Her day today consisted of celebrating Dr. Suess' birthday at school with lots of Suessish activities. Having her Suessical the Musical dress rehersal on the "real stage." Ice skating lessons for the first time. Then violin lesson where she learned Mary Had a Little Lamb. The girl is amazing.

Olivia's Day Today

2008-03-03T12:22:00.001-08:00

Olivia's Agenda 3/3/08

8:30 - 2:30 Kindergarten
3:15 - 4:00 Suessical the Musical Tech Rehersal
5:15 - 6:15 Ice Skating Lesson (first one)
7:00 - 7:30 Violin Lesson

The girl is not going to be home for over 12 hours. She'll have a few minutes in there somewhere to eat dinner on the go. What happened to our slow-moving lives? Last year was the first year she was in any organized activity, and now she's in every one on the face of the earth. She's loving it and doing great, but I think I might drop from exhaustion. And poor Noah is most comfortable eating, sleeping, and playing trains in his car seat nowadays.

The next few weeks are going to continue to be crazy as she has 3 performances over the next two weekends and visits from each grandma to see them on top of all the usual hussle bussle of life. Maybe after the school play is over things will slow down! Yeah right. But we may at least get a day here and there to go to the beach as it gets warmer, I hope.

Olivia's first fund-raiser

2008-03-01T00:22:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to getting together some pictures from the walk-a-thon at Olivia's school. It was in September. It was some fund-raising thing, and they didn't raise squat from us, but they still let Olivia walk around in circles anyway.

I dressed her in the loudest most obnoxious clothes I could find for that day so I could spot her easily. It worked. Her pony-tail motion as she walked helped too.

They punched holes in a card around her neck to keep track of how many laps she walked.

Well, Olivia, you *can* take a break if you are that unhappy, no one is making you.

Fine then, time for an orange slice break. I did supply the class with orange slices, so it's not like we're the slackest family or anyting, right?

It was a cute little thing her school did and at least she doesn't have to go around selling candy bars or wrapping paper. Next year we might actually donate a few dollars or something.

More bargins

2008-02-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile I feel the need to brag about the amazing deals I find. Tonight is one of those nights.

Since Travis is going to be spending most of the weekend working on the house, I decided to take some "me" time tonight and hit Goodwill which is conveinently near Office Depot so I had an excuse since I needed color ink. Little did I know that it was Friday Moonlight Madness and Goodwill was open until 10pm and all clothes were 50% off. The bargins just find me, they really do.

I had asked Travis if he needed anything and he said he could use some more short-sleeved, colared shirts for work. I think I did well. I got 7 shirts for a total of $15.50. Yep, seven shirts all for under $20. I would have spent more for any one of those new. And they are all in really good shape, nothing wrong with them. One has long sleeves, but I knew he had just had to get rid of a similar one he really liked, and $2.50 for a J. Crew shirt, really, how could I *not* get it?

Here's a pic to fully display my thriftiness.

I didn't recognize all the brands, but among them are J. Crew, Calvin Klein, Old Navy, and Mossimo.

Not bad. Definately things we'd buy off the rack. And this way we are not feeding into the materialistic, cosumer-driven, throw-away society culture. Ok, that last part was just for the sake of hippy Calfornia, I really just like saving money.

And I'm sure you are wondering if I got anything for myself. Well, duh, of course I did. Did I need anything? No, so I really tried to refrain myself from going too crazy. I got two skirts, two shirts, one sweater, and one hoodie for a total of about $15 as well.

Those "free-gans" on Oprah got nothing on me!

Starsky Jr.

2008-02-24T20:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not sending Olivia out to get the bad guys, I just knit her a sweater with a pattern by that name. I guess it's a reference to the long sweater/coats that they wore on that show. Here she is showing it off!

We went shopping today together to pick out buttons. I think we compared every button in the store, and it was really fun. She chose pretty butterfly ones that are probably not what I would have chose, but go really cute with it and fit her well.

