A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Vivienne has been very excited about her two loose teeth. So excited, that once she decided that they were plenty wiggly, she pulled them out! One came out on Tuesday evening, and then the second one came out Wednesday morning! Hurray for Vivienne!

~first tooth~

~two missing now!~

~Vivi's origami cat~

A Lovely Mess

This is the perfect description to me of my yard... and my house, my life in general, in fact! Point is, despite it's imperfections, I love it. I feel so grateful for it, mess and all. Remembering to engage in the beauty of the present moment brings me so much joy. This evening, I was in the mood to take pictures and so I wandered about the yard, taking photos until the kids got home from pizza with Daddy. Instead of looking at the garden as a series of tasks yet to be completed, I saw the loveliness.


~garden path~

~wild garden~
~fennel~
~hollyhocks~ ~heirloom tomatoes~

~ relaxing in the hammock~

~kids fort~
~wild clematis~

~mexican sumflower~


~lettuce gone to seed~

~lovely cosmos seeds~

~canna~

~cherry tree~ ~swiss chard forest~

~wasp on dill flower~ ~little pumpkin~

Introducing a new friend

Meet Ginger, our new sweet bunny! I searched high and low to find another Dutch breed like our beloved Hazelnut. Today I drove out to Galviston, a four hour trip, just to pick her up. She is adorable and we are all so excited to get to know her. She has very good markings, so perhaps the kids will decide to join 4-H and show her some day.

Old-Fashioned Fun

We enjoyed an afternoon at the Riverbend Farm recently. They had wonderful old time games, craft activities and dress-up.

The kids also enjoyed visiting the 3-day old chicks, the goats and sheep and Bert and Ernie, the beautiful draft horses.

They made paper caterpillar hand puppets and spent a lot of time trying out the walking stilts and wooden hula hoop. Jasper loved the tractors most of all, and Vivienne did not want to leave the chicks.

We also browsed the kitchen garden, and awed at the foot-long beans, big pumpkins and massive bean teepee.

It was an inspiring day. I am working on drawing up plans for next year's garden, while I can still look and see what I like or don't like about this year's garden. Being the second year of drought, it has not been as productive as it could be. I feel that some things I would like to increase production of include cucumbers and beans, which we never seem to have enough of. I absolutely love testing out my garden space and making improvements as I learn more. It is such a gratifying experience!

~Here is our latest garden harvest : A ripe, juicy sweet cataloupe~

And I must add a photo from another classic summer event - Jen & Rich's annual Ice Cream Social (featuring Hope's famous lavender-honey ice cream, among other awesome homemade flavors)

Welcome!

The kids were rather industrious today. They decided that they would enjoy a sewing project and knew just what they wanted to make, little pouches that close with a button. I have a lot of fabric scraps around (more than I care to admit to) and they each found a few pieces of pretty floral and got started.

Mia's first pouch (completed 100% by herself):

We also collaborated on a late summer wreath for the front door. I wanted to make good use of the beautiful roses from our anniversary now that they are dried. The girls harvested some white pine branches from the backyard and helped me to put it together.

This is Vivienne's drawing of a girl with a loose tooth. She is absolutely overjoyed to have her first loose tooth and wiggles it endlessly. Surely, it will be out in no time and she will have her first visit from the tooth fairy. Such a wonderful excitement.

I am also taking the opportunity to post this beautiful card that Mia made for me months ago, it sits proudly on our fireplace mantle in the living room. I just love the combination of fabric and paper.

Now that the girls will be in school, I plan to sit down and prioritize the projects that I would like to pick up and complete, things that need organizing and cleaning and fixing. Not to mention my garden, which desperately needs weeding. Jasper and I will have a lot to work on this week.

Back to School

I can hardly believe that it is time! But I feel a coolness in the air, and a bit of excitement that Autumn tends to bring. This week my sweet girls have entered into the world of five-day school! I am already looking forward to the extra enrichment this will bring to us. The girls will have a new social environment, and new things to learn. I will have special one-to-one time with Jasper, and we will come together in the afternoons to enjoy each other. I feel like the space created by the structure will give me a chance to get rolling on family projects and activities. Vivienne came home from her first day of Kindergarten and made her very own banana pancakes (mama cooked them on the stove), and we all shared it for a late afternoon snack.

And here is a flashback (three years ago from tomorrow) - Mia Belle on her first day at Kindergarten. Time really does fly!

Summer Days

I am just amazed at how swiftly the summer has passed by! It has been an entire month since my last post and summer vacation is nearly over. The girls start school next week, I can hardly believe it! We have had a very busy and wonderful summer. I love summer for experiencing the present moment. No other season captures my attention like this one! I am going to try and recap in photos what our last month has been like. We have been so lucky to have family visits, lots of berry picking, summer library programs, a trip to the beach, hikes, swims, art making and kitchen fun.

First Mom came for a visit - we got to enjoy the Arboretum, through a rainshower and playing in the creek at Montreat.

Mom made a beautiful blueberry linzer torte with rose petals for my birthday.

Here is my birthday hat made by Vivienne...

Then I got another wonderful birthday surprise - Amy came for a visit! Mia took this photo.

Not only was it a birthday week but David and I celebrated 16 years of marriage!


We took a nice hike off the Parkway.

We spent the afternoon with friends at Caroline and Don's farm

And went blueberry picking - yum, the best berries ever!

The kids had a crazy dress-up parade with Rachael

Off we went for a trip to the beach - where we visited with the Hassett clan.

Mia and Great Grandma

The first thing Vivienne did when we got home was harvest the vegetables from our garden. And the kids made a really amazing tomato-cucumber salsa for lunch