Fall in New England

If you don't live in New England, these photos may just make you a wee bit jealous. There is nothing like a beautiful fall day here...even if it is surrounded by 3 months of heat and humidity on one side and even more months of arctic tundra on the other. For a few short weeks -- not enough to even feel like a whole season -- it is heaven on earth here.

Circus day

Lucy and I went to the circus with Maya and her mom Sharon on Sunday. I shot a looooong wedding on Saturday so I was too burnt out to bring my camera along, but I did snap some photos out in the yard before we left!

{the big girls}

{the little girls}

Remember her?

Jeff sent me this photo today, asking if I remember her. One-day-old Phoebe! We do this sometimes...e-mail each other a favorite old photo of one of our girls. It is really sweet.

Looking at the photo, I feel that my relationship with Phoebe has not changed a whole lot in the past 2.5+ years since that photo was taken. I still hold her tight all the time and her face is basically my nose's favorite place. Still...if I really put myself in that photo I can remember the smallness of a newborn head and how a new baby smells like amniotic fluid (sounds gross, but I love it) and how its mouth makes a little round bird "o" and how its eyes, still practically blind, stare up with utter trust and not a bit of sass.

The other day, when leaving Lucy's ballet class, I asked the girls what they wanted to have for lunch. Without skipping a beat, Phoebe proposed that we sneak into her preschool, get a chicken [they have live ones], and put it on the grill. Oh yes she did say that...and need I remind you that we are vegetarians and Phoebe has never even tasted chicken? But you see, she thought this whole thing was utterly hysterical.

My sassy little girl, oh how you have grown.

Needs more orange

In high school, my art teacher's name was Sister Mary Alphonsus. She had been my mother's teacher as well...maybe not for art, but this is what they did with the older sisters...made them art teachers, music teachers (even if they were deaf -- yes, deaf), etc. when they lost the sharpness to teach English and social studies. One holdout was the awesome Sister Connie, who taught us math and made us laugh on purpose by comparing herself to the Maytag repairman when no one seemed to need help...and made us laugh not on purpose by shaking a rheumatic middle finger at us when making an important point. The other was Sister Jean, the science teacher, who made wisecracks like, "my car has 4-by-60 air conditioning...4 windows open, 60 miles per hour." Those ladies were sassier than we realized, yes they were.

At any rate, back to Alphonsus. She never let up on me...she commanded that I make endless revisions to my artwork. My mom told me that it was because I was a good artist, so she wanted to push me, and mom was right I am sure. Anyway, along with her exacting nature, Sr. Alphonsus had, well, one of the largest bosoms I had ever seen. (Think Joanie, and add a few cup sizes. ) I remember, quite distinctly, working on a sunset scene done in pastels -- revision after revision -- all the while with Sr. Alphonsus leaning over my picture and commanding me to "add more orange! more orange!" and me...sixteen year-old me...worrying all the while that my labors would be destroyed by one accidental swipe of the good sister's bounty on my page.

Why tell this story? Well, the other day I decided to get the girls some pastels to try. They loved them for the same reasons I do...blendable, forgiving and messy. They drew their little hearts out, which made me smile...as did the little voice in the back of my mind that kept on urging me to add more orange. And looking around my living room, at the orange mantle and the orange blooms on my carpet, that voice made a lot of sense.

RIP to the dearly departed Sisters of the Divine Compassion...Alphie/Fonsie, Connie, Frisky and the rest. You taught us ladies well.

Meet Jessie...

This year's costume. Mom, saved you the work in crafting this...Lucy insisted on the Walmart version :)

Apples of my eye

{apple picking = mommy in LBD. why not?}

We went apple picking on Saturday...early in the season for it, but the apples are out early this year because it was such a hot summer. I posted these photos on Facebook and people said things like, "wow, looks like a great time!" etc. I wouldn't say it was a bad time, but I should note that apple picking is not my most favoritest activity ever. I went once, back in my early 20s, at a small orchard in New Hampshire. It was a crisp, lovely fall day and I was without small kids running around complaining that they are hot and itchy and grabbing wormy apples off the ground. The past few times I have gone, however, have involved small kids running around complaining that they are hot and itchy and grabbing wormy apples off the ground.

You get the point.

But they had fun (despite the hot, and the itch), which is the most important thing. Their fun equals our fun or, at least, equals our satisfaction in a day well done in the parenting department. How do you like them apples?

Ballerina girl

Lucy had her first "real" ballet class yesterday (i.e., not at the rec center). She was SO excited about it and set out her little outfit on her bed as soon as she woke up in the morning:

Her ballet school requires that the girls in each level wear a very specific outfit. Her level wears this pink skirted outfit. I am not usually a conformist, but when it comes to ballet I love the fact that they all dress the same. I really believe in ballet because I think it gives girls grace and poise with a healthy dose of self-discipline. Oh and the pretty music and French phrases are also nice :)

Here is our little ballerina all dressed and ready to go:

{my pretty baby}

{LOVE the knobby knees}

{i insisted on the bun even though it is not technically required}

Phoebe and I had a great time in the waiting room while Lucy was in class. I had anticipated leaving Lucy at class but once we got there it was such a nice environment to wait so we stayed. There were plenty of books and toys for Phoebe and also a closed circuit tv to watch the class. I pointed out Lucy on the screen to Phoebe but she told me, "I want to see the WEAL (real) Lucy!" So cute the way she is growing very attached to her sister.

At one point in class, the children were sitting in a circle and one by one each girl would get up and run/dance around the outside of the circle before returning to her spot. Well, every girl before Lucy just kind of lumbered around the circle and sat...but not my Lu. No, when it was her turn she got up and pirouetted her way around the entire circle! It was so cute and I was so proud of my graceful and ambitious little dancer!

1970-something?

My friend Lara posted a photo of her gorgeous daughter Maggie on Facebook the other day -- she took it with her iphone with an app called hipstamatic. It gives a photo the look of an old Polaroid and it really, really looks like something taken in the 70s or 80s. It made me remember how much I have been wanting to re-create the look of an old photo using my image editing software (I would love to study the history of photography and the ways that photographs have changed over time, but that is another story...).

So when Lucy was running around the backyard yesterday in an old dress of mine that she now uses for dress-up, with her hair in a loose ponytail, I seized the opportunity to snap this photo. I then edited it to look as vintage 70s as possible, complete with grain and fading. Like you just popped the photo out of an old frame that was sitting near a window for the past 30+ years.

The best part? Well, often when I look at an old photo of a child I will think gee, that child must now be 30+, 40+, 100+ or maybe even 110+ by now! But my Lucy, well, she is still only 4+ and that is just the way we like her around here.

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.

Backyard, evening