Harold the purple crayon

Sophia had a phase not too long ago where she slept with a purple crayon under her pillow just like Harold. A few weeks in it rolled off the bed and was ground into the carpet, a problem they never seemed to address in the books :) We wanted to do a Harold inspired craft that didn't involve coloring on the walls, and in the end, came up with these. The kids got a kick out of posing for the pictures and when we ran out we just printed off old ones. I think this is going to become a regular occurrence at our house.

For Sam's I made them more like a coloring page..giving him somewhere to start.

Sophia However did hers all on her own from start to finish with only one incidence of cutting off her paper nose.

I'd love to be organized enough to make them entire books to work on. Maybe for Valentines day,or Christmas..or the Christmas after that.

Big event for Sophie last weekend, she was the flower girl in my lovely cousins wedding. Preparations went through a number of stages…mostly involving gently popping her many bubbles about what it would actually mean to be a flower girl. Never having been to a wedding in her 4 long years Sophia was under the impression that it was more of a performance piece than a ceremony and wondered in what part of the show she should do her “pump up” number… or if a “soothing dance” would be more appropriate. Once she figured out that she just walked up the aisle and stood still things seems a little bleak. Luckily the funky bride also thought it sounded a little dull and decided that the flower girls should blow bubbles and walk the ring bearer (who in this case was a dog in a tux) down the isle. Although this certainly lifted Soph’s spirits, even resulting in an impromptu “pump up dance”, it left me a little concerned. I have seen Soph walk our neighbors incredibly old dog and she can’t seem to keep from continuously yelling at the little guy - drill sergeant style. She feeds off the power. I can only imagine how happy she’d be if we had a leash for Sam. Because Soph is a dog yeller...we decided that she would blow bubbles on the way up the isle and could walk Oscar out after the ceremony when shouting would hopefully be less disruptive.
The walk through for the ceremony took place at 10 o’clock at night on Friday so the flower girls got a two minute briefing of how it would all go down as the guest were being seated. It was all looking smooth until they completely missed the isle and just kept walking; it took a couple people in the crowd doing giant airplane controller arms to get them on the right track, but they made is eventually. Sophie stood perfectly at the front…clearly somewhat delusional and under the impression that everyone was solely watching her while the bride and groom were more of a background feature. She even did the occasional, out of the blue, dramatic bow complete with hand swirl. When I asked her about it after she let me know it was “to make sure people knew she was talented”. Mission accomplished. It was a great day and we even managed to score a few pictures of us all together at the same time with eyes open...quite a feat ☺.

Birthday Re-cap

My Sophie turned four..sure it was 23 days ago now, but better late than never right? I still consider this progress from the entirely blank baby book that sits on a shelf in her room. Anyways back to the point. My Sophia is four. Sometimes four going on thirteen and sometimes four going on two…but nonetheless, she’s four.
This year she was a lucky little thing and managed to score two parties. After being on a Red Riding hood kick for a few months I decided that Grandpas forest would be a perfect place for a mini Red Riding Hood lunch. We surprised her with her own little outfit and munched on some buns and cake in the woods. About 20 minutes in Sam was over the whole scene and way too many ants crashed the party, so we called it a day….Still fun while it lasted.

The other was a backyard BBQ...One with far more adults than kids. A tradition of sorts ever since her first birthday party, which included 3 babies and 25 first year med students. After raining for a week straight I was getting rather nervous (or if we are being completely honest surly) that I would have to somehow fit 20+ people in my at that point untidy living room. Luckily the sun came out and it was a pretty perfect afternoon. Good food, good friends, good fun.

Sarah's cookies

It occurred to me as I was looking for yet another lost recipe today, that perhaps I should include another of my loves on this photo journal journey…Food! It’s hard to loose your blog in a junk drawer, so this should make things a lot easier.

Technically these aren’t called “Sarah’s Cookies”, but are actually “Tall Grass Folk Festival Cookies”. But the recipe came to me from Sarah and I like to be reminded of her as much as possible, so that’s what they are to me. This is my favorite “healthy-ish cookie” recipe. They are tasty enough that you want to eat a handful at a time and are nutritious enough that you don’t feel guilty doing so…or at least I don’t. And I get extra cool mom points when Soph asks for a second or third and I actually say yes. They are also a favorite because you can basically just toss in whatever you have on hand…By far my favorite combo so far is dried cherries and dark chocolate (what…dark chocolate has antioxidants or something). There now I will never have to dig for this recipe again. Thanks Sarah!!

