only 10 more years before it's too late...

Mom watched this special on Nova tonight and after talking with her I checked some of it out online and it's just incredibly horrible and frightening and what keeps going through my head ... "the worst decision ever made is the one to do nothing because doing just a little didn't seem like enough" or something like that.
The Syracuse Cultural Workers make this great calendar every year and all the proceeds go to great causes ...maybe passing this on will be my one little thing for today!

5th grade and 1rst...

Off they go...and lookin'good too. Mac in her rainbow outfit with brand new bookbag (way hipper than the backpack, mama, sheesh!) and Emmett finally deciding on an old favorite...the "human canonball" shirt!




...still not used to how huge, green, open and fabulous the new school is...

...new places and familiar faces!

Happy Birthday Matt!!

39 looks pretty good!!

Happy B-day to you too Craig! (I love this picture!)

summer favorites...

Inspired by my long distance friend (and old pottery partner)who now lives in Rhode Island, I have compiled a list of summer favs...

1)best snack of summer: enormous plate of Nachos with beans, cheese, avocado, scallions and tomato and sour cream. When lacking in the traditional mexican ingredients we make "deli nachos" with crackers melted cheese and hard boiled egg.
Dark chocolate covered almonds.
Sparkling lime water! The kids are now sparkling water fanatics!
What do we do while we eat this? Read books. Best pleasure ever, food and books!

2)best movie: Harry Potter 5...the only movie we actually saw this summer in the theatre. Its been difficult to take Silas anywhere he needs to be quiet...he does a great imitation of a divebombing seagull at the most inappropriate moments!

3)best outing: the beach obviously. This was the year of the beach and fully succumbing to all the sand everywhere. We just roll in it now. Who needs towels! Also, anything involving the zoo with Nana!

4)best books: For kids obviously "Harry Potter" the 7th Book(!!)"Inkheart", "the Deltora Series", Mythology books of any kind, and for me a couple of mindless "bodice rippers" that pose as historical novels...actually I am loving the kids books so much I have been neglecting my ever growing stack of bedside books. For Silas, "Good Night Moon" again and again and again!! For Matt anything with a black and red cover that has the words "death" or "menace" or "platoon" or "bravo company" etc.

5)best new discovery: our front lawn has a spot that is shady and breezy most of the day and if we sit out there on a blanket with Silas he is endlessly happy digging in the dirt or sucking on the end of the garden hose...while we engage in #'s 1 and 4! Oh and also we've re-discovered that you don't have to do a hell of a lot to have fun. Babies are good for that!

6)best outfit: Emmetts dream plan for the first day of school which I don't know if it'll happen but...anyway...a daishiki and a head band/sweat band to hold back his hair that he's growing out...and which shoes? his sneakers with "high white socks".
If this actually happens...Wow!

7)best music: M.ward, Michael Franti, Rufus, the Rock Out Car CD, and for Mac "Convoy", for Emmett "Kung Fu Fighting"

8)best catch phrases:
Mac:"I lovest thou" (to Silas)
Emmett: "Just put it any darn place"
Silas: "by by bird"

9)best summer moments: catching frogs at Cami and Craig and Finleys...and seeing that baby girl for the very first time!

It's a pretty simple list really...every year has its own flavor and I won't forget this one!

Happy Birthday Megan!!

ok, I have officially known you as many years as you were alive when I met you. get that?...you were 11...ok, not the best riddle...ok not even a riddle at all. (whatever!)
we love you!!!

p.s. And you should be totally impressed that I got my act together on time to even post this b-day best wishes...sorry Caroline, and Lauren and Lydia and...everyone. I am pretty lame usually. Just ask bebe and pops...every year a week after their b-days Matt and I are smacking ourselves in the head! Basically, if you don't live IN our house and specifically put in an order for chocolate cake...well, we forget 'ya. I didn't even know that Camis b-day was in May at all until Finley was born!!! So Meg, thank goodness, for more reasons than just that, that you are here all the time!...and Again with the love!!
p.s.s. I hope you don't hate this cropped picture of yourself. I like it! I tried to find one of the eleven year old you...so cute. Maybe tomorrow on the second day of your 23rd year... old lady. ha.

just look at my neice...

