Peppercam

ONE

2010-03-02T22:51:00.001-06:00

A year ago today, I was holding a tiny, sweet, chubby-cheeked baby girl, so grateful to be the mama who would get to be with her as she grows up. And now look!

My sweetie. I hope she is as happy with her family as we are with her.

She especially loved it when we all sang her "Happy Birthday."

So we did it again!

And again, all day.

The girls and I were home, so we were able to spend the whole day doing things Emily enjoys. Like eating things off the floor and emptying cupboards! Not really, but that would have probably been fine with her. We had pancakes, went to baby storytime, took a little walk (what a day for a walk! Ohmygoodness Emily, you have a glorious birth date), had a big bath, crawled around wreaking destruction on the playroom, and ate cake.

She got a pillow for her crib. Big girl one year olds need one for their beauty sleep.

Bella gave her a huge rubber ball that we picked out at Target. She insisted that it be wrapped, so I wrapped it and put it with the other gifts, and Bella sees it and says, "Is it a Pinata?"

She got her very own bag of Teddy Grahams, a big hit. And a card that plays Winnie the Pooh when it opens. Her most special present isn't finished yet--I just need to knit a few more inches on it. I always take advantage of these poor babies who have no concept of punctuality.

We also went to Bella's dance class tonight. I wouldn't say that is one of Emily's favorite things, but she doesn't mind it. And it was family watch night!

And also costume try-on night. This picture just takes my breath away. You can tell she feels like a princess.

My two princesses. What a lucky mama I am.

A little catching up

2010-02-24T17:07:00.002-06:00

Just so we are all caught up, here are some things that have been going on during my impromptu blog break, for which I don't really have a good excuse except that I have been exhausted and for a while in fact, was sure that I had mono but then it turns out I am just naturally tired and lazy with no viral assistance needed.

Feb 11: Bella gets hit in the head (deliberately) with a large chunk of ice at preschool. I get called at work and told they can't stop the bleeding, although it is only bleeding a little so don't panic even though you just heard the words can't stop the bleeding and are trying not to throw up. I take her to the doctor and she gets patched up, so all's well that end's well. Except that the incident starts us down a dark path of doubt about our choice of daycare. Because, first of all, how f'd up are you to hit a little girl with a large chunk of ice IN THE FACE? And why haven't you been sent home when I pick up my bleeding kid and take her to go get stitches*? And why did your parents not apologize when I later saw them? WHAT THE H IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? It triggered a primal mama protection sequence which is still unfolding. We went and visited a new preschool and Bella had a great time. But she's four and can have a great time at the mall play area, so we are taking that into account. We are very torn on what to do.

*she turned out to only need 'suture strips,' very handy little things!

Next in my rundown of exciting happenings, we got a piano!

I am so excited. I have always wanted a piano and it is just surreal that now we have one sitting in our living room. We decided on a digital piano, a nice one, and I think it was a great decision, even if it doesn't fit my vision of a charming wooden piano. It has several "voices," which is super fun. The jazz organ alone makes the piano awesome. And don't be surprised if I put on my Jane Austen gown and play a minuet on our harpsichord. Oh, except I don't know how to play a minuet! Minor detail. But I am so excited to take piano lessons! I am going to start in March. I am just thrilled to have a piano in our house, especially with little kids who aren't too cool to sing and dance around while I hunt and peck the ABCs.

Look at Emily Bea!

She is very proud of herself zombie shuffling behind her walker. She aims for some destination (usually Bella) and when she arrives she squeals and bounces up and down. Yay me! She gets easily distracted by all the bells and whistles on the front of the thing, stopping walking to hang over and flip a few switches like she's a mechanic giving it a little tune-up before walking on.

I ordered all the plants for our new veggie garden. I hope that is a successful adventure! I also got a little carried away with ordering some new flowers for our new landscaping. But I'm not as worried about that. Flowers I can handle. (Usually.) Some of my more exciting purchases are a mix of woodland plants for the back fairy garden area, a peony bush for the front, moonflowers to climb up the deck posts, a 'tiramisu' heuchera (I love tiramisu!), and a lime-green echinacea. I can't wait to spend the summer hanging out with our new landscaping! Maybe I can even have a garden party. And I can wear my Jane Austen gown and play the harpsichord! OHMYGOSH!

The last thing is that I made these fabulous slippers.

Are they not SO CUTE? I had to do some major adjustments on the photo, since there is actual flesh exposed and it is so blindingly white that my camera exposed it like I was taking a picture of the sun. They are this pattern, which I give 4 out of 5 stars. I docked a star because my heel really turned out nothing like the heels in the picture. So either I misunderstood the pattern (I doubt it, SNIFF!), or her heels are knit differently. But they do stay on and they look super adorable and they are very fun to slide around the kitchen in while pretending to be an ice dancer. So overall, two needles up.

They are part of my wardrobe revamp, wherein I am tossing things that have been worn way past the point where I would even consider giving them away to homeless people. Out with my old ratty slippers, stretched-out bras, pajamas from tenth grade, and shoes with actual holes in the bottom. I cleaned out my closet and drawers and bought a few new things and now everything is fresh and tidy and wearable. Aren't I awesome. Definitely!

Well thanks for joining me for the recap. I am off to dinner and knitting night. I hope you are having a great week!

The Fairy Family

2010-02-09T21:30:00.001-06:00

We found these at the library! How cute is that! Cousin Claire had given Bella a bunch of these for her birthday, and now she is hooked. Good thing there are 500 of them.

We were concerned Brent would feel left out. So Bella and I wrote him his story.

Brent The Peanut Butter Fairy

Brent the Peanut Butter fairy was in trouble! He was hanging from a branch and it was making cracking sounds. He had started out well enough, on a ladder picking some wonderful, juicy berries at the top of the berry bush. But that ladder, in a huge gust of wind, had blown down to the ground, leaving Brent hanging on for dear life.

"Oh wouldn't it be nice to have wings right now!" panted Brent.

