Convict Lake 2010 Camping Trip

I just want to express myself!!

It started out wonderful, typical of Miss Reno/Sparks aka Princess Sara.

We read all about space and stars and made a corresponding sparkly star necklace...

But then it turned horribly wrong... I present to you Latina Satan.

Notice how she holds the heart of a throbbing child yearning to just enjoy art? I digress...

Library was offering a free art program. It started with my daughter (Christina) painting a beautiful yellow sun after 15 minutes of pure babbling (Art is about patience, you need to paint one color at a time, wait 10 minutes and paint another color. Slowly. You need to be slow.... Did I mention there were probably 20 3-6 year olds there? Perhaps Latina Satanica would flow better) Anywho, LS grabs the paintbrush out of Christina's hand (You can see her above doing the same to another child) and proceeds to say, "That's an OK sun, but you need to paint the whole picture yellow now."

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Really?

So I tell LS that her sun is beautiful and that art is art. We get heated fast. LS is one of those eccentric control freaks who never learned that art is subjective, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. She says children should learn technique or quote "They'll never win any competitions." Oh my gosh! (Picture me screaming as if a house is on fire!) Why did I not think of that Satanica? Oh why oh why oh why? Now I get it. We need to squish the fun out of art and make them into competitive lil' demons who feed off the praise and glory of adults. What. On. Earth. Have. I. Been. Thinking. I'm such a moron.

Now, would I normally be this harsh. No. But she took the paint brush out of my child's hand and painted over it. The room went silent as our voices raised. And the funny part was Maria was painting merrily along and chiming in rather aggressively, "I just want to express myself!" A lady rushed over after the eccentric just refused to even "talk" to me anymore and apologized, she of course wants children to enjoy the process of art... blah blah blah. We finish painting (with acrylics mind you... 2 little girls were dressed in expensive princess costumes from earlier... got it all over them....we came prepared with aprons) AND THEN they ask us to leave the art there.

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Ugh, anyone? Anyone?

Needless to say I ripped my children's art off the table and we headed out without saying thank you. Ok. We said thank you, I mean, we have to be civil. But as we were heading out and mommy was explaining all about Picasso and how people never appreciated his artwork until he was dead, but he did it his way and now look at his art... Christina piped in, "Mom, we should totally go back and tell her that I won a coloring competition and I won it because I colored the way I wanted to, not the way she told me."

Bam. Boo Ya. Well said child, well said.

The Floating Body Parts

Artown- Innerhymns Dance Theatre Oh the Places You Will Go!!!

Wow. Talent!! Pure Dancing Talent!

The music was fantastic!

The company fabulous!

The costumes wonderful!

It was a dance interpretation of Dr.Seus' Oh the Places You'll Go! Very entertaining and well put together. I'd say this was as good as the Dinosaur Puppets definitely!

They also did a superb performance under black light... soooooooooooooooooo awesome! There were floating body parts everywhere and the girls were amazed! Christina kept on asking if it was real. Very very fun! Love Artown!!

Laid Back in the Summer

Sigh. It's so nice to have Ram home. Seriously. Words can't even do it justice. But pictures sure can- the girls are just sweet little peas in a pod.

This man... Tumble Toed Tex me Tyronna Tuqueerdo was not so fun. It's so hit and miss with the library system. He was about a -3 on a scale of 1 to 100. Plus he made a jab at Asians... they were scary people who dig a hole through the middle of the earth to get to cowboys... yeah... ugh? Anyone?

A very pleasant day otherwise. Very much looking forward to ones like this! Sans Hater 80 year olds...

Update: Swimming

So I think we've been to 3 swim lessons now. Christina decided she doesn't need a life guard to catch her at the bottom of the big slides at wild waters. She just dives into the deep and kicks underwater till she hits the stairs. It's pretty awesome to see her so confident. The teacher told us she just really needs to work on her arms and straightening her kicks.

Maria is a quick learner also. She can hold her breath now for about 15 seconds.

Also, quote of the year, Christina: " Never marry a man who kills jews." (This was after we had watched a video about Queen Esther)

Update on the Update: Really... do you remember Chunk from the Goonies?

Look at him now!! Pictures are from AOL news.
I always found him amusing because of the whole hand in the blender scene.... now THAT was talented acting.

Behold- 8 years in the making

8 years ago, beloved Uncle Corey got us a beautiful wedding present. Our futon.
Oh dear futon, how well you have served us.
We still have the futon.
We love the futon.
However, the time has come for our very first (unused/not from a thrift store) furniture purchase....
Behold, the couch.

