Conversations in the Back Seat

Scene: Yesterday evening, driving home from errands:

Sela: Zach
Sela: Zachie I'm talking to you.
Zach: Choosing to not look at her.
Sela: Zachie, Please listen to me, I'm talking to you
Zach: Still ignoring her - knowing he is getting her riled up.
Sela: Zachie, Zachie, Look at me, I'm TALKING TO YOU!
Zach: Whaaat Sela?
Sela: Do you love me?
Zach: Yes I do. (with a smile)
Sela: I love you too, you my Zachie!

Sela Sayings

I try to collect the funny things my kids say around their birthdays and just didn't get it done for Sela until now... so here is what you can overhear in our house at the moment...

Her a naughty princess (when any girl her age doesn't act to her liking)

Ariel and Cinderella are coming over for a party (daily)

Zachie - you my favorite prince.

Moama - can I have a bweakfast bar?

I Looove Crawberries!

Where's my Zachie?

Moama - we need to buy some sparkly decorations for the party. (daily)

I want to wear a B- You-Ti-Ful dress today!

Zachie - calm down. (ahem - I guess I taught her that one)

I love sparkely things!

Moama, you get me my little pink blanket?

Mama, Mama listen to me.... (hmmm again, wonder where she got this?!)

She also have named all of her stuffed animals - Spala for baby otter, Lina and Nina for her cats, etc... they all have unique names.

She is so funny. I have never seen a little girl talk with her hands so much.

Her synapses must be firing in overtime at the moment because she has had some seriously weird dreams recently.

1. She is convinced her ceiling fan light can talk. Luckly all is said was "turn off"

2. She dreamed a hand was under her bed the other night, and tried to tickle her. I asked her if it was mean and she said nope... but I don't like hands under my bed.

I sent her to bed with a squirt bottle with magic water in it - that makes scray stuff go away... hopefully that will keep her sleeping tonight.

Is My Blog becoming

I was reading a blog the other day and they said someone had accused them of having a "cat blog"... you know one where you just talk and talk about your cat - and maybe the rest of the world could get bored.

I have noticed a big drop in comments.. and I wonder, has this become a cat blog?

Oh... that picture....my cat Meep.

Little Bill

You know you are tired when you get choked up over the kids cartoon Little Bill. I have been hitting it hard with my grant application, and this morning I put on a Little bill show for my kids to watch so I could snooze on the couch for a few... only I got caught up in the story about Little Bills neighbor Mrs Shapiro moving away. She sang a little song about Same Moon, Same Sun, Same Stars... and I started thinking about my far away friends and got a little misty. Here are some of the lyrics...

We'll be wishing on the same star

Looking at the same moon

When you're thinking of me

I'll be thinking of you

And no matter where i go

I will be there with you

Wishing on the same star

Lookin at the same moon

now that I look at it is seems kinda corny - but hey it was a moment... and the best part? Sela climbed up and gave me a hug. (Zach was ignoring it all, asking for chocolate milk - boys!)

Check this out

You have to go play on Wordle ... it is tooo cool!

Some Sweet Press!

PHOTO BY ANNE STOKES, Sacramento News and Review

Am loving Sena Christensen the eco-warrior princess for this article she wrote up at the Sacramento News and Review!

I haven't been writing much about reCREATE because it isn't moving along as quickly as this mom would like... but then I got this gift dropped into my lap today, and I had to smile.

If you happen to know a gazillionaire who might want to give us a bit of funding, let me know!

Lovin' this Template!

The lovely and talented Heather - who is a superstar in the Spraground had a fabulous template on her blog as a freebie. It was so good that it got me scrapping this evening when I really should have been working on reCREATE. Sometimes a girl just needs a break! As you can see from the pictures Sela embraces the ocean the same way I do. If she could tell me her dreams I'm sure they would involve dolphins and mermaids. Look closely you will see she even made sand angels.

credits: Template: Heather Lee Paper: OScraps moonrise Joanne Brisebois 2 Embellishment tags: Laura Ping coaster beach, coaster summer

Smoke, Swimming and Sheba

So very happy that the smoke is clearing out here. It was really quite miserable for several days. I was so worried about how Zach would do - as he gets such an awful cough if his lungs get irritated. Happily he got through it fine - Sela is still sniffling and not quite herself - but on the mend. The fire down near Big Sur is especially heartbreaking to me, as I think Big Sur is kinda like heaven on earth. I was daily clicking on the Nepethe site to make sure it hadn't been engulfed by flames. Luckily they are getting a handle on the fires. I can only imagine how tired those fire fighters are. Thank you to all of them for their hard work.

