stein farm fieldtrip...

The kindergarten went on a mellow fieldtrip to Stein Farm in National City.

The animals and the open spaces were the highlights for the kids...

for me it was all about the garden...

and we can't forget touching a rooster's comb...

and Benjamin!!

please, no more robin's egg!!!!...

I just couldn't take it! Next is Emmett's choice.
My guess is black. We shall see. Hmmm?!
(this is officially the dumbest post evah!!)

robins egg blue...

It's Mac's turn to pick the blog colors.
This is her favorite!

six months ago today...

...just a newie...

...six months later...well, alot can happen in six months!
Happy Half-Birthday Silas Loyal!!

thankful to great neighbors and SPRING!!...

We are so lucky to have such great neighbors! We knocked on the door of the butterfly house (we've called it that since Mac was a baby) on Easter Sunday to ask if we could "borrow" a few of their caterpillars off their milkweed, as they have shared before. An hour later there's a knock on our door and they've brought not only caterpillars but printed info as well as a chrysalis, perfectly formed and dangling from a delicate handmade structure inside a jar, much like a ship in a bottle. So nice! If we are fortunate enough to have butterflies emerge, after Emmett's class gets to study them, we will release them where they belong...the butterfly house! Thanks Larry, Ayako, and Galen!!

And here are Mac and Emmett enjoying their artsy, craftsy, "puffly" Easter loot. (puffles are the 2007 equivalent of the pet rock!)

easter goodness...

We used brown eggs and old fashioned dye this time and
the eggs came out this really bizarre, awesome color.
Who knew?

I love amaryllis. These are from our neighbor Elsie.
So springy!

oops, forgot a bed...sorry...sheesh...

beds, a study...

(look who just woke up)
now show us yours

you never know when they will emerge...

Well, we got some caterpillars for Emmetts kindergarten classroom but we timed it all wrong and those quick growing caterpillars already emerged from their cocoons over spring break into lovely painted lady butterflies. So we will have to try it again with some monarch caterpillars off our neighbors milkweeds.

emmett is typeing .i am holding a buterfly it took me 100 years
to get it on me but i did get it on me.


this is Mac here: I am holding a butterfly that just hatched. (so it can't fly yet) So I blew it on a flower and Isabel dont get mad at me for that because she or he was toatally happy!!!

we totally got him!!!

sneaky little april foolers...

...he will soon wake to a car covered from the inside with post it notes...and this is just the tip of the april foolin' iceberg! poor papa!

happy anniversary with no electricity...

Well, its lights out at Plum Pottery for a couple of days at least...some low hanging power lines were drooping in the alley and a garbage truck caught up in them, ripping them from the roof and back wall at the studio. Now, of course, SDGE is saying that it is our fault somehow. So, on Plum Pottery's 10th Anniversary, all is quiet. Wierd.
I have decided to view this not as an omen, but as a break, because everyone knows I'd never take one otherwise!


Makes me realise how much I love this place and how lucky I've been for 10 whole years.

hello from the Chula Vista Nature Center...

The Shadow Dreyers took a day off and had a great time on a "family field trip"

The Nature Center isn't very big but it's really open and fun. There are little trails to hike around the marsh and we saw many birds, lizards and insects.

They have a great aviary and some birds of prey as well as a beautiful butterfly garden.

Here Mac and Emmett are checking out the jellyfish but liked the area where you can pet sting and bat rays best. At 2:00 everyday they feed the rays and sharks and that was really fun.
It felt like sea world in 1959 when San Diego was just a string of little beach towns and a whole lot of open space.

We are trying to go somewhere we have never been every Friday after school (in this case we actually cut school) so if anyone has any suggestions for great outings let us know!

we got it!!!!!!

(is that really how you spell hurray?)
WE OFFICIALLY HAVE A FABULOUS NEW
SCHOOL SITE!! I am ecstatic!! So excited that
I had to blog post-class and for a fourth time today,
which is a record for me.
It's been a long time coming. Next year will be so much fun!!!

the soft side of the men in my life...

so sweet...

and a bit tough, maybe for their first cd cover.

it took 3 kids to get it right with the baby gear...

