already smitten

This morning the phone rang. Caller ID identified the caller from our school district. I panicked and passed the phone to Mr. Hawthorne. I thought for a tiny moment that the principal was calling or maybe, by some slight chance, the kindergarten teacher we asked for a request from was calling to ask "why?". To my relief, it was Miss Divine's (new) kindergarten teacher. She wanted to tell us she was at school preparing for the first day and thought we might like to come by to meet. Already, I became smitten with her. We jumped! Everyone got dressed and we headed off with classroom supplies in hand in a blink. The classroom was terrific. Mrs. W is just as expected. And, Miss Divine is over the moon. I am thrilled.

why oh why

Won't this house sell....again???

friday

Today was a good day for hanging out in the front yard, riding bikes and wearing miss-matched clothes.

El Fuego flew his remote control helicopter.

Petite Artiste watched the hawk and looked at the clouds.

Miss Divine played with her ponies.

currently

Currently, this is all I've purchased for back-to-school season and school starts in four business days. We drove out to the outlet mall yesterday to kill some time with my plan being to pick up a pair of shoes each for the big kids. El Fuego found these and they spoke to him. I tried to persuade him to pick out a yellow and black pair because he wears a lot of yellow, but his heart's desire was stuck on these beauts. Being a girl and having limited choices, Miss Divine left empty handed. She was not happy.

Besides crayons, markers, pencils, glue, copy paper, tissues, hand sanitizer and other classroom related supplies I have managed to buy NOTHING in the form of clothes, backpacks or lunch transport containers for the kids. And by kids, I mean all three. Yes!! All three kids will be going to school this fall in some form. Second grade, Kindergarten and Preschool here we come! What will I do with my nine hours of kid-free time a week?? I know one thing is for sure. You can find me on the steps of preschool every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday morning doing a little happy dance at 9am sharp!

My goal is to send my little people off with the basics. Both big kids have superb, almost brand-new summer clothes that will get them through the first month. And with summer weather lasting well into September, shorts and t-shirts are fine. Then, I'll hit up the after school sales and pick up the fall/winter essentials.

As for Petite Artiste....her school is all about getting in and getting dirty. Her school uniform will consists of hand-me-down jeans and rubber boots. I, actually, did pick up a pair of awesome zebra and hot pink rubber boots off the clearance rack last year for her. So even though she'll be getting all that hands-on goodness on every inch of her, she'll look fabulous doing it.

dog show

This morning we headed off to the dog show at Marymoor Park and it proved to be an entertaining outing for us all. We saw lots of different breeds of dogs walking about including our beloved Scottish Terriers. Which made our hearts ache for our Angus. The agility ring was a blast to watch. Some dogs were super fast and some dogs were not so much. It was a great time!

just beat it!

Thinking of my friend Emily tonight.

You can do it lady! You can beat it!!

long beach

It's not summer until a trip to the beach is had...

strike out!

We took the kids bowling this afternoon and it proved to be a whole lot of good family fun! Petite Artiste kicked our tooshies. She was down right hilarious. She would jump up and yell "YES!" every time her ball connected with the pins. Which was pretty much every time thanks to the gutter guards. El Fuego got a score one point over his dad's and boy was he proud of that. We heard about it all the way home. Awesome! Miss Divine got pretty darn good at rolling her ball down the lane too. She discovered the holes in the ball were for her fingers and it made all the difference. Now she just needs to work on her aim.

button, button, who has a button?

A while ago I made a seal through this website but I didn't make it a "clickable" button. I've noticed lately that everyone, and I mean everyone, has a button you can add to your website or blog. At first, I thought these little buttons were cute and added a little extra panache to my wee blog here. But, then I realized I was giving these sites basically free advertising. Not that I have a readership that warrants payment. However, I know my friends that come back and read my blabber on occasion go to these sites to check them out. So, in a way I do drum up a little business for these people just not on a grand scale. Which has me thinking ... about what I'm not sure yet. I'm torn between just leaving everything the way it is because I like it, or taking all the links and buttons down. I must admit though, I'm my biggest fan. Not in a weird self centered, egomaniac way but all those links are a collection of places I go to for information and inspiration. Things I like and admire. Stories I've invested time into. I don't want to just delete all that. What to do, what to do?

I've been doing some research this week. Lots of creative juices floating about my head. I'm desperate to find a way to earn some sort of income that still allows me to be home with the kids full time. I'm not ready to give up my ability to be the one standing outside of school, hearing about how days went, rubbing backs when things went awry and sharing in the joys of my childrens' life. I'm not ready to give all that up to a babysitter no matter how much bacon I can bring into the household with a 9 to 5 job. I can't help but noticed the many woman who've started blogs that all the sudden exploded into a money making machine. It's all got me very curious.

little life list, revised

• create a website
• shop on Rodeo Drive
• attend a Broadway production
• visit a long time friend in Australia
• swim in the Atlantic Ocean
• walk down the boardwalk
• Cape Cod
• become bi-lingual
• travel to Ireland
• be independently successful
• plant a lemon tree in my backyard
• possess a vacation house by the sea
• kiss my true love under the Eiffel Tower
• get a tummy tuck
• lose 80 pounds
• visit Newtown Connecticut during the fall
• be an audience member at the Oprah show
• rent an RV and cruise across the USA
• adopt two Scottish Terriers
• build a wrap around porch on my dream house
• acquire dream house
• enjoy tea parties with my girls in our very own green house
• build green house
• visit the Museum of Natural History
• sit in the front row of a Madonna concert
• own a really, really fancy camera
• take photography classes
• attend a luau
• complete a half marathon

11 years

Tomorrow, August 14, my handsome husband, Mr Hawthorne, and I will celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. We dated for five years until one Christmas morning we woke up to our little tree, in our little farm house, surrounded by our two dogs with distant mooing cows in the background where Mr. Hawthorne proposed marriage to me.

Here's to eleven more babe!

weird science

Backyard Laboratories opened yesterday afternoon for nine crazy, wacky boys. After securing their security badges and goggles, they accessed entry through the sanitizing area. Along with Professor Poly Mer, we experimented with hot and cold air, made slime with molecules that didn't cooperate when being shoved into test tubes, and had a blast making grenades with acid and sodium bicarbonate. Phew! The boys enjoyed all the green candy they desired paired with concoctions of their making to drink. We celebrated El Fuego's 8th birthday with a volcano cake and a good ole' fashioned game of red rover.