I love it when she smiles for the camera.

When we made room for the dishwasher, we had to take out some cabinets which we decided to make into our kitchen island. We put on some breadboard, trim, and a counter top. Then we painted it. Now all we need are a couple of stools.

I cut my hair off.

The day of the earthquake I took the girls hiking in Fair Hill. We didn't feel a thing and when Randy called I was clueless.

That weekend the hurricane hit. We had a slumber party in the basement. The girls slept in their tents with tons of toys. It was a fun party. The storm didn't do any damage at our place. Randy and I were in the front room as the storm was beginning to pick up--about 10:30 pm -- when we heard a loud cracking noise. Turns out our neighbor across the street lost his remaining 2 bradford pear trees. Sad, they were beautiful! He knew they were on the way out though.

Here is the disturber of the peace at work.

Anne is rather particular about some (all) things.

One of them is her bed. It must be PERFECTLY made or there will be ranting and raving.

Anne went to kindergarten!!

She got on the bus like a champ! (Yeah, just drop her off at the bus stop on her first day of school EVER and hope all goes well. It was a little nerve racking for me.) And she had a great day. That night she told me, "There are some things I don't like at school. But mostly I like school!" I asked her what she didn't like and she said she didn't like it when the other kid sprayed water from the sink and soaked her new shirt. Then she made sure we would take her to the bus stop again tomorrow.

This past weekend was the Rubber Duckie Regatta. A big huge rubber duck race near the bay. There were all kinds of booths at the park and one was Bob's Critters. Randy was loving it and eventually, so was Anne. There were all kinds of things from Turtles and frogs to scorpions and pythons. Anne really loved holding the geckos and she also held one of the snakes. (yick!!)

The sad thing is, my girls start screaming and shaking and running to hide when they see a cute puppy frolicking anywhere near them. Perhaps they just prefer the creatures that can't move so fast.

Update:

The wait is over. The tooth is OUT!

Randy gave her a little prompting last night as they brushed teeth and Anne reached up and cranked it right out.

My pictures are all out of order. Sorry.

Let's see--we went to the beach...

We also finished our table. The top started out white and then we glazed the whole thing. We decided we didn't like how it looked dusty/dirty, so we finished it off purple like the rest (picture to follow with the finished purple top {I told you they were out of order}). We don't know if we'll keep it as it is. What's your opinion? Does it just look dirty and gross?

It was a lovely day at the beach. Not too hot. Not too cold. And the beach we found was perfect for the little kids to play!

Ruby made a pizza in the sand, but I don't know where that picture went.

Here's this one instead:

This is the resident under our deck.

He's eaten 2 tomatoes too many.

We bought a trap.

Say "goodbye," Mr. Groundhog.

We'll it's not a great shot of the finished table, but there you have it.

The Tooth Fairy

has been here.

It all came as a surprise last Wednesday. We were eating dinner and Anne started to complain that her tooth hurt (again). It was dismissed as an excuse not to eat her vegetables (again). She took another bite and broke down in tears of pain. Dad took her to the bathroom to check it out. Turns out her tooth was really loose. She was rather anxious but we reassured her that everyone looses teeth, and that when it comes out (it could be a few days) she could put it under her pillow for the Tooth Fairy. That made her happy.

The next thing I knew she came running into the room with her tooth in hand!

I asked if Dad had pulled it out. The answer was NO.

!!???!!

This from Anne? The same Anne who fights to the death rather than let me even come near her slivers?

The story came out that she was just wiggling it and it fell right out into her lip.

I was not prepared for this. Don't they start losing teeth in Kindergarten or 1st grade?

Where did the time go??

She immediately started wiggling and working on the other one. This one is going to take some time--and patience--now that we know what is coming.

*Just in time to be missing tooth twins with her cousin Olivia!

I know, I know...

picture overload. We all know I'm a person of few words though.

Too much has been happening. We're busy, busy, busy. Randy and I put the girls to bed and get to work. It has been fun making our place our own. Slowly, but surely.

Also, we've been doing a little of this:

and this,

and this.

There've been a few birthdays around here.

Happy birthday to Lucy!

Here she is in the birthday hat! The birthday hat is very exciting.

We love the hammock.

Last Saturday, to celebrate birthdays for Anne, Ruby, and Lucy, we went to Philadelphia for the day. We saw some great fountains and cool buildings.

And we enjoyed the Academy of Natural Sciences.

In this picture, they are walking on the tread mill to make that dino on Randy's back run. It was pretty cool.

Yuck!

Ruby loves to give a good tea party.

{and birthday party, and any other kind of party that comes to mind}

So for her birthday we had a tea party with her little friend.

This picture was taken as they waited (not so patiently) for their guest to arrive.

Sorry, all the pictures of the table were blurry. :(

They made fancy tea hats to wear.

Isn't she lovely? Happy 3 to Ruby!

And here is one of the night stands Randy made for our room!

Lets hear a hip, hip!

We also installed a filter for our well, made a countertop, and installed our fire pit. We love our home!

A Picture

is worth a thousand words. So, here are a bunch to save me a little time:

I tried and tried...and tried and tried to upload my video tour of our house to no avail, so you'll have to make due with this.

Our front room. I took the picture standing by the front door, on the first step going upstairs.

We checked everyday for weeks to see if our mystery flowers had blossomed yet.

Hooray for peonies!

The 13th of May, Anne turned 5! I can't believe I have a five year old.

She had a few specifications for her cake. (and party too)

In one of the many clipping projects Randy has done in our yard, there happened to be some casualties that were fun to look at. (nests are so cool)

Lucy needed to get down to see too. She is nearly impossible to hold when she's decided to be down!

Max and Ruby is popular around here and I think this idea stemmed from something they saw on that show.

A Pajama party!!

{they needed makeup with rouge!}

Every night while we do the bedtime rituals for the big sisters, the littlest sister has a hay-day with their toys. Her favorite: magnetix (or however you spell it)

This weekend the temps have hit the 90's so we pulled out the swimmin' poops. (click this link and watch the movie for an explanation of all the poop)

and the swimmin' poop.

This one has learned to make funny faces. And in related news, one of her first words was "cheese."

(but not Wensleydale)