Lauren birthday: part 2

Lauren loves to giggle. On her time and her heart. 

She can open up the skies with the infectious joy.

She has my heart.

We went to a favorite park and plopped ourselves on the top of the hill for picnic time.

Beautiful day. It was raining and thundering all around us...

except for on this hill.

No kidding!

Lauren's kind of play=  rolling down the hill. 

= silly with sister.

= imagination.

=water and a best friend.

= family and the biggest and BEST waterpark in the nation.

(beautiful Waterworld in Denver)

= happy Mama and Daddy with happy Lauren.

Lauren birthday: part 1

Lauren has been wanting a bird. She spent weeks researching on parakeets. Online, books...weeks, my friends. She wanted to be prepared. So we decided that a feathery friend would be her gift from Mama and Daddy for her birthday. We made it a family affair and she picked out the most adorable and friendly birdie. She was on CLOUD 9. Pure happiness. Big watermelon smiles. Joy. Joy. 

She was in love and took such good care of Dorie.

Four days later, all of a sudden something happened overnight...and she died. We have NO idea what happened. After a call to a vet, apparently parakeets are very fragile animals. After weeks of preparation and falling madly in love with Dorie, her time was cut short.

Omygoodness, my heart broke along with Lauren's. 

She is such a sweetheart of a sensitive soul, so the tears dropped heavily along with her heart.

Watermelon birthday helped the heavy heart and heavy tears.

so did sweet gift helpers

things to create with...

big sister squeezes...

a beautiful gold necklace from grandma/grandpa...

All is going to be okay.

painting pals

There are a few of us in our Art Gypsies group that like to paint. Woo hoo!...is what I wanna say about that! We get together to "play" occasionally and have some time to create. Be free. Be merry. Here are some of our creations that we have done in Becky's large studio and my studio in our basement.

We did a fun and alternative "Flora Bowley style" painting...and were inspired by this Donna Downey painting video. 

My colorful rendition

Rachel's pop of awesome

Becky's large vibrant abstract

My fun poppies

Sting

In January, I found out that Sting was coming. My first thought: Josh. We have seen some great concerts in our days but we haven't seen this classic. I called my brother (it's becoming tradition because we saw Peter Gabriel together last year) and asked him if he wanted to join us again. Absolutely! We got the pre-sale tickets asap because the tickets went fast. Sting at Red Rocks Amphitheatre for one night. We. Are. There.

We chowed on food before we headed up.

When I mean, head up...I mean...head UP. 

This is what you have to walk over to get to the venue. 

It is breathtaking and breath-taking! 

We cheated a bit. Got there and sat in the front. 

Just saving the seats for whoever they were for, riiiighhht? Yes. 

Usually everyone is pretty relaxed at this place, but not when the crowd is our generation and up. Apparently as you get older, you get cranky. Everyone wanted their exact seat assignment.

So we ended up in our exact seat. 

Which ended up being fabulous. The mountainous views. The crowd. The company. The MUSIC. Sting rocked it at Red Rocks.

our little adorable houses

This past May project in art club was to make houses! Oh how we glee'd with delight over these creations. We all put our own stamp on them. We started with just plain wood you can get anywhere. Hardware store, your husbands leftover pile, scraps from a house being built, etc. Then just put hubby to work and have them cut into rectangles, squares, some with roofs, some not.

Spread out all the goodies.

All the goodies include: lots of modge podge and patterned paper, cardboard doors, popsicle sticks, clothes pins....

Stamps, paint, antique embellishments...

ribbon, knick knacks....

stickers, words, metal embellishments....

buttons, hot glue....you name it...anything goes!

Just endless creativity and individual styles and personality on each one! 

Love love loved doing them.... aren't they precious? 

Heaps of thanks for the idea, Becky!

Goodbye Old Man Winter

A day in the life of a Foster's Saturday skiing adventure.... 

(even though it's officially green and springtime now-- these were just on my camera and downloaded!)

1. Wake up waaaay too early. With blurry eyes and heads, head to McDonald's for a healthy, preservative-free breakfast. Only the best energy for a day on the slopes. (ha.)

2. Get there at the crack of dawn and freeze our behinds off getting our gear on.

3. Walk, drag, have Daddy carry, slip on ice, pull all our gear to find a Copper Mnt. bus.

4. Get our muscles goin' on a sloooow easy run.

4. Put on our winter layers--take off our winter layers-- put on 276 spf sunscreen:)

5. Rock it like superstars on top of the world.

6. The girls rock it, Josh does some jumps, I video like a proud Mama.

7. Take a breather and eat 3lbs of greasy french fries and drink cold beer.

Only the healthiest for The Foster's.(!!)

8. Soak up not only eachother, but the winterland/athletic crowd and incredible views.

9. Get too exhausted and....decide we. are. done.

10. The females in the car take snoozers on the 1 1/2 hour ride home.

Things I've come to know- lately.

Random ponderings, thoughts and delightiful things I have come to know. Part 6, I think.

-I am done with the winter wonderland here.
Mr. Old Man Winter needs to get his act together. I'm about to wring his neck!
-Root canal pain hurts. Braces hurt. Dental bills hurt.
-Love and happiness...and a sense of  belonging and worth are universal.
-Everything. Every detail. All the days= a greater purpose than we know.
-Hannah looks WAY cuter in my clothes than I do.
-Hannah rocks at Spanish. And LOVES it. (I wish I knew what she was saying half the time!)
-Turning 40 is not a bad thing. Embrace it.
-Music can fuel your soul.
-Eating healthy does not taste very good most of the time.
-Blink too long and the moments/days will pass you up.
-Vacuum your couch. Under, over, in between. What a village will be under there!
-Laughter and friendship go hand in hand.
-I'm glad that my girls know the importance of manners, and use them most of the time.
-It's okay to let your kiddos watch every Brady Bunch episode ever made.
-Dogs are a good judge of character.
-When you aren't looking for something when you shop, you find it.
-I am writing down 50 things I want to do before I am 50. Stay tuned.
-Trust in any relationship is a really, really big deal.
-Blizzards are beautiful and peaceful. Just not in May!
-There is lots and lots of good in this world, despite the evil.
-Do you need an insane amount of rest to function how you want some days? I do.
-Speaking of simplicity and relaxation in our fast-paced world...
between society pressures, emails, voicemails, texting, apps, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...
life can be way too overwhelming and distracting-what happened to the good-ole-days??
-Having a husband that seriously rocks at building stuff, well- rocks.
-Best friends are good therapy.
-Get a nice cushy memory foam/gel bed mattress topper. You won't regret it.
-Hold close to those you love.
-Everything in my being is excited and positive about my new shop opening soon.
-There is freedom in Christ.
-Really, really fabulous life perspective is a good thing to possess.
-Give your 13 year old room to grow and change.
-In TX people say "ya'll" and "bless your heart"...in CO it is "I know, riiiight" and "no worries".
-It's so delightful to carve out some time for what you loooove to do.
-God's grace and truth are enough.

Yay! That's it for now. If you want more, go ahead here.
xo.