We had another great Asheville Saturday - and we took full advantage by building 3 more containers for the garden. 1 for vegetables, 1 for edible flowers and 1 just for strawberries. 50 strawberry plants and one dirty little girl.

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Should be a sweet summer!

While mommy was helping out with the matinee of Godspell, Daddy, Pop and Meem treated Link and Loo to an easter egg hunt. Link, much to his dismay, won the boobie prize - 3 whole weeks of doing the dishes!

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Daddy later told Link that he would take the boobie prize. Link still ate the chocolate egg - but Daddy gets to do the dishes!

The warmer weather has brought out some of the spinach and other stuff we planted, and it’s affording our customary neighborhood walks. Loo is finally “big” enough to go with us, so it was pretty exciting stuff. Loo’s shoes were off within 20 feet of the front door, and Link was running so fast that he looked like light bent around him.

Link found a rolley-polley bug and let him crawl all over him for the whole walk, while Loo picked many wildflowers.

Bare feet, dirt, bugs and flowers. Finally spring is back!

Loo thought it was cool to have these, and then she was putting them back on the bottles and said “Look! Eye lids.”

Very clever, that little girl.

LooLoo painted herself, and in an eerily similar fashion to the Joker from The Dark Knight.

You decide. We think Loo is cuter, but…

In the words of The Joker (the real one, not Loo’s imitation,) “Insanity is like gravity. All it takes is a push…”

Not saying that Loo is insane. All I’m saying is that LooLoo is good at pushing…

Why I haven’t posted since December…

As soon as Christmas was behind us I had to hit this project full force.  Back in the summer I had agreed to be the costume designer for a production of Godspell set to run for 3 days before Easter Sunday.  It has been a lot of fun, rolling up my sleeves, dusting off my sketchbooks and using the right side of my brain again.  It has been a ton of work, too, and will continue to be until the project is complete.  J, too, is hard at work on it doing the marketing.  His poster series are causing a buzz and brightening up the storefronts of downtown Asheville.  They’ve also given him an excuse to stay out all night every other Friday night as he and his best friend hang out and between the two of them screenprint each poster themselves into the wee hours of the night…or morning.  So we are losing a bit of sleep but, hopefully, it will all be worth it when it finally comes together in April.  Can’t wait…

Dad finally got off his duff and moved the site to a new server. Should be a lot faster - and hopefully, the site will be easier to update…

Stay tuned!

So, we had our annual Christmas play at church and we do things a little different, of course. All children are welcomed to participate and can choose a costume upon entering the gathering. There’s always a grab for the one and only star, and Joseph and Mary are predetermined, but whoever wants to be a shepherd, angel or sheep can be one and it is so cute to see all those children up on the stage dressed in their nativity garb and joining our impromptu Christmas story. This was Loolie’s first year to be up there and she was a very beautiful little sheep, although very serious. Our handsome shepherd, Link, had a larger role since he has been practicing some songs to sing with a group of kids that have been meeting on Sunday nights for a couple of months now. They sang “Mary Did You Know”, which has quickly become his favorite Christmas song and he can sing it all the way through and often does if he doesn’t realize anyone is truly listening. They sang another song that I wish I had an entire video of because it was so good but I just had a snippet that I’m hoping to upload ASAP.

Pop and Meem came along to watch the fun, and since it was also Meem’s birthday we all went out to Asiana afterwards…yum. The kids showed how very much they love their grandmother, a bit too energetically at times. Even though, we had our fill of sushi and other delicious treats and then went home and crashed. Great Sunday. Happy Birthday, Meem!

The kids and I have really tried to savor the season and not stay so busy with activity but enjoy the simple moments spent at home.  With outside classes on hold, we have enjoyed being homebodies and the past week we laid off of our regular school routine in favor of focusing on this special time.  We’ve been reading scripture about Jesus’ birth and, although we have all read it many times before, we are trying to notice all the details and imagine what it was all really like.  Link seems to be at just the right age for it to really spark his interest and he has been very intrigued.  It’s been a blessing to see him so interested.  He has also really enjoyed hearing about other country’s Christmas traditions as we have been researching those on the internet here.  I let him choose 3 or 4 different places a day to hear about.  It really is fun to find out some of the different ways this special holiday is celebrated throughout the world.

Our favorite way to get in the holiday spirit, though, is through making things like these spice ornaments.  I wish that you could tell how incredible these smell!  I was so impressed with how well Link and Loolie were able to do these with little help from me.  Loolie was great with the rolling pin and was very careful in separating the dough from the ornament.  Link was, too, and meticulous in adding some detailing with the tip of a pencil.  They worked for a good long time on these and now they are hanging beautifully on the tree.

Lucky wasn’t too interested in making the spice cookies so I had to find a craft that was more up his alley.  He’s always been into origami and so I thought this idea just might engage him for a few minutes…and it worked.  I love how they came out.  I’d like to try them with some patterned scrapbooking paper and hang them year-round.

This is a small one.  We made 2 of these after making the original which turns out BIG!

We now had new ornaments without a place to hang them and since it was well into December it was time for Christmas Tree Shopping Day!  We do not decorate for Christmas before December per Dad’s rule, but that, honestly, makes it more fun because it builds the anticipation.  Of course, December 1st would be just fine for the kids and Mom but it’s usually the second week before we really get around to getting the tree up.  This time we had a full day of Christmas cheer.  We started out by going downtown to the Grove Arcade and checking out some of the gingerbread house entries from the Grove Park’s National Gingerbread Competition.  If you haven’t heard of that before, you obviously don’t ever watch Food Network…’cause it’s famous!  There are such unbelievable entries each year and I am always completely amazed at the amount of time, energy, and skill that goes into some of them.

The kids especially liked this one done by another child.  It was the Candyland game board…only one of their very favorite games!

This one was impressive to Mom and Dad and the photo doesn’t do it justice.  It was incredibly detailed inside and out.  I seriously do not know how these people do these things!  I have even more appreciation each year when we put together our little gingerbread house that is all cut out and ready to go.  We still manage to have a difficult time making it even with a pre-made base and already baked gingerbread (see below!).

After the gingerbread house admiring we got some health food at Cats and Dawgs, our favorite hot dog joint, and then went on to find the perfect tree. Each year I dream of going up into the mountains and spending the afternoon searching for just the right tree and then cutting it ourselves and bringing it home while singing Christmas songs and laughing with each other.  After all, we do live in Christmas tree territory and there are numerous cut-your-own places around here.  Sounds like a good way to do it, right? Maybe someday…but when it all comes down to it, though, Lowe’s is just SO much easier.

We took home our tree and began setting it up in the living room.  However, once again, the tree stand was nowhere to be found (this is, too, a Christmas tradition…losing the stand) so Mom went to get a new one while the kids eagerly awaited the decorating.  In the meantime, Pop and Meem came over and soon the dressing of the tree was under way.

Lucky thought he was being funny by jumping in front of the camera as I snapped it…but who’s laughing now???  Bwahahaha!

So after the tree was complete we decided that we were ready to tackle our own gingerbread house.  After being filled with inspiration from our trip to the Grove Arcade, we were ready to go.  The tree was lit, the Christmas music playing, so we all sat at the table with our mugs of hot cocoa and began the careful assembly.  Good news is that this year there was no trip to the doctor’s office for candy removal from nostrils!  The children kept the sweet treats out of all orifices…except for mouths, of course.

It’s looking pretty good, here.  It was nice to have Dad’s help this year.  This is usually something that only Mom and the kids get the pleasure of doing.

We had to take a break and cut a little rug.  Gingerbread house making is hard work!

Our finished beauty!  Can’t even tell that it was done by a bunch of unprofessionals, huh???

We even managed to transport it to the mantle without dropping it or breaking it, although I think the kids were a little disappointed.  Last year was a lot more fun when it came to that.