Play at your own risk

When my kids got up from their nap yesterday, there was general whining and all manner of crankiness. They wanted to go to the playground, which was really fine by me; fresh air and change of scenery never hurt anyone.

It was almost time for dinner – but thanks to their little counter cookie raid, no one was in danger of immediate starvation.

So we went. I had thrown on a grubby shirt and Madeline had found me some (unmatching) shoes. I figured we weren’t going to see anyone we knew, so it didn’t really matter and, due to the whining, I just wanted to get there fast.

We immediately saw people we know. Figures. I chatted with Janna a bit, but she and her hubby had family in town and so eventually she followed her in-laws and son over to another area of the park.

I was pushing Adelaide on the swing when suddenly I heard Madeline crying, loudly. Very loudly. And there was Craig, carrying Madeline down the steps toward me as she screamed.

(So, yes, the one time I don’t want anyone to take notice of us, we are naturally the front and center of attention.)

(In a very crowded playground.)

He said she had fallen and hit her eye – probably tripped on the step up to the slide. And I’m sure she was running because she never stops. Anyway, by the time I got to her, the eye was already huge.

He was so gracious and kind to carry my kids’ bikes all the way home. I mostly carried both girls, one of them screaming in my ear, the other trying forcefully to be let down.

I tried to get Madeline to ice it but have you ever tried to keep an ice pack on a three-year-old’s face, much less an eye, before?? High near impossible.

It doesn’t seem to bother her much today, and it probably looks much worse than it feels because she hasn’t said a thing about it.



Almost looks like she got into some of her mama's purple eyeshadow.

(If I owned any.)

Something about weddings and Saturdays

I have twenty-three first cousins. My mom was one of five, and my dad was one of four. I always had plenty of playmates at family reunions, Christmases, and summers in Colorado.

My cousin Caleb is getting married tonight. I debated for a long time if I should take the kids and go. It would have been a seven+ hour drive and I would have had to deal with the logistical nightmare of figuring out childcare (and a place to stay) in an unfamiliar city. By myself.

And gas, it ain’t cheap.

But I really wanted to go.

The other wrench in my plans was the bridal shower of one of my very best friends, planned also for this morning, the day of Caleb’s wedding. What to do?

In the end, I decided to stay here and go to the shower. I’m a bridesmaid, Madeline is the flower girl. (But I am so sad to be missing the wedding and seeing far-off family.)

A funny, sort-of related story. My cousin Caleb, Suzanne (the bridal shower honoree), and I are all the same age. We graduated from Covenant the same year. In fact, I think the three of us even had a class together.

(In which I may or may not have fantasized about them ending up together. Alas, it was clearly not meant to be.)

Anyway, one of Caleb’s infamous memories was missing our graduation ceremony. Long story, not mine to tell. Did I ever mention Andy and I got married on the same day as my graduation?

Andy and I got married on the same day as my graduation.

Crazy, yes. It seemed a great idea at the time. (And, really, I am glad we pulled it off). Suzanne, bless her soul, let my wedding day overshadow her college graduation day. She was obliged to be involved, too, being my MOH.

Anyway, so Caleb & friends didn’t make it to graduation, but they darn well made it to my wedding. It seemed only fitting I make it to his – except for the fact that I couldn’t, and one of the reasons was that I was fulfilling my duties as bridesmaid to Suzanne.

A sort of triangle of life.

Albeit an odd one.

Here are a few fun shower pics I took:




Apparently, Madeline thought my shoes were picture-worthy (I found this later):


Playing wedding:


The Bride and Flower Girl:


Suzanne and our friend, Kristine:


And finally, some college friends:


A beautiful day.

Ask the Interpeeps

We were the first of our circle of friends (meaning, in our age group) to have a third baby. Most of the other families now have three, or are about to.

Goodbye small car, hello minivan.

One such friend (her children can be seen in the pictures below) recently asked me if I had any tips on keeping a big family car clean. I.e. containers, organizers, general tricks of the trade...

