The practice day at preschool, with only half (all six of them) of the class and me as one of the two parent helpers. Zöe loved it but knew it wasn't the "real" thing. She kept asking where all of the kids were and why I didn't leave. I satyed up way too late the night before making her outfit. But it was a happy-kind-of-staying-up-late because I finally got to try out Erin's awesome shirred shirt tutorial as well as the wide-leg pants I meant to make all summer.
First Day #3
Finally! The real deal. All fifteen three-year-olds present. I think things went well. Zöe was more than happy to see us go, so Eric and I slipped downtown for a really yummy morning-date breakfast. Teacher Amy is the best. Ever. I'm almost as excited as Zöe for all the fun that lies ahead this year!
You know, summer really is the perfect length of time. Despite all of the fun and frolic we enjoyed while school was out, the kids were ready and excited to head back to school last Wednesday. Zöe trooped right along with the boys (lunch, water bottle and backpack resting squarely on her little shoulders), put her stuff in Max's locker and asked the way to her classroom. I tried to explain that her preschool is in a different place and doesn't actually start until the 18th(!) but she didn't completely get it until we were heading home with her backpack tucked under my arm. Then the tears, they did flow. Remember last year? Some themes remain the same. Look how much they've all grown, though!
Thank goodness for Oaks Park. Some time on the rides with Sarah and Grayson took Zöe's mind of the school blues. With a yummy stop in Sellwood for lunch and a little shopping, we all had a great day. And Sarah and I remembered just how much fun it is to have the little ones all to ourselves.
But boy was I ready to give those boys a big squeeze when three o'clock rolled around.
Thanks folks, for your kind words and encouragement. I'm so happy that this blog continues to be a fixture in my life, and that my dear Bloggie and I have worked out a balance that works for us. Sometimes I post, sometimes I don't, it's all okay. Thank you guys for checking in with me from time to time. It's always nice to hear from all of you.
So, about that giveaway. I put all of the names in a hat, and Jack picked...JMac!!! Yippee! I guess the forces have a clever way of working, don't they? Now I can finally pay you back for the awesome shirt that's enjoying it's third go-around on Zöe. I'll email you later, Jen, with details. Congrats! A great excuse for a get-together dontcha think?
Now for something totally different. My brother and Nicole got me a really nifty gadget for my birthday. Have you heard of Nike+? It has completely re-invigorated my running training! You can download stats from each of your runs to keep track of things like distance, pace, calories burned, etc. It works in connection with the iPod Nano, so you get great tunes to boot. And you can specify what song you want for your "Powersong" to kick in a boost when you really need it. I swear, technology rocks so hard.
So I've been having fun gathering running songs for my playlist, preferably ones with a good beat that make me want to move. I've got some pretty eclectic tastes. Here are a few from my list that you might enjoy:
1. I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow 2. Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters 3. Pump It - Black Eyed Peas 4. I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred 5. Wannabe - Spice Girls 6. Here it Goes Again - Ok Go 7. It's a Beautiful Life - Ace of Base 8. Sexyback - Justin Timberlake 9. Such Great Heights - Postal Service 10. Vacation - Go gos 11. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne 12. Light and Day - Polyphonic Spree 13. Take on me - Aha 14. Walking on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves 15. Move on Up - Curtis Mayfield
Please leave a comment and tell me what song (or songs) really get you in the mood to run, jump, skip, dance, twirl or do some step aerobics. I'm always scouting for new or forgotten tunes. Happy groovin'!
Edited to add: I just ran this morning with some new additions to my playlist (thanks Erica!). When I finished my workout I was surprised to hear Paula Radcliffe pop into my iPod, lovely Brittish accent and all, to congratulate me on a new personal best for the mile! Woohoo! Seriously, how did I ever run without this fun gadget?!?
