PasoPalooza

The Paso Robles Cooperative Preschool has a new blog!  The first post is highlighting the upcoming PasoPalooza Children's Music Festival!

Click on over and check it out.  There will be some fun performers, activities and great prizes!!

Crazy Month

It is remarkable to me that Christmas was just barely over a month ago.  And my internet is finally consistently on.  Doesn't take much rain for cable to go out - last week was a long frustrating week, internet wise.  We have been busy this past month!

• Moved the kids into one room
• Created sewing room (not quite done-have to finish kitchen before I can finish sewing room as we are currently storing our kitchen on the shelves I will be using in the garage)
• Had Christmas
• Had New Years
• Snow trip
• Began Kitchen redo
• Kitchen redo set-back (cry)
• Kitchen redo progress (pictures coming soon)
• and one month went by

February consists of much travel.  Before we know it it is going to be summer time.  I need to get my garden in, but I just might run out of steam if we keep this pace up!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation 2009 Version

Kid covered with Oklahoma BBQ'ed corn on the cob!

Me and the Kids with Papa and Grandma Great Great in OKC.
4 generations.

Cool "splashgrounds" at the parks in OKC - free and right next to the playground. Wish we had those around here, of course they wouldn't be on because our state has no water.





Sweet Children's Museum in OKC. You could take lesson on the Segway.

These are not in chronilogical order because blogger can be very non-user friendly! They are actually in reverse chronological order - I didn't feel like fighting with it.

I don't know about you, but I am wondering, exactly, where this summer has gone. It would seem that in the effort to keep the kids (and myself) busy so we do not go crazy with the lack of a regular schedule, that we keep the days filled with activities that seem to make months fly by. (I need to figure out a way to do that for the fall/harvest months!)

Pyrotechnics and sweet 70's Rock!

*KISS and Gene Simmons in NO way endorse this blog*

But they look awesome in their makeup!

Water slides are the best things ever!

So are pools. Both make for great naptimes!

Me in DC.

Camping - looks like winter, but just early moring!

It wouldn't be camping with out s'mores.

We took the kids camping for their very first time, E and I went to DC for a dear friend's wedding (the woman who introduced us), we took the kids to the fair, took ourselves to see Kiss at the same fair (Oh My Gosh, such a great show, never considered myself a "fan" per se - but I can now see why they are uber-famous - they KICK ASS ON STAGE), took the whole family to Oklahoma City to visit family and have filled the rest of the time with swimming, water slides and trips to the library. Whew. When does school start so I can have a break?

Laura Ingles Wilder

Or maybe, Barbara Kingsolver.

Alex, what is, the two people I thinkI might be morphing into?

That is correct, for no money but some homemade cheese and canned tomatoes.

Yes, that's right, I think I have gone over to the other side. I just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and I am inspired.

I spent yesterday gathering the ingredients so that today I could make cheese. The vegetable rennet I actually ordered in advance through my local grocery co-op and the citric acid was easy because EO has that on hand at work.

I just whipped up a batch of homemade mozzarella. Just now. In my kitchen. And it would have been perfect, except that I forgot to salt it at the right time. I was so excited for the stretching that I forgot to salt. But whatever. I made cheese and we are going to eat the cheese! While, I am sure that someone who has done this before could really get it done in 30 minutes, it took me about an hour. I tasted it, and it tastes like cheese! Success. I tried to take some pictures, but I can't find my camera...

Stay tuned for the next episode of life on the farm, I mean in town, when JO convinces her husband that he CAN, in fact, build that do it yourself backyard bread/pizza oven!

Bad-Ass Mothers

5 kids under 5 (1 of which is newly mobile).

3 bad-ass mothers.

3 surfboards.

endless amounts of beach crap to entertain the 5 kids under 5, plus lunch.

One spectacularly beautiful day, no wind, perfect temp and clear water.

All three of us actually got in the water and caught some waves. MIRACLE. It was AWESOME. We are bad-ass mothers!

And, somehow, I scored and got to be the repeat surf mom (no one wants to go by herself). I didn't have to watch all 5 kids by my self...I am in debt for the next time!

There was a little bit of a creep factor...It was apparently National Geographic Day and we didn't get the memo in advance. We saw dolphins surfing our same waves, a friendly little otter, a couple of seals, copius amounts of sea birds including one low-flying pelican and lots and lots of sand dollars. We tried not to think about any other "animals" that could be out there with us and pondered the question, "Do otters bite?"

Maybe EMK will post some pics, hopefully, not of me in my wetsuit though!

Life Without Preschool

We're in the home stretch now. Just 3 weeks until preschool ends. Dear God, what's a mom to do??? No daily routine, no packing lunches, no carefree days out shopping with one kid or lazing around remembering who I used to be! Just endless quality time spent with me and my two kiddos, speaking gibberish, dicing food into teeny bits, finger painting and cleaning up messes...all day long... day after day...without any breaks. Holy S$#*!!!! I think I'm hyperventilating.
I've reviewed, rescheduled, and reorganized my daily routine to draw up a game plan for survival. I'm vacillating between signing the girls up for one organized activity each day of the week or just sticking to a "promise schedule". So far, I've committed to a little of both. My offensive attack includes: tots' soccer on Wednesdays, messy art on Thursdays, and gymnastics for both girls on Fridays. Mondays and Tuesdays I'll play defense at home: runs to the beach, play dates, library visits, or just down days. I've sprinkled the upcoming summer months with a few weeks of camping, travel, and swim lessons. Does this all sound incredibly too organized?
HELP!!! Momma needs to get her game on! What's yours?