Dakota Pearl

we're moving!!

2010-10-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Just a block away...but after putting in an offer 7 months ago, we finally closed on the house yesterday. It is a home I have loved since we first moved here 5 1/2 years ago. Now we are making that scary jump into the unknown that is "californiarealestate." This new world includes things like earthquake-proofing the foundation and termite inspections.

Our goal is to paint and get new carpet in the next 10 days and move in by Halloween (scary thought - the move, not Halloween). I've been pouring over my favorite design sites and my inspiration binder that I started putting together in March when we submitted our offer. It's a whirlwind of to-do lists, but D and I are excited to be working on it together.

After stumbling upon this inspiring post by SouleMama (if only we could all be as awesome as she is) I'm thinking I need to set up our library/studio first:

Doesn't this space ooze creativity?! There's no TV in sight! I'm trying to convince myself to cancel the cable when we move - the jury's still out.

I'll post more design inspirations as we dive into the projects on our list. First, here are my current daily reads:

Little Green Notebook
Apartment Therapy
Ohdeedoh

picasso update

2010-10-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

I posted the lesson for the Picasso portraits over at KidCulture. Check them out! Here's Little S working on her masterpiece.

Mondrian at KidCulture

2010-09-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

I wrote up my Mondrian art lesson for the preschoolers over at KidCulture. I've got some great pics of the class working on their art, including the Picasso portraits, but must do some photo editing before I post them. I don't think it's appropriate to post pics of kids that aren't my own (I'll blur their faces in photoshop). Art class is going well - it takes a lot of time but I really do enjoy it!

Mondrian's Composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow, 1930

My friend and KidCulture author Becca just told me she's been invited to join a Fine Arts Class with 8 other mothers from her ward. They rotate having the children in their homes and preparing an arts lesson for them (I assume it includes music, literature, etc). Doesn't that sound lovely?

I was recently on a blog where the author-mother wrote that she decided to put away her passions like sewing projects and other creations in an attempt to spend more time with her children - teaching, helping them practice instruments, etc. I thought to myself how happy I am that my passion for art can be translated into projects, museum visits and time with my kids quite easily!

Picasso at Preschool

2010-09-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching Picasso at the preschool art class today. We'll be attempting Picasso-like self-portraits. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, you can create your own Picasso masterpieces at PicassoHead.

Above is one of Picasso's works I'll share with the kids: Maya with her Doll, 1938.

I've been out of the office...

2010-09-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

It feels like I've been all over the place! I went to Washington, DC on a last minute trip to see my brother get married on a boat on the Potomac, I started teaching an art class twice a week at Little S's preschool and I launched a new blog.

Check out the new blog: http://www.kidculture.net

This blog idea has been swirling around in my head for almost a year. I gathered a few like-minded friends together to be contributors and it finally launched a few weeks ago. KidCulture is dedicated to arts+children.

she cut it herself

2010-07-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

You can see some of the hair laying below on the ac unit - there were piles of it. She did it at 6:45 am while sitting on the back porch playing with fabric scraps.

Me: Little S, why did you cut your hair?

Little S: My hair kept getting in my eyes.

My guess is that the ac kicked on and blew her hair and she got frustrated.

Did I mention I was going to have some sisters pics taken in a few weeks, not to mention my sister's wedding in Oct. I think I'll start giving her the vitamin (D, I think) that promotes hair and nail growth.

Santa Barbara and birthday week

2010-06-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

I turned 31 last week...

D instituted Birthday Week when we were first married. The tradition has lasted these 12 years and I think my birthday week 2010 was the best yet. I'll post more of the week's festivities later but we finished the week with an overnighter in Santa Barbara as part of the festivities celebrating the blessing of Ryan and Whitney's twins (though we couldn't make it to the actual blessing on Sunday).

Ryan and Whitney's families rented a beach house for the weekend and they offered us their extra room Friday night. (Chris had his last weekend of MBA school at UCLA - we missed him but are excited for him to be done!) The weekend was awesome - staying up late Friday talking and laughing, brunch on the beach Saturday and a trip to the Santa Barbara zoo included feeding the giraffe! Not to mention the delicious coconut birthday cakes Whitney made for me and the best part - holding those cute twin boys all weekend.

Little S took this picture of D and I - she's becomming quite the photographer.

Little S chickened out and wouldn't feed the giraffe after the giraffe shot its tongue out a good 8 inches at her. D stepped in to help. Apparently, the tongue felt like sandpaper.
The lion was sunning right in front of us - Baby J, Izzy and a random kid were posing, though Izzy doesn't like any kind of cat including giant ones.

Getty Family Art Days '10

2010-06-08T16:11:00.000-07:00

We braved the crowds and traffic to attend Getty Family Art Days - Leonardo da Vinci themed this year. It's the third or forth time I've gone and I must say that the budget constraints hitting the art world were apparent at the Getty festivities. All the kid projects were paper or cardboard - nothing too fancy, but fun, nonetheless. Projects included sketchbooks with Leonardo drawings on each page, horse models (out of said cardboard pieces), frames, and decorating a postcard that the Getty would mail to anywhere you wanted in the world. Oh, and a guy dressed as Leonardo was wandering the Getty campus answering questions and posing for photo ops - Little S thought it was kinda like Disneyland. I'm sure that's what the Getty was going for.

We attended with my friend Cass and her 3 kids - all 8 of us piled into her van for the trip. She got a speeding ticket on the way there but that didn't dampen our spirits. 81 mph, come on, it's the flow of traffic! Good thing she didn't get caught when she was going 95 on the way home. Clearly tickets really make drivers think twice before speeding again.

Cass's kids getting the instructions for sketch book construction.
The boys with their finished horse models. Colin tore pieces for the legs so they would bend accurately - what an artist!
Little S wouldn't pose with her horse, but here is its portrait - three legs and all. She insisted on not attaching a 4th leg.

Baby J is obsessed with writing utensils. As soon as she saw the big kids drawing she had to get right in there, too. The Leonardo skull drawing is a bit morbid but Little S kept telling everyone that it was no big deal, "it's just the bones in your face."

Helping tie the sketchbook together - I just liked how the sunlight was falling into this shot.

We had 3 strollers between us and Cass tried to carry her 2 up four flights of stairs. I was laughing so hard when I looked up and saw her trying to load all of this like a burro. A passerby took pitty on us and helped carry one of the strollers (D was outside with Little S otherwise he would have helped).

San Francisco

2010-05-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Last week D and Baby J and I enjoyed a long weekend in San Francisco with our friends Chris and Nicole and their little Isabel. (Little S stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in Vegas -a big thank you to them!) We've decided San Fran is our new favorite city. It's close, architecturally beautiful, cool weather, art-filled, and the shops, the shops! The list goes on and on.

Basically, we ate our way through the city. I think we all gained weight during our 5 day stay. D even declined a treat at Ghirardelli Square because he was full from the day's eats!

Our friends Evan and Carrie and their boys were with us Saturday and Sunday. All of the people in the pic above piled into Carrie's van at one point - don't ask how, we just made it work.
Evan and his son enjoying the local chocolate.

A dozen macaroons from Paulette. My favorite was almond flavored but peach was a close second. Rose tasted too much like my grandmother's lotion.
We stayed one night at Nicole's grandmother's home just outside the city. Grandma's entry gate provided lots of fun for the 4 kiddos running around.
Saturday morning breakfast (and later lunch) on the water at the Ferry Building - so many fantastic food shops.
We had to show Baby J the ugly sea dogs! She thought they were pretty funny. You can see Coit tower above Baby J's head.

Other highlights included:
Our day in Berkeley and Sausalito visiting shops recommended by my friend Susannah: Heath Ceramics factory - so awesome - handcrafted tiles since 1948 founded by an inspiring woman, Edith Heath!

Castle in the Air and Tail of the Yak in Berkeley - whimsical, creative hotspots - I want to take one of the classes at Castle in the Air sometime. The lovely items in the shops made me want to throw away all the ugly plastic toys in our home and start over.

Lunch at Cheeseboard Pizza in Berkeley - unique and delicious co-op restaurant.

We also stood in line for breakfast at Dottie's True Blue Cafe. Worth the wait - even the locals stand in line for the "best breakfast in San Francisco." Carrot butterscotch muffin was awesome as was the coconut french toast and the 3 different egg scrambles we ordered.

We'll be back soon!

back in the saddle

2010-05-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

I've been on hiatus. No major reason - just general aversion to blogging and sitting in front of a computer. Since my mom has requested pics of her granddaughters numerous times I will try to be more consistent.

love art

2010-04-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

Today is a big day for the arts - it's Arts Advocacy Day 2010! Various arts groups visit capitol hill today to remind congress that the arts are essential to our education and they should not be left out of future reform legislation. A few famous people will be milling around the Hill, even testifying in congressional hearings.

In honor of this important day, I'll share a few of our recent art endeavours. I've directed 2 art days at Little S's preschool class in the last month. The first was all about Jackson Pollock. We read the children's book ACTION JACKSON We looked at a few pics of Pollock in action - working on his famous drip paintings. Then we headed outside and I had a giant canvas (about 6 feet)for the kids to try their hands at action painting. I had a bucket of tools and oddities for them to choose from, pie plates of various paint colors for them to dip the tools into and then drip/splatter/toss them across the canvas. All the while Louie Armstrong was playing in the background (because the book we read stated that Pollock loved to listed to Jazz).

Overall, the Pollock project was a hit. Even when more than one of the kids started scooping paint with their hands from the pie plates onto the canvas and then smearing it around like finger paint. I never said they couldn't do that, right? My mantra with child art projects: It's About the Process, Not the Product! They loved it and I came home with paint in my hair, on my back, even my watchband got a smear - obviously, a successful day at school. Seeing the kids enjoy themselves and let loose with creativity is what it's all about.

Less successful was my Dada project a la Marcel Duchamp. I attempted Happy Accident art where the kids dip string in paint and drop it from above their paper to see in what shape the string lands. They liked it for a few minutes, but most wandered off. BUT, the bigger success that time was the book I read. Whereas they didn't love the Pollock book (Little S said she didn't like the pics - they were in this loose illustrative style), the kids were captivated as I read them Art by Patrick McDonnell. This book is our family favorite, given by my dad to Little S when she was 2. It was the first book she memorized - she LOVES it and I do, too.

So, save the arts in your schools and love the arts in your homes.

She Walks

2010-02-26T10:48:00.000-08:00

...a few months earlier than her big sister did. Baby J loves watching other children run - she squeals in delight if her big sis will run full-speed at her and Little S is happy to oblige. In fact, Little S spends much of her time trying to get a laugh out of her baby sister. Yesterday in the car they were taking turns laughing at each other, each round making the other sister laugh louder and with a stronger "belly laugh." By the time we got home I was laughing, too. These are the days to remember...

Baby J loves to put anything around her neck - beads and even grosgrain ribbon she finds laying about the house (as in the first pic).

The girls are loving the dress-up box these days, too. While we were in Reno Little S had her Grandpa dressed in some of these duds. Uncle Scott was a willing model a few weeks ago. Lastly, a pic of one of her favorite spots in the whole house - Little S's doll bed. When Baby J gets a moment to herself in big sis's room, we almost always find her perched on the bed. Don't you love the crossed legs? So cute while pretending to eat something from this bundt pan.

Busy Work

2010-02-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been having problems with my photos uploading to my computer. I don't have any current pics but I thought I'd share some projects.

I'm in the early stages of locating a to-die-for flower girl dress for Little S to wear to my sister's wedding in October. I have yet to find the "to-die-for" part so I sent the inquiry to Gabrielle at DesignMom and she posted my question and her answer on her blog this past Monday (many sources were referenced in the comments, too).

Speaking of the kiddos, we are loving books by Jack Prelutsky the past few weeks. His rhymes are fantastic! Ryan and Whitney were given two of his books at the twins shower and after flipping through, I knew Little S would love them. This week we're enjoying The Wizard (illustrated by a BYU-I graduate it turns out) and Ride a Purple Pelican - a collection of rhymes in a Mother-Goose-meets-Shel-Silverstein style.

My friend Becca keeps a "good things" blog here and her blogroll on the right column is full of inspiring ideas. The past few days I've found quite a few projects I want to make (some require D's woodworking skills), including this tutorial on Montessori number rods from A Handmade Childhood.

Lastly, I've been obsessing about Ikat fabric. I've been looking at it all over the web. I finally bought some home dec weight Ikat-style fabric on Monday that I've been wanting for some time. (At $3 per yard, who could resist?!?) This is it:Nate Berkus used it for his line at HSN. It is a long story about how I came to this realization - I won't bore you (maybe I'm too late?).

Hoping D can figure out my photo-computer problems soon. I've got pics of our walking one-year-old to share!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-12T11:29:00.001-08:00

Last week we were heart attacked by the girls from church. Little S was so excited when she woke up and saw all the "love" in the front yard. She ran out and started rearranging the hearts among other flower pots. I turned around from taking the picture below and spotted Baby J sneaking out the front door to see what all the commotion was about.

We made heart flowers for Little S's school valentines. She cut about 1/4 of the 48 hearts for the project. I was up late last night assembling them and she signed her name on each this morning. When I dropped her off I was impressed with all the other valentines sitting on the class cart - I think she'll come home with quite a haul today.

Dr. Seuss baby shower - twins!!

2010-02-09T10:46:00.001-08:00

warning: lots of pics

D and I enjoyed a quick weekend trip to Reno to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Ryan and Whitney's twin boys. (Little S stayed at our house with D's parents). We bunked at the home of our good friends, Chris and Nicole. Nicole is Whitney's sister - obviously, we love that entire family.

Nicole put together a fabulous shower brunch - Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat theme with red, white and baby blue everything. She throws my kind of party! Beautiful decorations, unique theme, and special personal touches - like the red and white striped chair covers she and her mom made for the 45 (gasp) chairs. Nicole's degree from the Cordon Bleu in Pasadena informs the delicious party food she prepares, too. This was a shower not to be missed.

Place settings for each of the 45 guests.

Baby bingo to promote audience participation during gift opening - I didn't win.

the happy mama at 27 weeks along

Nicole and I wore the same colors - oh well, it was a TWINS shower, right?

croque monsieurs, mmm - you don't want to know how much butter was used on these babies

These two woke up from naps toward the end of gift opening and quickly started devouring blueberries. They even fed each other - such cute little friends. I'm just noticing all the polkadots in this pic - even Baby J's tights were polkadot!

Part of my gift to Whitney - I made this nursery art (I use the term loosly here) for the boys. The project was a comedy of errors - after finally finishing it late the night before we left, the plexiglass frame shattered during a hard plane landing en route to Reno. D and Chris had some glass cut for me before the shower, but it was pretty sharp and Whitney cut her cute finger while opening the gift. ugh. That seems to be the norm with most of my projects these days...

Later in the evening, we celebrated Izzy's first birthday!! Two parties in one day - both organized by Nicole and much of the food made by her as well. She's supermama.

I love this pic of the birthday girl with her doting grandmother (who, by the way looks young enough to be Izzy's aunt!)

Baby J loved playing with the Izzy drink bottle during the festivities. Such determined eyes!

Baby J's rock star fingers

These two friends enjoyed the royal seats at the party - it was Baby J's actual birthday on Saturday and Chris and Nicole were kind enough to have her join the cake eating mess.

Weekend Highlights

2010-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

The opening party - hollywood glam themed, complete with red carpet and fake paparazzi. More pics on here

Alt. was fantastic. So many fascinating people - it reminded me of my college days in the fine arts buildings -"my people" were the creative, non-traditional-looking BYU students wandering the HFAC, stepping over art projects drying in the halls, overhearing music students in the practice rooms.

All the Alt attendees were design people. Most were dressed really cute and all had iphones, except me. I hid my non-iphone under my hair when I had to call home and check on the kiddos' naps/feeding/school progress.

A few of my favorites:

dj earworm - this guy is a music phenom! (but also nice, humble and totally into what he does) I like his United State of Pop 2008 and 2009 and If I were a Free Fallin' Boy mashup. He creates "mashups" of the billboard top 20-or-so songs at the end of the year. Apparently in the dj biz, 20+ songs in 1 mashup is unheard of - and he does it seamlessly. He also started doing the music videos, too, but you can listen to the music only on his site. Earworms' 2009 mashup has been viewed over 8 million times on youtube.

notcot - this giant design site is mostly reader submitted; but the author is such a significant figure in her industry that MAJOR pr campaigns send her free stuff to be promoted on her site. The white rabbit campaign through NYC for SciFi's Alice in Wonderland miniseries was incredible! D and I especially liked the video-projected white rabbits crawling up the building.

Alt. Summit Day 1

2010-01-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

I made it safely to SLC yesterday - even after a 2 hour delay at the airport because the plane we were suppossed to fly on had been struck by lightening. The torrential downpours in Southern California have made for difficult travel in and out of the area and our flight to Las Vegas felt like the rollercoaster at the New York New York Hotel/Casino (the girl sitting next to me said our flight was scaring her and she was going to meditate until we landed).

The opening session at the conference was fun and inspiring. Lots of creative people talking about interesting things. Some friends and family wondered what this conference was all about, so here are some examples: the session this afternoon included the authors of these 4 blogs: Making It Lovely; Petit Elefant; Design Milk; Mackin Ink. They discussed what makes up a unique design blog and gave dozens of examples - I could spend the next week sifting through all of the blogs they referenced, but I will not.

Goldilocks

2010-01-15T10:54:00.001-08:00

At the library yesterday I found this book, peeked inside and thought the Goldilocks doll in the pictures was a bit creepy and I put it back. Little S quickly grabbed it, scanned the pics and insisted we check it out.

After reading it a few times yesterday my verdict is that this book is awesome! The text is long but interesting enough to keep her attention and there are a few funny lines for the benefit of parents. But the images are what make this book phenomenal. They are photographs of scenes set up in a real three-foot-tall house in the woods constructed for the book project. The dolls were made by a famous doll maker and the props were handmade by a well-known British set designer - the 3 tiny spoons were carved from balsa wood and the porridge is real! This book and its production are a work of art. I guess there is a version of Princess and the Pea put together by the same creative team - I must get my hands on it, too.
Goldilocks tries out baby bear's chair and breaks it - too small.

Hilarious

2010-01-12T21:38:00.001-08:00

I'm watching Young At Heart on PBS's Independent Lens tonight. It's about a New England senior citizen singing group that performs songs from James Brown to Coldplay and everyone inbetween. The show is a riot - and inspiring. Music makes life good even when you're 80+.

Here is the trailer for the show. The second link to YouTube is my favorite part of the show so far - the Young At Heart music video to I Wanna Be Sedated (this song has been a favorite of mine ever since Jared Leto sang it to Claire Danes on My So-Called Life).

You MUST watch this version of Sedated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyS61DM1vyU

I WON!

2010-01-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

I read about it all over the blogosphere - the Altitude Design Summit. It's the first conference dedicated to design and lifestyle blogs. People who love images...that's me. So many of my favorite bloggers were on the speaker list - I was dying to hear them in person. But at $350 to attend 1 1/2 days, it was out of my pricerange for a "fun weekend."

Then I randomly visited DesignMom's blog yesterday for the first time in months, she had a link to one of the conference sponsors giving away 7 free passes, I entered, and I WON! When I read my name on the winners list tonight I screamed so loud to D that it scared Little S and she started crying and hid under the diningroom table. Just another regular night at our house (after she was asleep D pulled a DVD case out of the freezer - she put it there during dinner, I think :)

As a bonus, various Sundance Film Festival events are included in the conference pass. I L-O-V-E Sundance. D and I only attended toward the end of our years in Utah, but it was memorable and we promised to return and make it one of "our things" in years to come.

SLC here I come.

Christmas '09

2010-01-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

Little S got what she wanted - a nutcracker from Grandma and Grandpa M. This "nutcracker" dispenses M&Ms through its mouth!

It was a lovely holiday. My mom was visiting from Utah and my little brother made it in from DC. He was a victim of the big snow storm on the east coast that shut down the DC airports for the weekend before Christmas. After sitting in the airport for 8 hours only to have his flight cancelled, he went home and flew out the next morning - upgraded to first class all the way! (During those 8 hours in the airport the travelers in his gate got so angry and rowdy about the lack of information that security guards were brought in to keep things under control! Uncle D was not part of the riots, though :)

Grandma arrived on Christmas Eve and decorated one of the walls in Little S's room like a gingerbread house, complete with candy around the windows! Needless to say, Little S was eating said candy off the walls for a few days before I took the installation down and threw it all away.

D constructed fantastic stockings as usual. His tradition is to make outlandish stockings for each member of the family and this year was no exception.
Auntie L's head is barely visible as she dives into her paintbrush stocking - representing all of the home renos she and Matt (and his FJ, visible through the window) were part of this year.

Uncle D got a giant bag of coal (no real coal inside, though).

Matt is obsessed with zipties so his stocking was constructed from snow fencing and zipties.
Baby's first Christmas. She loves to hug anything soft and her new babydoll got a big hug after it was opened.

Another tradition: passing this VHS version of Beauty and the Beast (remember that?) to a new owner in the family. Uncle D was the recipient this year.

The new easel gets broken in on the front porch the morning after Christmas. I'm loving the oilcloth splat mats I got in LA!

christmas cheer

2009-12-22T08:52:00.000-08:00

I love this cute music/video clip. Music by the MoTab. I'm going to have the kids in primary act out the nativity during our music time on Sunday.

'tis the season

2009-12-17T21:29:00.001-08:00

You know it's Christmas around here because Little S insists we read The Night Before Christmas every night as one of her 3 books before bed. I must admit it is very sweet to have a little one fall asleep laying next to me as I'm reading those words. We have the version illustrated by Mary Engelbreit. It was a gift to Little S 2 years ago and when she was younger she liked reading it just because there was so much candy in the illustrations. She would pretend to pick pieces of candy off the page and eat them.

You know it's Christmas around here because we've made 4 batches of my great-grandma's peanut butter cup cookies and a batch of fudge in 24 hours. We attended a play-group cookie exchange today that was much fun. We've been reading a Christmas scripture and singing a carol each night - Little S finds the scripture/carol card that's hidden on the tree each night. We've also been eating by candlelight to remind her that it's a special time (the candlelit dinner idea was on Inchmark).

You know it's Christmas around here because D and I were up late last night sticking labels and stamps on our Christmas cards. At least everyone will get them before Christmas this year!

You know it's Christmas around here because a few days ago my neighbors could spy me chasing the girls around the front yard trying to get pics worthy of a Christmas card. I liked this one but D gave me a veto.

You know it's Christmas around here because Little S is singing her school Christmas program songs to herself in the backseat as we drive around town. The program is tomorrow and in the evening we have her music class Christmas program. It's going to be a big day for her.

Thanksgiving in DC

2009-12-09T11:13:00.000-08:00

We flew coast-to-coast the day before Thanksgiving to spend the holiday in Washington, DC. Neither of us had been to our capitol before even though we presently have many family members living in the area: my brother, D's sister and her husband and 3 kids, my aunt and uncle and 2 of my cousins. We stayed with my aunt and uncle near Arlington and my mom flew in on Thanksgiving so it was quite and extended reunion!

We hit most of the major sites, but I didn't get to see much of the art I was hoping to enjoy - next time... The books did not lie when they wrote that DC is the most kid-friendly city in the States. One could spend weeks entertaining the little ones with fantastic activities, many of them free! It really is a beautiful city and we hope to go back soon.

We walked right into the National Archives - no line or wait! Part of our preparation for the trip was watching the 7 hour John Adams series by HBO (not enough time to read the book). We loved the show and it refreshed us on our early American history and got us excited to see the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

We rode the elevator to the top of the Washington monument. It was a beautifully clear day. You could see about 40 miles in every direction from the top.