...isn't she just ridiculously sweet and edible!!(I just had to steal this one from Cami and Craig's blog because, well, just look at her!
and she reminds me so much of another baby redhead...while being her very own self!

It's awesome getting to watch these girls grow...from the very beginning!

no cottage cheese, thankyou...

Summer is coming to a close...

...and I just hate that. Even though all the stuff to come is great, I really love summer. I love everyone home, even when it drives me crazy. I love that in just 3 months our family can read out loud two Harry Potters, Inkheart, and 7 Deltora Quests. I think it is divine to go to the beach on a whim and not so bad when you have to spend three hours running errands because there's time afterwards to go checkout the petstore just to look at the turtles and then go to Soup Plantation...or whatever...
This summer has been full...a great vacation, lots of outings every where and tons of creative home projects. (Right now "The Daily Blabbity" , Mac and Emmetts newspaper, is in the works.)And having Silas around has made it new again. He has started talking, (duck, bird, mama,ball, by-by,up,papa,nana etc) at least the kind of talk that the immediate family can understand, and that makes all the difference for me. He's really fun and funny and has a strong personality that all of us are discovering. It's so amazing to watch the relationship between family members develop. Emmett is starting to enjoy Silas, which makes that baby SO happy, and that makes Emmett happy and the circle continues. Mac, as usual, feels like the glue for all of us. She helps us all.
And now summer is over and I will miss the togetherness. WAAAAAAAA!
...but now having written all that...the feeling is passing. I look forward to school and hanging out in the classroom...the friends there and the garden plans (Amy!!)...time to work at the studio...(ha!)...OK its not sounding so bad.
Hello Fall, Hello Back to School...and the beat goes on.

Emmetts favrite things by emmett

every morning when i wake up there alway there to greet me.
and do the swim around the tank. there are some of my favrite things in the world.


my dad and my brother a fun bunche.every time he leaves i always hug him.
and on the other hand silas very anoying,but i still love him.


a sculpture of a living room, not that much ey,but when i tell you the story, you'll want it.
me and my mom made it hand maid glaized and a lot other stuff.

my dog mayble my favrite pet of all.i love her soooo much she like my older sister.


my sister and her friend bella. bella might be strange but she comes over so often she like my sister.mac my real sister she is so great i almost explode with love!!!!!!!

a suker a useful item to use with screaming baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if nana were here i would take a picture of her!!!!!!!
don't you think i'm lucky.

tilt and freak...

this is sooooooo dumb but after Lydia and Sean's party I thought it hilariously hysterical...and now I can't stop singing this..."these are my tiny moves...tilt, tilt and freak"

summer of love...

first there was the 70's party...now for the 60's...

I know, I know, I don't look any different. But check out Megan!!!!!!!

Lydia and Sean throw a great party...and "the revolution will be live"!!

beachy...

I love the morning beach.

i am the loser...

I am having technological difficulties...all my "machines" have mutinous intentions...my camera will not speak to my computer so all of you out there who are waiting for kid pics will have to wait for me figure it all out which could take years (and those of you who have had enough kids pics for a lifetime are also out of luck because I am not that into the blog essay...)... my computerized kiln has also plotted against me and as most kiln repair people don't know anything about computers it seems I am scat-outta-luck unless I want to buy a whole new kiln...And the new air conditioner in Emmett's sauna of a bedroom keeps flooding the floor...
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
This is a job for Techno-Man!!!!!!!

starts with an "S" and ends with a "T"...

I can't rave enough about zoo camp this year. It has been so HOT and sticky out yet everyday I pick up these kids with stories of all the cool animals they hung out with behind the scenes at the zoo. Mac even told me of a place she had never seen before, which surprised me...I thought those kids new every nook and cranny of that place thanks to Nana's yearly sleepovers...and of course, they get to learn fine songs like the scat song. (This one goes out to you Craig. They thought you'd love it and teach it to your band "fiends" as a "warm-up".)

thankyou cami thankyou!!!...

...I love pandora.com
cami turned me on to a great way to find and listen to new music.
...always with the good ideas...keep 'em coming!
AND IT'S FREE!!

CHICKLETS!!!......

