March...er, that was last month, right?

So here April has begun and I have posted nothing about March. Well, that's evidence that life is busy and chaotic and sometimes I just don't have much time in front of the computer.

There were several events yielding some great photographs and silly memories. The first depicted here is our Friday outing to the Phoenix Children's Museum (which is totally cool).

We decided to use public transportation to get there, so our morning began by catching the blue Orbit bus, which runs by our house multiple times a day, and take it down to the light rail station. The Metro, or light rail, has been running since January this year and is a nifty and inexpensive way to travel downtown and through Tempe and Mesa. So we bought our tickets and rode the above-ground electric train to downtown Phoenix.

The kids have taken the Orbit, which they have dubbed "the blue bus" several times since it began its route and they are familiar with its operation. Amelia especially likes to pull the chord that sounds the bell to tell the driver we're ready to get off.

The light rail metro train was another experience all together. The kids have ridden it once before but it's pretty fast and sometimes pretty crowded. Dylan was a bit nervous and only spoke in whispers the entire ride there.

Amelia wasn't nervous in the least and spent her trip munching granola bars and trying to read the signs on the buildings that we sped by.

We had to walk a bit to get to the museum, which is a refurbished school building, but it was worth the trek (although, a stroller, shopping cart, wheelbarrow, pack mule...whatever...will be required the next visit.)

Once inside the kids took off playing with all sorts of toys that engineering elves, complete with ACDC t-shirts, bad haircuts, and pocket protectors must have merrily created.

These toys were COOL.

The ceiling was filled with colorful origami cranes and bright hula hoops, one wall was a mirror of dangling CDs, there was an upstairs forest of pool noodles hanging from the ceiling, a ball room with all sorts of crazy pathways for balls of all sizes to travel, and a play kitchen decorated with giant birds, dragon flies, frogs, scorpions, and other animals or lighting fixtures made entirely of metal forks, knives and spoons, and other sundry and wild contraptions.

This was a series of wind tubes with entries and exits in which little museum patrons put plastic balls and nylon scarves only to watch them speed all through the pathways and finally shoot out the top.

Dylan was hysterical with joy.

Amelia found these crazy tricycles to propel through the sunlit concrete expanse.

(Daily, we use various hair products to prevent the feathery strands of Amelia's fine and slippery hair from escaping. When it does escape, I often hear about it and am visited the demand to "Fix my hair NOW....please.")

But this morning, there were no such demands. Amelia was engaged and focused riding round on this contraption.

I wonder if they rent them out.

Throughout the day, we did have a little of this...

And a little of that.

But mostly there was a lot of this.

After all of the excitement, Evan and I got to be the pack mules carrying the kids back to the light rail station along with the rest of the inhabitants in the Phoenix Metro area. There was standing room only on the way home, but the kids managed to squeeze together on one of the little seats while Evan and I stood hanging on to bars and rails trying to stay upright on our tired feet.

While the day was a definite success, next time, we might just drive.

Dylan had his first photo shoot

So I haven't been blogging in a month. Sorry. March got away from me. But I have collected quite a few photos that I will be posting shortly.

I did want to inform those of you who might be interested that Dylan was a model for a friend's baby boy clothing shop and her website is below:

http://www.charmedlifeclothing.com/

Check out our baby boy (who's really not so much a baby any more)! He's the 18-24 month model and I think he's dang cute.

The weather...again

It was 85 degrees today. It's not even March yet.

My kids wore bathing suits in the afternoon and ran in the sprinklers. I rode the cruiser bike and pulled the trailer, my cherubs bouncing along. I was sweating, not from over exertion, but from the heat.

I think I jinxed myself with the last blog entry.

Dang.

Why people live in the valley of the sun

In the middle of summer, while soaking their cotton t-shirts, people who live in the valley find themselves wondering why in the world anyone thought that it was a good idea to plan a series of cities in the middle of a dry and miserable desert.

But in the winter, we remember.

It has been in the 60s an 70s the last several weeks, with the sun shining and the sky drizzling here and there.

So we have spent a great deal of time outside revelling in the fab-u-lous weather.

Our "east coast" leaf pile provided much amusement for ourselves and neighbors for several days until it started killing Evan's gorgeous winter grass underneath.

And Amelia and Dylan have been braving the sidewalk along our sometimes too busy street.

Amelia spends many an afternoon making artwork on the driveway. She said that this was a drawing of our neighbor's truck.

Contemporary art may just be in this child's future.

Amelia had me trace her body. It looked like crime scene evidence, except for the pony tail.

And the rain boot outline.

It wasn't raining by the way. Amelia just likes the boots.

Amelia worked on filling in her outline.

And then she called it "Scary Amelia".

Dylan wasn't certain that he liked the drawings. Budding art critic?

Actually, he was just grumpy--rare form for Dylan.

