Big sur

Turns out California is a pretty big state...did you know that?  There is so, so, so much to see in this one single state we live in.  Memorial day weekend we went down to Big Sur to see the forest and mountains meet the ocean.

We drove down Friday afternoon, getting a much later start than we hoped (like, we wanted to leave at noon and actually left at 4:00 pm...).  Of course, going anywhere in California on the first day of a long weekend means traffic.

Horrible, unmovable traffic.

So, the anticipated 3 hour drive actually took 5 hours.  We drove through for dinner (healthy and smart) and had to stop for a potty break.  By the time we got to Big Sur it was dark and getting cold.  Did I mention we were camping?

Setting up a tent is always fun, add the darkness of night and five cranky children and you are in for some super fun.  The good news, Colter was so exhausted by the time we got the tent set up he conked right out.



We made it through the first night pretty easily.  It was kind of cold (freezing actually) but we brought enough warm gear to keep us all happy.  We all got up early and had cold croissants and nutella for breakfast while Daddy stoked up a fire so we could warm up.


Our kids love camping so much!  I cannot figure it out.  I like camping too but our kids rank camping right up there with Christmas and Birthdays.  Cold, smoke, dirt...they love it all.  Even Colter had a great time.  I think he ate more dirt than actual food.


We did not pack any real entertainment for the kids.  The big kids brought a book to read and there was a couple of toy cars but that was it.  Adell found fun in building things in the dirt--mostly birthday cakes with sticks for candles.  Clare started collecting bottle caps, made new friends.  Colter just ran around eating dirt and falling over.  We went camping with a large group of church friends--there were lots of other kids to run around with.  The kids kind of had the run of the place.





On the morning of the first day--I took a nap--and Will took all five kids on a hike.  Our family does a fair bit of hiking but I think this was one of the more extreme hikes the kids have been on.  I wish I had a picture.  Apparently, there was a nearly vertical, rocky ravine right at the start of the hike.  Will had Colter in the baby back-pack and tossed Adell up on his shoulders for the climb up the ravine.

Nobody died.

In fact, the big kids got some cool points with their friends for having such a boss Dad.

After lunch we gave the beach a try.  We had heard our friends rave about the beach all morning and we couldn't wait to check it out.  Too bad for us--we went on the windiest day. ever.



Look at Clare's hair in the picture below.  Windy, yes!  It was kind of torture for Colter, Adell and Clare.  They did not appreciate being sand blasted.  We only stayed for a few minutes before retreating to the safety of the car.







Saturday night we shared a campfire with our friends, the Smiths.  Will was the only one who got burned grabbing a hot marshmallow skewer.  We ate s'mores until we were sick and enjoyed good company.

We headed home Sunday morning.  We left early to avoid traffic troubles.  It was a pretty cool weekend.  I hope we will get to go again next year.

Open house

Last year the kids had Open House on the day I was due with Colter.  I waddled around between the kids classrooms, round and cranky.  I don't remember most of what they were showing off, I do remember being glad I was there to see their hard work.

This year, I was so thankful to not be pregnant!  We walked around to each of the kids classes and dealt with Colter's crankiness (apparently, school work is not very interesting to a one-year-old).

Wyatt showed off some of his writing and what he learned about our local history.  He had a lovely teacher for 3rd grade.  She was kind and sweet--not overly stressed about academic achievement--but very kind.  Wyatt needed a kind teacher this year.

Clare's teacher had her students act as tour guides for Open House.  She had a (lengthy) list of fun things to show us.  We saw her self portrait, her bean project, her rainbow fish...and much more.
Clare's teacher is also very kind.  Clare has been in love with her teacher since the very first day.  Clare really wants to be a first grade teacher when she grows up.

That green paper Clare is holding is her tour guide list...it was double sided...

Clare to to wear her high-heeled Sunday shoes to Open House--because she was an official tour guide.

Lorien was last to show off her classroom.  She also had a long list of cool things to show us.  We tested ourselves to see if we were smarter than a 5th grader.  For the record, Mom and Dad are smarter than 5th graders and the younger kids have some learning to do.

Lorien had a great teacher for 5th grade.  You might recall how she cried when she found out who her teacher was at the start of the school year.  She got the "math" teacher and she wanted the "creative writing" teacher.  However, she does not need any help in the creative writing department--she has reading and writing down.  Math, math is a whole different subject.  Math has been a struggle.  But her 5th grade teacher was awesome.  He kept her on task all year long and at Open House he gave us some surprising news.  At the end of 5th grade the kids take placement test for middle school subjects.  In math, Lorien scored highest in the class on the test!  She blew the other kids out of the water!  (Not that it is a competition or anything...) She would have placed into an advanced math class for next year but I guess they are revamping the cirriculum so the test was not for placement?  Anyway, we were (are) so proud of Lorien and so thankful for her teacher.  Lorien was pretty stunned at the news too (she even teared up a bit).  Thank you Mr. B.!!!

Adell and Colter were pretty great troopers for the Open House ordeal.  Colter only ripped up his siblings projects--sparing students he was not related to.  Adell just skipped and danced all over the place--happy to be part of the chaos.  

Drastic changes

Lorien decided to get a hair cut.

A major hair cut.

She and I have battled over her hair for years.  She loves it long (I love it long too) but she does not care to brush her hair...ever.

So, I constantly threaten to chop it all off.

She got tired of my threats and decided to get her hair cut on her own.

She had enough to donate to Locks of Love.

That's a lot of hair!


  

Woah, oh, say it ain't so-ohohoh!

Oh my darling boy, you are one today!  Where did this past year go?  How can it be?  Sigh.

I couldn't stop it from happening (I tried everything short of  actual Witchcraft).  May 19th, 2013 came and so now you have to turn one.

I am happy for you.  You are an adorable one-year-old.  You are funny, charming and smart.  You love to be part of the action.  Just look how chill you are right smack-dab-in-the-middle of all those big kids:




You decided to become a full time walker last weekend.  We came home from one activity or another and you picked yourself up and started doing figure eights around the living and dining rooms.  (Are there enough 'ands' in that sentence?)  I couldn't get you to sit still.  You knew how to motor and you were off.  A week later, you prefer walking to crawling.   You've started to babble with "Ahh-da" and "Ba-ba-ba" being your favorite sounds.  You also know how to pat your open mouth while saying "ahhhh" so you make that old-fashioned Indian war-whoop sound.  You love to pretend you get all of the jokes going on around you.  If we start laughing you start ha-ha-ha-ing right along with us.  






Happy birthday my baby Colter!  I love you so very much!

*post edit Colter also learned how to give kisses, (they are open-mouthed-wet things) blow kisses and wave bye-bye when Daddy leaves for work in the morning.  Totally adorable.

We could be the worst parents ever...

So, I really don't want to come across as mean here--but I am putting this video up none the less.  If I really wanted to be nice I would just forget about this little episode all together.  However, I cannot forget...it is too funny.

Clare is our biggest scaredy-pants kid.  She is exactly like I was as a child (in the scaredy-pants department anyway) and I see no problem with her timidity.  Her Daddy thinks she needs to be more confident and brave.  She is not a shy person, she is just careful when it comes to doing things that could cause her physical  harm.  For example, she only started putting her face in the water at the pool last summer...and then ONLY WITH GOGGLES!!!

Clare is seven years old and in the first grade.  MOST children living in the suburbs of America in her same age group know how to ride a two-wheeled bike with out training wheels.

Clare does not.

She's never even ridden a two-wheeled bike WITH training wheels.

She is happy to ride a scooter and sees no reason why she should ride a bike, ever.

We decided she needed to be a bike rider.  So Will took her out to the school to learn.

This is how things went:

At one point she was screaming so loudly I thought maybe she had ripped her arms off of her own body to get out of learning how to ride a bike...nope.

