And She's Off....

Today was the big day.
I'm a proud Mama of a first grader.

There have been lots of smiles around here this morning.

And a few tears.

This house is too quiet today.

I feel lonely without my little friend.

I am not quite sure what to do with myself.

Neither is a certain 9 month old who keeps calling out for her sister when we pass by her bedroom.

I am reminding myself  to savor the present.

To marinate in the the joy of the moment.

If I continue to look back on what was, I will miss all the blessings that are here right in front of my very eyes.

Today.

Now excuse me please,
I have a sweet baby waiting to play peek-a-boo.

Meet Me in St Louis...

Hello There.
Life has been crazy busy here in Z-ville.
And honestly I don't want to twiddle the last days of summer away while banging away on this computer.
But...
We did take a little family trip and I wanted to share some pics with you.

I think vacations should be mandatory.
Like singing carols at Christmas and blowing out candles on your birthday cake.
It is just something that must be done, don't you think??
Despite lack of money or lack of time...
Just a little getaway to a neighboring state for a couple of days....
My good friend Leslie just raves about St Louis..so I just had to go see what the big fuss was about.
You know what?
She was so right.
It is a lovely city filled with lovely people.
I can see why she misses it so.

And any city that has an Italian section is a winner in my book.
Jason and I agreed it was some of the best Italian food we have ever had.
Believe me, people, we have had a lot of Italian food(just look at us.)

The Magic House might have been my favorite.
Yes, it was as much fun as it sounds.

I conquered my inner germ-0-phobe when I put Collins in the balls to play.
She was so happy as I quietly chanted my mantra, "She will not get sick. She will not get sick. She will not get sick...."

And Hollis' favorite part was the pretend library.
We played librarian for at least 25 minutes.

She got to push all sorts of buttons and tell me my books were overdue.

My hair has been rather flat since I had Col.

I have been searching far and wide for a good volumizer.

Ummm...Found it!

By the way, Collins hair ALWAYS looks like that.

Seeing Hollis sit in the "Oval Office" sent shivers up my spine.

That is one scary thought.

We couldn't come to St Louis without some Ted Drewes. Even if the one we went to  was in the cultural eye opening side of the city. :)

Grants Farm was one of the city's best gems...

Hollis insisted that Collins ride the merry-go-round with her.

Collins wasn't so sure she about that idea.

You gotta love a place that lets you feed baby goats bottles of milk.

When we got the milk, the sweet old lady looked at Hollis and said,"My, you are really dressed up to come to the farm today."

Oh.  So that's what she meant by that comment.

We had to run through the sprinklers to get all the goat poop off of us.

Then we just smelled like two old wet goats.

Two free samples of really cold beer on a 101 degree day?

It doesn't get any better than that.

We were only in St. Louis for 3 days and I felt like we barely scratched the surface.

I kept telling Jason-we can't leave yet- we haven't even shopped! :)

He didn't listen. We still left.

It was so good to get away.

But you know what?

It was good to come home again too.

It always is.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Hello all.
I've been taking a little blog break for a week or so.
It's even too hot to blog(and cook and clean house and take my kids to public pool-who says heat is BAD?)
Took a little jaunt up to Michigan to visit Grandma and Grandpa-hoping to escape the heat.
NO DICE.

Jason and Hollis went with his folks to the Detroit Tigers Game.

Hollis likes to hang with Grandpa because they go down in the basement, listen to the Oak Ridge Boys on a cassette tape and "build things".

Grandpa says bad words like "stupid" and "dumb" so Hollis thinks that is really cool since we are not supposed to say things like that at our house.

She thinks it's funny when he and Grandma fight about whether to eat dinner at 5 or 5:30(Shhhh...I do too..don't tell anyone.)

I love the LePages backyard.
It's like a park with the towering trees, the lovely green grass-the squirrels and birds fluttering about.
We spent a lot of time in the backyard on this trip.

Collins like to hang with Grandma because Grandma fusses over her all the time.
She is always playing peek-a-boo with her or telling her how cute she is or mashing up strawberries for her to gulp down.
She also feeds her ice cream when she thinks I'm not looking.
Now when any of us eat ice cream around Collins, she clicks her tongue and squeals!
What are Grandma's for, right?

It's nice to be adored, isn't it?

These two are used to taking baths together.

So it only made sense for Hollis to get a shampoo in...(I think it was stressing Grandma out)

Hollis can make me laugh like no one else.

I love her spunk.

So that's it.

Hollis has about 17 days left before she starts school.