(Note, ignore this paragraph if you don't knit.) The pattern panels, one on each front piece and three on the back, is called banana tree. I've never done anything quite like it and it grew on me. It calls for lots of tiny cables on both the front and back side in all combinations of knit and purl stitches. I really had to pay attention to the pattern, but I enjoyed watching it develop as I went along. Here is a close-up of the pattern and the three pattern panels on the back.

And finally, Olivia is done with all the picture taking!

I'm pretty happy that I actually finished the project and it's cute enough to wear, at least for Olivia, anything looks cute on her!

New Arrival

2008-02-20T00:24:00.000-08:00

We just received our piano today, a hand-me down from my parents for retiring in a smaller house. Thanks guys!

The kids were pretty excited at first and played around awhile until they thought up a more fun game with all the packing paper that came with it. We're going to have to work on Noah's technique a little bit.

Olivia wasn't really interested in learning the notes quite yet, but she had fun reading the words while playing whatever her fingers hit. Can you believe that she is looking at Smurf sheet music that I had when I was a kid!

Please ignore the fact that it is dinner time, she is in her jammies still, a swim vest in the middle of winter, and her hair is in her face. There are reasonably good explanations for all, really, it's just not relavent to this post. ;)

Olivia the Who Girl

2008-02-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

This is what we came up with for Olivia's Who Girl costume for Suessical the Musical. The instructions were vague, quirky and whimsical, bold patterns, muted fruit loop colors. Hmmmm But she is just playing a classroom Who Girl with all the other K/1st graders, so nothing terribly exotic to come up with like the bird girls and fish and circus and jungle animals did.

In any case, here it is. A striped shirt and skirt from a thrift store layerd on a heart t-shirt and pink pants we already had. I painted a pair of her shoes two different shades of pink and crocheted some purple flowers to stick on the shoes and pink hat. Personally, I think she is adorable!

Hopefully she'll do as good as she looks. :)

Olivia's first violin lesson

2008-02-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

Daddy took Olivia today to her first violin lesson. I will try my best not to be a braggy mom who thinks her child is the most talented person on eath, but according to what I heard, she did AMAZING!

So, first she learned the 4 whole notes that the 4 strings on the violin makes. (It took me a bunch of questions of daddy to even understand what this means.) The teacher told Olivia that the 4 strings makes the notes G, D, A, and E. Then the teacher told Travis to call out notes for Olivia to play. He started calling them out in different order like "A, E, D, G, E, A, D..." and she could play them exactly right the first time! After only being taught them once! The teacher actually said, "That's not something I see every day." Wow, right?

Then the teacher started drawing the staff and 5 line thing and said "This is the kinda advanced for the first lesson, but you seem to be doing well," and taught her that stuff. (It gets a little above my head here, can you tell?) On the way home Olivia started drawing the staff and lines and putting those 4 notes in the right place on the staff! Wow, right?

On the way home daddy was telling her how proud he was and asked how she learned everything so quickly. She replied, "This brain might look small, but it has a lot of room." She is such a cut-up!

At home she showed me how she could pluck those 4 notes, and also play them with the bow. Needless to say, I'm super proud of her! Not that it's up to orchastra quality, of course, but overall I'm pretty sure that is impressive for a 6-year-old in her first 30 minutes violin lesson.

While I was sitting typing this blog, I kept asking her and daddy "which are the 4 notes again?" and such questions to get the info above correct. So, on her own, she drew me a picture "to help mommy learn," the 4 whole notes the 4 violin string play, correctly placed on the staff. Did I mention with no help. By herself. That she just learned today. Look at how the G is even two little lines below. Wow, right?

So, we're going to be in the poor house paying to rent a violin and private lessons, but maybe it will someday earn her a college scholarship or something. Even if it doesn't, it's totally worth it!

Love notes from Olivia

2008-01-30T22:27:00.001-08:00

Olivia has been using her newfound skill of writing lately for good. She has been leaving us love notes on our pillows. If you think it is sweet to hear your child tell you "I love you," just wait until you see it in writing with words like "forever" and "so much" thrown in. It pretty much makes the digging through the trash for bottle caps for her collection worthwhile. But I'll tell you more about that on tuesday.