Just then, he heard laughter tinkling on the wind. It was Joanne the Butternut Squash Fairy and Amy the Amethyst Fairy coming back from South America, where they had been on a wonderful fairy vacation, just hanging out.

"HELP!" cried Brent, who was doing some hanging out himself.

But the two fairies were talking and laughing to each other and didn't hear him. Brent's tiny hands were starting to slip. He needed to think of something fast!

Aha! He took his wand out of his belt and waved it around a little. Then he yelled into the tip, "Joanne! Amy! HELP!" His voice boomed out of the microphone wand.

Joanne and Amy stopped talking. "Did you hear that?" asked Amy. They both cocked their pointy ears to listen.

"HELP!!" echoed Brent again.

Joanne and Amy raced toward the voice. "That's Brent!" said Joanne. They rushed through the bushes and were startled to see Brent dangling from the top of a tall berry bush. They flew as fast as lightning and grabbed Brent, one on each arm, right as they heard the branch go CRACK!

They flew to the ground and set Brent on the grass.

"Thanks!" he said with relief, rubbing his sore hands together. "I was just trying to get some berries to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to welcome you home."

"Well maybe next time you should let the flying fairies do the high altitude work, ok?" Amy winked and flew up to get a berry. She carried it as they walked to Brent's cottage.

"Now how about some of those sandwiches? I'm starving!" said Joanne. Everyone laughed.

THE END

2010-02-07T20:25:00.025-06:00

This is me trying to be organized about meals. One of my new year's resolutions! I sat down last Sunday made a plan. Here it is:

S: Fresh Pasta with Tomatoes, Crispy Deviled Eggs (these are from How to Eat Supper and they are so good)

M: TV Dinner Night! Pierogies, Carrots and Dip

T: Chili (Mom and Dad brought supper!)

W: Knit Night (this means Brent usually gets McDonald's)

T: Porcini Farro (except I couldn't find Farro so I made this Pasta Bake instead--delicious), Salad, Grape Phyllo Tart (from Martha Stewart's new book, super good)

F: Pumpkin Leek Soup, Cheese Flautas

S: Chicken Marsala on sage polenta, Salad, Rice Pudding

It went more or less like that.

And now it's already time for this week's menu planning! Any recommendations?

I am so in love with myself for working on this new year's resolution. Self, you are so organized and awesome. I hope I don't burn out after three weeks. Which could so happen. Because planning, shopping, and cooking add up to a part-time job and heaven knows I don't have time for that in between all my knitting and American Idol watching.

Planning for a Good Year

2010-02-01T16:26:00.003-06:00

Happy February!

Bella's not a big fan of this sledding arrangement ("She's CRUSHING me!"), but she has decided it is better than no sledding. Apparently we need to upgrade to the tandem?

We have been trying to get outside more. It is just so much work to bundle everyone up! And I'm more into lazy parenting. Let's play Barbies while momma drinks coffee. That sort of thing. But I'm getting better at motivating us all to go out and Bella is pretty self-sufficient now with her snowpants and all that.

One of my new year resolutions this year was to have a vegetable garden. Here's our plan. What do you think? My dad is making us a 4x8' raised bed in our very sunny back yard.

Seascape Strawberries, Yaya Hybrid Carrots, Karina Garden Peas, and four different kinds of Tomatoes--Mortgage Lifter, Sweet Baby Girl, Viva Italia, and Wisconsin 55. We are new at this so if anybody has any advice, we'd sure appreciate it! The plan drawing part was fun so we are off to a good start.

Birthday Girl

2010-01-16T23:29:00.007-06:00

I think the birthday girl had a nice fourth birthday.

I know everybody says it, but really, FOUR? What the hell?

We celebrated on Friday with Daddy, who had just flown in on a red-eye from DC, ready for a party! Let's ROCK AND RO-zzzzzzzzz... Daddy? Daddy?

We went to Sesame Street Live and played with favorite neighbor Emma.

Bella set the menu for dinner: macaroni and cheese, apples, ice cream. Then we opened presents. She got a new book, dollhouse furniture, a video game, some art supplies, and I had been working all week on a special present. A Princess and the Pea set!

It has twelve mattresses (just like in the Book), a pillow, princess, blanket, and of course, a pea!

I also made a bag, which is where I was finally able to use some of my previously hoarded Heather Ross princess and the pea fabric. So cute!

Today, we had the big Strawberry Shortcake party with 7 little friends. We really berried it up!

We had strawberry shortcakes, strawberry milk, strawberry lemonade, strawberry jelly beans.

That's the pinata we made. It took forever. But it was a big hit. BIG HIT! Groan!

I even made strawberry play dough, played strawberry music, and had strawberry air freshener. It was totally over the top and so fun.

We played a couple strawberry-themed games, but mostly the girls were having a great time playing with all my old Strawberry Shortcake toys. Which, luckily, my parents saved, so I don't have obsess over anything on ebay. Thank goodness.

Happy Birthday Bella!

Savor the Sweetness

2010-01-11T17:24:00.000-06:00

I am constantly amazed at how sweet Bella is. She is thoughtful and sincere and genuinely compassionate.* When I do something like stub my toe, she will demand "which toe?" and go get an ice pack. She loves to setup Emily with lots of toys, which Emily typically throws aside so she can crawl around and eat sock lint, and Bella will run around, "She needs fresh toys!" gathering different toys. At preschool they wrote down what each kid said they wanted to be when they grew up and Bella was the only one who said "a momma." Awwww.

I realize this is probably a big sister phase, and the clock is ticking before the crazy I-hate-you-all-and-I-want-a-cell-phone tweenager phase kicks in. But for now, let's savor the sweetness. I thought a good way to encourage her compassion and thoughtfulness would be to have her help me volunteer. So I did a little searching around for good pre-school volunteer opportunities, and found a bunch of great ideas. When both girls are older, there will be a lot more "on-site" opportunities, but for now I stuck to the at-home things.

Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency has many ideas for "kits" you can shop for and assemble at home and bring to their offices for their home-visit nurses to bring when they visit low-income families. The one that I think would be most interesting to Bella is the "Rub a Dub, Safe in the Tub Kit." It includes baby towels and washcloths, baby wash/shampoo, wipes, diapers, diaper cream, a bath toy, and some onesies. Lots of fun things to put together! And don't you love thinking of a little baby having fun in the bath, all clean and splashy? There is nothing cuter than a baby having fun in the bath. Another donation idea they gave was that they are always in need of books. Because, they say on the website, 95% of the households they work with do not qualify as what they consider "literary homes," which means they have less than 12 books in the house. IN THE WHOLE HOUSE. I realize I am sheltered, but OMG. We have like 1200 books. My heart just broke.
Habitat for Humanity cookie baker! How fun is that idea! We love to make cookies. And apparently Habitat for Humanity likes to deliver cookies to job sites to reward volunteers. But we would just deliver them to the main office, so that's easy enough.
Chemo Angel. Kind of a heavy subject for a little kid, so I'm going to dumb it down: sick person needs cheering up. I think at a basic, non-cancerous level, this is the kind of personal mothering activity that Bella is drawn to. And since it is all through the mail, it is pretty non-threatening. I think she'll be a wonderful chemo angel assistant!

So those are my ideas for my sweet little girl. I'll let you know how they go!

*Just to be clear, Bella has her moments. Two nights ago she screamed like a banshee and shouted "I AM SO ANGRY! AND FRUSTRATED! AND NOW I AM SAD!" (she will continue adding emotions--scared, lonely, thirsty--for as long as they keep surfacing) all because I had put her stool in front of the sink to brush her teeth. But it was the wrong sink! I AM SO ANGRY!

Happy Birthday Brent!

2010-01-06T11:57:00.002-06:00

I think Brent had a nice birthday. I made lasagna, the recipe from Apples for Jam, more or less, and it was sooo good. That is one of my favoritist cookbooks ever. The recipes are right up my alley and all of the text and pictures are about children/childhood. It has such a cozy, sweet feel. Love it.

We (Bella and I) also made pineapple dream cake, which is just yellow cake with special pineapply frosting. Bella added all the ingredients to the bowl, even the 3 eggs. She is actually becoming quite a help in the kitchen!

We were highly amused by little 10 month Emily Bea stuffing chunk after chunk of cake into her mouth. She ate half my piece! When she was 3 months old, she was "student of the month" at her daycare and I had to fill out a sheet of her 'favorites,' and for favorite food, I jokingly put Twinkies. WHO KNEW?

The girls and I had a fun day getting ready for Daddy's birthday. We also went to Party City to get ready for Bella's birthday! She was so excited and cute, picking out her Strawberry Shortcake supplies. And then pouring through them when we got home, and showing them all to Daddy when he got home. So sweet!

Here she is swimming!

She was not as big of a fan as she looks in the photo. But hopefully it'll get easier. I signed her up at Foss, which is the yuppie swim school around here, in an effort to make her first experience as great as possible. And I suppose it was a pretty good first lesson, but the instructor decided to spend the last 10 minutes making them take turns putting their ears in the water. Which destroyed Bella. I ended up squatting at the edge of the pool, trying to pat her back while she sobbed that she didn't like swimming lessons. Kind of heart breaking. I have a feeling this experience is going to involve lots of bribes and some advanced parenting techniques.

A couple recent projects

2010-01-02T21:39:00.002-06:00

Check out this pirate house! I made it for my swashbuckling nephew.

I got the idea from missprettypretty's etsy shop. She has amazing card table tents. I can't imagine how she does it.

And another playhouse, except this one is about the size of a lunch box. It was a Christmas gift for Emily Bea.

It even has a little Emily to live inside!

Once in a while she likes to chew on the buttons or on the point of the little Emily's head. Other than that, she would rather bang on her piano.

One of my next projects is a Princess and the Pea set for Bella's birthday. I even found pea green roving to needle felt the pea. So exciting! Bella isn't too interested in the whole handmade scene at the moment, but I've decided she still needs a special something from mom. And did I mention I found PEA GREEN ROVING? She must have a pea. At least she was excited when we whipped up a sleeping bag for her My Little Pony the other day.

How were your holidays? We had a nice relaxing week, did lots of cleaning and organizing. A nice way to start the new year--clean and organized!

And it's over

2009-12-28T11:54:00.003-06:00

Zip! Just like that, Christmas is over. I hope you and yours had wonderful, cozy, and safe celebrations. Our travel (just local) worked out just right with the weather. Santa managed to make it to our house during the worst of the snow on Christmas Eve, so we had a good time opening presents and drinking coffee while the snow piled up. Brent didn't even bother to blow the driveway until about 3 pm. Now THAT'S a holiday!

Having both our girls for their first Christmas together was magical, and all I really needed to have a perfect holiday. Emily Bea has just learned to battle-crawl in the forward direction (previously only went backwards, so frustrating) and she became very fast during Christmas. Every present that was opened soon had little Mimi frantically speed-dragging herself over to examine it. The girls got lots of wonderful gifts. This ball pit was especially exciting!

I got an amazing surprise when Bella opened her gift from Aunt Sally's family... the vintage Sesame Street set I had so persistently tried to get off ebay!! NO WAY!

Now I get to have fun seeing if I can get good deals on all the accessories for it that are on ebay. I do like a good cyber-shopping challenge!

Due to all of my pneumonia drama*, a few things slid by this year. Like baking. Didn't get any of that done. (Although we did make a gingerbread house. That counts, right?) We didn't celebrate St. Lucia day. My aunt and uncle in North Carolina didn't get their usual box of goodies. I didn't send a Christmas card (although I made one for you blog readers!). I contributed nothing to both family dinners we went to. And in fact totally forgot about our Christmas dinner. (Luckily I found some old filet mignon in the freezer!) The blog and my etsy shop had to take a hiatus. And, perhaps the lowest point of the season, I missed Bella's holiday show at preschool.

