Splendid

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! 

We hit the photobooth last night, dressed in our Chinese new year garb...

     

 

all of us, with my fake moustache...

From the Sweet Spud's kit, our Karaoke Chinatown. 

and from the Dozen's, 3 reasons to BEE Happy

Don't forget to check out the new Category Stories challenge on the first, you'll love it!  Come play along!

We plowed through a lot of schoolwork this week.  The cold and gloomy weather lends itself nicely to getting a lot accomplished. Always an inspiration is The Little Traveler's who I check in with a couple times a month.  She always doing great cultural studies and we won one of her DVD, Japan. Her kids have gotten to experience so much of the world through immersion and I'm always jealous of their trips. At home they are always doing fun and creative things, too.  I loved her idea of 52 meals; essentially one meal a week for 52 weeks, covering all parts of the globe. Her kids color in the country or area on a map they are making that traditional meal from.  We do something similar, our Passport Dinners, but we only do those every 2-3 months.  For a week we study a country or region, watch documentaries or movies about it, read children's books with that theme, do crafts, and then we end with a big dinner, with traditional foods and we try to dress up like the traditional dress if possible. I like the idea of 52 dinners though, that seems like a great way to study geography as well as learning cooking skills. I'm a big believer in allowing kids to help out in the kitchen!  Even if they make a mess, it's teaching science and math as well as life skills. 

our lemon-blueberry cupcakes were divine!

straight out of the oven!

mmmmmmm.....

Some last pictures of us the last couple weeks in the homeschooling world...

a geography book we love, Search and Find Around the World, has great cartoon illustrations with fun facts about the areas. 

   

Cricket's 3D art

clay heads on wood board, Cricket calls it "3D Flat" 

(Note* after writing this post, I found out Angelina from Little Travelers and I are old friends.  We did a Doula training together like 10 years ago in Phoenix. What a crazy, small world!) 

Yay!

Two days ago I got an email from Lee over at Category Stories about being picked to join their design team.  I was so honored and excited!  All the gals on the DT are really sweet and I look forward to getting to know them, and everyone who does the monthly challenges.  There is still a few days left to do this month's challenge with is the theme "I remember" and SIStv is sponsoring us, so you should play!

splurge

Look at 'em! Aren't they beautimus??  I was drooling over these on etsy this week so I got them.  Aren't they fab? All so Valentine-y...

   

the designer said "Frida is cold....so she bought a warm and fury - no animal fur, of course! - coat in Moscow. " It sold me, well, that and it's super cute!

The milkglass shop has so much mouth watering milkglass, and she's so sweet! 

  too help complete my set, these lace plates...

   this lovely jar with lid

and while I don't know if in Mexico I'll need this heavy of a poncho, but I loved it, it's pinkness and fringe, marvelous!

and finally, this beautiful art piece, we couldn't resist!

Jealous?  I know, it's okay...

Dave finally got back into town after being gone 2 weeks.  We were so happy to see him. After we picked him up at the airport we went to a new restaurant we'd never been to. It's owned by the same chap that owns El Vez, and a slew of other resturants here and in NYC. Pod is in downtown P-town and while honestly, I didn't think the food was worth the bill, the atmosphere was pretty cool.  They have a few actual "Pod" booths that are similar to the Mork and Mindy pod style egg-chairs, only bigger and with a table and booth inside.  There are buttons on the wall to change the colors in the pod, like orange, pink, blue, etc., the girls loved it.

Polaroids, so fun!

Pixie changing the colors in the pod

eel sushi (yuck! I tried it and felt like a Fear Factor episode...too powdery and slimy at the same time, belch...I'll stick with good ol' Cali rolls...)

when ya gotta dance, dance...

our pod

outside...my wheels, just kidding, mine are my new skates, see the past post...

Spring Fever

Already I have spring fever.  I got a pair of these so I can join in the fun my girls have everyday.  

While it's been bitter, frigid cold here and we haven't been outdoors as much as I'd like, the girls have been rollerskating throughout the house all day.  Especially Ava, she wakes up and IMMEDIATELY puts on her roller skates.  She takes them off for baths and when we run errands, the rest of the day they are on her feet.  She goes up and down the stairs (makes me a little nervous) on her stoppers, but is getting pretty good, I must admit.

Now, I'm not trying to stick a feather in my cap, but back in the day, I was pretty good on a pair of these...so...watch out...

