Rainy Day Pictures

I took some Rainy Day Pictures on my walk to lunch today.

My poor shoes didn't stand a chance. My toes were cold the rest of the day.

This poor guy was probably pretty wet and cold all day, too.

I must have known it was going to rain today, because I made this last night.

Sick day

Yes, another sick day, but today it was Noe. Can't say I'm not enjoying extra time with my girls, but I'm sure my boss would appreciate ONE full day of work this week!

Stomach bugs. We'll try again tomorrow!

Sick day

Yesterday we were dropping like flies. I was at work when the first call came from Ben's camp at 11:00. Then Lila's teacher called at 2:30, and Ronnie's camp at 4:00. By then, Noe and I joined in the misery.

This morning, everyone was great (and hungry), but Lila wasn't allowed back at school for 24 hours, so we took a sick day. Besides trying to get a little work done, we went on a lunch date with Daddy and did a little shopping in SF. Lila sang and danced the whole time.

Can you tell what she is dancing? The macarena!

Daddy (superscript 4)

Dr. Ed has earned himself a new keychain. The last one I made him (which was one of the first things I EVER made), only had Ronnie and Ben on it.

It's not all dads that spend the day blowing up a giant inflatable ball, walking with all the neighborhood kids to the park, and pushing everyone around inside of it for hours, in between saving lives and all.

Four of a Kind Friday!

These babies are pooped.

We are so spoiled that we have four good sleepers, even as newborns!

(four of a kind friday: after Ben was born, I noticed I had a lot of pictures of Ronnie and Ben that looked similar, so I started matching them up. Then I added Lila, and now Noe. It's fun to see how similar they all looked as babies!)

More eye candy

My new ring.

It's all sterling silver, with a faceted garnet gemstone.

I soldered and hammered the ring from sterling wire. Then soldered on the bezel and set the stone. The ring is oxidized and brushed. Pretty, huh?

Go west

I guess we are just about as west as you can be, here in CA, unless we go to Hawaii! Let this new sterling silver compass ring lead you west.

Or choose your own letters or a heart in my etsy shop.

Here are some of my people looking west over the Bay from the Berkeley Hills last weekend. Not a bad view, a few minutes and 70% incline from our house!

Born with a silver. . . rattle

I bought some sterling silver rattles, because I thought I could stamp on them. Turns out the piece at the bottom is probably hollow and will implode if I hammer on it, so they will be going back to the store. But I saved one for Noe. It has such a soothing chime and fits in her little hand perfectly. Plus, silver is an investment in this wintery economic climate!




But don't worry, you can still buy your little one her own sterling silver spoon!

One out of Four

Today's drop off was a little humorous.

I had Edwin take Ben to school at 8:10, but he only needed to be there at 8:30.
We took Ronnie at 8:45, but she was supposed to be there at 8:30.
I got to Noe's school and realized I left her bottles at home.
I dropped off Lila. . . and absolutely nothing went wrong!

As Edwin said when I texted him:

Oof! (damn you, autocorrect!)

On that note, I have a few fun gift items for the boys in my shop.

Ok, it's for the girls, too. Don't judge.

Fun with the SEM

It's a good thing I like work, or else getting out of the house in the mornings would not be worth it. By the time I (maybe) shower, dress and feed everyone, make lunches and pack bags, drop two kids at school, one doctor at the BART station, one baby at day care, and one toddler at toddler school, I feel like I've had a day of work already!

Anyway, I really do like my job, especially when things work. Today I played at the scanning electron microscope, and besides that picture of Noe a few posts back, these are some of the best pictures I've ever taken.

Don't those rods look like vermicelli?

Oh, mommy

New tattoo inspired sterling silver banner necklace.

Wine onesie and a wrap bracelet

This wine colored silk bracelet matches Noe's onesie wonderfully.

Find it in my etsy shop!

Our Adventure

A little road trip down Highway 1 to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle. It would have been nice if someone told us Highway 1 was closed due to a landslide 20 miles before our destination! A 2 hour detour through a windy pass up and down a mountain to bypass the landslide and 6 carsick Ostrins later, we made it to San Simeon and had a fun time.

The Castle was well worth the trip. We were going through record breaking rain (for this time of year) and shrouded in heavy fog the whole time, which didn't make for great pictures, but made for a fun experience.

The gardens were well tended.


The architecture was lavish.


The rooms well appointed.


Ponds, fountains and statues abounded.


And it was hard to resist taking a dip in this pool (or should I say bath).

Littlest school girl

As of Wednesday, Noe is officially a school girl, which means I'm a working girl again.

I'm really happy with Noe's school and teachers, and it was comforting to walk in Wendesday morning to see all of her cubbies labeled and the teachers expecting her. She's gotten great reports this week, and hasn't complained at all about being there.

Wish I could say the same for me! I'm happy to be back at work and I have a lot of exciting projects going on. But I think it might take a while to get into a new routine with getting us all out the door in a timely and sane manner in the mornings. Plus, I miss getting to play with Noe all day! Back to the grind. . .

Feets

One of the funnest parts about having people is getting to shop for them. I have the sole responsibility of making sure 6 people have clothes in their closet that fit and don't have (too many) holes. In preparation for summer and camps, I ordered new shoes. I think we could do a commercial for Keen.

Noe's feet are a little easier to dress for now.