(“If you saw the inside of my van, you would not be asking me advice on how to keep yours clean.”)

So I ask you, oh wise interpeeps, any suggestions?

And on a totally unrelated subject, I also had another request for a good recipe using roasted peppers. So feel free to throw recipes in for that, too.

Don't let us down.

Morning Fun at the Museum

While Drew was in preschool today, the girls and I met some friends at the children's museum.

The Addies:


(No, neither of us call them that. Adeline and Adelaide. One month apart.)

(Yes, I have permission to post all of these.)




Some Serious Bell Ringing:



The line up:


And all four are actually looking at the camera!

(A slight miracle.)

And now it's Wednesday already

Yesterday, mid morning, I got a call from a friend’s hubby asking if I could help her celebrate her thirty-first birthday by going out to dinner with her that very night.

I told him I couldn’t promise anything, but that I would try. I called my sisters, angels that they are, and explained the situation and that it was totally up to them to decide if they wanted to help me out with the kids, yet again.

They did.

Since Tuesdays are Andy’s day off, I ran the errands on my list while the kids were napping, without having to hurry home for him to leave for work. I also just got a free $10 gift card to Ann Taylor for ten of my friends signing up to Shop It To Me (shout out to Jo-Lynne for sending it to me in the first place).

So I did a little turn around Ann Taylor. Hey, I had a good excuse. Leave me alone. (And I even found a cute something.)

I was really at the mall to pick up Madeline’s three-year-old portraits I had done of her a few weeks ago. (Never mind that it was three months past her birthday. She’s still three.)

They turned out pretty cute, so real-life friends and grandparents, be warned. Also, I’m taking Adelaide on Friday.

After I had fed the kids and wrangled them into their pajamas, my sisters came over and I got myself ready. Andy sings in the local “professional?” choir and they rehearse on Tuesday nights – which is why he wasn’t going to be home to keep the kids.

We had a really nice dinner. Nicky and her mom came, with baby Seb (wink to Nick), and then the birthday girl and two other friends.

And since I know you’re dying to know (work with me here), I wore the shirt I had found on sale at Ann Taylor that afternoon.

Shop It To Me may just be my new BFF.

How Bad Can It Be?

Today Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee is hosting

which basically is a way for bloggy friends to "meet" each other and "see" the face behind the blog.

And since it's been well documented that I will do almost anything for blog fodder, including blogging my naked face, here's my little cameo:


I See What You're Saying! from Please Pass the Salt on Vimeo.

(Anything longer and I would have required cue cards.)

To "meet" more faces, head on over to I See What You're Saying!

Unusual Monday. Meaning, I actually did something(s).

This morning I managed to get up off my rear and go on a long walk/jog.

No, my husband’s running a marathon this week did not inspire me. I’ve been meaning to start exercising for a long time. (And then I’d remember after I’d already taken a shower.)

(Clearly, I lacked motivation.)

I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow but the energy boost was nice for today.

After I had showered and ‘put my face on,’ I baked a quick batch of scones and invited myself over to Nicky’s for a little mid-morning tea party with her and her mom.

(And to get away from Andy practicing voice in our living room. I mean, I can only handle so much.)

We had ourselves a nice little time. (“Sit down, Nicky. Do not pick him up. Let me get that. No, for heaven’s sake, sit down!”) You can tell she’s been stuck on a couch for 4 days.

Tonight I decided to load everyone up and take my kids to the free play area in our mall. I’ve just spent the last several nights at home by myself with the kids; I needed to change things up a bit.

And it just so happened it was Kids’ Night at the Chick-Fil-A there and so we got a free kids’ meal, which is handy. They could have done a craft, but I graciously opted out of that.

(I might have reconsidered for free candy.)

Andy got home from work just as we were pulling in the drive. Monday nights are really hit-or-miss at the restaurant, but you take the good with the bad.

