Birthday fun

Zada did a great job sharing her birthday treats!

Herself, back at home

Time for tea?

For Zada's birthday this year I felt it was time to share with her one of my favorite childhood playsets, Herself the Elf. I can't tell you the number of hours I spent with these fairy friends, but I will tell you I didn't mind at all staying up late tonight to make sure they looked just right tomorrow morning for my six year-old sweetheart. Cheers Herself, welcome back out of storage!

Kids' day at the Anoka shoe shop

Face painting, balloons, goodie bags and new shoes, what else could two kids want?

Finally!

After a glorious and noisy battle Darby finally succumbed to his afternoon nap.

More fuel to the fire

I found the rest of Darby's shirts I had been saving for some future blanket project. It's fun to see these again and to marvel at our once much smaller bouncing boy.

On the crazy train

I've collected all these fabrics and now I'll have to do something with them, like make Darby the quilt I've been promising him. I call sewing projects like this 'the crazy train' for a number of reasons, not the least of which is I never know when they will be finished and I always question my sense in starting them in the first place.

Land of a thousand 'No's

After saying an endless number of 'No's to Darby, Zada and myself today, I finally said 'Yes!' to all of us and bought these cookies at the grocery store. I have had a real weakness for bakery-made m&m cookies lately. I put half of the cookies in the freezer hoping to spread out my consumption of them, but the good money is on me eating frozen cookies by 2:30 tomorrow.

Goodbye, old friend

Rooster Cogburn's Bird Buddy, a.k.a. "Buddy Cardinal," is frolicking in the pheasant fields of forever tonight. Buddy died peacefully this afternoon surrounded by loved ones and under the care of a veterinarian. Buddy was 13 years old and had spent his youth pointing and retrieving birds in southwestern Minnesota and living with a slightly chaotic young family in the Minneapolis suburbs. For the last two years, Buddy had taken up residence on Lake Superior's North Shore, where he lived out his retirement between regular walks, visits from family and friends and the occasional bowl of scrambled eggs. Buddy will be greatly missed by those close to him, and he leaves behind a loving family who will do its best to honor his memory with regular walks, visits from family and friends and the occasional bowl of scrambled eggs.

Sunny weather

Zada dressed herself this morning and Darby got his new glasses this afternoon.

Gearhead nation

Both Zada and Darby were drawn to this driving game at the arcade.

Tummy yummies

Checking out the new frozen yogurt place!

Girl Scout Day at the MOA

Zada and I had a great time celebrating the Girl Scouts' 100th birthday at the Mall of America.

A new generation of rec specs

So the latest kids fashion from Italy are these silicone-type glass frames, which is perfect since Darby today qualified for his first pair of glasses. Yes, you read that right. We noticed he was crossing his eyes a bit while eating or coloring so we had him evaluated and low and behold he is far-sighted. The glasses should help straighten his eyes out or otherwise we'll resort to a patch and then finally surgery as necessary. His actual frames will be a size smaller than these, but we settled on this color, a cross between Buzz Lightyear blue and Finn McMissile blue.

Buds and mugs

I fixed the kids up with some hot chocolate after they played outside with our neighbor friend, Allie. It was a brisk afternoon ahead of our balmy weekend forecast.

Was it just yesterday?

The sun was shining, the kids were playing and spring seemed so close at hand? Today it is grey and cold again; although we had rain instead of snow, so that counts for something.

A fitting knitting reunion

I've inherited a batch of wool yarn from my aunt, which I suspect she inherited from her grandmother, who also used to own this chair. As I was using the back of this chair to wind the yarn from hanks into balls I thought it fitting these pieces of history were reunited. Now the question is, what will I make of 320 yards of vintage eggplant colored worsted weight yarn? Hmm...

Honey to my ears!

Oh, how I love Darby's speech progress! Just now he asked, "Mommy, can I please have those blue rectangle crackers please?"

Yes, yes you can, my darling boy.