Evie the Artist

Ask Evie what her favorite day of the week is and she will tell you Friday.  Now Friday has a lot of things going for it anyway. First and foremost, it is the end of the week. Friday is also  mahjong day (at lunch time), which also generally involves pizza at lunch (so long as I remember to sign them up). Furthermore, there is a bi-weekly after school ice-cream experience (I am pretty sure at this point I owe the PTA mucho bucks because they always give the girls ice cream and I cannot remember the last time I ponied up). Despite all of these other fabulous things Genevieve will tell you that the reason she loves Friday is because that is when she has her art class.

Evie's art goes beyond the classroom.  At any given time she has a pad, notebook or scrap of paper in hand and is drawing pictures.  It has been really fun to watch her art change over the past few years. To put some images to this post I just went around the house a collected a few of her most recent endeavors:

Yesterday Genevieve decided she was going to draw caricatures of each of us.  This is Patrick.

There is a contest at school for the best invention.  This is Evie's current idea... Her other ideas included a flying bird wash and bunk-walk-bed house (a house that was also a bunk bed that could also walk)

A water color of Rapunzel

Random princess (this is Evie's title)

Oil painting that she worked on with Patrick yesterday.  It is titled "Backyard"

Sedona

Last weekend we renewed our family tradition of a February weekend in Sedona via Patrick's family court conference (last year we missed it because Izzy got pneumonia and the two years before Patrick had decided not to go). In years past it was a highlight for me because Genevieve and I would hang out together during the day while Patrick was in the conference and then the three of us would have fun at night.  This was the first year for Izzy to join in on the fun.  While perhaps not quite as chill as when it was just Evie and I, it was certainly more fun.

In keeping with our (rather odd) tradition, on Friday afternoon after we got there and Patrick went into his meeting the girls and I walked over to the Gap outlet and went shopping. Among other treasures they found caps that looked like something Patrick would wear and they were only 3 bucks so they walked out even fancier than they walked in.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the pool (it was ridiculously warm... and the pool was heated).

The next morning we went for a hike up Bell Rock.  At first Isadora was four-square against the idea, but fortunately I made her solider on until she was no longer scared because once she was over her fear she had a blast.  She "walked" Sadie most of the way up the hike and it was hilarious to see the two of them together bounding up the rocks.  At one point Evie and Izzy decided they were no longer girls but in fact ponies (as in My Little) and that I had to play as well.  They informed me that I was to be pinkie pie, which meant (for some reason) I had to hop everywhere.  I gladly played along (except for the hopping, which would have surely spelled disaster for me... I just can't hop down rocks). That afternoon we once again headed to the pool...

On Sunday I took them out for another little hike.  The place I had originally planned on turned out to be a bit too much of a 4x4 trek for me to do by myself and in the little time we had before Patrick was finished, but the hike we did do was still beautiful and a place I had never gone before in Sedona.  After the conference we headed home via a stop at Montezuma's Castle, Rock Springs Pie Shop, and the outlet mall (which was an emergency food stop when Rock Springs was too crowded and we were all getting hangry).

It is so much fun to take off for a long weekend, but I must say this week was a bit hard because all of the weekend fun wore me out for the week!

On the Banks of the Rillito

This past weekend we have had an incredible amount of rain.  I can't remember the time it rained for so long for so many days (like almost 3 whole days... yes that is incredible to a desert dweller). 
 Round about the 2 day of the rain the Rillito River started to run.  The rain slowed down this afternoon, so we decided to brave it and head down to the river via scooter and balance bike to check it out.  Luckily for us, as we got to the river path the remainder of the clouds parted and it was a sunny and warm afternoon, but with water in the river! 

The girls enjoyed the walk a lot, but I think their favorite part was going down to the river bed and playing in the sand.  For me the best part was momentarily closing my eyes, leaning against the retaining wall, feeling the sun on my face and listening to the water.  I almost felt like it was summer and I was up on the Blue... oh heavenly!