What we've been up to

Well, Jason had a birthday. I can't remember how old he is now. The girls decorated a cake for him. It was a vegan red velvet cake that I thought, with the exception of the decorating, left a little to be desired. But vegan cake is better than no cake at all, isn't it?

We've been playing outside. Stella was working with me in the garden the other day when she stopped, looked up at me and said "Big helper." Practically crushed my heart, the weight of love.

Lately, Stella's favorite activity is mailing letters. Is there anything there?


Yes! There is!


Maybe I should deliver it again.

It goes on like that for quite some time.

Here's something else that goes on for quite some time.


Violet is turning into a fantastic hula-hooper. She just keeps going and going and going with her thumbs in the sky. She's so cute while she's doing it. I'll have to take a movie.

And then, there are the things little girls just - do. Violet informed me that we are not allowed to pick the dandelions in the yard anymore so they can make seeds and we can grow more dandelions. Our yard doesn't have enough.


Auntie Tiffany came over the long weekend. Of course I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have, much to Tiffany's glee.


But it was a nice, relaxing weekend, and the girls had a great time with her. Can you tell?

Now I'll leave you with this little speck of cuteness.

Paint

Much like her big sister, Stella loves paint. How cute is this progression?

Our House

We've been lucky enough to have a carpenter around for the past three weeks. All those projects that Jason and I started and never quite finished? Well, they're still not finished, but they're MUCH further along. Unfortunately, the rest of the work is for me, and it includes a lot of nail hole filling, priming and painting. That doesn't sound like much, but last Saturday I primed the mudroom and painted the mudroom and bedroom ceilings. It took me the entire day. No kidding. The entire day. I'm not complaining, mind you. I'm thrilled that the mudroom is almost finished. I'm thrilled that the bathroom is almost finished. I'm thrilled that the bedroom is almost finished. I'm thrilled that the hall is almost finished. You see where this is going, don't you?

Here is the bathroom. A sink! We haven't had a sink in two years. Unfortunately, there is still not plumbing in our sink. But I have hope that the plumber will come back - someday.



Also in the bathroom - closets! With doors! Here, there used to be one door to access the shelves with great difficulty.

"Hellooo!" says Stella from the new bathtub. And now we have a shower, too! Okay, in all honesty, a shower we'll be able to use once I put up a curtain.

The old tub. See that bad closet? This was after the floor had been improved greatly.

The door now opens the right way. Hooray! It's a little thing, but it makes life so much easier. And to think we only waited 7 years to fix it.

This picture is for Karen. See the bi-fold doors? Those go to the laundry room you and I built three years ago. Or was it four years? I only wish Mike hadn't pointed out to me how great it would have been if the laundry room had been under the stairs and the bathroom had opened up to where the laundry room is. Whatevah. We don't want to make this place too nice or anything.

My new favorite part of the house. Closets in the hall. Our house had exactly one closet before, if you don't count the closet in the bathroom. Now we each have a closet. Mine will soon be chock full of fabric and yarn. It's blissful to have a place for fabric and yarn. Or rather, it will be blissful as soon as I get the closets primed and painted.

Wedding Girls

"When I grow up, I am going to marry maybe Evan or maybe Stella but I don't know which one." - Violet

I think I have mentioned that my brother is getting married this summer. Violet is going to be a flower girl, so I had to put double the effort into choosing Stella's attire. It was actually a whole lot of fun to browse online for her dress. And even better - no matter which one I chose in the end I knew she would be absolutely adorable. Sure enough, she is.


When Violet saw her wearing the dress, she immediately ran upstairs to get her own red dress. The dress that belonged to my mother when she was about 6 years old. It was made by a seamstress in Japan when my mom loved there.

So they had a little red-dress-band. They look a bit like the Partridges, don't they? Much cuter, though.

Well where the heck have you been, then?

Here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago so I don't lose you all completely. Stella in her purple boots in the fog. This is what childhood is all about, isn't it? It's mud season in Maine.

Grandy

I don't think any words are necessary. The girl loves her Grandy. Quite often when she is upset with me, she will take up the mantra "Gandy hows, Gandy hows"

Old Friends, new friends

I am shocked to realize that it has been two years since I have seen my college friend Krystin. She only lives an hour away - how does life happen so fast?

Last time we saw her, Anna and Stella were infants - born just 8 weeks apart . Kate and Violet were three - they were born just 5 weeks apart.

We all went to the Children's Museum together. That is Krys helping Stella, Violet on the left and Anna in the background.


And Violet and Kate.


That's about it for my pictures from the museum. If my pictures are not up to snuff, it's because - well, there were four kids and two grownups who really just wanted to talk.No, we didn't really get much of that done, and we were pressed for time to get Violet to school. So we dropped Violet off and headed on over to Burger King. After we fed the kids, and enticed them onto the playground (seriously - we had to entice them), Krys and I got about 10 minutes to chat.


Those kids just go go go go go.