But looking at the bright side, I finished my shopping, wrapping, and gift-making in time. Our house was decorated. We got a picture with Santa (adorable!) and celebrated St. Nick day (remembered at the last minute). So not all bad. Quite nice, actually.

I wouldn't want to do it this way every year, but it's nice to know some hallowed traditions can be left for another year, and the holiday still feels special. Even Christmas Lite is still Christmas, and I am so thankful to have such wonderful families and to be able to be together with them.

*As for my pneumonia, I got the best gift I could have asked for in the form of new antibiotics that work. Merry Christmas to me! I had pneumonia since mid-September and in early December was referred to a pulmonologist, who did a bronchoscopy and decided I must have drug-resistant pneumonia. This was great news (14 days of antibiotics and I'm cured), and I am so excited that the new antibiotics are actually helping (after just one week even). Hooray for modern medicine! I was even out sledding twice this weekend! YEEHAW!

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving already

2009-11-23T20:56:00.001-06:00

What a crafty weekend we had! We started out with the Holiday Fair at the Minnesota Waldorf School. I was super excited. I had been wanting to see inside the school, since I secretly wanted to send the girls there, and also couldn't wait to buy up all kinds of handmade crafties. But then there weren't that many handmade crafties (although we got a cute coat/hat/scarf set for Rosemary), and the school had a weird vibe to it that cured me of wanting to send the girls there. I think Brent about nailed it when he said it was the Renaissance Festival of schools. But the "Gnome Cave" attraction was stellar, and we all enjoyed an awesome lunch. You could also make a gnome and a candle holder, but for some reason Bella wasn't feeling crafty. Shoot.

Sunday we had fun making Thanksgiving cards! We used 54stitch's instructions.

The hardest part was getting Bella to draw a turkey. First she studied pictures of turkeys in Blue Hat, Green Hat. Then she filled a few sheets of paper with scribbles. Then she declared turkeys too hard to draw. Luckily, it occurred to me to make a hand turkey! Phew! Crafting crisis averted.

I love the way her turkey has "wings" down on the chest. Turkey breast(s) anyone? tee hee.

We made tons of prints, since squirting the paint into the pan was Bella's favorite part. Then we glued (gluing! second favorite part) them to the front of cards and wrote "Happy Thanksgiving!" and Bella signed her name. I signed Emily's too even though she didn't really help much and mostly just rolled from the kitchen to the dining room and back, occasionally shrieking as she went by.

Also yesterday we busted out the new ice cream maker. I was going to give it to Bella for Christmas, but then I read the instructions--FIVE hours to make ice cream?? That is so not going to be fun on Christmas day. But it sure is fun while you're making handprint turkeys! And, although it really did take 5 hours in the freezer (maybe not that long if you aren't 3 and don't check on it every 5 minutes), that little $14 ice cream maker made some FANTASTIC ice cream! We made mint chocolate chip and at first Bella thought it was too minty (OOOH MORE FOR ME!) but then wolfed down a whole bowl (DAMMIT!).

It is surreal that this week is Thanksgiving. Tomorrow the girls have a "free" day at daycare and I am going to have a nice day at home baking rolls for the big feast. Should be fun!

Grand Opening!

2009-11-22T23:31:00.000-06:00

I suppose it was inevitable. I had to fulfill my shop-owning fantasies somehow. And, so far, the new Etsy Peppercam shop is doing a great job. I get to design a banner! I get to arrange things! I get to make business cards! All very exciting.

Here is what it looks like:

www.peppercam.etsy.com

I sell safety-pin watches, which I have worn for years and let me tell you, they are FUN. Adults love them, kids love them, everybody pours attention on the watch.

I also have some beaded snowflake ornaments in there, although those aren't getting as much attention as the watches-- even though they are gorgeous (if I do say so myself!). They have a couple issues: a) my photos are kind of crappy, they are a bitch to photograph since they are CLEAR, and b) they take me about an hour each to make so I priced them accordingly, which might be a little steep for the useless decoration category.

And--more shop fantasies--I got to buy packing supplies! What a fun trip to Papersource.

I know what you're thinking. Where are the KNITS? Well, I haven't quite figured out what would satisfy the balance between time spent and money earned in the knitting department. Because most of my knitting projects take me hours and hours to do, and no one wants to pay $100 for a baby sweater. But I have the Etsy bug so I'm sure I'll think of something to stick in the shop!

Rosemary

2009-11-16T11:34:00.003-06:00

Look who just came to join our family!

Hello Rosemary!

She's a little bit shy but likes to giggle. She is well-behaved and polite. Last night was her first evening with the family, and since it was movie night, she had a big time. That's why this morning she is just relaxing with her latte. I'm sure her head is spinning.

I made her yesterday at an all-day dollmaking workshop. It was a great, great time. Watching everyone's dolls come to life (each one completely different!) was so amazing. I wish I had a group photo of everybody's dolls!

I brought Rosemary into the house wrapped in a blanket (it was cold and she was nude) and Bella immediately fell in love. I couldn't have been more SHOCKED. It has been a source of some lament for me that Bella has until now shown no signs of being a doll person (as I am [duh]). She has shown little interest in the other dolls we've given her. So I'm not sure what happened, but Rosemary (who, actually, I thought I was making for myself) has been smothered in love since entering the door last night. She even had to have her own bed (luckily I had an extra doll bed (or four) in the basement) set up next to Bella's for nighttime. And this morning she had to ride buckled in the car to daycare to drop Bella off. I am just in heaven watching her and Rosemary become friends.

I am home with Emily today, who has a touch of the stomach flu so can't go to daycare. Although--typical--she's had no symptoms since 7:30 this morning. Well, hopefully she is feeling better!

Tiny Knits

2009-11-13T10:42:00.007-06:00

I am so pleased with this new little clothesline for Emily's room!

I think she likes it too. And Bella was quite impressed. She requested a sweater to hang on her wall too.

It was such a cute little project, and used up some extra bits of yarn, all of which are from things I made Emily (the famous bunting yarn is there!).

It was pretty hard to photograph, since it is in kind of a dark corner of the room and I am a total dunce at working my camera (should I just buy the flash or what, any advice would be appreciated!). But trust me, it makes the whole room so sweet! I'm planning on making a teenier tinier one for our fairy garden next spring. I KNOW OMG HOW CUTE WILL THAT BE!!

Speaking of sweet. Just look at these two little hams.

Emily is just so thrilled with any attention from big sister. Bella can run through the room and Emily is all arms-flapping shrieking with laughter. "IT'S BELLA! SHE LOOKED AT ME! SHRIEEEEEEK!"

They like each other! I can only hope this lasts a little while.

In which I have recovered enough to update the blog

2009-10-31T23:06:00.003-05:00

Phew! That was as close to death as I would like to be for a long while. A super-duper-ally-de-schmooper case of swine flu-monia. I kind of forget between each sick how sucky it is. Sucky! Well it's nothing that three antibiotics, tamiflu, ventolin, advair, prednisone, and codeine can't fix.

I have been contributing nothing to housework, child care, or society for weeks. I am also hooked on The Price is Right, which makes me a cross between a senior citizen and a drug addict. I think I might be able to get a free power chair at absolutely no cost to me.* I showered yesterday and put actual clothes on for the first time in a long time and Bella says, "You look so beautiful!" Thanks Bella! Guess I have been setting the bar pretty low with my 24-hr flannel pants?

But luckily, I was feeling great tonight for Halloween! Want to see pictures? Of course you do!

I should start with the pumpkin festivities. Brent and Bella went to the pumpkin patch and Bella picked out a pumpkin for her and one for Emily. Emily's was small and bumpy. Super cute. Then they painted them.

I thought the paints we were using were washable, until Emily got a huge glump in her hair and we put her in the bath to 'wash' it out. Daycare the next day filled out an 'accident observation report' noting their concern about and monitoring of the huge red spot on her head. whoops.

Brent's pumpkin turned out great. Very spooky and sort of sly looking. Definitely keeping my eye on this one.

Here is Bella's "Regular Dora" costume, a costume she wore for her daycare party. She is so proud in this picture.

Here they are tonight, My "Fairy Tale Dora Princess" and Emily Elephant.

I sewed Bella's costume from McCall's 2856, with some major pain-in-the ass adjustments to fix the apparent FOUR INCHES of ease they included in the chest. For a 3-year old's gigantic boobs, I suppose. I am the most excited about how the hat turned out. I just bought the thickest fusible interfacing I could find and voila! I had a hat in about 5 minutes. The elephant costume is from my neighbor, thank goodness. Since I could barely finish Bella's costume, working about 20 minutes a day in my decrepit state. Luckily I had it all cut out before I got sick.

Here is Bella after her trick-or-treating. She told me she was the "Master of Disguise! Now take my picture!"

I hope you all had a spooky and fun (and warm! We needed hot chocolate!) Halloween!

*If you get this joke, then you are so busted for watching daytime tv. BUST. ED.

Another Day

2009-10-13T16:08:00.004-05:00

We started today off with breakfast in the playroom, on our miniature tea set dishes.

I was sipping my coffee and Bella was eating crispex and a baby banana and Emily was in her jump-up thing that hangs in the doorway, and I was thinking, this is what memories are made of. Just a magical childhood moment. And Bella sighs and says, "I am so BORED!"

Well OK then.

We were up for an outing today, and I voted Children's Museum, but Bella voted Mall of America (she's a huge fan, in case you're new around here) and she claimed Emily voted Mall of America too, so I was outnumbered. Normally I would demand a recount, but hey, what the hell. There's a place for fun in my life.

We all got to ride the Merry-go-round--Emily's first ride! (Except for the Sky Ride of course). I think she liked it. I forgot my camera, but I suppose that would have been a bad idea to be spotting both kids while taking pictures while spinning around anyway, so you can just imagine it in your head. Emily on a pony next to Bella on a giant chicken--pure cuteness.

Then we managed to eat lunch out without any giant-head gawkers nearby. What a relief.

What a fun day. It's hard to imagine that only a couple months ago I could hardly leave the house I was so sick. I try to remember that so that I never take these days for granted.

I am very excited to get my etsy shop started. I love a good project and this one is lots of fun. I am starting out small, just with my safety-pin watches. I haven't gotten up and running yet (I am still waiting for 1400 safety pins to arrive!) but I am not in any rush. It's just an adventure. Because, frankly, my kids have enough handknits, don't you think?! HA!

Brrr

2009-10-12T21:40:00.001-05:00

So who loves hot chocolate? I DO! And this horrible weather is a good reason to boil up some water, add some mix, (and some Bailey's, if you are of the grown-up persuasion) and make a toast to six more months of winter. Huzzah!

Here we are making the best of the snow.

Emily was unphased by her giant puffer snowsuit. Just give her a nuk and someone to watch and she's like, "Whatev."

It was "raining snow" as Bella astutely noticed, which made for excellent snowman building.

We used blueberries for his eyes and mouth, which looked a little gory--I tried to cover up some of the more bullet-holey looking areas with snow.

You can also see Bella's new snow pants and jacket--or as I like to call it, her marshmallow costume. She looks pretty hilarious stumping around in it. We ended up with a mitten emergency--out of the whole (damn) rubbermaid tub of winter paraphernalia, there weren't two mittens that would fit Bella. So that was a good excuse to head over to Rosedale last night and pick up some mittens. And being at Rosedale was a good excuse to have a nice dinner out with my girls (Brent was playing his Monday night DnD). The most amusing part of our dinner was the little boy at the table next to us who could not stop marveling at the size of Emily's head. His mom kept assuring him that all babies had big heads. To which he finally said, "YES, I get it, babies have big heads. But her head is HUGE!"

Technically, I think it is her cheeks that are huge. But he has a point.

Here she is in her new hat. Knit by mama of course.

And here she is, falling over from the weight of her huge head.

I just had the best time at home with my girls today. Except I didn't get a thing done. Why is that always the way?

A whole new estate

2009-09-26T09:59:00.002-05:00

Time for a morning in the garden.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Our yard is so clean and fresh and lovely right now!

Apparently all we needed was 4 guys to work on it for 7 days. These front windows used to have giant weed-bushes and half-dead prickly bushes. Now they have hydrangeas and a magnolia. I am so excited.

The gray pointy landscape rocks are gone. This is jack pine bark mulch. Fancy! I hid in the house while they shoveled all the rock up. It was 90 degrees and I was feeling pampered and guilty.

And here's the most exciting part! New rock walls. The whole point of the project. The new mulch was just gravy, so to speak. Gravy on a big pile of stone mashed potatoes. With globe arborvitae peas. Also in that picture, you can see my new bird bath. Which cost about 0.1% of the project but is possibly my favorite part. I had been talking about a new bird bath for years (seriously! Aren't you glad you don't live with me?) and I find one and bring it home and Brent's like, "Why would you want to attract BIRDS? Ew." So apparently he doesn't like birds? So apparently he doesn't listen to me talk? Well. I guess neither one of those is that unexpected.

Here is the other side, with the steps coming down from the deck. I can't tell you how pumped we are to be able to Exit The Deck. Very Exciting! And that big empty bed there? That's going to be my fairy garden! (I've told Brent all about it for years. He can fill you in.)

Above you can see the Pink Flamingo Willow, a very exciting new tree. Here's a close-up.

We look forward to many happy times in our 'new' yard!

Such a Beautiful Trip

2009-09-13T23:30:00.001-05:00

This weekend we went down to Whitewater State Park to spend a night in a camper cabin.

When I made the reservation, September 12 sounded like a nice, crisp fall weekend. Not exactly the case this weekend. But the muggy weather made for such a picturesque setting, with the haze and fog and everything shiny and wet, that we couldn't complain.

We went for a hike, and Emily and I quickly fell behind because I couldn't stop taking pictures.

She didn't mind.

The trees were just starting to think about what color to be. Dropping a few test leaves.

There are flowers growing in the middle of the river. It's like a paradise.

This is how Bella goes for a "hike." The Queen of the Nile. Brent says, "I don't mind carrying her!" She is going to wake up one day and be 16 and have to hike using her own legs and it is going to be a rude, rude shock.

Here she is using her legs to run around and terrorize wildflowers. We put these in a cup in the cabin. Very cozy.

See. Cozy, no?

The cabin had a handicap accessible fire-ring, which we are sitting at when I took that picture. Basically, handicap accessible means that it is like a 3.5 foot high ring--or, if you will, a burn barrel. Brent was highly amused when I would hunch over it and rub my hands together like a homeless person. "I want a picture of you like that!" (For his desk or what? "Here's my wife, we're camping and she's pretending to be homeless!")

I don't think Bella even saw the fire, since it was way up in the air.

We made BBQ Pineapple Spamburgers for supper (a la State Fair!) with sauteed portobellas and grapes. For dessert we had Archway Frosty Lemon cookies, which are the cookies my mom always brought camping when I was a kid. I was very excited to find them at Cub, since I thought they didn't exist anymore. You know, because I am so freakin' old and there's no way stuff from my childhood still exists.

Then we put the girls to bed and stayed up much too late drinking cool sparkly wine and playing Lost Cities in our cozy little cabin. It was the best.

In the morning, Emily Bea was up first ready for a bottle. So I quietly make a bottle and sit in the dark giving it to her. Bella hops out of bed next and, not seeing me and Emily, proceeds to unlock and open the front door and stroll out of the cabin into the dark morning. Um, holy crap, I'm glad she didn't do that in the middle of the night.

Time for some pancakes, don't you think, Emily?

I used the Batter BlasterTM that I had been interested in trying for a while now. I am always excited to try new pancake-related inventions. This one is like a reddi-whip can full of batter. And, I must say, it is awesome. AWE. SOME. I plan on never camping without it again. (Even though it is SIX BUCKS WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE)

Then, time for a little exploring.

We got to see a deer (super close up!), three turtles, a bird-banding demonstration, and this awesome mushroom, for which I made the whole family walk back for my camera. I think it was worth it.

It reminds me of me and Emily riding in her sling.

For the afternoon, we broke camp and headed over to Rochester to visit my parents, where Bella fell asleep for five hours. Emily fell asleep on my mom, who complained but loved every minute of it: "I'm trapped under this huge sleeping baby! Bring me a Coke with ice and a straw and the newspaper and some peanuts and a footstool!"

You'd like to be trapped by her too. Just look at how much she would love to trap you.

It was a great weekend, full of all the memory-making, laughs, and photo taking I so adore. This is what life should be like, don't you think?

State Fair: Day 11

2009-09-07T12:00:00.003-05:00

Best Fair EVER?

Attendance was an all-time record this year, so I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Was it the perfect weather?

The bargain-conscious economy?*

The whole world getting caught up in the romantic, storybook fantasy that is the Fair?

I think it is the latter. The Fair is an ephemeral Eden. A land of all-you-can-drink milk and honey fudge nut ice cream.

On display are the best we humans can offer: art--from fine to crafty, our most loved and cared for animals, the proud fruits of our gardens, live music of all varieties, delicious food and drink. And the excitement to share it all with each other.

I think the Fair can be largely an attitude. A willingness to soak up all that is good in the world.

This year the Fair has given me such a chance to be thankful. For health, for a beautiful family, and for all the Fairgoers who love the Fair as I do.

Until 2010, I bid you a fond, fond Fair-well, Fair.**

*I don't mean bargain-conscious as in, "I'm losing my house, let's go to the Fair!" but more like "Florida's expensive, let's go to the Fair!" Here is my 2009 breakdown, since, strangely, a bunch of people have asked me how much the Fair costs me (I can't decide if this is RUDE!): Tickets: $94. Food: (coincidentally) $94. Rides: $52. Entertainment: $22. Grand total for 9 days of Fair bliss: $262.
**until tonight, when I get to go to the Fair to pick up my bunting! FAIR! I'M BACK! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

State Fair: Day 9

2009-09-03T14:11:00.006-05:00

Well, sure I'll eat your delicious sausage from the Hamline Dining Hall!

