we began our trip with a hike...
stayed in the sunshine...
swam in the stream...
made surprising discoveries....
explored abandoned mines....
took time to watercolor....
made plenty of camp fires near the cabin....
watched the wind blow....
checked out the area's public library...
discovered new species of plants....
roasted marshmallows......
and had our fair share of naps.
one spring morning.
pin the beard on the president. designed by raine.
cake made by mimi {& raine}. table cloth made from 25cent bandanas found at a thrift store.
raine wanted to have pies thrown in her face.
the donkeys, elephants, and independents all showed up to celebrate Raine’s seventh year of life! Raine picked the theme of “president party” {not sure where it came from} for her birthday, it was fun making this happen for her.
i know its well into january now, but i have yet to show you all of our handmade christmas. this was raine’s gift to jonathan, her own version of a prayer book. she wrote three prayers for each day. i helped with the cover design, its a mock up of a page from the book of kells. jonathan says that this was his favorite gift.
ezmah likes spaghetti,
raine made shadow puppets,
we had a beautiful thanksgiving at the allen house,
later discovered that turkey really does make you sleepy...
ezmah experienced her first white christmas,
dasien was reminded of her heritage,
now we are simply trying to relax.
raine averi
ezmah jane
hope you all have a great evening!!
this year i received some pretty incredible gifts for my birthday. amazing enough that i thought i should share with you and show a bit of appreciation.
included in the photo is a new {much needed and larger} french press from jonathan. he also printed photos and updated the frames around our house as an added gift {hence the framed photo of the girls}, abby made an incredible hardbound book for me {that is blank inside} which probably deserves its own photo, the book and the precious stuffed owl were from both abby and suzanne. raine made a halloween themed triptych to give me, you can only see part of it in the background {it includes a bat (shown), a witch on a broom, and two cats}, also, my incredible inlaws surprised me with a cast iron chimenea, my mother bought me a ton of new clothes, pops sent money, and on top of it all, i was fed mexican and american delicacies for lunch and dinner!!
we began the day with painting halloween decor, then headed to fayetteville to meander on some beautiful trails, eventually making our way to the library (for the restroom?)...
after leaving the library we began to walk to ddp gallery....
but were briefly distracted by kathy p. thompson's studio windows. they offered much inspiration and beauty!
after the nice gallery visit, we followed the sounds of music....
...and happened upon a parade!
after all of this, we returned home for a brief moment of rest, then went to jonathan’s parents house for a ridiculously long night of games, good food and crazy entertainment.
…atleast the ones at murphy park.
ezmah was in awe and raine ran out of croutons too fast!
ezmah recently turned one. here is a small glimpse of her incredible party.
our big trip to colorado. these photos only scratch the surface of what we did the entire time we were there. for a trip that we almost didnt take…i think we had a great time.
ezmah at play.
i love the feeling that these photos evoke.
the girls enjoyed seeing the animals and spending time with our friend valerie.
our rocking chair painted in watercolor.
hope you all have a nice weekend!
{this is what happens when you leave a 6 year old alone with a pin cushion!}
…assuming they like peanut butter and croutons.
a few days ago raine had two of her bottom teethed pulled (because the larger ones were coming in)…..so through our discussions of the tooth fairy, she inquired whether or not the tooth fairy left presents for children instead of money. more specifically, she wanted to know if the tooth fairy ever left crystals for kids, and continued to state that she hoped the tooth fairy would surprise her with crystals.
luckily the tooth fairy is a clever little pack rat and was able to scavenge up these “crystals” from a bag of rocks and minerals i had been holding on to from my old college geology class.
Ezmah has been training really hard for this day for a couple of weeks now.
checking out where to go next...
a little explosion of silent energy near a beckman piece...
angry at the "black suits" (aka: security gaurds) trying to control him
i had fun, and i think ezmah could have cared less...
recent trip to the nelson-atkins museum
…oh yes…we had a bat fly in our house yesterday after leaving the doors wide open to let fresh air in. he (or she) decided to cozy up right above our bed, luckily we just had to open the door until it frantically flew out of the house. im not sure who was freaked out more, us or the bat. i have to give credit to jonathan for sneaking into the room with the camera so he could take this picture!
before
during
after
after
shes one tough girl…. im proud of her; she didnt even cry, thats not to say she wasnt a little scared, but she definitely stuck it out!
LOOK what i got!
{this page was bookmarked}
“elle- humour” a picture box book by julie doucet
she has an amazing since of humor tossed in with a delicious dose of creative energy making for one heck of an amazing valentines day present!
Thanks Jonathan.
……………………………………………
look what i gave:
a limited edition print from little paper planes by hannah stouffer
{jonathan trimmed his beard recently, and i plan to cut my hair…seemed appropriate since hair has been the topic of alot of our conversations lately}
happy valentines day!
here are the images of the ice storm we had earlier this week. we are still very far from having cleaned up the mess of branches that have fallen everywhere. These pictures depict the beautiful side of the storm…i tried to leave the nasty side out (i think for the sake of optimism).
today my brother turns 36.
wow, i bet my mom feels old…heh.
nothing better than a little dose of martha rich on your birthday.
recent photos taken of dasien being gentle with ezmah.