She did master the bike a few trips later.  I should put a video up of her success but this video is more fun.

Way to go Clare!

It's a girl date!

Will has taken the boys on the Father-Son Camp-out.  Lorien is having a sleep over at a friend's house and Clare is at a friend's house for dinner.  So, tonigh it is just me and Adell.  We used to have loads of one-on-one time, before Colter came along.  We decided to make a proper girl's night of it.  We went shopping, out to eat at a restaurant, painted our finger nails and had a sleep over in my room.  It was fun to be with just Adell again.  I have grand plans of having more one-on-one dates with all of my children but plans do not materialize frequently enough.  However, I pulled this one off.

Thanks for an awesome girl date Adell!






*It's a girl date!* When Clare was the only child at home she would say this to me every. single. day.  It started when Wyatt was in preschool.  We'd drop Lorien off at Elementary school and then drop Wyatt off at preschool.  As soon as just Clare and I got into the car she would say "Momma, close your eyes."  (Admittedly, I never closed my eyes...I was driving a car...) and then she would shout "It's a girl date!" like this was a huge surprise.  She never failed to remember.  It was a girl date, just Momma and Clare--two girls.  When Adell was born, Clare did not have to change her cheer.  Once Adell was old enough to pick up on it, she too started telling me to close my eyes and announced we were on a girl date.  Adell, sadly, had to discontinue the practice once Colter was born.  Now we have a boy with us all the time!

Lorien grows up...

Lorien is headed into sixth grade next fall...and that means middle school.  I feel a little bile rise in my throat when I think about it.  Really, middle school?  Ugh.

For her 5th grade graduation we had to send in her Kindergarten picture and her 5th Grade picture.  I thought I'd post them here too...so I can cry about her growing up with out having to dig through my picture box.

Yay for the preservation of memories via digital media...

Lorien Anderson Kindergarten 2007-2008 

Lorien Anderson 2011-2012...wait a minute.  I think I sent in the wrong picture.  I think this is her 4th  grade picture 2011-12 would be last year right???  Darn it!  How did I mess this up?

Family in the west

Lets see, out of the 10 Davis siblings, five still live in Maine and the other five are scattered around a bit.  The weekend before Mother's Day some of us got together.  My niece, Victoria, was celebrating some life achievements and those who could, came to Utah to support her.  There were the two brothers already in Utah, one brother from Idaho, myself from California and a sister who flew in from Maine--that makes five Davis siblings in one place!

Ebin and Jennifer

Victoria is Jennifer's oldest child and our family's oldest grandchild/niece.  Jennifer is the second oldest child in our family (second out of ten...) and the oldest sister.  I learned some of my favorite and frequently used life lessons from her, like: a doughnut covered in powdered sugar is good for the belly and good for the soul.

Jennifer, Ebin, Chris and me

Chris is the oldest child in our family and really knows how to be a big brother.  At one time or another he has helped all of us make our way in the world.  He treated us to dinner at a place called Tucanos.  I'd never been to a place like this, it is a Brazilian grill and people walk around with gigantic skewers of grilled meat.  They stop at your table and carve off a pile of said meat.  It is a carnivore's delight. 

Ebin pointing out his glass work

Ebin is the sibling just younger than I am in the family--so seventh in the line of ten.  He took us up to an old chapel in Salt Lake where he had done the window replacement work.  He works for a window company that specializes in repairing and restoring antique windows.  He loves his job, I've never seen him so happy and proud.  We were all thrilled to see his hard work and admire his glass skills.

The group at the chapel.  The lovely lady on the far right is my niece, Victoria, who brought us all together to celebrate.

Jennifer, Caleb, Chris and Emily 

Sunday, Caleb and his family drove down from Idaho. Caleb is fourth in the line of ten.  He and his wife have six kids now and I hadn't seen the youngest two babies yet.  It was amazing to see his big kids and the little ones.  It made me homesick for my own crew.

