Out of Neutral & Into Gear!

I have not blogged in so long! Time to find the inspiration, the motivation and anything else that ends in 'ation' to get my hinnie in gear to write more and post more pictures.

I'll get working on that! All thanks to my friend Violet!

Holiday Photo Sensations

After a slight debacle and a great deal of frustration later... we ended up with nothing less than stellar, in my humble opinion, pictures for our cards. A mommy friend and fellow military spouse, Violet, a very talented up and coming photographer took some wonderful shots of the five of us, one not so sunny or warm December Saturday morning here in San Diego. Our setting was Presidio Park, in all its diamond in the rough greatness. Below you will find some of her wonderful work, that didn't make the cut for our cards or you can check out her other works, including her two beautiful daughters. Thank you again Violet! capturedbyviolet.blogspot.com

Yeah Teachers! Yeah Books!

It's back to school time! Everyone up! Robert continued his tradition of making a big breakfast for the first day of school. No one was super excited that I was taking pictures, but 'hey- it's tradition'! Then with butterflies and pancake filled stomachs off we went. Jazmin in her second year of middle school. She may only be a 7th grader, but she's taking 8th grade classes and is as tall as some 8th graders. Audrey in her last year at elementary school. A big 5th grader! We still have a few years before PJ starts school.

Quail Botanical Gardens

The Quail Botanical Gardens opened a Childrens Garden recently, so when the opportunity came to explore the gardens for free, thru out housing community, we jumped on it. The girls did arts and crafts thru out the gardens, climbed on the new playground, stood in the middle of a sundial, and participated in their first drum circle. Lastly came the Bamboo Forest, I knew bamboo got giant but some of their bamboo is GIANT!

Look Ma...!

...I know how to use fancy settings on my camera! Ok- well only a little tiny bit, but I rather enjoyed playing with this particular setting. I am not sure, that I could do it again, or even tell you now, what setting this is. It was a fun day none the less experimenting. Magically I got the camera back to [auto]!

I really love this photo.

I Swimmin!

Hot summer days call for cool afternoons by the pool. Today it was just PJ and I at the Officers pool. We had a picnic lunch and well, PJ played with her towels, and mine for that matter. She does love towels.

Big Winds!

Spending sometime out on the open waters of the San Diego Bay. Robert keeps saying we are going to take a weekend trip to Catalina, I'll believe it when we are well on our way.

This is how I entertain PJ during the sailing trip. She loves it!

Watchout! Audrey does not have a license- Thank Goodness!

Museum - Shoeseums!

I have visited my fair share of museums. Some have really stuck out in my mind, LA County Museum of Art http://www.lacma.org/ for one. Others have bored me out of my mind, and I would have rather watched grass grow or paint dry. That may be a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea. I recently found out there is a kids museum here in San Diego. I have always known about the Reuben H Fleet Science Center http://www.rhfleet.org/ which is a wonderful place. The kids often go with school and scouts so as a family we don't go very often. While talking to a few ladies at the mom friendly coffee house a few weeks back, she told me about The New Children's Museum http://www.thinkplaycreate.org/. She did not have a lot of info to tell beyond it is downtown, it's new, and titles something with children's museum. Well it is indeed called The New Children's Museum. We are now annual ticket holders. This place is AMAZING!!!!

It is downtown, next to PetCo Park, and parking is a bit of an issue, but we can also take the trolley! All the 'exhibit's' if you will are designed by artist/scientists with the intent to create and inspire kids thru reusable mediums. Some of the stuff is normal kids museum things, but done in a new green form. Like the bubble area, is a reused kiddie pool, buckets and various other plastic objects found in homes, and pipe cleaners.




There is a wall climbing room.

The Tent City: that my children could not be bothered to wait for the other levels to open, but played underneath no the less...

The Jump on your Bed Room: *do not do this at home*


Porta - Party. Yes, you read that correct. The Porta - Party. Not Porta - Potty!



The Shadow Puppet room/lecture hall: Where my darling daughter gave her first speech!


Look for more adventures from The New Children's Museum, through out the year.

I didn't even talk about the VW Bug to paint, the clay works area or the flower pots or the raining house. We'll get to those... later!

It wasn't my fault

Mom, I'm gonna just play over here with a few friends, is that okay?

It wasn't my fault Mom. They made me do it.

Make Easter Your Own

This year we really made our Easter celebration our own by working with what we had. By that I mean, that we could have not been together this year, but with a little thought and creativity we were able to enjoy a meal, attend mass, even surprise the kids with Easter baskets, together. Robert had to work this Easter Sunday. So we attended Easter Vigil Mass, on Saturday night after sundown (when Easter starts). We had brunch at the Officer's Club on the base, and to our surprise, right as we were getting there, an Easter Egg Hunt was starting. So the girls all found a few more eggs. As we were returning to the car after brunch, I opened the trunk of the car with the remote, and the girls were surprised with their Easter Baskets. Audrey's delight at finally getting Twilight and with Jazmin getting a (what I call) "billion in one dress" was all worth it. It was hard to be apart for some of the holiday, it was frustrating to have hoops to jump thru, but those hoops were worth it, and when all was said and done, no so difficult.






*disclaimer* The battery on the camera died before I could get pictures with the Easter Bunny during the Easter Egg-stravaganza, and while looking thru the photos taken after that event, I realized that there are bubble soap stains on my lens. Thanks to Robert the issue has been remedied.

Easter Egg-travaganza

We are very fortunate to live in a great neighborhood. Our church is just up the street from us, the pool is a few blocks away, we are in a position to walk or ride our bikes everywhere we need to go with in our community. CCD classes are after mass on Sundays. When we were leaving the church today, we discovered there was an Easter Egg-travaganza happening in the park next to our church. Robert ran home, grabbed Easter baskets and we were in business to participate in the Egg-travaganza. There was food, music, the Easter Bunny, the egg hunt, and arts & crafts. Jazmin got her face painted. While she was sitting in the chair, I was dancing about with PJ and Robert to the live music. I'm told that the face painter told Jazmin, "I love it when people dance about in public & don't mind being looked at". Jazmin says her response was, "That's my Mom. I love her". What more could I ask for? Here's a few glimpses into our afternoon at the Easter Egg-travaganza.

From Easter Egg Hunt 1 - 2009