Communal Living

The other day I was walking downtown and passed by this "compound"...





From what I can tell, there are 6 casitas in total with a nice fenced in yard...perfect for exploring kiddos. I am thinking that if four families are interested, we could each move in to our own quarters and have the 5th casita be a "common house" where we eat meals and hang out, and the 6th casita can be a music/craft house where all sorts of creativity can take place.

Who's in??

p.s. if you know who owns these casitas, can you ask them if they are interested in selling?? :)

da zoo!

Last week Samantha and I took the boys to the zoo. We chose to go at 9:30am when it would be still cool out, and hopefully not very busy. Hmm...not so. Apparently because it was a little cool out, everyone-including every school- decided to make it their field trip for the day! That didn't really matter too much though...we still had a grand ol' time!

Ezra's favorite animal was the peacock. :)

And, both boys LOVED crawling around in the play area...

Monday night!

Meet Me at Maynards (MMM) is the coolest thing happening in Tucson (or perhaps even the nation?) on Monday nights. :)

"The mission of Meet Me at Maynards is to bring active adults and families to the downtown Tucson area to enjoy healthy exercise, to experience the beauty, history and architecture of our unique neighborhoods, and to appreciate and patronize local businesses."

Every Monday night about 400-600 folks gather downtown to walk/run. There are 3 loops to choose from: 2 miles, 3 miles, and 4 miles. We walk by cute old homes, the art museum, la placita, the children's museum, etc...it's really quite lovely.

Most of the restaurants downtown offer a 20% discount to MMM'ers on Monday nights. Ezra usually wants to go home and get some shut eye by the time we are done walking, but perhaps someday soon we'll be able to have a late night dinner downtown after our walk.

(these photos were from last week when it was unseasonably chilly)
Our regular crew (more are always welcome to join us!!...just let me know if you are interested)...

Abigail with Ezra, Blanca, Estrella, Matt, and Abby with Moses
(notice Abby's ultra stylish distance-walking boots... :)


Me and Ezra bundled up..


Matt and Momo...


And, the ever-so-happy Estrella!

It's laundry time!

Ezra loves to crawl around outside while I hang up the laundry these days. The tin of clothespins gets emptied and re-filled, emptied and re-filled, emptied and re-filled...it's lots of fun! :)



(those are his rosy red cheeks from eating bread in Bisbee.)

Birthday in Bisbee!

This past weekend we went to Bisbee to celebrate our friend Jacob's birthday! It was a grand ol' time as always. Have I told you guys how in love I am with Bisbee? I am. It's an adorable little town that looks like a taste of Cinque Terre, Italy...or perhaps even Boston. As we walked to get coffee this morning, we were talking about how we love that the shops are mixed right in with the residential houses...that is I guess what reminded me of Boston. I love that feeling of being able to just walk down the street to get coffee, or around the block to get bacon.

Houses scattered about on the hillside. Perhaps I should mention that everything is on a hillside in Bisbee. Lots of stairs to climb everywhere you go.


Mamas and da babies...


Papas and their sons...


Ezra was a little overwhelmed by all of the options at dinner...


He ultimately decided on breastmilk, sweet potatoes and navy beans...with bread for dessert. (We had been keeping Ezra wheat-free because we suspected a slight wheat allergy, but truth-be-told, we resorted to the bread as a source of entertainment...the guy loves bread...and well, we have now confirmed that yes indeed, he has an allergy-or at least has a sensitivity-to wheat...his cheeks were ultra red when he woke up and continued to get more and more red throughout the day).


By the time dinner ended, Ezra was ultra cuddly, and fell right to sleep when we got back to our room.


With all of the kiddos in bed, the mamas and papas played board games! It is so fun to get together and have a slumber party with friends. I mean, how often does that happen in adulthood? Not often enough if you ask me. After gaming, we talked and dreamed about how great it would be to live on a commune where we could raise our kids together and just live in community with one another. I hope we really can do that someday. And, Megan don't worry...we have a casita for you too! :)

One of my favorite things about our group of friends is how the adults all love on the kids, no matter if they are theirs or not.

Samantha with Josiah, Moses and Ezra.


Blanca with Ezra...


Joel and Ezra...


Breakfast on our roofdeck this morning...


Ezra about to become Ezro...


Diggin' it...

cousin miri!

The other weekend we had the chance to spend the afternoon with Ryan's cousin, Traci and Ezra's second cousin, Miri! It is so fun to watch Ezra and Miri watch each other and start to interact a little bit.



Ezra is quite obsessed with balls lately. Tennis balls, basket balls, yarn balls, anything that bounces and rolls...he loves! It is amazing to see how even at this age he seems to have preferences in what he wants to play with. He also has a knack for wanting to show off how strong he is. He kept trying to lift up a footstool to show Miri that he has huge muscles. Lots of grunting involved in his muscle man routine. I tried getting it on video this evening, but he was a little camera shy. :)

Ryan's Aunt Terri has 4 gorgeous horses that the kiddos loved petting.




Me and Ezra watching the horses run and around


Traci with Miri and Ryan with Ezra

Ezra's Kitchen!

According to my mom, I used to spend hours a day in my play kitchen. We have photos of this, so I believe it to be true. (When you are the 3rd child, at least in my family, there are approximately 3 photos taken of you a year, so to have at least one of those with me playing in my kitchen means I spent a lot of time there.) :)

I had been wanting Ezra to have a wooden toy kitchen, but they start around $100 (and go wayyy up!), and I knew that just wasn't in the budget. My beautiful, wise, and also frugal-minded sister started sending me links to tutorials on how to make your own toy kitchen out of an old tv or night stand. Frugal, crafty, and re-purposing something old for something new...love it love it love it.

