Happy Mothers Day!

I got to spend a glorious morning in bed, talking on the phone with some of my favorite mothers :) Miraculously, my kids let me get away with it.... I realized this morning that the number of mothers I know has grown quite a bit in the past few years years. It seems like just a short time ago, many of us were celebrating Mothers Day for the first time, with the arrival of our first babies. And now, slowly but surely, we're starting to celebrate being mamas to two babies .....I wonder who will be the first to celebrate the arrival of a third?!

Enjoy your day, mamas!

Driving in the car yesterday, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to toss ALL of our CD's out the window (picture me, hair blowing in the breeze as I speed down the highway, the kids are screaming in the backseat. I'm flinging CD's one at a time out the open window.....accompanied by maniacal laughter, of course).

If your car is anything like mine, then it has been taken over by childrens music. I swear the CD's multiply when I'm not looking. Occasionally it gets to the point where KinderMusik songs are cemented into my brain, permanently stuck on *play*. They cycle over and over and over again.....peekaboo, peekaboo, peekaboo i love you....peekaboo, peekaboo I love you....... and then I know it's time for a new infusion of life into our "Entertain the Kids While Driving in the Car" cd collection.

***To give my kids credit, I should mention that they do enjoy artists like Jack Johnson, etc as well. However, even Jack gets old after hearing the same songs 1,000 times (sorry honey).

And so.....I spent some time online earlier this morning (being the good Idle Parent that I am) looking for audio versions of some of the kids favorite books. Please allow me to share the fruits of my labour with you...

First, a link to one of our favorite authors, Robert Munsch. From this site you can link to downloadable audio versions of all of his books.....read by him, which is pretty entertaining. If you are unfamiliar with his work, consider starting with Mud Puddle, Alligator Baby, or Angela's Airplane.

Next, a couple of more general links to sites with a wide variety of audio books to choose from, for all ages.

Have the technology guru at your house (which in the case of our family, is most definitely NOT me) burn some new cd's for the car with the files that you download.

What a relief. Your family will thank you for it.

Ahhhhhh silence...the birthday boy is asleep, buried beneath a mountain of new dinosaur friends. We generally limit the number of 'friends' that accompany the kids to bed, but I didn't have the heart to make him choose tonight. The cake is eaten, the kitchen is clean (well, as clean as it's going to get anyway) and I can now FINALLY start playing with the fabric that arrived a few days ago for Baby Birds' teaparty sundress.
Picture the kimono girl print on the bodice, and the burnt orange polkadot print for the skirt. It's a colour adventure, especially for me, but I decided it's time to get off the fence and just dive in!

While I was in Marin over the weekend, I spent a few hours at a mega bookstore, something I do not have access to here at home. There I sat, on the floor in the crafting aisle. I had books strewn all around me....pure bliss :) I picked up the Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp. I've been looking for an all-around general guide to sewing, which this is, plus it has the added bonus of a few cute patterns included with it. I see many of these Tokyo Tie Bags in my future ;)

Four



(the debut)

(One candle on the cake...)


( two...)


(three...)



(and four!)

Sorry.....no time for more blogging today. We've got some serious dinosaur hunting to attend to :)

( I'm pretty sure our computer is free from the you-know-what....but in the event that it is still lingering, I feel for some reason like I should whipser! I just wanted to say quickly that I'm happy to be back :)

Our alphabet stamps get frequent use around the kitchen table. They are one of those toys that we all stumble across occasionally. One with limitless uses, and which can be enjoyed by children (and adults) of a wide variety of ages. (One that makes you feel like maybe this time you didn't waste your money!)

At the moment, Baby Bird enjoys picking any ol' letter, and stamping wildly with it! She seems to understand that each one of them has a name, and occasionally asks "dat one? dat one?" and points at a letter. When I answer with the name of the letter, she seems satisfied, so I guess I'm not too far off ;)

Lately Big Bird has been "writing" stories with the stamps. He stamps away with furrowed brow for a few minutes and then calls me over to read his story. Sometimes I see him sounding out words as he stamps, which of course makes this former teachers' heart SING!

If you have creative aspirations, look here for another great idea.

Seeing as tomorrow is the BIG DAY, the stamps will be seeing some use in the thank-you card arena as well. Big Bird wanted me to be sure to mention that today is only his Practice Birthday. He's just gearing up for the real deal tomorrow. I'm happy to play along, but I had to draw the line at a Practice Cake ;)

Ugh. Spyware.

The poor hubby tried to explain it to me.... something about downloading some kayak plans, that weren't really kayak plans, but actually cleverly disguised Spyware.

The whole thing makes my brain hurt.

Needless to say, I'll be off-line today.

Cross your fingers that tomorrow will bring a healthier computer.

Wishing you a Spyware-free day :)

Mama is getting some time to herself this weekend! 2 entire nights away.... Actually, I'm not sure whether to laugh maniacally or sob hysterically.

This is the second time in 4 years that I've had a chance to escape for a bit ... mostly because I'm pretty good at convincing myself that everyone will self-destruct in my absence ;) And also because nursing babies make it hard to be separated.

I will be attending three yoga classes this weekend, taught by my yoga teachers teacher (did you follow that?).... I'm trying to be only slightly intimidated. So far, so good.

I'll be heading to Marin, which for this introvert is as close to the Big City as I care to get.

Packing List:
Yoga Mat
Knitting
1 bottle of wine...hmmm... on second thought, maybe 2


I'm looking forward to *seeing* you all next week. Hopefully calm and refreshed.

Have a great weekend!