Blue

Yep. Maggie dyed a blue streak in her hair the other day. She asked if she could and I saw no reason why not, it eventually washes out and I think it looks cool. So, we went to the drugstore and she chose ultra violet and I helped her dye it. Now all her friends want to dye their hair .... the moms are not so happy with me ... hee hee

Horse camp

Sally had a week of horse camp at the Equestrian Center in Burbank. She loved and learned alot. Here she is trotting and posting with here favorite horse, Chewie.

New game

We got a bunch of new games for the girls to play at the swim party tomorrow. Here's Sally trying one out.

Raspberries for Sal

Sally and I went raspberry picking today(we also picked pears and peaches but the raspberries were the most fun). We ended the day with a caramel apple. Yum.

Maggie

We went out to dinner tonight. Here's mag at the restaurant. Tomorrow is the 8th grade swim party, then school starts on Tuesday.

county fair

We went to the Green Lake county fair again this year when we were up at the cottage. We ate corn on the cob, bbq and pie, rode the rides and played the games. This year a group of the older kids even sang karaoke(sp?). They were so entertaining, singing the Beatles Obla Di. Sarah sang lead vocals with Kate. Maggie and Mary were at the guitar, and Matt and Claire were at drums.

slip sliding away

Sally and some of her cousins playing with the slip n slide up at the cottage. We had another great time this year, thanks mom and dad!

Maggie (back) in New York

Maggie went to New York last week and spent 4 glorious days in her favorite city on earth. She was able to do this because she has nice parents and even nicer aunts who agreed to play tour guide, and oh my God, she had a great time. She saw tons of shows, did a bunch of shopping, soaked up the city and spent time playing with Molly! She even got to meet Auggie.

vegetable garden

We have a vegetable garden this year. Finally! We started small - tomatos, peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, carrots, herbs and zucchini. So far the zucchini is our biggest crop (and a bit of a menace to the other vegetables, it grows like a weed and the leaves steal all the sun). My mom was here watching sally for a few days when we went to Mexico and she and sally planted alot of it. Needless to say, we're very proud of ourselves. Although we kind of hate zucchini. And eggplant. Maybe next year we'll plant a candy garden.

mother's day

For Mother's Day this year Tony surprised me with a ping pong table. We love it, we keep it out by the pool and it's a great thing to have when kids come over. p.s. I suck at ping pong

New Kitchen!

So here's what happened - we've always talked about redoing the kitchen but the thought of living through the renovation always stopped us from actually doing it. Our plan was to rip out the laundry room and bathroom off the kitchen and make it one big room with glass doors opening to the back yard. But it would mean basically living with a makeshift kitchen for about 4 months. Ugh. Every time we talked about it, the only decision we ever came to was to talk about it later. Then one day about a month ago, our contractor was over to fix some lights in the office and I was standing in our laundry room and I was overwhelmed with a desire to do the renovation. Right away. Before I lost the nerve. So I told Jorge to demo the laundry room and back bathroom. That day. I'd tell Tony about it when I got to work. I figured I could present a pretty compelling case for why it had to be done. He's pretty good about allowing me my impulses. Except that I got to work and I forgot to tell him. I know, I know, that's a big thing to forget, but what can I say, I really forgot ... And then Tony got home. Before I did. Ooops. Let's just say we had words that night. But tony is a very kind, loving and forgiving man. And now we're getting a new kitchen!

underwater

I've been bad at blogging for the past few months. During hiatus I didn't want to even get near a computer and now that we're back at work, it's tough to find the time. I'm going to try to be better because so much has happened in the past few months, I want to have a record of it.

Here are some underwater photographs of Sally in the pool. She continues to be a little fish and started taking tennis lessons this summer, which she also likes, although she claims that gymnastics is still her favorite sport. Sally did Tom Sawyer camp again this summer and loved riding horses and hiking and building forts. As usual she'd arrive home after camp completely muddy, which means she had a good day! After a week in Wisconsin, she'll start art classes at the Armory for 2 weeks(an hour and a half a day) which I know she'll love. She'll finish the summer with a week of horseback riding camp with her friend Ana.

