Little Birdies

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Somehow we managed to dodge the rain that was called for all week! The weather was a little chilly which was ok since the girls were able to layer plenty of warm clothes under their costumes.
Gavin the Goldfish was Elvis up until 2 hours before we headed out. An unfortunate incident with the glitter paint caused a last minute costume change. Thanks to some orange and yellow fleece, he became a goldfish. Lily couldn't decide between a princess or a bunny...Maiya was Cleopatra.

Tacoma Art Museum

2009-10-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

We spent Thursday at the Museum of Art in Tacoma. Its a very small museum that doesn't take long to tour, yet we were there for HOURS. They have a really wonderful children's art studio...We couldn't get the girls to leave. I gave Maiya a little lesson in landscape painting (with a great view out of the huge windows). Lily painted, but most enjoyed creating a collage. Gavin also got into the painting action as you can see...

At the stable...

2009-09-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

At the zoo...

2009-09-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

We went on a homeschool field trip to the zoo last week with a few of Maiya's friends. It was the 1st day of public school in the area, so we figured we'd have the zoo to ourselves. We were right. It was a very fun day! The highlight was probably the camel ride.

Our baby boy!

2009-07-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

Gavin Spencer

July 16, 2009

9lbs 1oz.

Arrival at the hospital

Big sister Lily

Big sister Maiya

Grandpa Richie

Grandma Sharon

Farmer's Market

2009-05-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share a photo of my little stall at the farmer's market. We moved to a different location this year. My spot is along the walking path, with a huge field right behind me. I took the photo of Maiya jump roping from my stall.

A few more...

2009-03-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks were also filled with Brownie activities, zoo trips, and a few other fun outings. We also visited Maiya's violin teacher's new baby where Lily practiced baby snuggling.

A quick update and some pix!

2009-03-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

Finally an update!

Maiya celebrated her 8th birthday a few weeks ago. Rather than having a full scale birthday party, she opted for a sleepover with her good friend Emma and a couple days at Great Wolf Lodge. She was so happy that Jaden and Gracie were able to join us there!

Good people...

2009-03-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a news story about what was happening today at the animal hospital owned by my friends Giles & Shannon (Banfield of Renton, WA).

http://www.komonews.com/news/40514182.html?video=YHI&t=a

I spent a few hours there today and was so happy to see these precious victims of the horrible puppy mill industry getting the vet care they so desperately needed.

CPSIA update...Some good news!

2009-01-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

"CPSC Grants One Year Stay of Testing and Certification Requirements for Certain Products"

From the CPSC website:
"The stay of enforcement provides some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA. These businesses will not need to issue certificates based on testing of their products until additional decisions are issued by the Commission. However, all businesses, including, but not limited to, handmade toy and apparel makers, crafters and home-based small businesses, must still be sure that their products conform to all safety standards and similar requirements, including the lead and phthalates provisions of the CPSIA. "

It looks like the CPSA is going to take a year to figure out how to fix this law.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html

The CPSIA and me.

2009-01-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

I decided I need to take to my blog for a few minutes to talk about the new Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).

As we all know, there were 1000s of children's products imported from China in the last few years that contained hazardous levels of lead and forced massive recalls. Yuck. So our government decided to take action and require all children's toys and jewelry that are made in China be tested for lead before they are sold in the US. Sounds great!

Except that's not actually what the government did. Instead, they hastily drafted legislation that blanketed EVERYONE that creates children's product into the required 3rd party testing. There are no exemptions for small businesses, micro-manufacturers, work-at-home-moms or handcrafters that are using materials that are made in the USA with known lead-free materials.

