Everyday Life for Four Seasons

Would you just look at that? She's wearing her baby in a sling and carrying her purse!!!

It's Friday! Tomorrow is 'A's third birthday party and we are very excited about it! We're having a small party with some of her friends. All of the books say that you should invite the number of children that equals the child's age plus one. So, that would mean that we would invite three children to her party. Only four total? I couldn't just have three kids over. Just think, four children playing quietly and well together... how boring! You know the saying -- it's not a party until someone cries!

So, we are expecting to have 9 toddlers & preschoolers and a few babies here. 'A' is friends with another girl named 'A' (yes, same name), and the other 'A' has two younger sisters who are just as close in age to my 'A' as the other 'A' is. My 'A' asks about the sisters just as much as she asks about 'A', and so when I sat down to talk to my 'A' about the party, she was thrilled to hear that 'E' and 'M' would be invited too. So, if we only wanted 3 other children here, then our guest list would have stopped after we invited 'A' and her sisters!


I tried to make yummy non-dairy, non-egg vanilla cupcakes and as I expected, my experiment failed. The cupcakes are edible but not delicious. It's really hard to bake without eggs! Eggs are a miracle ingredient in baked goods.


'A' grabbed the camera tonight during dinner and took some photos, including this one of Jeff. He looks pretty good, particularly when you consider the fact that he took 3 flights across the country last night to get home. And, of course, I haven't let him have more than a few seconds of rest since he arrived...

Looks like my orchid is coming back to life!

Today is the last day of March. Hooray! Perhaps Mother Nature will allow spring to come now that it is almost April.


Jeff's parents are leaving first thing tomorrow morning, and wouldn't you know it, it's supposed to be warm tomorrow - in the 60's! I am telling you, when they come, it gets cold, and when they leave, it warms up.


Right now they are at the movies with 'A' - they took her to see her first real movie-theater movie, Horton Hears a Who. It is an exciting moment in her young life. I reviewed with her the need to stay close to her grandparents in the theater because it's dark. Why do I worry so much? When I'm with her, I never let her out of my sight. I'm sure they won't either, and I'm sure she'll be fine, but I still worry.


'H' is supposed to be upstairs in her crib taking a nap, but she woke up after 30 minutes and has decided to cry instead of sleep. I gave her some orajel, maalox, and toys, thinking that it could be her teeth, her stomach, or she just wants to stay up and play, but she's still upset. Maybe I need to read Baby Danced the Polka to her...

It snowed today. I'm not surprised because Jeff's parents are here for a visit and whenever they come, the weather is unusually cold. It's almost like Mother Nature is making up for the fact that they moved to sunny Florida by giving them all the misery of winter condensed into a few short days.


Jeff and his parents brought 'A' to preschool today and she was thrilled. They have been very busy playing with 'A' and 'H' this afternoon while I've done some computer work. 'A' set up the Candyland board and she and grandma had a quick game. She has been waiting all week for them to come and play Candyland with her!

This is what your kitchen floor will look like if you spend the weekend prepping and freezing meals for the week, then you decide on Tuesday to preheat the oven and pop in a frozen root veggie tart, and when you open the freezer door to get the tart (which is in a glass pie plate), it falls to the floor and the plate shatters in a million little pieces.

Thank goodness I had an extra one in the freezer! Still, it was a waste of a good dinner and pie plate.

May you have an uneventful cooking experience tonight!

Here are two more things we (I) finished up yesterday -


This was quick and easy. It's just fabric stapled to a canvas and I used acrylic paint to make the letter A.

Below is the distressed mirror project. This mirror is made of of 3 separate mirrors that came into our lives about 3 years ago. Chris and Sue had just bought their apartment in White Plains and while Jeff and I were on the grand tour, they showed off the nursery and talked about taking down the 3 mirrors and getting rid of them. As you can imagine, I wasted no time in loading them into my car. Dick, my stepfather, made the frame for them, and we painted it with a coat of white spray paint. The mirror hung over 'A's changing table when she was a baby. When we moved here, it became a transient wall hanging, going from wall to wall, until a few days ago, when we decided it would look good in the kitchen.


We decided to give it a weathered look -- I started it off by accidentally dropping it on Saturday, cracking the frame. We then applied a light, rough coat of black/brown paint.


Then we applied a coat of light yellow and sanded it.



We weren't crazy about that look, so we added a coat of yellow to match the walls and sanded some more:



I'm not sure it's finished. I'm going to put some plants up around it and then decide if I like it. Actually, it's not the mirror I'm questioning, it's the color of the wall behind it!

We don't do much to celebrate Easter. I'm a recovering Protestant and Jeff is Jewish. The Easter bunny came to our house last night and hid some eggs, and that's the extent of our holiday celebration.

We do appreciate the fact that it's a holiday for everyone else, though. You know how sometimes you want the world to stop so that you can get stuff done? That's what Easter is for us. I have no social or work commitments today, so I'm practicing my form of relaxation: I'm using the day to finish a number of projects.

Today I finished the pinecone wreath that I started last fall. Finally some pinecones are starting to appear in the yard and today I collected enough to finish it. I don't know if the pinecones are appearing because the snow is melting and they are starting to surface or because it's been windy again and they are falling down. Whatever the reason, I'm just happy that I found them!

I found something else in the yard today - little crocuses poking through the cold winter ground!


This is particularly exciting because the rest of our yard looks like this:


To celebrate the start of spring, Jeff took down our Christmas tree. We keep it outside on the deck all winter in the tree stand. It's nice to look at, and it's such a shame to throw out a tree after just a few weeks of having it up! We prefer to keep it up all winter.



I'm also working on a painting project to make a mirror we hung in the kitchen look colorful and distressed. I'll show it to you when I finish!


And here is a quick look at the lavender-scented rice pillow I made this morning. I used Blair's "recipe" for it. I had scented the rice a while ago and just needed to sit down at the sewing machine to make the pillow case for it. I got this fabric in the clearance section at JoAnn Fabrics for $1 a yard and I just love it.

So, is the weather "springy" where you live? Not here, not yet. Maybe we might be ready for it... soon. Jeff and I packed the girls into the stroller today and went for a walk around the neighborhood. We saw lots of crisp, blue sky and we saw buds on the trees!

We did some house projects today, mostly moving around wall hangings.
2+ years here and it feels like we're finally moving in. I didn't take any photos. Do you know what I really want to show you a photo of? The strawberry-banana-orange martini I'm drinking, but by the time I get the camera out and take a photo of it, it'll be gone. :)

'A' and I worked on some origami yesterday:

we're hanging out at home today. These photos were taken around the house.

This morning we ran a few errands and now I'm *trying* to get some work done. 'H' woke up from her nap because 'A' was downstairs whining loudly about her lunch options (she wanted cookies, and that wasn't one of the options). So now 'H' is whimpering in her crib and 'A' is playing quietly in her room until I decide I'm calm enough to have her come out.


I've been working on painting letters to hang in 'H's room, and mid-way through the process, Jeff and I noticed that one of the letters is smaller than the rest. I went to exchange it today but found out that all of the other letters like it are the same size. Apparently it's supposed to be small? I dunno, I will just keep plugging along with the project.


I also took the girls to Learning Express, a neat toy store near us. They are going to give a portion of their sales from this week to a group called FANS for the new playground at Kelley Park in Ballston Spa. Yay!!!

Last night we had a Mom's Night Out foot spa party. The Body Shop came and got all of our feet in warm tubs of water, then we scrubbed and massaged our feet until they felt heavenly. I have a photo to post but I have to clear it with the ladies first!

OK, 'H' has escalated and it's time to get her up. This should be a fun afternoon.