Lockin' up the Hammers

Mom: Ethan! Why did you take all the tissues out of the box and throw them all over the room!!??

Ethan: Luka TOLD me to do it.

Mom: (sigh) Look, if Luka told you to get a hammer and smash that window, would you do it?

Ethan: No.

Mom: Right. And WHY wouldn't you do it?

Ethan: Because I don't know where we keep the hammers.

One World One Heart

I am a very happy girl!

I spent much of this last week entering the multitude of giveaways in the One World One Heart blogger's giveaway event! It's a fantastic event where many artistic bloggers are giving away little pieces of art they have made in an effort to introduce themselves to new readers and make friends from other blogs.

Well, I actually WON one of them, and when I say "little pieces of art", in this case I really mean it! Magic Gypsy, with a blog of the same name, offered up a piece she made called Altar-In-A-Box, and I just fell in love with it. It's a decorated mixed-media box with a little figure of Quan-Yin, who in Buddhism is the Bodhisattva of compassion and mercy. But it's not just a box... it's a tiny little box, like a matchbox, which you can pop in your suitcase or your purse! Check it out here...

Magic Gypsy is from Arizona, and is an artist who makes really lovely jewelry, has the cutest dog EVER, and also works in mixed media. Like me, she seems to like both vintage-y things, and is inspired by other cultures and religions and it shows in her work.

I am really proud to be Magic Gypsy's winner! Go visit her, and check out her little corner of the world!

Our Neighborhood Parrots (!!!)

I discovered recently that there is a flock of parrots that live in our new neighborhood. Yes! Real parrots! Bunches of them! And man, are they LOUD! The stick together in their flock and chatter like old ladies at a church picnic all day long! Take a look!

I did a little studying, and they seem to be red headed Mexican parrots. There are a few misplaced flocks of them in Southern California, and one lives on our street! They have been spending the last few days in the trees in my front yard. Watch out if you pester them, though. They like to dive-bomb people.

New House, Old Friends

I had a great time this weekend because we through a little party for my old friend Tina, who recently moved to town and just had her birthday.

One of the reasons we chose this house was because it was such a wonderful place to entertain, and this was one of our first real adult dinner parties.

We had a bunch of friends, old and new, come for dinner and I made a fantastic (if I do say so myself!) raspberry/chocolate ganache cake. Tina made a Moroccan Veggie Stew and I picked up some tandoori bread at the middle eastern market. Suuuuch a good dinner.

It was so nice to have a grown up party. I see some more in our future!

Snow in San Diego

With my parents visiting from Florida, we have been looking for "touristy" things to do. They have been here a few times before and we have been finding ourselves doing the same things over and over again.

Well, this year, Ethan has been asking us to "take him to the snow"! And even though it is a long drive, we thought, "why not!?" My parents don't live in Ohio anymore, and there are some lovely snowy mountains within a couple hours drive.

So we all jumped in the van this weekend and drove up to Idyllwild, which is a gorgeous, foresty town with lots of sweet shops and good restaurants and a nice hometown feel.

We had to hunt for the perfect patch of forest, but when we found it, we all rolled out, built us a snowman and had a good old fashioned snowball fight. The kids LOVED it! Then on to a yummy dinner and shopping before heading home.

With the country bearing the weight of this stormy winter, I have to say we are BLESSED by living in a place where we can go visit the snow when we want to, and then shed our warm clothes and come back home.

Not Gonna Let it Rain on OUR Party!

The twins turned FIVE this weekend. How did THAT happen!? And we had invited about 15 kids and their parents over, ordered a bounce house, and stuffed a piñata with candy, only to have it pour rain all day long.

Well, we made do, had the pinata indoors, canceled the bounce house, and had a great time. The kids wouldn't let the rain hold them back and a bunch of them went out to ride bikes anyway. We turned on the bubble machine to make it more festive.

Luka Reading

This is Luka reading... he is four...

I Mean, Really...

A Scouting We Will Go!

We had been looking for quite a while for some sort of activity that Noah would really enjoy doing. He was adamant about not playing sports. Even though he seemed early on to have an ear for music, that interest seems to have dwindled. When I tried to sign him up for karate, he freaked out because he thought I wanted to take him to a place so kids could kick him and karate chop him, and he had to defend himself from that.

Sigh...

Finally, a flyer for Cub Scouts came home with him from school and I thought that might be JUST the thing. We wanted him to learn more about respect, working together, service to others, pride, and build up his self esteem a little bit.

