Creekside fun

Sunday afternoon we were invited to 'Grace's Grandma's house' for dinner and playing in the creek. The kids love going there, it is one of the places they most love to play, with some of their favorite people. I was happy not to have to cook a meal and to also get to enjoy the company.

Sundays are always busy days for us, there is church, then I drive Asia home for her nap, while James takes the older two kids to Thai Church for the afternoon. This was too good an offer to pass up though.

A day at the Zoo

Saturday was a great day. I absolutely LOVE to spend time as a whole family, it is by far, my favorite thing to do, especially when we have planned something fun and the kids are excited and happy and eager. For months, Arran had been asking to go to the zoo; we used to go quite often when they had the 'free day' once a month, but they changed the rules to make the free day only for San Francisco residents, with everybody else paying full price. To be honest, it was a pretty depressing zoo and the thought of paying to go there was not in the least appealing, when we had to drag ourselves there even when it was free. Well this weekend was the Smithsonian Museum Day, and the Sacramento Zoo was participating. We had never been there before, so we packed up the car and off we went.

It was great! Smaller than the San Francisco Zoo, but just right for kids our age, we were actually able to see (we thought) everything. The exhibits seemed closer, with the animals easier to see and, in spite of the extreme heat, a good time was had by all.

Arran was our resident map reader, that map did not leave his hands.






Of course, trains must be ridden, whenever they are available.

It was interesting to see how skewed a child's sense of reality can be. As we would talk about the animals, Bryttain repeatedly would tell me that they were not real. I would reassure her that in fact they were, to which she kept asking, "Well, why aren't they talking?". Too much exposure to Disney and Pixar movies and not enough exposure to the real deal!

At bed time I asked them what had been their favorite part of the day. Bryttain poutily told me
"The kangaroos...and I didn't even get to see them!".

Exclusive downtown time!

Our little Asia is growing up so quickly. She is such a sweet, precious blessing, but there is less and less baby left. She is trying to say more and more and do more, exerting her independence. At the same time, she loves to be with us and Thursday evening, for maybe the first time since we brought her home from the hospital, almost two years ago, she got to spend some time with just James and I. We had dropped Arran and Bryttain off to AWANAs and for once James did not have music practice, so the three of us went for a wander downtown.

She loves, loves, loves water, so we walked over the river. She is a big girl now (don't you know), so insisted on walking on her own in front of us for a while. But in the end, who could resist holding daddy's hand, so sweet!


Then she got in some good daddy time, complete with cuddles and kisses, (the best!) and some more water, at the fountain in the little square.

Our children's lives have each been so different. Arran had a whole two years of our undivided attention before having to share us and of course our other two have not had that luxury. Sometimes I feel sad for them for that, but that is how life is. They have had the benefit of having an older brother, which he never had.

We just need to take these opportunities and use them to the best of our abilities, be purposeful with the time we have. These days are passing all too quickly and I for one, do not want to miss a precious moment.

New Toy

Last weekend was my birthday. We had a lovely day; James and the kids made breakfast, we took a picnic to the beach and met up with the cousins and later in the afternoon friends of ours watched the kids, so James and I could go out for a meal. It's so nice when a birthday falls on the weekend and you can actually feel like it's your birthday for the whole day.

I had debated back and forth, with myself, as to what I wanted as my gift this year. These days there are always photography related items on my wish list, but recently my sewing machine has been having more and more problems and the last time I tried to use it, it would not feed fabric through at all and I ended up having to borrow a friends'. It is not something I use on a daily basis, but the more I thought about it, I realized that without it I felt hampered and restricted. I love the whole creative process, whether it be my photography or sewing projects here and there, I need to have the freedom to follow inspiration in different directions.

My life revolves around looking after children, who I love dearly and I would not have it any other way, cooking, attempting (poorly, most of the time) to keep house and for too long I neglected my creative side. This last year or so I have acknowledged my need to do things that are for me and that I enjoy and can do for a reason other than that they are purely needed or necessary. I was created to be creative, in the image of a creator.

Well my new toy arrived on Thursday and I love it! It seems so advanced compared to my previous, very basic but adequate, machine. I am excited to try out some new features, although there will be a lot of reading and learning before then, I am sure.

I set to work right away, though, on a project I had had in mind for a friend for a while. I had already been out and purchased the fabrics I needed and found a pattern, which I adapted. This was my first attempt at making a bag, and although it was not perfect and I know there will be things I change a bit if I make another, I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The fabric had flowers embroidered on it already, I did
not do that :)

Fully lined in a coordinating fabric, with a couple of pockets.
I think if there is a round two, I will add more pockets.

I am so glad that even when we are grown-ups, we can still get to have toys to 'play' with.

Ballet

For months and months Bryttain has asked about starting ballet classes. She has two little friends who both attend classes and so to try things out, before enrolling her at the actual ballet school in town, I went ahead and signed her up for pre-ballet classes for 3-4 years olds at our local community center. The class is taught by one of the teachers from the actual ballet school and Bryttain has been SO excited and counting down the time for the past several weeks.

A week ago this past Tuesday was to be the first class. She picked out her blue leotard, pink tights and a little black over-skirt and we pulled her hair back. She was ecstatic.

Bryttain, with one of her best friends, Abigail.

She ran around happily as we waited for the teacher...and waited...and waited...and waited. There had been a miscommunication and the teacher had thought that the classes started the following week. It was so sad. The girls were disappointed, although they handled it amazingly well and I think it was us, the parents, who were more ticked off than anything.

This Tuesday she finally had her first class. It was so precious. She loves to dance as it is, but she told me that now she will learn how to dance pretty.

At the end, she came running with a huge grin, to show me the ballerina
stamp on her hand.

No photos

Well, unfortunately we seem to have lost my point-and-shoot camera...I had been waiting and waiting for it to turn up as I had pictures to post of a trip to the beach a couple of weekends back. However, I am forced to come to the conclusion that it may have somehow been left at the beach, that we also went back to last weekend.

Big sigh.

It was a great little camera, perfect for those situations when I didn't want to lug around my main one, but life must and does go on. So no more waiting and wasting time.