And I for one am glad to have him home early.

Deep & Wide

This just cracks me up.

Madeline's rendition:


Deep & Wide from Please Pass the Salt on Vimeo.

Marathon stats

Old Man Andy is currently hobbling around the house and it's quite the sight to behold. But he and Ezra finished in the top 20% out of about 1,200 runners, so I guess he earned it.

They even received a cool medal:



Funny story. A spectator yelled out to him "ARE YOU SINGLE? IF YOU ARE I WANT YOUR NUMBER AFTER THE RACE!!! ...I'M SERIOUS!!!"

Single? Uh, no.

(And who hits on red-faced, sweaty men in the middle of a race?! Who does that?!)

A Week, in Review

Two Fridays ago now, Dolly called to see if we were doing anything that Saturday, since Ethan had to work here in town. She caught a ride with him and she and the kids played with us all day.

We went ahead and renewed our membership at the children’s museum then. Having her in town was a good excuse. (Like I needed one.)

My angel sisters watched ALL the kids that night, so we could go out to dinner (Andy’s restaurant, of course). Heaven.

And then early in the week, I made myself finish up the work on the house, including getting rid of that pesky box sitting next to my china cabinet all this time. I got the rest of the pictures hung in the hallway, and the extras carted up to the attic.

I love, love, love finishing major projects. It’s cathartic.

Some other, smaller projects I checked off my to-do list were letting out the hems in several of the girls’ dresses (now ironed and ready for a few Sundays), converted a lot of Madeline’s old hairbows from alligator clips to French barrettes, (I love me a glue gun) and organized the laundry basket full of random fall-ish clothes that’s been sitting in the hallway for the last forever.

We met Sarah and her girls twice at the museum this week – the first time on one of Drew’s school days and it was nice to have just all the girls. Calmer, shall we say. I love my Drew, but he can wear a mama right out.

I picked him up from preschool on Thursday only to have the teacher tell me he had had some trouble listening and obeying in class. Honestly, I’m surprised it hasn’t already happened. He’s obviously getting comfortable in his surroundings there. (A little too...)

So, we’re working on THAT.

And that brings us to Friday, which you already read way too much about. Today the kids and I had an uneventful breakfast, got a few groceries at Walmart, played outside, took a nap, ate a cookie, went to the playground, ate pizza outside on the patio table (less mess to clean up), and played some more.





I usually bathe my kids Saturday nights, and as you can see, tonight they were in dire need of a scrub-down. I’ve managed to get all three in bed and now my sisters are here doing their laundry and we’re about to pop in a DVD.

Oh! I almost forgot – the marathon!! Andy said they finished a little under 5 hours. They ran the full 26 miles and he said around mile 17 he thought he was going to die. He thought there was no way he could run a whole other hour and a half! But they did.

In “pouring down, torrential rain,” no less. Even got a medal for it.

He comes home tomorrow afternoon and I don’t know who will be more relieved.

The Never-ending Day

[I had a wonderful bloggy break, thank you! And after taking a whole week off, I feel refreshed and ready to blog now in earnest. In case you’re wondering, THIS is the promised new post, really, since technically I've had the Before & After: Girls Room post (below, in case you missed it...for some reason feedreaders didn't pick it up) finished since July. And after not hearing from me for a week, I’ll expect comments from every last one of you. Fair is fair.]

Today was one of the craziest mornings I’ve ever had, which is really saying something considering I have a separate category for 'Morning Mishaps.'

I mentioned before that Andy is running a marathon in New York, and it happened to be this weekend. He had signed up (and paid) before we moved and we were able to find a really cheap flight. So, in the end, he was able to keep his commitment with a friend.

However, since our city is about two hours from any major airport (although several to choose from), he was scheduled to take a shuttle today in the wee hours of the morning so that I didn’t have to drive him to the airport.

