festival fun

Every year, we head out to one of our city's local craft festivals. 

I love craft festivals.

I love the kitchy handmade items, the crazy-fattening foods, and the endless opportunities for people-watching.

Festivals make me seriously happy.

David could probably do without them... but he's a Trooper and manages to humor me in the spirit of family togetherness. 

And some serious hubby points.

This year we headed to the Festival on a wet and muggy day - armed with umbrellas, a camera, and some cash to spend. 

Avery and Charlie immediately made friends with a gigantic, slightly tattered, and somewhat creepy elephant.

 Who they thought was completely wonderful.

 And totally exciting.

I managed to tear them away from the elephant long enough to consume more fried Fair Food than is suggested by the FDA.

Then we squeezed in a slightly uncomfortable exhibition of a belly dancer class, checked out the petting zoo, and did some serious posing by an adorable carousel.

We ended the day by purchasing the world's largest bag of Kettle Corn. Cause that's what you do at a Festival.

Can't wait till next year!

hot, hot, hot

It's been out-of-control hot around here lately.

To relieve ourselves from our heat-induced house arrest, we ventured over to our favorite sno cone place for some yumminess.

Charlie decided to make himself at home and sit directly on the concrete to eat his sno cone.

'Cause it's totally sanitary to eat next to cigarette butts and broken sno cone spoons.

After a few bites, he decided to go ahead and paint himself with the sno cone too.

Highlighter yellow.

Awesome.

We met my sweet, sweet, sister-in-law...

and my brother - for some serious conversation...

and a laugh or two.

When the tongue turns purple, you know it's time to head on home.

california love

On June 10, David and I celebrated our 10th anniversary.

David  has been planning our anniversary trip for over a year.

Planning vacations is serious business for Dave - and this was a super special one.

He out-did himself for sure.

Our big trip included a cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerta Vallarta (sp?) and a short 2-day stay in L.A. before the cruise.

As an added bonus, our friends Josh and Maribeth joined us for the L.A. part of our trip.

When I think of L.A., I think of movie stars, palm trees, huge houses, Rodeo Drive, and tons of cheesy tourist attractions.

I'm not opposed to cheesy, touristy things.

In fact, the Big 'Ol Nerd in me loves them immensely. 

And if we're being real honest here, I would have been seriously pumped to take a Tour of the Stars in a dorky bus. I would have relished checking out the Brangelina exhibit at the Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum. I would totally have totally loooved putting my hands in Judy Garland's handprints. It's true.

I'm a nerd.

Josh and Maribeth, however - are a little cooler than I - and enjoy doing what the natives do when they visit a new city.

Things like shop at this place:

Where all the pretty fabrics live.

In one place.

Turns out the natives do some really fun stuff.

Maribeth and I were in looooove with Michael Levine.

It's safe to say that David and Josh didn't feel the same way.

At one point, Maribeth and I left Josh and David on their own while we sifted through the bins in this place:

That's when Josh  looked at David and said, "You know that everyone thinks we're together."

To which David responded, "Yeah. I'm pretty sure no one cares."

And it was true.

They may have been the only hetero people within a 2 mile radius of the store. 

Possibly more.

Make that definitely more.

We hung out at the Farmer's Market where I saw this guy riding a bike:

And I almost peed my pants.

Cause I'm a total nerd.

Mr. and Mrs. Coolness did acquiesce when they went with us to the very touristy Santa Monica Pier.

I have my suspicions that Josh was just scoping out spots for his engagement shoot on Sunday, but whatever. Let's just pretend they were into the cheesy tourist thing for a minute.

We saw Zoltar...

And rode the Ferris Wheel.

And saw the fattest pigeons I've ever seen.

And stared at the crazy people swimming in the freezing cold water.

Then we went shopping and saw Harvey Levin from TMZ interviewing some people for The People's Court.

I think I did pee myself that time.

And I managed to snap a picture -

We saw some seriously interesting fashion choices at the mall.

Just take a look at what the middle guy is wearing.

Wowza.

The next day, we went to breakfast where I overheard a guy at the next table talking about the scene he was writing for 30 Rock.

FANCY.

I managed to control myself during that conversation.

But only because I was busy eavesdropping.

