Let’s talk about the weather.

So I hear that it’s snowing where some of my good friends are and though it looks like this here:

..in honor of you poor, chilly friends, I’ll do a snowy post that I never got up last December.  You can pretend I’m all snowed out too.

So here we are making a snowman.

Proof that Nick dropped down from heaven.

Except there are these pictures…so really, he just fell over. And from what I remember it hurt a wee bit.

See that snowball mid air? Yeah, I have reflexes like a champ.  This might be proof that Nick is not an angel since he was throwing snowballs at me.  Don’t worry though.  I still really like him, and it didn’t hit me.

Roz could not figure out what we were doing to her.

Get ready for a cuteness overload:

Ahhh!  Those gigantic pink gloves.  I can hardly stand how cute it all is.

 

Where are the boys? 

You wonder? 

 

 

Where they usually are --

chillin’ in their underwear.

 

 

 

 

Finally, though, Brookston was brave enough to come out and play with us:

I love his red jacket in this picture.  Gorgeous.

But yeah, this is what it looks like here:

Thanks for talking about the weather with me.  Someday it will look like this where you live too.

Duke Gardens

Have you been?  They’re pretty spectacular.  Like, it makes you want a ridiculously good camera.  However the first TWO times I went, one day after another, I forgot my camera.  My lack of photograph taking power motivated multiple visits in a row, and on the third time I finally remembered the camera.

However, instead of bringing the camera on a day where there were two adults and three kids, a pretty manageable ratio (for the most part, at least you think it would be a good ratio) I brought the camera the day we had 2 adults and 6 kids (all three and under) and a dog.  So my photos mostly looked like this: 

But, here and there I did manage to get almost all the kids, usually facing away from me:

But I really like this one.  I got a face and a half in this one:

And this one:

However all my stopping to take pictures usually resulted in something like this:The almost 4 year olds make their break.  You can just barely see Brookston in his green shirt there rounding the corner, followed closely by his friend.  Isn’t that a nice tree though?  That’s a nice white tree. ( Don't worry, no kids were permanently lost in the film taking of this outing. )

We stopped for some lunch near some chickens (who did not steal our lunch, nor did they become part of lunch).

 

She’s enthralled.

We headed over to this nice round pond where we constantly reminded kids not to get in.  For the most part it worked.

I love it when Roz gives me this look:

And you can see my friend Amanda there.  She had her twin boys the day after I did.  We labored in rooms right next to each other and our husbands met out in the hallway and discovered we were both Mormons.  So at some point during my recovery I hobbled over to her room to meet her and we became friends.  It’s nice to have someone in practically the same exact situation as you.  (You don’t feel as wimpy when you whine for some reason.  =)  Thanks, Amanda.

I don’t know where Everett picked up the peace sign, or if it just looks like that is what he’s up to, but this cracks me up.

This is the kind of shot where I really want a fantastic camera:

Or for this shot, I mean, I just didn’t do that tree justice.  On one of our visits a bride was standing under that tree.  E stopped and declared: “Look, it’s a beeaauutiful briiiide.”  She probably got  some really nice pictures of that tree.

When it was time to go B wasn’t convinced we should leave.  He sat down on a nice bench and said.  “Okay mom, I’ll stay here and you go home.  I’ll see you later.”

“Brookston,” I replied “I’d love to stay too, but we all have to go now.”

“That’s okay Mom, I’ll just be here waiting for when you get back.”  And as often as we’d come he probably thought that wouldn’t be too long.

But, like I said earlier, no children were permanently lost in the film taking of this outing.

Jazz

I’m a little bit really excited to be a level leader at girl’s camp this summer.  I get to pal around with the first year gals who get to represent The Jazz Age (1920s-30s) for our camp theme:  “A Gospel For All Time.”  The other eras represented are the 50’s, 60’s and 80’s.

