Evan:: Nearly Ten

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He has a dream -- a long-term goal and a plan for his future.  It involves electronic/robotic/remote control machines.  He wants to design them, build them, drive them around.  He also wants to have his own RC car race track.  To make all this happen, he intends to start working with his dad when he's eleven, "since the only work I know is contracting."

He thinks someone is pretty (besides just me;-) for the first time.  He confides his little secrets to me and I will not tell them, but how precious it is to know his heart beats just a little faster around a certain girl he knows.

He loves food.  Mashed potatoes and gravy, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, berry-banana smoothies, cashews, red peppers, baked beans, lasagna, bacon, tacos, apple crisp, red cabbage, stuffing, fish patties, chicken noodle soup, yams, chocolate pudding.  Yum.

He values humor, but only to make his close friends laugh, not a crowd of strangers.  He can ride his bike for 5 miles and not feel tired, but ask him to walk half a mile and he'll be a drama queen about his sore feet.  He wants to kiss and cuddle me but won't let me kiss or cuddle him. 

He has many collections:  specimens for looking at under the microscope (a.k.a. dead bugs); toothpicks in the shape of swords; sticks with all the bark whittled off;  empty gum wrappers folded back up to look like real gum;  batteries -- everywhere.

He doesn't want a party this year.  It was always the plan to do a party at ten, but he doesn't want that.  Instead he just wants a chance to hang out with his best bud, and let us spend the party funds on a big gift.  That sounds just right for him :-)

Up To

What we've been up to since the weather turned summery....


**Games. All the usual ones plus this awesome made-up Coyote and RoadRunner game.  I watch them play, and all I can say is kids are so cool.  This game is fun.

**Tis the season for tents and forts everywhere.

Has a homeless person set up camp here?  No, it's just Flynn and Rapunzel's house.

**Too hot to be in the sun?  No problem.  Cubees are the indoor activity of choice.  They now dwell in double decker houses with trap doors and windows. 

A hand-made Cubee -- Gammorean guard from Star Wars.

**Sleeveless shirts are the everyday staple.  Chloe has several sleeveless dresses that I never seem to get photos of her in, but she looks so cute.  Evan opts for ugly anglerfish over "cute."

**Laying around like you are melting into the furniture or floors is totally acceptable.  Not just for Todd either.  See?

**It is never too hot out for cuddle time, if you ask Evan.  If we don't cuddle during the day, he gets really upset and by bedtime he might even be in tears over it :-)  Oh my sweet boy.

Surprise kissing while cuddling is not okay.

**Kitties and kids look especially lovely with summer sunshine glowing on them.

**With the help of a neighbor friend, Evan was able to get into the backyard tree for the first time.  Luckily, after today he won't have to work quite so hard to get up there, since his dad is home from work building a tree fort as I type!  Our backyard gets better every year :-)

Reality or Technicolor?

How about a little of both!
Chloe has been an artist from the time she could grab fistfuls of crayons or sidewalk chalk keeping all her favorite colors close. 

She still spends time daily drawing, coloring, painting, sculpting.  Some of her projects are supremely realistic and others.... not so much.

These are her "masterpieces" drawn from pictures of real horses.  I see things like this and I am in awe of her natural ability.  She has never had an art lesson, after all.

She drew this picture of Ruby laying on her back from a photograph.  She had the camera sitting next to her with the tiny picture to reference.  For comparison, below is my version which she asked me to do.

Evan has taken an interest here and there with art.  Every once in a while inspiration strikes and he will astound me.  Recently he made these:

A hawk and a crow, both from the underside view as you would see them if you looked up and they flew over your head.  He didn't have any image to copy, just the idea in his mind.



I was cleaning up the art corner the other day and flipped through Chloe's old coloring book of horses.  She started it when she was 5 1/2 so some of them are a bit sloppy.  Her realistic horses made me smile as I noticed the patterns she always added in -- not content with the original drawing (Mom, she gets that from you!)

But the main thing you see when you flip through her book is a rainbow of technicolor beauty. 

a work in progress -- the mane and tail are marked to be colored later

one of the only pictures with a background colored -- that is Gem Mountain!

originally she must have planned to give this to Olivia :-)

Evan's book was just as intriguing. He started out years ago coloring realistic-looking cars, like this:

Inspired soon after by Chloe's rainbow fascination, it seems he thought that would be a good idea to try.  His art changed drastically.  Each of these would take him more than a day to finish.

So, the technicolor world is what they prefer right now and I don't blame them.  It really is prettier :-)

She Loves Me

Hugs and kisses throughout the day, cuddles on my lap when she needs some comfort, and love notes galore.  These are my new treasures.  All from my sweet baby girl, Chloe.

She was Daddy's Girl for four years and recently (maybe over the past 6 months) she has opened up a place in her heart for me again :-)  Oh, how I patiently waited for this day....

 Her shirt says "I love MOM" (Evan's is covered with food -- we know what he loves)

I know she always loved me, but now it's so visible and tangible..... my heart is full.

Loving Spring Days

making a Thumbelina pond

so many flowers to pick from right now!

bird-watching.... our new favorite morning activity

visits at Granny's house for yard work and exploring

beautiful spring forsythia

The days are warm, the skies are blue and spring is wonderful.