Where do we go from here?

The porch repair/repaint is finished and a marvel to behold. All that's missing is the plaque thanking all the members of the community who contributed. Everything we tend to do takes a village and I know a lot of people are wondering what to do with their lives now that this is over... Sophia is wondering when we will get to use the front door again.

Favorite picture of the project.

How many years will it take to win back the mailman's respect?

Week in Pictures

It's been our first full week at home in what feels like a while. Travis is gone for most of July and we were gone as a family for most of August. It's good to be back in the burg and on the court...The week commenced with a big house project: redoing and painting the front porch. Know this about Travis and me: we are not project people. Neither of us. We don't like doing them and we don't necessarily feel satisfied after they are done. They make us angry and tense. I always read and hear about projects bringing people together...no, not over here. A full service yard and maintenence man? That could really bring us together. But we also really love our little house and want it to be a welcoming place for people. I start getting nervous when the exterior of our house begins to resemble the college houses. It is nice having neighbors that set a low bar, but come on...
Pictured above is Stephen. He is an Eagle Scout. I try not to change light bulbs without consulting him first. He apparently had school work to do on Monday but when Travis texted him that he had begun sawing things in the front yard, Stephen came running. I am so impressed with what they have accomplished - lumber, saws,hammers, sanders... I am hosting a baby shower next week and that's the deadline I gave us for the porch. Travis, though he might be hating it, always works well with deadlines...He gets really intense for a brief window of time and always gets it done. Again, we are not project people...there is no joy in a long process here.

That's what our crawl space looks like. I was just glad no animal families emerged...

As of tonight the porch has been fixed, sanded, and primed. Last step is the paint which will happen Monday

Jess hung out all day Tuesday and I was sad I didn't get any pictures until I went through my camera and saw this great photo shoot occurred!

I have no idea where I was when this happened. You know you are good friends when Jess is visiting all the way from California and I still feel fine just leaving her to play with my kids while I was doing who knows what...

We journeyed to Charlottesville for Addie's second birthday! As if the abundant stairs in their three story house were not enough - Addie is now the proud owner of a "Jump 0 Lene!"

And jump they did!

Addie was an extremely well-adjusted birthday girl. Look at that maturity...it's amazing what older sisterhood can do!

Foo loved her some cupcake.

And I promise, Sophia was having a great day until the very end...when we decided to take the cousin group picture...

What can I say? Other people's birthdays were always hard for me too.

Judah and Lydia came to play and we dragged out the ol' backyard pool for the first time since June.

The comment preceding this picture was "I don't eat chicken. I just eat ketchup."

Today the girls attended Xander's birthday party at Inflation Nation. Jumpin' Joey's is no more. This new place is a big improvement! Bounce to your heart's content!

Sophia is imagining her triumphant return to Inflation Nation for her birthday... Which reminds me I better start researching how to make Ariel Cakes...

Here are the girls watching the work on the porch...very exciting..all that noise and sawdust...

It was a great week just enjoying things we love about being home. We said goodbye to some of our last friends headed off to college and are now gearing up for a busy Fall schedule.

Are we really going to make it out the door to preschool 2 days a week? I'm already prepared to be the stigmatized "late" parent. I just hope they don't shame the late kids at this age...

What We Read...

When I think back on this summer I know I will remember much of it by what we read. Travis can remember entrees he ordered at resturants 10 years ago...not me, but I do remember the books: the spring of 9th grade - I remember being in long rehearsals for the school play, the unmatched angst of being fourteen, and reading To Kill a Mockingbird for English class; I read Wuthering Heights while on a family vacation to Puerto Rico right before senior year in high school and the summer before Sophia was born I was working in Atlanta, thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion, and read Gone with the Wind for the first time. So...here it is: the summer when they were 3 1/2, and 1 1/2, when Foo began speaking English, and Sophia became a protective older sister...we were reading:

A friend told me about Mo Willems last spring. We've enjoyed his "Pigeon" books but Knuffle Bunny is king. The second one, Knuffle Bunny Too, follows Trixie to preschool and Sophia really connects with it. So do I. Willems can sum up all that is parenting a three - year old in one cartoonish facial expression. He is brilliant. And he is about to release his third book in this series and is coming to our library to speak. Be still my heart.

There was a point this summer when we had two copies of this book checked out at once and Sophia would not go to sleep without both in her bed. They both love the rhythm and the numbers and the heroic ending...What's not to love?

