Dear Finding Bonggamom,
I've been neglecting you lately, and I'm sorry. I've been posting less and less, not because nothing's been happening in our lives -- I still get that "This would make a great blog post!" feeling once or twice a day -- but because too much has been happening in other parts of my life!
So what's your competition, you may wonder? What sort of new mistresses have been vying for my attention? Well, there's real life, of course. Volunteering for 3 kids' classes has taken up a big chunk of my time, as do their after-school activities, especially during this holiday show season (The Pea just finished her Nutcracker performance last week, and she and Jammy have their holiday ice show this week). I wish I could say that I've been increasing my housework efforts, but Alfie will pounce on this lie so quickly I won't even have time to turn on the vacuum cleaner. Actually, what with houseguests and dirty soccer uniforms and lice-ridden bedding, I have been doing quite a bit more laundry these past few months, but it's all been sitting on the folding table, gathering wrinkles, in our laundry closet.
I continue to write for the SV Moms Blog, SavvySource and Filipina Moms Blog (and I have to admit that sometimes I save my "This would make a great blog post!" moments for posts on those blogs, and you've lost out). I've also added a couple of new commitments to my blogging activities (Did I mention I'm a Sprint Momspotter? and a Group Manager for the SavvySource Silicon Valley Parents Group?). But really, dear Finding Bonggamom Blog, the biggest time-suck has been doing product reviews and giveaways on your little sister, my review blog, Bonggamom Finds. Traffic to my review blog, Bonggamom Finds, has been growing and so have the product pitches.
So what has Bonggamom Finds got that you don't, dear blog? Some reviews have been compensated, but most aren't. All I get from these are free stuff to try out, which I don't consider as payment for writing posts; rather it's a tool to aid me in writing posts. Some of the free stuff is pretty awesome, but the time I spend reviewing a product or writing a post is not dependent on how much the product is worth, and I've raved about $3 products just as much as I have about $100 products. And I'll admit, it's flattering to be contacted and pitched, just like a country bumpkin might be flattered by the attentions of the rich city slicker who drops by her little corner of the world. But honestly, I get my review blogging kicks from discovering and falling in love with new products that people pitch to me, and from being able to give away products to lots of people, and from seeing my blog stats grow.
But it's getting quite overwhelming, and more and more I'm feeling the need to pay more attention to you. I want to just update family and friends on what we're doing. Just post amusing stories and fun photos about our life. Just reflect on my experiences as a parent who's trying to keep her sense of self. In other words, just blog.
I still love you; you've always been there for me, to absorb my frustrations and my need to shout out to the world how great my kids are, or how my life sucks. Thank God you're not going anywhere!
Love ya,
bonggamom
You're Invited to a Style Lab Twitter Party
Great news: Bonggamom Finds is partnering with Ubisoft to bring you a Twitter Party that's stylish and girly and oh-so-fun. We're talking fashion, makeovers, and games girls play. We're talking moms, daughters, sleepovers and manicures. And we're talking prizes!
What: a Style Lab Twitter party
When: Tuesday, December 15th, 5:00 - 6:00 pm PST
Where: Chat with us on Twitter using the hashtag #games4girls (you can use services like Tweetchat or Tweetgrid to follow the conversation)
Head over to the Twitter Party post on Bonggamom Finds to see the great prizes you can win........
What do you get your child's teacher for Christmas?
Each year since kindergarten, The Pea has declared her current teacher to be "The Best Teacher Ever", and I must admit I've adored all her teachers so far. The fact that they are full of praise for The Pea and her talents probably has a lot to do with it, but they've also been open about areas where she can improve and how we can help her progress at home. I credit her teachers for making classroom learning fun and exciting, and for challenging The Pea to be the best Pea she can possibly be. 3Po and Jammy are having similar experiences with their own teachers and at this point I can safely say our school is blessed to have great teachers, and my kids will have great learning experiences no matter which classroom they end up in.
