date night

This weekend Paloma was invited to a friend's birthday party.......
at Chuck E Cheese.

Fortunately for me, she is all about her daddy these days, and wanted him to take her to the party.  (You can't imagine how glad I was!  Has to rank right up there w/the kids waking John up in the middle of the night for random things, and letting me sleep.)

I was so surprised when I saw the pictures from the party.  Who is this girl who hugs a giant stuffed rat?  There were lots of pictures of her dancing on stage, too.  Seeing those pictures did make me a little sad that I wasn't there to see her coming out of her shell.

While they were at the party, Lio and I had a little date.  We went to The Blue Manatee to pick up a dragon book that Lio has been saving for, had amazing pizza at Dewey's, got in a bit of shopping (ok w/Lio since he could plop down and look at his book while I shopped!), and dessert at Yagoot.  I wish I could say it was a great bonding time, but he was sooooo interested in his book that he could hardly talk to me.  I hope he at least has good memories of our date!

warmer weather

Last week's warmer weather brought out the best in all of us.  Everyone seemed to be in a much better mood, wanting to be outside playing as much as possible.  As soon as Lio stepped off the bus, he threw off his backpack and was ready to play, and even asked Paloma to join him in building a fairy house.  We are so ready for spring!

now and then

Today when I asked Paloma what she wanted to wear, she went to the very back of her closet and picked out the cute little cherry "top" seen above.  It was actually a dress that she wore when she was one year old (below), and that I loved so much I couldn't part with.  We gave it a try, and I think it looks pretty cute.  It made me happy all day seeing her in that little dress top!

rare but magical

I love it when these two get along, which is rare, but pretty magical.  They make up words, games, and even gang up on me a bit.  I hope they grow closer as they grow older and are best friends.  I hope Lio protects her and always has her back (or lets her have his ear - literally) when she really needs it the most.  I hope Paloma continues to idolize him and that she can always stick up for herself, despite the fact that she looks up to him so much.  I love those rare but magical moments.  Why are they so far and few in between? 

many mini cupcakes

I used to think that owning a cupcake shop would be so great!  I volunteered to help a friend bake a bunch of mini cupcakes for an art exhibit, and it gave a touch of reality to my dream.  It was stressful and hard!  I was really disappointed with how they turned out - maybe it was the lack of time that I had to plan, maybe it was my way too high expectations.  I was really hoping for something gourmet and artistic.  The silver lining of this all is that Lio and Paloma love the leftovers they have been sampling, and they think the cupcakes are great!

birthday goodness

John got me some beautiful cupcakes for my birthday.  Beautiful cupcakes deserve to be on a pedestal, don't you think?  Yep, I even got that from him, too!

learning together

Lio has had a few piano lessons, and I think he's getting the hang of it!
I think that I'm getting the hang of it, too.  It's been fun for me learning along side him while he's practicing.  And he has THE BEST piano teacher.  (We love you Jamie!)

let's pretend we are on a baking show

Let's see...in the past few days I have "pretended" to be an art teacher, Miss Frizzle from 'The Magic School Bus', the mom driving the van, a visitor to the zoo, a soccer goalie, a customer at a cafe, a neighbor, and many more that I can't even remember.  Not only do I pretend, there is usually a script involved that I have to follow very closely.  Otherwise, I'm told to "pause the game", reminded of my lines, and then we continue on.  Lucky for you, today was "let's pretend we are on a baking show".  We made one of my favorite recipes - zucchini chocolate cupcakes - crispy on the outside and so moist on the inside, not to mention so chocolatey!

chocolate chip zucchini cupcakes

whisk these ingredients together, then set aside:

1 1/2 c. flour

2 tbs. unsweetened dutch cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

beat these ingredients together:

3/4 c. + 2 tbs. sugar

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 large egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

slowly add flour mixture to the beaten mixture.

stir in:

1 c. grated zuchinni

6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

pour into 12 muffin lined tins.

bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven, rack in the middle, for 30-35 minutes.  cool in pan for 5 minutes.  enjoy!

pretend play

Today Paloma and I were playing school, and I was "pretending" to be an art teacher (ha!).  We created a crayon resist - first by grating crayons into little shavings, then sprinkling the shavings onto a piece of watercolor paper.  After covering the paper and shavings with a piece of wax paper, I ironed the paper to  melt the crayons, then Paloma used watercolors to paint.  The wax from the crayons resisted the watercolors, and created some beautiful effects!  Pre-school art is so much fun - it's all about the process.

sun catcher

Paloma and I used the frozen colored water

to create a sun catcher to brighten the dreary days!

We *love* it.

we are frozen

Paloma and I have been working on a little project to pass the time.

We started yesterday with filling cups of water (which she loved!), and then she added different colors to the water. We left them to freeze outside over night, and today we worked on step 2, which we have to freeze again. Stay tuned tomorrow for the finished product! Can you guess what it will be?

winter walk

We have soooo much snow! I think that the kids have inherited my homebody/hibernation gene, so it's hard to get out and enjoy it. Paloma is probably the best of the bunch - she's got her cozy snow pants to keep her warm. Lio got some this year, too, but just doesn't like getting bundled up to go out in the cold (notice the lack of hat and gloves on him - he complained about putting them on, so when we didn't make him, he complained about being cold!).