I love my new highchair, or I should say Silas' new highchair. I really feel like this time around I'm finally getting the most efficient, least ugly and simplest baby crap around. (excuse my language kids, but most of it is just that...)
It's a "Koala Care", industrial restaurant style highchair with no frills, no quilting. It doesn't tilt back or play lullabys but it has WHEELS, a must, and can be hosed down. Now that's what I am talking about. It's reasonably priced, can be donated to your local preschool, church, whatever afterwards and loses no value if you wanna sell it on EBay. I know I am a bit of a baby gear tech weenie, (is that the term?) but I can't help it. It Rocks!!!

the flower house, thanks to nana's green thumb...

nasturtiums, the happiest flower, abound at our house
right now...also our wisteria is in bloom for 2-3 short weeks

calla lillies, potato vine and azalea down the secret path
and another favorite, clivia which is too pretty to have
such an awful gynecological name.

I love spring at the flower house.

do you see ghosts?...

...ok...this sounds crazy but we think we see ghosts in these pictures.
We went to the Whaley House in Old Town. It is one of the only two official haunted houses in California. We walked all through it without seeing much in the way of ghosts,although the history of the house and the family is very interesting. We were told we could take pictures and that often ghosts appear in the pictures. So I brought along my digital camera. What do you think? In the picture above it looks like there a little girls face in the bottom left corner...




..and in this picture Emmett is standing on the 9th step, the supposedly haunted step, by himself while Mac takes the picture of his feet. Whats that pinkish thing next to him? No one was there!! Spooky!!

cutting teeth and eating sweet potatos...

Mac's first food was avacado. Emmett's was banana. Now Silas is trying sweetpotato for the first time. Two baby teeth are poking through also. Lots of changes. Maybe that explains the high level of GRUMP lately! It's hard to be a baby.

goodmorning from mac...whatever...

This cracks me up. My sweet 9 year old just discovered the fun of lip-syncing (above) but somehow I wonder if this is my future (below). Ha!!



I wish there wasn't an audio/visual delay issue but I can't figure out how to correct that youtube/blogger problem. "Um, Lauren???!!" said with a slight whine.

fieldtrip to old town...

I haven't been spending much time in Mac's classroom this year. First I had a baby, then I had a brand new kindergartener,Emmett, who needed my attention in his classroom. Finally I got a bit of time to dedicate to Mac and we had a great time. Her class is full of great kids!!
We had an awesome docent who told the kids all about the haunted Whaley House as well as lots of California history. She also gave them each something to wear from the time period. Mac is wearing, to her dismay, a basket on her head to represent the weavers from the local indial tribes ("Why can't I be the teacher or the lady who gets to wear the lace?")

After our time in Old Town, we went to Presidio Park where this picture was taken. Later, the kids ran around in the park...its so pretty there, I forgot. Poor Silas was smothered by 9 year old girls the entire time trying to out-sing, out-coo, and generally out-mother eachother. Hilarious!

And this is what the fieldtrip felt like much of the time!! Fun Chaos!!

first attempt at the 'totem' paintings...

The bear is kinda hiding in the tree, which Emmett likes. Mac likes her rabbit but thinks it should be an all white cotton tail, but she doesn't mind. Silas is decidedly pro-owl. I like my first attempt but I don't know if this will work over the bed.

what do you think?

I am thinking Irish Leprechaun, Megan and Mac think French, like "Pierre", and Emmett says C-U-T-E.

isn't that a beautiful tree...

Somehow, someday I would love to paint
a forest, a tree,
and my kids animal totems...a bear, an owl and a rabbit.


I have been trying to paint this concept for
a while now...we'll see...


Here are some of the images I have been collecting as ideas.
(none of them painted by me, by the way...)

studio scootching silas

at the studio silas was on the table i emmett. was under the table [i was sicke from scool]
i poped out of under the table and silas CROLED 13 KNEE steps !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i only have a litele fevre of 100.4 .
isin it unbelevable thet silas scootchd