Happy Easter

My Little Soccer player

My son has wanted to do soccer for awhile. He has never been on a team before. I was talking to a teacher at school that is a coach and he suggested a developmental league we should start him out in. He's only 6 and he's just learning. They make it real fun at the practice incorporating games into the practice to build their skills. He is doing AWESOME I'd say he's one of the star players. I hope he'd like to continue in the fall. Here are some pics. of him today at his game.

Spring Break in Florida

My daughter at the Sponge Docks of Tarpon Springs





We moved out west from Florida almost 10 years ago. My son however, was born in Arizona and had never been to Florida. My daughter was only 3 1/2 when we moved and had been back to visit at age 6. We came from the Suncoast area of St. Petersburg and Clearwater right on the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. Over Spring Break we went back for the second time to visit dear friends, old familiar places and to eat fresh fish. We got great airfare and thought it would be a good time of year to go. Unfortunately to take advantage of the great airfare it meant leaving really early on a Sunday morning, 5 am to be exact which of course meant getting up in the middle of the night yawn. Returning was about the same, we came back on Saturday and our flight departed at 6 am. We wish we would have been able to at least squeeze in another 2 days but we were thankful for what we were able to get. We packed a lot into the days that we had.

We arrived late afternoon even though our trip began before the crack of dawn. We met my dear friend from High School and her lovely daughter for dinner. Of course it was a restaurant that was known for it's fish. Our first full day there we spent at Busch Gardens with a good friend and his daughters. It was really nice weather and we spent the entire day there until they closed, lots of rollercoasters that day. Day 2 we went to visit the old places. We saw the last home we lived in, old stores, my husbands High School, dear friends at the Print Shop we had both worked at together. We went to the St. Petersburg Pier and walked around like tourist watching Pelicans and looking at the Bounty ship. Our daughter got a St. Pete t-shirt since she was actually born there. It was a lot of fun taking her to places she was too young to remember. We took the kids to a park near our old home and we were amazed by the squirrels. We don't see very many of them in our area. We must of looked like freaks taking so many pictures of the squirrels LOL :) like we'd never seen them before. We had lunch at the best Pizza place, Toby's Little Italy in St. Petersburg. They make THE best pizza in our opinion. Vito's Pizza and Venezia's in Mesa come pretty close to it but a totally different atmosphere. On day 3 we went to Disney World, I've always loved it, grew up going to it many times. It was a bit more crowded for my taste but we don't have the luxury of living within an hour and a half from it anymore so we enjoyed ourselves. It was fun taking my daughter on my favorite teenage ride, Space Mountain. On day 4 we traveled back from Orlando and went to Ybor City in the Tampa area. It's a very unique place with beautiful old storefronts and Cuban history known at one time for cigar making. My favorite place for vintage & repro. vintage jewelry was La France which was still there. It is housed in a storefront that has been there for 100 years. My husband is a huge sports fan so we had to visit the Lightning Hockey and Tampa Bay Buccaneers Stadium and new training facility with oodles of memorabilia. We finally made our way to our day 4 destination which was Clearwater Beach. We had a hotel room overlooking the city and the beach. The sand is the best I've ever seen, beautiful soft white sand. My son who loves to dig in the sand, couldn't get enough of it. That night we met more dear friends for dinner at a restaurant known for it's grouper sandwiches. It was great to see our friends and catch up and the sandwiches were yummmy. My son apparently now LOVES fried clams. On day 5 we headed up toward Dunedin which is where I last lived before marriage. I went by my High School and took pictures of the 2 homes my Mom and I had lived in. We then went up to Tarpon Springs to the Sponge docks. We met my dear friend and her lovely daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. Tarpon Springs has quite a bit of Greek history. The Sponge Docks have many shoppes that sell sponges taken from the ocean floor. There are many restaurants and bakeries that have Greek food there. A well known place called Hella's has a bakery with mostly Greek pastries such as Baklava but they also had Italian ones too, like my favorite Cannolis (yum!). That night my husband went to spend time with his High School buds and the kids and I went with my dear friend. There was a Mall she wanted to show us. We went out to dinner with her and her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. That was our last night there sniff, sniff. I wish the beaches and the people could be in Arizona somehow. It was a memorable trip and I'm glad we went before the summer heat came. I don't think I'll ever take another early flight like that again, that wasn't fun getting up in the middle of the night. I spent the day we returned sleeping on and off late afternoon and into the evening. I'm guessing I had jet lag, but I'm all back to normal again. Still trying to get back into reality :) We came back this past Saturday.

Our Valentine Date Night

For our "Valentine date" my husband and I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and out to dinner to Gordon Biersch last night. (You can click on each picture to enlarge it) Valentine weekend is free admission but those free reservations went fast.



