Family Vacation 2010

as I get caught up on laundry I will post more photos from our trip. Cannon Beach to Seattle 2010. 

It was a pretty amazing trip.

Blah!

Last day of Kindergarten......2010

I am so profoundly sad.....yet so profoundly happy for Cole. He took his Ranger Rick magazine (*thanks Aunt Anne!) for show-n-tell and we packed him a special lunch for this monumentous day.

First day of Kindergarten 2009

A Week of Fun!

We have had quite a week. Chris turned 30 (yay!) and he had so much fun! I think we all did! 

On Sunday we did some intense yard work and that included renting a sod remover and installing a new patio in our backyard. The sod remover was a monster of a machine. We intend to put in gravel where Chris parks his VW bug. We have such a big yard it's a little much to mow so we are removed the sod on the side of the house where the bug is parked and this is Chris working the machine. 

Never again.

 It was a beast. 

We then went to Lowe's to pick up the pavers and buy some plants (my favorite). Here are the Lowes guys and Chris loading up the pavers. I bought some really neat plants and I can't wait to plant them.So far our weather is still freezing at night so I've kept them covered so they won't die. 

All loaded up in my father in law's pickup. 

Cole has a special spot in the back right next to the window in the corner. 

He loves this little spot I learned.

I took a break to take a "in progress photo". 

All done!

Monday: Carter and I are doing some last minute shopping and here he is helping me load the wrapping paper he picked out onto the check stand. He's very determined to help.

Here he is telling me about what treat he would like.....sorry! He's too little for a big Snickers bar!

Monday at the greenbelt. Cole determined he had "magical" powers that could lead the ducks...so here he is "leading" the ducks away and into the river....

Carter loved running around!

Chris...the Birthday Boy! 

Ironically, the birthday gifts that Cole picked out for his Dad were also Cole's FAVORITE toy. Amazing how that happens...so Cole and Chris put them together before Cole went to bed. 

MOM'S DAY 2010

Coley, the best helper ever. 

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Cole is a TV star....

Click HERE to check it out!

High Tea with Mr. Cole and Ms. Catherine

Today, Friday Cole and I had High Tea together at his school for Mother's Day. One of my most favorite memories and times spent with him. I will remember this forever.

Here's some History of High Tea - History English Afternoon Tea-

We had it all!

High Tea is often a misnomer. Most people refer to afternoon tea as high tea because they think it sounds regal and lofty, when in all actuality, high tea, or "meat tea" is dinner. High tea, in Britain, at any rate, tends to be on the heavier side. American hotels and tea rooms, on the other hand, continue to misunderstand and offer tidbits of fancy pastries and cakes on delicate china when they offer a "high tea."
Afternoon tea (because it was usually taken in the late afternoon) is also called "low tea" because it was usually taken in a sitting room or withdrawing room where low tables (like a coffee table) were placed near sofas or chairs generally in a large withdrawing room. There are three basic types of Afternoon, or Low Tea:

Cream Tea - Tea, scones, jam and cream  Light Tea - Tea, scones and sweets
Full Tea - Tea, savories, scones, sweets and dessert

In England, the traditional time for tea was four or five o'clock and no one stayed after seven o'clock. Most tea rooms today serve tea from three to five o'clock. The menu has also changed from tea, bread, butter and cakes, to include three particular courses served specifically in this order:

Savories - Tiny sandwiches or appetizers

Scones - Served with jam and Devonshire or clotted cream

Pastries - Cakes, cookies, shortbread and sweets

Cole made my hat and fan and he was wearing a bow tie and a cumberbund that matched my hat. So he had on two ties....silly silly.

My last project

In case anyone would like to see what I have been up to for a few weeks...here's the link to my last project. Click here. 

Sunday Mornings in May

Yummy! Dutch Oven Pancake for breakfast-this was my contribution....

This was Chris's

Did you know he dances while frying bacon? 

Wacky Gorilla Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

Today, Friday Chris and I both took the day off. Chris has been super stressed at work this week so he took a day off to de-compress. I just wanted to have a day off this week and luckily Friday worked out so we were pretty excited that we were both off an extra day on the same day! 

We picked Cole up from school and wanted to treat the kids to something special....so we took them both to SubZero a very fun ice cream bar where they mix the flavors in a liquid state and then using liquid nitrogen (click here to read about it) the ice cream appears. It was SO. Much. Fun.

(the gorilla is just randomly stationed there in the parking lot at Sub Zero) 

Cole had Oreo of course. 

Keeping with the Smiths-not Kardashian style....

So last weekend we went antiquing. Chris and I used to do this all the time right after we got married. Primarily because we could buy furniture cheap and then I could paint it and make it look decent for our little house...after we had Cole we would still go occasionally....and in light of looking for something (anything) to do on the weekend we started going again. We made the decision to go to Pocatello a few weekends ago and in the rain and wind we had a hard time finding the antique stores. Alot of the stores we used to shop were gone and Pocatello has a suprisingly large amount of sporting goods stores downtown....anyways....we went to lunch too at our favorite spot and Carter to my delight decided he would scream at the top of his lungs for attention while in the restaurant. After a few attempts at ignoring him and noticing how annoyed the other diners were I took him to the car and waited for Cole and Chris to finish. Oh yes, it was a lovely day. Anyways...we went to the "old barn" this past weekend and while we were cruising around looking for treasures amongst the piles of junk we saw a series of steps and some a sign that said....

I laughed and said...oh it must be a joke. Alot of stores have jokes about kids being fed candy and caffeine if you leave them alone...so I figured it was something along the same lines....Oh no. There are SNAKES in this basement. Yuck. Can you imagine...reaching for a nice piece of pink glass and having a snake poke it's head out. I was and am still "heevy jeevied" out. I don't think the owners appreciated me taking a photo but I couldn't resist. I really do love this wacky kind of wacky stuff.

So Saturday morning...Cole made a clever creation out of his bendaroos....they are straw like clay sticks....

He made a priest behind a micro-phone and Jesus on the cross. Haha! What a goof ball.

So this is a pretty typical day for me. Carter thinks he needs to work and "help" me.

The last three weeks I've been working on our quarterly arts publication, Arts Alive and yesterday I went to do a press check on it and here I am with the press. It's SO cool. If you are geeky like me and love anything to do with print or type and design...this is heaven.....it even smelled like INK and I had to take some photos. The printing process on a press is so fascinating.  

Press guys were covered in ink and working on getting the registration straight.