The law requires that a sample of every different product line must be tested at a CPSC accredited lab (most of which are NOT in the USA). If I make 3 different style dresses from the same bolts of fabric, each of those dresses must be sent off for separate testing which will run hundreds of dollars depending on how many components the dress contains. If a dress uses 2 fabrics, a trim, thread and elastic, the dress will require a 5 part test for a minimum of $300 worth of testing. Component testing is not allowed. I cannot have my bolts of fabric tested for lead and consider all garments made from that bolt to be lead free. THE FINAL PRODUCT must be tested for each "style". If I change the style but NOT the materials, new testing is still required. If all my fabrics arrive from my distributor with lead-free certificates, I'm still required to retest those same fabrics again once I use them as if they are somehow going to absorb lead from the air. Its redundant and expensive.

On top of that, the law is retroactive. Clothing in my inventory that I created legally under the current law will become hazardous and banned after February 10th unless I send all of those one-of-a-kind dresses off for expensive testing.

Several news shows reported that there is now an exemption for cotton and wood products. What none of them mention is that the exemption is only for "unaltered" natural wood, cotton and wool products. The moment the cotton is dyed (even with lead-free pigment), it is no longer exempt. So this exemption applies to a very limited selection of products.

The bottom line is this. We are not looking for an exemption from the lead limits. We are looking for an exemption from the testing requirements, similar to the exemption allowed for used products. A CPSC spokesperson recently stated in an interview that businesses selling used items would be allowed to use their"reasonable judgement", without testing, to determine if an item is likely free of lead. If the owners of thrift stores are able to make this judgement call on 1000s of toys, I think a businesses creating their products from lead-free components should also be allowed this exemption from testing. I can reasonably assume that a dress made from a 30 year old embroidered cotton pillowcase is lead free. I can also assume that a garment made from a lead-tested bolt of fabric is also lead free. Yet I'm still required to test both.

Because cotton fabric has been shown over and over again to be lead free, the "guilty until proven innocent" approach to testing should not be applied across the board. Imported toys and jewelry should be tested. Handmade children's clothing should not require testing since it is reasonable to assume they are lead free as previous testing has shown.

Will the government actually waste time and money going after work-at-home moms and Grandmas knitting booties for craft fairs? Unlikely, but without an exemption on the books, we do risk a $100,000 felony fine and 5 years in prison if we don't certify our products. How big of a company "counts"? My good friend Sheila will understandably be closing her shop rather than take the risk (http://www.babygoretro.com/) as will hundreds of other small businesses. When I contacted my representative about the situation, he basically told me "its for the good of the kids...Sorry the testing is expensive". I'm not sure how forcing the closure of small businesses creating safe, US made alternatives to mass produced goods from China is "good" for our kids.

Something needs to be done. Please consider contacting your state representatives and ask them to ease the testing requirements for small businesses that are already creating LEAD FREE products in the USA. To learn more you can visit these links or just Google "CPSIA":

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2009/01/16/cpsia-safety-toys-oped-cx_wo_0116olson.html

http://www.mothering.com/sections/action_alerts/toy-safety-legislation.html

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/how-you-can-help

I love my sister!

2008-12-16T15:16:00.001-08:00

Thank you Jen, for rescuing years and years of photos from my dead hard drive!!!!

I know! I shouldn't have allowed 3 months to go by before I created a 2nd backup when my primary copy failed. Lesson learned. I will be backing up my backup as soon as its back in my hands :)

A couple pix

2008-11-16T16:05:00.000-08:00

From this morning...

And from a couple weeks ago (but I just found it when I was browsing my pix).

More trick or treating...

2008-10-31T17:14:00.001-07:00

It started off a little drizzly, but its clear now so we're probably going to head out for more candy. Lily didn't get a chance to go earler today. Hopefully I'll have some more photos to post of Lily when she gets her costume on.

Making pizza at a friend's house...

Trick or treat on the Seattle waterfront!

2008-10-31T16:57:00.001-07:00

Seattle has their Halloween celebration a few days before Halloween, so if the weather is nice, the girls are lucky to be able to do a little early candy collecting. This was the second time Grandma Joan and Grandpa Tom were able to go with us.

Seafair Pirates

2008-10-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

Maiya and the pirates, throught the years...

