motherhood and other nonsense

a few years ago, when torrey was in first grade, each kid in her class would write a paragraph every monday morning about their weekend. now i'm pretty sure this was just a ploy by her teacher to take an otherwise gloomy monday and fill it with hearty belly laughs. and man, if i'd been a thinker, i would have had the kids do this for me every week, too!

so flashback to  2006... i'm in the classroom correcting the spelling on the monday paragraphs filled with juicy tidbits of weekend fun. then i come to torrey's paper. her paper says, "on sunday we went to church and learned about how Jesus died on the cross for our sins and we learned that He saved us and to be kind to others. after all of that nonsense, we went home and had a party." now, i'm not going to lie to ya, i might have just burst out laughing right there in the middle of class. i think i even startled the teacher. you just never quite know what they're going to say next, do you?

incidentally, the party was stan's birthday party with our family... 'cause we're crazy partyers like that... lol. i asked torrey what she meant by nonsense, she said, "you know, the stuff that we do all of the time." so i got to explain that wasn't exactly what nonsense meant, while enjoying one of those magical motherhood moments where you try to keep a straight face.

i have this monday paragraph stored in a box of mom treasures. treasures like hand print frames, kindergarten crafties, random little love notes, sweet drawings... heck, i've even got the apology notes (given back to me) the girls wrote to my former neighbor for breaking their window during a "rock throwing contest" in their yard a few years back. treasures that i wouldn't trade for all of the flowers in all of the world. it is precisely these mom moments that make my life so very rich, and so very humorous all at the same time.

in other nonsense... i've been chugging along on my second year of project 365... mostly trying to document the girls on a daily basis. it's always hard to believe how much they've grown and changed over the past few years. it's fun to flip through the daily happenings and see it progress a little at a time, although i'm sure to others, it's a bit like watching grass grow...

the girls seem to be coming up on the next big block of change, and i'm thankful to have these daily baby steps toward the wide world of adolescence. i'm enjoying the ride, and savoring every moment of every stage the best i know how... one at a time.

next comes the scrappy corner of the world. or if you're at my house... the hobby whose supply stash is slowly taking over my entire house. (one more thing to get all cleaned up before stan gets home!) i've been working on projects for several different venues. i've made a couple more albums for the fabulous folks at punky sprouts. you can check them out here and here and here.

then, of course, there is the fabulous fun with all of the glitz goodness. love, love, love their vintage love line!

for the scrap review this month i got to play with the wonderful line my from very sweet friend liz. you can check out the review, along with a few other projects here.

for the sake of those that have actually made it this far down in the post... the rest of these bad boys are gonna get the super condensed speedy commentary. 125.365 emma looking serious & cute and seriously cute on the front porch. {more may daily life shots here}

124.365 torrey lost her first tooth since second grade walking home from the bus.

123.365 my little reader doing what she loves most... snuggling up with a good book.

138.365 emma sporting a flower autie kaori sent her from japan. {more pics here}

137.365 inspired by a friend, i pulled out the lensbaby & its star aperture disk and shot up my rhodies.

135 & 136.365 torrey looking sweet as candy, and emma sporting her pre-bath undone hairdo that looks simultaneously like she's from early 90's and in her mid 20's. {more here}

134.365 this past week i went with emma's class on one of my very favorite field trips... to the state park. i love, love, love our state park. it's amazing, beautiful, diverse and only about 5 miles from our house. we camp there bunches in the summer time, and visit all year round. all of the second graders get to go to the state park where the UW beachcombers come and show them tons of our natural wonders. so super cool! {bunch more pictures here}

133.365 what it looks like when you spend a couple of hours playing in 2 acres of freshly cut grass. i however, will not show you what my bruised hip looks like after falling on my brick steps trying to carry the dirty little bodies into the house. ouchie!

the rest are fill more bits and pieces of our daily life in may... {more pics here}