peacock

election

I went to bed last night disenfranchised and disappointed, but I woke up this morning refusing to feel afraid.
I am an educated, Hispanic, small-business-owning woman raising two little girls in this confusing and tumultuous time. While our journey may have become more challenging, our convictions have not wavered. My husband and I will continue to raise empowered, educated, compassionate children.
We strapped on those backpacks this morning and sent these little ladies out into the world to find knowledge and their own voices. They will not be oppressed. They will not be tyrannized. They will not be demoralized. They will be fierce!


Sadly, this same afternoon I spent some time on the phone with the local police. Two young men in a large truck flying an American Flag and a confederate flag stopped traffic outside my studio. They were screaming hate rhetoric at the customers. My studio is between a Little Monkey Business and a Pigtails and Crewcuts. The audience was mostly children. Disgusting! 

I think perhaps the hate was always there, but now it has a voice and perceived permission. This is not ok with me. This is horrendous and I won’t be complacent. Additional patrols have been scheduled for my studio and we will continue to stand up for what is right. Be safe. Be fierce. 

mother daughter tea party

The girls and I signed up for a Mommy and Daughter Tea Party hosted by a local girl scout troop. The girls have been together since 1st grade and are now Freshman in high school. They have their hearts set on a trip to Hawaii and are raising money to fund their trip. I hope we can help them more in the future. It’s a great cause and I love having this time with my girls. 
Our seating cards (my girls are use to their names being spelled wrong..especially Gwyneth)
We talked and drank tea and made little pictures together. It was sweetly quiet with just enough fancy. 
My Annabelle. She started with peppermint tea and then stole my orange tea. I don’t mind though. I kinda like her. 
Gwyneth loved the orange tea. 
We rocked at the sugar cube stacking game. We came in first place on the first game. Have I mentioned that Annabelle and I are both a bit competitive? 
Annabelle finished up her diorama on the Song Dynasty. I’m so proud of her for doing her own project. She did the research and found the pictures. She did all the cutting, pasting, hanging, etc. She did  a great job! 

tylers

After Reagan’s party we zipped over to meet the Tyler crew for dinner. We grabbed tacos at La Cochina – yum, yum, yum. We had a nice time catching up. I wished we could have stayed a few more hours. 
The restaurant is in an old gas station and they have done some fun things with the decor. I loved this pig and asked the kids to pose in front of it for me. It started out quite innocently and then escalated to a mad photo session. The silliest pictures are always my favorites. 

Ms. Sheila getting in on the fun. 

spa day for reagan

We joined Reagan at her house for a fabulous spa day. She celebrated her birthday with friends and family. Aunt Jen put together a wonderful party for the girls. Reagan kept saying “this is the girliest party I’ve ever had”. It was so great to see her so happy and enjoying herself. 
Cheers to Reagan! 
Aunt Jen was on nails duty.

I was on hair duty. I did a LOT of braids. I promised Reagan a braid when her hair grows back in. 
Ryan was an awesome big brother and helped serve drinks for all the girls. 
Such a good sport. 
The party guests

Present time.
“This one is from you Aunt Kelly” Ha!
This makes my heart so freakin’ happy.
I caught her at just the right moment and what a shot of her and her monkey.

Cousins
A superwoman cake is very, very fitting
Love this family and how brave and strong they are together!

brownies: inventing room

Gwyneth’s troop had a meeting downtown tonight. We met for dinner at the Mellow Mushroom and then went to the Inventing Room for delicious treats. It was a family affair. Parents joined — including B and Annabelle and we all made a night of it. 
Pizza time!

We walked the 8 blocks over to the Inventing room for a blend of science and treats. Gwyneth has been waiting since Annabelle’s troop went last year. She couldn’t have been more excited.

They gave the girls a tasting of the nitro popcorn when they walked in to the shop. So much excitement.

