for the girls

Josie's got quite a cold today, so she and I had some unexpected down time at home. Time for more sewing! I whipped up 3 new skirts, and altered 1 that I'd made for myself a few weeks ago.

For the new skirts, I used the same fabric that the girls picked out for their birthday number shirts. It occurred to me that Josie's #4 is so small that it's impossible to see what the fabric design even is, so a skirt seemed like the natural solution. Avery's skirt is supposed to be a surprise and her birthday's not until July... I'm curious to see exactly how long Josie can go without spilling the beans!

daylight

Josie's been having a hard time going to sleep lately. Normally, she's out cold by 6:47, about 2 minutes after she's done with teeth brushing and books. But the past few days she's been wide awake past 8, messing around in her bed, coming back out to see what's going on in the rest of the house, etc.

I just went in there to try and settle her down and I asked why she was having trouble sleeping. "It used to be dark outside but now my window is so bright."

Amazon search for room darkening shades to commence momentarily.

"we're going to utah, bitches!"

That was Andrew's priceless reaction when we won a week's stay at this Utah cabin at Avery & Cayden's school auction last weekend. I don't think he quite believed me when I told him how determined I was to win this trip. After all, there was a week in St. Maarten, a hotel stay in Mexico and a plethora of beach houses up for grabs. But, I had my sights set on Utah, so Utah it is.

We've already made our arrangements... we'll be there over 4th of July and Avery's birthday again, which seems like a good tradition to keep up. It'll be a 2-day drive for us, with an exciting stopover in Boise, Idaho both ways. Our overnight stay in Medford was the highlight of last year's road trip for Cayden, so we'll have to wait and see how Boise stacks up.

Can't wait for summer break!

backyard remodel, day seven: done! (just about)

The (itty-bitty, teeny-tiny) lawn was put in yesterday, the trampoline was assembled last night and the garden boxes were installed this morning. Aside from some minor finishing touches (stepping stones, slab for barbecue grill, 2 basketball hoops, maybe some shrubs?), the backyard is done!

The weather couldn't be any more perfect on this beautiful day. Time to get out and enjoy it!

run for the arts

12 laps and 16 laps. Woot! Each of their personal bests, at least for the past three years.

backyard remodel, day six: pavers

I don't pretend to think this is at all interesting to anyone but me, so feel no need to continue reading. Pavers are in. Sun is intermittently shining. Cayden is in heaven already.

backyard remodel, day five: getting there

Hard to believe the backhoe was only here for 7 days--it felt like 7 weeks! But, she's gone now and as of this evening, I'm starting to feel like the backyard project might actually wrap up someday soon. The light brown area has 6-9 inches of gravel and then 2-3 inches of sand on top of that, and will eventually be covered with pavers for the patio and basketball court. The black part on the left has about 5-6 inches of packed gravel, and will be home to the garden beds and trampoline as of this weekend. More gravel will be surrounding the beds for a pathway. The dirt in the middle will be grass, although it looks like a larger area in person. As much as we both hate mowing, I just couldn't quite convince myself to do away with all the grass.

official birthday post

Happy 9th Birthday to Cayden!

Apparently, today was Cayden's best birthday ever. Despite the fact that I had to pick him up at lunch because he wasn't feeling well. His throat hurts and his voice is hoarse and he has a slight fever. But still, best birthday ever (and we haven't even hit Red Robin yet)!

He's been off of his Lego Star Wars kick for about a year now, but out of nowhere he started pining away for another set. When he opened the one that we got him today, he was super excited and immediately rushed over to put it together. Never would've seen that coming.

He also got a new scooter, a speaker dock for his iPod to replace the P.O.S. that we got him for Christmas, a football and distortion pedal for his electric guitar which is pretty darn cool. Vastly improves his Star Spangled Banner:

All in all it's been a great day for the (not so) little guy. I'm thrilled with the big kid he's become and can't wait to see what the years ahead will bring.

on josie's agenda for today

birthday hoodie

Anyone who knows Cayden is aware of his current obsession with hoodies. He's worn one every single day the school year, regardless of the fact that his classroom gets really hot during the day. So... when I was making the annual birthday shirts last month, it occurred to me that there was no way anyone would see his. I couldn't give up the idea of making the shirt, so I decided to make him a matching hoodie as well. I've been so excited to give it to him ever since (he knew about the shirt and picked out the fabric for it, but the hoodie was a surprise).

I had him open the hoodie first thing this morning, and he seemed quite pleased with it.

