The Fine Line Between Fun and Over Scheduling

Hi! So quick monthly recap here:

Went on a 9 Bride Bachelorette weekend at a lovely vacation rental house on the river in Guerneville CA...

We squeezed in a ton of stuff like redwood hiking, spa treatments, wine tasting, and late night drunk hula hoop making and mehndi temp tattooing...


I got weirdly crafty before the event, and asked each bride for her fav color and attempted to make earrings to match each gal. At the event itself it became one of those goofy shower games where everyone tried to match the earring to the woman. Whee, geeky fun!



Since then The Hubzand and I took a wee Staycation, and kept the kiddo in daycare whilst we lounged about the house for a week! Highly recommended! We also spent two nights over at Bass Lake (where I used to backpack guide), got our mountain bikes all fixed up, and took a lovely ride here!

Then the next week the SKOOGS came to visit, and there was good food, hand knit hats, mountain biking, toddler biking, and a general lovely time!






And of course Auntie Rena was here to spoil Tank Boy silly! Yay Auntie! Sorry 'bout the lack of photos!

And then, in some sort of scuffle slash tug of war over a tonka truck, Tank Boy managed to knock out his best friend's two front teeth.

Yes, he's doing fine, no they won't let us pay their dental bills.

And then there was this music festival yesterday (With the always lovely Lusetta and her ever adorable Toby), and today yet another head cold for Tank and myself. And I'm spent!

And next time the bittersweet update on Sunny and Share...

Yes! We Did Survive!

Our little hoop troop made our spectacular, sparkly and flashy mark on the Labor Day Parade, unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I'm still waiting for some other folks pictures. Here's the one picture Tank Poppa took of us, um... a few minutes after we had passed him!
It was crazee hot and sunny, but we managed to not lose anyone to heat stroke, fortunately! (Not even the pregnant gal!) In the end I did have help with the costumes, another gal made 4 of the 10 skirts, thank heavens! All the neighbors came out to support us and cheer for us, which was great! Not that I expect grand prize or anything, but we were so hot and thirsty afterward that we totally forgot to attend the award ceremony! I know we rocked that parade, and were much more exciting to see than yet another fire engine! (And we were almost as loud!) And we carried these snazzy signs, made by yours truly. (P.S. Thanks to all the friends and family members that I grilled endlessly about what vegetable slogans were the funniest!)All in all it was a wonderful success and I have a whole crew of folks I can now call on to do crazy things with me! Yay Suziehulahoop!

Odd Assortments

Hi there! Did I mention that Tank Boy is fully bipedal now? He walks around and does stuff and plays with things.



See? Did you notice there near the end when he pretended to wipe his butt with my camera case? I have no idea where he got that. He seems to do it fairly often. Odd.

Speaking of odd things I am still working away at getting my hoop group together for the Labor Day parade. I think we have the bare minimum of participants now, and all I have to do is... umm.... sew all the costumes, order the tee shirts, finish making all the hoops, get the folks together to decorate the hoops when the expensive box of sparkle tape arrives, and well, you know, actually march in the parade. I was a hopin' and a wishin' that one of the participants would step in and assist with the aforementioned odd myriad of tasks, but so far, no one is toeing that line. So a week from now, when I have three days left to get everyone costumed, hooped and decorated, pop in and send a word or two of encouragement, okay? Thanks!

I did make a vegetable soundtrack last night (as we are hooping in support of the local organic farm coalition) and I have to say that I was almost taken aback at the number of vegetable themed songs available on iTunes. It made an eclectic yet catchy mix. Everything from bluegrass to reggae, Beach Boys to G Love. Odd. Yet catchy.

Small Victories

SV#1
So you know that drawer, or cabinet, or sac that everyone has where they stash the almost unavoidable accumulation of plastic grocery bags? I would like to state for the record that as of right now, I am no longer in possession of any of the above! I feel that I have slayed the modern cabinet dragon of petroleum product consumption! Yay Me, er, us, er Tank Family. I have always tried to be a schlepper of cloth grocery bags, but now that we are getting the weekly (organic! local!) veggie box (which is housed in a little rubbermaid tub that we return for the next week) there is even less opportunity for forgetting and getting stuck, er... um... holding the bag, as it were. And I get to try exciting cooking experiments, such as "what the heck is this okra crap and what on earth am I going to do with it?" And you know, more than half the time, the answer is fry it in butter. Hard to go wrong with that!

SV#2
Little Tank has been a bit fussbudgetty for a few days, culminating in a refusal to nap at day care yesterday, and we figured out why last night. His fifth tooth has just come in, and it looks like number six is hot on its heels. Yay Tankster!

SV#3
And finally... I have now officially found two other local women who are willing to go do this with me. Yay us!

Not currently a victory, but a project in the works: I have decided to try and rally enough local women to do a hoop group in the Labor Day Parade. So far I have lots of nibbles on the line, but I am still a bit shy of the quota for fish in the basket. Wish me luck, or better yet, come on out and join me!

Punkin's, Pinwheels, And Pantylines

This past week has just been a huge weekend for the Tank Family. First there was hanging with the friends in Nevada City...


Then Quality Family Time in our fav' town of Truckee...

Then on to the major event of the the week for me! The Fourth of July Parade... Which we "won" for the second year in six. Due entirely to this, I'm sure... I have to say that this year some of the (wonderful, super nice, great, sweet and fun loving) ladies seemed a bit confused as to where on their shorts the letter was painted, hence a hint toward pornography... You'll notice that I seem to be the most staunchly conservative gal there, not only NOT bending over suggestively, but also sporting the industrial panty lines. Sometimes I can be frighteningly uptight.


Our lovely support crew was there making it all possible...


Then the drive home was punctuated with lovely stops at scenic places like Tenaya lake, with perfect breezy balmy temps and clear blue mountain lakes...
Lastly, Tank and I dropped Poppa off in El Portal where the temps were a bit more than balmy at over 110 at 5 pm... Yikes! And guess what, its Friday! Lets hope the party never ends!