do you like it when music pops up at you?.....or do you NOT ??

...by now you know why I ask?! I can't decide!
(by the way, if you need turn it down to listen to a video, scroll down to the purple play list and press pause...hassle??)
I guess the best part for me would actually be if everyone I knew who had a blog got one of these here thingys so I could find some cool new music...

oh and one more thing...watching the Democratic National Convention...Silas says, "Demo-CATS" and "Re-PooP-licans", or was it "Re-Pelicans"?? either way, I feel a song coming on...

to the mountains with Papa...

Matt took Mac and Emmett to Idyllwild for the weekend.  I've heard so far they bought slingshots and frisbees, went to pizza, had friends over, collected Manzanita wood to carve, sand and polish and spent some time reading "Calvin and Hobbes".  Tomorrow it's hiking, fishing, running through the woods etc.

There's no one like papa.

This picture was taken in Nebraska on 40 acres of untouched prairie. Matt could feel the chi.

fresh oranges...

Our house smells awesome after we had XTermite come. Our neighbor recommended it to us after our house started crumbling away. I was wary of tenting and couldn't face putting everything in plastic bags...They basically inject concentrated orange acid all over the place...

I guess it really works and now it smells like I cleaned my house. Cool.

Nebraska!!

I hope these pictures look as fun as it was. I forgot how truly beautiful Nebraska is...it helps when its un-seasonably mild (75 degrees) and we are in the company of really fun people.  

Love you all so much and miss you already.

(We would like to request some pictures of Dana and Patti...we didn't get many that turned out and we need them!!!)

the coolest house

(click to enlarge!!)
Yesterday we went to my friend and long time pottery students house in Alpine. Myra and Jim are awesome people. She is an accupuncturist and doula (creator of the rice pudding affectionately called "postpartumpuddin'") And Jim continues to be the happiest, calmest most positive person I think I have ever met...at 73 years old.
Anyway, their house reflects all this and I wish I took better pictures of the many little places to hang out...here a just a few.

Here are some of the party-goers/potters hanging under the incredible gazebo covered in wisteria with an outdoor pizza oven on the left...it feels like Italy..with a goddess-hippy twist!

I wish I had taken more pictures of all the gardens down below...some orderly vegetable raised beds and most of it was wild rambling fruit trees, corn, pumpkin patches, strawberries growing everywhere...

great play structure and hammock...

they also made a "beach" with a bed...where they sleep in the summer. Just a perfect outdoor room for the kids to play pretend...also great to get away when one needs to whip out the big bambooB for a freaking out Silas.





...and down below, tucked away...a full sized, humongous, REAL teepee. Sheesh. The kids wanna move there! (Hey cam and craig...I can see your house in the woods evolving with cool stuff like this...starting with the fire-pit!)

brother sister day shenanigans...

...another great one involving the Chicken Pie Shop, Mac's PCT skit performance and the game of LIFE...

attention shoppers!

check out Cami's blog post...looks good...and I have already tried to keep that list in mind when I shop.
It stopped me from buying $100 worth of nothing at Target!!

hahaha...

...worth the $1.00 I will owe the kids when they read this.

she'll be coming in the mail...

CC&F...here it comes...good thing I took it's pitiful picture or I wouldn't have noticed that I forgot the postage. (spaz)

Emmett makin' room for Silas...

Emmett and I rearranged his and Silas' room today. It could have been hot, sweaty and irritating work but Emmett was super into-it and made it a lot of fun.  So now we have an official "Bear Den" with a double bed and a twin smushed cozily into that teeny space. And its actually kinda cool (if you are a little person). Kinda like sleeping on the top bunk. We will see how long it lasts...

...and we were able to put many of Silas' toys and books in there.

The idea is to start reading to him at night in there and maybe, with Emmett's help, he will start to think of it as a nice place to hang...maybe one day SLEEP, dare I say.

Anyway, it was fun doing this with Emmett. He went through all his collections in detail, we bolstered all the sharp beams (again) and finally figured out a way to have the portable air-conditioner in there with out needing that stupid water pan.

another really good one!

This is our summer favorite so far. 

We highly recommend it!

Really clean, clear writing and it's a very 

compelling read for all of us...really hard to put

it down every night!

I think there are four in the series so we have

lots of good reading ahead.

We also are finishing the last in another series

we love and may have mentioned before...

the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage.

We are alternating between Queste and Ranger's

Apprentice. 

One of my favorite things about summer is our reading

time together...and the best part about the reading is that while I put Silas to sleep Mac and Emmett make what we call "Suprise Diner".  So after the grueling task

of putting to bed an energetic boy, I get snacks that usually involve guacamole and Nutella. The best!

the beach...

another Friday afternoon at the beach

...low tide, thankfully, not too sea-weedy, lots of friends...

(missed you Cam and Baby FEEEEE!)

check out my post-pedicure toes from yesterdays "girly" date with my daughter (banner at top)...glitter in the ocean sand! wow!

We even ran into Morgan....the Kindergarten teacher of just about everyone in our beach party including Isaiah, one of Emmetts best friends...It's always good to talk to Morgan about anything at all.

We also got to see  Jennifer Kelly, Mac's teacher from this year and for next year too. It's so great to see everyone out and about this summer.

