Decimation

Pre-Production Teaser from Decimation on Vimeo.

A belated thank you to all of our wonderful family and friends who showed up to the pre-production fundraising event for Nick's latest film, Decimation. It was a very successful event and we had a super fun time the whole evening, thanks to you!

For those of you who have supported Decimation on Kickstarter (you know who you are), double thanks to you because you are supporting the film without all the fun party-stuff as a reward! Way to go faraway friends and loved ones!

And, for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, Decimation  is Nick's latest project, a short film, with only a little teaser footage shot thus far, and thanks to the above people for donating, they go into full production next week.

Ice cream and more

A couple of months ago, Nick did a shoot for Hemispheres Magazine, United Airline's inflight magazine. It was a super fun shoot and the article is called Three Perfect Days in Seattle. If you are coming to visit us (or know of people visiting the area), it's a great place to start for some unique Seattle eateries and secret spots off the regualr tourist track.

This adorable photo of Finn was taken as part of the shoot-- blackberry ice cream from Mora Creamery on Bainbridge Island. MmmmmMmmmm! says Finn, my favorite flavor!

Poppie playing with balloons

Guess how much I love you?

Birthday party!

This is Finn's best friend Aryianna. She and I share the same birthday, but we celebrated little Aeyony's (Finn's pronounciation) birthday yesterday at the spray park.

Both children are growing up so fast, it knocks my breath away. Look at Poppie, she looks like a little girl. And my big boy Finn is all muscle and height.

Dancing babies

On a sunny evening on the front porch.

Birthday

Today was my birthday and I started the day nice and earlier with my amazing (and INCREDIBLY fit mother) competing in a triathlon. 1/2 mile open water swim, 12 mile bike ride and 3 mile run later:


She rocks. Not only did she give birth to me 32 years ago today, but she continues to be my athletic mentor, among a million other incredible attributes she inspires me with. And she was the only person I knew crazy enough to do this with me with very little training (not to mention the only person I really wanted to do it with anyway).

We returned home to a gorgeous, delicious brunch handmade and hosted by my incredible husband. It was an intimate affair with only family and extended family, but just exactly what I wanted.


I was spoiled with lots of thoughtful gifts, lots and lots of kisses from the children and am concluding the day feeling up to the brim loved.

Thank you for all the birthday love and wishes! Three cheers for the 32nd year!

Xx

Life

I start each week with the best of blogging intentions. There is so much to share these days and in my best weeks, I am able to get at least a post a day out. Sometimes I am even able to write all my posts in a day or two and schedule them to post each day, giving our lovely audience the impression that I am consistent, organized and able to do so much! But alas, the reality behind the scenes is chaos, albeit a somewhat organized chaos. And once again, I have to remind myself that I chose this life and choose to continue it every day.

Nick's business is humming right now at a pitch that is both welcome and overwhelming at the same time. We both fall exhausted in bed each night around midnight, and are awake with the chirping birds (and children) at the crack of dawn the next morning. Dragging our tired bods out of bed and onto another full day. Repeat times 7.















In other news, Poppie turned 11 months last weekend. She is a living doll, full of life and vitality with a healthy dose of mischief inside her. She is walking fulltime and hasn't looked back. She is starting to talk and waves by curling her fingers inwards, as if saying come here, let me talk to you! Her favorite words are hi, der! stop! (hmm, where did she learn that word? From me to talking to Finn? No...) and dagda (which means dog).
She is pure girl. In the same way that Finn is pure boy. We were so very careful about gender-typing our kids and giving them room to play with dolls or trucks or red fast things or pink soft ones. And what does each choose? Diggers, dirt and fast things for Finn and soft cuddly toys, anything pink and handbags for Poppie. She is also starting to try and dress up and picks my dresses from the dirty unfolded (I have made a huge leap in my housekeeping capabilities lately!) clothes hamper and tries to wear them around the house. 





And Finn? Darling Finn. He has been an angel lately. We have been learning a lot lately on how to most effectively parent this strong and clever boy of ours and although there is nothing perfect in the world, we are awfully close to finding the perfect groove. I have been reading lots and lots and lots of great parenting articles lately and have a pretty good collections of tools in my parenting toolbox. Things are working for the moment for all of us.











It has been hot in Seattle. Really hot. We have been spending a lot of time in or near the water and I have to say, this is best summer of my entire life.


Thanks to him.


And thanks to her.

Happy weekend to all!

Maman and les bebes

This weekend, swimming in Lake Washington at Seward Park. I never knew summer could be so fun!

On Nick's birthday a couple of weeks ago, we went down to Ocean Shores for a photo shoot. Nick bought a simple red kite that turned out to be a trick-kite. I was to fly it so he could get the shots he needed to integrate it into the final photos. The kite was so squirrely with me, I couldn't keep it in the air and would crash it after a 100 elegant and violent curley-ques that had Nick yelling in fear and leaping out of the way in fear of a beheading by a tiny, sharp line.

You have to be subtle with the lines, babe, he says to me. Just use tiny movements, or don't move at all and it will fly itself. Which, weeks later, I am realizing is a metaphor for my life right now.

Slow down. Trust its ability to fly itself.

No sudden moves you might regret later.

Don't react the minute you feel (the kite, the child, your life) going out of control.

Life needs tender touches right now.

I am learning.

A fun new app

Today I discovered a fun new app called Red Stamp that lets you take photos from your phone and turn them into instant messages to text, email, Tweet or post on Facebook (or you could print and send in the mail). The perfect application for this would be thank you cards for a busy mom who wants to send a personalized note (I am picturing a photo of Finn playing with his new digger or Poppie dressed in a cute outfit from Grandma). Or to send a text message to Daddy who is in Oregon shooting Decimation...

Finn, sleeping

Mommy, I not tired! he says five minutes prior to this shot. I told him he didn't have to be in his bed, just in his room. At least he listened!

Poppie love

Our little boy is 100% camera shy as of late and it is rare to get a decent shot of anything other than the back of his head. Poppie on the other hand gets so thrilled that you are giving her attention that she will smile and coo at just about anything, even a camera.

I am sure that every parent feels this way, but Nick and I can't believe that we made this precious little creature. Poppie is so utterly lovely, in both personality (Smile First! Sweet Girls Don't Cry! Love Everyone! are a handful of her mottos) and physique (those big ocean-blue eyes? her huge teeth? that English rose complexion of hers?). She is a dream of a daughter and we couldn't be more smitten.

Walker

I have been away (more on that later) and when I left, Poppie was a walker-crawler. When I returned five days later, Poppie doll was a fulltime walker. Nick took this picture while I was gone, but it captures the current state of our darling Popps.

Happy kids!

Poppie's adventures while Finn swims