Snapshots of Life this Week

+ early morning playtime
+ sweet gift from a little flower fairy
+ powwow in the pool
+ day lilly in the garden
+ so proud of making a parfait almost entirely by herself
+ sun freckles

Snapshots of Life this Week

 

+ always asking to sew
+ old stone wall
+ wolverine, now with sporks
+ dancing in the weeping willow
+ twirling with dandelions  

11 Years.

My husband and I celebrated 11 years of marriage on June 8th. And for the first time since we've had children, we went away for a night. Well, we didn't really go "away", but we did spend a night in a local hotel and it was amazing. No dishes in the sink, no toys littered around our feet, no computers offering distractions; just us, a pool, and a wonderful courtyard to sit in and drink our coffee. Ahhhhh.  

On a side note, don't forget that as of July 1st Google Reader will go bye-bye. I finally transferred my blog list over to Bloglovin', and I have to say that I love the look and feel of it! Check out Lindsay's blog for a quick how-to on how it works- it's a snap!

Bits + Pieces

+ hot day
+ roses blooming in the garden
+ most of the pages from the first draft of my husband's novel
+ trying out the new umbrella she bought with her jar money + sharing with her little sister
+ celebrated 11 married years with this fella over the weekend

Bits + Pieces

+ we sewed pirate eye patches on a rainy afternoon
+ Seamus is as squirmy to photograph as the kids
+ this little one is about to turn 6
+ the peonies are already dying
+ she got a new bathing suit and wears it all the time

Bits + Pieces

+ watching an evening thunderstorm from the porch
+ dandelion gift from the boy
+ section markers in the old graveyard
+ family walk time
+ happy bagel face  

Bits + Pieces.

+ missing a front tooth 

+ enjoying the warm sunshine 

+ chasing birds 

+ blue eyes 

+ climbing trees  

Looking for Spring.

If you haven't caught on to this yet- we love going on family walks! We abstain during the cold months of Winter, but as soon as the temperature is tolerable we visit our favorite haunts. Trees are still bare, there isn't much green to be found yet, and the sun is mostly in hiding, but we're getting out there anyway. I finally bought my first pair of sneakers in 8 years, and boy do they make walking/hiking easier!

Look! Some green! There is a lot to love here in Pennsylvania. Beautiful scenery, lots of rolling hills, and the wooded spots are a treasure.

And speaking of Spring- thanks to everyone who entered my Spring giveaway! Congrats to Jana W. who won a set of yellow floral hair pins. Your hair pins will be on their way soon! 

Getting Fancy with Her First (Real) Haircut!

My husband calls me a hack, but I've been trimming our kids' hair for forever. Nothing fancy. But lately my 5-year-old's hair was looking stringy all of the time. I knew she needed to go with a shorter hairstyle. That was beyond my minimal hair cutting skills though, so I finally bit the bullet and took her to my hairdresser for a real haircut.

It was such a fun girly outing! When we came home her brother and sister both begged for a turn to go. The shorter cut was just the thing her hair needed too. It has such nice body now (sometimes a little bit too much), and it has happily retained much of its waviness. It's always fun to see what its going to do for the day when she gets up in the morning; so far it has ranged from huge fluff hair, to straight and sleek.

Learning to Read.

My little ones are all learning to read with the same books that my mom used to teach me. The books are old, falling apart, and have some vocabulary words in them that even I have to look up because we just don't use them anymore. They also have some amazing vintage drawings in them that I want to copy and put up on the wall!

Family Photo Fun with Twinkle Photo

It seems that there is always some extra expense that keeps me from splurging on things like family photos. Not this year! I was determined to hire my friend Tassia of Twinkle Photo to photograph our family even though a lot of things seemed to come up in the last few months. Boy, am I glad I did! I tried not to stress too much over our wardrobe; I just went through our winter clothes, took note of what color most of us had (3 out of 5 of us had gray shirts, and of course we all had jeans), and took a run to the store to fill in the rest. Even though I prepared by bringing a hair brush, extra layers (it was a wee bit on the cold side), and baby wipes for dirty faces, all of those things were forgotten and I was able to relax and enjoy our time together. Being outside definitely helped to keep the kids happy! Tassia was so flexible with our kids' needs, which totally helped to put me at ease.

Tassia did a wonderful job of capturing our family dynamic. I think the photos of the kids just being crazy are my favorite! As an added bonus, we were able to capture a few moments of just Sean and I; we celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary this year, and only have semi-professional images from our wedding day, so this was a priority for me! Now I just have to painfully choose which images to print and frame for my limited wall space!

// All images copyright Twinkle Photo.