Carving Out Some Time.....

.....to make some cards. Or a card. My aspirations are still far higher than I can breathe without an oxygen tank...

The metal part of the knife is aluminum foil! Tee-hee...dangerous!

Birthday Cards

Some more spontaneous card love for some lovely ladies that I love. Birthday love.


...and another one, which I did while babysitting and couldn't photograph, is given a very sweet review here. I might just branch out from the Chinese Lantern thing soon, I can feel it...

RAAAWWWR!!

How to Relax Like a Vonderhizzle 101

So, Morgen turns six, sprouts fairy wings and has some of her little pixie friends over for tea. Then later that day, we high-tail it outta town for a much-needed over-nighter in the woods. A great community dinner with friends, s'mores, guitar and wine by the campfire late into the night and we were right where we needed to be. Breathing deep...

Except that I feel like I should clarify what I mean by "guitar" and you'll understand (especially if you knew us as Californians) what I mean by "relaxed". See, I told Dave to bring his guitar, and he mumbled something about not wanting to play in front of everyone... yeah, whatever. So much to my disappointment he left his trusty Taylor behind. Well, someone brought a guitar, and inevitably it found its way into Dave's hands, which led to the inevitable medly of TV theme songs. Which, of course, for us late-Gen Xers, led to the inevitable fireside sing-along. It was awesome!

And this, of course, led to two things:
1. "Big Red" was stuck in everyone's head for at least a week, and...
2. A new band was formed.

So we'll see what comes of that! Nevertheless it was a riot. SO GOOD for the Vonderhizzles to get away and laugh and not think about laundry or work or a decrepit Vonderhaus. This is how to relax like a Vonderhizzle:

Let us pause for a moment to appreciate the rock that David found (see all the gray rocks in the background?) that is Carhartt Brown! Very cool!

This is how I know I am relaxed: when this is all I bring with me.

It was C-C-C-COLD in the night (and in the morning) and Micah was wearing all the clothes he'd brought. He finally stripped off a layer and kicked back in his 'jams. Relaxin', Micah-style.

Morgen has a made a great friend in the little sister of one of Korah's classmates...so perfect!

They are a cute couple of girls, but... let's just say I keep my eye on them. They are just full of spunk and "good ideas"....

This is how Morgen relaxes... they made a little "bed" of the rocks, pillows and all, and settled in for a little "nap". I'm really glad these two have each other :)

Taylor has lots of open space to explore and discover, without anyone breathing down his neck. This is good for him. And he was finding all kinds of neat stuff.

He even brought home some Minnows, which he was pretty excited about (how he got them home, I'm not sure). He watched them for a few days before they became a can of stink on the front porch. Then he fertilized the garden. I love that kid!

This kid's got like twelve layers on. He's feelin' pretty chill.

So tiny! So cute! Amazingly, he slept great in the pack-n-play in the tent, all bundled up in those layers.

Noble L-O-V-E-S all these rocks. He would pick them up and throw them until he'd cleared a spot and then he'd crawl to a new spot and throw rocks until he'd cleared that one, and so on, tasting a few along the way. One thing about this kid: there is no terrain that is intimidating to him. Grass, gravel, concrete, carpet, water... he'll eagerly explore them all!

(What's this kid thinkin'?)

Mmmm...all cozy in the sun, snugglin' with my boy.
Good times. Good, good times.

On Fairies and Camping

Seis de Morgen! Morgen begged and begged for this candle. Oh jeez, it's the least I can do for that sweet little sweetheart sweetykins.

All the kids helped make our birthday banner. (Ignore the mossy basketball net on our front porch.)

A happy girl blowing out her birthday candle.

What beautiful girls! They don't sit side-by-side like this often, so it's amazing to see how alike they look. Hmmm...I look at these two pretty fairy girls and what I see is a ying and yang of joy. They are both so different, and give me a giddy feeling of joy in such different ways. It's inexplicable, but together, it feels like wholeness. I hope they are always friends, the years only drawing them closer.

Present time! Fairies get really cool gifts...like a wooden star wand and felted art and other neat things I couldn't see because the whole event looked like this:

A whirling dervish of fluttering fairy wings! A blurry blizzard of magicalness!
If it weren't for her brother, who gave her a nickle wrapped in half a roll of tape, the whole thing would've lasted a mere 2.5 minutes.

Our campy indoor banner; should be good for the whole birthday season...

ACK!!

One of the traditions at the kids' school is to have the parent come in and tell a story about their child or about their birth. It seemed mortifying at first, but I really quite like it. It's fun to brag on your child in front of her class. And because it's expected and anticipated, they are not dying of embarassment. All the kids love it! So anyway, I got to go in and tell a little story I wrote in the hospital when Morgen was born about the day she was born and why she was given her name. In this story there is a castle on a hill overlooking a lush kingdom of forests and streams, and a king and a queen who are much in love, and a duty to war and a duty to labor... But I shall save that story for another birthday.

Because.... also this day we had the epic event of a VACATION! Or something close to it. After vacuuming up the last of the cupcake crumbs and putting away the last teacup (ha--if you know us at all, you know we left it all there), we threw all our tents and sleeping bags and hotdogs and marshmallows and...well, what else do you need?....into the car and took off for Oxbow Park for a weekend of camping with some of the families from Korah's class. Taylor and I had done a Mother-Son campout there a few weeks prior and I fell in love! There were deer everywhere, a beautiful river and forests to explore...mere minutes from civilization! It's killing me that we've never in our 12 years here, taken advantage of this oasis. We even used to live a scant 15 minutes away! So we came, we relaxed... we didn't see Korah the entire time because she was off exploring the forest with her classmates sans grown-ups (creating some important milestones for sure!). It was fantastic! But frick, was it ever COLD! I was NOT prepared for that, and after the first night we went home for a long, hot shower and then snuggling under many covers in a soft, soft bed!! I have never loved my bed so much!

Because of the amount of pictures I have, I'm going to start a new post. Read on or click here.