So when the holidays roll around, I like to think extra-hard about what kinds of presents to get them. We don't have a big budget for holiday presents, but I always like to get my kids' teachers a little something. The eternal question is, what? What would a teacher appreciate? Candy or baked goods is always my first impulse -- but imagine getting 20 boxes of chocolate! The same goes for #1 Teacher mugs, soap-on-a-rope and other useless trinkets. If you've got the same dilemma, here are 4 ideas that work for me:
1) Contribute a small amount of cash along with other parents in the class and get a gift card to Starbucks, Target, a spa or some other . As a room parent I have never advocated specifying a set amount of money since I know different parents can afford different amounts; I think any amount you can give, be it $5 or $25, will be appreciated.
2) My friend and fellow Office Max blog panelist Heather (the Tween Teacher), wised me up about giving school supplies to teachers. I had no idea that so many teachers had to pony up their own cash to buy school supplies for their kids! So ask your teacher if she needs anything for her class -- be it a ream of paper, a couple of ink cartridges or a box of file folders -- and get it for her. Or get a gift card to an office supply store.
3) Who doesn't like flowers? Flowers always make me feel special, and a vase of flowers on the dining room table always makes me feel a wee bit closer to Martha Stewart -- and I can't think that any teacher, male or female, would feel any different.
4) What are we giving teachers this year? Nothing. To be more precise, I'm planning to buy something from Manila and give it to my kids' teachers when we come back in January. I'm sure I can find some native pendants or scarves that won't cost a lot of money but are unique and meaningful because they come from a country that The Pea has ties to.
If anyone has other good teacher gift ideas, I'd love to hear them! Let's work together to make sure no teacher gets a ceramic apple paperweight this holiday season!
This post was inspired by teacher/author Phil Done's experience of receiving a present shaped like a box of candy, freezing it and taking out months later, only to find out that it was actually a tie. It's all chronicled, along with other hilarious and touching stories, in his latest book, Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind. Read my review of this book on Bonggamom Finds, and head on over to the Silicon Valley Moms Blog to read how this book inspired other moms.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Phil Done last summer; the views and opinions expressed in my review are my own.
So when the holidays roll around, I like to think extra-hard about what kinds of presents to get them. We don't have a big budget for holiday presents, but I always like to get my kids' teachers a little something. The eternal question is, what? What would a teacher appreciate? Candy or baked goods is always my first impulse -- but imagine getting 20 boxes of chocolate! The same goes for #1 Teacher mugs, soap-on-a-rope and other useless trinkets. If you've got the same dilemma, here are 4 ideas that work for me:
1) Contribute a small amount of cash along with other parents in the class and get a gift card to Starbucks, Target, a spa or some other . As a room parent I have never advocated specifying a set amount of money since I know different parents can afford different amounts; I think any amount you can give, be it $5 or $25, will be appreciated.
2) My friend and fellow Office Max blog panelist Heather (the Tween Teacher), wised me up about giving school supplies to teachers. I had no idea that so many teachers had to pony up their own cash to buy school supplies for their kids! So ask your teacher if she needs anything for her class -- be it a ream of paper, a couple of ink cartridges or a box of file folders -- and get it for her. Or get a gift card to an office supply store.
3) Who doesn't like flowers? Flowers always make me feel special, and a vase of flowers on the dining room table always makes me feel a wee bit closer to Martha Stewart -- and I can't think that any teacher, male or female, would feel any different.
4) What are we giving teachers this year? Nothing. To be more precise, I'm planning to buy something from Manila and give it to my kids' teachers when we come back in January. I'm sure I can find some native pendants or scarves that won't cost a lot of money but are unique and meaningful because they come from a country that The Pea has ties to.
If anyone has other good teacher gift ideas, I'd love to hear them! Let's work together to make sure no teacher gets a ceramic apple paperweight this holiday season!
