90/365 Hitting the Beach

After deciding to go, then deciding not to go, then deciding to go again we headed out to Carlsbad to go to

the beach it was beautiful today, sunny and clear and HOT.  At least for this time of the year.  I thought for

sure the girls would be on the sand all day but they went boogie boarding and wave jumping most of the

day.  Except Sadie of course who is our little digger, she loves to build things in the sand.  Great day!

89/365 Dinner and a Movie...Well Kinda

Movie time, and since there weren't enough kids with just yesterdays group we added the Brouwer's and

the Carlson's.  So armed with our 12 children we hit the theater some of the kids wanted to see the Wimpy

Kid movie and a few others wanted to see Nomeo and Juliette.  Serena and I got the kids with Nomeo.  It

was really bad, a garden gnome version of Shakespeare...maybe I should have seen that one coming.

Anyways we ended up at the Carlson's house and stayed until we had to pick up pizza.  It was a super fun

night.  Did I mention I slept in again today...or that I love vacation?

88/365 Bowling

I love bowling with the kids especially when friends come with us!  But do you know what I hate...the

way the pictures I take inside are really crappy!  In spite of the picture quality we had an amazing time.

Tavern bowl with the Vander Pol's, the Knowles', and Sophia's sleep over friend (we did a back to

backer) and the plan is to get together again tomorrow.  Yeah!  Have I said how much I love vacation

yet today?  Wahoo!  By the way slept in again, livin' the dream.

87/365 Friends

Sophia had a sleepover last night then we decided to find somebody to keep Sadie busy...none of that

happened the way we planned, but it turned out great anyways!  Sophia added one extra friend and Sadie

went to her friend's house.  I got tons of cleaning and organizing done and the girls played outside most of

the time.  Everyone had fun!  Did I mention I slept in today, oh that feels so great.  I can't wait for summer!

86/365 If One Of Those Bottles Should Happen To Fall...

All this wine is getting me thirsty!  I have finished my wine organizing project!  Now I should be able to 

find any bottle of wine in my collection, with the stroke of a couple keys and get any information I need. 

I'm pretty excited.  Today we went to Ikea after church and picked up this bottle rack, I think in all it 

could hold up to 120 bottles of wine (room to grow)!  We stashed it under the house so it should have 

better storage conditions under there than anywhere in the house.  I got little hang tags at BevMo.  So all 

done, project finished.  Now I need to have a wine party.

85/365 Spring Break is Here! Time to Chill

The girls are finally on Spring Break.  Madison is heading off to Washington DC, with her school.  I will

be wrapping up the K-8th Yearbook for the school, and I seem to have a hankering for getting my house

organized.  All while the girls left behind want to hang out with friends and relax.  Day one, Little Big

Planet on the Play Station for them, organizing the wine and craft room for me.  I think everyone was

happy today!

84/365 82 Bottles of Wine on the Wall

Today when looking for a particular variety of wine I became so frustrated that I started pulling out all my

wine.  I wasn't sure what was what and when to drink it.  I scoured the bar, under the house, all my

cabinets and our little wine rack.  I was shocked to discover I have over 80 bottles of wine.  I get three

bottles of wine a month from Bounty Hunter Wine (thanks Dad!).  A little shocked by my hoarding, I

decided to spring clean my wine, so for a few hours tonight I have been entering all my bottles into an

online wine organizing website.  Who even know such things existed.  Not me, I love you world wide

web!

83/365 The Secret of My Success

Tonight was the annual spring program, called the secret of my success, it was wonderful.  Sophia had a 

pretty big part, and she did a great job.  I was so proud of her.  I couldn't really even see Sadie in the 

back corner so I only have a picture of her from open house, which happens right after the concert.  She 

was pretty proud of her classroom and all her work, we stayed there for quite awhile.  I'm so proud of 

my ladies they are growing up into amazing girls.

82/365 A Little Sprinkle

There was a little rain today, so I ran outside to get a picture of some of the flowers in my yard while they 

were all glisteny with water.  This was my favorite I love the little dew drops and the color!

81/365 Foraging For Flowers

I tried a picture a yesterday for my class and learned a few things tried to fix them here, but not sure I 

did.  But then I decided I didn't care that I really liked this picture and wanted to mess with textures 

today!  Dafodils at Vons...two bundles for five bucks!  Deal of the week.

80/365 This One's For Japan

Because of my Monday class I was thinking of the people in Japan and remembering my trip there when I was about 13.  It is an amazing country filled with beauty.  I fell in love with paper there and in a small way that changed me, silly I know, but true.  I send prayers to the people of Japan, and wish them a speedy recovery.  I also thank God for his many blessings on our lives.

79/365 Real Recycling

Jer and I are constantly having this recycling discussion.  He thinks it's crazy to recycle our garbage

because people keep telling him that it's so inefficient that the trash company just dumps them all in the

same place and charges us an up charge for recycling it.  Now, I'm not so sure so I separate my trash like

I'm told.  So back and forth we go.  The one thing we really agree on is that reusing old items is the best

form of recycling, which is so up my alley.  Anyways I had this project to do that spiraled into something

entirely else and I wound up making a bulletin board out of junk I had lying around the house and

garage.  I had an old bulletin board that the ugly frame had broken on (so I ripped off the frame and kept

the cork part), I purchased an old window frame at my last flea market excursion, and I always have tons

of cute fabric left over from my quilting projects.  Here's what I came up with...

It only took about 20 minutes to make!  I used stapler and an exacto knife, it was so easy.  I'll post a

picture of it again when I hang it up and get some stuff pinned on it.

78/365 Fun with Friends

Madison had her girlfriend stay the weekend with us while her parents were out of town, so when they

begged me to add another, what could I say?  It's just one more, right?  They are so in their own little

worlds now, they sit in her room laughing, or looking at old yearbooks.  They don't really bother me.

Madison is blessed with wonderful friends that appreciate her silliness and quirks.  I love them all!

77/365 More Monkeys!

Sadie loves to climb trees, and when I get a chance and she doesn't put up a "photo forcefield" I can snap a

few shots.  I have to be quick though!

76/365 Playing Hoops

 I went to see Madison's basketball game today.  Basketball is new to her and when she started she had no

idea what to do, but their team is looking pretty good now.  She made a couple baskets and several

rebounds.  I was really proud of her and she seems to have a great time.  Sadie really enjoyed herself too!

A friend from school was there for her to roll around in the dirt with while I watched the game and took

yearbook pictures.

75/365 It's a Mystery!

OK, so it's not the best picture in the world, but who has the guts to drive this car around!  I guess if you

have to drive a mini van that needs a paint job, this is certainly more interesting.  Wow.  I just keep thinking

what the Mom who drives this car must be thinking "I could be driving a Lexis...if it weren't for these

meddling kids!"

74/365 Gardening

Sadie and Roxy decided to garden after school at our house.  Sadie said they planted lots of seeds they

found in the garage, but are not sure what they planted where.  So mystery garden I guess.  Maybe they'll

weed for me too.  Probably too much to hope for.

73/365 Legoland?

Because the girls had no school today we went to legoland today.  I lugged my camera and even an extra

lens, knowing I was pretty low on power I threw in an extra battery...extra dead battery.  So no shots of

legoland but the girls had a wonderful time and the weather was awesome.  So here is a picture of a

succulent on my back patio that I just noticed has started to bloom.  I didn't even know this thing could

have flowers!

72/365 Lazy Sunday

We already had a big weekend and with no school on Monday, we still have another day to go.  The girls

lazed around watching movies and playing on the Wii.  While Dad got a little yard work done and I

worked on the yearbook.  Only 17 days left until print!  There's still so much to finish.  After working on it

all day today I feel like I have a pretty good chance of getting it in on time!  Here is a picture of my lazy

ladies.

71/365 She's Shooting My Kids!

Today the girls and I met Kristen Bons in downtown Escondido for a photo shoot.  I've been looking

forward to this, ever since we bought a certificate at the last Dutch Festival Auction.  I spent the entire day

and most of the week trying to figure out what they should wear, I even had their hair cut so they were

lookin' good!  The girls had a blast and Kristen was wonderful at dealing with them, even Sadie who was a

bit of a diva today.  Down town was fun.  I think my main job was to keep the bums from taking off with

her camera bag.  We saw some interesting characters, the girls can't stop talking about it.  I absolutely can't

wait to see the pictures!  Thanks Kristen, we had a blast.