Lordy! I haven't posted since when?!? So many things have been going on around here that I've wanted to post about, and the longer I've waited the longer the list has grown. So, sorry people but this is going to be a list-type post: the past seven (!) weeks in abbreviated review. Some of these items really deserve a post entirely of their own, but seeing that life just keeps propelling us forward, um, yeah, it's likely not gonna' happen. So without further ado:
Made five teacher gifts: two Stash and Dash bags (I love that pattern!), one bag of my own creation, as well as a larger and a smaller framed version of this Kindergarten auction project for the teachers to keep.
Hosted a 1950's themed Women's Poker Night as an auction item for the Preschool. Remember the one last year?
Had a super great visit with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Reni from Indiana, as well as Auntie Andrea from Pasadena.
With Sarah, competed in...and WON(!!!) Portland's Rose City Runaround: patterned after The Amazing Race, 25 two-person teams in a five-hour city-wide challenge. I have never, ever done anything harder in my entire life, and that includes running five marathons and birthing three children. A very, very sweet victory! Am I letting you guys in on my competitive side a little bit? Yep, I think so.
Celebrated my birthday...37 years! A morning treasure-hunt with a new Wii as our pot of gold, a delicious pajama brunch (cooked by Eric) with my girlfriends, a lovely new hammock for the side-porch, and a great whole-family celebration in the evening with my very favorite blueberry pie ever.
Enjoyed a rocket-filled Fourth of July with family, friends, lots of kids, great food, legal and illegal (shhhhh...) fireworks, and a funny red, white and blue photo session.
Celebrated our anniversary...10 years! An awesome new handheld GPS (I've finally decided to embrace the fact that, yes, I'm a geeky gadget girl...you wanna make somethin' of it?), some family geocaching (so awesome!), a long lingering dinner with Eric at Jake's, and some photobooth time at the new Ace Hotel.
And I think that covers it. If you've made it this far you deserve a reward, and a reward you may receive. Tomorrow marks my two-years-of-blogging anniversary, and in honor of this I'm going to do my very first-ever giveaway. Leave a comment sometime between now and, say, Tuesday. On Wednesday I'll randomly select a name and the winner will receive a custom-made Stash and Dash bag of their very own. Your chances of winning are pretty darn good, I would imagine. I'm not exactly the most prolific blogger around, and I'm sure most people gave up on me a long time ago. So, give it a whirl.
And in honor of my blogiversary, I need to give all of you out there a big "Thank You" from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting and generally supporting my blogging endeavor. This blog has been the most amazing outlet for me. It's enabled me to stop (albeit infrequently), celebrate and reflect on the moments in life that might otherwise not receive special notice. I was originally inspired by this lovely friend of mine, who is now continually amazing me with her adventures in China. Along the way I've madesomefun, lovely, creative, smart, virtual connections, as well as some real- live human connections to boot! I've bugged a fewothercrazy souls until they joined in the fray. Had some fun with familyblogging. And even re-connected with a friend from college. Who knew?
My heartfelt love and thanks to all for a fantastic two years!
Guess what? We actually went somewhere, away from home, outside of Portland, for the weekend! Can you believe it? My folks found this awesome place in Bend, Oregon (about 3 1/2 hours Southeast of here in Central Oregon) and we had a really fun, big, family getaway three-day-weekend with everyone...my parents, brother, and Nicole included. We had our own little four bedroom cottage (the Nunnery) with a lovely patio mere stepping stones from two roaring fire-pits and this cute, cozy pub. And if you haven't clicked on any of these links, please click on this one. I could have spent the entire time in this place, which became even cooler once we realized that the skylight isn't a skylight at all, but really a giganntic open ceiling. When it snows in Bend, it snows inside the Turkish Bath. Dude.
We spent hours scrambling all over this really awesome museum on Saturday. And oh, I am such a sucker for living history, most especially the pioneer Little House on the Prairie variety. It was really pretty quiet, crowd-wise for a Saturday and the museum has a huge outdoor component with a Birds of Prey aviary and an Otter Exhibit. After exploring the different pathways we came out of some trees and stumbled onto this most amazing scene.
They were eating and talking and singing with intermittent bursts of hearty belly laughter. They teased me and called me a "Portland city-slicker" when I asked them what they were having for lunch (chicken stew on tin plates with wooden utensils), as these pioneers eat breakfast, dinner, and supper. They chided Eric for wearing shorts, because without proper leg coverage he could get injured, and then what use would he be? How could he provide for his family? And the boys (of course) were mystified by the guns and the "belt-o-bullets." And I swear that's Nellie Olsen sitting there at the dinner table, hair bow and all. It was awesome. If only Mr. Edwards had come tromping out from the trees with pennies and candy sticks, my Little House fantasty would have been complete!
I've had this thing about May Day ever since I was little. I love it more than I can say. In Lower School we used to do the May Pole dance, and make paper cones full of flowers to adorn the doors of those we love. So Zöe and I decided to embrace May Day today, sneaking from house to house with our doorknob creations. I don't need to tell you that Zöe is an excellent sneaker, or that I thought of my grandmother (my fellow May Day lover) with each one of Zöe's bouncing, zig-zagging secret steps. And when Max came home from school boasting a paper cone of his own, billowing with pipe cleaner and paper flowers, the tradition was complete.
This photo was taken of me and my bestest cousin Jubal around 1977-1978, maybe? I don't remember the event at all (Jubal...do you?), but I do know that we were at the Lloyd Center. Nowadays it's just a regular, encolsed, everyday mall, but back then it looked like this. Oh, if only they had embraced its open-air Mid Century coolness and left it alone, just think of the fun we'd have!
Anyway, Happy Easter and Happy Spring! Here's yet another photo of the mantle, now fancied up with tissue paper finery from this place, the most addictive store in town.
And I'll leave you with this little blast from the past, a commercial my brother and I absolutely loved. Thanks Easter Bunny, Bawk, Bawk!
For years, and I really mean years, I have been not-so-secretly coveting the work of Ramonster's Kathie Sever. Her stuff is so distinct, so spectacular, totally rock and roll and radio flyer all rolled into one firecracker package. This year for Zöe's birthday I thought it would be really cool for her to have her own beautifully made bit of reto cowgirl swankwear. But try finding one! After unsuccessfully searching, Kathie kindly answered my pleas and custom-made this beautiful dress for Zöe. Isn't it awesome? Don't you want one for yourself? (She makes a grown-up version!) When Zöe's not wearing it, I hang it prominently, ahem, in my little studio where I find myself contentedly gazing at it all throughout the day...
So, since my dad's birthday and Zöe's are so close together we decided to have a party for the both of them. And since he, too, appreciates that retro cowboy aesthetic (being, after all, a quintessential kid-of-the-fifties...the Lone Ranger, Roy Roger) we decided to make it a theme. How cute are those two? I had a vision in my head of this photo that I wanted to capture, and was so happy that it actually materialized. Yee-haw! Happy Birthday, you two!
And one last note for all of you Portland folk: the incdredible, amazing Kathie Sever has an incredible, amazing husband named Matt. Matt is a super talented musician with a show coming up on April 19th here in Portland at Missippippi Studios. Check out his website: Matt the Electrician, listen to some tunes here, and I'll see you all at the show!
Jack had a follow-up dentist appointment today, to get some of that crazy fissure sealant that I remember getting as a kid. It was right at lunchtime, so we had a great excuse to spend a little extra time goofing around before I took him back to school. It is super nice to get some hang out time with just one of my big boys. Zöe was there too, and I could tell see was enjoying her Jack-only time just as much as I was. It's just so different when the boys are together.. Zöe, Eric and I are almost invisible, none of us truly able to crack the wall of boy-conversation and imagination surrounding those two. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they're close. I just like getting my time too.
Today we feasted on pizza, rode the pony, played a few video games, cracked up over Calvin and Hobbes (Jack's new obsession), and ate some of the yummiest doughnuts in town. Hooky is good, but only when it's with your mom. You got that, cowboys?
Oh my sweet, dear sunshine. Today has been a gift from Mother Nature if I've ever seen one. Sunny, warm and fragrant with the promise of Spring. Tomorrow wll be dark and rainy yet again, but today...today is a golden glimpse of the deliciousness just around the corner. And our first flower too! Wonders!
So important. The proper Valentine selection for the intended recipient. Jack wants the very best ones for Tomlin, Jasmyne and Asa. Max insists on two each for Ella and Katie. What can this mean?
He's the handsome little wire fox terrier standing there in the corner. And he's feeling more than a little freaked out because he keeps having this dream, see. A dream where he's owned by a smart, sassy, high-steppn', smoking, beret-wearing, French kitty. And he's pretty damn sure he's gonna have to play ball.
Thanks mom and dad! Our walls can be your storage space anytime.
Oh my, what a long and unintended hiatus from blogging! Everything is fine here, I just kind of crashed after Christmas and needed a break from all things handmade. In fact, when I made this little smock for Zöe on Saturday it was the first time I had turned on my sewing machine since Christmas Eve. It was nice to get my machine started up with inspiration, excitement, and desire rather than a sense of work.
So, my mom designed this little pup for me to embroider. Isn't he cute? I made it into a pocket and put it on this little smock for Zöe to wear to the Wurst Gallery's Wurstminster Dog Show on Saturday night. We had another engagement beforehand, so we didn't even get to the show until almost nine. It was packed! Like, you had to wait for someone to leave before you could go in, packed. There was so much fantastic stuff, and lots of it.
My mom did this amazing painting, and the kids really got a kick out of seeing it up on the wall in a crowded happenin' place. Although, I may not have explained the concept of an art show very clearly because this morning Jack asked me, "Who won?" Max fell asleep in the middle of the whole fracas, stretched out on the window seat with his head on my dad's lap. And Zöe was like a clip-on koala bear, clinging to me for dear life. I don't think her feet touched the floor once. So much for the themed outfit. You can check out all of the pieces in the online gallery here.
It's good to be back! I missed you guys!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Even a smattering of snow is enough to excite the Native Portlander. Which is why we were bundled up and playing mere moments after getting out of bed this mornng. The boys were too little to remember the last really big snow storm we had, so there was tremendous excitement over this dusting. We managed to scrape together a few snowballs, throw them, taste them, smash them onto each others' coats. Max and I re-created our favorite scene from this movie, which became a pretty funny scene itself.
"Max, honey. Okay, stick your tongue out but don't actually touch the pole. Okay? Just get really, really close. That's it. Yikes! Too close, too close! Perfect." And after taking the last photo in front of our crazy inflatables, it was inside for waffles, hot chocolate and getting ready for school. Let the season begin!
This is one of my all time favorite Halloween Photos. It's from Jack's first Halloween when he was six months old. Yes, he is really inside of the pumpkin. It was super duper cold in there, but he sat inside of it happily, if not a little bit bewildered. The next photo in the series shows him munching on the side. Yum.
Incidentally, this is the photo that landed Jack a contract with a real live, well known modeling agency (we lived in LA after all) but that's another post. And although the experience was scary enough to make for some good Halloween frights, it'll have to wait for another day. We've got pumpkins to carve!
Have a hauntingly horrible Halloween, one and all!
If you have just a minute, head on over to my dad's blog. He's got a great You Tube video of Zöe playing one of the games from last week's school carnival, which she's dubbed "The Knock." And she's been a legend in this house ever since...especially since the boys played shortly after and scored a big fat Zero. Girl Power!
What this nice fall, pumpkin patch, hayride photo doesn't show you is what was to be found 180 degrees in the other direction. And that would be the enitre population of the greater Portland Metro area out on Sauvie Island getting their pumpkins on Sunday afternoon. If we'd thought for 10 seconds we could have guessed it. But we didn't. The siren song of a crisp, sunny fall day clouded all of our judgement. And it really was beautiful. And it really was busy. And we really did wait in a very long line of cars to get back over the bridge. But once we were across, the line of cars coming in stretched for at least two miles. And then I was really glad that we were heading home, pumpkins thumping together in the back of the van.