Shellie (Caleb's wife) holding their newest baby Gabe, Jennifer and Caleb

Me, Jennifer, Caleb, Ebin and Chris (#6, 2, 4, 7 and 1)

Annette, Christopher's wife, organized a big group shot to include in a Mother's Day card for my Mom.  Which was doubly awesome because so many of us were together AND so many of us stink at sending out Mother's day cards...

I really had a fantastic weekend.  Did I mention, I went by myself and left all the children with Will here in California?  I missed my family but it was lovely to not change diapers, walk children to the potty or be responsible for their general entertainment.   And to Victoria, congratulations on passing through some of life's milestones.  I am proud of you and so happy I got to come and celebrate with you!

He does this all the time...

While crawling is still the most effective mode of transportation for Colter, he has gained a fair amount of confidence in his walking skills.  He will take little baby steps all by himself at random times through out the day.  We all get a big kick out of catching him toddle around.  He kind of hobbles around on flat-feet and stiff-legs.  It is cute.

The end...almost

Dear Mike,

I am almost finished with that dresser I needed your help with. Why is it with every project I undertake the last bit of work takes the longest to complete?  I just need to fix the mirror and the dresser is done, done, done.  (It will probably take me another 5 years to get the mirror back on the dresser...)

Shall we take a look at some before, during and after pictures?  Actually, this is my blog and you have to look at photos, I just ask to be polite.

I don't think I told you the full story of how this dresser became mine.  I saw this lovely, old, serpentine front dresser on Craigslist.  I was so excited, I'd been searching for this dresser style for years!  When I emailed the seller she said she already had a buyer coming to look at the dresser...I was too late. I was a little disappointed but figured I didn't really have time for a project and let it go.  The next week I was wasting a bit of time on Craigslist again and saw the exact. same. dresser?  Except the seller was about 50 miles closer to me...how could this be?  I quickly emailed the seller and made arrangements to see the dresser.  Turns out, the new seller had bought the dresser I had seen the week before.  When she got the dresser home she thought it was too big of a project and put the dresser back up for sale.  Enter me: a naive do-it-yourself-er with a grand notion of accomplishing a project with 5 children running around...  The woman selling the dresser was so sweet.  She gave me some wood working tips and helped me lug the dresser into my van.  We swapped email addresses so I could send her pictures of the finished project.  Over all, it was one of those super-nice Craigslist experiences.  The dresser was priced well and the seller was a nice person (lucky me!).



Once the dresser was home I took down a laundry list of the problems: the mirror weighed a ton and the supports were rusty and ancient, all of the drawers were coming apart, one of the drawers was split on the bottom, there was water damage on the top and one of the casters on the front was completely broken.  All this fix-it work was in addition to the paint-and-make-pretty work I actually wanted to do...  Only mildly daunted, I set to work.

 
I removed the hardware, washed all the surfaces and did my best work shoring up the broken drawers.  Many thanks to your advise and knowledge Mike!  Then it was on to the work of sanding...my arms hurt just thinking about all the sanding... I wanted the finish to be as smooth as possible.  Then I picked out my paint.  I briefly considered not painting the dresser...briefly.  You agreed, painting the dresser would be sacrilege and a friend said I should absolutely not paint the dresser.  Alas, that friend lives on a tropical island and I figured the sun and sand would comfort her disappointment if I painted a wood dresser.  You are my brother and the familial relationship will have to be your comfort for any disappointment caused by a painted dresser.

