First day

Lucy started at a new preschool today. Phoebe was supposed to start today too but she is still getting over whatever the kids both picked up towards the end of our Florida trip last week (photos from that soon!). Both girls will be going on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 1. This is a big switch from last school year when Lucy went M-F, 8-3. But this schedule is much kinder on the budget and also lets me have more freedom to do things with the kids during the week, especially given that I work so many weekends. She seemed to really like her first day and was full of excited stories on the car ride home. Most importantly, she deemed the school "safe for Phoebe." I am so glad that my little scout went to check things out for us!

Here is Miss Lucy before we left the house this morning...I think she looks like a goofy gumdrop :)

She made up for that expression later with this gorgeous photo on her apple tree swing...

{love this little lady}

And let us not forget about this little Pip, who is doing just fine now and WILL be sent to school bright and early on Thursday...

{how do you get food on your face when you never even eat anything? when you are a phoebe, that is how}

Rub-a-dub-dub

"Our Mommy is a bad blogger but look at all the fun we are having! We'll nag her to blog more SOON!"

C'est moi

Tonight, I am writing about a little-seen and little-discussed person on this blog. Around these parts, she is known as Mommy, or Sweetie, or "the photographer" (or sometimes, as at yesterday's wedding, the "waitress" -- hey, just grab any girl in black and order a scotch, right?).

But to the rest of the world, I am known as:

And today I turned 37.

So far, aging doesn't really faze me. Sure, I'd rather look 24...but no way would I really want to go back to when I was 24. Life is much fuller and richer now. I am much more sure of myself and my place in the world. I don't need to worry about the things I worried about when I was 24. Sure, I have to deal with big girl things now like a mortgage and a still-nursing toddler and running my own business. But these are all the things I worried I would never have when I was 24, so who am I to complain now?

So, yeah, I am totally ok with being 37. And as I heard my Nana (the world's smartest person, in-case-ya-didn't-know) say about aging, it sure beats the alternative. Every year we have is truly a blessing.

{hi, my name is sara and maybe i don't even mind looking 37}

{who am i kidding, this is totally airbrushed}

Project Runway?

Lucy is a very visual girl. Very creative, artistic, and dreamy. (Gee, I wonder where she gets that from?) She has a very keen attention to color and pattern that really surprises and amazed me. From a very young age, she would spot things like a woman wearing the same shirt that I happen to have (which is totally weird because all of my clothing is original custom-made work and never EVER from Target or the Gap). Recently at the beach, she spotted a girl wearing a bathing suit in the same floral design as a hat that Phoebe happens to have -- I don't think I ever would have noticed that.

Last week, I was going a bit nuts in the morning as the kids tore up the house. So, to buy me a few minutes of quiet, I let Lucy have a true treasure -- a few pieces of purple and pink tissue paper that I knew I would never use. Rip, tear, tie, tape...I noticed she was making the paper into a dress. So I stepped away from whatever I was doing and thought, heck, let's go with it. I helped her craft that tissue paper into an awesome little ensemble, complete with rosettes and a matching headpiece. She adored it, and had even more fun tearing it off. Ta-da, a creative and fun activity was born that tapped right into Lucy's love of color and design. Gosh, I sound like one of those pushy Hollywood parents when I say that. But so what. Here is our creation and its dismantling:

Of course, I jest when I query where she gets this from (and I jest about where I get my clothes...in case you hadn't figured that one out!). This week, I looked at a skirt of mine that I almost donated to charity because I've just never felt good in it (rule of thumb...if you never feel good wearing it, it has to go...life is too short for clothes you hate). It felt a shame to throw out such pretty fabric, though. And, look, the waist can just be taken in and then there would be no need to add a zipper (which I don't know how to do anyway). So....rip, tear, tie, tape (ok, I mean--measure, pin, cut, sew)... here is what I came up with:

{i added a shirt, per lucy's request}

Like mother, like daughter. It's in the jeans. I mean genes.