The Socks Make the Girl

The girls and I raided my sister Laura's sock drawer during a recent trip to California in which the weather was slightly more chilly than we had anticipated. (FYI, chilly = anything less than 70 degrees.) We wanted to be toasty warm (and fashionable!) during our Sunday naps, and we hit the nail right on the head with these babies.

P.S. I bought these cute kicks at a yard sale for $1

so that Julia can use them as dress-up shoes.

I want to borrow them sometime,

 but the girl won't take them off!

Flattering Words

During dinner tonight, Julia quietly mused, "Hmmm, not bad at all." I figured that this would be the best compliment I would get out of her (and it is better than most if the dinnertime commentary that goes on around here) so I tucked it in my pocket of Nice Things the Kiddos Say. (Needless to say, it's a pretty small pocket.) Not a minute later, she looked up at me and said, "You should tell me how to make this so that I can make it when I'm a grown-up."

Oh, how my beaten-down heart soared. I guess I have a few tricks up my sleeve after all.

P.S. I am pretty sure that this isn't age appropriate, But Lexa is already wielding crayons and writing on things she isn't supposed to...the girls' desks, the play kitchen, and Julia's homework just to name a few. Oh my, I hope that this isn't any indication of the years to come.

Just in Case You Thought I was Dead...

Okay, so it hasn't been that long since I blogged, but I will admit to feeling a little absent lately, mostly in the form of running around around like a mad woman and yet still not accomplishing anything...and unfortunately, sometimes I do have to do homework instead of writing a wicked post about some great or terrible thing happening in my life.

So, I'm still here, though I will tell you, I have kind of given myself the week off.  No laundry date on our anniversary. No frantic cleaning. No rigid nap schedule for babykins. As little intellectual stimulation as possible. And no guilt about it. (It's something I feel that I should do when the bags under my eyes start getting bags under their eyes.) It's been good so far.

In the meantime, here are some great pics to hold you over until the next time my brain and emotions are in proper working order.

No wonder they like this guy so much...

I love this tiny little pixie with her tiny little nose

and her tiny little teeth.

Who would have known that two tomato-haters

could have spawned such a cute little tomato lover?

More Hints (or Whiffs?) of Summer

Alexa came in from playing in the backyard this afternoon, and clinging to her was that lovely smell that we in my family call "playground." (You know, the playing-outside-smell that kids get that isn't quite sweat, but is almost as unpleasant.) Julia took one whiff and said, "It smells...it smells like..." I helped her out by inserting, "Lexa smells like playground. She's been playing outside." Julia was still struggling with a description of the smell until she finally concluded, "It smells like Attila."

Attila is the name of my sister's stinky, albeit friendly dog.

So, Lex got a bath, and I despondently admitted to myself that summer is here for good.

And Then There was Easter...

Yes, amid all the vacuuming and shopping and schooling and homeworking and Grandpa-watching that has gone on around here in the last little while, we managed to find time to celebrate Easter. The girls all had jelly bean trails leading from their rooms to their Easter baskets, but really only Lex was into it...the older girls knew that there was a basket at the end of the jellybean rainbow, so they opted to bypass the jelly beans altogether and go straight for the good stuff. Lex, on the other hand, knew of no such basket and instead reveled in waking up to a candy trail, which she gladly consumed by the handful.

Just a couple highlights:

Nothing like a basket full of candy and toys

to start your day off right...

"Candy? For breakfast?

Why is this the first time you guys have told me about this?"

After the hunt outside, but before the

egg salad sandwiches began...