April 16: Rainy Day Activity: Creating my Summer List

 From me, to me.  Twenty things that I will make an effort to do this summer.  Mostly serious...

1. Plant beautiful things. Plant delicious things. Attempt to keep said things alive.
2. Make a kite and fly that kite
3. Use the ice cream maker often. Use it to make Lavender-Lemon Sorbet. Try not to eat it all yourself.
4. Move picnic table onto front porch for more family dinners outdoors
5. Yard Sale all of that tacky crap in the basement
6. Seek out more interactions with neighbors. Attempt to be less awkward around neighbors...I'm just sayin', they think you're a little strange
7. Read for pleasure
8. Sew a sundress for Alice in honor of the Magpie (Great Grandmother)
9. Make Project Share or Goodwill donations a monthly event (and get Henry to help)
10. Go on family walks
11. Picnics!!!
12. Martini Picnics!!!
13. Porch Parties!!!
14. Dance Parties!!!
15. Dance Club Martini Picnic Porch Parties!!!
16. Go on bike rides...once Mike fixes my bike...which he was supposed to fix two years ago...Mike!
17. Turn...er...can't say it...30.
18. Hit up the pool on weekday afternoons
19. Bug hunts with Henry
20. Finding joy in simple things

April 15: Baron Von Coolguy & Rosie O'Shades

There is major "radditude" flying around in this picture.  Kitty & Hen know how to rock some sweet-A shades.  Can't get over Kitten's flowery rose-colored glasses and Hen's specs are just ba-nan-as (b-a-n-a-n-a-s).  I will share that I did make sure that these Buzz Lightyear Faux Ray Bans fit me before we bought them...in case we might want to share...that's totally normal, right?  Wearing plastic sunglasses that belong to your three-year-old?

Eh.  Normal=overrated.

April 14: Please Dora, don't insult his intelligence

Dora the Explorer: "Come on everybody, wiggle your hips to bounce the ball back to me!"
Dora & Boots: "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!" (demonstrate hip wiggling motion)
Henry, with mouth full of Apple Jacks: "Dora, I can't bounce the ball to you, I'm in my house, not in the TV."

I decided not to challenge the fact that Dora couldn't actually hear him, although it was in line with the reality that he couldn't bounce a ball back to a cartoon character. We'll let him get there on his own.

Apple Jacks

"I'm being friendly!"

April 13: Twinsies ( or Triplet...sies...?)

Check us out in our matching yellow slickers!  Rainy days are not the most fun days to give campus tours, but our guides are the best, the cheeriest and, obviously, the most fashionable (AND sensible! College kids in rain-appropriate gear?!  Miracle.)  Just to be clear--I am not giving a campus tour, I just like situating myself between adorable, energetic college students hoping that I might absorb some of their youth and charm.

Wednesday was a fine day.  Only downside was that I didn't get to spend a whole lot of kid-time, which is why these April posts are kept short.  Longer diatribes when May 1 hits, including a connection I recently made between spending time with my friendle Joey Kirk and listening to/watching the Snow White song/scene "Whistle While You Work".  In short, seeing Joey, and watching Snow White and woodland creatures picking up dirty clothes and dusting furniture while singing leaves me with the same glowy, joyous giddiness.  With that said though, who really feels comfortable with a chipmunk using his tail to wash your glassware?  Unsanitary?  Seems like a shortcut, Snow White.  Do it yourself.

Aghh!  April!!

April 12: It's AM, not PM

 

Up at 6am, out the door to work by 8am, home from work (with a trip to and from Philly) by 11:45pm, then feed Alice, then drag yourself upstairs at this time.  On marathon days like this I lose track of time and just go through the motions, but on this particular date, I choose to snap a quick photo before heading upstairs so that when life is slow and normal again, I can look back at this and believe that April actually did happen.

April 11: The Art Show

This week, the Cumberland County Historical Society celebrates "Week of the Young Child", which means art shows from groups like ours throughout the course of the next few days.  Yesterday was our daycare's turn.  Here are a few photos of the art show, and a few of Alice in the morning.  Last night they had their very first "real" (non-family or close friend) baby sitter (Mary Kate) and I was thrilled to return home last night and find that everything had gone well.  I adore Mary Kate and was so pleased that Henry and Alice felt the same way.

Chatty Kitty in the morning

Little lovebug baby

Alice's Busy Bee

Henry's Canoe

Henry finding "T for Tiger Room"

Hen's leaf imprint

Henry's favorite exhibit at the art show.  Cookies and Juice.

April 10: Saint Henry

Yesterday, at around 3pm, just after I've gotten off the phone with my mom, affectionately known as "GiGi" in our house.

Hen: "What were you talking to Daddy about?"
Me: "That wasn't Daddy, it was GiGi.  We were talking about church"
Hen: "Why were you talking about church?"
Me: "Well, we're going to meet GiGi at church later today."
Hen: "Why are we going to church NOW??"
Me: "We missed this morning, so they let you go in the afternoon to make it up."
Hen: pause..."Oh.  I was thinkin' about that! about church!"

My devout little Catholic (and then Alice talked through the entire mass...diva)