This post was inspired by teacher/author Phil Done's experience of receiving a present shaped like a box of candy, freezing it and taking out months later, only to find out that it was actually a tie. It's all chronicled, along with other hilarious and touching stories, in his latest book, Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind. Read my review of this book on Bonggamom Finds, and head on over to the Silicon Valley Moms Blog to read how this book inspired other moms.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Phil Done last summer; the views and opinions expressed in my review are my own.
My holiday to-do list
I have invitations to three holiday events this weekend. Each invite says something to the effect of, "Come, relax and unwind with friends before the holiday rush sets in".
Before? Seems to me we're already in the thick of the holiday rush. Fortunately I've already got all the presents for the kids and family sorted, but even with that out of the way, I still have a long list of things to do. In a perfect world, I'd get all of the following done:
* Decorate the house for the holidays.
* Sign, address and mail holiday cards.
* Help 3Po and Jammy rehearse their roster of songs (17) for their kindergarten holiday concert
* Watch and cheer 3Po and Jammy when they perform in said concert.
* Watch and cheer The Pea when she performs in the Nutcracker.
* Watch and cheer The Pea and Jammy when they perform in their Nightmare before Christmas skating show.
* Bake treats for 3 class parties, 2 cookie exchanges and 1 skating party.
* Attend all 6 holiday parties above.
* And a couple more that sound like a lot of fun.
* Drive around with the family looking at all the holiday lights.
* Have breakfast with Santa and pose for a photo or two.
* Buy presents for the kids' teachers, teachers aides, cleaners, gardener.
* Gather canned goods, toiletries and linens to donate to various food closets and shelters.
* Buy toys (or raid my gift closet) for toys to donate to Toys For Tots, the Giving Tree, and other various holiday charities.
* Take the kids to the Family Giving Tree warehouse to sort and wrap toys that will be giving to needy kids this holiday season.
* Collect medical receipts to submit to our prepaid medical expenses plan.
* Return all library books.
* Host a holiday giftguide and giveaway extravaganza on Bonggamom Finds, complete with cute little widget that people can post on their sites.
* Keep up with all my blogging commitments.
* Write some posts for SV Moms and Savvy Source to tide me over the holidays, when internet access will be sketchy at best.
* Lose 5 pounds.
* Do boring stuff like get the car washed, clean the bathrooms, vacuum the floors and other housework.
* Pack suitcases.
* Do laundry so we'll have something to pack into the suitcases.
I'm sure there a couple of other things I've left out that will come out of the woodwork to bite me (Mama! You were supposed to help my class with our toilet paper wreaths today!) And I have to accomplish all that in the next fourteen days, before we leave for the Philippines.
Maybe Santa can lend me a couple of elves to help out with the laundry. Come to think of it, I don't actually need to do the laundry. I'm not above packing dirty clothes into our suitcases and laundering them when we get to Manila.
And I think we're going to skip the house decorating this year. And a couple of other items on that list. Or maybe I should try to get everything done; I might just lose those 5 pounds, along with my mind.
Before? Seems to me we're already in the thick of the holiday rush. Fortunately I've already got all the presents for the kids and family sorted, but even with that out of the way, I still have a long list of things to do. In a perfect world, I'd get all of the following done:
* Decorate the house for the holidays.
* Sign, address and mail holiday cards.
* Help 3Po and Jammy rehearse their roster of songs (17) for their kindergarten holiday concert
* Watch and cheer 3Po and Jammy when they perform in said concert.
* Watch and cheer The Pea when she performs in the Nutcracker.
* Watch and cheer The Pea and Jammy when they perform in their Nightmare before Christmas skating show.
* Bake treats for 3 class parties, 2 cookie exchanges and 1 skating party.
* Attend all 6 holiday parties above.
* And a couple more that sound like a lot of fun.
* Drive around with the family looking at all the holiday lights.
* Have breakfast with Santa and pose for a photo or two.