My modern art connoisseur wanted her picture taken with every sculpture in the National Gallery's sculpture garden. We had a delicious lunch at the cafe that sits in the middle of the garden.
A highlight for Little S was the Nutcracker performance we attended by the Puppet Co. in Glen Echo Park, Maryland. It did not disappoint! Various kinds of puppets were used from marionettes to hand puppets to actors dressed up carrying puppets. This man was Uncle Drosselmeyer. I prepped us all before we went on vacation - we listened to a Nutcracker book on tape many times (little S insisted we fast forward through the mouse king's battle with the nutcracker - too much violence for her :). Target presently has nutcrackers out that are the characters from the ballet. Little S loves them - we stop to look at them each time we're there. She fell in love with nutcrackers last Christmas and when I ask her what she wants for Christmas this year her response is, "Nutcrackers."
Watching the tarantula get its weekly feeding at the Natural History Museum (D and Little S are sitting on the right)

The National Zoo with cousins. It was a brisk, windy day but that didn't stop us. The heated gorilla house and reptile house were hits with the kids.

Big sisters holding their little sisters on Thanksgiving day.

Frolicking along the Potomac on the lawn of Mount Vernon. George and Martha had quite a view!

Mount Vernon was fantastic - much better than we were expecting. There was a camel on the lawn as part of the Christmas festivities - George often had exotic animals brought in to entertain his guests.

A great trip for our family. I have dozens more pictures to go through and now Christmas to tackle. (The trip put me way behind!)

The Birthday Party

2009-11-15T21:46:00.001-08:00

The party was Saturday night. The cooking-themed activities were in honor of Little S's obsession with mixing any substance she can get her hands on in the kitchen (I often find her in there with various vessels full of "soups" - bowls filled with milk, juices, dressing, condiments, curry sauce, shredded cheese, spices from the spice rack, etc.)

The kids each got to decorate a chef's hat, wear oilcloth aprons, and make bagel faces and their own pizzas (I also had sugar cookies to decorate, but we didn't have time). We played food games: 1. a tricycle-marshmallow relay where each kid rode a tricycle while carrying a measuring cup full of marshmallows to his team's cup-o-mallows, dumped the mallows in, and rode the trike back to the next kid on his team; 2. pumpkin bowling with real bowling pins; 3. tortilla toss - D drew a funny big-mouthed face on poster board and the kids tossed tortillas into the mouth frisbee-style. Then there was the usual running around the yard like a little gang of hooligans with Little S often acting as the ring-leader. We had lasagna, salad and breadsticks for the adults. A friend recommended the lasagna recipe on the back of the Barilla no-boil lasagna package and it is quite tasty!

Finally, the cake. We borrowed the giant cupcake cake pan from a friend - I guess there's an infomercial for this item, but you can also get it at Target/Walmart. I made the chocolate cake and vanilla butter cream frosting from scratch - total scratch on the cake, meaning no Kitchen-Aid, meaning I melted bittersweet chocolate over the stove and whisked the ingredients together in various bowls. And it was great! The bottom of the cupcake fell out of the pan in 4 large pieces, couldn't be used for the party, and D was stoked that we had to eat it (I baked 2 small rounds for the bottom, instead). When all was said and done I ended up doubling the cake recipe twice and doubling the frosting recipe twice. About two hours before the party I was wondering why I was doing all of this craziness, but once the party started and we were all having a great time, I didn't give it a second thought.

Aunt L was the first guest to arrive

Her Daddy made this giant card for her actual bday earlier in the week - yes, he drew it himself

Bagel face creations

She ran inside when she thought we were going to sing to her - so we sang without her there

One of the only shots I have with the cousins in it

Tortilla toss

When it got too cold outside, the kids broke inside. So I asked Cousin M to try a puppet show for the young ones - it lasted a few minutes until they all grabbed puppets and tried it themselves.

4 years old

2009-11-12T10:33:00.000-08:00

We went to Disneyland for her birthday on Tuesday. The "get in free on your birthday" gig totally worked on me - we bought season passes. Her friend Nathan and his mom Shelby came along to help us celebrate. Little S was hoping to see Tinkerbell and we sure did - Tink and Terrance have opened Pixie Hollow to guests :) But my camera was on the wrong setting there so no pics (unless I buy one from the Disney photo people). Other highlights of the visit included the Playhouse Disney stage show at California Adventure, the new Pooh ride and the Carousel. There were almost no lines - we literally walked on to most rides, especially at Calif. Adventure, which made for a very pleasant day. She did NOT like seeing the "real life" characters and wouldn't get within 20 feet of them (other than Tink). The street parade at the end of the night was a lot of fun for me but she stood behind me clutching my jean pockets, trying hard not to dance to the music - but she couldn't stop herself a few times.

With only 2 adults to push strollers, we had to make a single stroller into a double.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-03T06:33:00.000-08:00

Little S was Madeline - presently her FAVORITE character. We read one of the books at least once a day and she runs around the house quoting lines from the movie (the one she earned her $5 for a few weeks ago). I bought the costume online and we were very happy with it!

Baby J was the peacock that Little S was 3 years ago. I even kept the tights and socks D and I dyed orange one late night when Little S was not even 1. The costume is great, but it is tricky carrying around a peacock with all its feathers. D bought me this wig for Halloween. I've never had hair that long - neither has D.

We had friends and family over to our house to enjoy the evening. Cousin Samantha and her parents were there, D's cousin and her husband came as well. We also had friends from church over to help pass out candy.

The main street at the end of our block with grand Victorian homes lining it is blocked off by the city because there are so many trick-or-treaters. I overheard one of the homeowners saying he gets 3000 kids at his door and this year he spent $650 on candy! We estimated that we got about 1200 kids at our door.

These two came dressed as first-time-homebuyers, because they are!

You must guard your cookies from those cookie-stealing peacocks on Halloween.

Nana and the girls at the church trunk-or-treat the night before Halloween.

Ron Weasley and Madeline at the school costume parade.

Harry Potter, the mailman, and Madeline taking a break from trick-or-treating.

let the haunting begin!!

2009-10-27T21:15:00.001-07:00

Festivities are under way at our house this week. D carved the pumpkins tonight. He had Little S draw the faces onto the pumpkins and then he carved out her designs. She stayed up and watched the carving of the middle one and he carved the other two after she went to bed. What a great dad - so supportive of her creativity!

Next, Baby J enjoying a carrot. She's got so many teeth coming in that she can gnaw away almost an entire baby carrot (under close supervision).

Lastly, this is what happens when mom is busy preparing for the primary program dress rehearsal. The markers I was using to write out the words of the songs were stolen from me and used as face paint - with no mirror! She did it in a matter of seconds while watching TV. My response: shock then laughter and then I ran and got the camera.

busy weekend

2009-10-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

A jam packed schedule with the primary program dress rehersal and pizza party (which, apparently, Little S was talking about all day at school Friday), the Anaheim boutique and two birthday parties on Saturday, and the actual primary program Sunday.

D had a great time being Mr. Mom on Saturday and got the troops to the birthday parties and Baby J down for her naps with no problem. He even found time to enjoy the College Game Day broadcast from BYU.

The boutique was a lot of fun but I'm happy it's over. Now I can enjoy holiday planning - Little S's birthday party, Thanksgiving in Washington DC and some Christmas celebrations.
(this is the 10 yard banner I made for the boutique table - it will be used again in a few weeks for Little S's cooking birthday party)

projects projects projects

2009-10-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

The house is cluttered with piles of my projects everywhere. I sewed an oilcloth banner last night with strawberry print oilcloth and red jumbo ricrac - 10 yards long. It turned out really cute, if I do say so myself. Will post a pic of it this weekend when it serves as the decoration at my oilcloth booth at the California Utah Women's boutique at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. My friend Lauree and I have been sewing all-things-oilcloth for the sale.

I'm also working on primary program items for the big performance on Sunday- I wrote our ward's program and am working with the presidency on final tweeks, program inserts, and posters with words of the songs on them so the kids really sing it!

Finally, check out this cute project over at the Sew Mama Sew blog - their theme this month is scrapbusters. New projects every day to use up the boxes of fabric scraps you might have...

via Sew Mama Sew

Happy Birthday (tomorrow)

2009-10-12T15:09:00.001-07:00

(fly fishing in the Provo River last month)

to the man in our house!! He's 34 this year. We love that he takes such good care of all of us girls at home. He's great at playing dolls, school, house, making craft projects and cooking with his daughters. I often say he would be a better househusband than I am housewife - our house would be cleaner, better organized and the meals would be fancier (our food budget would likely be much higher, too, as he likes expensive ingredients).

He's a fantastic husband - putting up with all of my projects and distractions and supporting me in whatever makes me and the fam happy. He is great at his job, fearless with people, and willing to help anyone in need. Yesterday, after being at church for meetings from 10-3:30 he stopped at home to change his clothes and then went right over to help cleanup the remaining possessions of a family in our ward whose house burned down during sacrament meeting. He got home at 8:30 pm. And yes, we are all counting our blessings today.

My friend from high school, Sara, told me a year or two after we were married, "You really lucked out, cause you couldn't have known he would be such a great husband when you got married 11 months after you met him - and you were 18 when you made that crazy decision. So, you are lucky he's awesome and not a loser." I am lucky and I know it.

BYU's Bean Museum, Provo

Angels Game - 3rd row seats, but Little S couldn't handle the noise

Family Days at the Getty Museum

Domestic Divas

2009-10-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

I know a few of them - the ladies who do it all and make it look easy (my grandmother is one of them) - gardening, canning, immaculate housekeeping.... I'm not one of them but I enjoy the crafting/creative side of domesticity. I've been thinking lately about that creative drive in so many women - especially young mothers. Why do we get involved in so many projects when there is already so much to do just to keep the house running?

I found an interesting answer in my current favorite book: The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule. (check out her great blog: SouleMama)She asserts that our creative spirits are awakened when we are around young children and the purity of their rich creative energy. This idea resonated with me and I have been devouring her book and ideas for fostering in our children creativity and interest in the natural world.

When I pulled out the boxes of baby toys before Baby J was born I remember how disappointed I was as I looked inside. I thought to myself, no wonder babies get bored with this stuff, it all looks the same. In the end, it is all just brightly colored plastic - blah. (we do have a few things for Baby J to play with other than plastic :)

The book is great and I've been trying a few of her ideas - today we went on a walk looking for things representing the autumn season (a bit tricky in SoCal). We brought home some leaves, berries, and flower petals. FYI- The Crafty Crow is another great site for kid craft projects.

As for my projects, I am involved in a Virtual Quilting Bee organized by a friend of a friend. Twelve of us (I personally know only 4 of the ladies) swap 1 12 inch quilt block each month. The design and fabric is picked by the leader for that month. Sept was the first go at it. Here are pics of the finished products - everyone got the same fabric but could make up their own design (mine is the bottom right of the last picture):

What a day...

2009-09-29T20:31:00.001-07:00

that's what we kept saying when we got home from our adventures this past Saturday. My BFF and her family were en-route from Utah to a family reunion at the beach so we met them in LA for a few kid-friendly activities. Their two boys are the ages of our girls so it worked out well. We met at Traveltown in Griffith Park for some train exploration and a ride on the mini-train. D visited this place as a child and in his words, "The only thing that's changed here in 30 years is the awning they built over the train engines." The kids loved it and the train ride was a highlight.

Sharing candy pumpkins Little S bought at the Jelly Belly Station before we got to Traveltown. It's the candy store around the corner from D's childhood home where he took his quarters for candy-gum fixes.

Self portraits during the train ride - everyone keeps telling us how much Baby J looks like her daddy.

Next stop: dinner. I talked everyone into trying Milk - a West LA ice cream parlor, bakery and diner that makes everything in-house - even their own ice cream. Milk did not disappoint. The from-scratch mac and cheese we ordered for the kids was awesome not to mention the ooey-gooey ice cream sundae. My little sis Lindsay was with us and after trying Milk's red velvet cupcake she's considering them for the wedding festivities next year.