Annabelle and Jenna ordered really, really cold cheetos

Kate and Bella with the Twizzler Space Foam 

Brielle with cherry cotton candy
I don’t think he likes this picture, but I love it!!
Gwyneth with her hot chocolate and exploding whipped cream
Amy and I shared a Mexican Fried Ice Cream with frozen caramel sauce. (I have to admit it was fun,, but just ok)
Zoe and Rylie with bubble gum cotton candy

Annie with her chocolate cotton candy
Another fun night with great girls and their families. 

trunk or treat

Tonight was the big night at school – TRUNK OR TREAT. 
I’m no fan of Halloween. Never have been, never will be. I do love that my girls still enjoy the dress up. They enjoy the cute, fun costumes instead of the blood and gore. (Did I mention that I HATE to be scared! Using the word hate here…) 
I do love Trunk or Treat at the girls’ school though. Their school is small and a great little community. The event is the perfect size with friends and families attending. It’s not overwhelming. Just a few cars, games, dancing, cake walk, pizza and cookies. 
B and I each decorated our cars and the girls got to run around all night with their friends. It was nearly 80 degrees for the festivities — what’s up Colorado? Where the heck is fall? If you skip right over fall and go straight to snowy winter I’m going to be T.O.’ed! 
Our little Tootsie Roll
Our Flapper Girl
Sweet Sisters:
the fringe is the best part of her costume:
trying to be a spooky tootsie roll. nice try, goofy girl: 
love this little tootsie roll:
man, this girl is 9 going on 19:
Ready to party: 
the trunk winner of the night: the kids love the twister theme and the costumes were so, so festive: 
the Ford family. Kylie is in Annabelle’s class:
Rare family photo and I love it. Our ttrunks were pretty boring simple. Mine was covered in webs and lots of spiders. B’s was pretty gross…bloody kitchen tools and body stumps. We’re going to step it up next year because the girls really want a theme. They have already started planning…
Annabelle’s friend Samantha hurt this leg and Annabelle has been happily helping her get around at school. She offers to carry her lunch, folders, musical instrument etc. Tonight she carried her bucket for her so they could both collect candy. 
Samantha’s family
Ready to trunk or treat:
Gwyneth and her friend Kat. How cute do they look???
B was generous with the candy, naturally making him very popular!!
Cars are ready. Bring on the trunk or treaters: 
Enjoying pizza and lemonade:
With their teacher Ms. Certain, who we absolutely love, love, love. She has been amazing for both of our girls:
Another shot of the 4th grade crew: 
The girls had a wonderful time with their friends. 
Tonight was declared the best trunk or treat ever. 
This picture is really dark and kind of a throw away but I love how Gwyneth stands out so bright white in her costume!
Back home the girls sorted and traded their Halloween candy…and then quickly hid it from us. Smart, smart girls! 

halloween dances

The girls take dance two nights a week for a total of four classes. Each of the classes had a dance performance the last 10 minutes of class. They are not in the same classes this year, but luckily the classes combined to watch performances. We couldn’t be more appreciative of that because our plan was to split up and video the performances. So much better to be all together! 
Gwyneth’s ballet performance

Annabelle’s pom routine. She in the back center in the orange shirt. Look at all that sass!

Gwyneth’s pom performance with her friend Paige. This is their 5th year dancing together. Love it! (I didn’t get a picture of Annabelle’s ballet routine – it was a packed house and I didn’t have a good angle for her. She did great though!)
2nd night of performances were tap and jazz. 
Annabelle and Makayla after jazz. 
Gwyneth and Ella after tap and jazz. These girls are besties and dance together on Tuesdays. Gwyneth is so excited that Ella has joined her.


It has been a wild week, quite full of responsibilities and deadlines. I pick the girls up from school and bring them a snack because they are so hungry and usually quite grumpy until they get something to eat. Thursdays they swim after school so they are especially tired and grumpy and hungry. I showed up without snacks, which is obviously not the end of the world but I could see they felt just as worn out from the week as I did. 
Forgotten snacks = a stop to Dairy Queen across from school. Every now and again it’s a good choice to ruin your dinner and have some special time together…and eat ice cream. Ice cream is good. 

malloween

WHAT. A. DAY. 
We are kicking off the holiday season around here. From now until New Years we will be going strong with our businesses. We started it off right and had a great time. Today we had Malloween at the mall where about 3,000 kids came out to trick or treat. We had lots of kids swing by and Annabelle was a big helper handing out candy. She was pretty amazing really. 

Gwyneth and Ella painted peacocks
Afterwards we went for lunch and a few treats

We dropped Ella off at home, took Gwyneth for a playdate at her friend Ruby’s, and then went to visit B at the neighborhood fall festival. He had a big ol’ booth going and he was super busy. We didn’t want to get in his way, but it was nice to see him and his crew in action.

Annabelle and I went back to Color Me Mine to see how the day was going. It had quieted down a bit so Annabelle and I sat down to paint. She just really wanted to spend some quality time and I was happy to be there with her too. It was a busy day, but I’m really proud of how this family pulls together. I sure do love these folks.