And for some unknown reason, he set the alarm for 4:10. He was supposed to board the shuttle at 4:30. It takes around 10-15 minutes to get there.

We woke up at 4:40.

(!@#*$%^&!)

In a groggy panic, we surveyed our options – none of which were even remotely appealing. We do have two cars; Andy's service engine light is on, however, and he wasn't comfortable driving it that far. I couldn’t even think straight enough to come up with a plan; I just knew I did NOT want to load the kids and drive Andy two hours away to the airport.

Especially at 4:40 in the morning.

A fleeting thought suddenly crossed my mind – he’d been dropped off from that same shuttle service on our side of town before after returning from an out-of-town trip… maybe they’d be willing to stop and pick him up?

I frantically grabbed the phone book, looked up their number (cursing my tired brain that would not churn out my ABC’s) and finally got a hold of the operator. He was pretty sure that the driver had already passed us on the highway.

I asked him if he could please check, just to be sure. Turns out the driver WAS willing to pull off and pick up Andy, and hadn’t passed us quite yet. I practically threw Andy his cell phone on his way out the door and then waited on pins and needles by my own phone to hear if he had made it.

I talked to him right as he was pulling into the gas station; no shuttle in sight. We figured out he was one exit down from where the driver was waiting, at another BP. He hopped on the interstate, sped over to the right place, and got on the shuttle.

[Cue the Hallelujah Chorus in all of its splendor.]

We could not have orchestrated it any better. It was totally and completely a God-thing. I laid in my bed afterward, my mind still racing and not wanting to think about what would have been necessary if Andy hadn’t made that shuttle; my eyes tearing up at the Lord’s mercy and silently repeating “thank you, Jesus,” over and over.

Even when I woke up a few hours later, my head was still spinning from that close of a call.

But the morning, it had only just begun.

First, Adelaide dumped her million pumpkin bread crumbs all down herself, her chair, and the floor – I saw her lift up her plate and felt myself switch into slow-motion as I moved across the room to try and stop her. It was too late.

Moist bread chunks and crumbs are not exactly easy to sweep up, turns out. I took the whole chair, booster seat and all, out to the back deck and turned it upside down.

(I let her out first, in case you are wondering.)

Then, after breakfast, Madeline came up and handed me several locks of hair – her own – asking me if I could put them back. I knew there would be a day where she tried to cut her own hair; I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.

I explained that it doesn’t work that way, that I can’t just fix her hair and put it back the way it was. She cried. Thankfully, they were mostly small cuts, and none of them right next to her head. She’s got a head full of layers, so it blends in fairly well.

Several times throughout the morning she said “I’m so sorry for my hair, Mama,” and would cry a little. It was such a delicate balance in responding because I wanted her to know that it’s just hair, after all; it will grow back. But I also don’t want her thinking she can just go chop off her hair whenever she happens to spot a pair of scissors.

Meanwhile, we’d tentatively planned to go to the children’s museum and all morning I had been trying to move in the direction of getting everyone out the door. So far I had only managed to change Adelaide out of her pajamas and into a clean diaper before Madeline’s hair cutting spree.

Next thing I know, I’m looking down at Adelaide, still wearing only a diaper, sitting in a dirt pile in the backyard with a shovel in her hand. And she was filthy.

She needed a bath, no way around it.

As I was getting myself dressed after that, I came out to the living room where Madeline had spilled the sugar bowl all over the place. It was a grainy, sticky, dusty mess. And then my head, it suddenly exploded into tiny little pieces.

Kind of like the sugar.

After THAT mess was taken care of, what do I do but go outside, and Adelaide is BACK in the dirt! This time only her hands needed washing, and boy, it’s a darn good thing.

[Also, all of this mayhem caused me to completely space that it was trash day, and I totally forgot to get our can out to the street. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but forgetting is one of my pet peeves. Now we have to wait another whole week and it was already almost full.]