Here's my latest scrapbook pages.  They both are using the Dozen's kit. Fab-u-lous...

Luckily he doesn't mind my lil moustache

we had gone to a Pirate themed party and I had a drawn-on moustache and small goat-tee.  I LOVED it.  Anytime I can have a moustache (not the real thing, horrifying) I do.  Like when we are the 3 Fridas, fab-u-lous! 

Coolest Field trip of all Times! 

Our friend Ana (and Kristal and Erin) had given us a tour of the Free People design office where they are designers and we loved every minute of it (and the Anthropologie and Urban Oufitters offices, too.)  McKaylah's dream of being a fashion designer was further fueled by miles of fringe, boxes of sequins and racks of fun and fab-u-lous clothes. 

And this Lovebirds door hanger was inspired by Martha.  She had the same little birds from Target and made a super cute sign.  She's amazing! One of my favorite scrapbookers! (gush...)

Mine is made with a Hambly frames overlay, fabric backing, embroidery floss stitching and pink pom poms around the edges. I would have added more, but as usual my squirrel brain was onto other projects.   

After 2 weeks of being away working, my hubby gets home tomorrow tonight.  We've missed him so much!  Hopefully we can get in date night. I'm craving mexican food, so maybe we can get that. Although, quite frankly, finding good Mexican here is hard. But the girls and I went with Matty to one of our favorite restaurants this past week. El Vez is so good (pricey, but good), located in downtown Philadelphia, if you have a chance, I highly recommend it, it's so choice. They even have an old dip-n-dunk photobooth.  Yeah, $23 dollars later...yeah, we have photobooth problems...

   

 

  these are just a few...

the bar at El Vez

pomegranate margaritas-que bueno!!!

Have a fab-u-lous weekend!

Well, it's been awhile...

Hi ya all...it's been awhile...

I forgot my camera at my mom's on the west coast and had to wait until she could ship it to me, hence the lack of uploaded pictures or posts. Also, to report about our upcoming move...we were supposed to be on the West coast for the month of January returning only for a week or so in February to let the packers/movers in before the trip down south of de border. But alas, my hub's visa is taking longer than expected, so it looks like March until we leave. But that's okay, since we love our house and friends here in Philadelphia and I'm happy to be able to spend more quality time with them. Plus I love it around here, we're never without something to do. Which leads me to the book I got the other day at the bookstore, called How to be an Explorer of the World, by Keri Smith, is so much fun!  Basically it has a ton of smart ideas about seeing the world in a new way, to people watch, collect items out on a city block or forest floor, conduct simple experiments and enjoy life's little, serendipitous journeys.  Those close to me know I love these quirky little day trips; hiding "love notes" for unsuspecting people at coffee shops or stores, tucked into nooks and crannies, in bushes and inside containers.  Hopefully it'll make someone smile when they read it.  Or when we do nature studies one day, collecting one specific thing from nature, like different shaped feathers or pine cones.  Or when we have a "theme" for the day and we take pictures of it, like red shoes, people with hats, cars with lots of bumper stickers.  Our fascination with photo-booths, so much so that when we travel I try to look up where the local photo-booth is.  Or every thrift or antique store, we must search high and low for dolls and milk glass... This book has a lot of the same types of ideas in it, with inspiring quotes and neat photos.  I highly recommend it...

Then here's my latest for the Category Stories challenge. The phrase that pays is "I remember."  This was a hard one for me since many of my old photos have just been taken away to long-term storage (again, I thought we were moving sooner than later) and so I had to think, think, think...

I remember...it like it was yesterday! (and I think it was because we love to watch old Facts of Life series on dvd)  

 

The Facts of Life, Bewitched, Who's the Boss, Different Strokes, those were my favorite tv shows growing up.  Being a latch-key kid I probably indulged too much in the ol' boob-tube. But I love the general themes of the shows, with the spunky and often melodramatic ups and downs, makes me smile.

Mac and cheese
I found this small partial kit from awhile ago last night.  "He is the cheese to my macaroni," I think it was a Sis kit, can't remember.  I quickly did this one of Dave and me.

And our Xmas layouts...from a few weeks ago during my mom's Xmas party, also done with the Dozen's last kit. What an awesome kit, I got some much from it!  I'm also making an album from the Dozens kit, hopefully I'll have it done this week. 

That's all folks, just homeschooling and getting ready to move.  Hope everyone is enjoying 2009!