Catherine's Birthday: 36!

I turned 36 last week! We had a small party and the biggest surprise came from Jan. He went out to get the "surprise" and when he came back he had Darth Vader!

Someone was wearing our Darth Vader helmet with Stormtrooper outfit. I knew it had to be someone from Okemos, but after a couple of guesses I looked down at his feet and noticed they were dark brown....hmmm...it was Suresh!

How wonderful to be able to celebrate my birthday with dear old friends and new friends.

Emily and Andrew's Elopement Celebration

We were so happy to celebrate Emily and Andrew's recent nuptials. They had snuck away for a romantic and private ceremony a few months ago so Emily's brothers and Liz threw them a really nice party to celebrate with their friends It has been really nice getting to know Emily and Andrew better this last year and we look forward to hanging out with them a lot more.

Jayna 21 months old

Oh boy! we have got a feisty one. Here is a picture of Jayna falling asleep, and even in this state she's bring feisty.

Things I want to remember about Jayna at 21 months old:

1. Her favorite color is blue. When we get her a drink she HAS to have the blue cup, with the blue top, with the blue straw.
other colors she knows: orange, green

2. phrases she sounds SO cute saying:
- "boogie woogie"
- "Jasper come here" (or Mama come here, or Papa come here) she says "COME HE-are"
- "Squirrel eat PEANUT!!!!"

While we were in Spokane Jayna LOVED that Grandma Rose fed the squirrels and birds. So when we got home she said she wanted to feed the squirrels nuts and birds birdseed. Now, we had tried feeding the squirrels before, I think it was after one of our past visits to Spokane and Jasper was about Jayna's age and LOVED feeding the squirrels. The last time the squirrels got aggressive, they came into the teaching studio, one came up to the window in our bedroom and knocked on the window!
So we're trying it again, so far so good.

Jayna and baby Sadie

I was happy this month to finally meet Mike and Nicole's baby girl Sadie. Mike came over for a nice visit and Jayna just wanted to hold the baby. She says, "Hold Me" at things she wants to hold, so she kept saying "Hold Me Baby"

Visit to Spokane: Three Generations: Great Grandpa Virgil, Jasper, Chad

We had a really nice visit to Spokane at the end of May. It always feels like vacation at Grandma Rose's house, Jasper said some funny things:

1. " I like staying at this hotel" YES staying at Grandma Rose and Grandpa Virgil's place is like staying at a hotel.
2. "Grandma Rose, you're a good cooker!" YES Grandma Rose always has just tons of food around, and Jayna and Jasper ate so much there.

We also had a really nice visit with Great Grandma and Grandpa Simpson, we drove out to Great Uncle Greg and Great Aunt Jennifer's Lake Coeur d alene House. Their house is gorgeous and the boat ride was so much fun for the kids. Their kids are great with Jasper and Jayna and we had a ton of fun.

It was also nice to catch up with Great Aunt Linda and Uncle Nick, cousin Jesse and Corey and Katie. We went to the Red Lobster with Linda, Corey, Katie, Grandma Rose and Grandpa Virgil, it's something we always look forward to with them. Jasper just ate and ate....our boy likes crab!

Visit to Spokane: Great Grandpa Virgil, holding Jayna, Chad, Great Grandma Rose holding Jasper

Visit to Spokane: Jayna with Great Aunt Linda

Visit to Spokane: Great Grandma and Grandpa Simpson

Jasper's 4th Birthday Party

Jasper turned FOUR! We had asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday party and he knew right away that he wanted to have his birthday with Jim Beatty or as he likes to call him "Jim Baby"- "he's SO funny."

Our friend Andrew came and took some great pictures, you can see them here.

Most of Jasper's classmates made it to the party, it was so nice because Jim does theater and movement with the kids at school so he knew the kids already. Jasper had such a great time and Chad and I were so happy to see him SO HAPPY!

Jasper's 4th Birthday Party

New bed for Jasper and Jayna gets her own room

For several months now we have been telling ourselves that Jayna needs her own room. Jasper has really been into going up to his room to play and have some time by himself, sometimes he'll go up to his room and close the door leaving Jayna stranded in the hallway. Jayna was taking to going into the guest room and closing the door and just standing there, so we knew it was time.

We got Jasper a fun new bed and moved his bed over to the other room for Jayna and now they both have their own spaces. Jayna has yet to actually sleep in her own room but at least she knows it's there if she wants to. We finally have a space now to put all of those baby dolls and stroller and baby high chair.

