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!

All about Isadora

Isadora is fast becoming a big girl. Her favorite colors are shiny pink and shiny purple (absolutely not regular pink or purple).

She is very concerned with eternity, and or has no concept of time, I am not sure which.  When you tell her it is time to go to bed, to wait in line, or that you are taking shirt away to be washed, her first (and usually only) question to you is: FOREVER? Or, Izzy no TV today... NOT FOREVER? Today we went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens and we were talking about plants and how if you don't give them water they die. Her first question was... FOREVER? and I said yes, and then she said, "but if you take one of their seeds and plant it and give it water the plant will be alive again."  She is a clever kid!
 
She likes to make inventions. One of the most notable is the mermaid tail, whereby any regular old doll can become a mermaid with the simple addition of a kid's sock over the doll's legs... voila, multicolored mermaid tails. She learning to count.  The other day she asked if she could have a pez. Patrick told her she could have 2. I asked her what would she have if she ate one more and she said 3 pez. Patrick then asked her what she would have if she ate 3 and then had 1 more. Izzy responded, "A lot." Awesome.

She is very fond of her friends and her best friend Leo in particular. Before Christmas she was in REI with Patrick and found a collared striped shirt that she decided Leo just had to have.  Patrick bought it for her and we finally gave it to him this week. She was so excited to give it to him and then kept asking me afterward, Do you think he liked it? She also makes friends very easily. Last weekend Patrick and the girls were at the park and Izzy made a new friend that now every day this week she has been asking if we can go over and play with her. Finally, she is very fond of her big sister. If Evie would let her she would sleep on the top bunk with her every night. The two of them are like peas in a pod most moments and have gotten into making up elaborate shows for Patrick and I to watch.

For all her friendliness, Isadora can be tentative too. She always insists on grabbing my hand as soon as we get out of the car.  I never have to ask her to hold my hand when we are anywhere near a street (and often she is holding my hand even when we are no where near a street). At the Gardens today we went to the butterfly exhibit and she spent the first 10 minutes glued to my back and grabbing onto my pant pocket for dear life. (I have no idea why she decided it was safer behind me instead of holding my hand... I think I was serving as a human butterfly shield) After about 10 minutes though (and a magnifying glass) she warmed up to the situation and started looking at the flowers and the butterflies with guarded interest.

In the sandbox, note the Anna (ee) doll waiting behind her.

Isadora likes to put an "e" after the things she says.  For example,  she is madly in love with the Christmas present Evie gave her, but instead of calling her Anna, she calls here Anna-eee  Anna-(ee) must go everywhere with her, including tied on with a "seat belt" to the front of her balance bike. Her other favorite possession is the guitar that Santa brought her for Christmas.  Starting in about October her mind was set that a guitar was what she wanted, and man was she excited with the rosy-cheeked man delivered. She currently plays it more like an upright bass, holding onto the top and strumming it.

Last, but not least, Izzy is silly. She is always cracking jokes and making silly faces, both of which crack her up (in addition to the rest of us).

 

Ph(D)inished!

This weekend there is cause to celebrate!  It is my first weekend in 4.5 years where I have had not one single thing to think/worry about for my Ph.D.!  It is such a relief.  Patrick and I kicked the weekend off with a silly 5k run where they threw colored corn starch at you.  Luckily for me he was very patient, my running (and physical fitness in general) has definitely fallen off these past four months.  Even despite all my quick walking though we managed to finish in about 33 minutes, which sets a good baseline for improvement for this year.

During their last week of break they got to spend time with my Mom and Patrick. Patrick, among other adventures, took them to the Air and Space Museum... I think they had a good time :)

In other news the girls started back at school this week.  It was a mercifully smooth transition.  I think they are both happy to be back with their friends, although I know Evie is not too happy to be back to homework.  This morning, while we were at the dash, my Mom graciously took Evie over for an audition with the Tucson Girls Chorus.  Evie is super excited to start singing with them next week as a "ladybug". It is a neat thing for me because this is the first time she has really asked to do an activity (as opposed to Patrick or I suggesting and her acquiescing). After the choir audition we all hung out outside for the entire afternoon, sometimes it is just wonderful to be in Tucson in January!

Happy New Year!

Well 2014 was a pretty awesome year (for the blog, well, not so much).  We had told Evie she could stay up until midnight, so we sent 2014 on its way by watching the NY Times Square ball drop (we thought that watching it live would make it so we could go to bed 2-hours earlier... Evie called our bluff though) and then lighting some sparklers... as it snowed.  Pretty awesome, albeit cold.

 

The next morning we woke up to a snow covered catalinas (and tortilitas and rincons).  It was positively beautiful!

Evie Philosphy

After playing a game Goblet with Genevieve the other day, where I won quite a bit and then she managed to best me a few times too, she informed me (and I wrote it down word for word so I wouldn't forget):

"I think that when parents let their kids win it is mean because someday that kid could go to a board game contest where the prize is 1,000 dollars, and the kid would never have to work again, and if their parents always let them win the will think they could win but really they couldn't and miss a chance of a lifetime."

Ahh 1,000 and never have to work again....

Winterhaven

A zoo in lights... this went on around the corner... it was pretty spectacular

This year we decided to visit Winterhaven after Christmas.  I think we all really enjoyed extending the Christmas fun by one day (or more, Patrick was just listening to Christmas music in his office...) so this may become the new tradition.  Also in the spirit of newness, we walked down roads we have never visited before and were surprised to see the water and light show set to music that I thought had gone from the neighborhood... It was smaller than the old one, but no less delightful.

Almost able to get a picture of all three of them...

I think my favorite part this year though was the massive snowman.  The girls were enchanted with the "snow" aka bubble machine. I felt a little bad that this was as close as they'll get to snow this Christmas season, but not really... they did spend all day outside yesterday playing in the yard in just pants and a long sleeve shirt.  It is all about the tradeoffs :)

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas and lead up to Christmas!  On the 23rd we took a trip to the zoo for zoo lights and the annual trip to see Santa.  Although Izzy insisted she would not sit on Santa's lap, when push came to shove she jumped right up there and chatted with him as if she knew no Santa fear.

 Christmas eve was a fabulous time of family and fun. Evie finally had Izzy open her present (an Anna doll from the Disney Store), which she had been waiting paitently for a month to give to her sister.  After presents, the night was complete with songs on the piano and a buche de noel from a French bakery.

Geneveive was also pretty excited about the minecraft books I bought for her.

Buche de noel and cuteness.

Izzy with her doctor set... which originally was a present for me (the new, almost, Dr.) designed by Patrick to hide the amazing ring he picked out for me.  I think the nerdy look suits her.

 Today Santa brought a bike and clay charms set for Evie and a guitar for Izzy. Patrick and I hosted (for the first time ever) the big Christmas dinner at our house (although my mother and aunt took pity on us and brought all the food... so it was really only a quasi host...  I did buy Christmas place mats... a big hostess step forward for me :)

It is now chilly and just started to rain... who knows, we might just get snow tonight!

And the holidays begin...

Last weekend we kicked off the Christmas month (aka December) with a breakfast with Santa up at one of the fancy Tucson resorts.  Our inspiration for this new event (because goodness knows we need another Christmas-related activity!) was Genevieve's school choir, who is asked to preform at the breakfast each year.  It turned out to be a good time.  We were watching my teenage cousin this weekend and the two of us even went up and sat on Santa's lap and had our pictures taken, which gave me a strange sense of silliness and joy.  Evie's choir did a great job and then she and Patrick were off for another rehearsal for a Christmas dance performance that we'll go to next week.

While they accomplished that task Izzy, my cousin, and myself went on a very important mission... find Sadie a nice warm cozy sweater.  Said sweater was of critical shopping importance because little miss dachshund has decided it is too darn cold (yup as nippy as 40 degrees in the morning) for her to spend enough time outside and do her business.  She was running outside, running back in, and then relieving herself inside.  The mission was successful, sweater was acquired, however, it was made for a regular dog, not an extra-long one.  As a result if you try to put the back straps on her legs she ends up walking around like she has a diaper on and looks decidedly uncomfortable.  It's tough finding sweaters when you are long in the torso. 