2003

2004

2008

Visit from Grandma & Grandpa

2008-10-31T16:43:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa came out for a week. The girls had so much fun! I haven't had a chance to sort through all the photos, but here's one from a nice walk at the Theler wetlands.

Pumpkin patch field trip

2008-10-18T22:37:00.000-07:00

One of Maiya's homeschool groups took a field trip to Pheasant Fields Farm on Friday. We lucked out with the weather. It was sunny and warm for the first time in a while. We toured the you-pick flower garden, the vegetable crops, the cage free chickens, a corn maze and the kids picked pumpkins right from the patch.

Pheasant Fields Farm runs the stall across from me at the farmers market I sell my clothing at over the summer. Maiya enjoyed seeing where some of the food we buy at the market comes from.

One of my favorite things about homeschool field trips is that the kids are all different ages. Alot of public schools are starting to offer multi-age classrooms as the benefits become more well known.

Lily thought her pumpkin was too big. She really wanted a "baby" pumpkin, but all the tiny ones were still green so she settled in this one. I'll post some photos of the pumpkins after the girls decorate them.

A new life for Kanoa

2008-09-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

This is Kanoa the Eclectus parrot. Kanoa is from Hawaii which would have probably made for a pretty nice life except he lived with a crystal meth addict for 7 years. He was then given to someone else for the last 3 years. Without getting into the details, life wasn't much better in that home. His way to deal with the neglect and abuse he's lived with his whole life is to pull out his own feathers.

I don't know if his feathers will regrow...His skin may be too damaged. But even if he is forever a plucky ducky, we still think he's as cute as can be.

I'm not sure why he is so sweet considering what he's been through, but I can assure all that are woried about Lily being so close to such a big beak...She is completely safe. He's not a biter. Lily really loves her "Naked Bird"...Except when he ate one of her raisons. She was pretty mad about that. Maiya has been busy making lots of new toys for him.

I think he is going to be pretty happy living with us. I have to admit its a little bit strange listening to the birds chatting with each other. Kanoa is even more talkative than Simba! I think Simba really likes having another bird around to "talk" to.

If there's any chance his feathers will grow now that he's getting loads of attention and a very healthy diet, we likely won't see improvements for months. I'll update his progress when I can. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for him! I don't care what he looks like...But I do care that he is so easily chilled. Poor little guy. Maybe I can sew him a little fleece vest.

Bird on the head.

2008-07-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

This is our little Meyer's Parrot. We adopted her in 2006 after she lost several toes and half of her lower beak when another bird she was living with attacked her. She's such a little sweety. Lily just LOVES her.

A fun visit!!

2008-07-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Uncle Paul came to town for a few days! We packed alot of fun stuff into his time here...Swimming, lavender picking and lots of running around. Here are a few photos.

Unfortunately the ferry ride home from Seattle after our last day together wasn't much fun. Thanks for coming to see us Uncle Paul! We'll miss you.

Who hired this model?

2008-07-09T00:52:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting time trying to get photos of this dress today. Lily was trying out some new faces.

Happy 4th!

2008-07-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

As we usually do, we went to Bainbridge Island for the 4th of July parade. This year instead of watching we decide to walk with the Bainbridge Basset Brigade. There were about 20 basset hounds. Unfortunately I didn't have a free hand to get a group photo during the parade. But as you can imagine, about 20 basset hounds on parade was a pretty cute site. Gus did great! He loved the attention and had no problem walking the entire parade route. The same couldn't be said for all the bassets. Some just layed down in the middle of the street and decided to nap. Towards the end there were a few being carried!
We walked behind the Seattle Seafair Clowns. They were determined to make Lily smile but she was having none of that clown nonsense. She just pretended they weren't there and refused to look at them no matter how hard they tried.

Coffee, hot cocoa and purple martins

2008-07-09T00:08:00.001-07:00

About 5 minutes from our house is "downtown" Seabeck where you'll find the yummiest cafe around tucked behind the general store. I attempted to sneak out of the house for coffee before everyone woke up the other morning but Maiya caught me and came along for some hot cocoa. Yes...Hot cocoa in July. Even if its 80 degrees during the day here, its still in the 50s in the morning.

