My Cool Husband

This is from Alan's trip to Bremen, Germany, last April for a jazz conference. He took some really cool pictures on that trip. (And obviously, someone took a really cool picture of him.)

Still About Toys

With my recent life-is-busy hiatus, I have put myself in danger of having the lowest-amount-of-posts-ever-in-a-year since starting this blog. Oh dear. Now there are SOME things one would LOVE to be the lowest-ever-in-a-year (amount of unnecessary money spent; amount of money spent repairing one's old house; summer temperatures; the number on the bathroom scale) but the blog posts are not one of them.

I'm going to make a herculean effort to rectify that. So...above demonstrates one of the current toy obsessions at our house: Lego Friends. While the American Girl Dolls still rank high and the Loving Family Dollhouse still gets a lot of time too, these things top the Christmas lists for our girls. Honestly, I'm glad they still like toys. All the boxes will be flat soon enough! :)

Here's to keeping up the posting! (Now, if I could say I walked a couple miles for each post...then we'd really be getting somewhere....)

Warm Weather Memories

My cousin Jennie Bisset got married in early July in Connecticut--it was lovely to get away for  weekend and enjoy some family time!

The wedding was on a sound--a tropical beach theme in New England. Very pretty.

Sister duet at their piano recital. The flower headbands were from cousin Savannah's wedding back in May. :)

Someone's TEN!!

It was October 16th, and some girls got up to do the annual birthday tradition of opening the presents that had come in the mail. I love their faces in the pic below.

Great Aunt Betty had gotten wind that the now-ten year old was going to add a few holes to her head.

Grandma and Grandpa Blackman made sure the birthday girl would have some new clothes.

And then we walked on our traditional birthday breakfast out. (Yes, those are Harry Potter glasses. This was the first year I've ever purchased Halloween costumes. Usually we just rummage in the dress-up bins right before heading out into the neighborhood. But not this year. The plans were laid. It's been our Year of Harry Potter.)

So for all those other years, we walked to Dunkin' Donuts on the girls' birthdays. This year, Evelyn wanted to head to our neighborhood bakery, where she satisfied her longing for some carrot cake. And Amelia enjoyed a slice of homemade pie--warmed up, of course.

And this picture just melts my heart. Sisters.

And voila! The pierced ears!! I'll have to get Evelyn's permission to post the videos of the event. (All posts must be approved by those appearing in the pictures, of course. We've definitely reached a stage of caring. And of course, caring is good!)

Happy 10th birthday, Evelyn. You may never have a one-digit age again, but you are certainly one-of-a-kind. Your exuberance is infectious and your people-loving personality spreads so much joy! We love you.