I've been wanting to go see their current exhibit. They are having a special exhibit called Chihuly: The Nature of Glass. We have a mutual love for photography, so it was the perfect date. It was absolutely awesome! We chose to go later in the day so we'd be able to see it by daylight/dusk and night. There were very few children, it's not something the 10 & under crowd could appreciate. It was so nice to be able to just linger.



Thank you Lisa & Steve for keeping the kids entertained while we did that :)





We had a buy one get one free admission from our Entertainment book, so our admission was only $15! Anyone in the Phoenix area should see this exhibit before it moves on.






Most of the pieces were mind boggling, we couldn't imagine how they could have been put together. I would love to see a documentary of how it is done. To see the intricacy and massiveness of these pieces is really spectacular. Some look merely like colored fluorescent light bulbs, but in the midst of the desert landscape are quite dramatic. My personal favorites were the more massive ones.

Valentine Jell-O Jigglers

My son's class is having a Valentine Party tomorrow. His teacher mentioned there are plenty of cookies etc... so she asked if I would make some Jell-O Jigglers. I have not exactly done that before, imagine that in all my years! I was up for the challenge, I got online to do some "research" LOL and read some suggestions. Some say to spray the pan before adding the Jell-O, I tried that even though it sounds kind of gross. I tried it without and it worked just the same, it looked better without too. I already had some Jell-O at home so I thought I'd give it a test run. My thought was to get red Jello and cut out heart shapes. Upon my experimentation and trials I have come up with the only way that worked for me, are you ready for it?

I boiled 2 1/2 cups of water in the microwave for 6 minutes. I added a 6 oz package of Jell-O and stirred it into the boiled water for 3 minutes constantly. I then poured it into a 9x12 pan (which I already had in my refrigerator) it was much easier rather than trying to carry it sloshing back and fourth. Then I chilled it for 3 hours. After the 3 hours, I put the pan in warm water in the sink for 15 seconds. I then used a heart shaped cookie cutter. There is excess, but no worry it's edible. Mind you I had to make 3 batches of Jell-O to have enough for the whole class, which takes over 3 hours to set for each batch, a bit time consuming. I know there is quick set directions, but I had the time to do it the old fashioned way, didn't want another experiment.... I chose the Strawberry, Strawberry Banana and Cherry since they were all red. Just in case there is anyone out there that hasn't made Jell-O Jigglers, you've got to try it, it was fun :)

Kindergarten PE night

Definition of Nostalgic:
a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition ; also : something that evokes nostalgia.

This past week my son's school had a Kindergarten PE night. Parents were invited to come and participate in physical activity with their child. Siblings were asked not to attend, due to space and availability of equipment I'm sure. It was just as well though, this was there time. I took my son and we had FUN! They had random things we could do at first. We played tag, hula hooped, climbed ropes, jumped rope..... My personal favorite was when the parents, only, played with the parachutes. They were huge, 2 of them took up nearly the entire gymnasium. We did some really fun things with them. We sat inside it, we put just our heads in while laying on the floor, we did the wave with it by trapping the air and holding it down with our knees and each side took turns pushing the air down toward the other, we even let it go flying high up in the air. The kids enjoyed watching the Moms and Dads play with the parachutes. At the end we were thanked for coming, and told to take a balloon they were providing us and to just find a spot and play with our child. They played this song I now have on my blog by Phil Collins "You'll be in my heart" while we did that. It was such a sweet time and such a sweet song, I was feeling a bit nostalgic. My little guy, still is young, but he's growing up and I just want to cherish and hold close these special moments forever.

Princess Anne House

My Birthday is this week, when I saw my mom this past week, she asked if I had gotten a doll house yet. I of course hadn't yet, she suggested I go and get one for my Birthday from her. Last night I had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby, they have a really nice selection to choose from there. I went and took a look and immediately knew which one I wanted. I had to think for a few minutes if I was getting into something that would be costing our family a lot of money. This was only the house, next comes the decor and furnishings, some of which we'll make..... My husband reminded me this was something I had wanted for awhile, it didn't take anymore convincing. I'm not going to furnish it over night, that is the fun in the journey. I chose this one called the "Princess Anne", this is a stock photo. Actually the architecture is Queen Anne from the late 1800's. It isn't completed, still in the box of course. I like the colors they've painted it, love purple! I like pink too, but for the sake of the guys in the house I think I will copy these colors. The house reminds me of the homes I remember on my Grandmother's street, when I was a little girl growing up in New Jersey. I would always look at them and wonder what the inside of the "tower" rooms looked like.

I have loved the Victorian era for a long time. I thought my wedding gown looked somewhat Victorian, even had thoughts of having our reception in a Victorian home. (to Donetta, I had a subscription to Victoria magazine too!) At one time I had thoughts of owning a home like this and restoring it. Our first home was built in the 50's and that was enough of a restoration project for me. Now I'd rather visit a Victorian Bed and Breakfast someday and I'll have my own miniature home. This home has 6 rooms, I'm thinking Kitchen, Living room, bathroom, 2 bedrooms and an attic or maybe a "craft room" :) I'm on the look out now for things that are tiny. My eyeliner has a plastic cover on the end of it, it's a glass for my house! I read on another blog how someone used the blocks to a jenga game, matches and a fish tank hose to make a winding staircase! I think that's pretty cool.

Art Masterpiece begins this week

Last year was my first doing Art Masterpiece, it is such a great program for the kids. I go into the classroom and bring a famous painting to show the kids. Depending on the age level we talk about the history of the Artist, the style of painting, how the painting makes them "feel" and what they think of it etc...I really enjoyed learning about the Artists and their works of Art. It's that time of year again, my first day will be Friday. I've been given my list of prints I am assigned. My first print is by Pieter Bruegel, the younger rather than "the elder" (his Father) the Painting is Harvester's Meal. This year I will be presenting to my son's Kindergarten class. Last year I was presenting to my daughter's 6th grade class. I'll have to scale it all down a bit this year. I look forward to hopefully doing this each year my son is in Elementary School. I will be keeping it pretty basic and only 15 min. max rather than the 20 min. I had last year. I look forward to hearing what 5 and 6 year olds have to say about this painting!

Inauguration Day today

Taken from Wikipedia: The swearing-in of the President of the United States occurs upon the commencement of a new term of a President of the United States. The United States Constitution mandates that the President make the following oath or affirmation before he or she can "enter on the Execution" of the office of the presidency:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The newly elected or re-elected President traditionally adds "so help me God" to the constitutionally mandated statement.

The swearing-in traditionally takes place at 12 noon local time (UTC-5 hours) on Inauguration Day at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., with the Chief Justice of the United States administering the oath.

Today is the day that Barack Obama will become our President. I lift him and his family in prayer that God would direct their paths.

Storybook Cottage

About a month ago I posted about my idea for the "family dollhouse", I should just call it the "family miniature house" we haven't done much with that idea as of yet. I have been looking into it though. Making miniatures for it would be fun. I found my book, it's called "Tiny Treasures amazing miniatures you can make". Looking through it gets my wheels turning, once we get started I hope we'll look at things in a more creative way. Household items and disposable food/toiletry items can be used to make miniatures.

I've had ideas about our backyard and how we could incorporate some cute small things into it. It is very green with bushes and trees and grass. When we first moved in I thought I'd like to have elves or gnomes under the bushes. I have one so far, and he's already been broken and fixed. I want to do more with that idea. Those ideas actually come from visiting Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida as a little girl. I LOVED the Fairytale/Elf Village. We have home movies of me going up to the little figures in the village. I especially like the architecture of Snow White's cottage, or should I say the Seven Dwarf's, she was just visiting :) I have such sweet memories about this. Sadly it was replaced, but my daughter was able to see it when she was little. I'm pretty sure I have some pictures somewhere of that. I have found some old postcards online from it, see them above.

While looking into miniatures and dollhouses online, I came across some sites about fairy houses. I thought that ties into the whole elf, gnome thing. When I was a little girl I loved playing on the playground at school with holes in trees and moss. I started thinking about how I needed to make a little house! I went and bought a bird house at the craft store, that was all I could think of to start myself off. I had a picture in my mind of how it would look, I picked up a bag of small rocks, I wanted it to be a little cottage with a cobblestone exterior. I also got some silk flowers, pink and purple because they are my favorite colors. I brought it all home and a few hours later I started putting my fairy house or story book cottage together yesterday. It was SO FUN, I loved doing it. I used a lot of hot glue though. I takes one bag of rocks to cover the whole house, with a few to spare. I am also thinking moss, the craft store sells it, it's treated so there isn't anything alive in it. That would look wonderful to have some moss around my little house. For now I just painted it ivy green. I haven't finished the door yet, since it was a bird house it's open. I'd like to make a door to put on it. I LOVE Thomas Kinkade's work and he uses quite a few cobblestone houses in his paintings. This is a sweet painting of Snow White and one of the Cobblestone houses. On my little house, the flowers are big in size in comparison to the house, but this is supposed to be a tiny house in the forest, it's all make believe....so it is correctly proportioned. I'm not sure where I am going to put this cottage yet. It's not really protected against the elements. I have a high window in my dining room I may consider.