The baby chicklets, or at least some of them, have hatched...at least three. It's hard to see them in their teeny nest without disturbing them and we are really not supposed to disturb them at all or the parents will throw the little guys outta the nest...thats the little tidbit I read that terrified me...also the part about how I am somehow supposed to band their feet at 8 days old...hmmm?
anyway, all very exciting...Mac and Emmett, as you can imagine, are documenting all the details and find it very cool that both the father and the mother do the regurgitating to feed the little ones. (they are appropriately at zoo camp right now and are planning to ask lots of nesting questions...)
We will NOT be keeping any but passing them back to the kindergarten and perhaps to Macs 5th grade class, that is her deepest wish anyway!
The names so far are Fiddler, Cheeseball and Junebug...I think. (I kinda liked Nancy as the parents are Patricia and Hoenheim and I think its just hilarious.)
(this is not an actual picture of our Zebra finches as they are impossible to photograph through the cage bars...)

my summer in a nutshell...

I've spent a whole lot of time this summer looking for activities that suit a 9 year old, 6 year old and a baby. It turns out that there is ONE! The beach! The playground is no longer a destination of choice for Mac and Emmett...especially the baby friendly Cedar St. So, Mac and Emmett bring comic books while Silas desperately tries to get their attention. Pitiful.

school house rock!!!!!!

Mac's awesome play!!


Here's Mac singing...it's hard to see her because she's in the back with the microphone.

more school house rock!!!

Brother Sister Day 2007

Palapa in Yelapa

check it out

Ok, this is another dream of mine! So reasonably priced, although limited electricity and what looks like open air living...its so beautiful. So Matt, whatdya think? In 4 years when Silas can climb his own self into a hammock?
Make sure to look at the accomodations when you check out the website above... Casa Arriba and Casa Paloma.
Looks good for multi family vacationing...hint hint... (Craig is anxiously running his hand through his hair right now while Matt breathes loudly through his nose!!)


check out this one
...even better!!! books, hammocks, the sea, and a kickass kitchen

next great series...

We needed to move on...it was getting too sad around here post Harry Potter...this series seems pretty good so far. Inkheart is the first of the trilogy. And you gotta love a name like Cornelia Funke. Its also gonna be a movie coming out in March!!

The world in Seven Pictures...

only in china

only in India

only in Texas

only in Mexico

only in Hawaii

only in America!!

sleepers...and sleepovers...

I had a dentist appointment today and I rushed home worrying that Silas was fussy...I guess not. So cute. They are still sleeping!
It is such a gift to have have a truly great baby-care-giver my kids LOVE!! Thanks Meg.



...and speaking of people the kids LOVE...NANA!!
Here are Mac and Emmett on their annual adventure at the zoo sleepover with Nana. This is the 5th year for Mac and the 3rd for Emmett. Lucky kids all around.

never thought I'd do this...

New best (white trash) idea!

I put Scotch Tape on a couple of individual baby fingers and my sweet little one spent at least 10 minutes fiddling with them...! Brilliant discovery...enabled me to make a very frustrating call to SDG&E today with minimal baby chaos! Pretty funny too.

how I feel now that we've finished the book...

Truly great book (I won't say more...no spoilers here...and I apologize Emil for previous book slips!...)...but I am sad it has come to an end!...
Then again, it is sweet to hear Mac reading book one all over again to Emmett tonight. I guess he felt he was too young when we started the series the first time around to fully appreciate it...so I guess it never ends!
(sheesh Annie, get a grip!)

jewelry organizer

before!

after!

It's hard to see how incredibly disorganized and tangled all my necklaces were as they were all on top of one another.(poor smothered Gnish!) Emmett and I spent a lot of time getting everything sorted out. I always wanted to make something like this...thinking of buying an old frame and screwing in hooks etc but this is great because it holds all kinds of earings, posts included. I love this wooden frame...I got Mac a smaller one in a lighter wood too...the idea inspired by Cami. When we visited she had one like it in her bathroom that I coveted! Here's the link www.walljewelryorganizer.com.
The guy who makes them seems super cool too. He e-mailed pictures of the completed projects and wanted feedback. Not cheap but a great thing to put on your xmas list!
Again, thanks Cami for being ever inspiring!!

wobbily mobility!!...

Emmett teaches Silas how to use his pusher! (while Mama uses embarressing voice...)

today's pretty things...

oodles of plums...!!!!!





It's always a surprise seeing sunflowers grow this big this quickly!