Maggie had another great year at Birchwood. She loved her cabin - all her best friends were in it, and she went on a 7 day canoe trip to the Boundry Waters in Canada that was amazing. She came home and did 2 weeks of theater camp here in Pasadena. After a week in Wisconsin she's going to New York to stay with Kate and see theater. Kate will take her to Next to Normal, Anne is taking her to Fela and American Idiot, and then the next night, Kate is taking her to see her favorite band, Spring Standards. When she gets home from camp, she has 2 weeks til school starts and she'll need it. She has 3 books to read and a huge math review packet to complete.

We're in the middle of a kitchen renovation that will probably take until early november, so we're kinda doing a lot of outdoor eating.

Also, our neighborhood has been having weekly outdoor movie nights this summer and we hosted one last week. All the neighbors came and we showed Home Alone on the side of the garage. Everyone brought their own blankets and we provided snacks - Milk Duds, Twizzlers and popcorn. It was so fun.

Tony and the girls left for Wisconsin this morning and he will stay til Wednesday. I arrive Wednesday and will stay til Sunday. We'll basically be passing each other on the highway. But work is busy and that's the only way we could swing it so both girls could stay at the lake the whole time.

Also, Sally, for the first time is going to stay in the bunk bed room with her cousins. Normally she stays with us in our room, but this year she really wants to try being a big girl. It's a huge room with 4 bunk beds and I just spoke with Tony who said Sally has unpacked her stuff and is on a top bunk above Payton. Fingers crossed she makes it all night, that will be a HUGE milestone for her and will be another step toward Birchwood next summer.

pigs

I haven't updated in a long time so I'm going to try and catch up. We had a hoedown in April and had Swifty Swine Pig Races come and show the LA types how people whoop it up in the midwest. Pig races, square dancing and BBQ. It was a great party and I have some pictures that I'll try to remember to post, but for now here's a shot of Sally holding one of the little piggies and a shot of Sally and her friend Ana.

Car Washing Girls

My car looks great, thanks to a pair of car washing girls. This wasn't totally a labor of love ... Maggie lost her bookbag at Westridge that contained all her books for 8th grade summer reading - Malcolm X, Farewell to Manzinar, Of Mice and Men and Infinite Jest. She looked everywhere, in every lost and found at school, but couldn't find it. To her credit, she felt awful. So ... we gave her a bunch of jobs to make up the money. Sally joined in for fun. Right now they're cleaning off all the outdoor furniture.

Walden Family Photo

This is the family photo taken at Walden this year. Each family was asked to bring something for the picture that was important to them. Sally brought Holly. Maggie brought her headphones. That says it all right there.

The Great American Pastime ...

... is lost on us. We went to a Dodger game a few weeks ago, it was a beautiful night, we had great seats... but we only made it through the 5th inning. I like baseball, so does Tony, but Maggie ... she ate sushi and brought a book to read ... Sally ... well as long as there was cotton candy Sally was okay ... and she liked it when people hit beach balls ... but the game ... sigh ... not for this group ...

giddy up

Ever since our hoedown(I'll post pictures soon), Sally has been playing cowgirl alot. She puts on her hat and shirt and gets a cat toy as a lasso and rides Pam, her big stuffed horse. I'm going to get her some boots to complete the look because she's taking a week of horseback riding camp in August.