Sarah’s Cookies (Adapted from Tall Grass Folk Festival Cookie Recipe)

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour (white or whole wheat or any combo)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flax
1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
Approx 1 ½ cups of….stuff! Dried fruit, seeds, nuts, chocolate, cereal even works in pinch.

Mix butter and sugars. Add egg, water and vanilla and stir until mixed. Add remaining ingredients until combined. Chill dough. Drop onto greased cookie sheet…squish them if you like a flatter crispier cookie and don’t if you like them chewy. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

Faces of Sophia

Perhaps it all started that first Halloween when Sophia dressed up as the cutest penguin in the history of penguins…..or realistically that had nothing to do with it... either way Sophia has always loved dressing up. It can be a simple toilet paper scarf or an entire head to toe ensemble... it doesn’t matter. One way or another Sophia finds something to wear and someone else or something else to become every single day.

I am always amazed at how minimal the costume can be and yet it still facilitates an entire afternoon of imaginative play. In December Sophia had an entire month long phase in which she wore a black sweat suit and a pair of underwear directly over her face. Voila! A bear! The only downfall was that I had to constantly ask the “bear” if she got her “face” from the clean pile.

One afternoon while dressed in a one sleeved teal number ten sizes too big (a super stylin’ dance costume of mine circa 1990), I apparently said something not to Sophia’s liking. She groaned loudly like a moody teenager and stomped her foot like an angry three year old… I gave her the classic mom “You might want to rethink that last behavior” look, at which point she pleasantly announced that that stomp and groan were in fact not her at all, but rather it was “just what princesses do”. Turns out costumes are not only fun, but apparently also double as a get out of jail free card when needed.

The many faces of Sophia: A recap

The toilet paper scarf..thought up while on the potty

Self described here as a princess...clearly not yet exposed to any actual princess story at this point.

If you're going to dance you might as well look this good doing it.

Hats with Aunt Stacey

"Sophia who?"

Mulberry school fair :)

Scrunch face Fairy Bear

Classic socks, underwear, bathing suit, wings..more underwear combo

In order to get the real flying superhero experience it's best to lay on a stool in front of a fan..Oh yah and don't forget your "concentration face" .

Best dance move ever!

Six month Sammy

Today Sam you are six months old and I can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday that my water broke, rolled under the curtain and pooled beside the bed of the woman next to me. Sorry about that.

You started out as our “Mellow Sam” Snoozing the majority of the day before deciding at eight weeks that that nickname was lame so why not promptly switch to never napping at all. After all who isn’t rested after a good 12-minute nap.

Since having the name “Mellow Sam” revoked, you have since been “Sammy”, “Sam the man”, “Sam I am” “little man” and “Sir”. Luckily for you Sophia seems to have forgotten that she originally wanted to call you “Sissy”. I may have to remind her if you don’t let me sleep through the night soon.

It has been neat to see your delightful little personality develop. You are sweet and charming and gentle…and shreaky. I love you to pieces and can’t wait to see the little man you become.

HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY SAM!!! :)

Spring is in the air…or at least it is when you hop on a plane and fly to a place where spring is in the air, which is exactly what we did this week. I am in love with it here. Any island that allows my three year old to see whales migrate, deer wander and sheep graze all in the same afternoon is a place I want to be. Wandering outside refreshes Soph’s mood and lets me see her imagination at play. This afternoon we looked for Little Red Riding Hood and Darth Vader on the same walk in the woods…alas they were nowhere to be found but that was soon forgotten when a perfect digging stick and some mud were found.

Our whale watching spot

Morning coloring

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At the beach

On one adventure in “Grandpa’s Forest” Sophie announced that she wanted to walk home alone. I have to admit that my first overprotective instinct was to say no. Luckily I caught myself…or possibly my husband said yes before I started to speak I forget… Either way she headed off on her own and we kept her little pink jacket just in sight. She exceeded my expectations by making all the right turns and I exceeded my own by only shouting, “move more to the side of the road!” twice ☺