Some Summer Recap

Mom's "70th Adventure" b-day, celebrated at Jon & Courtney's with two grandchildren. Wait...no...

With three grandchildren. Wait...no...

With FOUR grandchildren. There. Apparently it takes ALL the grandkids to get the candles really going.

In Mom's 70th year, she's going to do 70 things she's never done before--and last I heard she was well on her way to racking up at least 5.83 new things a month. Go Mom!

Kathy from New Zealand visited, and I rode up with her to Mindy's in upstate NY for two days of epic country road walks, pie-baking, laughing, and great conversation.

Our nice visit to Mom and Dad Blackman included a DATE NIGHT! Thank you, Mom and Dad! (I also had my best hour of sleep in a long time--flat on my belly on the beach. Fried my legs, but it was worth it.)

A much-anticipated visit from the Kee cousins of FL. We took on the Science Center and RVR, and some moderate mayhem. (Malcolm could not do any full-on mayhem given the fact that he'd broken his arm.)

Evelyn and Henry were fodder for one another's craziness. 

Evelyn headed to her second week of overnight camp on my b-day, and I think it's obvious in this picture that Amelia is ready to relish her week of being an only child. She did. Mom and Dad joined us for dinner and I finally got to bake that peach pie I'd been wanting to bake!

 Summer 2013. It included lots of playing dollhouse, Science Center visits, a whole bunch of VBS drama rehearsals (the girls and I are still quoting lines), a weeks of camp for both girls, library trips, farmers' market, and The Book Thing. I think I even cleaned the house. :)

Second Day of School

I missed the photo-op yesterday. I got sidetracked making silly little books for their lunch boxes and ran out of time.

So here they are today, their second day of school for 2013-2014. Evelyn loved her face in this picture. They both love their shoes. (Shoes & socks are a BIG deal when you wear uniforms. As Evelyn said about the shoes she picked out with Grandma Bisset, "They really fit my personality!" Amelia tie-dyed her own colorful laces at VBS.)

This was the first year the girls cared a lot about how they looked in these pictures. Evelyn didn't like the first one I took of her by herself and made me take another.

This one got the thumbs up. She also dictated the cursive sign w/flowers and vines.

Amelia wanted a re-do of her first picture, too, even though it caught her looking pretty cute. So I took another.

She said she wanted to look like a baby. :)

No, I didn't catch her talking. She posed that way. This was her favorite picture of herself from this morning. She also dictated her sign, choosing different colors than her sister.

And this? Well, this is from the FIRST day of school. I ran out to the car with the camera as Alan was pulling away so I could take it. No--it's not dark outside. It's the flash. In reality, it's 7:30 a.m. and sunny. :)

They had great first days. Evelyn's only complaint was that she was STARVING by the time lunch rolled around. Amelia can't get over how cool it is that in 2nd grade you graduate from working at tables to having your VERY OWN DESK!

One Moment

Back in April when Dad was in rehab for his knee, we visited him and all walked to the tiny, picturesque chapel to celebrate his longest walk yet. Amelia read a passage of Scripture (I can't recall which--she did an "open, point, and read"), and Mom played the piano while we all sang a hymn.

I remember wanting it to be really sweet and special--and it was--but I also remember the girls bickering a bit and getting impatient, Amelia being frustrated over words she couldn't pronounce, both girls feeling finished before I was, and Dad finding the sitting-in-a-chair position hard on his new joint.

However, it is still a really sweet and special memory, and I'm so glad I captured a moment of it on film.

Quite magical.

"For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light." (Ps 36:9)

Sharpies, Zucchini, & School

Me: Evelyn, what are you doing with that Sharpie?

Evelyn: Oh, I was just marking on the wall how tall we are.


And this week I made two big loaves of zucchini bread. In spite of the batter being proclaimed "disgusting" and "looks like throw up" by skeptical onlookers, the results lasted barely two days.

