New Cousins

We've been away from home for a week, because we were busy meeting Kate & Sarah's new cousins, Milo and Elliott! Some of us use up nearly 3 years having two children, while some of us are highly efficient and have 2 at once. Milo and Elliott arrived on July 21st, weighing in at more than each of my children upon their birthdays. That's a heck of a lotta baby right there. I was dismayed to discover nearly all the photos I took while we were in Williamsburg came out very blurry, but here are a few.

Jazz hands!

While in Ye Olde Virginia, we celebrated Sarah's 5th birthday. I tell ya, these kids are just gittin' too big ta cuddle. Since turning the big 0-5, Sarah has spent a lot of time explaining to us that she is now very mature. She's been sitting with her legs crossed, drinking with her pinky out and purposely dressing like me, which I think is funny, because I never really advanced beyond the sheer basics of covering all the important parts, in the art of dressing one's self. She poured over "You Can Count on Monsters" because it is a rather long book on the topic of math and she held a dead cicada in her bare hands, just to show us all how very sophisticated she really is now.



As a bonus, we got to visit briefly with the Druekes of Miami. I took a bunch of photos, none of which came out properly except this one of Grandpa Drueke with all his grandchildren:


While we did spend a lot of time cooking and cleaning, in an effort to help the sleep-deprived new parents, we also managed to have some fun playtime. The girls made it to Water Country USA twice, we hit a Bouncy Place on Sarah's birthday, there was a multitude of treats (you can tell by a quick glance at my current largess) and Jeremiah and I got to enjoy the awesome bike trails covering the area. Although Chris and Sonya refused to take us up on our offer to help with midnight baby soothing time, we returned home more exhausted than we've been in quite some time. Even the kids were wiped out. Kate slept until after 9 this morning, which has probably only happened in the past when she's been ill.

Tomorrow is the first day of school, and the first day of our diet to try to reverse what I guess is best described as sympathy post partum weight...? For the time being, don't look at us, we're hideous!

Get Us Out From Under, Wonder Woman...

It's not Sarah's birthday today, but when it is, we'll be in Virginia and I have no interest in attempting to create a requested specialty cake for a birthday girl in a kitchen that isn't my own. So today we sang Happy Birthday and ate some Wonder Woman cake. It was just a taste of what's to come in just 9 days, when my youngest turns five. Yowsa. FIVE.


Yeah, those are Halloween paper plates. Don't hate, it's what we had on hand. Sheesh.

Art in the Garden

Something died in one of the rain barrels Jeremiah and I made last spring. I'd been noticing a bad smell when I watered from that one, until it became a full-blown stench and then, when it finally eclipsed bong water in wretchedness, it dawned on me that I was smelling decomposition. So, I had no choice but to do what I needed to anyway, dump the barrel. They both needed a good hosing out, as I'd fallen off the schedule of throwing in the mosquito larvae killing doughnuts and things were sort of out of hand out there.

As Jeremiah and I aborted thousands of unborn mosquitoes, I decided it was time to do something more interesting with the plain, gray, BRUTE barrels I had accidentally placed in focal points of my garden. Then, I decided this improvement should be left to the children. Mostly. When they left for the beach I sanded and primed the barrels (now mosquito and carrion-free) and then I added a field of blue. Now the girls have returned to us, and today was a beautiful day, made right for barrel-painting. Here are a lot of photos of the artists and their work.

Kate & Sarah Vacation Sans Parents

The girls are home! We missed them, but we had a relaxing week. Here are a few shots of what they were doing while we were enjoying some peace and quiet.

We're Starting to Get the Hang of This

We miss the girls. Yesterday was fine until it was time to go home, and I didn't get to go pick the kids up. That time of day is often more stressful than my entire workday. Sometimes they're fighting with each other, or just petulant for no clear reason. They don't want to do this or that, but they do want to whine. One day last week, when I told Sarah what I'd made her for dinner, she wept inconsolably until I just sent her to her room. Sometimes they're king-ka-maya-maya adorable, though. Often. So, just going home to a quiet house was a bit of a downer.

However, I had some quiet time, which is rare. Then Jeremiah came home and we celebrated the fact that we could just, go for a walk at 7PM instead of the usual "winding down" ruckus in which we must engage, by going for a walk. Much to our delight, the new Oakhurst Market has finally opened! Just down the road from us, less than half a mile away (oh-oh-oh-wuh, it's just a, it's just a...) is a market that sells exciting meats, cheeses, local veggies and various baked goods as well as ice cream! Local milk, local yogurt, and some well-traveled beers and wines. After chatting with all the neighbors we bumped into there, we picked up a Pine Street chorizo salami and some ice cream we'd never seen before and rushed home before our dessert could melt. Then, we made a caprese salad with basil and tomatoes from our very own garden, picked moments before going on the plate, and mozzarella cheese we'd gotten at the Decatur Farmer's Market. It all was a mighty fine dinner that required no application of heat. All that deliciousness coupled with the fact we were able to Skype with the girls earlier, made for a great evening. Not bad for a school night.

July's Garden