Princesses

A few weeks back, Ben, Lizzy and Lizzy's friend Maddie were playing dress up at our house. They all came downstairs to show us their costumes.

The girls had apparently found Lizzy's play makeup and gotten all dolled up.

The girls went back upstairs, but Ben stayed behind and my sister took the opportunity to say to me,"I can't believe that you let your kids play with make up."

To which I replied something along the lines of "Ya, I know, but it keeps them entertained for SOOOOOOO long. It's like a five dollar investment and I get hours and hours of peace and quiet out of it."

"Ya," she conceded "but now it looks like you've got a couple of toddler hookers walking around your house."

At which point Ben spoke up...

"Princesses, mom. You mean they look like princesses."

Of course that's what she meant.

Orange Tie Guy

It's been at least the better part of a year since Brent and I were able to convince our small son to wear a tie to church. I've tried every week to get him to wear one. Ok, I've tried a lot of weeks. After a while, ones gets tired of getting hit and spat upon as various ties are flung at one's head.

I don't know why it's a battle that I picked.

Maybe I just like ties.

Anyway, for some reason unbeknownest to me, last Sunday, Charlie made up his mind that he was going to wear his orange tie to church. We hadn't really planned on it, so he wasn't really wearing a shirt that facilitated tie wearing, but that wasn't really going to stop him.

I broke out my phone to snap a picture of him, but catching a picture of Charlie during what should be his nap time, isn't always easy.

Observe...

I'm a little tired and frustrated just looking at these pictures.

I gotta be honest with ya, it's been a while since I sat through a full block of meetings on a Sunday.

"what? huh? me? you talking about me, mom?"

Yes, Chas.

Come back. Please.

We've been spending a LOT of time in the car, with Charlie strapped into his car seat for time out when we should be in the process of being spiritually uplifted. But if we can get him to wear ties, he might at least look dapper whilst strapped into that car seat. Sigh.

Creating Life... and then eating it. Part Two

Subtitled: my own personal backyard oasis.

So, the last time I posted about my amateur gardening efforts, I showed you a nice picture of my 70 something sprouts that I was planning to transplant into my garden. I'm not so proud to announce that despite what I thought were my best efforts, the vast majority of those seedlings have since withered away into oblivion. Shoot.

As a result, I'm moving onto what I am referring to as "Plan B."

Plan B consists of mooching off of the starters that my mother has been able to produce using her super awesome greenhouse and buying the rest from a nursery.

I bought a voucher for plants from a nursery at less than half price (thank you City Deals) and went to collect the other day. I gave half of it to my sister because I might have been responsible for killing her starters. And she made Jane a jean skirt. And I kinda like her.

I have successfully sprouted some Sugar Snap Peas. Hooray for me! These are in one of the kid's pots where we're planting things that they'll like to watch grow and pick themselves later. I have visions of my well behaved children frolicking in our lush garden and joyfully harvesting the fruits of their labors in coordinating outfits. Methinks I might end up being disappointed.

I'm totally ready to get planting, but it keeps snowing! And my backyard is sort of a work in progress at the moment. Mostly, it looks like a junk yard.

Lots of junk back there right now. And very little grass. And no sprinklers. And a large pad with rebar sticking out of it every couple of feet. But we DO have a nice, new, expanded patio....

a very large driveway,

a rockin' playground,

and several cubic yards of manure that literally steams when the sun hits it right. (not pictured)

So perhaps, by the end of the season, it will be something worth looking at. Wish us luck, though, we're gunna need it.

I'm A Phoenix

Brent has graduated from MBA school. Yup. It's official.

I mean, he's got one more night of class that he's got to go to on Thursday, and a huge paper, and a test, but if you don't count those things, he's totally, completely finished with MBA school.

Since the students at the good ol' U of P all graduate at different times, they seem to just pick a day to hold their commencement and anyone with their own, personal end in sight is permitted to walk. Brent debated whether or not he should walk - for about 5 seconds - and then told me that he'd like to. I told him that I would be disappointed if he didn't since I'd had my title for this post picked out for about a year. I knew he'd walk. He's fancy and formal like that.

I know, I wore this dress in the last picture I posted, but in all fairness, I'm kinda short on summer-y dresses at the moment.

Jane and Lizzy came to the ceremony and they held in there until after Brent walked. Then they got restless, so we ran around outside until the graduates emerged.

They were so happy to be with him.

It would be better if you couldn't see up my nose in this photo, but I'll take what I can get.

You'd better believe it. Class of 2022, here she comes!

Brent's been amazing the last couple years. I can't believe how well he manages work, school, church and us.

Congrats Grad.

Dese my keys.

"dese my keys, mommy. dese my keys."

"Ya? Those are your keys?"

"yaaaaa. day doan work."

Several photos that weird me out.

I took this photo yesterday before dance photos. This is a photo of my 6 year old. She's six. Not to be confused with 10 or 12 or any age other than 6. Is this a glimpse of things to come?

Yes, I realize that I have created this. It isn't as though she's capable of accurately applying liquid eyeliner to herself. In my weak, shameful defense, I was trying to bribe her younger sister into cleaning her room and getting her pictures taken by offering to do a full makeup on her when Jane jumped on the offer and cleaned her room up lickety split. Lizzy never did. She didn't even get her pictures done. I guess that is just one of the many differences between my two girls. When makeup is calling, Jane answers.

Actually, Lizzy answers too, but she's more interested in applying it herself...

Nice lipstick, Biz.

We took a lot of pictures. In part because Jane is never opposed to having her likeness taken, but mostly because every time I looked at her, I had to make sure that I got a picture of her all dolled up.

She's growing up WAY too fast.

And I'm totally weirded out.