The first one is to Noah. I'll include an interpretation after each one when necessary.

(Who do I love? Noah!!!!!!!!)

The next one was found on daddy's pillow, first front, then the inside.

(I love him)

(I love my daddy forever. Love, Olivia)

The next one is for me.

(I love her)

(I love my mommy forever. Love, Olivia)

Isn't it almost too much for a mommy's heart to bear?

More love notes

2008-01-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

Because blogger has a limit on the number of pictures you can put in each post... There are ways to get around that.

(To Mom From Olivia)

(Have a good night)

(How I love you. Love and love so much.)

On this one, your guess is as good as mine!

Olivia Maestro

2008-01-30T12:07:00.000-08:00

I don't know what maestro means, but doesn't it sound relevant for someone learning violin? Yep, what you see Olivia with is a real, actual quarter-sized violin.

Olivia has showed extreme interest in the violin since she was 3 that has not let up. We are really not sure where this comes from. The only exposure she has had to the instrament is on Elmo. Piano, drums, guitar, flute, I could deal with any of these things, but the idea of someone so small attempting such a difficult and intricate instrament has been a bit overwhelming to me. An instrament that we do not own and are responsible for, nonethless.

But after everyone other than me has decided she is ready to give it a try, I had to give in. Don't get me wrong, I hope more than anything that she is successful. It's just that I spend the most amount of time around the girl and see the most frustrations and tantrums. But she's come a long way in the last year as far as self-control and determination.

So, here she goes! She has her drop-in lesson on monday. I'll let you know how it goes!

My big girl in violin lessons, the school play, and science fairs! What happened to my little baby? Wah!

Dunk It! Swing it! Kick it! Watch it?

2008-01-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

I signed up Noah for his first class ever. It's through the city and it's a fun class for young kids that invovles soccer, baseball, and basketball. You'd think 4 kids running around a room with basketballs would be appealing. Not to Noah. He sat there right next to me watching it for the entire 45 minutes and would not get up and try despite me saying something like "Doesn't that look fun?" and "Do you want to try that?" every 2 minutes.

I remember last year during Olivia's dance class he would run in the room and dance every chance he got. Do you think I missed the window of no inhibitions with him? Or do you think it's because Olivia wasn't there and he's more bold when he is participating in something with his big sister? Or maybe it was just too early in the morning for him. Or maybe he's just more of a dancer than into sports. ;)

Oh well, I'll keep trying for the next 7 weeks, next time prepared with bribes and rewards to get him to at least try.

Olivia's First Science Project

2008-01-28T22:24:00.000-08:00

Let me just premise this with my belief that a kindergartner is probably way too young to be doing a science project, simply because I believe that a child's homework should be done primarily by the child, not the parent. That said, Olivia insisted she wanted to enter the science fair this year, and I couldn't very well say "no" to such a high endeavor without all her young adult failings being blamed on me for it. And although I helped her with ideas and putting it together, I was very much impressed with her effort. She did all the writing, and never got tired and wanted to quit, she stuck with it with me until we finished. It might not be the fanciest science project at the fair tomorrow, but I think it will be the best kindergarten one that was done primarily by the kindergartner. ;)

Here is the budding scientist showing off her work. Yes, she is in her jammies on the night before the science fair right as it was completed. That is my bad influence.

The title

The procedure. Yes, there could have been more detail, but I think it does the job explaining it in a way she was able to do.

The results. Only 5 people doesn't exactly make a taste test, but when you factor in all the kids who "couldn't decide," and "liked them all," and the amount of dixie cups this requires, let's just say 5 will suffice.

(Also check out my chopping work on the right. I overestimated the width of all the display board sections. And I did not want that thing out all the time while we were getting everything ready. As it is it's a miracle it's lasted this long. Everything quickly becomes toys in our house.)