There are about a dozen purple martin houses hanging from Barbie's balcony. It looks like they are all occupied. There are purple martins everywhere!

Daddy quilt

2008-07-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

I was about to give some of Jon's old shirts to Goodwill but decided to hang on to them instead. They've been cut into 5"x5" squares and are being made into a quilt.

Crazy sky

2008-07-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

On our way home from Maiya's gymnastics class we stopped to snap a photo of the sky over the water. The photo doesn't really do it justice. The sky was solid dark clouds except a hole where the sun was shining through.

My Gym!

2008-06-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

Lily started My Gym this week. She LOVES it. She didn't like interacting with any other kids on day 1 and mostly made her "angry face" at everyone, but by her 2nd visit she was actually running after a little group of kids.

This photo just cracks me up. heh.

All those blooms!

2008-06-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

It was pretty windy the other day...Enough to blow the flowers off our rhododendrons. There are blooms all over the ground. Maiya saw some parking lot attendents in Hawaii stringing leis from a bush that was dropping blooms so she decided to try it. This lei is heavy!!!! Thats alot of flowers!

And just so this blog...

2008-06-05T01:21:00.000-07:00

...doesn't become too Maiya-centric, here is a photo I took of Lily in one of Sheila's adorable outfits. (Click the Baby Go Retro link on the right to see all of Sheila's goodies!)

Ballet ballet ballet

2008-06-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

Maiya's ballet recital is Sunday and we are in the midst of ridiculous number of rehearsals. Today they had photos...So of course I took photos of the girls getting their photo taken. Maiya is a "morning glory" in Alice in Wonderland. Lily usually comes along and is really picking up some moves! I'll see if I can figure out how to post of video of both girls.

A busy day...

2008-06-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

Maiya is part of a very cool program for homeschoolers offered through our local school district that allows her to attend a *somewhat* traditional classroom once a week for acedemic enrichment and clubs. There are over 250 kids in this program which gives you an idea of just how many kids homeschool in this area. The 250 that choose to be part of this program are just a drop on the bucket.

Today was Field Day! The kids played games and ate BBQ. Maiya earned a 1st place ribbon with her team for winning the most games.

Maiya and her friend Esther.
Maiya also won a bronze medal in the Reading Olympics. The kids logged how much time they spent reading over a 5 week period. I forgot to include the minutes she logged during 10 hours of flying to Hawaii and back. She probably would have earned a gold medal if I was a better record keeper for her. Oh well! Something to aim for next year!

She also went to another homeschool activity today offered through our local school district...2 weeks of free daily swimming lessons! So fun!!

Violin recital

2008-06-05T00:34:00.000-07:00

A couple photos from Maiya's recital...

Magic doors

2008-05-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

There is nothing special about the front door. We go in and out through it all day long. If the girls go out to play through the front door I usually need to get out the yard toys and other things to keep them happy. But now that the weather is warming up I can open the french doors in the family room. The MAGIC doors. If they walk out the magic doors they can endlessly run circles around the house without ever getting bored. If they walk out the normal front door, that would not be interesting at all. I wonder how many times the magic doors can be walked through before they lose their magic.

A little beach time...

2008-05-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

Can a beach vacation ever be long enough? We were not ready to leave Hawaii. Another few days would have been nice...We stayed in a little cottage right on the beach (thanks Sheila!!) We went to sleep to the sound of the waves every night and watched the sunrise over the water every morning.
Maiya found flowers for her hair everywhere we went. This beautiful blossom was laying on the beach in front of the cottage we rented.

The sand may have been Lily's favorite part. The beaches by our house are mostly covered in rocks and shells so the sand in Hawaii was loads of fun.

One thing I found strange was the lack of annoying insects. Are there mosquitos in Hawaii?? I thought the rainforest would be buzzing with little bloodsuckers but fortunately there were none!