I took him to one meeting and he just LOVED it.

LOVED. IT.

And immediately after that, we had an opportunity for one of us to spend a weekend at Camp Mataguay with him for lots of cub scout fun! So I stayed home with the twins, and Michael took Noah to camp for two nights this weekend.









They got to go fishing ("We caught a bunch of WEEDS!") and hiking. Noah was able to learn how to do archery and shoot BB guns, he threw a vase on a pottery wheel for me, they went canoeing watched skits, and Noah spent a lot of much needed quality time with his Dad.

Next time... I wanna go!

Michael took some videos and photos while there, so I thought I would share those.

This is my boy doing archery.














This is my boy getting a bullseye, baby!!

All Aboard!

Luka has become quite the train aficionado lately. He discovered a friend's Thomas trains and little tracks and he hasn't looked back since. I got him a little set of used Thomas trains.

He likes watching that insanely boring show on TV, but I have to admit it is completely and utterly adorable to see him hooking up train cars, huddled over his tracks and moving his trains around making little chugging sounds.

My neighbor and I each have three kids, and while our eldest children were off getting their higher education, we loaded the little kids into one van and went off to the stadium where there is a San Diego Trolley station and climbed aboard. It was the perfect thing to do with four small boys.

The kids loved the trip, pointing out all the school buses, shopping malls and mountains they could see passing by out the windows. They loved not having to sit in car seats! We took two separate rail lines over to a small steam train museum where kids can explore a caboose and a climb into the engineer's platform on a steam engine.

Then we headed across the street to our favorite coffeehouse for moms with kids, Java Mama, to let them blow off some steam of their own while Audra and I filled up on caffeine.

Two more trains got us back to our van and then we headed home in time for lunch! That was enough to do me in for the day, even with the extra caffeine.

I had loads of good camera fodder. You can see more photos over on my flickr page!

Not Clear On The Concept

Today, Noah became very frustrated with Luka about something and started saying some very mean and hurtful words. I told him that that kind of talk was not acceptable in our family, and so he stomped off to go draw a picture for Luka to show him his feelings since he was not allowed to do so verbally. He brings the drawing to Luka and presents it.



Noah: Here, Luka, this is for you.

Luka: For me?

Noah: Yeah. It's a picture of an evil chicken eating a boy and it's to show you how angry I am at you and that I really wish you would get eaten by something.

Luka: You made a picture for me!?

Noah: Yeah. This here says, "I - hate - you."

Luka: I LOVE IT!

Noah: You aren't supposed to love it. It's to show you how angry I am at you!

Luka: It's beautiful! Thank you, Noah!

Noah: It's not beautiful! It's MEAN! It says, "I hate you" on it!

Luka: What's this word?

Noah: It's HATE! It says HATE! H-A-T-E!!!

Luka: Good job, Noah!

Noah: You don't understand! You are getting attacked by this evil chicken!

Luka: Is me?

Noah: Yeah. And an evil chicken!

Luka: I love it! Thank you, Noah!

Noah: Oh... NEVER MIND!!!!!

Interview with Luka

Okay, so it's Luka's turn. He is a bit behind Ethan in language skills. Pretty good at saying what he wants to say, but not the greatest at comprehending what is said to him. I had to ask him some of these questions in different wording. And this interview was done in about three different sittings because he was a bit frustrated. But it's darn cute.


1. What is something mommy always says to you?
(makes a kiss sound)

2. What makes mommy happy?
A bandaid.


3. What makes mommy sad?
What about clothes?


4. How does your mommy make you laugh?
Look what I found!


5. What did your mommy like to do when she was a child?
I want to find you on a picture.


6. How old is your mommy ?
4


7. How tall is your mommy ?
Big!


8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?
Dora.


9. What does your mommy do when you're not around?
Counting.


10. If your mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
Five.


11. What is your mommy really good at?
Four. Or two. Or one.


12. What is your mommy not very good at?
I want to play my games.


13. What does your mommy do for her job?
Type.


14. What is your mommy 's favorite food?
Carrots


15. What makes you proud of your mommy?
Luka!


16. If your mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
What cartoon mean?


17. What do you and your mommy do together?
Play outside. Let me show you outside.


18. How are you and your mommy the same?
There's blocks in the jar.


19. How are you and your mommy different?
I'll brought you something.


20. How do you know your mommy loves you?
Loves me!


21. What does your mommy like most about your daddy?
Love him!


22. Where is your mommy 's favorite place to go?
Playground!