So, grumpy boy, artistic girl, parading bicycles, and leaf piles, we'll take the valley of the sun in the winter any time.

(The summer is a different story.)

New photographs that are actually sort of good.

Today we had a weird cloudy day. There were no rain clouds, just haze alternating with sun and then more haze. And when I came home from church with the kids, I realized that their outfits were color coordinated.

So, I thought, pictures anyone?

Amelia and Dylan are generally photogenic, but they have their bad days. Today, however, wasn't one of those days. Here are some of the shots.
(And they aren't half bad.)

(The stars must be aligned or something.)

Ok, this is not a photo of my children. Obviously.

This is Dylan's van that is part of his room decor but sometimes doubles as a toy.

He really wanted it photographed.

Here are Dylan and the van.



Can you say "dreamboat?" I know, we're in trouble.


Here's the spinning princess in the front yard....too close to the street as usual.

Amelia's gums are making room for the giant adult tooth pushing its way in.

The fence is more interesting than Mom.

Momentarily day dreaming?

And finally, under the trees rather than in them. Amelia prefers the latter, but likes to keep her tights hole free.

Imagine that.

Ok. That's it. I have bunches of other photos that I need to post and plenty of blogging essays running through my head. But it's Sunday. I'm tired rather than rested.

I'm out.

It's a small world or I feel old.

I meant to post this earlier, but must have been distracted by other things. That rarely happens, by the way.

OK. That often happens.

Anyway, Evan and I went to the Christmas party for his office in December. I stood there chatting with some of his work chums and saw out of the corner of my eye a couple of girls who looked really familiar.

As I turned my head to take in the full view I realized that I was looking at two former students who have now graduated from college and one of whom is employed in Evan's same company.

Now, I run into former students all of the time. I live right by ASU and we shop at the same stores and eat in the same restaurants. I even keep in regular contact with several of them. But to have them actually work where my husband is employed and communicate with him regularly on the phone is unexpected.

What a trip! Thankfully, Tera, pictured on the left, remembered to pull out a camera, to have Evan take our photo, and to email it to him at work. Ashley is on the right.

For the record, she also had her camera.

I made sure to teach my students to be responsible. I'm sure their preparedness was a direct result of my influence.

Or at least someone's influence.

There you have it. Once again, evidence that it is, indeed, a small world.

A zoo trip and prepositions

At the end of the winter break, my older sister Deb and I took our children on an outing to the Phoenix Zoo. Truthfully, we are frequent patrons of the zoo, we are just neglectful photographers.

Well, I am a neglectful photographer

on a regular basis.

So, for once I remembered to take out my camera and snap a few shots to prove that we do actually visit the zoo.

Here were the day's players:

Deb's oldest son Jacob, who is incapable of taking a picture without oozing photogenic talent. I think he was singing, "Hit me with your best shot" heavy-metal style.

Jacob, his sister Abby, and my Amelia still singing and now posing like rock stars. There were actually giraffes and ostriches and a smattering of other African animals to see behind them, but they wanted to sit on a rock and make air guitars first.

Jared, Deb's second son, who was confined to the stroller initially. This didn't last long.

Abby and Amelia doing what they call the "cute-girl pose".

Deb's baby Mark stayed in the stroller most of the time. He still managed to get sticky some how.

And my Dylan, who is totally two and knows it.

Prepostions Anyone?

OK. Now here's the preposition lesson. Many of you know that I taught high school English for eight years and am still known to pick up an English 101 class at the college or university on occasion. I think I can owe that career partly to my HIP teacher in elementary school. His name was Mr. Zabor and he taught us a preposition song to the tune of "Yankee Doodle."

(By the way, I have no idea what "HIP" actually stood for. )

(We told ourselves it meant "highly intelligent people.")

Here's the song:

"With, on, for, after,

at, by, in,

Against, instead, of,

near, between,

Beside, from, under,

down, below

Through, over, up,

according to

Around, across, beyond, about,

Before, behind, within, without.

Prepositions, everyone, when followed by a noun."

I think I wrote this down on an overhead transparency and sung it to my high school and college students on occasion. They'd look at me and laugh. This was my objective. Really.

So...here's Amelia on the swing.

Jacob, Amelia, Jared, and Abby on the frog,

(which is located in a part of the zoo that looks like coastal Mexico.)

Note that Jared's finger is nearly in his nose.

Dylan standing near the frog, wanting to sit on it as well.

Here he is with his quest realized, on the frog.





Jacob on the lamb. (No idioms here. I'm literal.)




Jared on the pumpkin.

(Yes, I'm not being very original in my word choice.)




Dylan on the green tractor.

Quickly a game of king of the mountain--er, tractor, ensued.

Amelia on the plastic pony--the only animal in the petting zoo that she would approach.

She professes to love animals, but only the plastic kind.

Yes, there was very little substance to this blog entry. What can I say? Sometimes I'm a minimalist. Or shallow. You choose.