Mamatography week 20

5/3. This is Really Good

I was feeding this yogurt to Davis all wrong. Bites too big, or two small, or not fast enough, or too many bites in my mouth. Something. So he took matters into his own hands.

5/4. In My Cup

I had a headache for a few days in a row, coinciding with super hot weather. I finally remembered that I could make iced tea in the morning, which helped things feel part of the way better. It's too bad I don't have caffeine every day, since I'm really bad at remembering things outside of my normal routine when I'm in pain. It's a good fix for my headaches, but I almost never remember to do it.

5/5. Paper

Detritus from Moira's birthday party.

5/6. Broken

We went to Moira's Fiddlehead Forest school at the Arboretum this day and learned all about decomposers. We found lots of broken trees teeming with happy life.

5/7. Something Beginning with F

Lilacs! We have these all over the yard. Too bad they aren't the family favorite dark purple lilacs, although I did just find a very crowded one in a hidden corner of our yard, which I plan to transplant.

5/8. Shape

This day was watch week at Moira's ballet class. Her teacher is constantly telling the kids to "make a shape!" when she wants them to stand still.

Here's a video of their practice for her first recital.

5/9. A Snack

I came downstairs for a snack and found these dark purple lilacs delivered by my aunt for my birthday. They are from a bush in her yard that came from a cutting of my Grandmother's lilac bush.

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.
We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Also linked up at Hobo Mama and NPN.

Mamatography week 19

4/26. Childhood

We found this in the closet, and both kids spent hours playing with it.

4/27. Earth

From one of our board books. This one is a little preachy for me.

4/28. My Sunday

I wish more of my weekend looked like this. Before kids this was pretty much what we did, well, and playing games. We've started incorporating Moira into the game playing, so I know the future will look more like this, but I'm getting a nostalgic while waiting.

4/29. I Wore This Today

I bought this skirt at the thrift store, and it's very cute, and then I discovered after a bus ride that it was at the thrift store because of a broken zipper.

4/30. Glasses

I almost didn't remember to take a picture this day. This is our "interesting glasses" shelf.

5/1. I Bought This!

Davis and I went on a run to the comic store while Moira was in ballet class. I love comics.

5/2. Morning Ritual

Leftovers for breakfast, and catching up on social media.

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.
We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Also linked up at Hobo Mama and NPN.

Mamatography week 18

4/19. Button

Moira decided to show Davis how the tablet works. It was pretty cute.

4/20. On Your Mind

Meal planning for the week. I always have multiple tabs open to do this. It's easier when I remember to ask the other people who eat here for requests.

4/21. Fire

I forgot to take a picture this day! Here's what came up in my photos when I searched for fire.

4/22. Blurry

He moves too fast for proper photo taking. But he's super cute.

4/23. Time

This was a very busy day, and this was the first time the whole day I had a chance to think about taking a photo.

4/24.I Saw This Person Today


4/25. Life is

Golden.
I took this photo with my phone, only half paying attention. Don't you love accidental magic like that?

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.
We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Also linked up at Hobo Mama and NPN.

Happy birthday Moira!

After a lot of pre-birthday activities, we have finally reached the actual day of her actual birthday!

I asked her this evening how it feels to be five, and she said it feels like she's 10, because she feels like she's grown so much over night!

Walker and I took her out to dinner last night, just the three of us. We went to a conveyor sushi place, and she was so excited she kept telling us that we should go to a place like this. "But we are at a place like this!" "When can we come again?"
She wanted fondue for dinner on her actual birthday, because she loves Asterix comics and they have fondue in one of them and every time someone drops food in the cheese, people shout "The whip! The whip!" Amusingly, she just barely dips her food into the cheese, but it takes her a long time to do it. I guess because she has to be so careful not to dunk it all the way in?

She wanted a beach birthday, and so I rented half of a rec pool, because, as I explained, there is no way that the weather is going to be warm enough for us to go to the beach at the beginning of May. Of course, we are having a heat wave right now, and it was in the high 70's.

The kids all seemed to have a good time. Well, Davis took awhile to warm up to it. And it was very nice to not have to clean up my house before or after.