Self portrait (she's quite the photographer these days) - notice the red velvet crumbs

Last stop: Griffith Park Observatory for the Public Star Party. One night each month amateur astronomers bring their telescopes to the observatory and let visitors gaze through them. We underestimated the number of visitors and the parking issues but in his typical fashion D wheeled and dealed with parking attendants and we parked in the closest lot to the observatory. (Traffic was a headache all day - there were big events at the Greek Theater and the Kodak Theater causing major traffic issues on all the streets we were cruising).

Little S's pic of the pendulum in the entry of the observatory - I think it's a pretty artistic image!

7 1/2 months

2009-09-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

How can she be that old and where has the time gone? Baby J sits up these days without falling backward. She loves to pick up the tiniest bits of crumb or whatever on the floor. She has the sweetest voice, saying "mama-mama," and as of last week, her "ba-ba" sounds. Baby J's bottom teeth came in in July and we noticed this weekend that she a top tooth is poking through (not a front tooth, though; a fang, just in time for Halloween). She sucks on her upper lip and looks like an old lady without dentures (see bottom pic).

She loves to watch big sister run around the house - Little S can get Baby J smiling and laughing like no one else. Little S is happy to have a live student for her daily school she sets up in her room even though Baby J makes a lot more noise than the other students (who are all dolls). We love our Baby!

French Friday

2009-09-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

For your listening pleasure I share one of my favorite songs:

D and I discovered Carla Bruni a few years ago while perusing in my favorite shop downtown. I asked the clerk who was playing and then went and bought the album the next day. This is the first song on that album. Last weekend I happened upon a documentary about Carla on the Sundance Channel. I enjoy documentaries and this one was no exception - I did not realize she married President Nicolas Sarkozy of France last year!

Carla is a former model - most famous during my coming of age years in the mid-1990's when supermodels and their salaries soared to new heights. (I was a Vogue addict during high school - I loved (still do) the high-art style of Vogue compared to other magazines.)

France has been on my mind a lot lately and I thought it a good subject for a post.

I did not love Paris. My time there on study abroad was ok, but not fantastic. The art, now that's another story, because the art in Paris IS fantastic (we spent 3 days in the Louvre, a day at the Orsay and days at countless other museums throughout the city). The city itself and the people did not seduce me. But I'm starting to change my mind.

I read Julia Child's My Life in France and enjoyed Paris through her eyes because she learned to love those things about Paris and French people that usually annoy or offend Americans - the inefficient services, the tedious procedures for everything, the aggressive opinions, etc. Julia learned to love the French passion for high quality in all things. That is what I've been trying to embrace lately - developing a love for having a FEW fine things instead of lots of mediocre or plain things. It's that American obsession with having lots of stuff - big stuff like SUVs and cookie-cutter McMansions and giant dinner plates with piles of food on them - that I'm trying to purge. All that "stuff" is not necessary!

Then I read Sarah's Key last week. A fictional story about an actual event in Paris (though it's not often talked about). The 1942 roundup by French police of 13000 Jewish families who were all eventually killed in concentration camps. It was a heart-wrenching story. D kept saying, "Why are you reading that depressing book?" He and I both don't really do WWII stories because they make us so sad. But my mother-in-law recommended it and I went for it and it made me appreciate my own circumstances and so many other things I won't go into.

On a lighter note, Little S has been OBSESSED with Madeline lately. She's had the books since birth but a few weeks ago got into 2 cartoon dvds of Madeline's adventures in Paris and America. Little S now says, "Viola" constantly - especially when she completes something like getting her shoes on or drawing a picture. Little S has her first paying job now - she's doing things around the house to earn the $5 for the "real person" Madeline dvd at Target (it's not a cartoon and she's way excited about the possibilities that are contained in that movie!).

At the Getty last weekend, D and I saw a fantastic exhibit of the photographs of the master Irving Penn (famous for his Vogue spreads, of course!). The show contained the images he took of "Small Trades" workers in Paris, New York and London during the 1950s - seamstresses, butchers, newspaper sellers, etc. We had fun trying to determine which subjects were French and which American before reading the labels.

Finally, check out the blog stephmodo for some French eye candy. This BYU alum and her husband and 3 kids are renovating a small chateau in the French countryside to eventually run as a bed and breakfast.

Au revoir! Have a great weekend.

Busy Weekend

2009-09-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

LA COUNTY FAIR
Friday night D met Little S at the LA County Fair - she arrived earlier with our friends via the train. It was a thrill for her to buy train tickets, ride the train, and coax her friend Hayden into a game on the train:
Little S, "Let's pretend we're Mexican kids."
Hayden, "How do we do that?"
Little S, "We speak Spanish to each other."
I believe (and hope) this comes from her old obsession with Dora...

Anyway, she loved the fair (though D has no plans of returning). She enjoyed the pig and duck races, won a goldfish, rode the ferris wheel, and finally got the cotton candy she's been talking about for days. To our surprise, she went down the huge (2 stories tall?) kid slide all by herself. The worker handed her the gunny sack and she marched on up to the top and went for it. D stood in shock at the bottom of the slide and watched her face turn to, "oh no, this is really scary" about half way down the slide. "No picture?" I said to D when he recounted the story - sorry, he was too busy watching her in case she caught air on the way down the slide. He came home at 10pm with a sleeping 3-year-old in one arm and our new pet fish, Goldie, in the other.

GETTY FAMILY DAYS
Saturday morning we headed to the Getty Museum for family days - art activities, storytelling and music performances geared towards children. We called D's brother and sister last minute and they met us there so the 6 cousins could enjoy the day together. The theme was based on a French art exhibition the Getty had up so the kids colored berets, made "bronze" sculpture and decorated frames with clippings from French magazines.

The biggest hit with our little art connoisseurs was the art detective card game the kids were given upon arrival. 4 baseball sized cards each had a detail of one work of art with its location and a mystery question to answer about the work of art. We took the kids into each room and they searched high and low for the special artwork. One of the guards even gave the kids an additional clue when we entered his room of the museum. The kids LOVED it!! Cousin B was begging all the adults to take her to go "find the mysteries again" at the end of our visit.

The art detectives in front of one of the mystery pieces - a nice Alma-Tadema.

More sleuthing - the rams that are the legs of this marble table were another of the mystery pieces. My mom says she wants to see more pics of me, so here's one of me trying to lecture my child about the details of this work of art - Cousins A and B seem interested in what I have to say :)
These performers welcomed you to the Getty as you got off the tram - the flamingo was stealing things out of people's diaper bags with its beak!

Selecting tools to create her bronze sculpture masterpiece

She looks so French in her beret!

Quote of the day

2009-08-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

Little S, while saying the prayer at dinner: "and please help us to behave; and help us be professional..."

Can you tell she likes to experiment with Daddy's office lingo? She also uses "documents" "schedule" and "reduce" a lot these days.

First day of school

2009-08-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Little S's first day of the new school year at preschool - she's in Mrs. Little's Blue Class. A few friends from last year are there with her, which makes it all a bit easier. In the morning she kept saying she was sick - this hurt, or that hurt. D and I were sure she wasn't really sick just nervous (later in the day she asked me what nervous means and I realized it's a hard one to explain).In honor of school starting, I thought I'd share some of my favorite thoughts and findings on early childhood development. I started studying up on the subject when Little S was about 1 1/2 years old - trying to learn which philosophies I most agreed with and how I could foster a love of learning and creative inquiry in our home. I got into books on Montessori and Reggio Emilia - both Italian and both child-directed learning theories.

One of my favorite tidbits I gathered was the idea that a child will develop more creative and problem-solving skills when she's not required to put one toy away before playing with another. The free association that naturally comes from combining toys that are out but aren't necessarily meant to be played with together allows for creativity and exploration that is so crucial to childhood (and is carried into adulthood). This doesn't mean a chaotic mess of toys on the floor is ok - rather, don't make the child put the blocks away before playing dolls - maybe she'll build a house for her dolls to play in. (My mom is a big advocate of organized toys - "no child wants to play in a mess of piles of unorganized toys.")

This is all very true as I have watched Little S's creativity go wild with random household items. She especially loves my party cupboard where I keep paper supplies, decorations, etc. The pic below is from one of the parties she often sets up for her dolls: Finally, I share with you one of my favorite talks on education - Ken Robinson speaking at a TED conference (see their website for videos of inspiring speakers giving interesting info on diverse topics). Be sure not to miss the story he shares at the very end about the dancer. At a time when music, art, science and even PE are being removed from elementary curriculum, Ken inspires us to help change the system for the better.

Slumber my darlings

2009-08-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

I'm the only one awake in my house and this song started playing on a blog I happened upon. I haven't heard this gorgeous lullaby since before baby J was born - now that I have 2 darlings the song's beautiful poetry is even sweeter to me.

We also got news yesterday that our good friends' 14 month-old was severely burned by scalding water on 65% of his body. He is at Shriner's hospital in Boston undergoing what will be months of surgeries. I have learned it is only after you become a parent that stories like these touch you in inexplicable ways.

11 Years

2009-08-14T10:22:00.001-07:00

We got married in Los Angeles on this day 11 years ago. That sounds like we're so old and boring! We are apart on our anniversary for the first time - I'm in Utah with the baby helping my mom recover from knee surgery and D is headed to Vegas this afternoon to spend the weekend with Little S and his parents who are watching Little S while I'm away. Ah, the demands of middle-age.

We had a mini celebration last weekend. We went to see Julie and Julia (one thing I love about my husband: he has NEVER refused to see a movie I'm interested in, he always indulges me and isn't pouty about it, either). He enjoyed it as much as me because he loves cooking and eating a fine meal even more than I do.

As we were leaving the theater I told him that I think I need a strand of pearls. The next night he gave me a lovely strand of antique pearls he bought at our local antique auction. He was thinking during the movie that he would get them for me even before I mentioned it. So sweet, isn't he?

Saturday he said he wanted to make the star recipe from the movie for Sunday dinner: Beef Bourguignon. So I was trying to buy the "ambassador ingredient" of the dish, red wine, at the grocery store and I got carded (how flattering!). To my surprise, my driver's license had expired on my (30th) birthday 2 months ago and they didn't sell me the wine. This is what happens in middle age - you start loosing your mind.

We did get some wine and make the dish on Sunday - it was FANTASTIC. But we used theWilliams Sonoma recipe instead of Julia's. Sorry, Queen J. It was one of the best dishes we have ever made ourselves and Little S liked it, too!

This crazy Julia saga got me to the DMV for 2 hours on Monday morning before I drove the girls to Las Vegas. D had to take the girls to Baby J's 6 month check-up and shot appointment and got Little S's hair cut while I enjoyed some great people-watching at the DMV.

I'm glad I got carded at the grocery store instead of realizing my mistake at the airport in Las Vegas. I'm glad my husband indulged me and went to the movie, requested the famous dish and that I went grocery shopping for wine. And I'm glad that I'm married to my best friend. Here's to the next 11 years!

ps - this pic is from the Williams Sonoma website, but ours looked about this good.

Engaged!

2009-08-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

These two are finally engaged! He popped the question in Yellowstone National Park during their cross-country roadtrip to her 10 year high school reunion last week. It was a perfect venue for these two nature loving rangers. Other stops on their roadtrip included Bountiful (to see our mom), the Black Hills, Wall Drug, and Moab, UT, to name a few.

No official wedding date yet, but it will likely be sometime during the second half of 2010. We could not be happier with our future brother-in-law - he's a fun-loving, the-glass-is-half-full kind of guy. Congratulations Linds and Matt!

The Premiere

2009-07-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

Baby J and I went to the L.A. premiere for the new movie Julie and Julia this afternoon with my friend Lauree (it was Lauree's third premiere so she knows the routine). The event was at Mann's Village Theater near UCLA - a fun, hipster spot to stand around waiting for movie stars to roll up in Audi clean diesel SUVs instead of limos.

We didn't get any autographs but Meryl and Amy Adams were right in front of me! I LOVE a good star sighting (I saw Conan in the airport in NYC and Robert Redford at Sundance, Utah).

Other stars are invited to the premieres for publicity - Yvonne Strahovski (the tall blonde looking down) aka Sarah from the TV show Chuck walked behind me on her way to willcall -D and I are big Chuck fans. I also saw Giada from FoodNetwork, some Office characters, and Alice from Twilight.

After seeing all the beautiful people I decided I need to practice walking in higher heels and try to be taller, thinner and tanner - just kidding :) I love L.A.

ps - D and Little S had a fun date night while I was away. They made english muffin pizzas, ate an artichoke per Little S's request and had fruit pizza for dessert. Then they played games on PBSkids.org. Tues morning Little S came in our room and when she realized I was back she told her daddy, "I want mommy to go away again so you and I can play together."

a little more love

2009-07-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

My little brother requested more pics of Baby J, saying she hasn't gotten enough love on the blog lately. So, here you go - the pics below are hot off the presses - just taken today...

Yes, she eats her toes. She wants to eat anything else she can get her hands on, but sometimes her toes are the only things within reach.

Cheeky smile :)

Please, big sis, could you just leave me alone sometimes!!

Little S: "Mom, come look at these beautiful flowers." It was a bucket of sunflowers in the new PB catalog - a fun, light read for this 3 year-old.

Skirball

2009-07-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

the.coolest.kidmuseum. Today I was mesmerized (as was Little S and even Baby J) during our visit to the Skirball Cultural Center. The museum is in L.A. and my friend Cass and I have been wanting to take the kids for awhile, now. Noah's Arc, a giant 4-room interactive space filled with all things animal, is their big attraction and it did not disappoint.

Little S walked in with her hands over her ears - this is her new gesture to indicate she's nervous/uncomfortable/or something is just too loud (the arc was quiet so I think she was indicating her nerves about the giant boat and animals). When all the other kids moved into another room to create a thunderstorm with musical instruments Little S stayed and explored the space on her own, got comfortable with everything and then had a great time playing.

A perfect circle... she creates these types of scenes at home - the animals or her dolls set in a circle so she can read to them. She loved the big gorilla and carried him around looking for his food (she was concerned she couldn't find bananas for him to eat among the plastic fruit).

Another favorite: the play food area - she loves creating place settings

The animals filled every space of the giant arc - most were created using repurposed materials in the most clever ways

I'm loving this place!

After the arc, we visited the Super Hero exhibit. Little S was excited to find a stash of dress-up clothes and then played in the phone booth with Colin.

Don't forget about the drop-in art studio. Today the kids made African wrap dolls. Little S wanted the pink sparkly fabric and the blue sparkly fabric for her doll.

Cass's minivan was at max. capacity - two adults, two baby seats and 3 kids in the back being entertained by the dvd player (that helped with the 2 hour ride home). We all had a great time during our adventure in the city today.

Dance!

2009-07-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Little S danced with this group over the weekend at the Children's Workshop sponsored by our local Community Summer Music Festival. (Each group that performs at our outdoor bowl puts on a children's class the next day) D took her to the class and the two of them had a great time - the music took D back to our trip to Brasil 3 years ago for his work - we had 8 month old Baby S with us and she was partying all night as one must do when in Brasil! It was a trip of a lifetime - so many great family memories - the Brasilian music and dance from Bahia was a major part of the trip events so it was awesome for D to hear and see it all again (and maybe faint memories of the music are somewhere in Little S's mind, too).

On Saturday she wore the dress I bought for her on the beach of Costa do Sauipe three years ago- she finally fits into it!

Here we are with the Capoeira dancers near Salvador, Brasil (2006).

I bought dresses for Baby S from these vendors on the beach in Brasil...

quote of the day

2009-07-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Little S: Mom, is pilates the Spanish word for class?

grandpa came to town

2009-07-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

My dad came to visit us last month - most importantly he came to meet his second grandchild, Baby J. Grandpa stayed for a week and babysat Little S over the weekend while D and the baby and I vacationed in Santa Barbara. Their weekend together included going to the movie theater to see UP, frozen custard and Little S even took Grandpa to Sunbeams with her.

The two of them got along pretty well during their 2 nights together - only one minor incident: Grandpa realized he hadn't heard Little S around the house in quite a while. He was panicked as he called for her throughout the house. He eventually found the door to the master bathroom closed and locked and assumed she was inside getting into something (right on). After calling her name a few times, she answered. He told her to open the door, she said she couldn't because it was too slippery. "What?" said Grandpa. She went on to explain that she had too much lotion on her hands and couldn't turn the door handle and that he should get the stick above the door and open it for her (he had no idea what the deal was with the stick - fyi, we keep wooden skewers above all the doors that lock for this very purpose - you can unlock the doors by poking them into the little hole in the handles). He kept (moderately) calm and walked her through using a towel to wrap around the door handle and then open the door. He was frustrated with the lotion mess on the towels when the fiasco was over, but happy that nothing more serious happened during his watch.

Where's Large Marge?

2009-06-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

Does this look familiar?

You might recall it from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. This Dinosaur "museum" is just up the road from us and we went to visit it with our play group a few weeks ago. I didn't recognize it at first - the dinosaurs and the grounds just seemed like a familiar example of mid-century American roadside kitsch. After I realized it was from the Pee-Wee film I had a great time viewing classic clips from the movie on You-Tube.

The place grew on Little S - she was very skiddish at first but opened up the idea of giant dino-monsters as our visit progressed. The kids got to dig for rocks in the Dino sand pit and pan for gems in the water trough. At the end of the visit you could climb inside the 3-story tall T-rex but Little S would have none of that (ok by me - I'm afraid of heights and the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower were pure torture for me).

It was VERY windy out there

I love this shot - classic Little S pose

I told her to pick a few dinos to stand by for pictures - she chose this giant but non-threatening turtle (her word) and the tiny dinos in the pic below.

friday rockin'

2009-06-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

Found this on Black*Eiffel while web wandering this morning. Little S was sitting next to me playing with stickers and her head was bobbing with the second beat of the music! She loved it and asked me to play it again and again.

I usually listen to the classical music station in the car for a little serenity. Quiet moments in the car with peaceful music are my zen moments - only occasionally is a miniature Croc tossed at me from the back seat. Still, Little S sometimes calls from the back, "I want music with words!" We're working on her classical music appreciation skills...

Happy Friday.

Death Cab for Cutie - Little Bribes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

Farewell party

2009-06-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I helped coordinate a farewell party for my friend Chanel and her family. She has been a great friend and motherhood mentor to me - she always had a reassuring word for me when I was struggling with whatever Little S was or wasn't doing at the moment. "It's totally normal, all kids do that; have her read books in the bathroom while you're potty-training..." (that last one was golden). I will miss her more than I can say. I'm excited for their new life adventures but sad for myself (I'm so selfish) because I won't have her experience and bright outlook on life and motherhood at a moment's notice.

And, as an expert quilter and all-around crafter, she has helped me get countless projects done when I was ready to throw them away or bury them in the closet. She's awesome.

Pics from the party are on her blog. I haven't organized my pics from the fete yet.

End of the School Year Picnic

2009-06-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

It's time I posted about the end of Little S's first year of school and her year-end family picnic (since she started summer school yesterday). Her year in Mrs. Bom's red class was filled with new friends and great learning experiences. She was always singing a new song or rhyme and trying to teach them to me. Her teacher helped the class with art projects every day and gave us the sweetest year-end project: a booklet with Little S's hand-print projects from each month of the year - turkey for November, angel for Dec, etc. It was so cute! For a teacher gift, I took Mrs. Bom a cherry-shaped fruit bowl filled with red fruits and vegetables (she's a vegetarian).

I'm a bit sappy at the end of school years and this was no exception - I would get nostalgic at the end of each semester in college. Little S learned so much from Mrs. Bom! The preschool is part of a local Christian church and I appreciated how Mrs. Bom incorporated Christian principles into the lessons. At parent-teacher conferences (yes, they have them for the preschool :) Mrs. Bom told us how she wanted each child to know that God loves them and made them each unique and loves each of them.

The end of the year was celebrated with a family picnic complete with train rides and frozen custard from the local custard shop! It was a fun evening and the dozen or so rides that Little S took on the train were her favorite part.

Growing Up

2009-06-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

too fast. My little baby is no longer a newborn. She rolled over by herself last Thursday, marking the end of her newborn phase (she also rolled off the couch - another rite of passage for the babes). AND, she's having teething pains. Little S's teeth came in at 4 months so Baby J is right on schedule. My days are filled with moving the baby from one seat to another: car seat, swing, bouncy seat, etc... and trying to keep her entertained. She's fascinated with her hands and feet and the wooden mobile from Ikea (I love the design - looks like the expensive wooden kid furniture, but a fraction of the price).

Little S is anticipating summer. She's been playing in her swimming suits inside the house and dressing her dolls in them, too. School ends next week but she'll be going to 4 weeks of summer school (to keep her entertained more than anything).

Oh, I was called as the Primary Chorister last week - yikes! It will be a fun creative outlet if I can keep the rowdy 11 year old boys under control :) That's our life update for now...

my teeth hurt!

my favorite tights - one of the many hand-me-downs from big sis

More Memorial Day Adventures

2009-06-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

We spent the Memorial weekend in Palm Springs with Ryan and Whitney. I forgot my camera but Whitney posted a few pics of our adventures on her blog. D has been so busy at work that his stress levels have been over the top! The Palm Springs get-away could not have come at a better time - he was so relaxed. The surroundings there are so beautiful that it's impossible not to kick back and enjoy it.

Memorial Day with Family

2009-05-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

We got to visit with D's sister and her family who were in town from the D.C. area.

Cousins!! We couldn't get Francesco to sit for the pic so D quickly tossed him onto the couch - he wasn't too happy with his uncle after a stunt like that!

My 15 minutes

2009-05-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Becca asked to interview me for her "good things" blog. Who, me? Why?

Because of my interest in art history AND art collecting, she says. So I answered the questions she emailed and you can read the interview here.

*Warning: I answered the questions very, very late one night and after re-reading them I realized how long-winded I was...sorry.

Becca is my good friend from the art history days at BYU. Her husband just finished med school at Yale (yup, they are a super-smart couple) and they are off to residency. Her family blog is on the sidebar: Shane and Becca. They are fabulous and I feel lucky to call them friends.

Thanks, Becca for giving me my 15 minutes of fame. :)

Summer is here

2009-05-17T21:17:00.001-07:00

It was 90 degrees this weekend! It is already too hot for me... I shot a few pics before and after church today - the girls in their white dresses from Grandma Chris.

Mother's Day

2009-05-17T20:59:00.001-07:00

It was a great mother's day this year. Festivities began on Friday with Little S's preschool Mother's Day tea party. It was BYOT (bring your own teacup). The kids sang a few sweet songs - like "I L-O-V-E-Y-O-U" to the tune of the Oscar Meyer Bologna song - and each class made gifts for their moms. Little S is holding the yellow tissue flower and glitter vase she made for me.

Baby J loved her first tea party - she had perfect manners.

D got back from Florida late Saturday night but still managed to arrive with beautiful flowers and a gift. He made a delicious breakfast and dinner for me and the girls - notice the sweet potato crisps he made and artfully displayed in the sweet potato mash. It was a lovely day!

More favorite things...

2009-05-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

MORNINGS:
Because waking up to these smiles makes me smile. When I walk up to Baby J in the morning her face just explodes with a big smile - I love it!

THE FAM TOGETHER:
D was gone to a conference last week. He got back late Saturday night so this was the scene Sunday morning when Little S and Baby J realized he was back.

SWEET PEAS:
Our good friend and neighbor Lauree (Little S lovingly calls her Nana) has a beautiful backyard and garden that we enjoy frolicking in a few evenings each week. Her sweet peas were gorgeous the last few weeks - it almost makes me want to garden, but I think we'll just stick with enjoying Lauree's efforts for now.

A few of my favorite things...

