Amanda's latest production has closed.  Into the Woods was a dance-light show, so I only came up a few times.  It's still great to be a part of the show.

Celebrating at one of our old regular dinner joints.  We miss you, Bri-bri.

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to the costume exhibit at the Denver Art Museum.  I recommend seeing it if you can.  We all enjoyed it in different ways.  They didn't have much for kids - some buttons to press for noises or light sabers.  But they seemed to appreciate that they were seeing the real deal from the movies.  I discussed with Jack how different the Chewbacca costume was here compared to the one we met in Disney World.  Sam liked the full body costumes like Ewoks and Yoda and Darth Vader.  I was gaga over the extensive Queen Amidala collection.   Ben was recovering from the flu but still enjoyed himself enough to let me blather on about the use of raw silk versus linen on the Jedi robes.  And the pleats!  I couldn't stop gushing about the varied pleating on Padme's wardrobe.

This is a post for grandmothers.  It's a long, uncut video of Sam playing his own version of Chess/Checkers ("Check!") while Jack builds LEGO nearby.  I'm knitting socks behind the camera.

Oh baking, how I missed you!

I had to tidy up for the Oscar party tonight; a great time to snap pictures of my favorite place.

Untidy and poorly lit, but full of love.  This is the Saturday morning kitchen of my dreams.

Glamour shots of the kitchen still in progress.  For now we live here, and we love it.

FINALLY the house is done.  There's plenty of this and that for me to fiddle with, but the contractor work is DONE!  My kitchen is gorgeous.  I haven't finished putting things away and art on the wall, I'll share pictures later.  Oh yeah, my birthday was this week too.  I got mega sick on my birthday: the small cold I sported for a week already blossomed into a fever.  That was a bummer.  And the work isn't PERFECT.  There's lots of little things that bother me that I'll have to find solutions for myself, or accept and learn from my mistakes.  Even so, it's a million times better than my old kitchen.  When I'm feeling better I'll bust out some baking.  For now, I'm happy to have a load of dishes running and a sink near the fridge-near the dishes-near the counter-near the trash.