a fun filled weekend the birthday girl
Last weekend was a blur ...Nana & Papa came in from Denver to spend the weekend with the girls, we started off with Paisley's 2nd 2nd birthday party..we had a great time with a bunch of wonderful friendsthis one featured an Olivia inspired cake, and Paisley got to wear the fancy Olivia dress our friend Jen made for her. The cakes were deliciouso...mmmmmmm.
Saturday was Piper's soccer game...it was cold and windy but the kids did great. No photos from that game, but here's one from practice. The kids are really getting the hang of it.

RECITAL TIME

Saturday night we saw Piper's ballet recital...it was TWO HOURS LONG...thats about 90 minutes longer than what is considered bearable! She did a great job though and enjoyed being on stage with all her friends.

TA~DA..the big finale

We stopped at a cool restaurant on our way home and had a fantastic dinner on the lake.

for Mothers Day on Sunday we had brunch at one of our favorite places, drove around the lakes and took a trolley ride.

The trolley at Linden Hills

Mike and his Mom

LEAPERToday Piper was accidentally put into a 'make-up' class 3 levels higher than she currently is at gymnastics. I knew something was up when the girls looked at least two years older and a good 12 inches taller. Still, the coach let her train with them for 25 minutes and then put her into another class on the floor for the remainder of the lesson. The second class was also filled with much bigger and older girls but Piper did her very best to keep up. I was a bit worried about her feeling overwhelmed, but at the end of the class both of the coaches came up to me and told me to put Piper into the 'leaper' class which is two levels higher than her current class. I guess they are interested in putting her on the 'team'. We'll see. I signed her up for the summer classes and if she wants to try out at the end of summer we will consider it. I was really impressed what the girls at those levels were doing, handstands and cartwheels on the beam, handstands on the vault, and uneven bar work that looks downright crazy! Uhem...she is only four...I wonder if this is too soon to get so serious?

i.want.to.go.home.

yeah yeah, Happy Mothers Day...yadda yadda yadda. I'm homesick and there's nothing I can do about it. Do you know how many Mother's Days I've spent with my Mum since 1991? ONE. In 18 bloody years...terrific stuff huh.

On Friday we had a fencing contractor out to quote on the F.U fence we need to put up along the boundary line...can you guess how much it is going to cost? I wont be specific, but it equals two adult tickets to New Zealand(their summer). Fan.bloody.tastic!

Loads going on over the weekend, Piper's ballet recital, visit from the Colorado grandparents, Paisley's 2nd 2nd Birthday party...I'll post about that later, but right now I'm in a lamenting mood.

CRAZY NEIGHBORS

Just as we get news that the nicest neighbors on the street are moving away, our resident crazy neighbors are back in business. Remember last summer when the crazy lady next door threatened me with a citizens arrest because our dog was giving her migraines...well she's baaaaaaaack!

We might just have to take the hit, lose money on this house and get the HELL out of Dodge! It infuriates me because she came up to me when I was out in the cul de sac with the girls, and told me I needed to put the dog 'away' because she had been barking all day! uhem, I'd been home half an hour and the poor dog had been kenneled for four hours! She crazy!

Our other option, since moving is pretty much out of the question due to the market being so...and let me use this phrase "in the shitter" these days, is to build a FENCE! A nice big F-U fence along our property line. Take that! The only thing is, that would take a HUGE slice out of any plan to go to New Zealand in the near future.

CRAP ON A STICK!

I don't know how they do it?

So...after years of being hobby-less, I have decided to pick up photography as my new passtime. I've spent two years fiddling around with my first DSLR and am just confident enough to start shooting outside of the little green box. My question is...how do people afford this? I know plenty of blogging Momma's walking around with 3-4K worth of photography gear, but that's just not realistic for me! Then one of the best photographers I have ever met uses some pretty basic eqipment and gets the VERY BEST results I have ever seen. Conundrum? Oui!

The software needed to post process photos seems to be more like a puzzle...which programs work best with which operating systems. Then which program complements another, which has one thing that the one you thought had everything doesn't actually have, unless of course you have the upgraded version, the free downloadable add on .....ugh, I'm confused already.

So...input please. I have a VERY basic version of photoshop...Photoshop 7. Do I need Photoshop Lightroom? Do I need the fancier version of PS7 - CS4? Who freaking knows. I'm taking two photography classes this summer, and I REALLY want to have the right programs in place so that I'm not behind.

I'm also thankfull to a really talented Minneapolis photographer who has been giving me advice on the side. She's amazing, and if you live in the Twin Cities, get her to take photos of your kids...she is amazing!

So, I'm asking for advice..

SAD

Today my wonderful neighbor told us that they are listing their house for sale. I'm happy for them that they will be moving, but I am selfishly sad that our favorite people in the world wont be 50 yards away. I will miss that our girls won't be able to play with the twins every day. I want to move as well, but we have more money in this moneypit than what it's currently worth so we are stuck.
On top of that, my semi annual bout of homesickness for New Zealand has been playing havoc with my emotions.
I really enjoy aspects of the USA, but it's not HOME.

MY MUSEMy muse is a green striped monster with a mono brow that rivals Frida Kahlo's! Since Paisley missed out on birthday festivities on Wednesday we are having a little get together with some friends tonight. Then next week when Nana & Papa are here we will have a 'party'. I still think the occasion called for cake, I asked our local Supermarket to make a Brobee cake but they wouldn't because he is a licensed character, so I convinced them to ice the cake green and sell me the icing so I could finish the job myself.I'm not very handy with an icing bag, but I did my best. The horns are rice crispies covered in red fondant and placed on long lollipop sticks into the cake. I did buy a nifty 'hair' tip for the brow...that was my favorite tool. It's not perfect but I'm guessing Paisley will think it's pretty cool. Once again, my little 5 year old point and shoot is not behaving, so we have some fuzzy and blurry photos, and I just got word that my new camera won't be here for a few weeks so get used to it!

Duff at Ace of Cakes would never hire me.