This is an A to Z of "naughty" children. Warning: it's a long one. It almost pushed my mother in law over the edge at bedtime because Sophia knows it by heart so you can't miss a word. I have read it enough that I can get through it in record speed. I like it. In many a disciplinary moment we have referenced the particular child who acted wrongly and how that effects people. Think Book of Virtures - reversed.

Okay, it takes some energy to dodge the Disney books (fairies and princesses), the Dora books and (oh the horror) the Barbie books. I don't have a huge stance. These books often make their way home with us. I would just prefer Sophia and Olivia to aspire to be prime ministers or poet lauretes rather than princesses and I want to believe there's better literature out there than Barbie Loves Cheerleading (okay, really,it's just that those photographed pictures of real Barbies being posed amidst scenery really freak me out.) So we read Little Critter and Curious George and Max and Ruby. And we've read Angelina, and Eloise, and Fancy Nancy, and Ladybug Girl. And we like them all. But no one compares to Belinda. No one.

We have been checking these books out for over a year. Sophia knows where to find "Y" in the library and checks everytime we are there to see if there is one in. Olivia loves Belinda and the Glass Slipper and would request it along with Karen Katz books long before she spoke.These woeful tales of a Ballerina marginalized due to her very large feet have struck a cord in this family. And I like that Belinda, in her own way, is a survivor, a fighter, she has overcome.

Dear Amy Young - wherever you are: Please write another one in this series. Perhaps Belinda and the Bedtime Routine. That could really meet us where we are right now.

Love, Your Devoted Fans.

P.S. If you do write another one we promise to buy it and not just continually renew it from the library. We realize our system provides you with no increased revenue.

Scott and Morgan are Married!

Scott and Morgan were married last night at The Whalehead Club in Corolla, NC. It was a magnificent celebration... But first, a rewind...once upon a time, on a cold winter day in January I met Morgan for the first time. She was coming through Atlanta with Jess en route back to school at Auburn. Sophia was 2 weeks old and I had been wearing a velor J-Lo suit for about that same amount of time. I was barely cognisant enough to shove Sophia into Morgan's arms and say "Here hold her! We're taking pictures of all her visitors."

Morgan complied and this is one of the few pictures we have of those weeks. (We did not have many visitors.) I never would have known how our lives would intersect again years later...Morgan is one of the sweetest, strongest and most truly lovely women I know. It has been sheer delight to watch her love story with Scott unfold - and this picture serves as such a reminder of how life works: unexpectedly! (So when you have surprise guests, get dressed and put on a little mascara - you may be reading Scripture at their wedding one day)

The setting could not have been more perfect. The Whalehead Club is a historic home and grounds facing the Currituck Sound.

The aisle - I loved her colors!

I'm kind of glad I got half of Grandpa in this picture. That's my style of photography, very real, very raw. Morgan wore her mother's veil -gorgeous!

Besides the many perfect details of this wedding, there some other fabulous elements involved such as...a bridal party beach house that made me feel very old...

a very fun rehearsal dinner with the most hysterical wedding slideshow I have seen...and...

(Praise the Lord) there was Karaoke!!!!

Student Ministries Staff (present and former). My shoes really hurt and I thought this picture was going to be closer up...I would also like to mention here that this was the 19th wedding that Mrs. Jessica Jiao Smith and I have attended together. 19. In nine years. I'm not a stats person but that one is pretty mind-blowing.

Scripture Readers! Way to rock that OT passage Becca.

And there was lots and lots and lots of dancing...

It was such a night of goodness - of joy and hope and laughter.

Here's to your new beginning Scott and Morgan - Thanks for sharing your day with us!

Reason #74 that Williamsburg is a Magical Place:

Mooretown Rd.

As if this place couldn't get better...the Chick- fil -A now hosts "Mommy and Me" on certain weekday mornings. They provide play-doh, coloring, and a storytime...

Here is Olivia doing play-doh with the wonderful Chick-fil-A Greeter, Mr. Jim.

And you thought it was the milkshakes that made this place utopic...

Where was the Mommy during these festivities? Kicking back in a booth enjoying her complimentary beverage...

What I Almost Missed...

This afternoon I was tired, it rained, the Wednesday night concert was cancelled but we needed to get out... I don't like afternoons where I feel like I'm just pushing through until bedtime. I know I am bound to miss something...
Look at this sweetness! Could they be becoming friends?

Yes, Sophia is about to hurl herself into the horse field and it appears Olivia is eating dirt.

Oh dear farm animals, may you never lose your allure...

Kindred Spirits

and the sisters who love them...