another brick in the wal[k]

today my mom, brother, baby girl & i visited my dad's brick in the veteran's memorial in my hometown...

down by the river

the riverwalk has become one of my favorite spots in my hometown, and i've only explored a small section of it...    baby girl & i enjoyed some time out there today (or, since it's after midnight, yesterday) even though it was fuggin hawt.

woof

today's assignment for my 30 day project was "something green"...  i decided to extend that theme to this project:

 

this is going to be a hard week...  i will probably overlap these projects a lot, just to keep it simple, so that i don't forego doing them altogether.  

oh, bab(-ies)!

we had a cookout today with some of the husband's family, as well as a family from our neighborhood (some of the eldest's best lemonade customers).

the neighbors have a son who is about 1.5 months older than baby girl (also born at home, with our midwife), and it was so much fun watching the babies interact...
which mostly seemed to involve seeing what the other one had in their hand(s), taking it, and chewing on it.

too stinkin' cute.

shadow knows

i've started doing a 30 day photography challenge on facebook, and today's assignment was to shoot some shadows.  the eldest came in as i was working on some shots, and wanted in on them:

♥ ♥ ♥

battle ready

it's nice to come in on the tail end of a craze when the toys are on clearance...

slippery slope

slide over here to see more.

her father's daughter

kung fu staring contest

GO!

oh. my. gourd.

the richmond indigenous gourd orchestra was playing at lewis ginter today for their spring festival.  always great fun when RIGO is at the garden...

RIGO

the younger son dancing

and trying on gourdwear

my favorite photo of the day

silly face to go with silly hat

entrepreneur

the eldest decided at the beginning of this past week that he wanted to have a lemonade stand.  the weather early in the week was pretty crappy, so we tried to mitigate his disappointment of not being able to do it *right then* by offering to do it on saturday (today) instead.  that way, he could use the rest of the week to plan and prepare.

first, he decided what he wanted to offer, and how he wanted his stand to look...

concept art was damaged during construction

then he decided on the measurements for how big the stand should be...

final structure not built to scale

then daddy helped him start building it on thursday...

finishing it on friday...

while the eldest painted the sign:

this morning, daddy helped him prepare baked goods (brownies and soft pretzels) and he made the lemonade, setting up for his grand opening at 1 PM.

ready for business

first customer, who arrived as daddy was putting the finishing touches on the menu signage below

best customers of the day, our awesome neighbors:

he also had several other people from the neighborhood (that we had not met) stop by and purchase items, so he ended up with ~$10 by closing time.  he's already asking to do it again, although i think his master baker wants a little break before round two.  

to see more business related fun, visit the flickr album.

lawnmower man

the younger son was a little late for world naked gardening day^*...

and overdressed.

^*there is, obviously, nudity on the WNGD page linked.

treasure

a couple of years ago, the eldest decided to bury the contents of his piggy bank in our sandbox.  i got most of the change out immediately after discovering that he had done so, but occasionally a coin will turn up...

the write stuff

groupie

the husband's #2 fan...

5/16

i, of course, am #1. ♥

7 AM...

the garbage truck beeps 

as it backs up 

and i start my day thinking about 

what i've thrown away...  

can i push rewind?

it's 7 AM...  do you know where your kids are?  

oh, how i wish mine were still in bed! but alas, they've already been up for an hour. at least today's morning activity is quiet...

and baby girl obliged me with another doctor who moment:

lyris from "11 AM" (Incubus, Morning View)

when life hands you lemons...

make frozen lemonade and feed it to your baby.

serious lolz.^*

this was not a good week for an online project... our DSL was down for three days, then blogger went down just as we got it fixed. the positive side of this forced sabbatical from the internet is that my house is now almost as clean as it was just before baby girl was born... and a lingering side effect is that i'm compelled to finish cleaning/organizing the things i hadn't gotten to do before we were back online.  
hopefully this madness will pass soon.




^*no babies were harmed in the making of this post. she actually kept asking for more,grimace notwithstanding, and we only offered it to her because she spent 20 minutes sucking on a lemon wedge the previous day.  

listening skills

the eldest, digging his new(ish) earphones...

5/13

backyardigans

5/9
soccer time...

playset time...

trampoline time...

springtime. ♥♥♥

dr who?

our old tunnel got destroyed a couple of years ago, but a friend recently handed another one down to us.  the boys love it...

5/8

but this perspective totally gives me an old school doctor who moment:

thinking inside the box

the boys have been watching a lot of Pinky Dinky Doo recently, which involves a girl making up stories in her "story box".  so when i saw the huge box for a new biological safety cabinet at work, i *had* to claim it for them... which amused some of my coworkers since our commuter car is a prius.  however, i managed to get it broken down and into the car yesterday, thankyouverymuch, and the husband brought it in for them this morning.

there really is no greater toy than a big cardboard box.  forget Toys R Us~ i think this year our holiday shopping will be at the dumpster behind Appliance Solutions!

"i made this!"

until last night, i'd only used a machine to sew one thing in my life, and it was a pair of shorts for the husband right after we got married...  in 1998.  and i didn't realize that i was supposed to fold the hem, so they were all frayed at the legs.  he loved them, though, and wore them until they fell apart.  such a supportive man.
<3 <3 <3

anyway, last night i attended a Singer "Sew Very Easy" house party at my friend Tara's house.  the house party was to demo Singer's Confidence Stylist machine, which Tara says is a decent mid-range model.  i should probably point out that Tara is a sewing guru.  i've joked that she has been my personal seamstress for a few years now, having done a number of projects for me.  one of the main projects has been upcycling wool sweaters i'd bought at Goodwill into cloth diaper coverings (mostly longies) for the younger son and baby girl.

Tara still had a couple of the sweaters that she had yet to work with, so after we made our own goodie bags out of old t-shirts, she encouraged me to make a wool soaker instead of the "assigned" party project.  she printed off a pattern and instructions, and cut the pieces, then i pinned and did the sewing.

i have to say, i am so very proud of myself~  check it:

finished product

modeled by baby girl~ it FITS!

i still need to lanolize it before putting it into the cover rotation, but i am really happy with how well it turned out.  every time i look at it, i think:

now i'm inspired to actually pull out the hand-me-down machine from MIL and try whipping up a few more soakers (maybe trying this pattern), then eventually some skirts and dresses (with matching capris?), and maybe even a pair or two of shorts for the husband.