It's comfortable.
It's big.
It's fantastic.

It actually was a little too big, so part of it is in the front room.
And it was on sale, of course.
And plus the lady sold us when... and I quote verbatim, "You know, it's like, yeah... if your kids spill anything like wine or whatever on it, you can call us and we'll take it back or whatever."

And seeing as how our little winos are constantly sloshing around, how could we turn it down?

Artown- Jungle Book by Theatre Works

Basically, it's Robert Pattison and his type of passionate acting that can define this fantastically horid performance. The mic's didn't work and the people were just freaky.... however, our girls seemed to enjoy it.I think it's safe to say when dolls are involved as major props, you have a problem. Also when the wolves look more like Russians with frostbite than wolves, it's time to rethink costumes and really what your motivation is...

There's Jody's dad, 3rd to the right or 4th. Take your pick.

Local Reno Flavor. Thank goodness his dukes weren't any higher.

The girls made a friend named Sofia that they had a blast with. The girls sat together, played and shared food. It was really nice. Children can be so friendly! It was worth it just for this fact.

The Free Cocaine Chair

Christina: "Mommy, why are you sitting in a coke- like you know, cocaine chair?"

We had gone to a free carnival/mini-booth festival at our local Spanish Springs Raley's and I won this fantastic coca-cola chair in a raffle! It really was a great time, free hot dogs, free root beer floats, a couple games for kids and the girls got to look around and go inside a firetruck. Maria won a free batch of cupcakes at the cake walk... overall, 10 out of 10 because of the haul we made.

Did you know Raley's has a scripture painted above their produce section? It's just a quality store and hands down the best produce, tied with Safeway.

Pirate Party- Sparks Library

Mr. Jeff is one fantastic librarian. He's totally old school and just a gentleman. He is our favorite for story time, although we haven't been in a while.

The library threw a pirate party and it was very quaint. The wench needed a little more energy. But the games were nice and we got a cup of free Sprite. I don't think they were expecting quite the turn out they got. I support our local library system, thanks mateys!
Arrrrgh!

JoJo's Birthday

Well, His birthday came and went. I was actually quite nerve racked about it. I wasn't sure what to expect. I woke up really early and went to the 6:00AM session at the temple. It was the best choice I possibly could have made. It was absolutely refreshing and my soul felt as close to whole as possible. I was reading there and turned to this scripture. I would just like to preface that there are many who believe Mormon's are not Christian, but I feel if they were to really open their eyes and hear with their ears, they would recognize truth. And truth is found in what I read,

"For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.

He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price. Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentace. Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden" 2 Nephi 26:23-28

My feelings were mixed. Sorrow with hope. Kind of like salt and sweet, you don't know how it works, but it just does and voila, you have kettle corn. It is what it is, and it's OK. I'm blessed to have the knowledge I do. Christ lived and died, and because of His atonement- the greatest gift to all mankind, we can live again too and shall. I feel really repetitive, but honestly every morning I wake up and am grateful that God has blessed me so much. Our friends are so thoughtful too, we had lots of words and deeds of love done to us that day and it helped so much. Thank you all for everything- from I love you's, to doughnuts to Nancy Slater (a whole different story there!) People are good and I hope with all my heart that God blesses you always for the comfort you've given us.

When JoJo and I celebrate time or growth or whatever we do in the resurrection I want to take him for a horseback ride by a crystal clear lake somewhere by the mountains and breastfeed under a weeping willow tree for his first year.

Funnest Summer Ever

1 month into it, and now they love the mushroom.

Christina... if she were on Baywatch.

Sanitary. Almost 90% of the children there get warm by lying on the ground.

Christina is a riot. No fear. This little pipper will go on any slide! She is a brave little thang who loves the thrill.

Such fun! And we're dark to boot!

Keep On Bloomin'

Our Yard never ceases to amaze me. It just keeps growing and growing. I think I have a pretty good idea of all our plants now, and wow- Did the previous owners do a great job! I've got a lot to learn on the upkeep of everything.

Artown- Dance of Different Nations

Last Monday we got to go to Artown with our best friends for a dance performance. I entitle this picture "Slight Boobage of Ram".

We enjoyed a simple picnic.

Basque Dancing.

Reno Locals.

Chinese Dance.

And it was a bit long. Very nice, but a bit long. The girls all loved it and we look forward to seeing true dance when our nieces start Indian Dance. Viva Sri Lanka.