Star+Flower

I think...

...February just might be my favorite month in terms of weather. I love that we had rain and now it's really mild and altogether wonderful. If we had a hammock I'd probably be tempted to lounge around outside all day. I hope March will bring more of the same.

Ah, the look of fascination. Aidan wanted to smash that poor snail and it was a good thing he asked me before he did it. It crawled all the way across their sandbox and then I caught it up with a leaf and put it on the dirt. My good deed for the day.

These days have been perfect for blowing bubbles. Mia loves it.

We found this little bubble-making robot at Target. It blows the tiniest bubbles and it would be cooler if there were at least three of them going at the same time. The kids like huge bubbles though so we need to find something does that.

Someone needs a haircut but is refusing. I wonder if his hair gets longer will it finally flop over or will it keep going straight up?

This is an 11x14 collage on canvas that I made last month. I used magazine clippings, old book pages, graph/scrapbook/textured paper, and a San Francisco map.

Here's the birthday card I made for my lovely friend, Michelle.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. Allan comes home this afternoon after being away all week at Minneapolis so I'm feeling especially cheery today.

She did it!

We were shopping at Target after Valentine's Day to get Grandma a gift and, of course, when you go to Target you never leave with just the thing you intended. We found ourselves wandering down all the aisles again and inevitably ended up at the tricycle area again. (First, let me just say that Grandma and Grandpa gave Mia an awesome Disney Princess tricycle for Christmas, but her legs still aren't long enough for her feet to get on the pedals properly.) I brought down this little foldable Radio Flyer trike for Mia to try and I'm pretty sure it was the same one she had tried on a previous trip. She has a scooter here at home which she's pretty good at. It's so cute watching her little feet go so fast. Anyway, so the first time she tried the trike she started scooting with it and I told her she had to put her feet on the pedals just like the little girl on the picture. She would try but didn't really understand how to get herself moving. But this time she tried it again and she got it! I was so excited I could've done cartwheels. So this little pink and purple tricycle was yet another extra splurge, but how could we not? It's been raining here like crazy so she's been riding inside the house, following Aidan around while he rides her Princess trike. She crashed on her first time trying to get around the kitchen island but she's pretty good with steering now. She learns quick! Here's a mini MOOvie from last Saturday:

Our Valentine's Day

I would say that this is my third favorite "Day". I love LOVE.

I thought about what I wanted to give Allan and the kiddos way in advance.Those $1 mailboxes from Target are so cute! I didn't want to mess them up by trying to cover them with paper though so I just simply decorated them with stickers. We gave Mia a package of her favorite candy, Gummi Bears ("jelly bears" as she calls them). Aidan got bubble gum, a coupon for getting to stay up an hour later after bedtime, a "Get Out of Jail" card, and a letter from me. A funny thing is that Allan and I gave each other gifts that we could share. How very practical and totally us!

I found my gifts waiting for me on the dining table this morning. Well, the B&B stuff only kinda counts because I told him I wanted them. But he got me (or should I say us) a new camera lens! When he finally got home from work I couldn't wait to have him open my gift for him which was a Holga kit...which I immediately took away to look through the contents and marvel at the images in the included picture book.

He also gave me two dozen pink roses that he arranged in a vase himself and chocolate-covered strawberries from Godiva. Kisses and hugs from the kiddos. My family makes me so happy. 

Valentine's Day is also Grandma's birthday so we celebrated with her here at home. Mia likes blowing out birthday candles and taking swipes at frosting, but she will not eat cake. I just love how tiny it is!

Hope your wish comes true, Grandma!

And, lastly, my boy who is my heart. I know he's going to grow up wise just like his Daddy. He told me something so simple today and yet it was something that I really needed to hear. To have it come from him just tears me to pieces. He gave me the best Valentine gift without even knowing.

p.s. I spoke too soon about Spring. It's been cold and windy again for the past two days. Sigh.   

Magical Bubbles

At noon it feels more like summer than spring, but the late-afternoon weather is just perfect. I want to take advantage of it now and clean up our neglected backyard. That's the project this weekend. Today we blew bubbles for Mia and her face just lit up at the mere mention of it. It's nice seeing the kids run around on the grass again.   