* Buy presents for the kids' teachers, teachers aides, cleaners, gardener.
* Gather canned goods, toiletries and linens to donate to various food closets and shelters.
* Buy toys (or raid my gift closet) for toys to donate to Toys For Tots, the Giving Tree, and other various holiday charities.
* Take the kids to the Family Giving Tree warehouse to sort and wrap toys that will be giving to needy kids this holiday season.
* Collect medical receipts to submit to our prepaid medical expenses plan.
* Return all library books.
* Host a holiday giftguide and giveaway extravaganza on Bonggamom Finds, complete with cute little widget that people can post on their sites.
* Keep up with all my blogging commitments.
* Write some posts for SV Moms and Savvy Source to tide me over the holidays, when internet access will be sketchy at best.
* Lose 5 pounds.
* Do boring stuff like get the car washed, clean the bathrooms, vacuum the floors and other housework.
* Pack suitcases.
* Do laundry so we'll have something to pack into the suitcases.
I'm sure there a couple of other things I've left out that will come out of the woodwork to bite me (Mama! You were supposed to help my class with our toilet paper wreaths today!) And I have to accomplish all that in the next fourteen days, before we leave for the Philippines.
Maybe Santa can lend me a couple of elves to help out with the laundry. Come to think of it, I don't actually need to do the laundry. I'm not above packing dirty clothes into our suitcases and laundering them when we get to Manila.
And I think we're going to skip the house decorating this year. And a couple of other items on that list. Or maybe I should try to get everything done; I might just lose those 5 pounds, along with my mind.
It's in the Blood
Earlier this week two of my mother's sisters stopped by for a short visit. They had arrived in the US after spending several days in Vancouver with a cousin, and spent the night at our place before heading down to Santa Cruz to visit another relative. The first place they wanted to visit? Costco.
My aunts are veteran shoppers. These ladies will literally shop from the time stores open till the time they close. I've accompanied them on numerous shopping sprees, from the time I was a teenager, around the malls of Manila, to weeklong junkets in Hong Kong, to day trip to the outlet malls in Gilroy and New Jersey. They do have enough money to fund their buying sprees, but they're also bargain hunters who think that the only thing better than the perfect pair of shoes is the perfect pair of shoes at 50% off. And for my aunts, they enjoy the looking as much as the buying-- so shopping with them is always a fun bonding experience.
Much to their sorrow, we weren't able to stay at Costco too long (only 45 minutes, a blink of an eye!) before we had to fetch The Pea from school. But after we got home, we decided to set out again and look for some things that another aunt from the Philippines had asked them to buy. 3Po and Jammy stayed home with my dad, who's also visiting, but The Pea decided to go with us.
We left home at about 4:30PM. I called Alfie at the office to ask him what he wanted us to bring home for dinner. He scoffed and said he would take the boys out somewhere because there was no way we were getting home before 8. We said we just had to buy a few things, of course we'd be back. Of course, he was right. We shopped till 8:30PM, and would have stayed longer (we only covered half the mall) had The Pea's bedtime not been at 8PM. Nothing out of the ordinary there, just another day's shopping for my aunts.
The surprise of the night was The Pea. She's never really liked shopping before. Usually, after 30 minutes or so at Target she's ready to hit the snack stand and go home, but that night her dormant shopping genes came out in full force. She discovered Marshalls and the joys of bargain hunting and window shopping. She tagged along and searched for presents for her best friends; even though she didn't buy anything, she loved looking at all the beautiful things on display and imagining how great it would be to buy them for her friends. Then one of my aunts gave her $20 and she had a grand old time trying out clothes and buying her perfect outfit. I had a coupon for 40% off our whole purchase, which made it even better. She kept saying, "Wow, I never knew shopping could be so much fun!".
Now she wants to wake up at 3AM tomorrow and join my sisters and me for a Black Friday shopping trip. What monster have we created?
My aunts are veteran shoppers. These ladies will literally shop from the time stores open till the time they close. I've accompanied them on numerous shopping sprees, from the time I was a teenager, around the malls of Manila, to weeklong junkets in Hong Kong, to day trip to the outlet malls in Gilroy and New Jersey. They do have enough money to fund their buying sprees, but they're also bargain hunters who think that the only thing better than the perfect pair of shoes is the perfect pair of shoes at 50% off. And for my aunts, they enjoy the looking as much as the buying-- so shopping with them is always a fun bonding experience.
Much to their sorrow, we weren't able to stay at Costco too long (only 45 minutes, a blink of an eye!) before we had to fetch The Pea from school. But after we got home, we decided to set out again and look for some things that another aunt from the Philippines had asked them to buy. 3Po and Jammy stayed home with my dad, who's also visiting, but The Pea decided to go with us.
We left home at about 4:30PM. I called Alfie at the office to ask him what he wanted us to bring home for dinner. He scoffed and said he would take the boys out somewhere because there was no way we were getting home before 8. We said we just had to buy a few things, of course we'd be back. Of course, he was right. We shopped till 8:30PM, and would have stayed longer (we only covered half the mall) had The Pea's bedtime not been at 8PM. Nothing out of the ordinary there, just another day's shopping for my aunts.
The surprise of the night was The Pea. She's never really liked shopping before. Usually, after 30 minutes or so at Target she's ready to hit the snack stand and go home, but that night her dormant shopping genes came out in full force. She discovered Marshalls and the joys of bargain hunting and window shopping. She tagged along and searched for presents for her best friends; even though she didn't buy anything, she loved looking at all the beautiful things on display and imagining how great it would be to buy them for her friends. Then one of my aunts gave her $20 and she had a grand old time trying out clothes and buying her perfect outfit. I had a coupon for 40% off our whole purchase, which made it even better. She kept saying, "Wow, I never knew shopping could be so much fun!".
Now she wants to wake up at 3AM tomorrow and join my sisters and me for a Black Friday shopping trip. What monster have we created?
Giving Thanks
Today I'm sharing a couple of videos of my boys giving thanks.
Jammy and his classmates expressed their happiness and thanks through dance. Judging by the little jigs he's doing, Jammy is very thankful this year.
3Po is thankful for friends and the earth and such. I'm thankful for him.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Jammy and his classmates expressed their happiness and thanks through dance. Judging by the little jigs he's doing, Jammy is very thankful this year.
3Po is thankful for friends and the earth and such. I'm thankful for him.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Technology is nice, but it's not everything
3Po's kindergarten class presented a short play yesterday, and throngs of parents showed up to watch. With cameras and iPods and videocams in hand we settled down to cheer our kids as they sang a couple of songs performed "The Little Red Hen".
Sadly, one of 3Po's classmates burst into tears as he said his lines because his mother was late for the event and missed his "Little Red Hen" solo. He cried throughout the whole thing. Afterwards I tried to cheer him up by saying I had captured him singing his songs and we could let his mother watch it. It didn't really cheer him up.
I guess technology is no substitute for a mom.
Sadly, one of 3Po's classmates burst into tears as he said his lines because his mother was late for the event and missed his "Little Red Hen" solo. He cried throughout the whole thing. Afterwards I tried to cheer him up by saying I had captured him singing his songs and we could let his mother watch it. It didn't really cheer him up.
I guess technology is no substitute for a mom.
Wordless Wednesday: Route 66
Welcome to my Wordless Wednesday post! This month I'm featuring photos from our trip to the Grand Canyon. Click here for more of my WW / Grand Canyon photos.
We spent the last night of our Grand Canyon vacation in Flagstaff, AZ. Flagstaffers, please forgive my ignorance: I had no idea that your city was right smack on the route of Route 66. You'd think the directions from Google maps that said "Continue onto Historic US 66 W" would have given me a clue.
Eventually, it did dawn on me that we were on the famous "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" highway, and fortunately we figured it out before the sun set. So we were able to pull over and take this photo. We got tooted a couple of times so I'm guessing that might not have been quite a legal thing to do. I guess I have to apologize to the Flagstaff highway patrol as well. Oops!
Visit the Wordless Wednesday site for more entries. And don't forget to leave your links below so I can visit your entries as well!
We spent the last night of our Grand Canyon vacation in Flagstaff, AZ. Flagstaffers, please forgive my ignorance: I had no idea that your city was right smack on the route of Route 66. You'd think the directions from Google maps that said "Continue onto Historic US 66 W" would have given me a clue.Eventually, it did dawn on me that we were on the famous "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" highway, and fortunately we figured it out before the sun set. So we were able to pull over and take this photo. We got tooted a couple of times so I'm guessing that might not have been quite a legal thing to do. I guess I have to apologize to the Flagstaff highway patrol as well. Oops!
Visit the Wordless Wednesday site for more entries. And don't forget to leave your links below so I can visit your entries as well!
What's in *Your* Disaster Kit?
Here in the Bay Area people like to say that it's not a question of whether we're ever going to experience a disaster, but when it's going to happen. We haven't had a major earthquake since Loma Prieta in '89 but we've had wildfires in Santa Cruz, El Nino flooding and landslides, and goodness knows what. We are fortunate that we haven't ever experienced a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina or the New Orleans flooding-- but it's important to remember that a disaster doesn't have to be a major disaster. It can be as localized as your house catching on fire. So it's important to be prepared.
In the spirit of being prepared, I attended a talk and demonstration given by the California Volunteers for Bay Area bloggers, including bloggers from the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, Techmamas, It's My Life, The Silent I, Xiaolinmama, FreitasFamily, WhosTheBoss, and our host, Citymama. Volunteers went over some tips that every family should know about being prepared for a disaster, and we walked through Citymama's chic apartment and discussed ways for her to make it more disaster-ready. I left feeling empowered with all the knowledge I had gained, and determined to do more to prepare my own family.
I won't list down everything that we went through in our demonstration -- Robyn from Who's the Boss already has a comprehensive, informative summary of our disaster preparedness talk And I won't go through all the details of what should be in your family disaster plan -- you can download everything you need from the CalVolunteers website, including a customizable book for kids. But I will go through the contents of the disaster kit that California Volunteers presented us at the end of the event. If you don't have one yet, it's super-easy to make one. Just grab a backpack and stuff it with the following supplies:
1) A flashlight and batteries. We were given a solar-powered flashlight/radio, which also had a crank handle so you could power it up by winding the handle for a couple of minutes.
2) A first aid kit. You can buy one at any drugstore, or you can assemble one yourself.
3) A blanket. The one in our kit was one of those insulating foil blankets, but if you have the space, I suppose any blanket will do. If you've ever been given one of those Slankets as a present, here's where it can go.
4) Food. That protein brick is definitely something you'd only want to eat in an emergency, so I intend to throw some energy bars into the backpack as well.
5) Water. We received water purifying tablets as well as drinking water in foil packets, but I suppose bottled water works just as well.
6) Personal Hygiene items. Everything in the photo above falls under the "What if we need to take refuge in our car or a church or a gym or some other shelter": Baby wipes, disinfecting wipes, cleansing cloths, tampons and freshening spray. I'm not suggesting you pack your entire skincare regimen, but these are small "luxuries" that will help you feel human in inhumane conditions.
Everything fits neatly into a regular-sized backpack. You should have one handy in your home, and another in your car. It's a small but significant step towards preparing you and your family for a disaster!
Can't seem to get around to putting one of these together? Would you like to receive one of these kits, all ready-made? I'm giving away 12 disaster kits on Bonggamom Finds -- head on over to my giveaway post and leave a comment to enter.
In the spirit of being prepared, I attended a talk and demonstration given by the California Volunteers for Bay Area bloggers, including bloggers from the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, Techmamas, It's My Life, The Silent I, Xiaolinmama, FreitasFamily, WhosTheBoss, and our host, Citymama. Volunteers went over some tips that every family should know about being prepared for a disaster, and we walked through Citymama's chic apartment and discussed ways for her to make it more disaster-ready. I left feeling empowered with all the knowledge I had gained, and determined to do more to prepare my own family.
I won't list down everything that we went through in our demonstration -- Robyn from Who's the Boss already has a comprehensive, informative summary of our disaster preparedness talk And I won't go through all the details of what should be in your family disaster plan -- you can download everything you need from the CalVolunteers website, including a customizable book for kids. But I will go through the contents of the disaster kit that California Volunteers presented us at the end of the event. If you don't have one yet, it's super-easy to make one. Just grab a backpack and stuff it with the following supplies:
1) A flashlight and batteries. We were given a solar-powered flashlight/radio, which also had a crank handle so you could power it up by winding the handle for a couple of minutes.2) A first aid kit. You can buy one at any drugstore, or you can assemble one yourself.
3) A blanket. The one in our kit was one of those insulating foil blankets, but if you have the space, I suppose any blanket will do. If you've ever been given one of those Slankets as a present, here's where it can go.
4) Food. That protein brick is definitely something you'd only want to eat in an emergency, so I intend to throw some energy bars into the backpack as well.5) Water. We received water purifying tablets as well as drinking water in foil packets, but I suppose bottled water works just as well.
6) Personal Hygiene items. Everything in the photo above falls under the "What if we need to take refuge in our car or a church or a gym or some other shelter": Baby wipes, disinfecting wipes, cleansing cloths, tampons and freshening spray. I'm not suggesting you pack your entire skincare regimen, but these are small "luxuries" that will help you feel human in inhumane conditions.Everything fits neatly into a regular-sized backpack. You should have one handy in your home, and another in your car. It's a small but significant step towards preparing you and your family for a disaster!
Can't seem to get around to putting one of these together? Would you like to receive one of these kits, all ready-made? I'm giving away 12 disaster kits on Bonggamom Finds -- head on over to my giveaway post and leave a comment to enter.
Photo Hunt: Birds
This week I'm featuring some bird photos we took inside the Desert View Watchtower at Grand Canyon National Park. Despite what the photos might lead you to believe, the watchtower isn't an ancient Native American structure. Far from it. It was completed in 1933, and it was designed to be a rest area and gift shop.
I have to hand it to architect Mary Colter. She could have fooled me. I'm no expert, just an awestruck tourist, so it may not take much to fool me. But apparently Mary Coulter made a huge effort to give the tower an ancient look, down to choosing every single stone.
Authentic or not, the result is beautiful.
Here's a gorgeous hawk, or eagle, or falcon. Whatever. Like I said, I'm just an awestruck tourist.
Here are some cute little prairie hends. I wonder why their feet look like pitchforks.
Here's a chap dressed up as a bird. Don't ask me what that contraption is underneath his tail feathers because I don't want to know.
For more birds visit the Photo Hunt. And don't forget to leave your links below so I can visit your blog!
I have to hand it to architect Mary Colter. She could have fooled me. I'm no expert, just an awestruck tourist, so it may not take much to fool me. But apparently Mary Coulter made a huge effort to give the tower an ancient look, down to choosing every single stone.
Authentic or not, the result is beautiful.
Here's a gorgeous hawk, or eagle, or falcon. Whatever. Like I said, I'm just an awestruck tourist.
Here are some cute little prairie hends. I wonder why their feet look like pitchforks.
Here's a chap dressed up as a bird. Don't ask me what that contraption is underneath his tail feathers because I don't want to know.For more birds visit the Photo Hunt. And don't forget to leave your links below so I can visit your blog!
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