I showed her the selection of beginner reader books at the book store the other day, which she's already discovered at the library. She is convinced that you don't learn to read until you go to Kindergarten. The adults in this house are all convinced that she's already reading. Today we sat down and looked at one of the books she checked out of the library last week, and she sight read more than 10 words, including "Brair Rose" which I thought was pretty funny. I'm glad she's considering admitting to us that she can do this.

The one thing she really seems to be struggling with lately is art. I think she wants to do photo realistic pictures, which obviously, she's not quite ready for. We've had a few tears at Children's Museums when her pictures did not urn out right. We've been talking about different artists and different techniques, but she's still a little hesitant. She was excited about making her annual birthday painting though. It was really interesting to watch her mix colors and try different techniques and tell me a story about her painting while she did it. You can see her jaguar in this picture here.

Then the jaguar jumped into a muddy pond, in a grove of trees. I had a very hard time masking my disappointment. I will be happy when she's done with the preschool beige phase of art. But, I did love hearing her story, and I will try and remember that when I look at the finished product.

Happy birthday Pinky. I look forward to seeing what the next year brings.

Mamatography week 17

4/12. In the Middle


4/13. View From Your Bed

Not that we see this view very often, since we like to sleep in the dark so the curtains are constantly closed.

4/14. Water

We had dinner at Walker's favorite restaurant in Mountain View. The kids were not really into the idea of sitting still after our delayed flight, and all the shuttling around to get to and from the airports. But water is delicious always.

4/15. Alone

Moms never get to be alone. Even at the playground.

4/16. Your Favorite Color

Moira got a fever, so we only left the hotel to take Walker to and from work. But there was a fair amount of green in the room, and Davis found some interesting ways to keep himself busy while Moira napped.

4/17. Busy

This little sushi set kept Davis busy for a long time. He really wanted to figure out how the tongs work.

4/18. Hello!

We went to the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, and they had the neatest toddler area called the Wonder Cabinet. This octopus waves it's arms when you turn the crank.

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.
We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Also linked up at Hobo Mama and NPN.

Me Made May, starting tomorrow!

I have been watching the Me Made challenges at So, Zo (where people pledge to wear clothes they made every day for a month) for a long time, each time wishing I had the mental energy to participate. I have plenty of clothes I've made, and I even wear them on a regular basis. I'm interested in seeing if I can really manage to wear something self made every day for a month. It will seriously limit variety in wardrobe which is a known problem for me. Hopefully, I can find time to make a couple of new things to counteract any feeling of being penned in I might have. I plan to also try to take pictures of my outfits and post them to my Flickr, which will hopefully help me figure out a good spot in the house to use the self timer on my camera. Or maybe Moira will take my picture. We shall see. Below is my pledge.

I, Shannon Hillinger of Pineapples & Artichokes, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear one item of each day for the duration of May 2013. I also pledge to sew at least two more garments during this month.


If nothing else, this challenge means that I will find out if I'm actually willing to wear this shirt on a regular day and risk it's destruction.

Mamatography week 16

4/5. Something Good

Moira wanted to make a cake while her Grandpa was here since he won't get to come for her actual birthday. She decorated it herself, by piling everything in the center and being annoyed that the sides weren't getting covered.

4/6. Air

I love the sound of popping lids.

4/7. Dreamy

I love when the kids get so into an activity that nothing distracts them. Davis was going to take all the magnets off the fridge if it was the last thing he did!

4/8. On Your Plate

This was all that was left of dinner. I guess it was a hit. Recipe here.

4/9. Tiny


4/10. A Place

I went out with my good friend JW and we played Arkham. We totally played it wrong, because I didn't want to spend half an hour reading the instructions, but we still lost. We also got a number of compliments on our excellent game choice.

4/11. Detail

We went to Chuck E Cheese with Lauren and the hobo kids because she had agreed to test their new phone ap, but it wouldn't run on her phone. All the kids thought it was awesome. Well, Davis and Alrik didn't really care, but they got pizza and ice cream out of it, so they were happy.

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.
We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Also linked up at Hobo Mama and NPN.