You know how some days just start out great? This one was like that. We even made a list. It has all the things on it Bella could think that she would want to do today.

Bella and I were so excited to be at the Fair! I mean, really, we were. By day 9, I was wondering if the thrill would have worn off for her. You know, fifth trip and all? But I had no need to worry. It's all about packaging. And today was "Girl's Day" at the Fair! Just us girls. Fairin' it up.

We did girl stuff. Like went shopping (15 marbles for $1!). And got our hair done.

We watched a girl magician, whom Bella and Emily were both very entertained by. I was too, actually. She was charming. I kind of want to hang out with her.

We met up with a girl friend and rode the Ferris wheel. (The super tiny mini pretend Ferris wheel. The one where the attendant can stand up and reach the top if your angelic, well-behaved child is wildly swinging their chair and needs to be stopped.)

We got a little cup of Fresh Fries just for us and somehow (I really have no idea!) Emily ended up with ketchup all over her shirt. How did you do that, Emmers? Weird!

We watched the parade, which finally--FINE. ALL. EE.--contained the Big Pickle for us to circle on the Scavenger Hunt. Thank goodness that trauma is over. Bella has suggested that he is too hard to find and should be replaced with an airplane. Amen to that, sista.

And now. I bring you a very special moment.
EMILY'S FIRST SKY RIDE!

!!!

She loved it. But of course she would. Because she is perfect in every way.

Then Bella declared herself too tired to make it to the van (um, who's pushing who in the stroller?) without some fortification of the iced cream variety. Well I can't argue with that. Honey ice cream, coming right up!

And then, after playing "storytime" for a little bit out in a shady garden by the Hort building (where all of the stories started more or less like: "Once upon a time, a girl named Bella woke up, and her daddy said 'It's time to go to the Fair!'"), and also despite being fueled by honey chocolate nut ice cream, Bella went out cold in the stroller. Emily too. A nice peaceful stroll back through the Fair to the parking lot.

I was a bit concerned about bathroom stops with a double-wide and two kids. But I believe in Fairgoer goodwill, so several times just asked matronly-looking women in the bathroom to hold Emily. One of them said to me, "Well of course! You have your hands full. And what beautiful hair you have!" Me: "Oh, why thank you so much!" Her: "I was talking to your daughter." Oh. The one with the orange sparkly hair. Of course. I totally knew that.

Oh! I almost forgot the BEST PART. We got a Fairborne bobble-head doll on sale at the Fair giftshop! OMG! OMFG! It is so great. So so great. Bella is sleeping with it right now. She also informed me while I was making dinner that she would never be lonely again, because she has Fairborne the Bobble-Head Doll.

I'll just let that last sentence soak in for a sec.

I think we're taking tomorrow off from the Fair, so if you're there, give it some love for us!

State Fair: Day 7

2009-09-03T06:33:00.002-05:00

Ahhh... solo night at the Fair. Possibly my favorite night of the year. I love family time at the Fair, heaven knows. Why else do you have a family except to take them to the Fair? But Me Time at the Fair? This is my happy place.

First, a root beer to sip as I saunter. Then some shopping. Grandstand, Coliseum, Heritage Square. I get a Go Girl pee funnel, some Nellie's laundry soap, and a kit to sew a strawberry needle holder. All very exciting.

I stop by to hear Storyhill in Heritage Square. I love a sunset show at Heritage Square. The concert was a bit sleepy, I have to say. And when Chris goes, "This is the first time I've been to the Minnesota State Fair!" there was shocked silence throughout the crowd. [cough] FREE BIRD!

I excused myself to go get a pickle hat.

(which are in the food building at the popular deep-fried pickle booth)

And then I'm taking pictures of cows after watching the rodeo and I get a powerful hunger. I'm so hungry! Ohmygosh! I've waited too long! EVERYTHING SOUNDS GOOD! I proceed directly to the SPAM booth for a big, juicy, pineappley, BBQ-slathered SPAMburger.

Ahhhh. That's better. SPAM fixes everything.

On to the 4-H building (always an experience)

and (I've been saving this one for solo night) Fine Arts. Two of my favorites:

I ran into Alison and Jed and his parents in the Fine Arts building. I just love Fairendipity. They shared their walleye cakes with me. How good are those things?

We lingered around the Fair. Then I had a craving for some Lefse, which was delicious with some hot chocolate on a chilly evening. We played skee ball. We watched the fireworks. We cruised the Midway.

What a beautiful Fair night.

State Fair: Day 6

2009-09-01T22:42:00.002-05:00

Today we met Nana and Grandpa at the Fair!

We started off the morning with a coffee and a churro and a free Star Tribune. Mom had a peach scone. Mmmm. Breakfast at the Fair.

Then we zipped around to see some Fair highlights. First, butter heads! We lucked out and got to see some live carving action! We watched it while we ate a fresh blackberry malt (heavenly, by the way). And here's a shocker: Emily "Butterball Baby" likes ice cream.

Gobble Gobble!

There was turkey confusion because Mom couldn't figure out how to hold up Bella and get her own head into the hole. So a nice stranger lady is actually holding Bella up. Thanks nice stranger lady! Doesn't the Fair just bring out the best in people? I think so.

We ran into my sister-in-law and the cousins visiting the Big Pumpkin. They had Santa hats. We want Santa hats! Our hat collection is pretty impressive this year:

John Deere tractor hat
Pig ears
Coffee cup
Ear of corn
Pronto pup
Santa hat
Chicken

Are we missing any good ones? As you may have seen by my tweet, where I proudly name-drop that I've been emailing the Big Pickle, the pickle hats will be only available Thursday and Friday.

Here's mom in a chicken hat.

And the cousins.

Taking this picture was like trying to get real chickens to all three look at you. Gah.

And look, kiddie crop art!

