Little Artists

Here they are. Picture perfect. Hard at work. Creating a master-piece. Getting along. Sharing. Painting together. Like little angels...

What is not pictured is the fight. The fight over the brown paint. The fight that was such a mess I had to put the camera down to break up. The fight that ended with brown paint (and pink paint, and yellow paint) all over the floor. All over them. All over me. The fight that started it all.

The fight that sent Jack into a painting frenzy, causing him to paint on the floor. On the walls. On the cabinet doors. On his face. On his sister. On me.

The fight that provoked Annabelle to splatter paint, Jackson Pollock style, all over the floor. All over the walls. All over the cabinet doors. All over herself. All over her brother. All over me.

The fight that made me question why on earth I thought the two of them could paint together. In the kitchen that I had just cleaned. On the floor that I had just washed.

I wish I was able to get some pictures of the fight. It was very amusing, but at the time, too much of a hazard for the camera... And for me.

Here is one of the paintings that I was able to salvage.

Not that bad, for two cheeky little monkeys.

Snow Day

Every time it has snowed Annabelle has wishfully said "I think it's going to stick this time"... I suppose it was only a matter of time before she was right. We finally have some snow that stuck around for more than 20 seconds. It's only a light dusting but enough to keep the small puffy people happy! There are a few more pictures in the photo album to the right.

The Art Of Persuasion

Allow me to demonstrate how it's done:First, state what it is you are trying to achieve:

"Cookie" *sob sob* "cooookieeee"
Second, attempt to impress:
Here I start moaning and doing my best Mummy impression,
then throw myself against the cabinet doors... Any wall or hard surface should work just fine. Lastly, show them that you really mean business:

I then gently lay down on the floor and scoot myself across the room, making sure to keep the tears flowing for dramatic effect. Shortly thereafter desired results should follow. And always remember... Never give up.

~Jack

New Orleans

Nick and I went to visit our friend Christian in New Orleans over the weekend. We stayed with Christian and his girlfriend Kim, in the outer edge of the French Quarter... Marigny actually, the place where all of the recent murders have been taking place!

We made it back safe and sound but not without incident: We arrived Thursday afternoon and were picked up at the airport by Christian and Kim, who had just come from the hospital because apparently, the day before we arrived, Kim had fallen down the stairs and broken her foot and now needed surgery! It was a bummer for us because they had planned a bunch of activities for Friday (my birthday), some of which included a massage and a facial, but now Kim was scheduled for surgery that day so Nick and I were on our own.

So Friday we headed into the French Quarter and toured around most of the day. It was all a bit hazy at first as we both were feeling very ill; Nick from a hangover, me from a stomach bug. Towards mid afternoon though we both started to feel better so we did what any good tourist in New Orleans would... We hit the bars. Many of them.

Several hours later we stumbled back to Kim and Christian's where we spent the evening catching up with them and marveling at the fact that we didn't get shot on the way home from the Quarter.

The next day Christian took us over to see the progress on his house, which is in the process of being rebuilt after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. It has now been raised up about four feet and is currently gutted on the inside. We crawled under the house and peeked in through the missing floor boards... Everything from roughly four feet and below has been completely torn out, everything above that looks shiny and new. It was obvious that the house had been recently spiffed up before the hurricane.

As we were driving around the city I was amazed to see the amount of damage there was. People all over were living in trailers out in front of their homes while waiting for them to be repaired/rebuilt. Many people had just up and left the city and abandoned their homes... Every other house it seemed had a "for sale" sign posted on it. Other postings on houses included the spray painted "taggings" of the National Guard and CHP, listing the findings of each house after initial search; 2 human, 2 canine etc... pretty eerie. Also pretty scary was the fact that you could see the water level lines on the sides of the freeway, up to 6 feet in some places, and as Kim pointed out, there was even a whole stadium that was completely under water. To see it all in person was very surreal.

Later on Saturday afternoon we headed off to The Dome for the Saints vs Eagles game. Nick, Christian and I walked through the French Quarter, along with thousands of other rowdy fans marching to the stadium, stopping in a few bars along the way. Poor Kim had to be chauffeured to the game and missed out on all of the excitement. Having never been to a NFL game before I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly surprised to discover that we would be watching from Kim's suite, which was completely stocked with a full bar and enough food to feed half of the stadium. It was a great game... And The Saints won too!

Sunday we set out for home. I was eager to get back to see our little monkeys as they had been sick and vomiting the whole time we were away, so of course our flight was delayed and we arrived 3 hours later than scheduled...

More photos from New Orleans in the photo album. (link in the sidebar)

Sculpture Park

An escapee from the Trojan Pig!

Little Princesses

Annabelle's little friend Abby is really into princess stuff and dressing up. She has about 20 of these dresses, plus shoes, fans, tiaras, boas, the works. Actually, her 3rd birthday party was princess themed, and every little girl there was wearing a fancy dress... Except Annabelle who refused to put one on.

Annabelle has never shown much interest in the whole "princess" thing, and at the moment, doesn't really seem to be that much of a "girly" girl. She does some "girly" stuff... Likes wearing dresses, playing with dolls and having tea parties etc.., but she seems much more interested in sporty things. She's not overly into dress up and loves to play with balls, trains and cars. So I was surprised when Annabelle asked to wear a princess dress while we were over visiting her friends Abby and Mary Kate.

Here are the little princesses in their fancy dress! Annabelle wore her dress for about two minutes and then begged to take it off... Obviously she was more interested in playing with the little computer thingy than posing for the camera!

A Few Things To Work On In 2007

Nick asked me what my New Year's resolution was going to be this year and immediately the first thing that came to mind was to lose a few lbs. Such an easy answer, but also a boring one... Everyone says that. So I took back my answer and instead decided to make a list of things I would like to accomplish and work on in 2007. The list is ever growing and in no particular order:

1. Try to shower daily
2. Get dressed every day, even if failed at #1
3. Shave legs at least once a week
4. Eat less chocolate
5. Read more books
6. Try harder to keep up on current events
7. Repaint living room
8. Refinish bedroom furniture
9. Paint master bedroom
10. Paint exterior house trim
11. Make prints of all digital photos
12. Organize all digital photos (after printing) and put into photo albums
13. Frame (and hang) more photos
14. Complete at least 2 paintings
15. Continue with my quest to find the perfect Margarita
16. Make it a point to see people even when I'm feeling lazy
17. Stop being lazy
18. Get to the gym at least twice a week
19. Go to the movies more often
20. Get my hair cut more than once this year

Happy New Year!