Then in the afternoon we all went out to find our Christmas tree.  My cousin tried to convince us that we really should get at least 3 of them, like her family does... fortunately we resisted.... among other things I have no idea how we would have fit two, let alone 3 trees on top of the Subaru.  The challenge every year with the tree au natrual is how the heck to get it perfectly upright when it is a far from perfect thing because, well it is natural.  In the past we have managed to give a semblance of straightness by putting shims under the tree stand in key places or just by rotating the tree until you couldn't really tell it was leaning.  This year, however, the tree was so very leaning that there was nothing to do but go out and buy a new fancy tree-stand that would let us adjust our leaning tower of treeza until it was just perfect.  Patrick came back from his mission with not just a new tree stand but fake snow and tinsel...  I am afraid my cousin is a terrible influence on us.... We now have a straight, well tinsled tree surrounded by a halo of fake snow.... so much for au natrual :)

The power of the blog

So clearly I have let this whole blogging thing slide for other things...  Other things consisting mostly of taking every Saturday morning (and sometimes afternoon... and sometimes Sunday too) away from hearth and home to work on and finish(!) my dissertation.  But here we are on a Saturday morning, the girls are enjoying a little my little pony and Patrick is away so I do not have anyone to sit with for hours and drink coffee.  So I find myself pursuing the old blog posts. 

It was interesting to me to see that it was the descriptions of the "normal" days and moment that made me so happy.  We all remember the big vacations and events, but somehow the little moments get lost.  And it is for this reason that I am going to pick this blog back up now that I am so. very. close. to. having. my. PhD. finished!  So in the spirit of remembering those little things... a little tale about black friday and the box trolls.

Patrick left yesterday morning to head out to Texas to go hunting with his friend Gene and see his Dad.  The girls and I were terribly sorry to see him go, but I was excited for him to get a chance to get outside and for me to have some time to spend just with them doing "girly" stuff (whatever that means).  Once he left we all got dressed and headed down to Cost Plus where just about everything was buy one get one free.  I got in trouble with Genevieve right away as I made a b-line for the scarves and earrings... "Mommy, and who are you buying those for?... We are supposed to be buying presents for other people"  Oh all the lessons that do come back to bite us in the bum.

After I surreptitiously placed a scarf for me (and one for someone else too...and maybe a pair of earrings) in my cart we set out for the toy area, which was the real reason why Evie was hassling me... earrings and scarves are boring and she was on a mission for a present for Izzy.  On the way to the toys we each picked out an ornament as our "2014" ornament.  Evie had to contemplate quite a bit but ended up picking a wooden horse.  Izzy on the other hand knew immediately which one she preferred, a blue very fragile airplane because "I want to be an airplane flyer when I grow up." I picked out an owl made out of woodland bits.  For some reason I am obsessed with owls of late, I can't tell if this is because I have an affinity for them or some clever marketing scheme that has lodged itself in my psyche.  Anyway we browsed the toys and found a few good stocking stuffers but not the perfect present.  My plan was to head home after a brief stint at cost plus but Evie really wanted to go to the mall... so we braved it.  The target of her desire was the Disney store, which had pylons set out in front of it for those "door busters" that thankfully we had missed.  What we hadn't missed though was the "early-bird" 20% off everything in the store... so I distracted Izzy while Evie found a present, stood in line and paid for it.  Evie was very excited to achieve her mission.

Seeing how we were there anyway I decided we should pursue a few other places looking for red tights and pants for the girls for school (a constant mission of mine).  Limited success was met and then it was time to meet 20+ Rimszas for lunch at Chicken and Waffles.  By this time the girls were both looking a bit peaked, but, fared pretty well at lunch (I think the lemonade helped).  I actually broke my cardinal rule and let them play on my phone during lunch... the noise of the whole experience was a bit much for Izzy in particular, who decided she would take my phone and go and hide on the floor in the corner.  After we finished lunch we returned movies that were only a week and a half late (awesome) and then decided to make one last trip out and went to Target.  This was spurred by Evie's desire for a new nutcracker, and for some reason she was positive she could find one at Target... and to her credit she did.  With two new nutcrackers, which could never crack a nut and actually rather creepily open and close from their chest because they are ballerinas, in hand we finally headed home.  (These nutcrackers, however, have become Izzy's favorite thing, right now as I write this the two of them are in the other room making up stories and ballets around their nutcrackers and Izzy insisted on sleeping with her's in their room last night)

After a nice rest we decided that the day was young and so are we so we all went out to the movies to see the Box Trolls, which was super fun.  Izzy cuddled on my lap for almost the whole movie, much sprite was drunk and we almost finished an entire box of popcorn.  A good time was had by all and after a bath all said good night.