2009-05-11T10:34:00.001-07:00

This is currently one of my favorite shows on tv - it airs on public television and you can check the schedule for upcoming episodes. I love it because it is part travel show, part cooking show, and part celebrity reality show (even though I despise reality tv). Gwyneth is one of my favorite celebrities and style icons - her unfussy mom glamour is fantastic. I wish I could wear a scarf the way she does while cruising through Spain in a Mercedes convertible. I have also grown to love Mario - he calls Gwyneth "G.P." and I think it's so cute.

Have more favorites to post but the baby is crying...must post them later.

weekend trip

2009-04-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Today the baby and I are hopping on a plane. We're flying to Utah to attend my cousin's wedding tomorrow! I flew numerous times with Little S but this is Baby J's first time in the air...I'm looking forward to a funfilled weekend with extended family and introducing Baby J to her great-grandparents.

This was our conversation this morning:

Little S: What are we doing today? (she asks me this almost every morning - I guess she like to have the day's events organized in her head :)

Me: You're taking Baby J and me to the airport.

Little S: Well, I don't know how to drive. What about Daddy?

I made this turkey burger last weekend and loved it - try it if you're in the mood this weekend. I served it with sweet potato fries. The burger is so good you don't need anything on it besides the pear chutney. I found the Major Grey's chutney and chipotle Tobasco in the condiment/dressing isle by the bbq sauces.

Easter wrap-up

2009-04-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

After a total of 5 egg hunts I think Little S got the easter routine down pat. In fact, I've been trying to put our house on candy de-tox ever since!

Easter celebrations started early for us because we blessed Baby J 2 weeks before Easter and had an egg hunt for all the kids after lunch. It was something for Little S to look forward on a day that was all about Baby J. During the drive home from church before hunt Little S asked me if Peter Cottontail was going to be at her egg hunt. So cute. (She is obsessed with the 3 easter books my dad sent her - especially loving the Peter Cottontail song book.)

One of the highlights of the hunt at our house was when my friend Cass and her kids showed up with REAL eggs! Her 7 year-old son snuck into his grandpa's coops where he raises quail and other winged animals and put all the eggs in his basket to bring to the egg hunt! Of course, the kids cracked or dropped them one by one as the afternoon progressed. Anyway, that was Little S's first hunt of the season and then there was one at school, another that she and D stumbled upon downtown on Easter Saturday, one at our friends' house and one with the cousins on Easter Sunday. Whew, what an Easter!

Easter Saturday we spent at our friends' (also D's business partner) house for their family lunch and hunt. Their redhead son and Little S go to school together and Little S says he is her best friend - they are so cute together.

Easter Sunday we headed to Long Beach for the cousins celebration and dinner. We took cupcakes and the easter bunny cake below to the party.

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Cousin's first bday

2009-04-22T15:01:00.001-07:00

A few weekends ago we went with Little S to her cousin's first birthday - robot themed as you can see from the cake below. When Little S realized the theme, she roamed the house chanting, "I am ingle-bot...I am ingle-bot," - it's a line from a Max and Ruby episode she's obviously seen too many times.

The party was at the home of my sister-in-law's sister in Malibu. The kids loved playing dress-up and swimming together in the hot tub while enjoying the gorgeous view of the ocean. The birthday boy had a great time demolishing his cake and the girls loved decorating spring shaped cookies and eating sprinkles.

Partying so hard wore her out!

a prolific hooker

2009-04-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

That's what they called her because she was still hooking at age 99!! Rug hooking, that is.

"She was the most prolific hooker you ever met," one of the local hookers told me as she described Peggy - the 102 year-old hooking legend who passed away last year and whose work I bought at the local rug hooking association's annual auction over the weekend.

They refer to themselves as hookers - and they aren't joking when they say it! You just have to get used to the lingo.

My friend Chanel recently became a member of the group and is one of its youngest, by about 40 years. Chanel is very creative and is a master quilter, but she's given up the quilting and has devoted most of her creative energy lately to rug hooking and wool dying. She gave me a most precious baby gift - her first hooked pillow:Chanel's rug hooking blog is here

our first pet

2009-04-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

During spring break a few weeks ago Little S acquired her first pet: a caterpillar. We got it at Kidspace Museum in Pasadena. It came with a cup of caterpillar food and general instructions on parenting your caterpillar through its transformation to a butterfly. We woke up one Friday morning 10 days after bringing it home and he/she had emerged from the cocoon in the top corner of the plastic box. Little S was so excited to finally have her butterfly.

We took it outside to let it go and butterfly just hung out on the box lid - there was no grand release of the insect. We watched it for a while, moved it around, and eventually Little S went inside and checked on it periodically from the window. Butterfly hopped around the sidewalk and eventually flew away, unnoticed. (My friend Cass went with us to Kidspace and her 2 boys kept their butterflies in the house, playing with them for a few days until the bugs eventually died from so much "love" from the kids.)

home sick

2009-04-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Little S has a fever - we've been chillin' at home for the last 2 days... It's so sad when the little ones are sick - their usual energy and excitement for life is so deflated. These pics are from a few weeks ago. I've got some blogging catch-up to do!

Blessing Day for Baby J

2009-04-03T11:27:00.001-07:00

I'm posting lots of pics for the benefit of grandparents who couldn't be with us this past Sunday. It was a great day for our family.

Serenity is:

2009-03-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

both girls down for naps - one in her bed, the other in the swing. This is the most productive hour of my day because I am able to: get the dishes done, finally; call the girls for church activity days; fill out insurance forms; eat a bagel topped with homemade orange marmelade from Cass; surf a few blogs and find this adorable idea:
I love Cookie Magazine - I've been a reader for 2 years now. Their blogs are quite popular and the info on this cute invitation and bday party idea can be found here

I'm in the thick of party planning myself as we prepare the house for the baby blessing this weekend. We'll have 22 adults over for lunch after the blessing and an easter egg hunt for the 14 kids!

Well, Little S is calling from her room - that's the end of nap time...sigh

Spring Break

2009-03-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update: We are on spring break for 2 weeks! Last week I filled the schedule with a trip to the LA County Arboretum on one day and Kidspace Museum in Pasadena the next. It wore Little S out by the second day so we chilled on Thurs and Fri. Saturday we drove to a wedding reception in San Diego and Sunday we drove to Palm Springs to meet Chris and Nicole's new baby, Isabel (born 1 week after baby J). Whew, what a week!

When Little S and two friends were playing outside today, our neighbor, who has a beautiful yard filled with productive citrus trees, invited the kids to eat as many tangelos as they wanted. After 4 tangelos we made the kids stop (better they eat tangelos than twinkies, though)! We love having delicious citrus all around us.

5 Weeks Old

2009-03-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

Just a gushing mother posting too many pics of her new baby that's growing up so fast! (Baby J and I had a photo shoot while Little S was at school on Friday.) Our quiet time together is on hiatus while Little S is off from preschool for the next 2 weeks for spring break!! I'm trying to book various play dates and outings for us to keep her entertained...

One Month Old

2009-03-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the baby's one month birthday with a quick visit from my baby bro. He flew in from Washington DC to meet his new niece and celebrate his own birthday, too! We had a fun but brief visit with him and were so glad he made the long journey.
His favorite cake is yellow with chocolate frosting (I know, I didn't think that was any one's FAVORITE.) I made a bundt cake and homemade frosting because the box mix and packaged frosting just didn't seem right. We were out of candles so D lit a skewer on fire for the fiesta. Little S insisted on adding sprinkles to the cake (she eats them by the handful if we aren't watching her carefully.)
She came home from church with this cute mini plant after her lesson on the earth and plants. She has the BEST Sunbeams teacher - she brings home something like this every week, in addition to a coloring sheet related to the Sunday lesson that we use for Family Home Evening on Monday night.

3 weeks old

2009-03-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

Little S loves holding the baby, but the baby doesn't always love being held by her big sister. I think big sister tries to sneak in some squeezing and harassing under the guise of "holding" the baby.

A glamor photo shoot with her bear. Little S loves her stuffed animals. The dolls and animals are the toys that get played with the most - making believe they are on picnics together, at parties or the park, etc. I was never big into dolls or animals as a kid but I love listening to her chatter to her animals all day long. So cute.
Also this weekend Little S and her daddy went sledding with cousins in the nearby mountains. We lack adequate snow gear, but we made do and the temps up in the hills weren't too bad. She and her 3 year old cousin were fearless going down by themselves. Her older cousin was a bit more cautious.

2 weeks old

2009-03-03T07:17:00.001-08:00

Two weeks old in the pics above. My mom was visiting when these were taken. She and Little S had a great time together. You know grandma is in town when the curlers get put in her hair! Little S loved makeup and hair time with both of her grandmas during their visits.

I walked into the room and found this sweet scene!

Valentine's Weekend

2009-02-27T21:39:00.001-08:00

We had a sweet Valentine's weekend together as a family. We were between visits from grandmas, so it was just the 4 of us for the first time. Baby J sported her new VDay outfit from Grandma Chris!

My 3 valentines in the early morning- I love them! D granted my wish for crepes on valentine's day. He made a fancy Emeril crepe recipe that included various cheeses, mushrooms, chicken, etc. It was delicious. And, we had sweet crepes the next morning for breakfast!

The morning photo shoot of the sisters in pajamas. Little S is still learning the proper baby hold.

Little S insisted on posing in the same way Baby J was positioned in the first picture. Needless to say, she is still adjusting to the idea that she is no longer the only princess in the house :)

We Are Home

2009-02-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

Baby J Has Arrived

2009-02-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

Baby J was born Feb 6th @ 11:57am weighing 7 pds 5 oz and is 20" long. She doesn't look much like Little S - hardly cries...it's more of a squeak. Life is simple and sweet. We are thankful for another healthy, beautiful little girl.

Christmas Program '08 at Preschool

2009-01-31T16:03:00.000-08:00

Little S participated in her first public performance - singing in the preschool Christmas program. Her class wore these cute angel halos.
All of the classes sang the last song together - Little S is front and center in the bright pink shirt.
Enjoying treats with daddy after the performance.

Christmas Dinner Party '08

2009-01-31T15:32:00.000-08:00

After returning from Utah for Thanksgiving, we got right to work on final preparations for the Christmas Dinner party we were hosting. D told me at the end of the summer that he wanted to have such a party and it evolved over the fall months into an intimate dinner party with a few of our close friends - 7 couples total.

Some of our closest friends traveled to be with us! Chris and Nicole were in town from Reno, NV; Nicole's sister, Whitney and her husband Ryan drove here from Santa Barbara; Doug and Christine drove up from Newport; Brett and Krystle, who got engaged the day before our party, came from San Diego (btw- Krystle wowed the crowd with her hilarious story of running into Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer at the grocery store in Palm Springs over Thanksgiving and sharing her Ralph's club card with Jenn). Our two local couples were Jay and Christine and Chad and Cass.

Nicole attended culinary school in Pasadena before she and Chris were married and she has taught D and I many things in the kitchen. For the party meal I used 3 of my favorite "Nicole recipes" - spice rubbed pork wrapped in corn husks, spiced pecan salad, and her fantastic bread pudding and homemade caramel sauce for dessert.

I made the paper stockings above for place settings. I finished them with each person's name and a button and ribbon. (My mom sewed them together when we were in Utah) D and I filled them with a few treats for each of our guests. Sadly, I didn't take a pic of the table, as my mom requested.Doug and Christine (who is also expecting, as Doug's hand placement indicates). They moved back to North Carolina the week after our party, so it was our last opportunity to see them until who knows when. So sad to see them go - we miss them and their cute little boys!
Ryan and Whitney - always the cute couple.

D and I had a great time with our friends. We kept saying after the party how well things work when you have good food and fun people together in a room.

Valentine Treats

2009-01-27T14:56:00.001-08:00

Design Sponge posted this red velvet cupcake recipe from one of my favorite fabric designers, Amy Butler! Who knew she could cook, too.
D and I love red velvet cake and cupcakes - I think our favorite was from Doughboy's in LA (sadly, Doughboy's has closed its doors). I'm hoping to try this one this week before baby arrives.
The Chocolate Torte recipe can be found over at Design Sponge as well.