There was a section in the example that stated who they got help from. It's been a long time since I've done a science project and I relied heavily on the example. The heavy tilting is also due to my serious estimation problem.

I also left it up to Olivia which sections she wanted to include, and I think Hypothesis and Conclusion are best left for next year. Instead, she made some lovely illustrations of the flavors that were used that I think works much better.

Overall it was really fun for Olivia and I. Wish us luck at the science fair tomorrow! Her project will not be judged or graded, it's just for the experience. And we will get to look around at all the ones done by her classmates and the older kids as well. I'm really proud of my little school girl. Wah!

Update on the sprouts

2008-01-28T12:02:00.000-08:00

Probably not the sprouts everyone wants updates on, but I'm going to try to be better about that.

I'm still pretty impressed that in just two weeks my seeds are germinating. In January!

How to garden on a rainy January day

2008-01-12T18:15:00.001-08:00

Lately I've been getting the gardening bug, even though it is a rainy and cold January. I decided to try this tutorial to make newspaper pots to start some seeds indoors. Olivia and her eagle eyes noticed I was doing something interesting and had to get in on the action. After a long and tedious process, we came up with these.

Then add some potting soil, which helps them hold their shape too.

Look, Noah, what we are making.

Now Noah needs something to do too. Give them a few squirts of water, Noah.

Olivia planted her seeds in hers and gave them a good soaking. She planted Mexican Sunflowers and Liatris Blazing Stars.

And here they are sitting in our window sill in the garage waiting to germinate. I guess it might need to get a bit warmer first, but it doesn't hurt to try for the cost of a few seeds and a few scoops of potting soil.

The best part about newspaper pots is that when you are ready to put the plant in the ground, you can just stick the whole pot in a hole in the ground. The newspaper will decompose in the ground, and you don't have to disrupt the roots to transplant.

I hope it works, but even if it doesn't, I satisfied my urge to garden today and had a little fun with the kids.

I love Olivia's hippy school

2008-01-12T18:11:00.001-08:00

Look what Olivia brough home from school to give daddy and I for Christmas. (It came home before Christmas, I'm just really behind blogging about it.) The top is the envelope the pieces came in for us to put together. In case you can't read it, on the puzzle it says, "I love you to pieces." How incredibly adorable is that? She made it all herself, but I love her school for sending home such sweet gifts for her mommy and daddy!

Random Kindergarten Pics

2008-01-12T17:27:00.001-08:00

I'm a little behind, but I finally got the CD with pictures from the class photographer. Yes, Olivia's classroom has a class photographer, another mom, that makes CDs for us with pictures. Isn't that awesome?

Here is one from the Halloween Festival. Noah and I hung around that day for the festivities. There was a costume parade, and each class provided 3 booths, one with a craft, one with a snack, and one with a game. Each class. Her school goes all out. Noah's favorites were the snacks, of course. See his face? That is not a fake mustache or beard for a costume, it's chocolate of some kind. In fact, poor guy didn't even have a costume. It was cold that morning and I was tired. He's in his jammie shirt. You can even see a fraction of me in the picture, my orange sweater anyway.

And here are a few cute ones of Olivia on the playground, from September. Better late than never, right?

She's still really enjoying school and making leaps and bounds with reading and spelling which she is very excited about, and I'm very proud of her!

Rough Day

2008-01-12T17:25:00.000-08:00

I'm amazed at the locations Noah can drift off to sleep. I guess when you need a nap, you need a nap.

Saturday before Christmas Tradition

2007-12-23T15:26:00.001-08:00

This year we decided to try a new tradition of going for a drive to see Christmas lights while sipping hot coca (and mochas and eggnog lattes) while munching Candy Cane Joe Joes.

First step, get the drinks, went well.

But after a few miles driving around the cocoa and cookies were gone and we all started feeling like this.

So we made this monstrosity our last viewing.

This individual residence had lights coordinated to music which they somehow broadcoast to 104.1FM! Olivia and Noah being pumped full of chocolate and sugar happened to notice that the Rudolph on the roof was emitting "snow," so we let them out to check it out, in there jammies and all.

