Haircuts

Well, now that the recital is over and we no longer have to have enough hair to pull up, I did some summer trimming to the girls' hair. Denver never wants to go short but this time I convinced Willa that short was the way to go. This is a great thing considering Willa can get stuff in her hair before I can get through half a cup of coffee in the morning.I think I'll have to take her to a hairdresser to even it out but the cut came out pretty cute, if a bit uneven.

We headed over to my folks house for Memorial Day. It was a farewell to my brother, Keith, who will be moving to South Carolina shortly for work and family. As always, much silliness took place once we were altogether.

In the Blink of an Eye

People always tell me to enjoy this phase of parenting because kids grow up so fast. This weekend was a great example of how fast time can fly. In one lone weekend, Willa graduated Preschool, the girls performed in their first dance recital(yes, they BOTH made it on stage this time) and Denver learned to ride a bike without training wheels. I tried not to blink but it went by too fast anyway.

Darling Dancers

Today we had pictures for the girls dance classes. Their recital is next weekend if anyone finds themselves longing to see a bunch of cute small children in fantastic costumes try to tap out a dance while looking at the stage, each other, the bow that fell out of their classmates hair, the teacher back stage, Mommy...the list goes on. It's sure to be a cute affair. Denver is dancing to "The Sugar Babies" and Willa to "Doodle Bop."

Here I caught Willa in the mirror. Kids are the ultimate narcissists. She spent some time making faces and talking to her "twin."

Art on Display

The Greece schools have a massive amount of art on display up at the mall and Denver was among those who had a piece shown. We went for the first night and toured the many posts.

This quickly broke down into a case of the Sillies. The Sillies caused my children to view the Mall as a sort of playground finding nooks and crannies to hide in. The Sillies are very funny to children but overtired adults tend to have a harder time understanding them. My sleep deprived self could see the photographic opportunity and snapped a few shots but there were A LOT of people there and the evening quickly deteriorated from there ending with much whining about a pretzel. Mommy NEVER changes her mind after the whine sets in so we left somewhat grumpy and pouty, but I am certainly proud that Denver had a piece of her art displayed. She is forever crafting and coloring. I do wonder what they do in art class since she rarely brings things home(Fine with me as my house is already bursting with done, half done, and soon to be started art projects). But I sure hope my tax dollars are paying for more than crayons!

Happy Baby

Adalyn is really mastering this smiling thing.

Tooth Fairy

Denver has had a couple of loose teeth now for 2 months. Unlike other normal kids, she refused to wiggle it or play with it with her tongue. I think she was so scared it was going to hurt. I had told her once that it might bleed a little when she lost a tooth and that is what has stuck in her mind. This is interesting to me since many of her friends have lost many teeth already. Last Friday she asked me, "Mommy, do you think if I fall asleep with my head under my pillow that the Tooth Fairy will come and pull my tooth and leave me money?" Just to clarify, I asked her if she thought that it wouldn't hurt that way and she nodded her head yes. Shortly after, while chewing on Blank, it actually got stuck in between her teeth and pulled the tooth out and it fell on the floor. She was so excited! And it didn't even bleed.

Happy Mother's Day

The girls both made me surprises at school for Mother's Day. They are so proud of themselves for keeping their "secrets" until this morning. If only they had slept past 6 am. But I guess you can't have everything. Happy Mother's day to all the Moms out there.
This just cracked me up! I love that she think Word Girl is my favorite show(PBS). I could never have just one favorite food but french fries sound good right now. And I guess I'll have to watch how I phrase the idea of more children.:)

1 Year

Hard to imagine it's been a year. So much has changed. Boy I miss him. I can still hear his voice calling me from upstairs, or his loud yawn. And anytime I hear the kitchen cabinets slam, or any door for that matter, I think of him.(He was a perpetual door slammer).

It makes me smile to think of all the times we found him climbing on things he knew he shouldn't be on; ladders, chairs, tables...all for a very practical reason. To change a light bulb, to make sure the water was turned off, to look for something he swore was in the top of the cupboard.
So many happy memories, but they still make me cry.

A Smorgasbord of pics

Here's a few pics from the last couple weeks I haven't had time to post.
Here's brother, Kurt with crazydogpossum.

More swim class pics.

We had a few contractors over to give us an estimate on the dream kitchen I have in my head. This would include an addition off the back of the house. In my mind it is beautiful but in reality it is too expensive just now. So I will have to come up with a make-due kitchen until we can swing the whole project. That means picking out new paint and I can't seem to get away from my favorite color scheme: brick red, cream and sage green. Every room we paint I at one point think we should paint it those colors. Well, I'll have to scour the librabry books for ideas

Farewell My Big Tree

For 9 years now, I have seriously disliked a large Norway Maple in our back yard. They are so prolific I wonder that they haven't taken over the earth yet, or at the very least, the Northeast. The roots are so shallow and the canopy so dense that I can't grow a thing under it! So as our first act as homeowners, we had it removed. Oddly, this left me feeling quite sad and a little weepy. I hate the fact that I killed an otherwise perfectly healthy tree for my own pleasure. I remember when my Grandmother planted this tree. I have a feeling the weepy part is due mostly to the lack of sleep and the 1 yr. anniversary of Grandpa's passing. So I sat there, really quite forlorn at first. I'd felt as if I'd lost a family member, not a close one but still, it was family. My now naked back yard looking so stark and empty and...sunny. Soon my mourning of my tree dissipated as I considered what this meant. Sun. Full sun and room to plant. Well, that means a small vegetable garden with yummy juicy tomatoes and a better crop from my unruly raspberries(if Possum doesn't eat them first). And maybe some grass, soft on my feet and tickling in between my toes, and less mosquitos! So farewell my big tree, for your sacrifice I hope to enjoy a juicy tomato sandwich every year in your honor.

Homeowners!

It's official, as of yesterday, we are now the proud owners of a cute little house with big history. For those of you new to our life, we currently are living in my Grandfathers' house. We moved in 9 years ago to save up money for our own home. Grandpa was an extremely happy person who was easy to share space with and as he got older, he needed some help in the house. And so we stayed. Through the birth of our first two girls, sometimes feeling like we were shoving cribs and clothes into every nook and cranny of the upstairs of this very cute home. Sadly, he passed away almost a year ago. He was almost 97 yrs. old. I still miss him tons. He was, until the last 6 weeks of his life, fairly independent, though we did give a lot more assistance towards the last 2 years. My family made us a generous offer for the house and we are now the proud owners. It is a little anti-climactic only because we've lived here 9 yrs. now and know all of it's dirty little secrets. So there is no house honeymoon. We've repaired too many leaks for that. But we are looking forward to making it our own. We did have to take down the Spindler's sign. The lamp post had been struck one too many times by Grandpa's failing eyesight before we took the keys away. But here's one last pic with it up.