I Spy... (from Lio and Paloma)

The Valentines are ready to deliver! Lio and Paloma each gathered objects and created a composition. Lio just chose random objects that he liked, while Paloma focused on things that were red, pink and purple. After we photographed the compositions, both helped come up with the riddles and rhymes. I love how they turned out, and I think they are great fun to give as Valentine cards to friends. Homemade. What can be better? Hope your Valentine's is homemade and special.

I spy with my little eye

a Valentine game for you to try!

I spy something that a monkey likes to eat, 2 dinos not on their feet;

3 hearts that are colored red,2 pacifiers from a baby's bed;

a hair brush, transportation you take if you're in a rush...

to get to an island that's warm and sunny,

make sure to take $10 in money.

by LIO

I spy a comb and a brush, a pink pacifier to help a baby go hush;

grapes shriveled by the sun, a robot that is lots of fun;

something you wear on your feet, a yummy Valentine's Day treat;

scissors used to make cuts and snips, smelly chapstick for your lips;

a parrot that doesn't make a sound, 3 wheels that are round.

by PALOMA

spring order

I just delivered a spring order to The Spotted Goose to go along with the new lines they are getting in. The doveylove stuff has been selling pretty fast - I think this is the 3rd order I've done in a month for them!

I've designed some new styles of flowers for the ponytails...

and have some new color combos for the original flowers that started it all.

My routine for making them all is getting more "routine" - I have more of a system and it's not taking as long. Whew!

The bonus of this spring order:

John and I are getting away to 21C in Louisville this weekend for Valentine's! (funded by doveylove)

hoping to be back!

It's been almost a month since I've last blogged, and I've decided that it's time to get out of my yearly winter hibernation and get back to it! It seems like every year after Christmas, I stay in my pajamas whenever possible, want to sleep all of the time, and am very unmotivated to do anything. I know it's the time of year and the holiday let down, but really. Enough is enough of the hibernating! The kids have noticed that I haven't been taking as many pictures or writing my blog. Paloma even said, "Play less so you have time to blog." Very sweet of her to notice that I have just been lying around and my days have been spent playing her games. So I am determined to get out of this mood I've been in, and get back to being busy.

Look for some stuff soon...

the gift of a goat

This past weekend, 8 families got together to celebrate the gift of a goat. Rather than exchange Christmas gifts, the friends decided to give the gift together to a family that would really benefit from it, and to teach our kids a bit about helping others. Through Heiffer International, we were able to buy a goat for a family, that would enable that family to have nutrition as well as a source of income.

It truly was a group effort. One family purchased the book "Beatrice's Goat", that told the story of how the gift of a goat changed a little girl's life and enabled her to attend school, which is being passed among the families to share with the kids. Another family offered up their amazing home to bring all of the families together to celebrate. Each family brought delicious food to share. Two friends and I got together to make decorated goat cookies, and John located a button maker and drew the goat (above) so the kids could decorate their own momentos of the event.

It was a great celebration, and a gift that I hope becomes an annual tradition.

a gift for John

Our handmade gift for John this Christmas was a little love note. I used a sewing machine to make the lines on fabric for the "ruled paper", and Lio and Paloma used a disappearing fabric pen to write their messages to John. I embroidered over their handwriting, and the ink disappeared a short while later. I think it's the sweetest gift ever - a little bit of them captured in time.

playroom love - not as much

So, the excitement about changing the playroom space for Lio and Paloma was completely dashed one day before Christmas. When John was getting ready to install the hanging things from the ceiling, we realized that there was no possible way to safely install everything without doing some construction to the ceiling. If this was our "forever" house, we would go for it. But with wanting to move we just thought it was a bad idea.

We were stuck without any other ideas of what to give the kids from us, so at the last minute we did paint the puppet theater and did our best to make the space look different and fun.

Even if I'm the one who's most disappointed that we didn't get to do our original idea, the kids do seem excited about the changes! Paloma has been loving playing "cafe" in the space, and Lio loves that the curtains can close and he can have a totally private area in the alcove. I'm still in the process of making tons of pillows for the couch, and I think with the small touches there can still be a bit of playroom love, only not as much as originally planned.

playroom love

John and I have been planning to update the playroom for the kids for Christmas. We just really need it to be a place where it's bright and colorful, but most of all a fun place to be. IKEA has been the perfect spot to find those special things that will really transform the space for Lio and Paloma.

Just how cool is this hanging chair? I would love to sit and read a book in here! I think they will love it, too. Now we have to just find the perfect place to hang it so that it won't bang into walls.
An indoor climbing ladder? How great would that be as a kid?! Again, placement will be key.
And some hanging bars - I know, I know, again w/the placement!

We have a few alcove-y areas, so my favorite find was this great striped canvas, ON SALE!, for $2.99 a yard. I'm making ceiling to floor curtains to hang in front of the opening of an alcove - to create a stage, cafe, private nook area, etc.

And look how great this fabric is!

Not on sale, but just bought a bit to make some whimsical pillows for the couch in the playroom.

The only project that we had hoped to get done, but have just run out of time for, is refurbishing a big puppet theater. It's too much work to take on a few days before Christmas, but I think it would be a fun addition to the playroom.

I hope that with these changes the kids have some playroom love.

Photo Shoot '09

We were completely inspired by the crewcuts catalogue this year when planning the photo of the kids for our Christmas card. Last night and this morning the snow was falling and looked so beautiful on the trees, so John set up the props and we took the kids out to snap some pictures.

I love how they turned out.

Happy Holidays to you all!