Celebrating Jasper's 4th Birthday with Grainne and Gabriel

Our friends Grainne and Gabriel came over to celebrate Jasper's birthday and brought him his 2nd birthday cake which was a "dirt" cake with "worms"

Jasper's final days as a 3 year old

Jasper will be turning FOUR on Monday. I cannot believe it, 4 years has gone by since I had my little baby Jasper. Here is a picture of Jasper at the Pt. Reyes lighthouse, he is doing his "nice" face.
Things I want to remember about Jasper at 3 years old are:
1. from 3-3.5 years old he wanted to be a chef
2. from 3.5 years to now, he says he wants to be an architect OR a pet store owner
3. from 3-3.5 years old his favorite color was white
4. from 3.5 years to now, it's always a mix of colors PLUS white
5. He loves to get "treats", like donuts, chocolate
6. He is the most loving brother to Jayna
7. He is so caring and beautiful
8. You can really reason with him
9. He really listens and pays attention to everything
10. He still has his imaginary friends, "Actually" and "Sophia"
11. Jasper wanted to tell Chad something and couldn't remember. So he closed his eyes and said he had to go to his "membership" which is how he was saying "memory". He thought for a long time and said, "I couldn't find it, but I found some pandas!"

Jayna learning fiddle from Bruce Molsky

Jayna: 19 months old

Our beautiful strong willed, knows what she wants toddler. Jayna or as she refers to herself, "nAna" is so much fun. She runs around the house, goes off with Jasper and they play for long periods of times in our bedroom or up in Jasper's room (when he lets her in there) Jayna definitely has a defiant streak in her, today she found a little something under the bed. When I approached her, she popped it in her mouth! I had no idea what it was so I said, Jayna spit it out now, NOW. and she refused. I tried using a sterner voice but she kept on refusing, until finally she swallowed it and opened her mouth. I couldn't believe what she had done!! I'm hoping that if it had been something large or dangerous to swallow she would have spit it out.

Jayna loves to play her fiddle, she sat in front of a fiddle DVD and just watched and watched and then wanted more. She had asked for the DVD herself --I swear we didn't suggest it all!

Playing music at the retirement home, Jasper playing sax

We took our fiddle students out to play at a retirement center in Oakland on April 18th. I think it's so great for the students to play in front of people with low pressure, so we did a nursing home in December and in July we always take our students our to the Ferry Building in San Francisco and play on the streets. Jasper has been enjoying playing his saxophone, here he is playing with his friend Sophia. I think he was feeling the music more than anyone else in that room.

Fun with Uncle Jan

Uncle Jan might be leaving us soon....

Jan is in the last few weeks of deciding where to go to medical school. As fate would have it the school he more than likely will be going to is Michigan State University--our hometown! i cannot express the sadness I feel when I think about Jan leaving the Bay Area. I think I've talked before in this blog about seeing our good friends leave the area one by one, or two by two and Jan leaving is really the last of my Michigan/High school friends.

In many ways I feel lucky to have spent as much post-college time with my old-dear friends and to have gotten to know them as adults and to spend quality time with the mates they have chosen. BUT I also feel like the hole this leaves in my life is all that much bigger because I experienced how full like can be having such close friends nearby.

Easter at the Mannings with Kate, Jan and Liz

Easter at the Mannings: Jasper coloring eggs

Easter at the Mannings: Eggs

Jasper, Jayna and I had fun, fun, fun coloring eggs this year. Jayna made this beautiful blue one that had these beautiful chinese-painting-like wisps on them.

Easter at the Mannings: Menu

EASTER DINNER

STARTERS
Mini Crab Cakes

MAIN
Roast Leg of Lamb
With Tarragon-Mint Butter
Garland of Spring Vegetables
Saffron-Scented Couscous with Pine Nuts

DESSERT
Lemon and White Chocolate Mousse Parfaits
with Strawberries

Sexy Soon-to-be Dad Mark modeling his baby gear

We're so happy to be able to pass on our most favorite of all of our baby gear the Ergo to Mark and Olivia. Jayna lived in her Ergo from birth until at least 3 months and then we used until very recently. I think both of our kids could both still ride in it (weight-wise) but they'd both prefer to ride on our shoulders now. Doesn't Mark look ready for those Sexy Dad runway model competitions?

Pregnant Olivia and soon-to-be Dad Mark visit

The same weekend of Arann and Paige's wedding, Olivia and Mark came to visit! As Jasper likes to say, "we're having a BUSY day, huh?"

Olivia is about 6 months pregnant and I was so happy to get to see her pregnant!! we only got to see her for a day, but Mark stayed on longer for a conference so it was nice to visit with him longer. Olivia and Mark's friends Julia and Erin (Julia is in the picture with Olivia and me) are also having a baby in August, so it was fun to see them too.

