happy birthday to me

My Aunt in Colorado emailed this photo to me yesterday. 

It is one of my favorites pictures from my baby-hood.

wednesday wanderings

Each time we hike Silly Mountain Natale eyeballs the trail that leads goes further around the mountain. And each time I tell her that one of these days we'll plan the day so we can go on a longer hike.

Today was that day.

Instead of hiking Silly we drove to the back of Gold Canyon and hiked the Hieroglyphic. After hiking for over an hour she did start to wonder why we were going such a long way and wouldn't it have been better to just stay on Silly Mountain. Her tune changed quickly when we reached the rocks where the ice-cold water cascaded through the canyon. Our socks and shoes came off quickly and all three of us had a wonderful romp 'round the water covered playground.

counting

It was slow in arriving...due to illness...but we finally celebrated the 100th day of school. The girls had a great time doing counting activities all day long.

 

q for queen

 We have been reading about Queen Esther for the past couple of weeks. Today we tossed the school books aside and had ourselves a fancy dress-up Purim party. After watching a movie of Esther's story the girls dressed in queenly dresses, chose a scarf to go with their outfit, and had their hair fixed up with flowers. I then presented them with "jewels" for their fingers and the queen-look was complete. 

We traveled to Scottsdale to join the local Messianic dancers as they celebrated Purim with a roomful of elderly Jewish men and women. The girls had a great time dancing, marching in the Esther parade, participating in the retelling of the story of Esther and finally eating a plateful of sweet treats. Everyone was tickled to have the little Esther's join the party and a wonderful Purim was had by all.

 

butterfly shadows

A scrolling line of metal 3D butterflies was one of the few items left in our house from the previous owners. I recently relocated the piece near my front door. Just the other day as the sun was setting I noticed the pretty shadow pattern they cast.

Farmer Gilbert

I had heard about the farmer's market in Gilbert but never had a chance to visit. Yesterday they combined the regular Saturday morning market with folk music and art fair for a jolly good time. We walked through the market and historic downtown street admiring the wares while enjoying the live music and happy people.

 For my favorite farmer's marketeers

I took a photo of this display because the dark bushel baskets with chalkboard signs

made such an aesthetically pleasing display.

I took this pic with my favorite Whoopie Pie loving niece in mind...

you know who you are.

We stopped and people watched this rolling marble fountain that seemed to draw in young and old alike to touch its smooth, wet rotating sphere. Then I discovered, to my delight that it made a wonderful reflection for lots of photo fun.

 

 Later we found a spot in the shade and watched the children play in the spray-ground. Amy would have been right in there with the little ones but I just enjoyed the moment through the camera lens.

These twin girls watched the other children playing at first, hesitant to venture in themselves. 

I chuckled as I watched the dynamics of their relationship;

the one in the pink was constantly pushing her sister to go out in front of her.

 
Finally they both became comfortable enough that they left caution behind and enjoyed playing with the water.

out of africa

I found this wonderful batik cloth at the second hand store. When I bought it I was thinking of the dining room table but discovered the size was more suited to the bed. It's given a fun new look to our bedroom.