Week 23 - Catching Up

Sorry for the lack of posting around here, I suppose my goal of one post per week has officially bit the dust. I do have a really good excuse though - computer issues. Ah yes, ever since Dean upgraded our Explorer I've had issue after issue while blogging. However, I'm happy to report that the problem has been resolved - all by placing an order for Grace on the Gymboree website! I know it doesn't make sense, but after encountering a problem submitting my order, I called the helpline. And viola, the kind operator new exactly what the problem was (apparently I wasn't the only one) - issues solved!

So shall we catch up a bit? Ah yes, I do believe that would be a good idea. Here are some pictures of Grace during her final week of school.....


.....All smiles prior to Kindergarten graduation


.....Posing with Macaroni, one of the many animals Grace's class help support with the "Unless Project"


.....Atop the alphabet fairy quilt I made, which was our gift to Grace's amazing K teacher


.....Enjoying a cold treat from the ice cream truck during the end of school celebration


.....Lastly, all glitzed and glamored for her dance recital

I can't tell you how excited we are that summer break has arrived. So here's to relaxed mornings, reading a stack of books at one sitting, afternoon swims, messy art projects and the like!

Week 20 - From the Garden

One of my goals for this year was to have a successful garden, well at least a bit more successful than in past years. Armed with two wonderful organic gardening books (here) and (here), which were gifts from my parents over the holidays, I set to work reading, planning, purchasing, sowing, tending and watering this little garden of ours.

Although some might not define these spaces in our backyard as a success, we sure do! Oh yes, the heat and lack of rain (despite my frequent watering using the rain water we've collected with our rain barrel) have taken their toll, but we're being persistent. I'm hopeful that we'll produce enough tomatoes to make a dinners worth of spaghetti sauce or have enough zucchinis to make a full batch of muffins instead of a half ( which we made with our first homegrown zucchini - and better yet, Grace ate them!) or perhaps have enough fresh flowers to add a splash of color to our kitchen table through the summer.

Would you like to have a look around?


A climbing bean being supported by a corn stalk.


Roma tomatoes ripening on the vine.


Sweet onions growing a bit bigger by the day.


Our first homegrown zucchini was cause for celebration.


A sunflower which just fully bloomed.

We have much to be hopeful for in this garden of ours. But until the bounty arrives, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed. Happy gardening!

Week 19 - Family Bike Rides

Ever since this winter when Grace learned to ride her bicycle sans training wheels, Sophie and I haven't been unable to keep up with her on foot (for Dean it wasn't an issue because he has a bike). And you see, Grace much prefers to be on her bicycle versus on foot during our daily evening outings. This left us in a conundrum - how could we make each family member happy? Many ideas were discussed, but we ended up purchasing a bike for myself (I haven't owned or ridden a bike since my teen years) and a trailer for Sophie.

After a few tweaks (Sophie yelped like a banshee with the trailer's top down, so we devised a way to keep her tethered to the frame, leaving the top open), it has turned out to be the perfect solution for our family. So on any given night, the four of us can be seen riding along our neighborhood's sidewalks. It's really quite a hoot, I tell you.

Here are a few pictures taken after last weekend's ride.....




Hooray for family time and little bit of exercise!

Week 18 - Blooms

This post was initially intended for last weekend, but due to unresolved computer issues, it's a week late.

This is the time of year that our yard is filled to the brim with blooms. So, I decided to share a few in honor of Mother's Day (pentas with a little visitor, a stately magnolia and lastly, a delicate morning glory)......




And while I'm sharing flower photographs, it seems perfectly fitting to show you Grace's latest project from school - a nature mandala. This project stemmed from her teacher's fondness for the artist, Andy Goldsworthy. Needless to say, Grace loved every minute of creating this piece of natural art.


We hope you enjoyed the blooms - belated Mother's Day wishes to you!

Week 17 - Grace's Art News

Ah yes it's true, our little artist had her work debuted in the "Sarasota County School Art Show" this week. You may remember her eagle from (this) post, well apparently another one of her pieces had been on display at school too. This one being her "family portrait" which adorned a wall in the principals office - framed and all!

So your probably wondering how Grace's art went from being displayed on the wall at school to being selected as a piece for the art show. Well, according to her art teacher, among all the art created and displayed during the school year, fifty pieces were "randomly" selected and Grace's happened to be one of them.

To celebrate this special accomplishment, we along with Meme and Pop, were present on the opening night of the show hosted at the Sarasota Art Center. Upon our arrival we located Grace's drawing and were astonished to see that it had a "Best of the Best" ribbon hanging from the corner - way to go Grace! After that we spent time looking at all of the amazing art created by some very talented children from our local school district. Oh in case your interested, you can see all of the amazing art for yourself, as the show runs through the middle of this month.




And in other art related news, Grace just participated in another artist trading card swap. She traded her tiny drawings with five other children from around the country.

As you can see she drew six different images, wanting to save the extra one for herself. She had such a hard time deciding which one to keep that it delayed the shipping a day beyond the deadline, oops. She eventually chose the "drawing of a drawing" (one the far left) as she had never drawn anything like that before.



So there you have it, some pretty exciting news related to art around these parts!

Week 16 - Fun with Eggs

Even though we don't celebrate Easter in a religious sense, Grace still enjoys all of the egg-related activities that surround the holiday. So this past week we've spent time having fun with eggs (and bunnies too).....


.....from making puppets


.....to drawing and dying


.....and lets not forget the traditional egg hunt

Ah yes, I do believe we've had a great time celebrating the season upon us. May you have a wonderful Easter!

Week 15 - Blueberry Picking

This morning we headed to Barventa Farms, where we met Meme and Pop for some blueberry pickin'. The blueberries were ready much earlier this year than last and seemed a bit more abundant too. Grace and I picked three and a half pounds worth of little blue gems, then the heat started to get the best of us. Here are some pictures....






I do believe this will continue to be a yearly trip, as you just can't beat locally grown, freshly picked blueberries!