I found this (even uglier in person) tv stand on Craigslist for $10 (actually they wanted $20, but I bargained for $10 and got it! :)


And this board (cut to size) from Home Depot for only $0.51!


We used leftover paint and Ryan's handyman skills...


And...tada! This is the first stage of "done". I am making a little curtain to go in that open space above the cupboards so Ezra can have fun putting things behind it. And we also want to make a clock and/or kitchen timer, along with some salt and pepper shakers. I'll post photos once those things happen, but first I thought I should at least post what I have since it was promised over a week ago now. :)



Where it all came from and the cost breakdown:
$10 tv stand
$0.51 backboard
$3.00 thrifted silver bowl for "kitchen sink"
$1.00 thrifted records for "stove burners"
$1.80 for both door knobs from Home Depot
$1.00 thrifted shelf
$1.00 letter "J" from JoAnns turned upside down to serve as the faucet
$1.50 wooden "people" used as faucet knobs
$0.00 paint and primer (already had)

TOTAL: $19.81!

I just started making felt food...oh wow, too fun...so far we have a carrot, radish, and a tomato! Much more felt food to come!

Chalkboard for Ezra!

As I was painting our kitchen cabinets, I decided to leave the "end cap" alone so that I could come back to it at a later time with chalkboard paint. Well, that later time has finally arrived...



Hopefully someday Ezra will decide that chalk doesn't taste very good and he'll get to start drawing on it as I cook.

The best part about this project, is that it was super duper cheap! My sister (she's always to the rescue at finding me tutorials for craft projects) sent me this great tutorial on how to make your own chalkboard paint out of non-sanded grout (found at Ace) and black acrylic paint (found at Joann's). In total, the chalkboard cost me less than $5, and I have lots of left over supplies to make more (I think I am going to paint part of the wall in my "studio" as a chalkboard).

Decluttering.

Ryan's cousin Jessica has turned me on to the blog, Simple Mom. I love it. From faith, to raising kids, to creating a budget and organizing her home...she shares her tips and love for simplicity. For the next few weeks, she has put out a decluttering challenge that I have decided to take.

The first week involved writing a family mission statement. What does this have to do with decluttering you ask? When we know the purpose of our family it is easier to determine what stuff we want to hold onto, and what we are ready to let go of (more-or-less her words). Our mission statement is still in the works, but I'll share it when I am ready to.

This past week involved sifting through and organizing your wardrobe. Perhaps it is slightly not fair for me to be participating in this because I love to do this sort of thing already. But truthfully, ever since Ezra was born, I am so busy sorting through which clothes he no longer wears that I have not even considered tackling my own closet and dresser.

Here is the "before" photo of our closet. You will likely notice that I only photographed my side of the closet. This was because Ryan's side was (ahem) so out of control that I didn't think I would dare tackle his side. But, in the end I did, as you will see in the "after" photo. I guess I was just on a roll and wanted the whole thing to look nice. Fear not, I did not sort through and toss out any of his clothes (to his knowledge). No really, I didn't. :)

Before:


After:




Anyone else up for the challenge?

Mama Barricade

Ezra and I started going to "mom and baby group" at the Birth Center when he was just a few weeks old. I loved it. We loved it. And, we made soo many friends there. Once he started crawling over and mauling the other babies that were only a matter of days/weeks old, it was a sign we had outgrown the group. Fortunately for us, some of the other mamas who outgrew the group at the same time were super organized and with it enough to start up a "mom and baby graduate group" through www.meetup.com called "mindful mamas". There is a meet-up happening somewhere in town almost every day. We go to about two per month. Most of the meet-ups are simple playdates where we all gather at someone's house or a park and let the babies crawl free. Others have some structure such as "learn to make laundry detergent" or "Elimination Communication". I always joke with Ryan that the group can be a bit ultra granola-y at times and have playdates such as "let's feed our babies fall food and read stories about fall" (said in the Saturday Night Live voice of the ladies on the radio show). I do love fall food, and I love reading stories to Ezra about fall...but c'mon folks, that is worth laughing about, is it not? :)

Last week, I went with a group of mamas and babies to hike the road at Sabino Canyon. There were 10 mamas and 11 babies in total. We formed a bit of a barricade at times on the road...and almost every passerby had a friendly comment about how brave we all were. Of course there was also the group nursing that had to happen at a picnic spot at some point on the walk because after all, if one baby is nursing, the others get jealous. I think the female park ranger was speechless when she came to empty the trashcan near us.

Ezra enjoyed a banana for most of the walk...and wore it well. :)


The crew...


Ezra's banana face after the car ride home... (note: the banana was ripe though it's totally green, for whatever reason the bananas we get in our bountiful basket don't always turn yellow).

A day with dad in the studio

On Monday Ezra and I joined Ryan in the "studio". They are nearing the end of the recording process and needed some extras to come in and sing "gang vocals" (large choruses..I think :)...so Ezra and I volunteered!

It cracks Ryan and I up to see how much Ezra starts rocking back and forth when music comes on. He was trying on some headphones when Ryan Alfred turned the music on in them, and sure enough Ezra just started rockin' out. Love that little guy so much!




Ezra on tambourine...


Part of the gang getting ready to record...


Thanks for letting us join you for a fun day in the studio!