Chasing Bluebirds

never ending candy sales, happy valentines day!

peddling the neighborhood, got 4 more cases to go (did i mention i had two kids drop out of our group and one who didnt want to sell... conveniently after the candy had been ordered) i am on a MAJOR diet and can honestly say i havent had one single piece of candy, but i sure have bought a lot! i really need to do a "candy sales 101" post but i am not in a funny sarcastic mood today. my neighbors had to hold their funeral for their son this morning and it has just been the most moving experience for me. their youngest son was the one i always waved to and smiled at as we came and went for years and years but we really never chatted. for 13 years we never had a REAL conversation. it is just coincidence and circumstance. i was so moved to hear all his friends and family talk about him, swarms of people were at the church. this amazing kid who now i feel such grief and loss for, the loss of never getting to know him. lizzie is famous for crapping out after 10 minutes of candy selling, setting up shop on top of the candy boxes and attempting to take a nap. did i mention she is dressing herself these days? you gotta pick your battles, right?

grief

we had a loss in our neighborhood, a good friend's son died in an accident last weekend (he was 29). it's hard to not think about losing a child when someone you care about has just lost theirs.

there has been a lot of sadness this week. this card was written by emily without any prompting, she just showed it to me and i cried my eyes out.

halloween birthday in january

since my birthday is on halloween, this seems pretty normal to me

of course the last one is my favorite, i always like the strange ones. i just love the details rather than the whole picture. happy birthday sean!

a cleaver christmas party

we finally got to cleaver's annual christmas party (i think we have missed a few years in a row) the girls were cute and helpful, they really love cleaver

lots of yummy snacks, great music, some cool "artist friend" art, cleaver's pad always delivers. so glad we could make it this year, even though we had to leave early, passing crowds of arriving guests as we headed to our car and off to bed. the girls both fell asleep on the way home. today is lizzies arts and craft birthday party, stay tuned!

wendy crabb

well we set up a meeting with wendy crabb and just about everyone had plans that conflicted so my little "group" of camp fire girls set off for noho (north hollywood) to see her artwork at cella gallery. the girls were so excited, lizzie has been drawing crabs to present to her for weeks now. they all wanted to see where the movie stars live (not sure how they know so much about it but they sure had a long list of stars to look for). we saw wendy walking along the street with baby jasper and the girls yelled from the car at her, they recognized her from her blog. we had hot dogs then headed over for a look at the gallery. the space was gorgeous and all the artwork was lovely up close, cant beat seeing art in real life. a personal favorite you know i could live in a place like this, just put a bed off in a corner somewhere. the girls got these shirts and emily is wearing it again today, i think it will be a favorite for a long time. lizzie is asking to go back to the "nursery" today, i finally figured out she means "gallery" and from the fit she is throwing about it, i think i did good with trying to influence the girls on viewing art at a gallery. meeting wendy (who is so sweet and i didnt get a SINGLE picture of!) and visiting a gallery was a great way to spend an afternoon, well worth the drive. thanks again wendy for meeting with us! we will keep in touch!

the newest felt mouse

congrats to the felt mouse house, henry has arrived!

summer weather

seems every weekend has at least one scheduled birthday party. i remember the excitement of the first birthday party emily was invited too, i still really like going to them, the kids enjoy themselves and i dont have to set up and clean up (i think i have mentioned that more than a few times already) i spent the morning at day camp training (camp shiwaka is coming round again!) while the girls enjoyed this hot weather. monday is our first official "awards night" and our last camp fire meeting of the year... i wanted the awards to look painterly, so i just jumped in with some watercolors. with a little more embellishments, i think they will work. emily was inspired to paint (she has been asking to paint ever since we watched this movie, a very interesting movie which i highly recommend, i found myself stewing about it for days and days) so she did some painting too. i have been hard at work trying to get our backyard cleaned up, i dont think some of the plants have been attended to since before liz was born, seriously! what a mammoth job it has been. we priced out some patio furniture and found the set we liked cost about 6,000 dollars! yikes! i had no clue that quality patio furniture cost so much, i think we will stick with what we have and make some cushions for it. maybe i can find something used or thrown out? hoping for a huge table that we ALL can actually sit at together (our dining room table seats only four). stay tuned for more backyard adventures!

something to think about

i have been meaning to post a link to this post for some time now, if you have a minute to spare, i think it is important stuff.

girls "blizzard" getaway weekend

jen and i finally got a free weekend to hang at the cabin together to do some crafting. the weather report said snow to come sunday afternoon... well it arrived this morning instead and lets just say we had to rush home or be stranded (not that we would have minded at first, until the power went out and we felt how truly cold it was up there).

we had to find the chains for the tires (somewhere in the garage), hope they fit the car (luckily they did), find someone to help us get them on or actually do it ourselves...(luckily we found a helpful neighbor who helped out, it was blizzard conditions at this point). we drove out in the snow covered roads ok, but had a heck of a time getting the chains off midway down the mountain (oh and jen, guess what? we lost the rubber cords... remember how we frantically threw them to the side when that one chain was tangled in the wheel and cars were spraying us with sheets of icy water? well we forgot to pick them up again, oops!!! and we left the plastic case in front of the cabin too, yikes!!!) oh well, at least we managed to get down safe and sound in a reasonable amount of time. too bad our "crafting weekend" didnt get much crafting done! but an adventure we DID have!

we arrived saturday to sunny skies and piles of snow

the only door we could get through

taking pictures

sunset on the lake

one heck of a huge pile of snow

well, we got more than enough snow this winter, will be nice to see the lake full again.
thanks for being such a great sport jen!

gymnastics party

liz attended a gymnastics party, introducing us to the world of gymnastics! emily has been in ballet for almost 4 years now, we are on the fence about putting lizzie in too. we want her to have the same opportunities her sister gets, but after this party i wonder if this might be a fun option for her instead? as much as i love the ballet, sometimes the parents put me off. when we started, i would sit with baby liz and several other friendly moms with babies, chatting while our daughters danced. now it seems stuffy with moms talking about their plastic surgery or the newest fashions, feels like high school all over again, no thanks. even my mom has commented that she doesnt feel comfortable hanging out during the class, kind of a bummer since we both really love ballet. i am hoping this next season finds some more down to earth moms to hang with.

here is liz enjoying the party: