YAY Parks and Recreation. We love new parks.

This weekend when the sun came out we explored one of the newest parks in our town. I couldn't believe the equipment, it was a lot of fun! Like this disk swing....

to slide down this curvy sideless slide you fling your legs over the sides and go..


this is a merry-go-round you can actually climb on-it was our favorite.....


these were like hanging vertebrae that you could climb through


even the cross bars were funky


At the end of our visit we settled onto the wide ampitheatre-like steps that surround the fountain for some dried mango. The girls launched into a serious game of Castle where they were polishing the marble steps. Fancy play equipment aside, when I asked them if they wanted to go back, they answered, "Yeah, to play on those steps again."

Give Me Liberty

When I see these dancing Statue of Liberties around town, I just can't help but chuckle. They know how to get down.

It seems to be a job requirement for them to listen to music to inspire their groove because I rarely see someone without white headphone chords hanging down from beneath their Liberty headpiece.

Some of them wave, some of them don't, but they all dance.

Yesterday I drove by a new sort of Lady Liberty. Middle-aged, meek and mousy, she stood awkwardly beside the road. She didn't dance. She was looking like she wanted to be doing ANYTHING else. They hire these people to advertise tax services, but she wasn't selling that OR a good time. I bet she didn't last a day.

Tax services aside, the dancing Statue of Liberty is someone the world needs. It's a job that belongs to the smilers, the wavers, the ones who know how to groove. To those green-clad souls, I say thanks. You (well, most of you) brighten my day.

Photo courtesy of The Arizona Republic

Happy Hearts

It's heart day around here, as evidenced by all the valentine making that's been going on. For some reason, despite the TONS of ideas out there on the internets we did our own thing. Avery's are on doilies and say "OWL love you forever" in a REBUS-like way. Julia's are scrapbook paper cards with stickers and pencils. They all look simply LOVELY and after lots of work by the kiddos are finally (just in time!) done for tomorrow's parties.

I did not make valen"times" but am enjoying theirs and the sight of all the boxes or pockets ready to envelop the love lined up in the halls at school. I will be working at preschool during their Valentine's Day party and think of it as a favorite day with everyone sitting around the edge of the rug opening theirs, shouting across to friends, "Thanks_______!"

I bought LOVE stamps today that are just so cute, I think. They are the King and Queen of Hearts design, and it's been so long since I've had a cute stamp that I feel a little sad I am not sending any Valentines.

Happy heart day! We four will be spending ours at the beach drawing hearts in the sand.

Masking Tape + Playdate = Good Times

January started off with a bang and we had several playdates. One afternoon Avery's classmate Leah came home with her and after lunch they had some serious and spontaneous fun with a roll of masking tape.

It all started with Leah making big L's on the wall and just cracking up about it. I told her she was like Zorro who liked to leave Z's all over the place.

Then I pointed out how we had one big blank wall and how maybe they'd want to make their whole names on it with masking tape.

First we did Leah's name. We wrote it out and figured out how many peices of tape it would take. They pulled and cut the peices of tape and I put them up because it was high on the wall.

It reminded me a lot of being in their classroom and the way we parents become engaged with kids based on what they're excited about, yet I know when I'm home with the kids, I don't ususally jump in on either playdates or the kid's play. I should more. It was good for all of us.

I did extract myself from the process after we did Leah's name and they worked together to write Avery. They were so engaged and worked so well together, it was just fun to witness.












They posed at the end with their dolls in front of their hard work. Classic.

Last night we were prepped to watch The Princess Diaries for a family movie when we happened to turn the channel to a movie that had just started on TMC, an Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun. It was absolutely positively rich. We never turned the channel and by the end, when Betty Hutton and Howard Keel were having a sing-off to, "Anything you can do," we were all laughing. It's definitely high time we indulged in MORE musicals around here, what with the color, the romance, the costume, and of course all the tunes. Highly recommended, "fer" sure.