I managed to keep the girls from getting sunburn the entire trip...And then the day after we get back to Seattle Lily got sunburn! Its as warm here as it was there. Crazy!

The rest of our photos can be found here if you are interested:

http://www.luligirl.com/Hawaii2008/data/index.html

Science Fair

2008-04-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was science fair. Maiya's project was titled "Healthy Food Choices", a topic that Maiya is very passionate about! She didn't do an experiment like most of the older kids, but her project was was still a big hit! There were many conversations about the foods she chose. I even overheard a few people say "I didn't realize that!" as they looked at her info cards. Her project compared typical foods with their healthier alternatives. She read the labels checking for sugar and and fiber content, as well as pointing out high fructose corn syprup and artificial colors and flavors. This was entirely Maiya's project. I helped her come up with a way to present the info (on laminated cards for each food pair) and I also went to the store to buy the unhealthy foods. But she is very knowledgeble about nutrition so she was very confident presenting her project and enjoyed discussing the different foods with the people who visited her display (as you can see below) The apple sauce she is pointing out here is the grocery store brand. It contained apples, corn syrup AND high fructose corn syprup!! Maiya also presented our usual apple sauce from Traders Joes. It contained only one ingredient; apples. Other interesting products included the fruit punch that "contains no fruit juice" according to the label and the Fruit Loops that listed sugar as the first ingredient, before any kind of grain. Doesn't that make Fruit Loops sugar with added cereal, not cereal with added sugar??

Obviously science fair is not something 1st graders usually do, but it was a homeschool science fair, so it was open to all ages. One little 5 year old girl presented "All I know about pigs" which included lots of cute pig paintings.

Her Daddy and sister missed it because Lily is on her second round of a stomach bug. Twice in a month! Poor baby.

Just because...

2008-04-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

A photo from the park the other day.

Wilcox Farm tour

2008-04-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Our homeschool group took a field trip to Wilcox Family Farm last week. They supply milk, eggs and meat to many of the stores here in the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately the dairy was closed the day before...All the cows were sold and the farm is no longer supplying milk. So the kids didn't get to milk the cows. But the trip was still alot of fun.

There is an old school house on the property.
This photo was shot through thick glass into a dark room. These are the cage-free hens. Errr....I'm going to rethink the extra money I pay for cage-free eggs and go back to buying from the local farmers at the market. Yes, they did get let out into a big yard twice a day. But I just didn't expect the conditions of the cage-free chickens to be so cramped! They were covering EVERY surface like sardines. I have to wonder if they would have more room to themsleves if they were actually put in cages!!

Here is Maiya suffering from that "lack of socialization" I hear so much about. You can see that homeschooling has really isolated her ;-P

Still at it!

2008-02-16T00:17:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my very first blog that I heard February is supposed to be the time when homeschooling can get kind of rough...Something about the excitement of the new year wearing off and the months of crummy weather. I have to say, we're really not experiencing that. Although many days are far from perfect, overall I'm absolutely certain we made the right choice.

Grandma Joan and Grandpa Tom visited from Chicago (pix coming soon)...We didn't have to work around a school schedule and the girls were able to take advantage of every moment they were in town. Who wants to be sitting in a classroom when you know that family you don't get to see often are in town!

Yesterday we found some cool sea stars on the beach near our house and turned it into a really interesting biology lesson.

Today we went to the childrens museum where they happen to be doing a rubber sea star print making craft. Maiya was able to tie in her science lesson from yesterday with an art project today!

We're going to take it day by day but for where we are at right now, I don't see a benefit to sending Maiya to traditional school. She's involved in loads of activities where she can "socialize", she is ahead in all the acedemic subjects, she is planning out her project for the homeschool science fair, she has the flexibility to pursue the things that really interest her (art...lots of art) AND she has time to play with her sister for hours everyday which, in my opinion, is as important as all that other stuff when we're talking about a 7 year old.

Happy Hanukkah!

