A Girl After My Own Heart

Riley spoke her first full sentence yesterday. In keeping with the old adage "the sweet tooth apple doesn't fall far from the sweet tooth tree", she walked up to me in the kitchen and clearly said, "I want a cookie". I mean, clearly announced it - I didn't have to use my skills as a future UN interpreter at all. I was so proud I gave her the cookie, even though it was 9 am.

I'll have to check with Mom, but I'm pretty sure my first sentence was, "I want pancakes." So, like I said, she comes by it naturally.

The Year of the Tomato

We enjoyed a lovely evening last night at the State Fair. I don't remember being a huge fan of the fair as a kid, but I've come to look forward to Indiana's and it is one of my favorite summertime activities. This year's theme is "The Year of the Tomato", which I find slightly ironic considering the late blight that is affecting so many tomato plants in the northeast. I thought for a minute that my tomato plants had the disease, but now I think I'm just a garden hypochondriac. Anyway, first we hit the midway so the boys could enjoy some rides.


I wasn't crazy about the look this guy was giving me, and I'm pretty sure that's a gang sign he's flashing. We let the kids ride anyway.



We walked through the cattle barn, the sheep barn, and the swine barn. Connor was brave enough to crawl in this pen and pet a baby cow. It's a tough call on which of them is cuter.



I was seriously tempted. I mean, I love bacon. And I love chocolate. But we walked by this booth right after visiting the baby pigs, and something about it just didn't feel right. Plus, earlier in the evening I ate a tenderloin sandwich the size of a VW bug, so I had already hit my pork limit for the week.



We did swing by the dairy barn on the way out for dessert. The dairy barn might be my very favorite part of the fair. They have kid's meals with a grilled cheese sandwich, apple slices, and milk for $4 (a bargain at the fair!), they fill sippy cups with milk for free, and they serve the most delicious milkshakes and ice cream. That's Riley above demanding, I mean, asking nicely for more of my chocolate milkshake.

All that, and I haven't even covered the giant cheese sculpture, the antique tractor parade, or watching Clydesdale horses being unloaded from their truck. Or that The Oak Ridge Boys were in concert and so we danced our way back to the car as we left. Even with the blight, I'd say the year of the tomato was a successful one.

Catching Up

This is a pretty common view from my vantage point these days. Riley works so hard to catch up to those brothers. I think we're all holding our breath a bit to see what happens when she does.

This is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Or at least I'm sure that's how it felt this morning for Casey as he stepped on the school bus for the very first time. I'm finding it very hard to believe that he is old enough to be a kindergardener, and I certainly felt a little lump in my throat as he boarded the big yellow bus. However, seeing the genuine joy and excitement on his face made me very proud, and having met his new teacher and seen the school, I shared in his joy because I knew he was going to be in good hands.

His father, on the other hand, followed the bus to school and videotaped him getting off the bus and walking to his classroom. And secretly I was glad he did.

Catch and Release

Rob took the boys fishing yesterday, and I have to admit I was suspicious of how much "fishing" would actually occur. I was once again proven wrong when the boys came home with a memory card full of photos from their adventure, including this pic of Casey's first catch. Thankfully since I know nothing about cleaning fish, this was a strictly catch & release outing. In addition to the fellow in the picture they caught a few more smaller fish and one pretty decent sized catfish. They all seemed to have alot of fun (except the meltdown Casey experienced when Connor lost part of his pole in the pond), but considering the condition they were in when they returned home, I'm not sure that they'll be going again any time soon.

Clutch Play

Whew. I just put the finishing touches on an order of custom clutch purses from etsy, and it looks like I've been running a mini clutch purse sweat shop out of my basement work area. The bride has seen photos of her bags, and has given her stamp of approval and is excited to get them in hand. It was fun to design and put these together, and I got some warm fuzzies knowing that I was making something that was going to be a part of a special day. But I think I'm going to have to take a break from the custom work. Something about a looming deadline makes me crazy, and even when I have budgeted my time wisely something always interrupts my schedule - someone gets sick, someone has a birthday, family comes for a visit (or in the case of last week, all of the above). Or maybe I should just take a break from accepting orders of 12 bags at a time. Something less stressful. Maybe just 6 bags at a time...