 

It's such a small and beachy world

we live in.

...and here's some Silas getting good and tired out, doing what he does best...

what's been happenin'....

.....So much.

We have had the East Coast Dreyers here to make San Diego feel like vacation with their mere presence.  Finley is just an amazingly sweet and wonderful baby that I love...we all love...Silas LOVES, when he's not worried she will touch his stuff...We desperately miss "BABY FEE" already. 

I got to go out to see Craig play which I haven't done in forever and was completely impressed! I really can't believe how incredibly well he plays saxaphone...and now keyboards too.  I really liked having the band (Pete Francis and the Flyers) hang out at our house for an afternoon too...I miss hearing Matt jam with a bunch of people...Really a lot of fun around here lately.

Emmett learned to ride a bike without training wheels.  He really had no interest in his bike at all for a long time, prefering to ride his scooter everywhere. But he just decided to go for it and it took no time at all really. Again, when the time is right it's easy...

We had a few outbursts and temper tantrums (mostly the kids:).  A baby on prednisone for atopic dermitis eczema is just not a pretty picture...quite frightening really but he calmed down towards the end. He did, however, have just enough time and opportunity to pass on as many of the toddlerish behaviours he could to Finley.  She left our house saying "Give ME" and "Mine" and "No" and I am sure a few more.  She could hold her own, that's for sure, which is saying something.  Oh yeah, "I'm so mad mad mad at you...", she says that too. 

And we sung songs together a whole lot and nothing makes me happier than everyone singing.

Some memorable outings...the fabulous Childrens Museum, Nile Street park on a super fun Sunday, Coronado beach unseasonable sea-weed and all, the movies....I guess much of the good time was had as "innings, more than outings". Just hanging, walking around the block, drinking iced coffe and endlessly trying to get the babies to sleep.

Emmett went to zoo camp last week and loved it and then those lucky kids got to go with Nana on a photo caravan safari at Wild Animal Park followed by their yearly Roar and Snore sleepover.  They had more fun than ever. I guess the photo caravan is like nothing else...small groups, petting and feeding the animals with a lot of emphasis on conservation. Truly incredible.  They took 190 pictures!

One thing I did not do over the last 10 days was blog (as you may have noticed) or take many pictures. These few are the only ones I took while Cami, Craig and Finley visited.  I am banking on Cami giving me her good ones of Finley (hint).  I just seem to only be capable of  two or three creative projects going at once. (garden/pots/blog....haiku/photos/mobiles....dying all my clothes/painting mandalas/making soup obsessively etc.)  I just can't seem to handle my camera right now.

I am tapped. But this also means I am happy.

We have lots on the agenda over the next few weeks...beach, piano, singing, dates, movies, camps, sleepovers, a trip to Nebraska etc etc, visits from Mid-West Dreyers!!!!!!!

Life is busy. Our family is great. We miss you East Coast Dreyers. Lovelovelove.

(Check out Emmett with Lion!)

when I fall asleep reading aloud...

...this is what I get. 

Mac and Emmett think it's hilarious..

peaceful...

I could fill this whole blog with all the sleep pictures 

I am always compelled to take of this family...even the 

dog and cats!

sissy spacek's daughter...

My favorite movie of all time is Coal Miners Daughter...from the first time I saw it on my dads lap to the 23rd time, approximately, when Matt proposed to me (sorta, for those of you who know the story) while watching it. So for some reason I just love this girl, Schuyler Fisk who looks so much like her mom. Mac likes her too because she was in the movie "The Babysitters Club" when she was 11 or so. She was also the girlfriend in "Orange County" ...a very sweet and unaffected actress. Anyway, you may remember this song from a couple of years ago with Josh Radin...I like it because she sings it!

it's too hard to blog in this house in summer...

...constant activity...even during Silas' naptime, what used to be a peaceful hour or so during the school year, is now BUSY... I am either reading outloud or playing boardgames of sweeping up sand or watering or picking up the endless little flecks of cut up paper that litter the floor for some reason...and cooking or snack prep ALL DAY...no blog opportunity ("bloggortunity?")....here's a video of the level of energy in the house in just the last few minutes. (pretty damn cute actually) To get a little quiet time I have been staying up until 12:00 every night and the baby still gets up at 5:30. Definitely not enough sleep....(Matt, I feel your pain after all these years !!)
Summer is the best and it just might kill me!

Bebe Time!!

We did so much in such a short time...it went so fast...we miss you already!

Here are just a few of the pictures...of course there are none of Bebe and 

me watching it all with silly smiles on our faces.

after hours of the pool and the sun...

...Silas passes out!

Bebe treated us to an awesome day and night in a hotel on the bay with a beautiful pool and room service and it was just great! The kids were fish and I was a bit of a pig and in the end were all as snug as bugs, watching movies! I felt completely spoiled and loved every minute of it!
Thanks BEBE!
(I didn't really take many pics because this little guy was all over the place and I couldn't take my eyes off him until he collapsed! He is most definitely a bit too free around water...almost gave me a heart attack!)

Happy Fathers Day !!

May

All

Your

FATHERS DAY
wishes come true Papa!!!

(we know one wish came true...Nappy-Time...he really knows how to fill up a king size bed, doesn't he!?)

WE LOVE YOU!