Thanksgiving '08 in Utah

2009-01-22T21:42:00.000-08:00

We drove to Utah for Thanksgiving week - stopping at D's parents' house in Vegas on the way up. The days in Utah were spent visiting friends and family in the area and enjoying our old stomping ground.

I bought the turkey cake mold on the drive up and made the cake for Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's (same makers as the beehive mold used for Little S's b-day..Yeah, I'm obsessed with the cake molds now). D cooked the turkey again this year, as he has in years past. After watching different turkey brining on the Food Network, he decided to try one of his own. The pros on TV used 7-up so he made up his own version and used the only 7-up we had in the house: the limited edition Pomegranate 7-Up that is pink! After brining all night, the turkey was bright pink Thanksgiving morning when we went to cook it. But it tasted great and the pink color baked away!

Little S made the turkey pine cone above at school and gave it to my mom for her dinner place setting. My mom made name cards for everyone else (pictured below). She needed extra hands at the last minute so my totally-not-crafty brother was enlisted to help finish the project in time for the feast. :) He came up with the clever turkey-day-themed nicknames for everyone's card.

Other activities during the week:
Lunch in Park City and wandering up and down Main Street (above).

Little S and I went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Salt Lake with my friend Karrie and her son Jack. D spent the hours at his favorite old book shop downtown, Ken Sanders Books.

No children's museum is complete without a miniature grocery store! Little S loved the self-check-out stand. She played here while Jack got creative with the waterworks display (classic boy/girl play preferences. The boy enjoys engineering different routes for water distribution while the girl spends time filling her shopping basket :)

They loved making music on the giant xylophone above.

A full-sized helicopter on the roof for the kids to play in!

When asked what her favorite activity was at the museum, Little S replied: "the crane!" She loved loading this thing up with foam blocks and then cranking them up to the other kids on the upper level. I think her passion for large machinery comes from all of the rides her daddy gives her on the scissor lift and fork lift at his office.
One other major activity was meeting D's extended family at a bounce house facility one afternoon. Three of his cousins, two of his siblings and 12 kids met to play together and catch up. They were all in town from various states visiting D's aunt and uncle. The kids had a blast bouncing together.

3 Years Old

2009-01-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

Little S's birthday bash was a blast. The theme was a bee in the garden - inspired by the beehive cake on the cover of Martha Stewart Living this past summer and the unfortunate and unexplained demise of the bee population (my grandpa is a retired beekeeper so the struggles of our bee friends hit close to home).

For D and I the birthday is our big event of the year. We like having all the fam and friends over, enjoying food and games and the November California weather in the back yard.

We enlisted lots of help with party prep. Auntie L and Matt helped make the huge tissue paper flowers that decorated the back yard. My mom helped with invitation supplies and preparations, mailing multiple boxes of stuff to me from Utah. I commissioned my dad to create a 15 foot garden mural on canvas for the kids to paint - he used his artist's discretion and added Dora, Boots and Swiper and the final product was a sort of Dora-meets-Rousseau scene (btw - Little S was ecstatic when I pulled the mural out of the box and she saw Dora on it). And finally, the night before the party, our good friend Jay helped D get the mural mounted/stretched on a wood frame in less than 15 minutes! Jay is a master of construction - D admitted it would have taken him an hour or two to do it himself :)

The invitations above.

We had the kids paint the mural for the first part of the party as everyone arrived. It was an even bigger hit than I imagined. My dad used permanent marker on the canvas for the outlines and the kids painted with washable tempera paints.
Action shot of the artists at work. As the younger kids moved on to the other games, the older kids wanted to keep painting - they were even hiding jars of paint behind the mural so the moms wouldn't make them stop :)
As usual, D and I were running around crazy at the start of the party. So my gal pals Cass (above) and Chanel got the painting rolling for me - what would I do without them?!
After the mural painting, we had the kids play a bee game that I made up. It was a version of the magnet fishing game but with bees and nectar instead. Each child decorated a bee and hung it from a fishing pole type thing (crafted by D, of course) that had a magnet on the end. They dropped their "bee" into the white flowers scattered in the yard that were filled with magnetic nectar paper and then carried their nectar to the beehive where the queen bee, 11 year old Haley, gave them a piece of candy for each nectar they brought. I had Flight of the Bumblebee playing on the ipod during this game, but I don't think the kids really noticed...Pictured above is our neighbor and good friend Lauree helping Little S and Hayden with their bees. Lauree is one of Little S's most favorite people in the entire world.
Next came the balloon hats and animal creations made by the birthday girl's dad. D has mastered the art of ballooning and can really wow a crowd of little people. (Little S is wearing the bee necklace and bee hair ribbon Grandma Shiela sent her for the big day - Auntie L, whose birthday is 6 days before Little S's, wore the birthday ribbon too.)
After a light dinner came the cake. I bought 2 of these molds - I love it! We served the cake to the adults with berries, cream and Nutella.
The kids decorated their own cupcakes - I used a cupcake and frosting recipe from Giada with mascarpone cheese in it - super easy and way better than just a box mix.
After food, cake and presents it was dark and we passed out glow bracelets and necklaces to everyone. Here, Auntie L models the glow jewelry and a balloon hat!
Finally, the kids wanted rides in the wagon before the night ended.

We were tired at the end of the night, to say the least, but so happy, too. There is no better way to spend a weekend night than at fun party with friends.

I'm back

2009-01-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

After a 2 month hiatus and both my husband and mother asking if I'd given up blogging completely, I decided to get back in the saddle. Also, baby #2 is due in just over 2 weeks and I'm trying to tie up loose ends before the stork arrives.

Because I want to print my blog entries as a family journal, I'll be posting highlights from our family adventures during Nov and Dec 2008 to make the year's entries complete.

San Diego Zoo

2009-01-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

For Little S's actual birthday on November 10, we went as a family to the San Diego Zoo. She insisted we listen to Carlos Vives during most of the drive down (D and I were going a little crazy, but she was the birthday girl and we gave in). She really wanted to see an alligator and a mouse - we couldn't produce the mouse request, but the polar bears and watching the gorillas eat lunch were highlights of the day.

She loved posing with the sculptures of animals - much less intimidating than the real thing.

We couldn't resist these head shots in the toddler play area. I asked D to take her into the petting zoo area at the end of the day - bad idea! Her allergies went crazy during the car ride home. We even pulled over to buy some medicine because she was coughing and tearing up so badly! Later that week at Little S's check-up the pediatrician told me to not venture into petting zoos again... Live and learn.

We ate lunch near the gorilla exhibit and Little S insisted on eating her fruit leather while laying with this mama and baby gorilla sculpture.

Halloween

2008-11-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

It is a VERY big deal in our neighborhood. The big victorian houses on the main street go all out with decorations and the police block off the surrounding streets (ours included) and put up spot lights. We had hundreds of trick-or-treaters from 5:15 until we turned off our light at 9:30! We went through 600 pieces of candy and a few hundred packs of stickers. (D carved the pumpkins pictured above - he's so creative!)

Little S was a dinosaur. My mom's friend made the costume and let us borrow it. Little S wasn't set on being anything in particular - some days she said she wanted to be a bug, other days a bee, and on halloween she said pirate.

Costume party with her preschool class:
Our good friends stopped by with their kids during trick-or-treating. Chanel's girls and my friend Cass's boys were excited about handing out candy - and gave D and my little sis a break from the task. It was fun to have a house full of friends and a porch full of trick-or-treaters.

Auntie L and Matt as pirates:
Chanel's girls distributing candy on the front porch:

Best costume went to this trick-or-treater who took a rest on our front yard:

The fellas overseeing the candy distribution - Jay, Chad and D.

Little S and friend Colin counting candy at the end of the night:

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-20T21:56:00.001-07:00

Last week we went to the local pumpkin patch with Little S's preschool. The fieldtrip included a tractor ride and feeding the sheep in the petting zoo. We've taken her there each fall, though I don't know how many more years the patch and Christmas tree farm will survive (i.e. not sell out) as big development goes up all around it.

These wagons are a hit with all the kids - I've never seen anyone fill them with anything but small children! Little S with 2 friends from her class (this past spring I posted about waiting all night to get a spot in the preschool class. Well, you're looking at the 3 kids whose parents were numbers 1, 2, and 3 in line that night :)

Little S and I have been reading and loving this book from the library: The Pumpkin Fair by Eve Bunting.
We read it multiple times a day, but it was due so I returned it while she was at school. When she realized it was gone, we had to go back to the library to see if we could check it out again (no luck).

Birthday Week

2008-10-20T14:19:00.001-07:00

D initiated birthday week when we were first married. When it's your birthday, you pick when the week starts (usually your birthday falls near the end of the 7 days) and you get to do whatever you want that week - choose what we eat, where we go, any fun stuff you want to do - it's your week! And you get small gifts during the week, too.

Last week was D's BW and we had a fun time as a fam celebrating the big 33! At the end of the week, this is what I found in the kitchen after noticing the house was a bit too quiet for too long:

Good Inspiration

2008-10-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

Find it at my friend Becca's blog, ahabitatforhumanity

In an effort to find "the good" all around her (and keep a good attitude about her daily duties), Becca started writing brief posts about everything from the architecture around her New Haven, Conn. neighborhood to good recipes for the kids. I especially enjoyed her recent Oct 10 entry about the community of Chinese grandparents moving in with their Yale student children to help take care of their grandkids!

Becca is a great writer and friend and I miss living closer to her. We went to grad school together and have, in the 4 years since graduating, lamented together about leaving our stacks of art history books on the shelves for these few years while we dedicate our energy to the crazy but always cute little ones we're raising.

Here's to the good all around us!

This Weekend - Princesses and Pink

2008-10-14T08:04:00.001-07:00

Little S's cousin Samantha had her third birthday party over the weekend- princess themed and the girls were to wear their princess dresses. Little S's grandma sewed princess dresses for all of her young granddaughters over the last few months - 8 dresses total! Little S got her dress from grandma the day before the party and was so excited when the box arrived. She put the dress on right away and wanted me to play music so she could dance around.
The birthday girl (left) with cousin Aislinn in another of Grandma's dresses.

The only full-length shot of the dress Grandma made for Little S.

All the princesses decorating cookies. Aislinn (left), Sam (center) and Little S (upper right).

After the party Little S and I headed to the Art Center library to look something up for Grandpa. Little S loved the grounds - she made up her own nature walk and collected huge leaves and sticks.

PINK:
On Sunday, Auntie L and Matt participated in the local 5k walk for breast cancer. Little S and I went down early Sunday morning to take pics of our walkers! I was so proud of them and moved by the community support for the cause. Our maternal grandmother is a breast cancer survivor and hearing the survivors speak and rally before the race got me a bit teary eyed.

Auntie L and Matt in front of the race support vehicle - decorated with dozens of bras. Matt's dogs came along in support of breast cancer, too!

Over 2000 walkers participated - the race started downtown and wandered through the historic district, ending at our outdoor ampitheater.

Auntie L along the race route...

Hawaii

2008-10-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

11 days on the big island - it couldn't have been more perfect. Our friends Chris and Nicole invited us to join them at the beautiful (that's an understatement) vacation home of Nicole's grandparents north of Kona, Hawaii. The pic above was the sunset on our last night on the island. It was a well deserved vacation for D and Little S loved having both parents at her beck and call.

Our gracious hosts Chris and Nicole:

Little S worked on new skills on the surf board at the house pool. This was our view of the ocean every day from the house - on the 4th hole of the golf course.

When she wasn't swimming in the pool at the house, Little S thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie pool at the resort (the house is on the grounds of the Four Seasons). She had this pool nearly to herself all week. It was the nicest kiddie pool I've ever seen - sloped sand into the pool on one end and the entire pool has a sand bottom. It had a huge trunk of water toys for the kids to use and kiddie lounge chairs when they felt like working on their kiddie tans. The turtle got a sand facial from Little S each day.