Well... as pleased as he really seems about anything anymore!

backyard remodel, day two: mud

I think I should probably give up on the day count of this project because it seems to be more like an every-other-day kind of thing, at least for now. No work was done yesterday, I think because the tree people originally thought they would need 2 days but the big tree took less time to cut down since it was about to fall down on its own anyway. In general things seem to be moving very quickly (when someone is here, that is). We were gone today from 8am to noon, and returned home to find this lovely scene:

In four hours, some number of magical elves managed to clear out all the pieces of wood from both trees, grind out all the stumps and remove all of the lawn. Additionally, there was at least one full truck & trailer full of mud to be hauled away.

What a complete mess. It has not stopped raining all day so the back of the house and the sidewalk and the street are all covered with a thick coat of mud right now. Blech.

first of 15 school pics

So... about a week ago, we walked into Josie's preschool and I suddenly remembered that it was school picture day. Of course, I let her wear whatever she wanted to (like most days) and I hadn't done anything with her hair. But, now that I see the picture, I'm kind of glad she's wearing a crazy* outfit and a simple clip that happened to be in my purse. It's more natural that way, and let's face it, the girl doesn't have any shortage of photos.


*There's nothing crazy about the individual parts of the outfit, but collectively it's a little out there for school picture day: a purple shirt that is a wee bit too small, layered under a super cute sleeveless summer dress (from Henry) that Josie refers to as her "Dora dress," over a pair of striped leggings.

josieisms

Josie has been cracking me up this week with some of the things that come out of her mouth, incorrect grammar and all:

• She was explaining tonight that she loved the ham & cheese sandwich that she was eating for dinner because it was healthy and it "didn't make long" (i.e. it didn't take long to make... I think).
• Obviously experimenting with all the little quirks of our language, she's been messing up some of her phrasing, saying lots of things like, "I should have didn't do that, should I?."
  
• For weeks, she had been saying things like, "I have never been there in a while" or "I have never eaten that in a long time," which was driving me kind of nuts, so I explained to her that never means never ever, not just not recently. So now she makes a point to point out every time she says it right. "I haven't been there in a while. Right Mommy? That's haven't, right? Not never because never means never ever?"
• We currently have a yard sign showing our support of the upcoming PPS bond measure (you should support it too!) and at some point she asked why so many people had the same sign. Andrew explained to her that people who have the same yard sign agree with us about something important that we're going to vote on. Now, as we're driving around, she points every single yard sign and says, "those people think like us, right Mommy? They think the same way we do?"

backyard remodel, day two one: tree removal

No huge surprise, there was a delay in our big backyard project, and no work was actually done yesterday as it was supposed to. But, we woke up to the large piece of machinery shown above, right smack in the middle of the yard... which quickly erased any disappointment caused by the delay, at least with the younger set.

When we arrived home from school this afternoon, the trees were both gone, replaced by a layer of sawdust and who-knows-how-many tons of firewood.

We had been instructed about 4 years ago that the big maple tree had maaaaybe 5 years of life left in it, so we weren't terribly surprised to hear that it had a great deal of rot. The holes in the stump go down at least 6 feet (underground) into the roots, and the wood is very soft. Not a great combination. But, also no longer our problem to worry about.

Next up, the stumps need to be ground out so they don't rot further and cause the patio/basketball court to sink. The garden planters have been ordered (I remembered!) and should be built and installed the week after next. Moving right along!

summer skirts

In attempts to lure the sun out of hiding, I went a little nuts this weekend and made 7 summer skirts for the girls and me. I found an incredibly (incredibly) easy pattern online and headed right out to the fabric store for some inspiration. I'm not totally thrilled about the skirts that I made for myself, but I think I can tweak the pattern in the future to get them right.

I have no complaints about the girls' skirts though. They're light, bouncy, and very summery. Even if the weather isn't quite there yet, it's giving me hope that it will be soon enough.

backyard remodel, day one: before

Operation: New Backyard is officially getting underway today. The plans have all been made (and spray-painted on the lawn), the pavers have been picked out, and the garden planters will be ordered today if I can actually remember to do it, for crying out loud.

First up, getting rid of this ginormous monster, who's been sick for years and years:

dance, dance, dance

Josie had 3 dance classes back-to-back-to-back this afternoon (2 regularly-scheduled and 1 spontaneous drop-in) and she was in heaven!

It didn't hurt that she was wearing one of her very favorite tutus. Or that, thanks to a ton of practice, she's finally mastered (her version of) the pirouette.

Avery & Cayden arrived from school in time to watch the 3rd class (a mixture of gymnastics & ballet) and Avery got put to work as an assistant. Josie wanted nothing to do with any help from her big sister though, surprisingly enough.

And do not try to help her with her somersault either, thankyouverymuch.

governor of new jersey

A few weeks ago, the kids & I were watching America's Funniest Videos (their favorite show ever, hands down) and we saw this little guy, who really wants to be the governor of New Jersey: