friday fashion

Sometimes you just need to put a headband on it.

journey to africa

February's theme at Scout's arts preschool was Africa. They created birds from the Congo, Ndebele dolls from Southern Africa and then took us on a drum-thumping, bead-shaking wild safari ride.

the tiara is mine

Three days ago there was great controversy over the tiara. Two girls with two strong opinions both wanted possession of it. The younger of the two girls wanted to wear it while the older of the two simply wanted to keep it away from the younger one. There were tears and shoves, which resulted in the yanking--and eventual breaking--of the tiara. Through some intervening grace, Mom and her tiara-fixing prowess came to the rescue and all was forgiven (or more accurately, I suppose, forgotten). The two leading ladies in this scenario then decided their energy would be better suited for ganging up on their big brother.

blowing in the wind

I wasn't supposed to be at soccer practice today. Catcher was going with a friend because the girls and I were supposed to be at the airport picking up Alex after his long journey home from Sochi. After traveling for almost 24 hours he made it to Houston, but because of a delay in his flight out of Frankfurt, Germany, he missed his connection to Austin. I was purposely vague on delay details with the kids since telling them Dad wouldn't be home tonight--at least not before they went to bed--would have sent everyone into a tailspin. Thank goodness soccer practice wore Catcher out, and the girls wore themselves out by chasing each other around the playground and picking dandelions on the soccer field. Everyone is sound asleep now as I'm about to pour myself a glass of wine and wait for Alex's cab to pull up in front of the house.

it must be saturday

New season. New league. Same sport. Welcome to Soccer Saturdays, Spring Edition. But before showing you highlights from the Blue Ninjas' first game (the team named itself, to state the obvious), I bring you the joys of discovering a track:

the week in portraits

Because all of our lives should be as lovely as they appear in a simple, yet planned, portrait:

 

25 days

This is me. The one who takes the pictures and writes the words. This is me--un-touched and slightly exhausted on day 25 of my 29 (consecutive) days without Alex. You can see the hole where my nose was once pierced and the freckles that salsa over my cheeks samba across my nose. My hair is brassy and could use a trim. I point out these "flaws" so one reading this doesn't mistakenly think that I think I look hot in this photo. I think I look real in this photo (dry lips and all, even though I strategically left out my graying roots...haha!).

I turned the camera on myself because I wondered how the kids feel with my lens inches from their eyebrows and hovering around unsuspecting corners to capture that thing we call "life." I also realize that when you are the picture-taker there are rarely photos taken of you (especially one where you, the picture-taker, approves the lighting, composition, etc.). My 37 and a-half birthday is on Monday (the day Alex gets home!), so when I'm older and totally gray and more freckled and chapped, the little guys can look back on this picture and think that I wasn't always that old...I used to be just marginally old.

best day ever

Because it was 80 degrees in Austin this afternoon for the third day in a row and because I was in an especially generous mood, I treated the kids to ice cream bars from the local bodega (actually, I think I just wanted the opportunity to use the word "bodega" since I rarely do after leaving New York). Scout had her first Nestle Crunch ice cream bar and declared it "the best day ever!"

P.S. Thank you to the gentleman working behind the counter who told me I was "lucky" to have such well-behaved children who listened to me. He said I "should see" some of the kids who come in there with their parents. I would like to note, however, that maybe some of it is luck, but it's also a lot of hard work (wink).

Here you'll find three children soaking up the simple joy of $1.59 ice cream bar from the corner store: