Bridger’s Home!

My parents brought Bridger home on Friday and we are glad to have him back. Even a couple days without him makes him seem so much more mature when he gets back. He had a great time and yesterday, luckily enough, he got a rocket toy in his Subway kids meal to compliment his trip to the Space and Rocket Center with his grandma earlier in the week. He never tires of “1, 2, 3, blastoff”.

Friday night we enjoyed dinner with the ‘rents at the Oyster House and then Saturday we struggled to find something to do in the threat of major thunderstorms (which never really materialized at our house). We finally drove around to a couple stores looking for a new CD case for Justin and then invited our friends Will and Kendall over. They hadn’t seen Taplin yet and we’ve missed hanging out with them quite a bit.

Sunday was a busy day. We went to church and then out to Justin’s grandparents home in Wilmer to pick fresh blueberries and have lunch. I think we ended up with some of the biggest zucchini that I’ve ever seen from their garden and probably over a gallon of blueberries. I hate to freeze them because they are huge and sweet, but there is no way we can go through them fast enough. I think today I’m going to attempt zucchini lasagna and chocolate zucchini bread (a weight watcher’s recipe).

Sunday evening found us back at church for the vacation bible school registration and kick off dinner with Bridger. I’m taking him everyday this week, while Taplin is along for the ride. Technically he is too young to go, but I wanted to help out the preschool class and he is far more mature than a couple of the four year olds we had yesterday. Thank goodness I did go to help – the tragically unorganized event put 15 little ones in our classroom with no real idea of where we were supposed to go or when. It is clear that if Bridger is going to participate in the future, I will have to be apart of the planning committee. It is sad that we only had about 35 kids when I think their numbers used to be into the 100s. I don’t know why the drop off has happened, but I plan to correct it in the future.

We are taking it easy this morning. Yesterday we took 12lb 3oz Tap to his 2 month checkup (all is well), then to the vet, then to lunch, then to the store and then to church. It was a little too much to take on in one day. Laying low before 3 hours of bible school is probably the best idea for us. Wish us luck!

Halloween Batik

I recently saw this post on The Matchbook about flour paste batik and I’m pretty sure it is about my level of difficulty. My mom loves batik and I have in my head a kind of white/orange/black with skulls and swirls that would look fabulous on my HALLOWEEN QUILT that my wonderful mom is planning on making me (ahem….right mom?) She actually is a really great quilter and you can view some cool stuff she’s done on her blog or quilt-tagged flicker pages. We own three (one for each boy and one for me) plus some other decorative stuff. Normally quilts aren’t my thing, but it really depends on the design. I like a more modern take and there is one she designed herself that is very Kandinsky to me. Whatever…point being that I’m excited about the new batik project being a Halloween-adaptable thing. I’ll attempt to post pictures here when I’m done, but you know how my disappearing pictures seem to be…

Huntsville Times

This weekend I took the boys to Huntsville to visit my family and some old friends. Without too many boring details, here is a trip rundown….

Wednesday: Took way too long to actually get to Huntsville, stopping for 2 bottles, cookies, and lunch. Bridger stayed dry the whole time! Yeh! Got there and just relaxed with the boys and family.

Thursday: Mom’s morning haircut took longer than expected so we ventured out in the afternoon to find clothes for the boy’s photo session. It was a success finding coordinating white polo’s and blue linen pants at Gap (on sale, no less). Thursday evening I met with my sister and her friends for a Fashionably Late meeting at Bridgestreet and then to the Scene at Monaco. It was food and fun and fabulous – so much so that I’d love to start one in Mobile. Afterwards I took Nathan his computer we regifted to him for his birthday. I couldn’t tell if he really liked it or was just suprised at the largeness of the gift, but hopefully it will be useful to him.

Friday: Mom and I took Bridger back to Bridgestreet while grandpa watched Tap - namely because the Lucky store was having a sale and I really wanted red heels from DSW. Got the jeans, but no luck on the shoes. Oh well. I also picked up an anniversary necklace present for Shan, Bridger took a ride on the merry go round, and we all drooled in Anthropologie. Friday evening I took the boys to meet Shannon and Nathan at Chuck E. Cheese and back to their place, which Bridger proceeded to talk about for the next two days. He is spending the night there this evening. Good luck, guys!

Saturday: I took the boys to meet up with a high school friend, Kathryn, who I’d not seen in something like 8 years! She had her 4 year old Sophie with her and we had a good time, except that Bridger kept harassing Sophie. When I say harassing, I mean he literally stuck her with a fork between the eyes! I think he is in a phase of trying things to see what reaction they bring. It was great and Kathryn planted the idea of selling my oboe in exchange for a marimba (and possibly a piano if I do some swift accounting). Hummm….. Then Saturday evening my friend Sarah came over and we did late dinner at Macaroni Grill. I highly recommend the lobster ravioli (though mine could have used another scoop on the plate to fill me up).

Sunday: We had photos in the morning with Kerry Brooks, whom my sister made the website for. He and his assistant were amazing with the kids. I can’t wait to see the pictures! (THANKS Shannon!!) Then mom and I took Bridger to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. It was fabulous despite the heat. We hit the kids garden with many water features, the butterfly gardens (amazing), and saw some of the million dollar dino display. Bridger was in love, but also so tired he rode in a stroller for the first time in over a year! Sunday evening we hung out with Shan and Nathan at the ‘rents and had great peanut chicken mom made. I actually spent most of the evening making wedding invitations for a friend, which I have to say, turned out beautifully!

So that’s it! A long and restful weekend with family and friends. I’d post pictures, but something weird keeps happening to my picture posts and they go missing in cyberspace. I’ll have to figure that one out…

Tang Eaters of the World Unite

I have long loved Tang. So much so, that I have been known to pour it into a bowl and eat it as though it were some form of actual food (as with oatmeal packages and other dry-but-meant-to-be-wet goods). Better yet, I would put it in a cup and add minimal water to make an orange goo that was too thick to drink. I’ve found there are two kinds of people in the world – Tang eaters and Tang haters.

I have clear memories of sneaking more dry Tang into my cup as a child and thinking that “when I grow up and go to college I will eat all the Tang I want!” You’d think I outgrew that childish fantasy, but nay, I was a college-Tang eater.

I actually haven’t bought Tang in years. So why the confession today? When I joined Weight Watchers several years ago, I looked, as all WW-ers do, for a way to cheat the system. For example, if spray butter has no points, then surely pouring the spray butter doesn’t either, right? While I’ve never been a choco-o-holic, I definatley like sweet stuff. In order to stay sane in a world where candy is many a point, I bought Diet Swiss Miss mix to make zero point chocolatey refreshment. (I think you can see where this is going). So if the mix is yummy in water, it is better yet in pure form, right? Right. And it is. And as I sit here and enjoy my 25 calorie chocolate goodness, I think about the days of Tang and wonder how many calories it has….???

Lucky Jeans

I walked into Lucky Jeans.

I picked up a dark wash pair in my size.

I tried them on.

I bought them.

I walked out.

Who’s bootay looks fabulous now? Oh, it’s mine.

Warhol IS cool

I like Andy Warhol. I think he is weird and strange and I probably wouldn’t have loved him in real life if I met him, but I love some of his work. Granted, I don’t “get” some of it, but some of it is beautiful. So as I was researching a good color wheel project, I came upon this article “Today the color wheel, tomorrow Andy Warhol: Pearl River students blend hues” It said “read reactions from this story” at the bottom and I thought, great, people who want to give lesson extension ideas, right? Wrong! Read what this moron had to say:

To even consider that Andy Warhol was an artist is ridiculous. To teach that to children is even worse. What did he ever do that any of us could have done besides abuse drugs and hang out at Studio 54? If a person considers the silk screening a photograph of a Campbell soup can or Marilyn Monroe to be art then then need to go to Paris and visit the Lourve museum. Why is it that art school has become a place where too many untalented people learn to be pretentious?

What did he ever do? Did you develop and popularize a whole genre of art or raise the bar on a style of printing? Were you aware he did more than silk screening? I don’t argue that the Louvre holds many great works, but I’d ask then if you have been to the National Gallery and taken a look at Warhol’s work too. It might not be romantic portraits, but art evolves and is in the eye of the beholder! They also comment on modern day art school….um…pretty sure Andy hasn’t been to art school in quite some time. Plus, how you gonna pick on a dead guy?

Since the article didn’t raise up Andy to some master status, it merely related him to a story about children’s art, why did this ‘yo decide that he needed to blast poor Warhol? Jeez!

Titles and Tigers

I decided to change the blog title to Two Turtle Doves. Bridger was born in the Christmas season and I always found myself referring to him as turtle dove. Now I have two It is rather Christmas-ey, but who doesn’t love the holidays?

Yesterday we went to Abbie’s house to swim and play. It was a little rough, as Bridger is still learning his sharing manners. It was also nap time and for some reason, it was an all-around fussy day for Bridge. I still think he enjoyed his time. We rushed home to clean before a house showing, only to have it canceled. At this point, neither one of us really even care. It will sell when it sells and we love the house in the meantime.

