I love it when we're running errands during naptime and I'm relieved Ryme's asleep. Most of the time when I peek under her cover I see this:

Those big blue eyes...definitely not sleeping!

3 years?!

We have 3 year olds living in our house. Several times a day, one of them will ask, "Mommy, I still 3?"

Brandon told them I'd make them each whatever kind of cake they wanted. I am no cake artist, but I did my best. My friend Tonee came up with this genius Thomas cake, since sculpting Thomas is clearly above my skill level. Her's was way cuter and more complex.

Tanzen requested a piggy cake, one that look just like his piggy.

I know you could guess what Kett wanted without my posting a pic...

Tanny supervising to ensure the cake looked just like Piggy.

We had a birthday party at the park with their friends. Ryme cooperated with the hat long enough for a picture...

Tanny wanted to eat every bite of his piece of piggy cake-- the other kids had long been on the playground and he was still working on it.

Kett playing "Engineer Says"...a very creative game, rather similar to Simon says.

They were really excited about their cakes. We were getting ready to leave our house for the party at the park, when Kett ran up excitedly holding his cake...frankly I was impressed he even managed to get it off the table! He slid it so Thomas crashed onto the cake, oh well!

Ryma-Ryma!

Ryme definitely has some major personality! She is determined to keep up with her brothers, and she's good at it! These chairs are her favorite hang out spot, she loves climbing them.

She insists on always standing up in her crib...sometimes this creates problems, as she'll stand up during the night and doesn't know how to let go in the dark.

This is my favorite Ryme smile, but it's hard to catch. It's a smile of pure delight-- she can't keep all her happiness in and opens her mouth to fully express it. She usually tucks her chin down right after she does it.

She loves to eat-- she often eats more than the boys at dinner...and prefers to have exactly what they're eating.

Fall leaves

We've been waiting anxiously for the fall leaves to start changing. My last fall on the east coast; I need to savor it as long as possible.

One day we'll rake piles of leaves off our grass and jump in them. For now we'll settle with running through them on the sidewalk.

My friend Katie joined us on our fall leaves walk-- the boys had been begging all day to go. This house is a favorite stop on our neighborhood walk-- I love all the little statues. The boys could look at them forever. I just love that the owner takes the time to put each little statue out on the grass.

Awesome.

What's more awesome than your dishwasher dying 9 months before you sell your house?
Having a friend who will help you install it's replacement...on his way home from the airport after being gone from his wife and kids for almost a week.

Thanks Larry! Makett and Tanzen would love to help you with another project...although we'd prefer it be a little smaller, like hanging a picture or something.

Run for Cancer!

Join us!!!

Well, we have to be there in spirit only...but join Radiating Hope!

ps...the cute guy in purple is my brother Tosh :)

Sorry, I'm sure this is getting repetitive for some of you! Just to summarize, Brandon started a non-profit, Radiating Hope, whose mission is to get life saving radiation equipment to developing countries where cancer is a crisis. For example, in Africa cancer kills more people than AIDS/HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined. 7 out of 10 cancer deaths globally are in developing countries. In the US we have one radiation machine for approximately 125,000 people. In Senegal, Africa, they have one very outdated machine for 13,000,000 people...and service ten surrounding countries as well.

We have a machine for them! But we need money to get it there! The linear accelerator is valued at over 1 million dollars, and we need to raise about $30,000 to get it there. This 5K is working toward that purpose.

Another way we raise funds is through the sponsoring of Tibetan Prayer Flags. For as little as $40, people can sponsor a prayer flag in honor of a cancer patient. The cancer patient’s initials are placed on the flag, and Radiating Hope’s mountaineering team carries these flags to the tops of peaks around the world, waving them at the top in the cancer patients’ honor. Patients and sponsors can follow the flags’ journey on our blog. More information about our prayer flag project can be found on our website.

Radiating Hope also has a mountaineering guide service. People of any skill level can raise tax-deductible pledges to climb with us. They can pick the climb and it’s associated pledge amount, raise the money, then use the gift card that comes with the package to get gear and enjoy a life changing climb with our guide service. Information on our climbs can be found on here. It's an awesome, almost free way to climb cool peaks like Kilimanjaro, Rainier, Aconcagua etc. People of all skill levels can find a climb that's right for them, with the bonus of helping those in other countries get the cancer care they need! Definitely a win-win!

Thanks!!! Help us spread the word to anyone who may be interested?

Oh- and check out our website, www.radiatinghope.org

Drinking buddies

They actually drink like this quite frequently.

Except their sippy cups are usually touching.

?

Not sure what the thought process was here, but it made me laugh! I love finding random things like this around the house...

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

"Art should not be segregated in museums; it needs to live free among us."

-Isaiah Zagar

We took the boys on an incredible tour of Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, which, try as I might, I couldn't capture in photos. You have to experience it...the pictures don't do justice to how extensive it is.

Check out this map of the murals Isaiah has all over the city.

This mural is of Isaiah's wife

As you walk through the various mosiac murals done over forty years, it's interesting to see how his work has evolved. It's cool to see all the various components...he'll push doilies into clay and paints the shapes they leave behind. Companies and people donate scraps of tile and glass for him to use.

I didn't realize we were going on such a long tour- there were alleyways, walls, and murals all around South street.

Did you know Philadelphia has more murals than any other city in the world?

Cars drive down these tiny narrow streets...

This building used to be a fire station, he left the brick exposed as a reminder of what it used to be, and the mural is in dedication to it and the civil rights movement. Fire houses used to be segregated, and this fire house was for black fire fighters. I had no idea.

Isaiah's artist statement:

I am 72 years old. I clearly remember the day I first saw Clarence Schmidt's rambling sculpture environment on a beautiful and breezy June day. I thought to myself, What is this? I had no categories, no frame of reference for it. There I stood, a third-year art student and I didn't know that I was looking at art. That was 1959.

A lot has changed in the art world, and a lot has changed in the real world. We now have a category for Clarence: vernacular artist. In 1970, after not seeing Clarence for five years, I visited Woodstock, New York where he lived and worked. His first words to me were, "I hear you are copying me in Philadelphia."

It is true to a certain extent; I have been copying Clarence my whole career, trying to make a total encyclopedic vision that has no parameters and no end. My work is marked by events and is a mirror of the mind that is building and falling apart, having a logic but close to chaos, refusing to stay still for the camera, and giving one a sense of heaven and hell simultaneously.

It is an impossible place, but strangely you can visit it and smile at that which you knew existed somewhere. Now you know that place is in Philadelphia, and you knew it all along, didn't you?