Little S named this pool the Mommy pool. We spent most late mornings and early afternoons going between the kiddie and mommy pools. Little S was getting pretty comfortable with the resort life - pool attendents brought around little cups of ice cream bonbons, ice water, misters and other treats while we were lounging. You know it's time to get back to real life when the 2 year old is asking when the ice cream is coming.

When she wanted to get out and about, we rode the golf cart down to the beaches to look for sea turtles. This started the first morning we were in Hawaii when Little S woke up for the day at 3:30am (right on schedule if we were in Calif). D took her down to the beaches 4 times that day and it became our daily ritual.

The fellas went fishing on 4 of the mornings. Each day they got better - the spear fishing proved more difficult than anticipated - but the kayak we rented for 2 days really elevated their level of pole fishing success. The best catch was this guy: a yellow-finned surgeon fish (aka pualo). We even grilled it up for dinner!

Sight Seeing:
We drove around the island checking out the diverse landscape.
Akaka Falls:

Waipio Valley:

Place of Refuge: Little S explains to me which is the mommy and which is the daddy

The Food:
Chris and Nicole are our best foodie friends. They love a fine meal at a nice restaurant. They showed us a few of their fave places in the area.
My tomato salad at our last night dinner (this is the reason we went to the Grille):

D loves trying unique fruit - he bought all of this at the farmer's market and arranged a lovely still life :)

Virgin lava flows - the drink of choice on the trip:

Hawaiian shaved ice filled with coconut ice cream (Little S learned about freeze headaches while devouring this):

Brown's Restaurant:
We helped light tiki torches during our beachside dinner. Little S was asking about this guy's belly button as we walked away.

Another highlight of the dinner, besides the food, was the great live music. Little S and another little girl danced the night away to Hawaiian tunes. One of my favorite moments of the trip was when the singer finished with one song and those of us listening began to applause. Little S turned around with a huge, surprised smile of pride - I think she thought everyone was clapping for her dance and she loved that moment. I've never seen that look on her face.

10 Years

2008-09-18T11:29:00.001-07:00

LOVE...

MARRIAGE...

(Los Angeles Temple, 1998)

BABY CARRIAGE. (Costa do Sauipe, Brazil, 2006)

We celebrated our 10th anniversary on August 14. It was a low-key dinner out in August because the REAL celebrating started Friday when we arrived on the big island of Hawaii!

In honor of our decade of adventures together, I'm posting 10 things I love about D that have made our ride together a thrill. And to quote Bill Parrish in Meet Joe Black, "My, how they go by in a blink."

(Engagement photo, Leo Corillo Beach, CA, 1998)

1. He's fearless. Not in the "I'll jump out of a plane if you dare me to" kind of way. Rather, give him any challenge and he'll rise to the occasion (that's how he ended up on the BYU cheer squad with no previous experience). He worked full time during his undergrad years with a software company that had him traveling to Europe - he convinced professors to reschedule tests for him because of the out-of-classroom experience he was gaining during his travels.

2. Traveling is a passion we both share. He loves the adventure of landing in a new place and figuring out how to get around (I just try to keep up with him on our trips!). He is a master traveler now because of it. We've visited 9 foreign countries together and he's been to many others by himself on business.

(Paris in front of Notre Dame, 2001)

3. He loves to learn new things - no matter what the topic. Like art, for example. I've always loved it and he's grabbed on to it since we got married. He even knows the big names to look for when he's at a prestigious museum. We were in Spain doing research for my master's thesis and we didn't have time to hit the Prado and pick up copies we had ordered from the library. So he told me to head to the museum and he'd meet me with the copies at "Las Meninas" (the masterpiece by Velazquez he had already seen on his last visit to Madrid). I smiled with pride for my supportive husband.

4. He's a foodie. With all of his travels, he made a commitment to try any food in any place at least once. He's got a "mature palette" as one of our food-snob friends said. He's a much better cook than I and he never uses a recipe.

5. He can talk to anyone (comes in handy during the travels). He's not afraid to strike up a conversation and he's interested in most topics. We were at an extended family function for my side of the fam and he was at a table with my great-uncle and his sons who are all beekeepers. D knows nothing about beekeeping but asked them about the sale of honey and if bees or honey are traded in futures on the stock market like other livestock commodities. The fellas got into a lengthy conversation about the production and sale of honey and D came away with a new interest in bees (btw, bees are not traded in futures).

(Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2006)

6. He's a model father. Little S could not be luckier. She adores him - he is definately her favorite parent. The other day she told me, "I'm saving these stickers for my best friend, Daddy." She and he are SO alike it makes me laugh every day.

(Near Palmares, Costa Rica, 2007)

7. He's a genius at TANGRAMS. You know, those shape outlines that they give you triangle and square puzzle pieces to make up the outline? Well, I'm not exaggerating when I say he's genius level. His brother gave him the tangram portion of the IQ test and was amazed at the few seconds it usually takes D to figure out the puzzle. This equates into his uncanny ability to pack a trunk or moving truck in the most spatially efficient manner.

8. He's a great listener. Friends have always come to him for advice on marriage, college majors, graduate school, etc. He's no expert on any of these topics, but his friends know he's logical and great at helping one weigh the pros and cons of the decision before them. He never forces his ideas on them, just helps people figure out what they really want to do.

9. He's got great hair. As we get older and so many of our friends are losing it, I'm proud of his thick dark hair (if only our kids could be so lucky).

10. He's my best friend.

Baby Blessing

2008-09-11T16:56:00.001-07:00

We were in San Diego last weekend for another baby blessing. It was the blessing of the 14th grandchild for D's parents! The new arrival is at the bottom of the pic, being held by her oldest brother (and the oldest of the 14 grandkids). Little S in the top row, second from the left. FYI - three of the kids pictured are cousins of Little S's cousins. It was a wild day with all of the munchkins running around and we had a lot of fun together. D's brother in San Diego and his family are moving to Utah next week so it was our last fiesta together for a while.

I snagged this picture from my sis-in-law's blog - I left our camera in San Diego...

Sequoia National Park

2008-08-07T16:37:00.000-07:00

D took the above pic in July during his much deserved mini-vacation to Sequoia National Park. He tent camped with 3 of his brothers, one sister-in-law, two nephews and one niece. They camped along the river and D was in charge of the dutch oven meals, which were a great success. The crew even got to see bears along the hiking trails. D came home wanting to lure Little S and I up to Sequoia the following weekend, but we said maybe in the fall.

Home sweet home: the family camp next to the river.

Bear boxes: all food and toiletries must be stored in these big cages when not in immediate use. The nephews and niece fit nicely inside :)

The nephews taking in the view from the top after a good hike.

Kristine, Scott and Matthew.

Pregnancy post

2008-08-06T16:22:00.001-07:00

Our friend Matthew left a comment wondering about a possible pregnancy post. This is the only one I'm posting: I'm due early February. I'm sick, but not as sick as with Little S (thank goodness). That's it.

I will not be adding one of those photos to my sidebar of a growing fetus that changes each week, or anything like that.

If you haven't already seen it, check out the blog Seriously So Blessed. It's a funny spoof on our mommy blogs. FYI - it is ALL a joke. My hip little bro sent me the link a month ago (he's bummed that all his friends get married and stop updating their Facebook pages in favor of blogs).

Apparently, Seriously So Blessed posted a Breaking Dawn spoiler. I've got 200 pages left, so I don't know if it was a real spoiler or not, but Read Blog at Your Own Risk :)

July in review

2008-08-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

I've been on hiatus this past month. I have only one excuse - pregnancy sickness. The last thing I've wanted to do in the evenings is blog. But, I've got many posts to catch up on and my mom told me she would really like to see some recent pics :)

4th of July:

6 of the 7 kids in D's family were together on the 4th. A good BBQ, water relays for the kids, slip-and-slide, bingo, and a prize box made the day memorable for all 13 grandkids! D did the Q-ing and I made Barefoot Contessa's flag cake - a great recipe but definitely not heart-healthy.

Little S with her cousins who were in town from the DC area.

This is not a great professional looking photo, but I wanted to post it because it could be from any number of the family gatherings we've had in the past couple of years. After the meal we all sit around discussing random topics from "why are those vampire books so popular?" to "do you watch TMZ?" to more pressing topics like "the global economies of India and China." There is usually a new baby in the mix and at least one pregnant woman (in the pic above there are 3 pregnant mamas). Ahh, the fam.

Baby Blessing

2008-06-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Little S's newest cousin was blessed. As the fellas were approaching the stand for the blessing, Little S announced to me that she had to go to the bathroom. I asked her if she REALLY had to go, she assured me she did, and to avoid an accident in the church pews we left. And missed every word of the blessing.

Triple digit heat made the post-blessing photo shoot difficult, but we got a few decent shots of the fam.

D and three of his four brothers. The joke of the day was the numerous times people approached D thinking they were talking to his brother Todd (the new father). They look a lot alike these days :)

Killing time during the photo shoot...

Cooling off with cousins after the blessing. Little S will read to anyone who will sit and listen. Aislinn was a captive audience.

New York recap

2008-06-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight, D and I are sipping frozen hot chocolate I brought back from Serendipity (mmm) and I decided I should post a few highlights from the trip.

But I noticed that my friends Becca and Whitney have done that already. So, I direct you to their blogs until I get around to downloading my pics (sorry, Mom). Becca's recap of our awesome day wandering the streets of Soho exploring our fave fabric and design shops is right on - don't mind the wet dog photo of the three of us after getting caught in a NYC rainstorm.

Ryan and Whitney were awesome hosts - lots of laughs all weekend. Thanks guys, you are the best. Can't wait for you to be closer this fall!!

NYC

2008-06-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

I'm headed to New York City on Thursday - a solo trip. On the itinerary: art history research and museum-going (I'm also hoping to run into Blair or Serena)!

I wanted D and Little S to come along, but the thought of chasing her around the city while I sit thumbing through old books in libraries was not so appealing to my good-natured husband.
Wednesday will be spent packing and picking a good book to take along!

Malibu

2008-06-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

We set out on an adventure yesterday. While watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, D saw a BBQ place in Gardena/Compton he wanted to try. So yesterday we headed to Jay Bee's BBQ (I believe it would fall into the DIVE category) - we were not disappointed with the Q and Little S loved the mac and cheese.

Next stop: Malibu. My sister-in-law's sister and her family live in Malibu and we all ended up there in the afternoon. Tom and Ann have a lovely home overlooking the ocean AND they are a blast to hang out with - they were on Oprah last year during their family's 1 year around-the-world trip! (After helping clean up Katrina victims, they decided to go carpe diem and take their 4 kids ages 4-14 around the world for a year performing service and volunteer work in all the countries they visited.) Ann documented their journey here.

This is the view from their patio.

The group of us (six adults and eight kids) went to Zuma Beach for an afternoon of fun in the sun. It was a great day!

Little S was excited to hold baby Kai again and again.

Birthday cakes

2008-06-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

Little S has been obsessed with birthday cakes this week. She saw Elmo make one on Sesame Street and wouldn't stop talking about it. Hoping she would forget about it, I told her to wait until Daddy got home and ask him. Since he's such a good daddy, he baked a cake with her as soon as we walked in the door and the two of them went to the store together to pick out frosting. The very next day she wanted to make another one but luckily we were headed to a birthday party anyway!

Enjoying the slide at the birthday party.

Being shy...

Houseguests

2008-06-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

We had visitors last week - my dad and brother stayed with us. Outings included an Angels baseball game, breakfast at the lake, breakfast at our new fave spot downtown, BBQ in the backyard and just chillin' at the casa.

The significant others pictured below.

Finally, a pic of Little S with a smile - lately she's been avoiding eye contact with the camera.

Feeding the ducks at the lake.

Watermelon in the backyard.

Twilight Preview

2008-05-29T07:50:00.001-07:00

Me and all the girls under 16 years-old are excited for this movie to come out in December