We might be growing out the bangs.

But it will all depend on whether or not they can keep the clips/barrettes/headbands in their hair all day at school. Evelyn had to go to the nurse the other day "because my bangs were in my eyes." I think we may be heading to the Hair Cuttery.

So much has happened in two weeks! Deep Creek...a girls'weekend away w/Jen in upstate NY visiting friends Mindy & Raleigh (they nicknamed me Rip Van Winkle because I slept until 10:15 two mornings in a row!) and lots of goings-on for work.

Tonight is Halloween! Evelyn will be a "Swooning Princess" and Amelia wants to be Snow White again so she can bite an apple and "die" on everyone's porch like last year. Seems there'll be no lack of drama tonight!

If you have a Mac Laptop...

...you can make some extra cash setting up photo booths at street fairs & events. Last month when the girls and I went to a friend's neighborhood festival, a young woman had a backdrop, a few props/costume items, a printer & some photo paper, and voila--a line of people ready to shove cash in her jar to have adorable pictures like this taken.

Amelia and I had so much fun.

On another note, we came home from Deep Creek today--29 of us in our 26th year of gathering each fall to reconnect, hike, fish, eat, play games, watch baseball, and stay up way too late discussing all sorts of things (i.e. the effects of Facebook on our social culture and how to talk about sex with your children. Good stuff. Very good stuff.)

As of Sunday--she is seven!

It is SO hard to believe. It seems so recent that she was piling toilet paper in the bathroom for fun--and yet it was just this past Sunday that she was eating her birthday breakfast of waffles wearing the sparkly headband Great Aunt Betty sent her.

She loves school. She's never had a moment's hesitation about going. In most social situations, she dives in effortlessly and with her big personality leaping and flapping all over the place. She will give you enthusiasm and excitement, and if you are homeless she will want to give you everything she has. (She spots homeless people from a mile away, and always wants to know what money or food we have in the car to give them. And now she is able to read their signs. And it always breaks her heart.)

I'm not sure I've ever heard her talk about someone she doesn't like.

We had a little party here a week before her birthday--a few friends & Grandma & Opa for cake & ice cream, then we all walked up to a local school that shows outdoor movies every Friday in the fall. The movie was "Up," so we asked all the guests to bring balloons instead of gifts, and we took this big bunch up to the movie and gave them out afterwards--it was a lot of fun. Then Anna and Aidan spent the night, which is ALWAYS fun. The hardest part is always keeping the level of enthusiasm from exploding into something beyond my ability to control.

We love you, Evelyn Grace. Happy birthday!

Where Function Meets Form

Our kitchen, where breakfast bar stools become showpieces of the latest in shoe-and-dollhouse-doll art.

Metaphor for Life

Yesterday morning I was packing the girls' lunches as they ate breakfast.

"We don't like bananas, Mommy," they said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. We EAT them, but we don't LIKE them." Well, don't they just do me proud!!

Life in nutshell, said Alan later. You always gotta do things you don't want to do.

Then there are days like today. I'm supposed to be teaching. But yesterday I started getting VERTIGO. It's just the wackiest thing. I feel like I'm on The Zipper all over again. Not fun. I could count on 2 hands the number of times I've called in sick in 20 years. So it's a weird day. It's fun to be sitting here blogging, but not fun that my world is spinning. Who knows who they got to sub for me...my poor Friday classes will end up having my music classes only twice in all of October since schools are closed for students next week. Oh well. My mom gets vertigo, and it's good to finally know what she goes through--my heart goes out to you, Mom!

Sometimes, I guess, your world just spins out of control and you just hang on and hope you don't spill too much of your coffee!

More Art

Each month kindergarteners in Amelia's class have to decorate a paper shape. I didn't even get a chance to read the directions to Amelia before she was telling me she was going to do this all by herself.

Scotch tape

Mr. Potato Head faces

Dora Band-aids

Refrigerator magnets

Well, good thing the directions said, "Be creative!"

Shopping Stories

(Yes, I got the itch to switch the blog's look--still trying to decide if I like it. I may switch around some more before deciding. Feel free to weigh in.)

In my recent mad dash for Ravens shirts, I'd originally planned to go to the mall (before I decided to go with my Emergency Shopping Contact List.) So after making our purchases at Target, we headed over--they love riding the escalators, throwing coins in the fountain, and the newest thing was discovering "the little room" at the entrance to the Hollister store.

We strolled the mall, looking at storefronts and commenting. "That store sells clothes. That one sells computers, and that one sells jewelry." Etc. As we moved past Victoria's Secret, I said nonchalantly, "That store sells pretty underwear."

Amelia stared at the large ads along the store's frontage and then added blandly, "They sell boobies, too."

If only.

Emergency Shopping Contact List

I am an Olympian procrastinator. I'd known for weeks that last Friday was the girls' first "Purple Friday" at school, but come Thursday evening, there was no purple in the house.

It's a good thing I have an Em

ergency Shopping Contact List. There are Courtney and Diana, whom I could call for what to wear with what for an occasion and where to buy it. There's my mom, who's totally in her own category & can be tas

ked with buying bulk items at Sam's Club, finding the most specific gift (Evelyn requested "A white dress--a beautiful dress--like a wedding dress--the most beautiful dress you've ever seen--with a big rose on it" for Christmas last year, and Mom came through 100%) or finding the most obscure and delightful treasures at yard sales (Whirlypops, toys that give birth, and lace curtains she made into veils for when the girls play "brides.")

But last Thursday night called for Darcy. I texted: "HELP! If you needed kids' Ravens gear tomorrow, where would you shop tonight??" My phone rang. "Target," she said matter-of-factly, "has good prices and it still looks nice. Wal-mart might be cheaper, but it's, well, Wal-mart-y. Old Navy has one girls' Ravens jersey...but I think it's only available online." When I bashed myself for procrastinating and wondered aloud how many other parents had left this job for the night before, she said, "They all have, Tina."

Sure enough, we found the shirts at Target, and sure enough, one of Evelyn's classmates was there, too, shopping with her dad! Darcy: 2 for 2.