Spring photos of the house

Seattle-Bound!!

Brian is pleased and honored to have been invited to participate in a prestigious poster exhibition hosted by Pearl Jam's official fan organization, the Ten Club.  He will head to Seattle this weekend for a whirlwind trip where he will attend the event to show and sell his posters.

You can read more about the poster show here:

http://pearljam.com/news/notable-poster-artists-showcase-seattle-s-showbox-market

Gift for Mrs. Fields

This is our goodbye/thank you gift for Georgia's teacher.  For the center, I printed a worksheet and Georgia traced the letters with a fabric marker. 

More Photos of the Cinderella Tea Party

Prince Charming, Cinderella and Georgia

Gus Gus and Georgia

Work in Progress

I am working on a quilt for our bed and I have one side of it done.  I have plans to make another top for the back of the quilt so we can have 2 quilts in 1!  We will see if that actually happens. 

I am happy with this quilt so far, a modified version of this quilt.  I do still need to trim some length off of the sides, but besides that, the top is pretty much finished.

In addition to a linen/rayon blend from Joann, I used a jelly roll of Amy Butler's very beautiful Love fabric.

Funny coincindence: I chose the fabric scheme after doing some online research, THEN realized that the quilt would coordinate perfectly with the decorative pillow (that, unfortunately, you cannot see in these photos) that Stacy made me for Christmas!  Guess it was meant to be.

Thanks to Stacy for sharing the pattern from the Moda Bake Shop with me.  I wouldn't have found it on my own since prior to making this quilt, I did not regularly look at that site.  

Cinderella Tea + Play

This weekend, Georgia and I spent Saturday afternoon with Tante and Grandma.  We attended a very special Cinderella Tea Party followed by a production of the Cinderella musical at a local high school.  It was a very sweet event.  Georgia was so excited and had a wonderful time.  She ate lots of yummy sweets, made a friend at our table, won a door prize/raffle of sorts ("I won!  I won!" - an acrylic "glass" slipper decoration) and loved the play.  It was a great afternoon, all orchestrated by Tante, and a wonderful way to spend Mothers Day together.  Unfortunately, Aunt Kathy and Nana weren't able to come due to prior commitments but we will celebrate with them another time. 

Thanks again to Tante, for arranging a great day.  I think Georgia will remember it fondly.

Posing for her public...

Sorry for the lack of posts.  We've misplaced our camera.  This was from a cell phone so not the best quality.  But funny.

Spring Photo

A "Wild" Night

Yesterday we drove up for a special "members only" evening at the zoo. It was a great time. After a quick turn through the aquatic buildings then playing for nearly an hour at the "bug park" playground, Georgia chose to go into the lorikeet habitat first where we fed the birds some sugar water.

The birds were positively ravenous! Brian had

FIVE birds on him at one point!  

Can't you just see how happy he was about that??

After feeding the lorikeets, we headed to the kangaroo habitat. There, Georgia stood within about a foot of a kangaroo munching on some clover.

Next we saw the komodo dragons. Brian and Georgia are loving the Discovery Channel series Life right now and just saw a piece about the komodo so they were very excited to see one up close.

He/she is ugly.

We made our way around and saw sea otters (so cute!), colobus monkeys, a cheetah, orangutans, gorillas, and the beautiful okapi.

After a spin on the carousel...

...we checked in on the penguins.  Most were "chilling" indoors
but this little guy happily swam back and forth alone.

After the zoo, we met Grandad and Nana at
Jeni’s for ice cream. Delicious! 

Thanks for treating, Grandad and Nana!
It was great to visit with you guys! 

Sidenote: Brian just learned that a nearby coffee shop
now carries our beloved Jeni’s ice cream
in pints!  We are so excited!

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to Carter & Stacy!!  Yesterday, the big man turned 6 and Stacy's turns 35 today!  They celebrated their special days with an overnight in the Windy City!  We hope it is/was great fun! 

Ballerina Hair

Today our friend Heather showed me how to put Georgia's hair

into a smooth bun for her ballet recital. I am not sure I will be able

to duplicate this but I will try!

Happy Spring Break!

We are in the middle of Spring Break!  Well, it is "the middle" if you consider that the break started on Friday after school (noon), which means we are in day 5 of 10.  Anyway, yesterday we went to COSI and had a great time after waiting in line for an hour (literally) to get our tickets.  Guess lots of people had the same idea.  But it was fun.  As usual, Georgia made a friend and we ended up eating lunch with her very nice family then spent another hour in the Ocean exhibit with them.  Hopefully we will get some photos up later this week.

Busy Birthday Weekend

We packed a whole lot into these past 3 days in order to celebrate Georgia's birthday with friends and family! 

On Friday, Georgia shared her choice of strawberry cupcakes (with strawberry icing) with her classmates.  After school, her friend Madelynn and Madi's little sister Isabella came over to play for about an hour.  They spent most of the time drawing with sidewalk chalk (a birthday present) on the back patio.  Later that night, we went to Georgia's favorite restaurant, Dewey's, for pizza.  She decided to change up our usual order - half cheese + half pepperoni - to half cheese + half bacon...because we like to walk on the wild side occassionally.  The waiter served us a piece of carrot cake with a lit candle, one that Georgia has saved - "I know!  I'll start a candle collection!" 

On Saturday, we hosted a brunch for my parents and sisters + husbands.  We had a great time!  After opening gifts, Georgia asked, "Mommy, do they have to go now?  Because I don't want them to."  They didn't leave for a few hours, much to Georgia's delight.  (These photos below are from Tante - Thanks!) 

Later that afternoon, Georgia and Brian headed to a classmate's birthday party at Jump Zone.  She was full of stories about how "so awesome" Jump Zone is and insists that I go next time, when she goes there for another classmate's party in May.

And finally, today we went up to Columbus to meet with Grandad, Nana, and Uncle Matt.  After a delicious brunch, we went over to Build-A-Bear where Georgia made her new bear, Annabelle, and selected a ballerina outfit (complete with dress, bow, and shoes - smart shopper!) as well as a pet chick named Clara - all for Annabelle.  We ended the day at our favorite ice cream shop - Jeni's!  It was a really great day and a fantastic way to end the weekend! 

Georgia, Brian and I are so fortunate to have such a wonderful family to share such important times with.  Georgia is a very loved child and we are so grateful for that.  

Also, GREAT news - Brian's cousin Michelle in TX gave birth to her twins - baby girl Cameron and baby boy Logan - today!!  Both babies and Michelle are doing well.  Big brother Harrison's reaction to the twin siblings?  "wanna watch Cars."  We are so happy for their family!

Happy Birthday to Georgia!!!!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Kathy!!

Aunt Kathy was in town yesterday so Georgia and I met her for lunch on her way out of town today.  We took the opportunity to give her birthday gift to her.  This is the first real quilt that I've made - meaning, I actually quilted (instead of tying it off) and bound it properly.  All I can say is that batik fabrics are very forgiving!  I am proud of it, though, and hope to do more quilting. 

(Check back on Saturday for photos of Tante's gift!)

Happy Birthday to Tante and Aunt Kathy!!!

Lost Tooth #6

Georgia waited very patiently for this tooth to fall out
on its own this morning.  Very exciting for her!! 
She is very proud of herself for waiting.

Hurry Up, Spring!!

Daddy-Daughter Dance: Official Photo

Haircut!!