Later, we went to Firefly (a restaurant so cocky that they don't even have a sign outside.) to eat dinner. And - umm - Kirsten Dunst was dining there.

At the same place where we were dining.

Yes. That's right.

She walked right past us on her way out the door.

I didn't see her, but Josh and David did.

It was probably best that I missed it.

Because I'm pretty sure I would have been asked to leave the restaurant on account of my obnoxious behavior.

Come to think of it, I'm wondering why I was even allowed to enter the establishment in the first place - since I wasn't wearing stilettos and a mini dress.

By the way - Firefly has one bathroom.

One bathroom for the ladies AND the gents.

To use at the same time.

Let me just say that standing in line to pee with a guy is a little strange.

Overall - L.A. was fantastic.

Beautiful weather

Beautiful food.

Beautiful people.

Beautiful company.

take me out to the ballgame

We love our city's AAA baseball team - and a couple of weeks ago we went to a game with some friends from church.

The stadium is downtown - which meant we had to park in a parking garage and walk a little way to get there.

We entertained ourselves by doing a little "window shopping" and found a store that sold these awesomely bad sunglasses...

and - aparently, "panchoes" and "umbralla".

For those of you who are paying attention, that's several panchoes, but only ONE umbralla.

Yep.

...and Avery found what could only be described as a 3 year old's dream car:

Come to think of it - a car full of money may be my version of a dream car too...

Here's Avery on the way to the game showing off her new Spiderman impression.
We do it pretty much...everywhere.
Good stuff.

When we got to the stadium, they were giving out Mickey ears to the first 200 kids through the gate.

It's beyond rare for us to be on time anywhere - much less EARLY - so getting those ears was pretty much a miracle.

Seriously.

We were given tickets to a super swank suite for the evening.

I'm not going to lie: I felt pretty fancy heading up to our "suite" for the game.

Make that very fancy.

And cool.

Definitely cool.

Avery and Charlie were oblivious to the coolness of the suite, but totally enthralled by all the action going on on the field.

The excitement wore off after an hour or so - and my little man started getting a little sleepy. These days he's such a busy, busy boy that I totally relish those rare, still moments.

A fun time was had by all -

Can't wait for the next one!

 

art show

I love Art.

Maybe it's the Preschool Teacher in me, but no other kind of art in the world makes my heart happier than kid-created art: the freedom, the messiness, the simplicity, the pure creativity - it's just the best.

Each April, our Preschool hosts an Art Show featuring the student's art projects throughout the year.

We line just about every square inch of the school with beautifully imperfect preschooler-made lovliness.  

This year, one of my favorite displays was my 5-year-old class' beginning and end-of-the-year self-portraits.

I love seeing the different ways that kid's depict themeselves on  paper:

Some kids draw themselves with enormous arms or crazy spider-like fingers and gigantic heads, while others draw a mouth full of crazy, jagged teeth.

Then there are the precocious few who go to great lengths to include the most minute details about their anatomy.

Those are the ones Ms. Jennifer has to sensor.

And then hide.

But only after sharing a giggle with mom and dad first.

Because honestly, who doesn't giggle over that?

Another of my favorites was our class-created alphabet chart display.

We worked on it all year, and the culmination of my class' individual efforts turned out just too precious. The crazy, hodge-podgi-ness of it all totally screams "preschool" to me.

Avery and her little friend Faith enjoyed the art show almost as much as I did.

Dressing up is the ultimate when you're three.

That and a few shots of super-sugary lemonade.

Right before bedtime.

Gotta love that.

After I said hello to the parents and kiddos in my class, David, Charlie, my mom and I headed over to Avery's classroom to check out her Art work.

Thankfully, the lemonade-induced sugar high was starting to wear off a little by that time.  

My kiddos collapsed in the car on the way home - which is the ultimate Good Times Litmus Test.

Until next year, Art Show!

April memories

While I'm still playing catch-up, I'd thought I'd share a few of my favorite pictures and memories from April.

Here are a few from a fun day at the zoo with our friends:

Charlie was infatuated with the chickens. Seriously loved them.

Check out how excited he was to see the Easter Bunny at our church's Easter Festival:

Here's Avery in her Easter duds - doing her new "camera pose".

And again... with her cousin after hunting eggs. Nice.

She's such a mess.