Category Archives: Photography

This Is Seven

Inspired by a post I read on Ali Edward’s blog, I decided to interview each of my children. I was going to wait until their birthday’s but things change so quickly around here that I decided to just do it now. I’m sure the answers will be different in just a few short months.

I interviewed both boys at the same time but next time I’ll try and do them separately. You’ll see someone similarities in their responses. Samuel, for instance,was thrilled to discover that Candy could be considered a favorite food after Thomas added it to his list.

The most surprising part of this process for me, was realizing how excited they each were to answer my questions. They asked for more after I was done.

Today’s responses come from my favorite seven year old. 4 (and a half) year old answer will be posted tomorrow.

Thomas at Seven 

My favorite food: Candy and Pizza
My favorite movie: Harry Potter
The coolest person on earth: My family
My favorite thing to do at school: Choosing time and drawing
The thing I do most awesomley: Everything
If I could go anywhere in the world, I’d go to: Legoland and Disneyland
My favorite color: Yellow, gold and silver
When I grow up, I’m going to become: A ninja
The thing my parents are too strict about: Too much video game and TV time
My favorite band: The Beatles
The book I’m reading: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Three words that describe me: Funny, clever and strong
When I was little, I used to: Pee on my Mum and Dad
My favorite season of the year: Autumn
The snack I could live on: Candy and Pizza
The food that makes me want to puke: Tomatoes
My best friend: Kentaro, Aiden, Peter, Nick, Raiu, Max, Grant, Charlie, Carter
If I had one wish it would be: That candy would be good for you
My best memory is: When I was playing with Grant

Screw You St. Valentine, but Thanks for the Love Notes

For me, Valentine’s Day isn’t about love and flowers and chocolates (although I unexpectedly received some chocolates this year). o, for a mother of two school-age children who happens to live in America, Valentine’s Day is about making a last-minute stop at the store to buy packs of Valentines that are really just cleverly disguised advertisements for superhero merchandise. It’s about making your children write their name and, for Thomas someone else’s name, on 25-27 valentines over three evenings because that is just too many to do in one night after school. It’s about the crazy mess that is distributing said valentines to individual envelopes at 8am when you’ve already missed the first school bell. I also carpool so add one more child to the mix and that’s at least 75 valentine cards to be distributed before 8:30am.

Somewhere, St. Valentine is sitting up in the clouds and laughing at the chaos he created. It’s enough for me to come up with a Bah Humbug! alternative for this very special, most romantic, day of the year.

Still, this year did bring a couple of unexpectedly sweet Valentine moments thanks to a couple of boys who now have the ability to write and who have way more sentimentality than their mother.

Like this little surprise message from Samuel. Who says you can’t say it on a post-it note?

And he was kind enough to give me really long legs.

Thomas wrote a very special Valentine for his crush. Translation: To Sabrina. From Thomas. 2013.

It came complete with a photograph of himself, of course. I love that he calls out the day and date of their last playtime.

And then finished off with a heart.

Both boys have been working on letter writing at school so I also want to share a couple of special notes that we’ve received over the last few days.

From “your friend” Samuel. I’m particularly impressed by the hiragana.

And this one from “your son” Thomas.

Receiving letters from my boys may be my new favorite thing, but I don’t need them with a side of candy hearts.

 

Cargo PDX: The (Other) Happiest Place on Earth.

The boys and I took full advantage of our MLK holiday, first by sleeping in and taking our time getting dressed, and then with a no stress trip downtown. While our ultimate destination was Powells (by popular demand), I decided to take the boys on a little side visit to Cargo. They were hesitant at first but as soon as we walked in it was like angels started singing – or perhaps Buddhist chants would have been more appropriate as you’ll see below.

Thomas took it upon himself to try on every hat in the store, as well as a few masks, and then request a photo.

I think this one is Samuel although, honestly, it’s sometimes difficult to tell them apart even without masks on.

Then they both proceeded to pray to every single Buddha in the store. Yet somehow I missed getting a good shot of them both in action – blame low light and fast-moving kids.

Although there’s something I love about this photo of Thomas.

Cargo is not all about hats and Buddhas. It’s like one massive treasure box. Every corner you turn brings new surprises – furniture, toys, mirrors, Kimonos, lanterns, fake birds in cages…

The kids had fun but lacked the stamina to stay as long as I would have liked – especially not after I mentioned the word cookie.

So much fun, and we didn’t have to spend a cent… well, apart from the cookie.

View From the Top: A Hike Around Powell Butte

Today has been a strange one to say the least. Half of my family is sick at home while I’m navigating work craziness. It seems the only person who is even close to normal right now is Samuel and that’s saying something.

As for the weekend… well we had a great Australia Day on Saturday and it went a little downhill from there, complete with some flooding in the basement thanks to a blocked drain. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed but just enough to push a good weekend into not-so-good territory.

So, while I work on uploading photos from our eat-our-way-through-Australia-day, I’ll cheer myself up by sharing some more photos from Powell Butte. Yes, it was weeks ago and, yes, I’ve already posted my photos of Mt Hood from this location, but it’s always a good idea to post photos of a sunny winter adventure when you need a pick-me-up.

It’s also a reminder that blue skies always return eventually.

Not the best photo of Thomas but I like it because he resembles Bigfoot.

Note to self: remove the camera bag before taking a shadow self-portrait.

 

 

Today’s Photo of Two Boys Getting Along

Back to work today after a relaxing long weekend that included swimming lessons, a day at the outlet mall where I didn’t buy anything at all for myself (we took some of Kei’s international colleagues) and a nice, relaxing MLK day with my boys.

I captured this photo while we were out for dinner on Sunday night at a very nice Portland restaurant. It was the type of place where we prepped the boys beforehand about there being no yelling, running around or otherwise drawing attention to themselves. And they both behaved beautifully, even after one of our phones ran out of battery and they were forced to share.

I asked them afterward what they thought about the restaurant. Samuel said the view of the city was the best part. Thomas liked that the servers dressed in suits and ties. When you live in Portland, that’s something you don’t see every day.