Sarah and I did spend a couple of hours this afternoon at the children’s museum and although really fun, it totally wiped me out. (I got up at 4:40am, remember?) I had the kids nap for an hour when we got home, gave them an interesting collection of foods and called it dinner, and then attempted to get them all down for bed before I suffered a nervous breakdown.

Once in bed, Drew wanted a children’s Tylenol because he said his head hurt. Whatever, fine. A few minutes later, I hear him wailing because he squished it and the tablet broke all over his sheets.

I’m so glad I have a trusty vacuum cleaner and I’m so glad that I can go to bed now.

Before and After: Girls' Room

Welcome to my edition of

I'm using my girls' room for today's carnival simply because it is the only room that has actual 'before' shots.

(Which is convenient for a 'Before and After' display.)

A little background info in case this is your first visit here; we just moved back into our house after being away for a year and a month. Adelaide was a newborn when we left and still sleeping in the cradle (which was placed strategically in the guest room next to ours).

My son and daughter were 3 1/2 and 2 at the time, and shared the third room. Drew now has his own room and the girls are together.

You ready? Good!

BEFORE:




AFTER:



The full decal swirly thingy:


Madeline's bed sort of reminds me of Baby Bear's bed from Goldilocks:




Notice the rug:


This next shot is to give you a closeup of the trim. Our renters ripped out the carpeting in two of the bedrooms (don't ask) and so I had to nail down quarter round to fill in the space between the baseboards and the floor. (Also why we even had to purchase that rug pictured above.):


(Sidenote: Target and Homegoods should pay me for this post. Nearly everything decorative and all of the bedding were purchased at one of those two stores.)

A few closeup shots of some of the fun little things:


And I just love these whimsical fairies:



...and this butterfly:


The windows at the last house were shorter, so I added the pink fabric to make them longer:


And, just for fun, presenting the Inmates:


(Madeline above, Adelaide below.)


Thanks for stopping by! For more Before and After fun, head on over to Boomama's!

When All You Can Do Is Laugh

Or cry.

I usually choose to laugh.

Last night I was trying to get Adelaide quickly to bed, but, after playing outside several times during the day, she really needed a bath. Madeline loves baths, and thinks that every time Adelaide gets a bath, she’s entitled to one, too.

And Drew’s never one to turn down a party.

So, I shrugged, said “fine!” and let them all get in. I went downstairs for something and a little while later heard “Mom! There’s poop!”

Perfect timing, Adelaide, as always. (Think she plans it?)

I somehow managed to get her squirmy, slippery self clean and rinsed, meanwhile Drew was playing with the faucet and succeeded in spraying the entire bathroom. I looked down and realized I was kneeling in an inch of water. My poor jeans.

I grabbed Adelaide (who felt rather like a greased piglet), stuffed her into a towel, threw her diaper on, and left her in the girls’ room so I could finish refereeing the bath party.

Oh, and the poop cleanup. Let’s not forget about that.

The three of us finally made it out of the bathroom, mostly unharmed and relatively dry, and I began trying to wriggle pajamas onto two jumpy kids (otherwise known as A Mother's Nighttime Workout). Madeline insisted on dressing herself, which inevitably I had to help her turn her shirt around, but then I just left her pants backwards.

I mean, I can only take so much.

I ran down again to get Adelaide’s bottle, but while I was waiting for the microwave I heard the upstairs bathroom faucet turn on.

(Not a good sound when your bathroom is already sitting under an inch of water.)

It turned out they were just brushing their teeth, but unfortunately Adelaide had crawled in after them, which meant she was soaked. I changed her into fresh pj pants and dry socks, and put her to bed.

I immediately went back into the bathroom, perhaps a little nervous at the tooth-brushing chaos I was about to witness. They had all three selections of toothpastes out, each one opened and generously sampled.

Needless to say, there were blue spots all over the counter and the white bath mats on the floor.