To prove just how excited I am, I got a deco hair cut, you know because hair removal reveals that sort of thing – excitement.   This ad from a 1920s magazine slays me:

Ha ha ha.  “If you must do it, show this to your barber.”  But, I didn’t need to show my barber anything – She’s an artist and if she touches your hair with a razor your hair is blessed.  You’ll see a picture of her later.  So, here’s my hair on my head:

And here’s my hair in my hand.  Have you ever held your own hair in your hand?  It’s a weird experience.  Almost gives you the heebie jeebies.

So she crafted and we talked about deep and important things in life (because there is something about having someone remove hair from your head that makes you open up, you know?  Have you experienced that?  I think it’s real…)  She also helped me with my munitions, which I am so grateful for – I’m not a girly girly and I need help sometimes.

Anyway, here is my barber/artist/munitions expert extraordinaire (sporting one of my flapper headbands):

Thanks Chrissy, you rock my socks right off.  Wait, I mean, you’re the cat’s meow.  Attagirl.

So here I am with my fantastic cut and in my glad rags. 

                  

And here’s the mood board for our time period.

My mom found a picture of this barn burner below with some of my grandmother’s photos.  She is of yet unidentified, but is now the face of our Jazz Age camp experience.  Here’s to my ancestors.  

And here are Nick’s Grandmothers.

This picture above is the berries.  (I might be murdering this jazz age slang here… who knows…)  And here’s another choice bit of Calico:

Here are my baby vamp youth leaders: 

Aren’t they the bee’s knees?  The one on the right had come from a track meet and still rocked it.  She’s got moxy.  And do you see that fur on the left?  Yeah, she knows her onions.

So I sort of went a little crazy and made headbands for every girl.  Here are just a few:

 

Yeah, I sort of went crazy, and I know it – you can see a wee bit of the craze creeping in there in that last picture.  But I had fun watching Thoroughly Modern Mille and other period films while I worked.  Have you seen Enchanted April?  Totally Charming.  But I’ll admit that I kind of suffered though the old Robert Redford Great Gatsby.  Great costumes, but totally a downer.  It was also toward the final end of my twenty headbands and my fingers were just kinda sore since I burn myself and poke myself a lot. 

But it was soooooooo worth it to see my little first years wondering around with their headbands on.  So. Worth. It.  I mean, look at this cutie.  And how.

Some Jazz Age Slang for you:

And how! - I strongly agree!

Attagirl! - You go, girlfriend!

Baby vamp - a hot young woman

Baloney - nonsense!

Barn burner - a classy, stylish woman

Bearcat - a hot-blooded, fiery girl

Beat one's gums - idle chatter

Beef - a complaint or to complain

Bee's Knees - the ultimate

Berries - attractive or pleasing

Cat's meow - great

Choice bit of calico - attractive gal, usually young

Daddy-o - way to address anyone

Get Hot! Get Hot! - encouragement for a dancer

Glad rags - ' out on the town' clothes

Heavy sugar - a lot of money

Heebie-Jeebies - The jitters

Jake –- Great: "Everything's Jake."

Know one's onions - know what you talk about

Lollapalooza - a really special thing

Munitions - face powder

Peachy keen - super-fine and amazing

Real McCoy - a genuine item

Ritzy - Glam, good, special. "Putting on the Ritz."

Sand, grit, moxy - good stuff; gumption.

Swell - wonderful

Wet Blanket - a solemn person, a killjoy

You slay me! - That's funny!

Art

We’re enthusiastic about art around here, as evidenced by this picture below:

I like to join in if I can, though I’ve noticed that if I start to get into the artistic action my paper becomes the most interesting thing in the world and I can 1. never finish my own stuff and 2. they don’t do their own stuff.  But from time to time I am able to work uninterrupted and it usually turns out something like this:

or this:

and if I’m trying to teach them something it looks like this:

I’m not the only random one around here.  Nick is just as adept at the random:

My family and unicorns love me!?  Wow!

Okay and I just have to put this photo up of Roz and her milk bubbles: