Nothing says love like a handmade gift.  Twice so far this month, I've been to Clay and Latte in Carmel Mountain Ranch.  The first time with to use a Groupon that I picked up.  It sounded like such a good idea in my head!  I thought that I would take the boys and we would have a grand time painting and laughing.  Instead, I encountered a little guy who - after a 15 minute picture of daddy - was D.O.N.E.  I spent the next hour trying to get him to paint a little more, stop picking up the ceramic pieces on the shelves, and sit in his seat to finish his plate.  I felt like I was trying to herd kittens.

The second trip was for the TWINKIE's 5th birthday.  I took four big boys with me (because that's how I do stuff) and they all painted a picture as Valentine's Day gifts.  The twist is that they each painted a gift for another's mom.  Lil Shawn made a Hello Kitten one for Ms. Grace, Gray made one for Ms. Sina, and I got a Bbbbbbeautiful blue and gold camera platter from my dear Stephen.  My favorite part of the session was when lil Shawn said, " Put the word LIFETIME on it.  My mom loves LIFETIME!"  So Sina ended up with a handmade platter that had a spam musubi on the front and the word LIFETIME with a heart on the back.  Gotta love these boys.

"This is DADDY."
Yup, looks exactly like him!

Next time I go, I'll remember a few things:

1) Let the little guy paint whatever he wants to paint.  It isn't worth the fight to argue that a platter is more useful than a ceramic sheep.

2) Ban the color black.  It ends up everywhere.

3) Ask the kids what they are going to write on the plates first.  Otherwise you end up with things like "Boom!", "Like A Boss", "Beast", and the Pepsi symbol.  (I may NOT follow this rule... it did make me laugh!)

4) Make sure to take pictures of all the finish products.  The plates will one day break or disappear, but the happy memories will last a lifetime.

5) Lastly... and most importantly... try to stop and enjoy the chaos.  It's an art project, not the building on the Titanic.  If they have fun and laugh and enjoy, it's worth the trip.

Hobbies and Honeys

In 2013, I WILL try new things.

Step one: Gather my honeys for my Beauty's birthday and get my whine and wine on.

The surprising part is that there was no WINE and no WHINE involved.  But there WAS Apple Sake  and sushi and lots (and lots and lots and lots) of laughing.  Hanging with true friends is like food for the soul.  

After dinner, we were off on our adventure of trying to connect with our artistic sides.  What started as blank white canvases turned into beautiful masterpieces of artistic ability and pure raw talent.  Ok, not really.  But it seems that we can all follow directions and paint by number.  It also seems that we are THOSE girls... the ones that keep talking and talking and talking.

Sitting right in the front row, we rocked it as the model students.  Here are the finished products.  I'm sure you will agree that these pieces should be displayed in an art gallery or part of the Little Italy Gallery Walk.  Alas, they aren't for sale.  There's no price tag on a product of perfection :) 

I'll only like it if it's blue and gold.
And, NO ... that's a lighthouse not...

Touchdown Time!

Luke 2:40 

And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

They say it takes a village to raise a child.  Ain't that the truth!

Although the hamster wheel seems to spin faster and faster everyday, events like this remind me to slow down and remember that - despite all the bad - there is so, so much good and right about this world.  Teba - You are a strong and beautiful person.  Congratulations on Baby M.  Let's get together for some fun to celebrate life, love, and all the "little" things in life. 

TOUCHTOWN TIME Friends!

Learn something new

New Year, New Sport.

Rugby is a little hard to get use to for me.  I mean, I don't know any moms that like to watch their sons get tackled, hit, and chased.  I must say that football was hard enough; now I have to hold my breath as I watch two 20 minutes halves of my guy running up and down that field hitting his friends.

BTW, he loves it.

I think that the part he likes is that he gets to carry the ball.  In fact, at the very first game of the season, he was the kid that scored the first try.  (I learned at the Rugby 101 class that a TRY is like a TOUCHDOWN... but five points instead of 6)   I also learned that rugby is, " A hooligans sport played by gentlemen."  Yup, they get pretty down and dirty on that field.

Coach says that there is a tradition that after scoring your first try, you're suppose to pour a drink in your shoe and drink from it.  I can say that he did NOT practice that tradition.  However, here is one that he does practices.

Behind the ear?   Gggggggross.  I bet it tastes like a combo of sweat and Axe spray when he puts it in his mouth.  Just sayin'...

HNY! TwentyThirteen has arrived.

When sis and I were little, we used to go to our aunt's house on New Years and play games and run around while the "grown up's" engaged in all out, no mercy games of tile.  Back to back, relentless, until new year's would literally come and go, and the ticking of the tiles would continue until the dawn.

When the moms and dads and aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas took a break, the children would (try to) build castles, fortresses and roads with the tiles.  Shot down quickly, it was explained with great clarity that majong is not a game for kids.  The majong tiles are NOT toys.  The kids would listen a second, then run off to find something else to get into.  It was fun.  And easy.  And we never felt the need to sit and watch to learn the game that only adults were invited to play anyway.

The year 2013:  The "kids" have grown up, moved out, started families, paid mortgages, learned a bunch of new things and are now teaching their own kids about life.  It is really different , the world we live in now.  Gray says that he wishes he was in middle school when we were because he wants the option to "buy french fries and other good unhealthy food"  The big one says that it would be so hard to , "do school without the internet."  I went ahead and aged myself by stating (truthfully) that I didn't get my first computer until my first year in college.  After a moment of thought, the next question from that kid was,"Were you too poor to buy one?" Yup.  We for sure live in a different world.

But I'd like to think that some things stay the same.

For one: FAMILY.  Loud, messy,giving, obnoxious, sneaky, thoughtful , selfish/ selfless.  All the bad and all the good... it is what we are gifted with while we are here.  Everyone's tiles are different and there are a lot of different ways to play.  Some tiles need strategy to discard, while others are obviously not going to fit unless quite a bit changes first.  There are some sets that are established at the beginning and there is never a second thought of breaking the set apart.  Other sets get challenged when a different tile appears. Perhaps a tile that looks like it *might* make the whole set better.

Wait?  What are we talking about?

Never the less, life has changed.  The world is much smaller and much bigger than what it once was.  So everyone learns along the way and tries their best to stay focused and take care of the ones around them.

I have never taught my boys how to play majong.  They never watch because they are too busy running around with cousins.  I myself never got the official "tutorial" on this Asian Sport of Champions.  But I get the concept of discarding what's not needed and keeping the good sets in tact.  That's all I need to win.

We played majong on Christmas (it must be in the blood)  and will soon play sometime into the new year.  I'm hoping on seven pairs before the 6th.  And I'll only get rid of the ones that don't fit into the whole picture.

After all,  I might not know much about the challenges that my boys face as they grow up, but I do know what the winning picture looks like.  And that picture is perfect because all the pieces you don't need had been discarded.