There are so many things that I want to do with them before she starts...I don't know if it's gonna happen-but I'm sure gonna try.

8 months

The mornings are my favorite times.
I don't have to share her with anyone else.
She kicks her feet with delight and makes a joyful noise as I lift her sleepily, quietly from her crib.
I am reminded again and again of God's goodness and grace as I clutch her warm body to my chest.
She is mine.
My hearts delight.

Ramblings

Here are some ramblings from our quiet sleepy house this Friday morning:

Last week  I popped the new Brad Paisley CD in the car and took the girls blueberry picking at a farm about 30 mintues north of here.
I have never been blueberry picking before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
Blackberry picking is what I know best.

No snakes.
No thorns.
Just simple blue berries to gently pluck.

Hollis would have picked all day..maybe it was the overalls that were inspiring her...she was getting into that farmer theme.

On the way home I saw a sign for an estate sale.

I don't have any pictures of our treasures but I realized I have passed my love of all things vintage down to my firstborn.

She kept saying,"Mom, this is sooo vintage."

And she was RIGHT!!

We felt like we hit the lottery when we walked away with a 1950's pitcher, some vintage handtowels and a little metal lunchbox-all for 7 buckaroos.

The new Brad Paisley CD+a midsummer excursion with my girls+vintage goodness=

My New Favorite Memory.

 Sunday night is Family Golf Night.

This year I get to take part.

And I get to experience the joy of watching Hollis play-and the joy of watching Jason's face while she plays.

I'm not sure what is better.

Jason had already been at the course for 12 hours when we arrived.

And it was HOT that day.

He was thrilled to have Hollis down there.

She would hit a shot and he would say,"Did you see that Abird? She just nailed it."

So proud of his budding golfer.

I love the way he loves his girls.

I might look the part of a serious golfer..but I sure do not have the game.

I'm always worried that the members are watching me and my lack of golf skills.

Have you seen the golf pro's wife swing a club??

Killin snakes is what she's doin'

HAHAHHAHA.

And that is about all for last week.

I'm a week behind on my posts.

It's summer, right?

Ohhh, and tonight is date night.

Maybe a little Maggianos

Maybe a little vino.

Maybe a stroll around the mall.

I'm smiling just thinking about it.

Monday Roadtrip

Last Tuesday was the first time since March that our family has had the ENTIRE day off to spend together.
When I realized this, it made me a little sad and a whole lot anxious-especially since Hollis starts school again in a month.
 This time it's the real thing.
No more rest times with a bed loaded down with books. No more PB&J's. No more picnics at our favorite park.
She is gone till 3:30 everyday.

Our family just functions so much better when we spend good quality uninterrupted time together.
Last Tuesday we loaded the car with towels and a cooler and drove North for 3 hours.

And of course this trip had to be centered around food.

Redamaks in New Buffalo, Michigan

This is one of Jason's happy places.

I think he loves the atmosphere most of all.

The best way to describe it is "summer camp meets route 66"

Knotty pine all around.

Long wrap around porch out front.

Slammin' screen door.

Vintage neon signs.

Lots of flipflops and sunscreen.

Plus, they make a pretty mean hamburger.

We got there around 2 and had to wait twenty minutes!!

It was PACKED.

He is not going to like that I put this picture on my blog.
But we DID drive 6 hours roundtrip to eat at this place.
So this picture is going on my blog.

Moving on...
New Buffalo is a sweet little lake town.
It has antique and art stores dotted all up and down the main Red Arrow Highway-tucked among the sweeping spruce pines.
If you blink you might miss something really fun to explore.

You also might miss it if you have a 6 year old complaining that her Barbie DVD is stuck for the 239th time,

your senile senior dog is barking nonstop at an invisible cat

and your 7 month old is screaming at the top of her lungs because she is being trampled by the senile dog barking at the invisible cat.

Just a hypothetical situation, of course.

Another warning for  you...

The fine people of New Buffalo love their pets.

They so not look too fondly on people who leave their animals in the cars for 10 minutes with the windows down in 75 degree weather.

They will come pluck you from your shopping experience and  deliver you a speech on car safety/pets as you hang your head in shame.

Jason made the mistake of promising Hollis a swim earlier in the week.
She did not let him forget his promise.
He was reminded several hundred times on our journey.
I sat in the car with the oldest member of our family and the youngest member of our family while they took their dip.

If Jason ever has any questions about what the buttons is his car do, he should ask Collins.

She pushed every single one.

We left New Buffalo a little sandy, a little sunburned, but very very happy.

Ah yes, this is the good life.