Dress up...eventually

The other day, Josie wanted to play dress-up for the first time with Beatrice. She had all sorts of things picked out, and as she was planning the dress-up extravaganza, I noticed they were being particularly adorable with one another on the bed so I grabbed my camera. We did eventually get around to playing dress-up but, as it turned out, they had much more fun being sweet together on the bed before the "real" event even started.

 I love these "un-moments."

My friend Linda -  amazing mother, talented editor, wonderful children's book author, and woman I want to be like when I grow up - recently said of these two girls: "I thought love was invisible--until I saw photos of them together." We couldn't agree more.

Quick Quote

In the car the other day Josie was asking us questions about dreams and nightmares. We have always tried to really break things down for her and get her talking when something is bothering her. And we always try to get to the feelings behind whatever is going on. She told us about a great dream she had with butterflies, ladybugs, princesses, candy and a whole bunch of other glittery, girly goodness. Then she told us about nightmares with monsters with big eyes and trees that come alive. It was all very sweet and serious business but then she said something that absolutely cracked us up. 

Lou: "What else did you see in your bad dream?"
Josie: "A building that had feet and got up and walked around. And then the whole city got feet and got up and walked around and stepped on me."

Lou: "And how did you feel when you had that happened in your dream?"
Josie: "FLAT...and squished!"

Mmmm....Duffins!

Last weekend Josie and I  made "duffins" out of Kiwi Magazine. We've been cooking a lot more from scratch lately, and the idea of a dessert that was part muffin and part donut (and all duffin) sounded too good to pass up.

I've been looking online for the recipe to share with you all, but apparently they have a month lag from the print to online recipes. So check http://www.kiwimagonline.com/ in a few weeks and I suspect it will be there. We made a few substitutions to eliminate the dairy by using Vanilla Rice Milk instead of regular milk and Earth Balance Spread instead of butter. We also used apricot jam and strawberry jam for the filling instead of raspberry as suggested. The apricot was our favorite.

Josie brushes on the butter so we can roll them in sugar

Roly looks on (and gets excited about "duffin boo-boo milk" according to Josie)

Fanning them with a magazine to cool them  down

Posing, very proud (and ready to eat!)

Sun-flowers and Sun-art

Here are a few photos of our sunflowers in full bloom! We have big plans for our sunflowers next year and will have loads of seeds (if anyone would like to plant some in your yard). It's amazing how much you can learn from a tiny packet of seeds. Nature is so incredible.

Loads of big busy bees!

The garden and the sunflowers thriving

Our house from the street: swingset, garden, sunflowers - yep, that's pretty much us! :)

I also wanted to share our fun art project. I remember using this paper in photography class in Junior High. Thanks to The Runyans for getting this for Josie from her birthday wishlist. We are having SO much fun creating nature prints!

Step One: Collect "interesting things" from the yard and lay them out on the sunpaper

Step Two: Stop to push an invisible fairy on our fairy swing while the sun works its magic

Step Three: Remove the objects, rinse paper in lemon juice & water

Step Four: Behold your masterpiece!

First Day of School, 2011

School is in full swing - complete with all of the massive transitions that have come with it. More on that later, but for now let's head back to that first day of school. It was so unbelievably easy compared to that first day last year when we were all three filled with such a flood of emotions. There were definitely some big emotions this year, most they were way more excitement than anxiety this time around. Here a couple of photos from that first morning.

The outfit she picked out - down to one blue scrunchy & one green scrunchy "because I need one for each flower on my skirt" -

Very excited about her two nursing necklaces that I let her wear -

The annual "peace tree" photo -

Daddy (after making her breakfast and packing her lunch) drives her to school every morning. That fifteen minutes each morning has come to be such a sweet and special time for the two of them - which apparently involves singing lots and lots of reggae!

And check out her "montessori movers" - these adorable little school slippers are just the sweetest thing!

Last day of summer break

On the last day before Josie was slated to start back to school, Lou and I both took an extra long lunch break so we could squeeze in one last field trip of summer break. Josie chose the Children's Museum and off we went. Here are a few photos from our fun afternoon together. (We spent SO much time there in her first two years that it is always really emotional for me to hang out there. It makes me miss the early days and miss the friends I used to hang out there with every week when we had the luxury of doing so! And now it makes me so excited for the day that Bea will be big enough to enjoy it too.)

Josie seriously called these "doing spiderman action shots" (yea, she plays with a lot of boys if you can't tell)...

Lou & Josie spent quite some time playing veterinarian while I spent quite some time cracking up! Lou would send Josie over to check the xray and then hide something "inside" the animal that required Dr. Josie to perform surgery.  First she found a whole muffin inside a guinea pig...

And later removed some asparagus from a kitten -

I was pretty happy she wanted to still hang out in the toddler farm, at least for a little while. (The first slide she ever went down about three years ago btw...)

All in all, another great day at the Cincy Children's Museum.  (We really want to make a date to go to the Children's Museum in Indy sometime soon. Anyone up for a group pilgrimage?!)

Grandma & DD Sleepover

See...I told you I was still stuck in summer. Just had to share these pics that Grandma sent from one of the sleepovers Josie had with Grandma & DD - who took her to a "concert" where the little family band covered "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show, which is Josie's favorite song - ever! (On that random note, we are going to "Bluegrass for Babies" on Saturday at Eden Park if anyone wants to join us!)

Thank you Stacey!

Now that we are double-digits into September, I suppose it is time for me to realize summer is actually over.
The girls had a fantastic summer and Stacey was a big part of that. Thanks for spending your summer with us Stacey. We hated to lose you but we know how lucky those middle schoolers in Oak Hills are to have you!

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