The Hamilton Bakery

Why Do We Love This Place?
- It's organic!
- They grow their own, local wheat!
- The owners live upstairs!
- They serve my favorite, locally-roasted coffee!
- We can walk to it!

Come visit us. We'll go for a walk. :)

Quotes of the Day

 Evelyn to Amelia upon seeing her haircut a la my mom: "Oh Mimi, you look adorable!"

Amelia describing a classmate's artwork: "It's really powerful."

Me to Evelyn as she disentangled herself: "Yeah, it's a lot easier to play hide-and-go-seek without a balloon tied to your leg."

Babies

My cousin Stacey's baby girl, Ryan...being held by our baby girl, Amelia. Stacey, Brad, and Ryan visited last weekend. A nice dinner at my parents' house preceded the photo shoot by Mom's lovely rose bush. :)

Speaking of babies, one of Alan's college friends had one recently, and he and his wife sent about the most amazing birth announcement I've ever seen. Since I'm too lazy to take and post a picture, you'll just have to come over and admire it--it's hanging on the frig. :)

Anyway, they just sent us a note card they had specially designed that included this great Bill Cosby quote: "Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit."


Here's to being in love...to committing beautifully irrational acts...and no, I am NOT pregnant. Just sappy. :)

Cousins at Patterson Park

 

 These are from Cousin Camp last month--pretty much a perfect afternoon, except that they didn't want to leave. On the left, Evelyn is holding a buttercup under Aidan's chin as Anna and Amelia make their way to the Japanese Pagoda. I was bummed it wasn't open...we'll have to go back another day!

             Cousins on a rock.                                                        Cousins on a cannon.

Little Girl on the Porch...turns six

She is fascinated with Laura Ingalls right now. She walks around saying "I want to MEET Laura Ingalls!!" and has created a whole Ingalls family out of her Fisher Price Loving Family people. Her Little Party in the Backyard was a sweet and simple success.

She is goofy and silly but not often in front of an audience. She says she is an artist. I believe her. She is a treasure hunter and a bit of a hoarder. "Can I keep this?" is one of her most-commonly used phrases (usually while holding up a rock, stick, receipt, old photograph, or some odd piece of trash. It is adorable.) She has many, many, many little boxes, bags, and random containers in which these treasures are stashed, and life is a regular roller coaster of "losing" and "finding" things again.

She is a very good student and well behaved in school (and yes, a little proud of it.) Her stubbornness is Olympian, but she does it so quietly you might not notice right away. And oh what a snuggler! She loves her one-on-one time. And she loves her alone time. But she always says her favorite thing to do is play with her sister.

Amelia Margaret--six years old. How we love you.

Cousin Camp!

Why have a "sleepover" when you can have COUSIN CAMP? While Jon & Courtney were on a weekend mission trip to Curium House in Nogales, Mexico (Courtney ran a dental clinic and Jon helped build a building), we had twp days of cousin camp. These barely scratch the surface of what we did! We tried to max out some city experiences, so here we are at our local Hamilton Bakery; our local front yard tree; and in our local living room (watching "Little House" episodes, of course.) More to come!                 

Princesses on the Prairie

The party invitation said, "Come dressed as your favorite princess." So: Laura Ingalls and a very strut-your-stuff-on-the-catwalk Pocohontas (dress-ups hail from the Battle Monument School costume closet and my yard-saling mom, respectively.)

We're reading Little House on the Prairie, and in last night's chapter two Indians come into the house. Amelia was next to me on the sofa, and Evelyn was writing at the desk. Evelyn had lobbied hard for her off-sofa perch, promising I could stop at any point, ask her what I'd read, and she'd prove she was listening. I did not have to stop and ask her questions. It was obvious she was listening. One of the adjectives used to describe the Indians was "naked." That brought Evelyn right back to the sofa. She wondered if there were pictures. (An aside: the Little House books are not great introductions to Native American culture.)

And a final Little House comment, also one of my current favorite Alan quotes. We're watching Season 3 of Michael Landon's TV series, too, and recently my very cool husband confessed, "When I was a kid, I thought that show was really square. But now that I'm a dad, I love it."