water party

Meg just finished her last week of school - I am so sad to see it end! Not because I liked having her gone for 2 mornings a week, but because she loved it so much. On Tuesday her class had a water party, which turned out to mean spashing hands in trough of toys, running up to a little sprinkler (and running away before getting wet), and playing with shaving cream (that's a great idea for 2-year-olds that I've never though of before!).



The popsicles were a very big deal, and it was so cute to see all the little ones in their swimsuits.


What was Katie doing the whole time? Just hanging in her stroller...pointing at the flowers...she is so relaxed.

happy birthday, katie!

Katie is one! I catch myself saying, "her first year went by so fast!" - but that's not true. Actually, it seems like ages ago when she was born!! It's been such a big year for our family, it feels like she's been a part of us for years. And what a great addition she is - she is sweet, relaxed, loving and funny!!

Here is a picture taken of each month of her life so far:

bloomer bomb

I made a little outfit to match the pillowcase dress I made for Meg last week. Since Katie still crawls everywhere, I made a top with bloomers instead of a dress.

The problem is, I have never made bloomers before and didn't have a pattern! I have actually never sewn with elastic before, either. So I will eventually redo these bloomers once I go find a pattern!

roasted vegetable lasagna

I got my first organic produce box from Annie's and it is even better than I anticipated. I love that it challenges me to cook with vegetables that are out of the norm for me. Most of the produce we got in the box is already eaten, but I still had an eggplant and lots of zucchini, so I tried a new lasagna recipe. Mark and I agree it beats the old one I've been using for years.


Click here for the recipe. I skipped the mushrooms since I had so much zucchini and eggplant. I made half the recipe and used a 8x8 pan.

sold!

What a roller coaster ride that was!! We had so many people tell us we wouldn't be able to sell our house without a realtor, and that there was no way we could sell it at our asking price. Here's a sample from an e-mail to us from a realtor (my emphasis added):

"I will tell you with absolute certainty though that Buyers are unwilling to pay such a high price per square foot these days..."

Is it mean to write her back and tell her how wrong she was? It would feel so good...

It also felt so good to take that sign out of the yard.

pillowcase dress

Now that our house is almost sold, I've been able to make a mess and get out my sewing machine again. I tend to be too much of a perfectionist when I make something (can't tell by the end result!), so I gave myself a challenge: to make my first pillowcase dress in one day (really, 2 hours when the girls were napping).

I failed at my time challenge but it forced me to move forward with it, look over little mistakes, and I finally got it done during naptime today.



Now, on to Katie's dress. Hopefully it will go faster but I have to figure out how to make bloomers...