The list

Devon and Fiona camped out on our boat last weekend...I found this list in the morning when I got home from work. I liked especially the list of animals thought essential for camping.
Happy Summer!

Starting the summer early

We started off the summer a bit early with a camping and cabin weekend with Fiona's Grandparents to celebrate a 75th birthday. The finale included a canoe trip down the Russian River. At the end Fiona jumped into my kayak to have a turn...note the purple ball rescued from the riverbank. A wonderful weekend!

Oh $#IT

Well the day finally came...I had been hoping for years now that Fiona wouldn't be the first one in preschool to swear. I had just had a conversation with one of the teachers...that day...she had lamented that some of the boys were bringing bad words to the fairytale sanctuary that is the Village School. Then, that night as we puttered in the garden I casually mentioned to Fiona that we needed a bit of straw to put down as mulch. Fiona dutifully went to get said straw, but when met with the closed gate..."SHIT." perfectly enunciated, it was clear as a bell. So there, it just took about 5 years and now there is no going back. But at least she wasn't the first one.

On another topic we went to San Francisco for Mothers day and visited the California Academy of Sciences. They were having a special snake exhibit and fiona had been looking forward to going there. We had Ethiopian food for dinner and fiona fell asleep on after 2 minutes in the car on the way home. A perfect mother's day!

Last Shot...for a while

Fiona went with Devon yesterday to her 5 year old check up with our family doctor. She got her last vaccination prior to being a school kid. A lot of pokes in her 5 years....but it's good to know that she's safe from all those "hot bugs." Devon got a tetanus booster at the same time...he said she was the tougher of the two of them.

Remember to get your boosters too.
Love,
Louise

The Stats:
39 lbs (45th percentile)
41.5 inches (30th percentile)
Means she's a tough little nugget.

Sharing Easter

Ahhh the joy.

5th Birthday Eggstravaganza

Fiona and her cupcakes in her party dress as the song was sung.

So if you are reading this and have yet to plan a kid birthday fest at the park on a weekend morning...don't try to stay out and party like a *rockstar* the night before...it makes the morning a bit bumpy.

Fiona woke up at 5:30 0r 6:00. It was hard to tell exactly what time it really was as neither of us could face the clock. It was still dark...she asked "is it true...am I five!?!" and thus our day had begun.

The boxes of parkbound supplies were ready and waiting so it was fairly easy given the state of things here to get to the park and set up by 10...here are devon and fiona preparty swinging.

In all there were about 14 kids, I never really got a headcount and suppose if I backtrack and look at the goody-bag debris I would be able to figure it out with math but that is a bit past me now. I imagine there are some very tired and over-sugared kids about.

We decorated lots of eggs as planned and ate cupcakes with abandon there were no majour injuries and it didn't rain. YAY!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes.
Love always,
One victorious and tired mum. Louise

Fiona and Lua at the end.

Parade and Post

Fiona was lucky enough to get to ride a horse in a parade in Pacific Grove Last weekend. It was the same horse that she rides sometimes in Carmel Valley with friends. Anyway, she of course was over the moon with the horse part of things. The entry in the parade was about sustainability and the horse has the "Green Biofuel" Bumper Sticker to play the part...here we are after the parade..
...and here is fiona in another sustainable driving situation; Four dining chairs as seats and a stool for steering:
Here's to taking care of the earth.
Love Louise

A day at the beach

After torrential rains....really.. that have left santa cruz and the central coast in a bit of a soggy mess, the clouds parted for the afternoon and we took advantage of it and went to the beach. Kids, dogs and sticks, sun, sand, beers, and a bit of respite from the weather to get us through.

Happy Spring!
Love
Louise

A Dog's Life

Rio is fitting in well in our crazy life though it does sometimes look like he would rather be swimming. He outweighs Fiona but she still has the upper hand as you can see.

Clay Bulls

Fiona was inspired by some claymation this morning and made this small family of clay bulls. In her words: "The peach coloured one is the mum. The dad is red, The baby is green. They all have yellow hair (Still pronounced lello)."

Fiona is just back from Pacific grove where she was safe from this week's Tsunami. Our boat is OK as we recently moved her to a new slip...the old slip is toast though.

Devon and I had a few days in Utah for a nursing class and some play...

Be well, Love Louise

Twinkle Twinkle Little Fiddle

Cupid's Cookies

Fiona participated fully in making valentines cookies this year and even chose the loveliest ones to go to our neighbour Joyce. The best part about cookies is sharing them around.

An Update

Just a quick pic of fiona before school today... Shortly afterwards she jumped on her trail-a-bike and followed Devon down the hill to school. Just before she passed out of sight I got a kiss blown in my general direction...what a sweetie!

Playing

I think that playing is a really important part of being a parent...While Devon and I were away playing in the snow, Fiona was up to the serious work of being a kid. She got to go horseriding, made a mess of the grandparent's living room, ate cartoon themed cereal, came home tired.

Hope that you are enjoying yourself too.
Love
Louise

A mother reeling

Just having trouble with how fast things change....

Fiddle Faddle

Her first performance! Fiona has started taking fiddle lessons, and today while biking home from her fiddle teacher's house we stopped to watch the surf along West Cliff Drive and she asked if she could play... so out came the fiddle and she played 'twinkle twinkle little star' for the people standing around, including two women who were very impressed.

Laundry

Our new year has started with a week of much needed sunshine and so we find ourselves on the first laundry day of the new year with Fiona taking charge. She has been helping with her laundry for about a year but she's getting better at it and even helped a visiting friend use the washing machine recently. Life is good.
Love
Louise

Zipping up the year...

Happy New Year to all our friends. It has been an interesting one filled with love, adventure, happiness ,and some sad bits. An admission at the end of the year...bedtime became quite a bit easier his past week as fiona started sleeping in a tent set up in her room. This tent to be exact. We look forward to 2011 and all the fun times ahead.

Love
Louise

fiona loves you (typed by Fiona herself)

The Visit

Here is Fiona once again shirking the knee, but nonetheless stoked at an opportunity to vouch for her recent behaviour. The thing she has asked for this year is a crib for her baby horse, made of wood (still needing assembly at this time). Hopefully santa will provide... hopefully there will not be a run on coal. Hopefully five will be easier than four.

Beach Bums

We are back from our travels. We spent a good chunk of November visiting family in Australia. Fiona visited with her 5 uncles, wonderful aunties, three cousins, Nanna and Grand-dad, as well as her Great Grandmother in a whirlwind three city extravaganza. We Loved staying with family and fiona has once again proved to be a great traveler. Jet lag once in Australia took her about a week to shift through and our first night back in our own beds had only one wake up at 11PM for a snack for her.

Thanks to everyone who took care of us in Sydney Brisbane and SA. Can't wait to return the favour.
Love
Louise

Uncle Jonathon in a Bookshop

At Nicks new studio with a Fiona Original

What you do to make a tired Kid eat

Flowers in Sydney

Feeding a Kangaroo

Helping Nanna Jane

WHat do you do on your vacation?

Brisbane crowd.

Kapunda Scene with uncle Chris

Spring Harvest

With Grand Dad Ken

Great Grandmother Beryl

At Uncle Nick's exhibit with Auntie Nikki: Fiona took this one