CHIPS off the "relatively" old Blocks.....

So, I am happy to report that Princess M has requested and received her first "REAL" guitar. It took some real smooth talking on Mom's part to convince her to go for the traditional wood grain (like Daddy's) and not the Pepto Bismol Pink one with the silver plastic flame on it..... I can only take princess pink so far...... Thus far we are not attempting any real lessons, just a lot of raucous strumming and posing.... SHE has the makings of a real rocker... Style first, substance later....

So here she is in all her Bohemian glory.



Obviously, any real talent for guitar will come from her Dad. I did take several years of lessons and can still slowly pick out the basics, but as all who know me well know, I hate being second best.... Seeing as I was never even remotely in the same league, my guitar days are mostly a happy (and sometimes painful) memory.


There is one thing that both of my girls have received from both sides of the family tree... They are carrying on the tradition of being die hard UofL Cardinals fan! Tonight we face off with the Tarheels and we will be supporting the Cards in style. Chris and I are both in CARDS shirts (mine of original vintage as I am a bit superstitious) The girls are decked out in new finery delivered for Easter from Granny and Gramps. Traditionally of course all CARDS gear should be RED and BLACK, however those marketing geniuses know that little girls LOVE pink.

So be it....

Spring Break!

Who knew that a two week Spring Break could be so much work and so little.... break?
No doubt anyone who has ever had school-aged children.. Since this is my first year fitting that demographic, I must admit to being a little surprised at the amount of energy it takes to entertain a child who is used to having 22 other children, a teacher, and three (yes, 3) recesses a day to do the job. So, we have been go, go, going and I have been so tired at the end of the day that stringing together witty sentences to tell you about it seems like a LOT of effort. That being said, we'll just forget about attempting wit and show you some two week old pictures of my folks' visit. Maybe once Spring Break is nothing but a happy and hazy memory I will actually be able to blog about it....


This was a trip to the Coast Guard Pier to see...


....a wall full of seagull droppings.... No, really, look where her binoculars are aimed....
We did see this guy as well, so as always the trip was a success.




We also made our first successful trip to Pfeiffer Beach down the Big Sur Highway. We attempted this once before, but had to retreat that particular day as the circuitous route along the Pacific caused my Big Princess a small bout of car sickness....

It was worth the second effort as this is what we found.



This last shot is not an attempt to show off the beautiful scenery. This shot is to highlight our only souvenir for the day. You see that rock in the foreground? We brought that home... Because Princess L said so.... ENOUGH said....

Long Time No See....

Sorry we have been so conspicuously absent for the last two weeks. It seems that between my folks' visit and Princess M's Birthday extravaganza, I have had no extra time to collect my thoughts. Much less write them down, edit them, add pictures, edit them again, and then just say "what the heck" and press Publish Post.... Now everything seems so past tense, it feels odd to still be sharing it with you. However, since some of our favorite people in Kentucky, England, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland couldn't be here to party with us, I will share with you a couple of the 286 (no lie) pictures I took at an all afternoon Birthday soiree. This rapid shutter photography is going to run us out of computer memory and external hard drive space quickly at this rate.... Of course, it has nothing to do with my lack of discrimination as a photographer. Doesn't everyone take 10-15 shots of the same scene hoping to get one worthy shot to post or share?

We started the shindig with the delivery of the Pink and Purple Bounce Castle at 10am. The last child unwillingly climbed out at 6pm when Mr. Bouncy insisted he must return the Castle to Salinas. The kids were sorry to see it go, C, not so much. His love for all things safe and orderly was definitely tested with an afternoon full of roughly thirty kids ranging from age 1 to age 13 and a couple of us in our late 30ish years testing the rules on bounce house capacity. We had brought along our own small version, allegedly for the "small" kids. You can imagine how that worked out. The small tykes were most often right in the middle of the big bouncy with a mere dozen other kids doing pikes and pile drivers all around them. The small bouncy was full of ambitious boys trying to dive over the sides.
This is only 6 kids, right?

Let me out, please?


As I said, FUN was had by all. C had his fun when we made an adult run to the Mini Mart after the crowd dwindled down to the most hearty of friends and cleanup crew.

We did learn one other invaluable lesson. When you invite an entire class of 23 Kindergartners and their families, including siblings, to an all afternoon birthday luncheon, DO NOT, for any reason have a real (aluminum bat required) pinata. The bat was actually not the problem, no small thanks to my friend Beth, who repeatedly risked life and limb to jump in the fray and wrestle an aluminum bat from a blindfolded, swinging, sugar-hyped kid.
The problem was eventually (after we finally let the 13 year old take a swing) the pinata will break. At this point, I cannot describe the chaos that ensued... Suffice to say, if I had not had an extra jumbo bag of goodies on the side, they're might have been a mutiny. For all future parties, pinatas are for ten or less small, hogtied children.
That's my girl!


Ultimately, the birthday girl decreed the party a TOTAL smash success. That was more than enough repayment for the ten+ hours my Dad and I spent chopping and mixing to feed the masses. Incidentally, 66 cupcakes was exactly 1 cupcake too many... Party ON!

Just Doing Our Part....

We are so "green" since we moved to California....

We water our weeds...



and our mulch....



and occasionally something we actually want to grow.....


Other than that one random day of sun, we have recently had almost continual rain and fog. Thus our normal attire has been this.....


I have always been the "glass half full" girl but I will fully admit I may have some Seasonal Affective Disorder going on. I need sunlight.... So, if in its infinite wisdom the USAF is ever considering sending us to England, or Seattle for that matter, I may have to be medicated....

Seriously though, our lack of blogging has really just been because weather has kept us in. There's only so much you can photograph and talk about that happens in 1250 square feet, without completely rendering your audience catatonic. That being said, the weather is improving. Princess M has a birthday this week, and my parents arrive on Tuesday. Surely, with all this going on we will soon have stories to tell.

Have a great week!