70/365 Sadie's Share

Last day of first grader of the week, and last chance to share for the year.  She had to make it great.  She

thought so hard last night.  The first thing she came up with was taking a picture of Hobo, the guinea pig,

then sharing that.  Then she decided that was pretty boring.  The she just knew she had it "I want to share

Maddy!"  She was so jazzed about this idea, that I hated to shoot it down.  I explained to her that Madison

has school too and can't leave class for share time.  I thought it was so sweet that she wanted to share her

big sister.  Then she decided she wanted to build something.  Of course this is an hour before bedtime.  I

was skeptical, but she promised she would get up really early this morning to finish.  Then she could share

her "build" and her tool kit.  And she did.  She must have gotten up really early, because by the time I got

up she was ready for school and building away.  A robot, she named beep bop.  My favorite part was his

cute brain!  I was so proud of her, and she was proud of her work too!

69/365 Looking for clothes in all the wrong places!

So I have been doing only what I can describe as extreme shopping, first an explaination.  Kristen Bons

will be taking photo's of my girls on Saturday.  I am so looking forward to it.  She will be doing the shoot

in downtown Escondido. I wanted an urban look, but not too crazy so the clothes take over.  Then I was

worried about how much I like the clothes because they will be hanging on my wall for a long time.  So I

shopped everywhere for outfits for the girls.  After about 10 huge bags of clothes, I finally called in for

reinforcements.  I made the girls dress in 4 or 5 outfit options, took pictures, then made my friends tell me

which would work best.  She did and of course she choose the option that wasn't even new!  So I spent the

rest of the day returning the clothes.  Now I just have to decide what shoes they will be wearing!

68/365 Grandma & Grandpa, Here Then Gone Again

My parents came back from Montana on Sunday, and now they are off to Florida.  We will be watching

Rex for the week.  We all went to the Bridges tonight for the best dinner.  It was an amazing family style

meal with so many leftovers we will be having it again tomorrow night.  I wasn't able to get a very good

shot because of the light, but here are the girls on the club's back balcony.  We had a nice meal , and now I

can't wait until they get home again.

67/365 Slap Jack With Daddy

Sadie is first grader of the week, so she got to go to Burger King with her teacher and get a kids meal,

which I never let her do.  She was so excited to get a tiny pack of cards as her toy.  She talked Jeremy into

a game of slap jack.  They were hooting it up while I was fixing dinner.  Oh what fun!

66/365 Easter is almost here!

I put out most of my Easter stuff over the past week.  I love this bird nest I found not too long ago at the big

red barn.  It had really ugly eggs in it but I found these robins eggs at Pottery Barn, it reminds me of Spring

and Montana.  I can't wait for our trip this Summer!

65/365 Sunny Day

Today was another beautiful day in San Diego.  I love our weather!  I wanted a photo of Sophia with the

light behind her but I may have taken it too early.  Jer and I are going to visit his sister, Amy, who is in

town for business.  We are having an early dinner, so early picture.

64/365 Hair Huddle

The neighbour girls came by early this morning and declared it rainbow day.  So all of the girls spent most

of the day in some very strange ensembles, on their scooters.  It was fun to watch!  Tonight we get to spend

more time with friends.  I feel blessed by all our wonderful friendships today.

63/365 Drip Drop

I saw this online, and wanted to try it.  I'm not sure I had enough light.  I wanted to camera to take the

picture at a faster shutter speed.  But I'm not sure why it wouldn't work.  I may try this later on in the

year again.  It was a fun project.

62/365 Another Sadie Picture

I was in the area during grade school recess time.  I had my camera so I thought I'd get some pictures for

recess.  So here is Sadie hamming it up for the camera.  Gotta love the first graders, take a picture of 1 kid

and they all come running "me too, me too!"  At least someone is happy to see me with a camera!

61/365 Super Wednesday!

Sadie wore the Super Bowl tee shirt and hat that Mike and Karyn brought them back from the game in

Dallas last month.  She was so excited to show it off.  I think she looks super cute.  Even Roland thought

it was good for a smile!

60/365 Crystal Cathedral

I was so proud that both my big girls were chosen to attend the regional fine arts festival at the Crystal

Cathedral.  Jeremy and I drove them up this morning and they went to all their events.  Madison had a

baritone solo and sang with the junior high choir.  Sophia sang with her ensemble group and acted in a

short play.  It was fun, and of course they did a great job.  The scoring is 1 superior, 2 great, 3 good.

Madison scored a 2 on her solo and a 2 with the choir.  Sophia scored a 2 with her ensemble and a 1

with her drama group.  She also scored a 1 on a poem that she entered in the creative writing portion

(which is my favorite part!)  I didn't even know she had any writing entered until tonight when I saw

some of the scores posted online.  I can't wait until she wakes up to tell her.