First Top Tooth Gone

As you all may know, I get really excited when Isaac loses a tooth. These top teeth have been lose for 6 months, but he finally wiggled one enough to get it to come out! Woo-hoo! Haven't put the tooth under the pillow yet, Isaac doesn't want the tooth fairy to take his tooth. In fact, we had a long exchange about how he wanted to get the first 2 teeth back from the tooth fairy, which ended in tears when I informed him that if he wanted them back he'd have to give back the money since the deal with the tooth fairy is you get money in *exchange* for the tooth. Regardless, he was glowing when the tooth finally did come out. We raced outside in the back yard and took a few pictures to remember the moment.

Earth Explorer's Quilt

This year, Isaac's class is named the Earth Explorers because they are traveling to the seven continents in Jo's Jet (the teacher) and studying that continent. The class is also focusing a lot on reduce, reuse and recycle. One of the parents comes once a week and they do a recycled art project. I decided to incorporate both the traveling and recycling themes in the quilt. Each square features a piece of fabric from an old article of clothing from each kiddo, and also each teacher. Hopefully it was cool for the kids to see their old shirt or pants made into a quilt. The border fabric (and back) is a cool travel-looking fabric, that sort of looks like a topo map blended with a regular map and with mariner's compasses.
Instead of the super complex and time consuming chameleon center square I made for last year's quilt, this year I decided to go a little more simple and just did the class name square at left. For any of you who are curious, the title of this quilt pattern is called Attic Windows since each square looks like a pane of a window.

Fire Dragons Quilt

For the fourth year in a row I made a quilt for Isaac's first teacher at Satori. Well, it's not really for her, it's for her 3's class to put in the school auction. Every year the class has a name, this year they are the Fire Dragons. I found this super cool dragon fabric that looks kind of like Japanese tattoo art. I found some fabrics to go with it, including some that look like dragon scales. The kids make the squares by using fabric paint to make their handprint and fabric markers to write their names and decorate their squares. I embroider a center square, this year because of the shape I had two; one with the dragon and one with the name of the class and the school year. It goes into the auction May 2nd, may parents bid high...the money goes to the school.
This is one corner of the quilt that shows a little of the front with part of the back folded over so you can see the dragon fabric.















Here is the bottom half of the quilt, it's a little closer so you can see more detail than the picture below which shows the whole quilt.

Pima County Fair

Going to the fair has become a pre-birthday tradition. This year Paul had his head in the books, but Isaac and I went and had a blast. The last couple of years the water ride was broken when we were at the fair. This year it was up and running and Isaac went on it three times in a row it was so fun. Then it was time for a jacket and some dinner. At the end of the night I let him ride it three more times because he could get wet and then go change in the car. This ride was definitely the highlight for Isaac, though he likes the fun houses a lot, too. My favorite was the rollercoaster, so much fun it made me scream and laugh histerically.
This picture captures the afterglow from the thrill of the water ride! He was so pleased with himself for going on the ride. I couldn't go because I had our precious camera and couldn't get it wet. But seeing his face as he went down the second and larger waterslide while he screamed was the second best part of the night--best part was eating funnel cake.







After several tries and lots of strange faces from Isaac, I finally got this picture of Isaac and I. Not the best, but the best of what I had to choose from. Already looking forward to the fair next year!

Birthday With Buddies

For Isaac's birthday this year he decided to have his two best buds Sam and Sam over for an afternoon of playing and a sleepover. One of the favors I made was an altered frame from the Dollar Spot at Target. I took pictures of the boys and then had this one printed to put in the frame to send home with them. There were tons of other good pictures of them playing in the backyard, but I thought this was the best pic to share here. What a great group, they had lots of fun and Paul and I enjoyed watching them play. I am so glad the two great boys are Isaac's best friends.

Tilden & a Dare

When Dan met us at the park, he offered to take us up to Tilden for a trip to the Little Farm. Most of the animals had been put away, but we saw a few critters and someone else was nice enough to share some lettuce to feed to the goats. We also took the quick, but muddy walk around the pond. Lucky for us we were able to see some of the local turtles. Amazingly enough we didn't scare off the turtles and were able to catch a few good pictures of them.
After the pond circuit we let Isaac play on the playground a little. Most popular was making loud and raunchy farting noises through these sound carrying tubes with Dan. As many have noted before, farting sounds are funny to guys of *all* ages and Isaac and Dan had each other in stitches.

Foggy Beach

I have seriously been slacking on getting posts up...but now that I'm about 6 weeks late, here are some pictures from our trip to the beach is SF on our Bay Area trip in March. It was a perfectly foggy day when we reached SF by BART. We had a delightful lunch with my Aunt Rebecca and then we headed to the beach. Isaac got soaked and didn't seem to mind. We collected lots of sand dollars, shells and rocks. As folks from a landlocked state, a beach is a rarity and we try to make the most of it.
When we left we headed back to Rebecca's where she was kind enough to loan Isaac some dry shorts and a bit of cord to belt them, for the ride home on BART. Isaac had lots of fun running from the waves and scooting around on his bum to "mark his territory" around Rebecca and I. Brr, but so much fun to hang out with Rebecca!