Category Archives: Kulia

Sunflowers and Presents

Kevin is still working crazy hours so I’ve been a little short handed around the house.  I’m afraid my posting here has suffered.  Sigh.  The girls and I have been enjoying our summer though.  They may just have their mama’s gardening gene because they love to help me weed and water and admire all the flowers in our backyard.  I decided to encourage this and bought them each their own sunflower plant.  They helped me dig the hole, plant, and water them and now every morning they can’t wait to run outside with their little watering cans and take care of their own flower.  It’s quite sweet.

We also received a surprise package in the mail from Nana Walls full of home knit love.  She made the girls their very own hooded ponchos!  When I opened the package, Leina declared she wanted the blue one and Kulia wanted the rainbow.  Which was perfect since the blue was larger.  Phew!  Don’t you just love it when it all works out?  So here are the girls modeling their ponchos.  They were quite confused by the lack of arm holes at first but quickly discovered how comfy they were and didn’t want to take them off.  Look out fall weather, we are armed and ready for you!  Thanks Nana Walls!

Good Times Rollin’

The Pops and the Toots have arrived!  Hallelujah!  Let the choir of angels sing!  The Grandparents are here!  They even brought some lovely hot weather with them so we decided to open up the backyard.  While Tutu entertained the minions, Papa & I set up the deck for summer.  This involved dragging out tables and chairs and sun umbrellas.  By the end of the day, our backyard was ready to play.

We broke out the croquet set and the art easel.  The kids adored both.  They loved whacking the balls and creating masterpieces.

Leina went with a realistic landscape full of flowers and butterflies.

By the time she finished her pictures, she had worked up quite a sweat and had to cool off swinging for quite a while.

Kulia, on the other hand, took her painting very very seriously.  Long after Leina had skipped off to the swings, Kulia was still diligently working on her brush strokes.

I like to call her finish project “Jellyfish at Sunset.”  It’s quite a smashing modern statement in my mind.

Every time my kids make art, I wish my sister was here to see them.  I just know she’d love to dip in her brush and join right in.  They loved showing off their creations to their adoring grandparents and the grandparents loved ooohing and ahhhing over every color choice.  All in all, a very satisfying day!

For Liza

Liza emailed me to gripe about my lack of posting.  This from the woman who is so busy we haven’t seen each other in over a month!  So to appease her, I’m going to sum up my life for the last week in 2 words or less.

Hectic.  (Ha!  Less than two baby!)

No really.  First, my baby insisted on growing and having another birthday.  She is now three.  She says this proudly while announcing emphatically, “you have no more babies!  No more!  Alls big girls now!”, and each time she does another piece of my heart shatters.  She can’t be three.  Not yet!  I still have at least seven more years of baby snuggling left in me!

Papa and Manny threw her a birthday party with a bouncy house and presents.   She was in heaven.  Oddly enough, she really liked opening the birthday cards.   Most kids toss the cards and dive right into unwrapping the gift.  Not Kulia.  She loved opening each and every card.

Of course, she loved the gifts too.  The girls have been dying to try out the chalk animal print maker thing-a-ma-jig but it has been pouring rain here so no dice.  Sorry kids.  Maybe next month.

She fell in love with her little birthday teddy bear.  As soon as she opened it up, she gave it the biggest, sweetest hug ever.

Oh how I wish I was that little bear.

Along with Kulia, sweet baby Amelia is turning two this week.  We have to miss her party so I gave Anna her birthday present a wee bit early.  It’s the sweetest little summer jumper.  Of course, I probably should have knit her a sweater what with the weather we’re having.  Grrrr.  But it sure came out cute!

And then we had the last day of preschool for Leina.  Due to the excessive rain (did I mention it’s been pouring lately?), they had to cancel their field trip.  Instead, they had class as always.  Leina was hard at work making a masterpiece for her teacher.

You can’t tell from here but the petals on her flower had to be colored in like a rainbow.  Red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple and repeat.  No amount of hurrying could daunt her.  She was determined to make it just perfect.  That’s my girl!

Finally, we had the last hug good-bye.  Teacher Michelle has been a dream.  Everything you’d want for your child’s first teacher – sweet, kind, loving and patient.  Leina is very interested to learn where teacher Michelle lives so she can go and visit her every day.  So far I’ve been able to avoid answering this question.  I’m sure Ms. Michelle doesn’t want a bunch of 4 yr olds camped out on her front lawn all summer long with reams of colored paper waiting to be admired.  We’ll see how much longer I can stall Leina.

And so, there it is, my life for the last few days. Happy Liza?  Good.  And don’t forget, we’re on for Tues!

Gus

I’m playing around with loading pictures using WordPress and having little luck.  Everything works when Kevin is here but when I try and do it myself, it gets all tangled up.  Sigh.  So I’m uploading these pictures the hard way because they are too cute to pass by.  Seriously.

Here is Leina holding puppy Gus.  She was so tickled to find a dog small enough for her to pick up and he was such a good sport to put up with it.

Kulia decides she wanted in on the action too.  She kept sneaking closer and closer to Leina as I took the pictures.  So here she is, mopped head and all, posing with Gus.

This was a few weeks ago so I’m sure by now Gus is giant and unable to be picked up by small hands.   Lucky dog!