Giving Thanks

cakes and cards

We gave thanks for health and for having the Admiral around this year for his birthday. We celebrated with a brownie birthday cake, home made cards from the wee ones and a movie family style.

Now that the huge turkey has finally been consumed, our attention is turned to the festive season with fair's to attend, stuff to make to give and sell, Chanukah to start on one coast and finish on another and of course advent to celebrate the countdown to Christmas!

playscape made for sale at winter faire

It's such a busy time of the year, with various events, activities and festivals being celebrated. Day of the Dead, birthdays, All Souls Day, and of course, an American favourite - Halloween!
A Viking met a baby vampire bat and a goulish witch and sorcerer accompanied a glowing skeleton to the throngs of candy hunters in Venice this year. The Switch Witch must have visited late into the night to exchange a rather large amount of collected candy, for a toy and a book!

Donovon Boys' double eyebrowed Jack o Lantern

The vampire bat in full swing..

The Viking Quest for candy begins!

An array of this years carvings, lost the seeds to early mold unfortunately so none to bake this year...

Birthday season

July is one of those months, that you know is gonna cost many brain cells, extra dosh and extra effort! Thankfully it's always worth it as this year, Donovan Boy turned double digit 10, Little Gandalf a whopping 7 and The greatest Grammy award goes to the Mac Annie at 70!

We took the boys to Disneyland for the first time! A grand day out was had by all ( including the Admiral) and it took a couple of days to recover from, leading into a giant pool party with an Asian theme! We created the "70 things we love about you" list whilst queueing up for rides for the Mac Annie and thankfully got it her in time for her Monday birthday.

The Admiral and Donovan Boy before the twirling teacup ride!

yes it's a tiny house for cartoon characters!

Flying high July 22nd

Dragonlicious cakey

and of course a visit with the big M himself!

Happy Birthday's to all!

Gnome school out!

Summer madness, fun and games are here once more, schools out, we said goodbye, got tired and sick and and are now on our way to having some fun!

Busy with camping, both personal and scouting for the boys, many workshops being taught this summer as well as a cursive writing course and teacher training for Phaedra Phoenix and The Hairy One launches a concert summer series in MacArthur park on June 19th - which, incidently is the exact same date Grumpy flies in to visit and leaves with the fireworks on July 4th!

Here are some random pics to share of recent times...

MAY MADE

I posted some 'making' on the Phoenix Blog but had more! ..so here it is the mega making stuff in May share!

Donovan Boy had fun researching and making his first large project for school, his shelter was an Iroquois longhouse complete with farming gardens.

He also completed his crocheted hat which the rest of the family have all donned in the past few weeks, very comfy and fun!

Among other custom orders this month, Phoenix made a gnome head, two wool paintings, a waldorf doll that went off to England and a pregnant art doll!

Mothering Sunday....

.....is what we call it in England and it amuses me to highlight it here.

I would like to honour all the moms we know and love here and gone, past and present.

Happy Mothers Day to you Judy, Mom and Grammy
To you Mayo, Loah, Clarabel
and Great Aunty Lily ( 100!)
To Hannah (Gt Grandma) and to Sylvia ( Nanna ) and to Auntie Angela
To Jo who will hold her first child later this year
and last to Shirley, Mummy and Nana, missing you.

Family Outings

Some of you may know we have been courting the idea of moving to San Diego, it's still dependent on many things but we are putting in an offer on this house, which screams California quirky and may lead to a major life move! We shall see.....

Geo dome home in Jamul on 2 acres, we would like to buy and fix up...

boys in Balboa Park children garden end of April

family posing in sculpture garden
boys resting on a giant dragon sculpture

boys making art of themselves

On the hunt

Some of fav eggs made this year
Rocket ship by Little Gandalf

Evening Star by Donovan boy

Here's egg in ya eye by Cricket

.
The infamous jewish ham was found hanging with with afikomen, retrived and eaten along with good english pots, snips and brussels!

We made it!

to Spring and...to our 12th wedding anniversary on March 21st! We celebrated by whizzing off together, without the kids (thanks to Madeleine), and spend it frolicking in Balboa park, enjoying the art and smells of San Diego - lovely!

not so hidden message

some japanese tourists helped us out with this one...

grinning in the sun
giant entangled roots in all their glory
Orchidaceae - the most adaptable plant on earth!

100th

It is my honour to say "Happy 100th Birthday", to my Great Aunty Lilly ( Lillian).

She has aged gracefully with sharp humour and wit to boot, managed to outlive most ( if not all) of her siblings including my Poppa and she has had the wrinkliest peach skin since the day I remember her!

I'm very happy that Jamie met her ( his great-great Aunt) on our last visit to the UK and I've been saying 'goodbye' to her for a number of years on my less frequent visits. She is in our thoughts and prayers always and remains one of my favourite relatives!!

We love you Aunty Lilly!

February field trip

So the boys and I ditched school last friday in search of some Los Angeles culture and art history. Look what we found!

The driven artist Simon Rodia created these famous towers in the middle of what's known to be quite a troubled area of town ( sirens were screaming most of the time we were there), now a historic and protected site, many schools and tourist find there way into this residential neighbourhood to enjoy the sights and learn about this tiny italian immigrant who spent 33 years building a work of art. The rain stopped just long enough for us to hear the stories from our guide outside and snap these pics.

The highest tower reaches 99.5 feet and sits only 4 inches into the foundation!

The boys fascinated and asking lots of questions!

Phew...

and so the holidays are at an end. We miss those who could not be here for Christmas with us and send thoughts of love and sunshine to our friends up north from here. We are happy to have had lovely visits from Grumpy ( yes, of broiled tonkey fame), The Admiral, Dr John and the Mac Annie. The tree is down, the goodies are nearly eaten and the children are back in bed at 7.30pm!

the puzzle - still being worked on...

some of the excitement Christmas morning...

ahh, the presents from loved ones...thank you!

very important list maker elf...

Here's to a lovely start of 2009 - Happy New year!