Today we FINALLY went to the Bengal Tigers show at the Exploreum. It was a little short I thought, but given the extreme heat it was probably good. It actually rained on our show and one of the tigers is spooked by umbrellas. All in all it was fascinating. There are only 30 all white Bengals in the world, none known in the wild. Three of them were in this show! They are raised in south Florida at a preserve and the aim of the show is to highlight an endangered species in hopes of rejuvinating the population. They were absolutley beautiful. I think Bridger was a bit frightened or overwhelmed at the show, but once in the car he couldn’t stop talking about them. A zoo trip is definatley in our near future.

Now it is raining and the house is dark. Rain makes it seem cooler inside, even if it isn’t. Bridger is resting and Taplin is content in his vibra-chair next to me. I started the laundry for our week in Huntsville that we depart for tomorrow morning. Packing three of us is cerainly more time consuming than ever before, but we are looking forward to the destination.

Art Museum

Bridger, Taplin, and I visited the Mobile Museum of Art today, taking advantage of their “Free Fridays” through September. There are several current exhibitions, the best being GenX: Post Boomers and the New South and Material Imaginings (my favorite). The other exhibit, Poetic Spirit: Henry Wo Yue-Kee at 80, just isn’t my thing….Asian feeling. Eh. I’m sure it isn’t anything I could paint, yet I’m still not a fan.

I saw two artists that I really enjoyed and wrote down to investigate further. One was Michael Lucero, an American sculptor. His pieces are really vibrant and the one at our museum is called “midnight man” or something like that. I couldn’t find an image of it online, but Bridger liked it despite what I would deem a “scary” face on the backside. I’d post another image here, but it is really the favorite of his that I’ve looked at.

The other artist really captured Bridger’s attention in an image he kept returning too. His name is Carlos Betancourt (who thankfully, has his own website: http://www.carlosbetancourt.com/) The image we saw was from the Worshipping of My Ancestors Series, 2001.

Sometimes, though, I wonder what separates art from what any of us create at home. There were pieces there I could certainly not create or duplicate, though those aren’t even the ones I was most interested in. Certain things I wonder, now if I did that, would anyone buy it?

Art in the Park

Today we visited Lott park and the second of two Art in the Park playdays in Daphne. Bridger attended with his friend Abbie, while Abbie’s mom Christy and I followed with baby Gabe and little Taplin in tow. It was a good time and there was (thankfully) a breeze in the 94 degree day. The kids actually hit the playground for quite awhile and also got fake tattoos. Bridger, for all of his grand imagination, named his lion tattoo “lion”.

After playing for several hours, the gang came back to our house to play and eat lunch. I made the kids pizzas that they added their own toppings too along with our spaghetti and meatball cupcakes Bridger and I made last night. Bridger was highly possessive of his toys, but in the end they played really well with playdoh. I’ve never seen Bridger really get upset and not let someone else play and it wasn’t too cute, but I suppose all small children go through that. He really hasn’t had too many little friends over to play, so this is good experience. On Monday we are planning on going to Abbie’s house to play and swim in her backyard. Hopefully our manners will be improved. Bridger was so tired after all of that he fell asleep on the couch just 15 minutes after they left and had to been woken up for dinner. Warning to all: never wake a napping Bridger!!!

Tech Kids

It is funny how much technology changes. People used to say things about the kids being able to program the VCR when I was growing up. We don’t even use VCRs anymore! Here is a big sign that there is a change in the world – my 2 year old asked me for a computer for his room today. He said, “Mommy, can I get a puter?” as we were sitting on the bed this morning (so it wasn’t even related to me being on the computer at that time). I said, “Why?” He said, “To keep in my room so I can push the buttons and play ABCs.” (ABCs are his name for the starfall.com website).

This weekend we undertook backyard landscaping and had friends Tiffany and her husband Doug over to eat Sunday night. Monday Bridger and I attempted to go to the Exploreum, only to find it closed for maintenance. We visited yesterday instead and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new Frog exhibit opening next week. I opted to skip the IMax yesterday to avoid the cost, but I’m excited about the Amazon and Hurricane on the Bayou flicks out now and we will see them before summer is gone I’m sure. Today we went and picked up Bridger’s fish he painted at Paint and Parrot in Fairhope (to be pictured here later) and he is not wanting to swim this afternoon so instead we will pick up food for tomorrow and stuff to make another fantastic cupcake creation out of the Hello, Cupcake! book. I’d like to swim, but why argue when it gets me out of 1 1/2 hours of driving?