I decided to give Annie Sloan Chalk paint a try.  Have you heard of it?  Google it, there are plenty of testimonials and tutorials on the paint.  I decided to use it because it was reported to adhere to any surface without sanding or priming.  I was sanding anyway but figured it couldn't hurt to use a paint that promised to adhere if my sand job was not perfect.  Annie Sloan paint is more costly than regular paint and after this project I decided it was not worth the cost.  Yes, I did not have to buy primer but it was still more expensive than paint and primer.  Yes, I saved time but I don't know if that saved time was worth the extra cost.  The only thing I'd have to say was worth it in using the Annie Sloan paint was that the paint dried very quickly--about 20 minutes.  So I could put on multiple coats of paint in one day and touch-ups were easily made.  The chalk paint is suppose to be used with a wax (which is as costly as the paint).  The wax is supposed to be absorbed into the paint after the paint drys.  I waxed one drawer and the top of the dresser but did not like the texture it gave the painted surface.  For the other drawers and sides of the dresser, I sanded and then polished the paint with a dry cloth.  The texture of the unwaxed surfaces is smooth and lovely--I like it much more than the waxed portions.  You can see a bit of sheen on the bottom drawer in the picture below, I used the wax on that drawer.


Once the painting was done I tried out some new hardware for the dresser pulls.  I couldn't decide which ones I liked the most so I used them all.  I had to go back and cover up the extra holes from the previous drawer pulls.  There are some weird patches in color where the holes were patched.  If I could do it all over again I would have taken care of those holes first...but I didn't know I was going to change the drawer pulls...so...eh.


Here it is, as finished as it is going to get for a little while.  The mirror is still on my to-do list but for now this is the view I get when I walk in my front door.  It makes me pretty happy...  I even found a decorative block with my favorite word on it "no".  I say "no" all the time.  Once I read an article about how parents should say "yes" more often to their children and I thought: "no".  There is a "yes" printed on the other side of the block and one of my cheekier children (Lorien, for sure) is always switching it around.  I don't mind, I still say "no" all the time.

Thanks for all your help and answering my questions Mike.  I really appreciate it.

Lots of Love,
Cassie

Is he not entertained?

When it is quiet in the house I know Colter is probably at one of three places...wreaking havoc on my attempts at order.

For months now, he has used the fireplace as a sand box.  Our fireplace is gas-burning so there are decorative lava rocks all along the bottom of the fireplace.  Colter took note of the fireplace rocks right as the weather was warming up.  We live in California and a fireplace for warmth is silly--fireplaces are for ambiance and gas makes perfect sense.  We like to have a fire on Christmas Eve and that is about it.  Some times the kids will come home from school and want to read in front of the fireplace.  What I am saying here, is that the baby was never in any danger of grabbing a hot coal when he crawled over to the fireplace.  (Have I covered my own butt enough yet?)  Anyway, Colter loves to dig his fingers into the fireplace rocks, scoop out handfuls and sprinkle them all over the floor.  It is annoying!  I started keeping a broom and dustpan under the couch so I could sweep up his messes quickly.  I don't have a picture of this fireplace mess...I don't know why.  Maybe because I don't find it cute in the least little bit?  Those lava rocks are about as painful as a Lego or a Barbie shoe when you step on them in bare feet!

Since Lorien was a mobile baby I've kept a lower kitchen drawer or cupboard full of Tupperware/Rubbermaid dishes.  My babies like to be in the kitchen all the time when I am in the kitchen.  They also like to try and do what I am doing.  It is pretty handy to have a pile of dishes for babies to play with while you work in the kitchen. For some reason, we have a lot more of these kid friendly dishes this time around.  For another reason, Colter loves to get every. single. dish. spread all over the kitchen floor.



Look at that face.  Does he know he's a stinkin' little rascal or what?

Colter's third and newest little game of mess-making is the bottom shelf of the kids bookshelf.  Right now I keep wood puzzles and easy readers on these shelves.  As soon as Colter sees all that stuff looking neat and tidy he scoots over and starts pulling it apart.  He will pull these shelves apart as many times as I will put them back together.  Sometimes he will see the puzzles in a pile and the books all straightened and make a bee-line for the bottom shelf.  Then he will sit on his knees right in front of the shelf with a gigantic-happy-grin on his face.  He will look around until he sees me and smile extra wide as if to say "Oh Momma, it was so nice of you to put this all back together so I could pull it apart!"  Good thing he is so darn cute.