Finally, I will proclaim how wonderfully the girls PLAY together. I use this as the reason we plan so few play dates--they have built-in play dates every day. (Ok, and I'm lazy.) This has been the summer of "Doll House", although this week has been the week of "School," inspired by the day they came with me to set up my classroom. They created an entire school world in those hours, and it continued when I got home.

In fact, this morning the students in their Boarding School were finishing up zucchini bread for breakfast. :)

Conversation Starter

Evelyn: Mom.

Me: Yeah?

Evelyn: Mom.

Me: What is it?

Evelyn: Mom.

Me: (raising voice) What IS it, Evelyn?

Evelyn: Oh...sorry. I just like saying your name, but sometimes I can't think of anything to say after that.

Nostalgia

Look at tiny Evelyn with her grandparents! My how time flies. It makes me wish like crazy I'd taken pictures when we visited them a few weeks ago. We really enjoyed hanging out, playing cards, and just being together. The girls especially like playing dominoes with Grandma. But I have no photos to prove it.

But I have lots of memories imprinted on my heart. Like the vision, today, of Evelyn coming outside to help me rip ivy and rake in the rain. Once I learned that ivy harbors mosquitoes, I've been on a mission to get rid of as much ivy in as wide a radius of our home as possible.

I'm surprised how many people, observing me ripping, raking, digging, and bagging, have stopped to tell me that they "do that for a living" and "would be happy to help" because "they need the money." I did employ the first man who offered, but when I realized that his version of ripping out ivy was simply stripping the vines of their leaves, I've started answering the offers with a friendly, "and if I had the extra money I'd happily pay someone to do it!"

And speaking of people needing things, we passed some homeless men on our walk to the grocery store today. Evelyn asked if we could buy them some food. She loved telling them, "We got you lots of HEALTHY things!" As we continued on our walk home, she said, "That makes me feel really good, Mommy." Me, too, kid. Me, too.

Re-entry

This past week Evelyn was at overnight camp at RVR. Amelia decided to stay home. She'd had a great first week alongside Evelyn earlier in the summer, but wasn't up for going again.

Instead, Amelia attended Grandma & Opa's VBS at their church all week. And Grandma brought her home almost every day. After feeding her lunch.

There were some very nice "just Amelia" moments for all of us, and while she did mention being bored a few times, seemed mostly to enjoy being like Tigger--the Only One.

Today we all went to pick up Evelyn from RVR. She was in the gaga pit, which is apparently where she spent pretty much every waking moment of her free time this week. She loves the game, the competition, and being one of the youngest players and only girls left at the end of each match. So she's learning what it feels like to be a target.

She was very happy to see us, but not happy to leave the gaga pit. And once we got in the car and Amelia started talking about her fun week at Grandma's VBS, well, Evelyn's brow was soon furrowed as she said, "I think Mimi had more fun this week than I did." Amelia glowed.

So I quickly chirped, "Amelia told me this week that she really missed you, because NO ONE is better at playing doll house than you are." Evelyn relaxed, smiled, then got tears in her eyes and said, "It's not true. I'm not the best at playing doll house."

Then she looked at her sister, smiled, and said, "Mimi is." Two girls glowed. And so did their Mommy.

Then I promptly had Alan drop me off at my parents so I could go watch an outdoor movie with Mom at the Basignani Winery. And he drove home to bathe two sweaty, tired, awesome doll house players.

Tomorrow we'll all try "normal summer life" again under the same roof. Hopefully it will be full of awesome doll house play!

The Cabbage Patch

I saw these pictures on the camera yesterday and they made me laugh. They are from when Dad was recovering from his knee replacement. We'd gone to visit and I wanted to take a picture of the girls with him and Mom.

"Girls, get in the picture with Grandma and Opa!" Amelia was feeling goofy and jumped out of the frame of the picture as I snapped the one below.

"Amelia! Get in the picture with Grandma and Opa!"

She jumped into the picture all right. And she looks remarkably like a Cabbage Patch doll.