so much painting, so much laughter...

i bought a bunch of washable paint....

i have been worrying about our first painting session inside the RV.... these kids get wild and it can go from painting heaven to full on chaos in seconds.


well, the paint is amazing.... it came off of

 the ceiling

and my clothes   and the walls, and the cabinets


and daddy's new coat.....


it was great.


worry free painting.




and really pretty colors- for being washable paint....




ira's upside down peace sign heart...







this was emer's first painting session where he wasn't trying to just eat the paint or rub the paint all over himself....



i NEEDED this night.



the kids NEEDED this night.



we NEEDED to get messy


and create

and cover the walls

and cabinets

 and ourselves in....



                                                                       C O L O R







our souls were fed.



then we broke out the jewels!






and the new colored pencils.....



before i went to nursing school, i always wanted to work in Art Therapy.


Specifically, I wanted to go into hospitals, cancer treatment facilities and homes of the terminally ill and facilitate the creation of art through their own hands, feet, etc.

Since having kids, i have always felt it was really important to open up the bottles and let them free flow with all the mediums and without confines and without worries of mess.




Unfortunately, this RV *is* small enough that it has caused me to hesitate when it came to painting...

i was worried about MESS.


ME!!!!!


anyone that has even been to my house in tucson would be shocked.

we used to write on the walls with chalk, pens, paint, whatever.

at any random time there were bound to be

drying papier mache dragons,


    or a half dozen half painted painted canvas
   

                   500 smashed crayons all over the floor, (or melting in the oven.....)

             



or, lets be real, children ACTIVELY painting ON the floor while i baked something.



going from OWNING a house to renting an apartment- well, it broke me a little.

i keep forgetting-



THIS IS OUR RV!!!!!!!!!!!




so, im embracing my old messy artist self.... and trying to release the last year of "don't do that. don't do this. this isn't our house!'









and in other, more hilarious news- after cleaning up the kids, emers walked passed me knitting and said "bye!"


i look up to see this:



         



he wanted to go outside- in his underwear- at 9p.m.  in 40degree weather....




we got him a little more protected and off him and his daddy went.


he is getting so big!!!!!






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Tucson....

It was an amazing visit!
We saw amazing friends/old neighbours and ate amazing new Mexican food in Albuquerque,NM.... Then we drove through really gorgeous monsoons and scored a room at a really great hotel with amazing views.

We had dinner with friends at a new local place, WILKO. Delicious. We got froyo two nights in a row with two separate, but equally magical, families.


Here is a funny impromptu color mixing lesson for liv, taught by Ira....


Our beautiful view...


Tucson was so hot! But we enjoyed ourselves anyways....


But it was really hot!


Side note! Liv can count to 12, and is trying to spell her name and other words! It's so crazy fast! I guess that's what having a bug sis does!

More Tucson, a wedding and hotel fun

I didn't have my phone at the wedding, so no pics of that until I contact the photogs.... But here are some from the rehearsal-











Photo session in the foothills...


Trying to stay cool in the too hot state-


Hiram is growing a virtual garden on the ipad.


And keeping a picture journal...


The girls played pinball for the first time...


We watched a bunch of documentaries. This one was the family favourite, about Siberia. Did you know the Siberian salamander can freeze itself for YEARS then revive itself to survive the extreme climate?


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Phoenix & Tucson

Yep, we are back in the dry heat! Look at Ira praising the mister gods!


We stopped at an awesome outlet mall north of Phoenix... Live didn't seem bothered by the sun.


FROYO!!!!



Then we got to what had to be the hotel in Tucson, we are only staying here one night, but the girls were quite taken by the decor... Including this fountain.




They made forts....





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Arizona!!!!

I love being back in the desert!





Ira drew me flowers...








Emers in love with liv's babydoll...


Flagstaff....


The girls were happy to run off some energy in the breezy mountain air...








Thai food.... We had eaten here with Dianna over a year ago....



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Saturday.... In the park...

Oh what a day! I cut iras HAIR!
She cut a small piece off and I evened it out. It looks great. It was all the baby fine hair that got cut though, so it was a little bitter sweet.
There was clock crafting...







Some time spent looking up & researching Astroids and astroids belts!






Some drawing, dancing, trader joes, cranky mama needing food.....

We made candied pecans from scratch- they were lovely.
Emers rolls over!!!!!

We went down to the university to run in the grass and look at the stars. There was an even goin on so we also got live music.

It was dark and I only had my iPhone so I didn't capture much....

We went to flandrau to look through their huge public telescope!

Amazing! We also got our own private lecture from an awesome volunteer organizer/docent. It was awesome! He taught us all about orions nebulae and showed ira orions belt. We told him she was into astroids and Jupiter and he talked to her a bit about that.

Then we went inside andwere able to listen another very informative bit about the nebulae and then got to look through the telescope.

We didn't get to see Saturn because liv was falling asleep and it was getting crowded.

I want to say, the guys operating the telescope were SO great with our kids. They took time out to address them individually. Then, when ira couldn't see through the telescope, even though there was a long line, he stopped and helped her and let her take her time.

There were also two Russian visitors that when we walked in, jumped up, gave us their seats and asked our children to go in front of them. We were all so shocked.

That never happens to us here.

I've mentioned it to Jared before, no one ever offers their seats to women and children. Which is weird to me, because in the Midwest, people either jump up or say to the people sitting "get up and give the lady your seat" and I spent my youth saying "no, it's alright but thank you anyway!"

I'm excited to show the kids a bit more friendly area of the country!

Ok, end my rant!

Poor picture of our walk there!













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