Arann and Paige's beautiful, wonderful wedding

Our friend Arann and Paige got married on Saturday April 4th, 2009 in Pt. Reyes. What a wonderful wedding, everyone was so warm, so friendly there was so much love in the air!

They started their morning with a long hike, men and women separate and then they met in the middle and hiked down to the wedding ceremony spot.

Chad and Jasper were planning on doing the long hike but Chad's foot was really hurting the night before and that morning so we decided to skip the hike and go up to the lighthouse. We had spent the night in Pt. Reyes and the day before the wedding it was SOOOOOOOo windy. We had driven up to the lighthouse but couldn't even stand outside because the wind was so strong.

I don't know if it was the wind that bothered Jayna but that night was the ONLY night she's ever had a fussy night. She had been sick the week before but seemed to be fine by the day we went over to Pt. Reyes. Jayna was up ALL NIGHT, she didn't want to nurse, then she wanted to nurse, then she wanted to stand up, then she wanted to lay down, she just didn't know what she wanted. it was so awful for me and Chad, Jasper seemed to sleep through it ok.

So instead of the hike, Chad and Jasper went up to the lighthouse. Jayna, because she hadn't slept the night before fell asleep in the car on our way over there and I stayed with her in the car while she took this massive 3 hour nap. Chad and Jasper saw whales, seals and deer up at the lighthouse. When they got back it felt like we had had a full day already but we were just heading over to the wedding.

Arann and Paige's wedding art advice show

As part of their wedding Arann and Paige asked their friends to create wedding advice art. The art was exhibited at Toby's Feedbarn and Art Gallery in Pt. Reyes and their wedding reception was the opening of the art show. How cool is that?!

This one was one of my favorites, and down below you'll see the one that we made. We just loved all of the amazing art that their friends created. We got a few snapshots of the art on our camera thanks to Adina and Adam and I look forward to seeing more photos of the whole wedding experience. I'm sure with all of the fabulous photographers attending there will be plenty to see.

Arann and Paige's wedding art that we made

We had family art day at the Mannings and boy did we have fun! The kids got to get all messy painting and Chad and I got to have fun too. We decided to say, "Be Present With Each Other" and there was a recording that had two headphones (so you can listen with your partner and get present with them), the recording is a bootleg of the Dalai Lama chanting in Berkeley, it's one of the most beautiful things we've ever heard.

More silly faces and how we love Kate

and here's one of Jayna making the silly face that her older brother taught her how to do. Jayna is shown here with the beloved Kate and me. Kate is SO loved in our house, every day Jayna draws pictures for her and asks to look at pictures of her. I made Jayna a photo book of pictures of her and friends, I purposefully put several extra photos of Kate in it because I knew Jayna would be asking for them but little did I know that on ALL of the other pages that don't have Kate, Jayna says, "KATE! KATE!" and flips through the book looking for Kate.

We had a busy April!

I am attempting to make up for a months worth of no blogging in one sitting, but hey we had a busy April and havig two kids has been a lot more tiring that I thought it was going to be. I try and always remind myself that these days, while seemingly very long as I'm experiencing them are going to pass by me so quickly and my kids are going to be all grown up and out of the house. The mere thought of that just made me want to cry! Anyway, excuse me for my tired blogging but I do this so that someday I can look back at these postings and share them with Jasper and Jayna and they can see all of the things we did together...
So here to start out our April pictures is Jasper making his silly face and sitting in the bumbo seat that we pulled out to give to friends who are having a baby, he's in the picture with lovely Jules!

Sicky Pooh Mannings

I feel like our family has been sick for months! Back in January I got my first sinus infection, which totally sucked. My whole face hurt, my teeth started aching, I was all stuffed up and the only way I could get to sleep was to take Nyquil at night--which just knocked me out, I never felt fully awake until the next day afternoon.

This month our family got hit hard, me first:
second week of March, I had this horrible bug that just made me tired. I slept in bed all day Monday, Tuesday was up a little, taught one lesson and then back in bed, and then the rest of the week super tired, by the end of the week I had a cough and stuffed up nose. It was so bad I couldn't even do email or watch a movie.

third week of March, Chad gets the EXACT same thing, same order of days and symptoms.

fourth week of March, Jasper gets it--except his cough ended up being a lot worse.

now the fifth week of March, Jayna is sick. She woke up today with a little cough and then by late afternoon had a little fever. Here is she is passed out on the couch--poor thing! and the picture of Jasper, all he could was watch Pluto and lay on his couch. Jayna's might be a combination of sick and teething--she's getting her bottom left molars and her top set of molars right now. This week I thought I was getting sick again but I think it's my seasonal allergies kicking in. Will it never end?!

Sick Jasper