Since it was obvious their teeth were sufficiently brushed, I made them wrap it up and shooed them out. However, as I was stepping back to let them pass, I stepped on an opened tube of Tow Mater toothpaste:



Yeah.

Like I said, all I could do was laugh.

Originally published May 2008.

Parenting: Not a 'One-Size-Fits-All'

Originally published as a guest post at Musings of a Housewife, August 2008.

I've been thinking a lot lately about parenting and how it's not a 'one size fits all' relationship, even to the children within a single family. I've known quite a few parents and grandparents alike who will not do something for a child or grandchild unless they can afford the time, attention, or money it takes to provide that thing or opportunity to every child.

Now of course I'm not advocating playing favorites. And of course we should strive to show love equally to our kids. But the outworking of that love might look very different from child to child. And that's a good thing!

Some kids have special needs that require a greater amount of parental time and attention. Other kids are low-maintenance and don't require much at all. We see this in the adult world as well and I'm sure you know this to be true. We all have 'high-maintenance' friends (or maybe you are one!); while other people are so even-keeled, we'd actually have to work to ruffle their feathers.

As parents, it's okay to take considerations for personality, special gifts and talents, and limitations and disabilities. We see each child as an individual and try to parent according to their specific needs; not according to what the other kids are doing or get to do.

Is one child struggling with reading? Maybe he needs some extra summer help. But you shouldn't feel guilty about not giving that particular attention to the other kids. Maybe they'll need extra guidance in some other area and have their own time in the spotlight.

Just the other night I decided to pop over to an old friend's house that I haven't seen in a while. I didn't have the energy to bring all three of mine with me, so I brought my girls and left Drew home with Daddy. He did not like being left behind. At all. But later, after the girls were tucked in bed, Andy decided to go for a short walk around the neighborhood, and he asked Drew to go with him. Drew's turn came; he was able to do something that the girls did not get to do.

Kids need to understand that life simply isn't meant to be 'equal' or 'fair.' We appreciate the ups and downs; they are what it is to be alive. We teach our children to be glad for their siblings when they succeed and empathetic when they fail.

We also need to encourage our kids not to constantly compare themselves to others or their abilities to that of their siblings and friends. That sort of self-measurement is unhealthy. Each child is unique and that should be celebrated and fostered.

And this is certainly how God deals with us – uniquely, as individuals. Sure, we may be part of the larger body and have some similar circumstances. But one person may be dealt a trial while another is in the midst of smooth waters – and perhaps each for no other discernible reason than that He is glorified.

The Life and Times of Andy's Hair

Originally published April 2008.

[Now, before you think me a terrible wife, let it be known I have full authorization to hit the "publish" button when I'm finished with this post. And thank you, honey, for being such a good sport.]

A couple of years ago I caught Andy, hunched over the toilet, shaving all his hair off. He was going to become the next great swimmer or something.

(He even made me buy him a particular piece of men's swimming attire that I will not specifically mention here. Ahem.)

(And he did go swim some laps.)

(Once.)

Yesterday I dug through some of our old pictures and actually found a photo of him right after he had buzzed his hair:


Anyway, I had warned him before this little shaving spree that if he ever did shave his head, I would get a haircut of my own. A short one. And even though he’s typically a fan of longer hair on me, clearly my threat accomplished nothing.

I promptly had my hairdresser friend cut my hair; I was pregnant with Madeline at the time. I even found an old picture of it, too:


It was a fun change. That’s really all I have to say about that.

Except.

This past weekend I was sitting here at the dining table, reading through my Google Reader, and I heard the bathroom door shut quietly upstairs, and the buzzers turn on. I felt my heart drop into my stomach.

I took the stairs two at a time, and threw open the bathroom door. There was Andy, caught red-handed with the clippers again.

Me, amused: “What are you doing?”

Him, sputtering: “I, uh... I need a summer cut. Look, it’s a Number Eight. It’s not that short.”

Me: “Okay, but you should do shorter on the sides and back. And if you need help trimming the neckline, I’ll come back.”

