Ballerina Girl

Whew - we just got back home late for a Sunday night and are getting the kids to bed after a super busy and rock star weekend. One mega highlight of our weekend was ELOISE's 1st BALLET RECITAL!!! I wasn't expecting much from their performance, but I'm not kidding - she looked so beautiful (and actually graceful!) on that great big stage. Proud stage mom moment over here.

Beach night

Last night was our first beach night of the summer. Love this picture that so sums the differences in these kids - Eloise is waist deep in the freezing water, and George is delighted to watch his sis but too cautious to dip a toe in.

Lake Michigan in May = cold cold cold. In true Eloise fashion, she jumped in the water like this about 150+ times. Andrew joined us when he got home (earlyish) from work and jumped in too - I wonder where she gets it?

Mom's Day Schmom's Day

In full disclosure, Mother's Day this year was not everything I'd dreamed it could be. To summarize - George told me that he hates me, Eloise sprayed me in the face with the garden hose, and we ate hot dogs for dinner. Motherhood is certainly not glamorous (no shit Dick Tracy), so perhaps an imperfect Mother's Day is humorously perfect. You can ask me tomorrow. In the meantime, this was a nice moment walking with my girls...

In other news, we spent 9 hours on Saturday working in our garden and a couple more hours late this afternoon. We don't really have a before picture, but most of our family is familiar with our mess of a garden in front. Here are a couple pics of our newly de-weeded, replanted, mulched and partially sodded front garden...

Family visits

Unbelievably we've been back from California long enough to have spent 4 weeks back at home with 4 weekend visits from our family. Thanks for coming! I'll get the sheets washed again tonight and fluff up the guest room so it's always ready for you all! :)

Grandpa Walker and Nonna stayed with us while Andrew was in Colorado

Hamma and Boppa came for a medical conference - and a UM baseball game at Wrigley field

Uncle Dave came for one fun night - and steak and martinis

Nonna came directly from a conference in NC for an important meeting and Grandpa came to join her 

One highlight - Nonna was mystery reader in Eloise's class

Another highlight - Grandpa's mint juleps