Grandma Cha Cha's(Eva') Birthday 2011

Miss Eva, Grandma Cha Cha, Mom, had a milestone birthday too. We celebrated in Dade City, Florida. We had a great time. We enjoyed lots of Latin Food, some Italian, the Cha Cha Slide dance, chess games.. swimming, swimming, swimming in the pool. My sister and her boys came too! It was big D Family Fest for our matriarch, Cha Cha. Please note, when asked what kind of cake she wanted.. she said.. "I would prefer one dozen Italian Zeppoles.... ".

She got her Zeppole

Happy Birthday Grandma Dream

Both Grandma's are celebrating milestone birthdays. They are 25!!!!!!!! We are excited for them. They had their kids sooo young(actually they both really did)! Here is Grandma Eileen's celebration pictures. It was fun! For me the icing on the cake( literally), was tasting my very first Daisy Cake. I will not lie, it was ABSOLUTELY the best piece of cake I have ever had! No joke. Period. End. While not born in the south after ten years of living here I know my southern stuff. You never doubt a southern lady baking with her grandma's receipes! I am a fan and so thankful Grandma Eileen chose a DaisyCake!

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Mason Turns 4

August has been quite an adventure. We traveled and celebrated birthdays big time. Mason, Grandma Dream, and Grandma Cha Cha all celebrated birthdays end of July and into August. Here is the first of several posts to catch you all up.

Side Note: Life at this moment is good. Very full, crazy, and I am content.

Mason is four now. Oh my dear Mason. He keeps us on our toes and channels members of the cosanostra with his various " I am too cool mannerisms".

Yet as my mother explained he is a sweet kid, who loves to hug and cuddle. He is my baby boy forever! A now a big four year old. Mason celebrated in school, with family and then with good buddies, Jerry and Jake who also recently turned four!

Breaking Bread

CJ has shown a lot of interest as of late in cooking and baking. One of his fave shows is Master Chef; so armed with that information I searched for something fun for he and I to do together. Just the two of us. A friend sent me a facebook link for lovely Giada's local art studio. I had that Ah-Ha Moment where I just thought.. "this would be so much fun for us both!" You all know anything kind of arty I love! and I am also becoming a foodie. I am a novice foodie who does not cook all that well but loves good food! Anyway, I digressed..... if your local you must take either an art class or cooking class with Miss Giada. If your on facebook you can see more information on her studio here

I kind of love anything Italian right now. A little tidbit on me... when life is challenging I run to anything comforting: food, nesting, flowers, poetry, books, travel magazines.... and of course

my therapy ( if only to window shop). When we visted with Giada, and we walked into her little Italian slice of heavenly home here in the south.. I seriously exhaled! And felt at home. She greeted us with a warm hug too! Life is challenging right now. But I bet it is for many of us. And we make it through.. with a little faith, family,food and for some

therapy

But I disgress yet again. Look at this bread!

Family First: Lake Wylie with "R" Family

Allow me to share a secret with you and everyone else on the internet( ha ha ha).... We Povs have lived five minutes from Lake Wylie and have never visited! I suppose life happens and you are so busy doing stuff;we just never visited( until this month). This lake is glorious! You can feel God's great presence! Honestly, as much as I adore traveling and seeing new places and new cultures, (and have a long list of places to see), I still am in awe of Charlotte. It has a combination of some city life(small but some) and then a world of nature. We are not far from mountains and the beach. And we have this majestic lake five minutes from our home! Thank you dear R... family for inviting us! We are still talking about how much fun we Povs had! I found myself staring and staring in awe of this beautiful place. The word that comes to mind for me is MAJESTIC and the R's are a fun,easy going family... who made the experience just peaceful and so fun!

Boys being boys......

We were away for a large portion of June and into July and the boys were missing their friends. I promised a play date with a few buddies as soon as we could. So with that, we recently had some really good buddies over. CJ invited the "crew" over. The crew is his group of friends from Mrs. S's kindergarten class. Mason had good buddy "J" over. They had pizza, watched Star Wars 3, ate popcorn and even had some impromtu dancing and sillyness. It was fun! And my level of knowledge of Star Wars continues to improve! Who would have thought??????

Borrowed Nikon - Thank you Rachel!

My dear friend Rachel let me borrow an extra Nikon SLR ( single lens reflex = great quality camera) she has! I love it. I will never go back to a small digital camera! I really love taking pictures and with the Nikon wow the quality immediately improves(even for a novice)!

I love creating and taking pictures feeds that love of mine! I am a wanna be artist! I am not the most talented with a needle or sewing machine by far but I love taking pictures. I also love clothing and creating art via my clothes and I love blogging. Each of these, feed my love of creating something of my own and my desire to be very present to a moment! I can see a good picture in my head before it happens, or as its happening.

I am lucky that God helps me attract good people my way. The fact that Rachel would lend me her camera kind of blows me away. I am saving to buy it or one like it!


( the mess in the back is me cleaning out my closet - again!)