Hiking with friends

To celebrate submitting the draft of my dissertation to my committee last weekend I (gasp) took the entire weekend off.  Saturday was spent mostly doing all of those things I have been ignoring for weeks to months (laundry, chicken coop, the disaster that is my closet).  Sunday though we met one of Izzy's friends at Sabino canyon and one of Evie's friends was over for a sleepover.  We went for a glorious (albeit short) hike to the dam and back.  Part of the reason for the hike was because Isadora is now not the only girl in her preschool class and is making friends with one of the new girls, which means her previous best friend, a little boy, has felt rather left out.  The two of them have had a very cute and special friendship for the past few months, so we wanted to give them some time to play together just the two of them. 

Friends, Sunsets and Rainbows (oh my!)

Last weekend was uncharacteristically social for us.  We started the weekend with a friend's wedding (8 am... about the only time you can have an August, outdoor wedding in Tucson), had different friends over in the evening (well really it was Evie who had the friend over... and then we just convinced the friend's parents to hang out for a few hours chatting) and then still different friends over on Sunday afternoon (OK so again they weren't really our friends... Izzy had a friend come over and once again we convinced the parents to hang out with us... there might just be a trend to the nature of our social life here...)  It is really fun though to see both girls at the point where they are having friends over to play.  Evie's had a great sleepover with her friend Ruby and Izzy had a great time playing with her new school friend Leo.  Izzy was particularly impressed with Leo's visit because he came with flowers for her (oh so very cute) and macaroons. 
 
This weekend is shaping up to be decidedly less social but no less fabulous.  There was the most amazing rainbow and sunset combo last night... (I am afraid I am better at taking photos of rainbows and sunsets than of play dates.)

 

Zinger: Walking the Dog

Patrick took Kita, but not Sadie, out for a walk.  Sadie came to me whining and protesting.  Genevieve noted, "Of course she is upset mom, walks to dogs are like ice cream sandwiches to kids!"  True, so very true.

Back to School

They both have the exact same goofy half smile!

This was Isadora's and Genevieve's first week back to school.  For Izzy it was (kind of) her first official week of preschool and for Evie her first week of second grade.  They were both very excited on Monday morning and remained pretty darn jubilant throughout the week.  Izzy is in the French preschool class with about 5 other kids who are 3 and 4 years old.  Her teacher's name is Mr. Abdul and he is originally from Lyon, France.  Izzy is going to do two after school clubs, preschool choir and kids zumba.  (oh the cuteness)

Genevieve is in French 2nd grade.  Her French teacher this year is the same as last, Mme Bouchard, and she is super excited because her French teacher this year is also her P.E. and Art teacher.  In addition to Art, P.E. and French she has the same english teacher as last year, Mrs. McDonald, the same music teacher Mrs. Ausprung, a new science teacher Ms. Nelson and a new math teacher, Lao Shu Chang.  Her form tutor (like homeroom) this year is Senora McKenna.  (Whew kid has a lot of teachers)  Evie is planning to try four different after school clubs (I say try because we may veto one or two if she seems to tired after the first few weeks).  She is going to do Oddessy of the Mind, Gardening Club, Science Club and Choir.  She has decided she really wants to learn to sing so she is also going to try her hand at voice lessons once a week before school.  (If nothing else she is sure to sleep well every night!) 

This week also marks my first official week of working full time again.  In order to swing this change in schedule Patrick and I came up with an elaborate scheme of drop offs and pick ups that I now have posted on my wall at work so that I won't mess it up, but really it just means that Patrick is picking one or both girls up from school every day.  He is really enjoying this and so far this week has gotten them donuts twice, tried to take them to a splash park (only open on the weekends as it turns out, it was tragic... so he got them ice cream), and to the bookstore.  At this rate they may never want me to pick them up or take them into school again :)