Since Christmas 2011

Hello there.

I think I'm back.

I'd say there have been 3 major events since Christmas:

In January we hosted our first ever Hootenanny:

(and I started learning ukulele)

In March we took a trip to England to visit my Mom's side of the family, and celebrated my Nana Alice's 90th birthday.


And thirdly, we made the decision to move to Luxembourg.

Some quick back story on that one. In November and December, Pete traveled with his company to France to work on a project as a consultant. While there, he took his one weekend off to visit a friend from his MBA program who now lives and works in Luxembourg at Amazon.com. They casually discussed how it would be cool if he could get a job there too. And then, a couple months later, there was a job opening. And then a job offer. We took it.

So, I've been feeling strongly that I should pick this blogging thing back up again. We'll see what happens.

Christmas 2011

Some favorite family shots












Sorting clothes and toys at NW Children's Outreach
Decorating cookies at retirement home, with possible Santa sighting
BFFs

Halloween Service Project

Our biannual trip to Summerfield Retirement Community with the MOMS Club of Tigard/Tualatin (of which I am President this year!)


Right up Daphne's alley.

And, classic James. We'll let the pictures tell the story...

.......

Anyway!

Back to School

Silverton Art Festival + Mom

My mom had a booth featuring some of her watercolor paintings at the Silverton Fine Arts Festival this summer. She is normally an artist as a hobby while working full-time in a state government job. So we were all very proud of her for "putting her stuff out there."

Isn't it lovely?

James was having a grumpy-don't-take-my-picture kind of day, but I did manage to get this one.

Daphne only has take-my-picture-now-take-another-one-with-this-pose kind of days.

We enjoyed the shade and playground.

There are many opportunities to create your own art at the festival.

Daphne using her newfound magical powers on my brother.

Monday Art - The Big Fight

Daphne had the idea to create a little book as a gift for her friend's birthday. I picked up this blank book at Lakeshore and drew in some lines for the text. Daphne came up with the story, incorporating herself (of course), the birthday girl, the birthday girl's sister, and James as characters. She worked on it a little bit each day for a couple of weeks. There were nine pages of text and their accompanying pictures. Quite the process!

It turned out a bit more violent than I'd hoped. There are three mean pirates (all named "Pirate") with toothy blue sneers, boxes of hot lava, and the birthday girl in grave peril.

(Click the image to enlarge if the colored pencil is hard on your eyes)
But not to worry...
Yes, that was James the Hero pictured winking on the front cover. All is well.