Hair today...

...gone tomorrow! It was a good, long run with Vivian's voluminous hair...she let us brush/detangle it for a little over 3 years, and it was lovely...but for the past few months she hasn't wanted us to mess with it...and then there were the little episodes with scissors last week...so this morning she agreed to a mommy-haircut. I tried to tell her we could go to the beauty parlor, but no.

First she said she wanted it to look like her friend Acacia's hair (which is curly...) and then like her friend Kate's (who has really cute bangs, but I don't want to deal with regularly trimming bangs). So here we are.

It's not too crooked...and only a little shorter than I intended...and it grows, right? That's the water spray bottle I used to wet her hair - she and Sabine played with it for about an hour after the cutting was done.

Roller Derby

We used the last few hours of our January babysitting allotment to go to the Rose City Rollers Opening Season tonight...yes...Roller Derby is alive and well in Portland.

From the colorful characters waiting in line (we had general admission tickets, so had to get there early. Those are multi colored dreds)...


To the event itself...


It was a night of fun! We sat in the bleachers -- top row -- of the team Heartless Heathers. Dave's friend "Soul Train" (her skate name) is a Heather...so we rooted hard! You're not supposed to whistle during the matches, as it can confuse the skaters (the refs use real whistles) so lots of screaming ensued.

Karmin and I kept talking about how fun it looked...except for the whole-body-checking thing...we pondered if they had a "powder puff" version, and sure enough, while walking around at halftime we found the Recreational League table...we put our names down for more information...I asked if it was the league for those over 38, and the woman at the table said "Well...I'm 36..." (um, that's not over 38...but anyway, she seemed very nice).

And almost as great as the derby itself was the marching drum corps that opened up the show. Very cool! And the man who sang the national anthem was amazing.

The chocto-pus returns

This was the celebratory ("Because I'm reading now") cake we made with Sabine.


Vivian's been into face painting lately. No frilly designs for this little one. She says she's a wolf. And enjoy the long hair while you can, as she chopped of two nice sized chunks right in the front the other night...I think a chin-length-bob is in her future. We might have to check out the "International School of Beauty" that's around the corner from our house.


Ben and Jerry's...two ways. Vivian sure likes her chocolate icecream...everywhere.

Beauty and the beach

We decided sort of last minute to go to the coast today...at 10:45 Sabine said, "Yes, let's go" so we made a break for it and got out of the house by 11:36. We were at Seaside, OR by 1:00. It was really windy in Portland so we were a little concerned that it would be cold, cold, cold there, so had brought winter jackets and snow pants for the girls, and lots of warm stuff for us, too. Turned out it was BEAUTIFUL!





The girls played in their leotard (Sabine) and bathing suit (Vivian)...for well over an hour until they got cold. We hung out with Dave and Karmin who were attempting to gather (harvest?) clams.



We then did some kite playing...




Then general hanging out. Catalina started digging (to find a comfortable resting spot?)...and kept it going till she had made a 12' long trail in the sand...looked like some sort of strange sand snake had come in...

We then took the short drive to Cannon Beach and at clam chowder at Mo's. Yum.

Kapla (blocks) are cool

Sabine wanted to make a tower using all 1,000 Kapla blocks (thanks Granny Jean and Boopy!). She got some ideas from the books sent by Grandmother Joan and we went to town. (The platform on the floor is our future giant coffee table, it's a kitchen table we bought on Craigslist for $25, Bret's going to saw the legs down, so they're off right now. Thanks for the idea, Kat!)









Knocking it down was almost as fun as building it.

Reading is everywhere (part 2)

I originally blogged about this in October 2007 (click on the title to see that post). Sabine's been asking a LOT lately what things spell...I really have to be on top of it when we're in the car and she spells out words that I can't see. I took out the camera phone today while we were at Vivian's dance lesson, and subsequent park time.
(Disclaimer, these images are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent actual words Sabine asked about today, or any other day, for that matter. But, words are everywhere...)




























How could anyone NOT want to learn to read...at some point, at least? There's so much information out there...in our faces...every day.




















So a few days ago, Bret mentioned that we should pull out some of the Richard Scarry books (you know, the ones with all the images with words printed next to them...) for Sabine. While I was looking (unsuccessfully...ahhh moving!) for them, I found this "beginning reader" book that came from somewhere. I pulled it out and asked Sabine if she'd want to read a book called Two Crazy Pigs. She said, "Sure." She opened it up and read it out loud cover to cover. She did ask about a couple of words (including Fenster and Henhawk (the names of the farms)), but she had fun with it. She's been reading it a lot, and asked me to get more books like it at the library.

Granny Jean (bookworm extraordinaire) had the idea to go out for an icecream to celebrate, but Sabine said she wanted to have a party instead. And make a chotopus cake, from the pan Grandmother Joan sent a year ago. All right! I love a party!

I'm so honored!

Just received this from Peggy over at Rock, Paper, Lizards.

About the award : This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.


I think it's my first blog award. And now I can't get the #^$*%* italics off. Good thing the award says nothing about technical savvy. I just noticed that the award says we're not interested in prizes. But it does feel good to get one. Thanks, Peggy! BTW, Peggy got it from Annie over at Sensible Living, a new blog to me -- she has some great stuff there, and I've added her to my iGoogle page.

So to pass it on...I think I'll name Circle the World in Big, KatCraftFever, and the Blog of the Zombie Princess.

Sabine's view of the world

Sabine wanted to put some pictures she took on the blog...so here they are:


The recently dismantled Christmas tree (amazing how big the room seems now),


Daddy and Vivian playing MarioKart,


kid books...


and Mommy's book.

The perfect women...

It's true...that's what Bret called us...that's Kat and me...playing MarioKart and drinking beer. Bret came in and said something like, "...And they say that the perfect woman doesn't exist...here's two of 'em...drinking beer and playing Wii..." Love that man.