Like apple pie

Today was simply lovely.  An all-American, wholesome  sort of day, sunlit and simple and almost unbearably wholesome.  Apple-pie perfect and worth remembering...

 I know, I am just going on and on about the weather this spring, but seriously-- the weather!  Divine.  Seventy degrees of heaven with a breeze and still, the lingering scent of flowers.  I could eat this weather with a spoon.

 

Started today with a 5 mile run in the cool of the morning.  After a nice shower and breakfast, back outside for  an amble around the block with the family where we all took time to literally stop and smell the flowers.  Our neighborhood is green and glowing and the sidewalk gardens are lush with variety... Ivy and I went back out and doubled back to pick up litter along the street, our good deed for the day and high entertainment for the Ivy girl, our little fastidious one. 

 

Then, off to an early soccer game for Jack.  Team picture day and a good, close game in the noontime sun.  Corydon came too and we just had the nicest time, cheering for Jack (who scored a goal today!), playing on the swings, eating overpriced messy ice cream treats afterwards.  These little boys just play so well together, and today there were big hugs for each team member who scored.  You can't get much better than a bunch of 6 year old boys in too-big soccer shirts and shin guards giving jubilant group hugs.  I am enjoying the positive, friendly atmosphere of this soccer program.  

 

A family trip to Target filled out the afternoon and then Melinda and Will and the girls came over to soak up the evening sunshine with us. 

 

We settled in to the backyard for cider and Thai takeout and watched princess-bedecked girls picnic on the lawn as Jack-the-rockstar entertained them on his new guitar.  There was recorder-playing and running with balloons and bubble blowing too.  Then our little neighbor Sophia came over to join the fun and we had ourselves what Jack happily termed "a fun festival" with the 5 littles playing happily in the hammock, on the swings, and with Nat's assistance, on the zipline.  The sun slanted in through the trees and we ate ice cream and watermelon and lingered outside til past Ivy's bedtime.

 

It was delicious.

Nat noted tonight that school can start back up for the fall anytime, we had a perfect summer all in today.  I beg to differ a bit-- I am looking forward to the lake!-- but today very nearly fit the bill.  

Here are a few other photos from the week for you, while we're at it...

 

 
 
 

And, if this link works, an entertaining glimpse into how we started our day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLti6ldRd-I&sns=em

Princess Party

Our Princess Party day dawned dreary and cold, a night of rain dampening the lovely, prepped backyard.  Sigh.

After hemming and hawing and hoping for a warm up, I embraced the idea of a indoor party and after the application of crepe paper, bunting and a few pink table cloths, it was pretty festive in here.  Nat brought out our big mirror and turned our stairway hall into a dress up room fit for a princess.  Our tyranasauris-turned-dragon greeted guests at the door.  Snacks were stacked on platters and candy dishes and stands and soon, little ones were filling up all the spaces in between...

We had 21 children and their attending adults and thank  heavens it was dry enough outside to send the sword fighters out into the yard.  The perfect pergola-turned-castle was danced in and hidden in and served it's purpose well.  Children played and adults talked, food was eaten and our playroom destroyed.  It was, by all measures, a grand party indeed.

oh yeah, and I wore my wedding dress for the party.  If you can't wear your wedding dress to your daughter's princess party, when can you wear it?  

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Three

 

 This little girl will be three tomorrow.

 These three years have flown, busy and full as they have been with laundry and toys, travel and trips to museums, diapers and school and so much love.

 So much love for this little girl.

Three year old Ivy has a heart of sunshine and a temper like a summer storm, quick and fierce and over soon. She is a story teller and a pretender, making up narratives with any toys at hand, most recently including a package of fruit snacks. She loves to sing and can do a good rendition of the abc song, twinkle twinkle, and itsy bitsy spider, her current favorites. All of her songs end on rising notes. She has the most expressive face.

Three year old Ivy still loves to nurse (though it might be time to wean when your child tells you, clear as day, "momma, I'm all done with this side, time for the other side now...") She hugs fast and strong and plants the sweetest kisses on whatever part of us she can reach. She loves her dog and imitates our endearments for her... "Oh, Cor, you're such a GOOD dog..." She loves all dogs, actually. All animals, really. She's been known to plant kisses on many of them, too.

She is funny and decisive and verbal and shockingly girly, loving nail polish and lip gloss and all things pink and princess. But she can handle herself with the boys, and loves dragons and hot wheels and sword fights and running and jumping off of things. When she gets hurt, she rarely wants a kiss... She wants to get back to the game, even as she cries.

