Mid Valley Adoptive Families Picnic Potluck

 

I somehow started channeling my Mother’s volunteerism genes and became the organizer of this years summer Mid Valley Adoptive Families picnic this past Sunday. It was actually pretty easy and didn’t require much to do on my part other than securing the reservation for the nifty barn structure at the park and bringing stuff. It would have been nice if I had read the fine print about needing to get a key for the gate that lets you park your cars right next to it. Instead we had to carry all our coolers and stuff up a hot hill.

 

My crazy eyes Max spent a lot of time with his fellow Spiderman enthusiast Lauren.

Bringing a big box of Legos was a stroke of  genius if I say so myself.

Trying to get a group of kids to all stand still and look in the same direction is pretty much impossible.

It went really well and a good time was had by all.

The lazy flower garden

When we first bought our place about 16 years ago I had grand ambitions and lots more free time.And I knew nothing about gardening. I took mostly free or cheap plants from friends and neighbors.And now years later when I am too lazy and busy to put any effort into it these hardy perennials keep coming back without any help from me.

Little did I know how disgustingly stinky daisies are.

I love these daylillies! I seriously never water them or do anything but weed a little early in the spring.

I can’t remember what these are called . Some sort of hardy bluebell?

The reseeding foxgloves that always surprise me every couple of years by reappearing just when I thought I wouldn’t see them again.

 

I can’t remember what this lovely purple stuff is but as long it requires nothing from me I’m happy to have it.

These I could do without. The Canadian Thistle. Ouch!

Thisi s my non lazy super hero husband putting in our new vinyl floor.What a difference!

Philomath Frolic and Rodeo-one week later

Well it was over a week ago that I too the kids to the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo but I finally got the time to post this. As a Brooklyn girl the rodeo fascinates me. It’s so different from where I grew up to see guys wearing cowboy hats because they are actual cowboys and not gay men. Of course they could be gay. Not that there’s anything

wrong with that.

The boys took their mandatory pony rides.

They had been begging me to do the carnival rides. The first ride they chose was the roller coaster. I was kind of surprised that Max really wanted to do it because he’s not much of a ride daredevil.  He looked like he was pooping in his pants the whole time. When he got off he said in his serious voice-“That was kind of scary.” He then declined to go on any other rides for the rest of the night.

 

Henry won this giant blue bear that made him very happy. We also ran into his best friend Emmit

 

And then there was the actual rodeo. This is the rodeo clown wearing a silly fat suit and doing a whole dance schtick. While somewhat amusing at times I couldn’t help but feel bad for the overweight folks in the audience. But the kids told me he wasn’t making fun of fat people he “just wanted to dance in a fat suit to be goofy.” OK then.

Real cowboys roping a cow. Yee haw!

 

The mandatory shaved ices.

Aleaha and Max really getting into their ices.

Relaxing at home with Dad.

Successful photos of new Kanji jewelry

We often get requests for specific words in Japanese Kanji and other languages to be made into our stamped jewelry. This is Nick’s end of our jewelry line. He makes the dies and perfects the tumbling techniques. I get the fun part of photographing the jewelry. I used to hate it back in the olden days before digital cameras. I’d waste hours and hours of my life and tons of money on film, wait to get it printed and then be horribly disappointed and start all over again and repeat the process. My simple Sony Cyber-shot 5.1 megapixels changed all that. And the miracle of Photoshop.

These pictures were taken outdoors on a cloudy overcast day. I found a Japanese kanji book of ours and an art history book and had some fun.

 

Light - Japanese Kanji and Chinese Character and for Light Sterling Silver Pendant

Light - Japanese Kanji and Chinese Character for Light Sterling Silver Stamped Earrings

In the same photo shoot I played around with some rough obsidian we bought at the Tuscon Gem Show many many years ago and this new Snow Flake Obsidian Ball Pendant.These didn’t come out quite as crisp and photoshop helped with the contrast quite a bit. The silver Kanji jewelry above didn’t really need much photoshopping at all other than cropping.

My boys

Henry and Max and our new  to us mini van modeling the cute summer clothes that Grandma Fran sent.