Time Flies- Seven Years

Oh, my girl, seven years of you turning in to you, turning me into a Mom, turning us into a Family.

You are such a treasure.

Birthday Prepping

My first baby is about to turn seven years old.

Seven.

*sniff, sniff*

She is quickly becoming her own person with tastes, style, friends, and quirky sense of humor. I'm so proud of her... but I can't stop feeling dizzy with the time whizzing by so fast. She is such a treasure.

This week I've been working on little party things here and there in preparation for her party this Saturday. She declared the theme to be all things mermaid, and so it shall be.

First project: party favors. She had a very specific guest list ready for her party, and there are potentially a lot of kids that could show up... I really wanted to try and think up party favors that weren't full of sugar, so we opted for 'Mermaid Pets' this time around. Hopefully we will have enough for everyone!

There have also been sessions of card-making and wrapping paper-decorating, we have a big box of items waiting to become decorations, and there's a Mama-made mermaid-inspired party dress with a pair of matching pants for Brother waiting in closets for Saturday morning.

It's almost time for the beginning of the food prep- I'm taking shortcuts all around for the lunch, but very special cupcakes are a must so there will still be some more creative effort to put forth... and then there's the cherry on the top of this whole celebration: we're going to do a Big Girl Room update on Friday while the birthday girl is at school! I've been secretly getting things ready and storing them up in the attic, awaiting the school hours when the special girl will be away and Mama and Brother can get to work!

I'm pretty excited about that. Stop by here on Friday for the room reveal!

But seriously, though... seven years old. Sheesh.

*sniff, sniff*

Sunday Drivers

It won't be long before they can't stuff their long legs under these steering wheels, and their body weight becomes too much for these little motors to carry... but I'm happy to say they're making good use of the time they have right now wile their vehicles are the perfect fit.

Heck, it won't be long before they will be slipping behind the wheel of a real car and heading out into the world, right? But there will be time fore chewing that one over later.

For now, don't you just love these happy backyard Sunday drivers?

Right Now

Right now, I'm having a little celebration in the pre-dawn dark with my coffee and my pj's for a good weekend past, full of small family victories. I'm celebrating sleeping in (like, past 7am!), eggs from our girls (enough for every breakfast plus some to share), beautiful weather, successful thrifting, fruitful house projects, and two whole days in a row without sibling fighting, trouble, or tears!

Oh yes, this was a good weekend. Cheers to a good week, too!

Happy Monday!

Pink Boots

I swear, y'all, Audrey has other shoes, really she does. Several other pairs, in fact... but good luck to anyone trying to get her to wear anything but her pink boots.

I think she's becoming known for them at school. The girl isn't even seven yet and she's got herself a style trademark. Pink boots with leggings. Pink boots with shorts. Pink boots with dresses and skirts. Pink boots all day every day.

Oh, my girl.

Hot and Dry

As predicted our temps are back up into the late-Summer range, our windows are closed again, and the air conditioners are running... but that didn't stop us from cranking up the oven and doing what we always feel called to do in the fall: make apple pie. Two pies, to be exact.

With the cool air pumping through the house and the smell of apples and cinnamon filling up our space, it helped us to feel like fall was here anyway.

Then it was time to head back outside to do the work we're still doing this fall-

-watering. October is supposed to be our second-wettest month, but we haven't seen a drop of rain yet and all the weather predictions have this pattern holding: hot and dry. It's kinda a bummer. No fall flowers to speak of, no color in the leaves yet (except brown as everything dehydrates), and lots of sweat as we water and water and water on 90-degree early autumn afternoons.

It leaves me feeling so thankful for gardeners doing their autumnal work so their successfully maintained orchards and pumpkin patches can provide us with pumpkins on our doorsteps and apple pies cooling on our counters, even when everything around us is drying up and dying.

It'll break soon enough, I know, but wow does that rainy May we had this year seem like a distant memory... and oh how I wish we could cut and paste some of that weather into our coming weeks!

*sigh*

Right Now

Right now I'm loving a weekend that saw...

...windows open, chilly mornings, and lows in the upper 50's!
...a visit with an old friend over a few beers, new books, and weird dream discussion over coffee.
...a few house projects, a hunt for a new coffee maker, and a very early dinner.
...the completion of our new well! All that's left to do now is just back-flush it!
...beautiful light, beautiful weather, and lots of time outside.

This weekend was the perfect fall weekend. Cool evenings and mornings, warm afternoons, long shadows, open windows, slow pace. I'm feeling pretty good about kicking off this week.

Wishing all a great start to this first full October week! Happy Monday!