HAPPY LEAP DAY!!!

And Happy 2nd birthday to Cousin Kendall, who was born a week after Em, but is 6 parties behind her in the present-opening race.

We celebrated the LEAP day but doing lots of jumping around the house, off the steps, and in and out of various hoops. Dinner was a celebration at Moghul, where we ate far too much lovely Indian food. There were more tikka masala, paneer, and naan variations than our family could eat in two days.

Here's for a great and peaceful March into Spring.

Swimmingly Good Times

The big kids celebrated their birthdays last weekend in a joint YMCA swimming pool party. We had a small crowd, mostly girls, and lots of great fun. The PisecoClan came, with PisecoBabe hauling her wonderful camera. There was great enthusiasm about the swimming, the home-made cakes, and the gifts.

Those wacky Pisecofolk also gifted Emily with the promise of a future Daisy Rock guitar (shipping times were lagging and it did not arrive for the party) to match the Hannah Montana wristwatch in her gift bag. She was ecstatic when she found the note on the back of the watch after the party was over.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend an evening celebrating the completion of one more year of crazy living for two of our growing monsters.

Very Veggie Congratulations...

Congratulations to Annick, who won the random drawing for Dave and the Giant Pickle. The kids and I had a great time choosing a random-number engine online and using it to select from our very small pool of applicants.

Annick, if you read this, please email leigh@oncraftcreek.com to schedule delivery of your prize. Alexa, if YOU read this, pass on the information to Annick, please.

~L

A Very Green Giveaway- Veggietales

There are few things more inspirational than singing vegetables. Despite our shunning of traditional religion, my children have a strong love of Big Idea's Veggietales. We have the entire collection on DVD, and they've been playing regularly for many, many years. These movies probably have the longest "lifespan" of anything in our rather generous collection.

My kids love the novelty of talking produce, and the crazy music. I love the none-too-subtle wordplay and the irreverent way the introduce morality lessons.

We've ended up with a spare copy, still unopened, of Veggie Tale's Davey and the Giant Pickle.



This is our first bloggie giveaway since we switched to Blogspot. Just post a comment, including a valid email address, to enter. The contest will run through February 14th, just because that's easy for me to remember. The winner will be chosen via random number selection (courtesy of the internet).

Have fun!

~Leigh

Kung Hey Fat Choi/Gong Si Fa Cai

May you all have a happy, prosperous and wonderful New Year.

Anybody else celebrating Chinese New Year tonight/this week? We had a wonderful New Year's Eve tonight, and my kids finally crashed after midnight which, according to tradition, means DH and I should live long lives.

Tomorrow we're eating a huge veggie feast and playing games all day. I've hidden the brooms, knives, and scissors and gotten the last of the dishes clean before putting out the disposable dinnerware. Everyone bathed and I've ironed and laid out the new clothes for morning. There are 2 dozen GORGEOUS roses on my dining room table, and a stunning orchid in our living room. Oranges, clementines, mangos, coconut, sesame balls, lychee, and candy are tucked in into their red and gold boxes on the table.

The kids went to bed happy and tired, and clutching their lai see (hong bao if you're Mandarin-speakers) in their hands. According to them, they're "richer than kings today".

Tomorrow there's no cleaning or cooking and I'll be trying to abstain from internet since I've promised myself that I'll try my best to be completely in the moment with the family during this holiday, which is the most important one of the year for most of our family. It will be good to feel almost obligated to simply enjoy time with family and not be rushing around to sweep up crumbs or wash dishes or do another load of laundry. Of course, I'll pay for that on Saturday when I have a 2 day backup of everything....but that's Saturday and today is the first day of the New Year so I'm not going to dwell on tomorrows until I've fully experienced today.

Here's a link to see the dragon:
Dragon Dance

Sweet dreams and, again, Happy New Year to all of my friends!
~L

How about some cuteness...

Christmas came and went in it's normal whirl of insanity, and I forgot (again!) to get cards ready to send in time for the holiday. I think I've made the mistake of trying to do it all myself, from photography to design and printing, for the last time.

The Purple Stork is a great place to get custom designed holiday cards, party invitations and adoption or birth announcements.

Rosemary is creative, affordable, and her work is always professional. Next year, with help from The Purple Stork, I think I'll have my holiday cards out just after Thanksgiving. It will be a holiday MIRACLE!

~L