This girl loves school and circle time and ballet class. She confidently joins groups and says hi to everyone. Ivy does not sit quietly by during movies and stories. She's got questions and comments for every page. She loves Little Mermaid, with "any other movie about princesses" following close behind and Power Rangers coming in after that. Her favorite books have babies in them, or animals, or girls, or soccer, or pink, or rhymes. I guess she really just likes books...

She also loves, in no particular order: ice cream, her friends Lillian and Naomi, cleaning up spills, strawberries, broccoli, and pepperoni.

She is assertive and opinionated and won't hesitate to scream at Jack, or threaten to bite him, at the least provocation. She loves wrestling and tickling and the general manhandling that playing with a brother entails... Until she doesn't and then it is OVER. She does not take kindly to being told no. When she gets into a crying fit, she'll march right off to her room, wailing all the way. And she'll be back a moment later, the sunshine back out from behind the clouds. Most days, she is easy going, flexible with change and ready to enjoy whatever comes her way. Unless she is not....

Three year old Ivy is trying to give up her nap, and is not sure she wants a big girl room upstairs just yet. This girl loves to be near us at night, to come padding in a few times a night and say, "I come in your bed now, momma?" Three year old Ivy snuggles in close and loves to be held... And flings her sleeping hands in your face and kicks and squirms and goes diagonal in the bed.... Last night I asked her why she doesn't just sleep all night. Se said, "because I TWO!" Here's hoping three year old Ivy figures it out... I am hardly ever angry with her, but I am very tired...

Three year old Ivy is still our little tow-head, starting conversations everywhere we go. She can charm the world with her smile. Her laugh is a song. She is still my tiny, this big, big girl. I love her voice, her silly face where she shows her bottom teeth, the way she doesn't say her "s" sounds, her drawings, her imagination, her questions.

I love my three year old girl.

Firsts and flowers

We had the best Saturday. Seriously. The kind of Saturday where you just don't come inside, where you get a little too much sun, even in April, where you fill the day so full it is still brimming over and you don't get tot the blog until 10:45 on Sunday night... Before I tell you about it, though, lets back up a bit. These past weeks have been as full of firsts for our children as they have been of flowers. Did I tell you about Jacks little concert? How those kindergartner a stood up there so straight and yelled out the words to their springtime songs? I think I may have, but here's another picture for good measure.

And how about Ivy's brush with fame? Here she is, gracing the front page of the Plain Dealer Metro section. We've been receiving copies of the picture from people far and wide, as they recognize our girl. What fun!

This week also brought Jack's first week of soccer, with a practice on Tuesday and a game on Saturday. Yes, college-Amanda, you DO have a minivan AND a kid in soccer. Gasp. Not exactly sure how this happened to me. Luckily, not-in-college-anymore-Amanda is remarkably ok with it all. Jack is excited, particularly as he and Greg are on the same team. We've been blessed with good weather so far, which has only helped.

Oh, and today he attended his first bowling party. He wanted to just stay and keep bowling after the party ended, he enjoyed it so much. Jack will never find himself lacking in interests, with the way h seems to throw himself wholeheartedly into each new pursuit...

So.. Saturday. Seventy degree sunshine. Blue blue blue sky. Botanical Gardens in the morning. Never mind that we'd just been there the night before. It's the last weekend for the Big Spring attractions and there were so many lilies yet to smell. So many ribbons and butterfly wings and brilliant colors, rainbow arcs of tulips in full splendor. It was heaven. We could have stayed all day but for Jack's first soccer game... We were forced, poor us, to stand around in the sunshine watching little children run and play on the green gras...
It went pretty well for being our boys econd time on a soccer field. He contacted the ball a few times, even moved it down the field a bit, one time. During his first stint as goalie, he stopped the ball... With his nose. Actually, he dealt with it pretty well, and even got back into the goal box, meeting the fear head on. I was pretty darn proud. I don't care if he ever scores a goal.
Evening found us grilling out at a friends house, walking the kids around their lovely neighborhood, passing the time chatting and drinking beer as the kids played. Not a bad way to end the day. A delicious day, indeed.

Daffodils

Spring has burst into being this week.

 Ok. Yes. So today it snowed.

But I'm going to put that to the side and instead focus on the spring green whispers of newly budded trees, the sensual splendor of the magnolias in full bloom, the brush-tip white of dogwoods making front yards into art.

 This week brought warmth and a few surprising days of sun. And, daffodils. Nat did well hustling the kids to Lakeview after school on Thursday to squeeze in our annual photo shoot on Daffodil Hill. While they were there, the kids were also photographed by the Plain Dealer and Ivy's picture graced the front of the metro section on Friday. That's our girl...!

 Here are a few shots of lovely new life emerging in the spring. And the daffodils, too.