On a different note - Zach and Sela finished another session of swimming. I fully expected them to be in the same level for the next session because due to the smoke - we missed 3 of the classes out of 9. Zach got sent up to the Otters!! This is the highest level for little ones and I am SOOOO proud of him. He is LOVING the pool. Sela is going to be a Duck again... mostly because she just didn't want to follow instruction. She is too busy just laughing and splashing at this point. I'm just thrilled she loves the water.... there is always next summer to learn the strokes properly.

We picked up my parent's dog Sheba to babysit today. Hopefully the kids will settle down... they are sooo excited to have a dog in the house.

Happy Birthday Nami!

We tried to upload this yesterday but had no luck....

Happy Birthday Nama! We will have to celebrate when you get back home!

Happy Thursday!

I took this picture of Zach when we were in Monterey, and every time I look at it, it makes me happy. The kids are back in swimming lessons this week. We went to the water slide a few days ago and it was fun... but tired everyone out, making yesterday a little bit harder than usual. But they are their happy selves again today, and for that I am thankful!
Zach is into really big numbers at the moment - he works it into almost every conversation... like, "mom I kicked my legs 50 thousand two hundred gazillion and 6 times at swimming lessons.

Sela is really doing imagination play - mostly centered around her princess friends. The other night I took them to drop-in childcare to go to dinner, and when I went to pick them up, the gal said she was crying for me. She told her I would be back soon, and Sela asked, "Is her our with her princess friends?" The girl didn't really know what to say. Sela looks at me and asks again, and I said, "Why yes! I was!"

Happy Birthday Dusti

Happy Birthday to Dusti... here is my birthday limerick for you!

There once was a girl named Dusti
Who's camera was really quite trusty
She went digital one day
with her scrapping.... Hurray!
Now her embellishments will
soon become crusty!

For those of you who don't know Dusti - she is an awesome crafter... and amazng scrapper who I have been begging to join me on my digi journey - and recently her friend the talented Laura Ping (designer at Polka Dot Potato) managed to lure her to the digi world... yipee!!

Happy Birthday Dusti - looking forward to celebrating with you tomorrow!

Have any hip trash?

So reCREATE is plugging along. We got word that 2000 kids from Rocklin will go through our education program. We will talk to them about the environment - ways they can make less trash, and then we will let them do art with some of our treasure. Here are some picture from a camp we had come through for an art project - the Sacramento Bee had a photographer come through, and also the Sacramento News and Review - I'm so excited the see our press!

ok... This is like 2 months late...

I never finished all the layouts for Jessica Sprague's - Digi in Deep class... This assigment is a bit of a cheat, because part of the assigment was to set up a mini photo shoot - But that just wasn't going to happen in my world at this time.

These pictures my husband took when we were in Monterey. Other than the cold breeze it was a perfect day at the beach - especially for flying kites. It was an awesome afternoon and I felt like my special moments with my kids were actually caught on film - and I'm grateful for that - even if I had bad hair!

Other Princess Party Stuff

Since Sela is obsessed with parties at the moment. (This morning she gave me a long monologue about Baby Laura loving parties and being so nice, and Nathan loving Baby Laura - complete with floaty hand gestures and giggles.)
So here is a picture of my thank yous and gift bags for the girlies. You can find the template for the purses here...

What else is happening? Zach got promoted to the Alligators in swimming lessons. He is VERY proud... and took the opportunity to brag to his little sister that he is better at swimming than her.... nice.... not.
I was on TV for mere seconds the other morning on Good Day Sacramento for reCREATE. The clip is here. Don't blink or you will miss me...

A Week in Monterey (AKA Ahhhhh!)

We just got back from a week in Monterey, Ca. Monterey is PERFECT for a family with young kids - we beached, hiked, flew kits, went to the aquarium, swam in the pool at the hotel, and just repeated these activities until our week was up. It is relaxing, and if you have any love for the ocean, you can't beat it.
One of my favorite days of the trip was the day we visited Point Lobos State Reserve. I have driven by there so many times on my way to Big Sur, and never ventuired in... it was so interesting! We took a walk to observe a bird island, then walked down a huge step of stairs to the most pristine beautiful beach I have been on in ages. Best part? Only 4 other people came by in the hour plus we spent there. Here are some pictures of that day.