Lots to Say

I felt so sorry for Aidan yesterday. Wednesdays are probably the hardest day of the week for him. He gets up at 6:30 a.m. for school and comes home at about 3:15 p.m. He asks for a little break so I let him have 30 minutes before he starts on his homework. He has math, spelling, and, the hardest part, answering questions from his reading book. By the time he's done (but sometimes he doesn't finish) it's time to get ready for Taekwondo and he doesn't get back from that until 7 p.m. So when he gets home he will finish his homework if he hadn't done so already and then we eat dinner, then he takes a bath, reads for 20 minutes (which is also part of his homework) and then sleeps by 8:30 p.m.

He gets easily distracted and that accounts for some minutes wasted while doing his homework. I get upset with him sometimes because he likes to get up and walk around while thinking about his answers, but I know it's doesn't do him any good because he eventually comes to me for help. I know on some days he doesn't want to do homework. Sometimes Mia distracts him with her playing too. But I really do feel sorry for him on Wednesdays.

He's almost done reading the first book of the Narnia series, but I wonder if the books are age-appropriate for him in terms of comprehension. My brother didn't read them until high school. Maybe it's time to go to Borders and buy the rest of those Spiderwick Chronicles books.

Mia has a new obsession: Ni Hao, Kai-lan. It debuted today on Nick Jr. coinciding with the Chinese New Year (Happy Chinese New Year! It's my year...year of the Rat!), but the first episode has been on Video on Demand for the past week and she has been watching it several times a day. It's already grown on me because it's so cute, plus we get to learn a little bit of Mandarin at the same time.

I decided to play dress up with her today and put her hair in really high pigtails and she wore her prettiest dress. I let her jump all over my bed while I took pictures of her. This made me appreciate having a digital camera even more because I could just keep shooting away without worrying about running out of film. 125 pictures and I was able to get a few good ones.

Oh my goodness. I look at this picture and I feel like my heart is going to burst from happiness. Now I need to have a photo-shoot with Aidan.

Peekaboo!

Here's a layout using Prima's new Tea and Silk Collection papers. Have you seen all the sneak peeks at the Prima blog yet? This release is going to be amazing.

And I'm doubly happy because the new products KI Memories has coming out are so awesome. I'm totally giddy about it. Sneak peeks will be coming soon and it will definitely be worth the wait. 

Catching Up With Blogging!

Ah, that was a nice break. Well, actually, now I'm a little sick. I have this cough that won't go away. We've had lots of rain and it's been windy-cold. I'm sure Aidan and Mia miss being able to play outside. I can't believe I'm saying this but even I miss the warm weather! Spring can't come early enough, that's for sure.

Today, Mia and I went outside briefly so I could take pictures of a couple of layouts that I made for the Prima booth. She's wearing her PJ's, her sweater that she's been using all this winter, and her Uggs. I sure do love her in boots. And she has a lollipop in her mouth. It's early morning and the first thing she thinks about is candy. This girl has a major sweet tooth.

We went to Aidan's First Reconciliation last Saturday and this is what Mia wore. She looks like a little elf with her hat but I think it's so cute that she wants to wear it. She's such a girly-girl too that whenever we go out she has to have her bag. She will not go out the door without it and she just puts in whatever she happens to like. In this picture she had a flashlight inside. Right now she has an empty plastic goody bag and a book in it.

Aidan was a bit nervous that day. All the way up to the time he met with Father he kept telling us that he didn't know what to say. When he finally came out, he seemed subdued and I thought he was going to cry. I would ask him what he was feeling and he would just shrug his shoulders. I'm still wondering what he confessed. I tried to get it out of him but Allan laughed at me saying that whatever Aidan said was between Aidan and Father and God, of course. But I imagine he would've said that he sometimes doesn't listen and he leaves his room a mess and leaves his clothes on the floor. He really has hardly anything to confess. He's such a good boy, my Aidan.

I'm in the midst of a busy scrapping week with new Prima goodies and the SOMO kit. The ideas are not flowing very easily, but I have to finish! I won't be attending CHA, but I'll have projects at the Prima and Xyron booths :)