New York weekend

Maggie and I went to New York at the end of April to see some shows and my mom and sister and her two daughters joined us. We had so much fun! We got two adjoining rooms and the older girls(me, Sue and my mom) shared a room so that the younger ones(Maggie, Kate and Sarah) could sleep in. We saw American Idiot the first night and LOVED it, Next to Normal the next night and LOVED it and Hair the next day, more LOVE. Maggie and Kate went back to American Idiot the last night while me, Sue and my mom met Kate for dinner. (Sarah was sick and stayed at the hotel). There was a little drama the last night because the girls were at the theater on 45th street, which is exactly where the van parked with explosives was. And so all the streets surrounding 45th street were shut down so the girls had to take a very round about way to get to the restaurant where they were meeting us. But they made it and all was well. We're already planning our next trip which I think will be the end of August. And we've totally turned Sally on to Next to Normal.

Lover not a Fighter

Sally and I had a little fight this morning about something ... I can't even remember ... and she stormed into her room, and I stormed downstairs, and about a minute later when I came back up, here's what I found written on the bathroom window with the post shower steam. Sally is always writing us notes to tell us how much she loves us and leaves them different places -under our pillows, in my purse. The most heartbreaking one was a few days ago to Tony who has been on the set for the past two weeks, which means he's barely home. Under his pillow she left a note saying "I miss you. I feel like I have no dad. And you are the most awesome dad ever." Heartbreaking! Also a few months ago Tony and I were having a fight in the office and when we came out, Sally was standing there holding two notes, one for me, one for Tony. Mine said, "Mom, do you still love dad?" with a yes/no box to check, his said "Dad do you still love mom?" We filled them out and she handed the responses to each of us, like, see, you still love each other, phew! I love how Sally expresses herself!

Tin Man

Okay, this is weird I know, but ... our friend Laurie gave us this big stuffed Tin Man doll a few years ago. He has these really piercing, violet eyes and when he's looking at you, it's super creepy. Anyway, I don't remember how it happened but a few years ago we started playing tricks on each other with Tin Man. One night Maggie, Sally and I snuck out and put him in the passenger seat of Tony's car so he'd be there to surprise him in the morning. Sally liked to put him in my bed, under the covers, we stood him up in Maggie's closet so when she went in to get an outfit, there he was. You get the idea. Hijinks. And then a few years ago we made a book about the Tin Man coming in and taking over Maggie's life while she's away at camp. Takes over her bedroom, her laptop, her friends ... and then we snuck the book into her suitcase for her to find when she got up to camp and unpacked. She loved it, her whole cabin loved it, Tin Man has become an unofficial Camp Birchwood mascot. Anyway, this year .... shhhhh .... we're going to sneak the man himself into her duffel! Here are some pictures from last years book.

a year ago

Found this in my camera from a year ago, never downloaded it. How cute is she?

pretty girls

Easter in Hawaii

Tony gave Sally strategy- go deep. Run to the middle of the field right away. The two of them were so funny, she had a serious look on her face as he quietly whispered strategy in her ear. It paid off!!

Sunrise at the volcano

Maggie and tony took a sunrise bike ride down the volcano in Maui this year. They had to get up at 2:30 in the morning, get picked up at 3, drive to top of volcano and see sunrise, bike down, have breakfast. They had a great time.

Hawaii

We had another great time in Hawaii this year. We went over Maggie's spring break in March (usually we go in May) so it was a bit more crowded but it doesn't matter, it's Hawaii! Some highlights this year were -

1. The Easter Egg Hunt

2. Tony and Maggie took a sunrise bike ride down the volcano

3. Mags and I went sea kayaking and snorkeling one morning and saw tons of fish and some Honus(sea turtles)

4. One afternoon we saw 3 whales from the beach where we were swimming, they were only a few hundred yards away and the baby was breaching like crazy and putting on a show

5. Nick, Cheryl and Madeline were there again at the same time and had us over to their villa for a cook out. Then Cheryl took the big girls on the Ocean walk and they heard these birds that sound like crying babies - creepy

We got into a nice routine, Sally went to the kids club each morning til noon, so Maggie, Tony and I would spend the morning reading by the pool, pick up Sal, lunch by the pool, swim with Maddie in the pool, go down to beach at the end of the day, get milkshakes before dinner, dinner, bed. Rinse and Repeat. Heaven.