 

We also spent a little time one morening visiting the sea lions at the Coast Guard Pier (a stones throw from where Mark and I both certified in SCUBA). Here are some pictures from that!

 

 

 

 

I'm going to save the other pictures until later so I can scrap them... but I have to share this one of Ci in the outfit Cathy made her...she looks so cute!

 

Check out My Camera Strap

Ok... my super crafty friend Dusti (the same one who made Zach's Pirate Cupcakes) has been sporting a cool cover for her camera strap for a while now... and I have been oogling it for as long as I've been aware of it...
Now, I DO NOT sew... so her and Cathy are always whipping out super cute things, and I always think - I need to learn to sew!
So Dusti comes to Sela's party, and lets me choose a band from several super cute fabrics... me I'm wavering between two - so she says, "take them both!" Me? I'm over the moon because now my camera will look as cool as hers!
Thanks Dusti - you are an excellent friend!!

Oh... and wait till you see what she gave Sela for her birthday...
And what Cathy gave her too... they are too too talented!

Sela's Princess Birthday Party

We had Sela's 3rd Birthday Party - A Princess Party. I tried to keep it a little lower key than previous birthday parties we have had for the Z and C. It was raining when we woke up - so all plans to have the party inthe backyard went out the window.

We had a Sparkle Station where we painted the girls nails (quick dry nail polish), I also bought Sparkle spray for their hair, and lotion with sparkles in it for their hair, and of course lip gloss.

We played freeze dance (princess music is too slow - find more upbeat music for this), and I also played a little game of what is missing with Princess items (tiara, wand, necklace, etc.) The girls were all three (except one 5 year old) - so the games were not really important.

Pink mini cupcakes with sprinkles and ice cream.
And cute little purses for their favor bags.

We had the boys construct a castle out of tubes and other reuse stuff while we were doing the girly stuff with the girls - and that worked out well.

More pictures to come - I didn't take many - but awesome Dusti and Cheryl did!

Swimmin' Lessons

We had a week of swimming lessons this week. Since Sela turned 3 - she got to swim! Zach got to be inthe Advanced Ducks. He started the week not wanting to put his face in - but after some practice was able to kicking and scooping and floating. He is ready to go to the next level skills wise - but the teacher suggested one more week of ducks to make sure he has the comfort level for the next level. I'm really pround of him. He did really good!
Sela was hilarious... He smiled the entire time (except on the colder days - when she was trying hard not to shiver. She did several of the skills which was pretty good considering that a class environment is new and different to her. The teachers were really sweet and patient.

Update on the Binky Front

We made it through night number one. She did wake up around 4:00 and asked me to rock her and just whimpered. But once I showed her her little present from the Binky Fairy she was happy and went to bed.
Tonight - feeling a bit bolder because it is her birthday she was yelling from her room, "I want my "Mouth Night Night" RIGHT now." I reminded her it was gone and she gave me a look of disgust and gave up.
I figure we will be good in a few more days! Thanks for the nice comments - I appreciate it!!

The Binky Fairy

Today Sela gave up her Binky. As I am typing this my bottom lip is quivering, because I realize this is a transition from baby to little girl. I have a lump in my throat because I know how much she loved her "mouth night night" as she calls it.... and I know that I will never get to be the one that finds her binky when she loses it... and have that moment where her who face lights up and she giggles with glee.... all for a silly little piece of plastic.

We went to the dentist last week, and the dentist said it's time. Sela promptly got sick - so I waited a few days... but on the eve of her third birthday I saw the opportunity.
I asked her who her binky should go to a boy baby or a girl baby - and she said, I think a boy baby... with dark curly hair.
I asked her what she wanted from the binky fairy, and she said, "I think a little toy pet and pet shop with a little girl. I was amazed that I found something that fit the bill. (I'll post the pictures tomorrow).
We took her Hello Kitty Castle and put the binky on the top for the fairy. Sela asked if she could have it back if she became a baby again. I tried not to cry.
Meanwhile, Zach kept asking to the call the fairy so he could see her - then he wanted her number so he could dial her himself to ask her to some early.... I told him the Binky fairy was nocturnal - and since he knows all about owls he accepted this and gave up.
She went to bed with no tears. Me? I'm bawling like a baby - because my baby is growing up.