2007-12-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

Oh Hanukkah Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah, come light the menorah
Let's have a party, we'll all dance the hora
Gather round the table, we'll give you a treat
Dreidels to play with and latkes to eat

And while we are playing
The candles are burning low
One for each night, they shed a sweet light
To remind us of days long ago
One for each night, they shed a sweet light
To remind us of days long ago

And then the snow melted...

2007-12-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of what happens when you get 8 inches of snow one day and 12.5 inches of rain the next. Fortunately we are on high ground and didn't experience any flooding on our property. But we live in a neighborhood surrounds a lake that is fed by a salmon stream. That stream runs throughout the neighborhood and was completely overwhelmed by the rain and snow. Add to that, we are on the side of a small "mountain" so all the run-off from the hills went into the streams which made their own new paths right across roads. Its pretty messy out here.

Our first big snow of the year

2007-12-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

First of all...HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTIE BETH!! Hope you have a great day :)

Yeah!!! We got about 8" of premium quality, packable snow today. Perfect for snowman and fort making! The rains and wind are coming so it won't be around long. In fact our power is sure to go off shortly so hopefully I'll get this posted first. In typical Seattle fashion its going to be in the 50s tomorrow. At least we won't have to shovel the driveway since it will all be melted before we need to leave the house.

This was Gussy's first snow...It was pretty deep for him but he figured out how to fly over the top of it.

I picked up one of those plastic snowblock makers at Target last week. The snow was perfect for a fort!

Lily wore a too-small snowsuit with my mittens and Maiya wore my snowboarding pants with two belts to keep them up. We weren't quite prepared with proper snowgear...But if I went out and bought snowsuits for them, that would assure that we wouldn't see a flake of snow all winter. Interesting how that works.

The fort gets bigger with a little behind the scenes help from Daddy.

Gus could use some snow shoes to get around with his stumpy legs.

Since the fort doesn't have a roof, why not just stand under Bailey.

A sneak peek...

2007-10-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

For the first time ever I will not be sewing until the last minute on Halloween! I actually finished the costumes a few days early!

Hermione from Harry Potter

Little Bat

Happy Halloween!!

Gus...

2007-10-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

...and his puppy dog eyes.

How sweet is this little boy???? We adopted him Sunday afternoon. We didn't plan on getting a puppy...We were waiting to hear back from several Basset Hound rescue organizations where we assumed we would adopt an adult basset that needed a new home. But our calls and emails were not returned so we made a trip to the Humane Society. There were many many great doggies there but none that we felt were the right fit for our family.

When we got home from our shelter visit I logged onto craigslist because I've been looking for a bigger violin for Maiya (craigslist is an online classifieds site). I didn't see a violin we could use, but I decided to search the pet listings just for the heck of it. I found this ad about 3 minutes after it was posted:

Basset boy needs good home
We have five month old gus here, have to find a new home for him ASAP as we are moving and cannot bring him. He loves to be outside and having a fenced yard with this dog is going to be your best friend, he's a roamer, but absolutely loves to be outside. Very good boy, great with kids, dogs, cats, you name it...give me a call if interested.

(her typos, not mine)

I called and asked her to hang onto him until I could drive the 1.5 hours in a downpour to her house to see this little guy. She did, and now he is ours. He is such a love. We never would have purchased a basset from a breeder and there shouldn't be a reason for a puppy to be in a purebred rescue, so we never thought we'd end up with such a young one. But he needed a new home and we needed a basset hound so it all worked out.

1st day of school...

2007-08-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

...Home school to be more specific. Yup. That's a picture of Maiya in her new 1st grade classroom which happens to be her desk at home. I know this is news to many of you and maybe you think I'm insane. But we know this is the right choice for Maiya and she is very excited about learning at home. Incidentally, Kitsap County holds two records. The longest salt water coastline of any county in the continental United States (210 miles), AND the highest percentage of homeschooled children. Everyone out here knows a home schooled child. The local elementary schools are very hit or miss out here which is probably why there are so many homeschooled kids.

