Cali's drawings

Cali, first grade.

A picture she drew of herself with our two dogs, Milo and Strider.

 And her self portrait.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cali style

Cali's Halloween art

Well, since I don't really scrapbook anymore I need to stick memories of this stuff somewhere...

Cali's interpretation...

of herself on her first day of kindergarten:

The circus goes to a Jazz game

On Monday I was sitting at my desk working, and generally just minding my own business (ha ha). It was a little after five, and I work until six. Wendel, one of the owners of the company I work for (Burt Brothers Tires) came up and asked in general (there were three of us still at work) "who wants tickets for tonight's Jazz game?" Usually when this is asked it's for the company seats, of which there are four, and we're usually given only two, so as an excuse to NOT take them, I replied with "I have my girls tonight." "How many of you are there?" "Five." He begins counting tickets onto my desk, "one, two three, four, five. It's starts at seven, you better get going." Needless to say, the circus was ecstatic. I called and told them to make sure they had clean clothes on and I hung up the phone while they screamed in excitement on the other end.

We found parking on the street and made our way in to the Energy Solutions Arena where we bought a couple of plates of loaded nachos to share and wound our way to the door we needed. I pointed out the huge Burt Brothers advertisement on the wall and by the time we found our seats the girls were singing the Burt Bros jingle full blast. The circus got to experience their first Jazz game from the 18th row, just two sections over from the regular Burt Bro seats. I'm assuming it was some sort of promotion tickets given to Wendel, as he gets all sorts of cool stuff like that. I think I created fans for life last night as I taught them about the game and they screamed and cheered and ate too much ice cream. The Buzz bee mascot was there and at one point tormented Cali, who turned around and almost tripped the poor guy by hugging him unexpectedly. Of course, the Jazz won, and confetti fell from the ceiling and according to the girls, it was the best night ever.
After the game, we walked up to the corner to wait for the light to cross to walk to our car, and a panhandler was standing there with his hand written, cardboard sign which simply read "Please help". Unfortunately for me, the group of people was positioned in such a way around this pan handler, that it left my circus and me standing right in front of this man, as he was standing in a little off the street corner, facing all the people, and we were facing him... as he was in our way of the street as we waited. These situations for me are awkward enough on their own. Cali, in all her rambunctious curiosity says loudly enough for me (and everyone else around us, including this man) to hear, "Mom what does that say?", as she points right at the cardboard sign in his hands. I try barely shaking my head to sway her. "What does it say Mom?" Brynn chimes in, "it says 'please help'". Cali continues, standing right in front of him, "it says please help? Why would it say please help Mom?" I can't even bring myself to look at the man. "I don't know, please don't worry about it." A second or two of tangible awkwardness passes when FINALLY the light changes and we move past him to cross. (The morning show I listen to in the mornings had actually been doing some stuff about "kids say the darndest things", so I emailed this experience to them. One of the morning DJs emailed me back saying he wanted to share it on the air. To hear it go here and listen to the podcast for 12-2, part 2. It starts at the timing 30:24).

Meet the author... Brynn

Brynn's first grade class had a "Meet the author" night. Each child in the class wrote, edited, and illustrated their own stories, and then each took turns reading them to us (the families who were invited). A display was set up for each child with the years reports that they've done so far in the year. Brynn did an animal report on penguins (what in the world inspired her to do that?...for those of you who don't know, I've love penguins and have for about fifteen years now). To go with her animal report, she sculpted this penguin:Brynn took her turn and read her story to the group "In the jungle the monkey is dreaming about a banana in a tree."
"On her bed the kitten is dreaming about a dog. It is a very scary dream."
"The little mouse in his hole is dreaming about a piece of cheese. That must be a good dream!"
"The puppy is dreaming about a cat. He is wagging his tail because he wants to chase her.""I am dreaming about ice-cream because I like it."
"The End"

Painting windows

My dad and Julie-mom (that's stepmom for those of you who don't speak "Stephanie") came down for a visit from Idaho and Julie-mom got to see the house for the first time. Can I just say I love making my parents proud? Ha ha even at 30 years old. They brought Cas an early birthday present:

Yeah, that would be window PAINT. Paint which got quickly put away when it started drifting off to other rooms and other windows... and windowsills... and walls... Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! This is one present that gets STRICT parental suppervision at ALL times. I have to admit it does bring out their creativity though.