colorful philipsburg

we went to old street in philipsburg on friday.  it was probably our last trip to the port town and capital of the dutch side.  we tied in a little site seeing with a necessary trip to the health food store.  

 ezra and i sat on a bench and looked at this old yellow car.

  "look mama, a castle!"

 all of the buildings are colorful on this tiny street.

 our friends stopped for a sandwich at this little cafe,

 while we got a little closer to the castle

 and colorful buildings of this story book setting.

my creative space...

 a butterfly for bee on her birthday

 ezra stuck it to the kitchen slider all by himself

ezra drew this the other day without me.  it is his first drawing of so many stick figures with arms, legs, smiley faces including noses, and hair.  we were so excited to see this!

 sleeves for stella's cardi

 capturing the cruise ship's ride into the sunset

 and the boats that i see when i wake up and look out the living room window (notice how turquoise and clear the waters have become again?)

four granny squares that i happily finished in one night after my fourth attempt at learning how to do them properly.  i am going to use these to make these granny square slippers from the purlbee blog.

right now i am...

 grateful for delicious treats that are packed in cute boxes

 new friends to go places with

bright gingerbread houses, blue skies, and big puffy clouds

gray day

it was a gray day today.  my mood matched the color of the ocean and sky.  i woke up with a migraine.  the disaster isn't over yet in japan. it's time for bed now.  hopefully tomorrow will be a better day across the world.  

le galion in the evening

we arrived to le galion after 5:00.  with the tourists and lounge chairs gone and the sun going down behind the hills, the children played in the empty shallow waters while we sat and nearly shivered on the shaded sand.

the tide was so low these mounds of grass usually underwater rose out of the sea to be seen.

the children drew in the cool sand

and ezra sang while he drew - can you guess what it was?

"thomas the tank engine, rolling along!  thomas we love you! do di do da do!"

bianca said she drew zebras, cats, and dogs.

the sky kept changing color and cloud formations 

emma and melissa were enjoying it just as much as i was

cat held emma and remembered when bianca was so small.  the kids came over to all take a picture together and cat said she could pretend she had three beautiful children.

emma makes us all want babies again.

melissa and i

my last picture of the evening shows how much the colors changed from the first picture within one hour of our arrival.  it was a beautiful way to end the day and transition from day into night.

ilets de la baie de l'embouchure

yesterday we went out for a little island adventure with some friends. when we arrived to our destination, the islands of the baie de l'embouchure, we were welcomed by a herd of wild goats across the street on the rocky hillside.

after staring at the goats and being visited by one lone white goat in the parking lot, the children led us up the stairs to the lookout.  they immediately found this sign and were so excited to find this "treasure map."

baby emma was more excited to look out at the beautiful view from the comfort of her mama's pouch.

behind me in this picture you can see the larger of the two islands you can walk out to.  i am looking out at the neighboring island of st. barth's in the distance.

it was a clear and stellar view that day.

these two were raring to go so we made our way down

 to this perfectly shallow pathway for our little walkers.

they did quite well walking along the stony pathway and there was a lot of excitement in the air.

together we looked for treasure and found a sea urchin colony and some coral.

and once we were on the little island ezra spotted this "christmas tree" rock sculpture at the top.  the adventure continued at le galion for a lovely evening on the beach.