TreasuresInTerraCotta

We saw this Rainbow Checkerboard Cake video several months ago and Calvin was intrigued.  He ended up adding it to our Summer Fun Ideas List and this week we made it happen.  This was not quite a Pinterest Fail, but if you look at the video you will see how far from the original creation our cake actually was.    One cake mix was divided into pink and yellow.  One cake mix we made into blue and green.     Lots of boys.  Lots of help.  Lots of hand washing.    We cut the center out of each one and rearranged the colors.    And stacked them all together.  If we had waited until the cakes were completely cool, or even par-froze the layers they would have stacked more easily without cracking. I was running low on frosting and patience and endurace, so the end product left a lot to be desired. But, remember the boys up there?  They didn't care!  They oohed-and...

Some girlfriends and I went to Creative Juice  Art Bar to paint a desert monsoon.  Our friend was moving to the green, rainy, lush Pacific Northwest.  A farewell to the desert with a monsoon painting seemed like the perfect going-away-party-and-present! Following the teacher's step-by-step instructions we each made our own creation.  I love how they all look similar, but each painting has it's own style, there are variations in shades of color, unique brush strokes, and different details.  This is what we ended up with!  But after a month of hanging in my living room, I have to ask, is it OK to re-paint a painting? There are so many things I like about this painting, the clouds, the lightning, the bright horizon, and most of all, that it represents summer in the desert.  But I do not like the foreground.  The base in brown, as if the whole foreground is in the shadows.  In the s...

I shouldn't hate birthdays as much as I do.  And it's not for the reasons most women quintessentially hate birthdays.  It's not about getting older or the passage of time.  It is really all about expectations.  Call me crazy, but I just want the day to be special.  I have had trouble defining what I want to be "special," but the more I ponder it, the more it comes down to being known.  I want to be known and celebrated.  I don't want to choose the restaurant, I want someone to suggest the one they know I'll love.  I don't want to have to ask to not cook, I want it to be offered.  I don't want to do things out of obligation, I want to have a day of joy.  I don't want to ask for a gift and be given that exact thing, I want to be known enough to have inspired gift-giving.  I don't want to have to ask for everything, I want it to be offered, as a gift, because I am known.  That is the gift! No wonder I...

We finally finished up our school work during the week of Memorial Day.  The boys were so excited to finally be on Summer Break like everyone else.  But at 7:50AM on Monday, June 1 I actually heard the words, "I'm bored."  *Deep Breath*  Fortunately, after that they kids found plenty to occupy their time and we hardly even left the neighborhood.   Our first week of Summer Break ended up gloriously uneventful and I only heard "I'm bored" once or twice a day.  We stayed at home a lot, made lots of messes, and got to know the neighborhood kids better.  We had to buy some walkie-talkies, replace a bicycle pedal, and get a case of Gatorade for the kids.  Here's what we were up to! Legos.  Blankets make clean up ten times easier!  Star Wars Lego building. Riding Bikes with the boys in the neighborhood!  (Not all of them are in the picture!)    What the driveway looks like some da...

Time speeds past and the longer it goes since I've written anything, the harder it is to get back to it!  The writing and journaling and blogging and photographing have never been all that easy.  Except for taking pictures, the rest has gone untouched for months...yes, I know, months!! I have nothing profound to say, but here are a few pictures of what we've been up to.  We have some new neighbors we've known since Calvin and Luke were babies together in the church nursery.  Put our two families together and the sheer volume of boys creates its own gravitational pull and suddenly there are ten kids riding bikes and scooters and anything with wheels.  We've had a lot of evenings like this in the neighborhood.  The boys had money burning a hole in their pocket so we continue to add to the Lego collection. The Legos may or may not have taken over the house. We still have the Foster Girl.  Sh...