Hm, that snow smells a lot like Ivory...

Us and our thin skins were chilled to the bone so we packed up and headed home with one more stop to check out the lighted tree at the civic center down the street from us. Can you see the kids in the picture for reference?

Olivia, who is faithfully counting down until Christmas, asked if we could make this our "3 days before Christmas new tradition." I modified it slightly to be the "saturday befoer Chirstmas tradition." We'll see!

Visiting Royalty

2007-12-22T23:20:00.001-08:00

Our favorite canine house guest is back for 10 days. This is the sweetest dog you will ever meet. So we are giving him the royal treatment. Noah and his friend are anyway, while giggling hysterically taking turns putting the crown on. It was so cute I didn't have the heart to stop them even though I knew I should for Murphy's sake. Good thing his is such a patient dog.

Love notes

2007-12-22T23:16:00.000-08:00

Olivia's newfound interest in writing has now taken form in leaving us notes around the house. The other night when we all went to bed we found notes on our pillows. The one on Noah's pillow read (not that he could actually read it,)

I love my brodr Love Olivia

Our were very similiar except substituting in the appropriate family member's name. But for some reason I really loved the one she left for her "brodr" best.

Olivia's hippy school

2007-12-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

My friends laugh when I call her school this, but it is. The school doesn't give grades, at all, through 5th grade. Instead at the end of the first trimester Olivia got a "written narrative," I was encouraged to share with her. Sounds like she is doing pretty well. Here is what her teacher said,

Olivia- You are becoming a Room # super star! You know what to do in our classroom and you do it! You are friendly, respectful and polite! You listen to others and you share your ideas. You play nicely with your friends, take turns and share! Way to go! You go to each activity and try your best! You know letters, numbers, and shapes. Yeah! We'll begin writing stories soon. I'm looking forward to your stories because you are creative and artistic! Is there something you'd like to learn about? Let me know! Keep up the good work! :)

I think Olivia is in good hands with someone who likes exclamation marks and smiley faces as much as me.

Olivia discovers YouTube

2007-12-19T17:50:00.000-08:00

It's not like she's not on the computer enough between nickjr.com and pbskids.com. But don't worry, I am NOT leaving her unattended on YouTube! The only reason we went there was to find a video of the songs she will be preforming for the school play. And we did, and I'm so excited about them! The first one is really fun and upbeat, and the second one Olivia already knows all the words to, wow!

These probably won't interest you very much unelss you have a 6-year-old girl who will be singing them in a school play, but that's me so I'm posting them! I am very, very, very about this experience for her, did I mention?

Well, at least I'm at Olivia's level...

2007-12-15T18:23:00.000-08:00

This is how my blog's readability was rated. My friend got a Genius level. I'm feeling pretty inadequate right now. I'm just trying to keep it simple for you folks out there, really.

Cash Advance Loans

Gingerbread house tradition

2007-12-15T16:06:00.001-08:00

My friend has a tradition of having a bunch of us over every year so the kids can decorate gingerbread houses. It was wonderful, we had hot apple cider and I brought my favoriate soup and cornbread. The house smelled so good, and I think every surface under 4 feet got sticky. Everyone had a blast.

Unfortunately the houses didn't even last until daddy got home to see them. They started to fall apart in the car on the way home, and even with my repeated attempts to reassemble them, the kids sweet tooth got the best of them and the houses just aren't built for the nibbling factor.

I'm so glad my friend has the patience to host this every year. She even made the kids each an apron and we got to keep them when we got home. Wow! All I can say it is WAY more than I would attempt to do!

Bargins

2007-12-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

Evem though I vowed not to buy any more clothes until we got a new roof, the call of the good deal got me today and I was uncontrollably draw to our local Goodwill. I bought all these things for a total of $12. How could I not?

Notice that four of the items are Banana Republic. Any one of them would have cost at least twice as much as I got all of them for. Somebody stop me!