Here’s what I came back to:


That, my friends, is no Number Eight.


That is a Number Four.

Oh my.

I may be paying my hairdresser a quick little visit.

BUT! I found some other photo album gems while I was digging around and let's just take a fun little walk down the memory lane of Andy's Hair. You game? Good!

Here's one from when we were in college and Andy was studying abroad in Vienna. Some of my cousins and I were studying in the South of France and he came for a visit. This is what he looked like upon first walking in the door:


I whisked him off for a haircut and shave, posthaste:


His hair and beard grown out for the Madrigal Dinner (I think his senior year?):


Our first Christmas married (still long; no beard):


Cut short for his senior recital:


Short, add goatee (I was pregnant with Drew):


This one says it all:


Who is this next guy? Doesn't look familiar...


Wow. Shouldn't you be in Hollywood filming something?


Well. Nevermind.


(Also the funniest bed-head picture you'll ever see.)

More bed heads:


At least Drew comes by it honestly.


The Mop Tops.


(This family is obviously not lacking in the hair department.)

Cut again short for my cousin Courtney's wedding:


Long again by Thanksgiving:


Still long at Adelaide's birth:


Cut for her baptism, understandably:


To conclude, here's a more recent picture of Andy's hair (also entitled 'Meet My YouTube Junkies'):


And thankfully this Number Four business won't take too long to grow out.

[It didn't. Now it's September and he could use a little trim. :) ]

Good Morning. Would you like to play some board games?

Originally published March 2008.

This morning was one of those times where my attitude about getting out of bed was along the lines of "I don't care if they burn the house down, I simply cannot get up yet."

The kids usually content themselves by eating breakfast bars, playing around the house, climbing on me, watching a movie, or whathaveyou. But this morning? Somehow Drew got the plastic toddler-proofing cover off of Adelaide's doorknob and Madeline decided they'd play a few games.

Adelaide wasn't so thrilled. And you may want to shield your eyes:


The jumbled up mess of cards she was apparently sitting on:


The full disaster:



And a box of Andy's business cards, thrown in for good measure:


We won't discuss how long this took me to sort out and put to rights (and you can see how tiny those Risk men are, in that box right there).

Okay. Well at least they DIDN'T burn the house down.

A week off, and hightailing it to the cookie jar

Alright, interpeeps, I need a break and I'm taking it. I'll have a new post up next Friday.

In the meantime, however, I plan on republishing a few of my archived posts. So don't go too far! (Especially if you're a newish reader.)

Fun with Friends

This has been quite the week for playdates! It started last Friday, we went to see Laura and her darlings and have lunch with them. She also has two girls and a boy, so there’s sort of a friend for everyone.

On Tuesday, Nicky and her boys came over. We had some tea and teased Andy about doing his vocal exercises at home. (Did y’all know I married a music major? Well I did.)

(Sometimes my ears wish I hadn’t.)

(Like when I’m trying to fall asleep.)

Yesterday, Oriel came over with her beautiful little girl, who is five-going-on-thirty. I’m so glad it worked out since I haven’t had much time to catch up with them since we’ve been back. (Sorry again about the grass in A’s hair.)

(My son, he acts like a boy.)

And then today my girls and I went up to Sarah’s for a little tea party while Drew was in school. I think that was Madeline’s first real tea party. And it was tea, not just juice or lemonade.

(It probably had more sugar than either, though, I’m afraid.)

We had such a good time talking about fall girl clothes and hairbows, I almost forgot to pick Drew up from school. I was sweating the drive over there, hoping against all odds I wouldn’t be charged the $5 late fee.

(They mean business.)

I made it, somehow, and there were two other little boys still to be picked up. Whew! Totally by the hair of my chinny chin chin.

So I'm curious, what's a fun thing you like to do with friends? (It can be anything, of course, but I'm particularly interested in ideas that would be suitable for preschoolers.)