I know what many of you are thinking. "What about socialization??" There are loads of groups and enrichment classes. There is a class for homeschooled kids in just about every subject. Maiya starts the homeschooler's class at the rock climbing gym on Monday...She can play her violin in the homeschool orchestra...There are homeschool team sports, gymnastics, dance, Spanish...All offered during school hours to accommodate homeschooled children. I never met a socially challenged homeschool kid, and I've met alot of homeschooled kids. Its just not an issue anymore because homeschooled kids are not isolated they way they might have been years ago.

So today we had our first day of school. We thought we'd see how things go before we leave for Chicago and throw everthing out of wack! We are planning on lots of museum field trips while we are there. Our first day went well. I'm sure I'll be ready to toss Maiya on the school bus in a few months...I hear February is when everyone is ready to throw in the towel. We just want to get through a year or two and then hopefully we will be living somewhere with great local schools. Wish us luck!!

(If you're still skeptical, read this)

A new park.

2007-08-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

We took a walk down on the waterfront in Port Orchard (after visiting The Candy Shoppe! Yum!) and found a fun little park. It looks pretty new. It has really silly, fun spinning toys that I haven't seen anywhere else. The girls had loads of fun!

Birthday party fun!

2007-08-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos from a birthday party we went to...

Lily is a wildwoman behind the wheel.

Waiting for the piniata to break.

Stomping bubbles. Note to family: Do not distress over the Mariners hoody...She just hasn't grown into her Cubbies hoody yet.

Dirt

2007-08-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

We now have a very large patch of dirt in the back yard. Maiya is excited about all the rolly-polly bugs she can find. Lily is happy to climb the dirt pile.

Day 1

2007-08-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Jon and I have been trying to make a decision about what to do about our house. Because we don't have a den/family room we've run into a problem...My little clothing business is taking over. I'm excited that the orders have been coming in, but we've lost our dining room under sewing machines and fabric. We also have no extra space for visitors to stay with us and our living room is feeling increasingly too small as the girls get bigger. We considered selling our little house in the woods and buying a bigger house in exchange for a smaller yard. But we love our 1.25 acre weed patch! We decided as long as we are living here in Washington, we didn't want to trade our yard and our privacy for a bigger house. So here is what we decided:

We need a another room! And no...We didn't buy a poodle. That is our neighbor's dog. Marty, our neighbor, owns a construction company and has taken on our little project. As part of the deal his landscaping guy is also doing something about our backyard full of lumps, rocks and dandilions.

Namaste

2007-08-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

I took this photo on Saturday at one of Maiya's favorite activities...Yoga class. The room is as empty as it looks. There are usually only one or two other kids.

Our camping "trip"

2007-08-05T00:38:00.000-07:00

After spending Wednesday morning trying to find something interesting to do, we decided to go camping. Jon was working so the girls and I headed to the beach! Maiya and I set up the tent and Jon met us after work for a campfire dinner and roasted marshmallows. The girls slept like logs and enjoyed a yummy pancake breakfast. We spent the morning exploring the seashell covered beach (the tide was REALLY low) and playing with baby crabs.

Was it a camping TRIP? The time it took to get from our front door to our camp site was 7 minutes. Not exactly a long journey. But the park is beautiful, the water was the bluest we've ever seen it and marshmallows roasted on a fire 7 minutes from the house taste just as good as those roasted 7 hours from the house!

What's with the name??

2007-08-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

Why Practical Fairykeeping? Because although I have yet to actually see one, every day seems to include taking care of the local fairy population. Building houses from twigs and leaves...Picking berries to be served on a seashell platter...Reading books about fairies and creating fairy art. Maiya is also preparing for the arrival of the Tooth Fairy. She was relieved her very loose tooth didn't fall out while camping the other day because she was certain a tooth fairy would not be able to make it into our very bug-proof tent.

Today's fairykeeping project was a popsicle stick house. This was a trial run for the popsicle stick fairy castle.