quiet

beautiful, originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

What is it about this time of year? I have no words. Nothing overflowing from me. Maybe they are formulating still--the thoughts, the things to say, but right now I just feel like being introspective.

I do have happy news. I set up my high school friend Brian with my college friend Erika and they are madly in love, completely and totally made for each other! That has made me so happy for both of them!!

Found an old friend on Facebook and found out her dad died recently. That was a bit of a shocker. He was probably younger than my dad. Things like that always make me stop and think and make me feel older (and I start to worry about the people I love eventually dying).

At home, Tea's doing cute things like calling me "Baby Mama" and asking me where she was when I was a baby.

Kai would like to know how high the sky is in outerspace.

Maybe that's why I'm so quiet. That's a lot to ponder.

sad girl

sadness, version 2, originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

Just had to post this lovely picture of Tea! She was feeling so sad the other day. It was bizarre. Kai took her pencil away and then she was just plain ol' depressed for 30 minutes afterward. She just flopped onto her bed and kept shooing me away.
I posted this to some groups on Flickr and I think it's had the second most hits ever for one of my photos (60).
I hated to take pictures of her when she was sad but I just had to capture her little face.

reflection: our house in a raindrop

reflection: our house in a raindrop, originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

I love this. Took this on the day we played in the mud puddles. How cool that our whole house showed up in the drop. Nature never ceases to amaze me!

paper boats

k and t playing with paper boats, originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

rainy day

reflection: kids and paper boats
Originally uploaded by Papillon Sky

I'm behind in posting and being a bit lazy here, as I'm just sending these from Flickr. I've got too many things to load pictures to nowadays with 3 blogs, a facebook page, and Flickr.

We had a nice downpour the other day and a little pond formed at the end of our street as it always does (because there are no storm drains). We made paper boats just like Curious George and they floated! I'll post a couple more pictures.

The rain gave me hope that spring is not far away!

cutie heads

2/12/09, originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

I love this shot with their heads smushed together! They look like they like each other!!

chocolate covered strawberry

chocolate covered strawberry, originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

mmm... chocolate...

mmm... chocolate..., originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

uh, mom, how do I get this off me?

uh, mom, how do I get this off me?, originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

A little picture from Valentine's Day. We made chocolate covered strawberries. Yum!

red makes me happy

red makes me happy, originally uploaded by Papillon Sky.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

St. Louis Vacation: Part Two

click on the pictures to see larger, better versions

Day two was spent at the Missouri Botantical Gardens, an amazing place, even in winter. There were plenty of things to see inside: an orchid show, a tropical rainforest, the temperate house with Mediterranean type plants, an old style brick greenhouse with camelias and olive trees, and glasswork by Dale Chihuly spread throughout. Tea slept through most of it, but enjoyed what she saw when she awoke. Kai thought he would hate it and ended up having fun and doing a scavenger hunt (thanks to the lady at the ticket counter). Of course, mama had fun taking a few hundred pictures. This is just a sampling. There's more here.




We'll be going back here for sure. I saw they were teaching a photography class there on taking plant photos and told Jevon I wanted to take it. He said, "you mean you want to teach it? You don't need to take it!" Wasn't that nice?

St. Louis Vacation: Part One

We finally made it to St. Louis for my very belated birthday celebration. We spent one night in Hannibal "on the way" so Jevon could work at our motel. The kids think Hannibal is a real treat but they had no idea what they were in for in St. Louis! I told them we'd be going to a way cooler place than Hannibal the next day (BIG mistake), and then they couldn't sleep. However, we did enjoy our day in Hannibal, running through the hallways, playing in our "suite," and reading stories. I sat on the couch and knitted and enjoyed the fact that I didn't have any dishes to do, or meals to make, or laundry, or anything else.

Everyone awoke bright and EARLY Thursday and eventually we made our way down to St. Louis. Our hotel was right downtown with a view of the Arch! (I highly recommend the Hampton Inn on 4th and Washington!) The City Museum was only a few blocks away. And man, I had no idea what to expect. It was amazing! The first thing that caught my eye was the bus on the rooftop and then the airplanes and all of the other crazy stuff out front. I love that everything there was recycled! And the sculptor who came up with this idea really has an amazing mind to be able to envision these slides, caves, jungle gyms, etc. Kai was a little hesitant at first, but even though the 10 story slide scared him, he went down it two more times!

Poor Tea was super sleepy and not so excited about the museum, but I think she enjoyed watching Kai. She mostly hung out in the stroller and took it all in. She'll be old enough and brave enough to crawl around and go down the big slides soon. I think she liked the aquarium and seeing the adopted animals, especially the ferrets.

I bought each of the kids a disposable camera before the trip so they could document their experience. I think Tea will have a lot of pictures of the floor! (She looked adorable trying to take the pictures, though. They were both very excited to have cameras). I can't wait to see how/if they turned out!

What I loved was how this place made people (including us) a little more fearless. We couldn't help but loosen up and act like kids. And I even went down the 10 story slide and ruined my Danskos in the process (I'm sure some polish will fix them!).

We can't wait to go back this summer!

Check out their site: http://www.citymuseum.org/