OMSI!

Just a few pics of the kids at OMSI, courtesy of Mama Shell (both the pics and using her membership to get us in!)

Akasha loves to stack things!




I even got to go see a bit of the Einstein exhibit. It is great - I recommend it. And later that night I met Rachele and Sierra back at OMSI for the 21 and over event. Wow, I felt like a real grown up lol!

Oh yeah, I have another camera...

I had no idea there were some pictures on our little camera from way back in June! Of course I had to backdate them because I am weirdly anal about that.

I think Orion must have taken both of these. I am just posting it because Akasha looks so odd in it - like not even the same child!

OK, that looks more like her! And a cute Daddy shot too!

Backyard Campout!

What a fun idea this was! We even had a firepit thanks to my friend Angie! And we had a surprise visit from Tessi, who inspired us to do some drumming. And Rachele had the idea of doing a little solstice ritual. The funniest part of the night was when there was a knock at the door, and I thought somebody was coming to complain about the noise, but it was a guy from down the street who wanted us to KEEP drumming lol. Struck me as an old deadhead, and I think he and a few other folks were having their own party down the street. I think this was about midnight, and I wasn't sure if ALL the neighbors would appreciate it so much haha. I was so glad Nicole took some pictures as I wasn't feeling inspired to.

Oh yeah, and we had sparklers too!
Nobody put their eye out.
I am actually nursing and drumming here lol. Nicole called it multitasking.
Marshmallow face!
Next morning, the kids played with the wagon while the moms sipped tea.
I look like a turtle lol.

What a trippy picture this is with all the sunbeams!
I just love this shot with the saying on the wagon, and they are on a little journey. It could be my new blog header!
Hard work!
And Mama Shell, the pied piper of children... and dogs lol. And yes, most of them were looking at the television.

Impromptu Picnic!

We met "Mama Shell" and KaiKai in a local park to have dinner and do some playing, oh and find a cache of course lol. It was a nice park with two different play areas and even a tiny creek running through it. And thanks to Rachele, we have some pictures.

Orion thought this tree looked like it had a face on it!

Not sure if this is when Kai was rocking Akasha or telling her he wanted a turn lol.
A slug! Very exciting. Better here than on our strawberries!

He does stop once in awhile.
Kids in motion.

Sleepy eyes.
Second wind!
Nice day... we stayed until it was getting dark ,which is late this time of year! There was one adventure that didn't make it to film.... I didn't even realize how much water was in the creek until I crossed it on the bridge. It was a thin little thing but deep, and just bubbling away. It was practically hidden by the grass growing up on either side. So much so that a toddler running right for it and looking at the boys on the other side might not even see it! :/ Bam, in she went and got soaked. Luckily I had an extra change of clothes so it was all good.

And then when I got into the driveway I realized my little backpack from Guatemala wasn't with us! Ugh, it was a bit of drive back, but it is my geocaching swag bag, so I had to try to find it. The best I could remember was that I set it on the ground next to car but couldn't believe I wouldn't have seen it there before getting in! Then again, I was pretty tired.

So I drive back and don't see it there and almost went back home very bummed out, but at Rachele's suggestion, I decided to walk back over to the picnic table. Lo and behold, some nice person had actually hung the bag on the door handle leading into the building. I felt so fortunate!

Happy actual bday...

... at least by the calendar. It seemed like you were born on the night of the 13th, as that is when active labor kicked in, and you were born in the wee hours, when it was still dark. And I loved the idea of you having a bday on the 13th. I bet I will always confuse those dates.

Anyway... your bday was a rather quiet day. Then Orion remembered the cake and thought we should do the whole candle thing again! So the following cuteness was all his idea!



Later on that day... Akasha started building these towers to the sky!
She was really into setting the blocks so that they would be as tall as possible. When she couldn't stack them from the floor anymore, she got on top of the table to keep stacking them. It all seemed very impressive at the time and is just now striking me as funny that this is a perfect snapshot of a developmental stage on her birthday.

Happy Birthday Eve Akasha

I can't believe my baby is going to be 2 tomorrow! I still call her baby. She walks, she talks, she has big opinions that go along with big feelings. Hardly a baby, but I will probably keep calling her that for awhile. We had a couple friends over to play in the yard, and I made a gluten free cake that came out pretty good. Wish I would have written down what I did because I have already pretty much forgotten!

Messing around on the bed with Daddy.

Very simple cake but it was very tasty!
Nomnomnom.
Gotta bit of somethin' there....


Little wizard with chocolate cake remnants on her face.
"Maybe the hat will work even better on my leg!"

And a live snippet:

Big Orion Art Catchup

Some of these are from awhile ago and some are more recent. Orion has been fascinated with the concept of the Goddess and talks about it all the time, mainly the concept of her creating the world. I especially like questions like, "If the Goddess made the world, then who made the Goddess?" and "Why did the Goddess make mosquitoes anyway?"

One night he wanted to draw pictures of the Goddess, and he started with this one. The dots at the end of her fingers are magic he said.
Then he drew this one and wanted me to add some writing to it. He was very specific that her name was Ellic, and wanted me to write the explanation about how she can change her head shape from a triangle to a circle. The things coming out of her body are wings. :)
So then he asked me to draw one - I am no artist so just tossed something out lol - but he had an addition to make....
Um.... yeah, he was very specific that he added a yoni. I think his perception of that is a bit skewed maybe?

A few more random ones. I think it is so funny that this image of a TV is still part of our consciousness although they don't look like that anymore.
These are vikings singing in a show lol!
Spoon, plate, fork... with a sausage of course.
One of my favorite drawings of his ever because of the explanation that went along with it.... "This is a ghost in a party hat. At first the people were scared, but then they weren't, because after all, who would take a ghost in a party hat seriously?"
A rare multi color drawing. Those folks look like they are going to have a hard time eating this meal from those chairs.
Another awesome explanation on this one! I asked about it and he said, "This is the kind of picture that can be whatever you want. It's up to the person looking at it." Whoa, the kid already gets abstract art!
Some more recent Goddess. I like he put a little something on the belly, I think because that is where I had put the spiral and talked about that spot of the body also being a magic generator. I didn't get a chance to ask about the lines and dots above the head. I did notice the tongue and asked if this was the Silly Goddess and he said yes. :)
So next was a double tongued goddess - twice as silly I guess. I just love to see the themes develop in these pictures, like the magic sparkles and spirals.

21 Month Comparison

I realized I had gotten really behind in making these, and as Akasha is about to be 2 soon, I figured I would do a 21 month comp right in between the 18 and 24 one. So here ya go. Funny how she favors Ron in so many ways but Orion got so many more curls.