This was super fun. I had trouble not elbowing Bella out the way so that I could take over. I do love an art project. Especially one with glue! And sprinkling! MAMA LOVES THE SPRINKLES.

We rode the Space Tower (with cousin Nick, Space Tower Tour Guide, narrating the whole time. "From Minneapolis (Vanna White arms).... to St. Paul.... you see it all on the Space Tower."), pilgrimaged to see The Bunting, watched the parade, and rode the Giant Slide. And Grandpa's hat flew off and the slide attendant had to risk life and limb to run up the slide to get it! Most exciting Giant Slide ride ever.

It was super un-crowded (although my parents couldn't get over all the people. Hicks.) so we actually ventured into the Miracle of Claustrophobic Birth Barn. We got to see chickens coming out of eggs! And boy did they look tired. Can't. Hold. Up. Head. Poor little things.

We stayed until sunset, because really, none of us wanted the day to end. Bella was still singing the State Fairol as we strollered back to the car. That's my girl.

State Fair: Day 4

2009-08-30T22:57:00.002-05:00

What's this, another family day at the Fair? But OF COURSE! Because Brent really does love me. And also, honestly, it was a day MADE FOR FAIR. Gor-Geous. I pity the fools not at the Fair today.

Emily Bea was pretty excited that I found the State Fair onesie for her to wear.

I took that picture of her while she was dancing to YMCA. Oh! and you can't see it in there, but she got a tooth on Saturday! FAIR TOOTH!

Today Bella was all about the rides. So first thing, we got some beers and trundled up to the Kidway. (parenting tip: if you each hold a handle of the double-stroller in one hand, you can push while holding beer!) She picked the cars (beep beep!) and the Zoo Train. And later we did the Space Tower (I got stung by a bee waiting in line, can you believe it, but I shrugged it off since I was high on Fair). And then, thrill of thrills, Bella and Brent rode the very exciting Sky Glider!

They rode that towards the end of the day and the light was all glow-y and sunset-y and the pictures turned out so neat. I sat under the chairs waiting for them to come by, and Emily woke up and was just entranced by everyone floating by overhead. Best baby mobile at the Fair! When they got off, Bella told me she had seen Uncle Dave! And shouted to him! And he shouted back! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

Uncle Dave was busy workin' it at Li'l Farm Hands. When we went through, we were excited to see where he would be. Tractor shed? Nope! Chicken Coop? Nope! We found him handing out gloves, shovels, and seeds in the garden. And he was working with a delightful co-worker of his who had been to see the (apparently FAMOUS) bunting! Wow! (Hi Melissa!)

(What a ham.)

And how about this ham:

And with the real ham. This picture just melts my heart.

We also did the Lego Adventure, which was exciting since it involved getting stickers on a badge around your neck--but note to Lego: a brochure of your products is not a "prize" at the end! DORKS! Give us a brick!!

We did the official corn dog versus pronto pup comparison, which we haven't done in many years. It was hardly necessary, of course the corn dog won. Although the pronto pup would be good in a pinch. Not bad at all. We also got some nitro ice-cream to eat next to the Fairchild topiary (whose awesomeness leaves me speechless, by the way) and Brent had a Jaunita's Fajita Carnita, which I had warned him had high exploding potential, but he masterfully ate it without spilling a drop. "I eat a lot of Chipotle," he said by way of explanation.

I am going easy on the Fair food this year, with my crazy insides and all that, but am enjoying packing picnics each day, and then finding beautiful picnic spots on the amazingly lush Fairgrounds. I am so thankful to be well to go to the Fair that I'm not even missing the food one little bit. It's not about the food. It's about the Fair. And I'm so glad I'm there!

State Fair: Day 3

2009-08-29T21:22:00.002-05:00

Today was just Bella and me.

I think we both had a magical time.

We kicked off the day with an early lunch waffle at Blue Moon. Because what else would you want at the Fair for lunch but a BELGIAN WAFFLE? I wasn't going to argue--I aim to please at the Fair. And it's just what I would have picked anyway.

We then noticed the DNR fire tower. Hey, we've never climbed that! LET'S GO! We glance at the posted warnings while waiting in line. Afraid of heights? CHECK. Fall down a lot? CHECK. Often carried when climbing eight flights of stairs? CHECK. Hum. Well, it's too late now, we're already invested in the line. No place to go but up. Here she is at the top.

And guess what you can see from the top? The Spin-A-Paint booth!

She worked very hard on her painting. The guy said only a few drops is enough. And she was very obedient, only doing a few drops of each color. Each color about 10 times.

She liked pushing the spin button, after she figured out what the hell was going on.

Nice job Bella! That's a keeper.

We ran into some Stitch'n'Bitchers at the Farmers Union. We got a good laugh out of Andrew, who had apparently spent some time looking for my bunting in the baking section of the Creative Activities building. I guess it is a BUNting. Teehee. Lucky he has Rebecca to set him straight.

Beanie and Brian. They look like that because they're newlyweds.

I had read in the paper about the 12 different flavors of popsicles in the bazaar. So adios guys, off we go! Bella picked strawberry and I got coconut. Then we switched! Many times! Then we called daddy to see what flavor he would have gotten. He said to bring one home for him. Oh poor silly daddy.

Time for the parade! Ohmygoodness, it's an Uncle Dave sighting! How lucky is that?

Bella was beyond delighted to get to watch the parade with her cousins.
Claire was so sweet, she had to hug daddy for the clowns, the mascots, and the dancing can of Spam. Because it's scary to be two.

After that we thoroughly toured the Hort building, ending with a big head bonk (as many things do with Bella) in the Buzz Booth.

I made it all better with M&Ms and a Sky Ride.

And then it was time to go, since it was getting late and we were starting to miss Brent and Emily. A quick bump into Alison and Jed and we were headed out. We decided to get handstamps just for fun (and because you NEVER KNOW) and the handstamper girl accidentally put the corndog stamp right on top of Bella's cow tattoo.

"MY COW IS EATING A CORNDOG!!!"

Now there's one you'll only hear at the Fair.