Ballet and Gymnastics

Ballet started this week for Ellebelle

and gymnastics too (for both kids)

 And we're loving the warm weather this week - 

there's nothing like a whole family beach stroll before bed

Behold our maple

Our beautiful maple tree has put on quite the show the last few weeks. When we came to look at the house for the first time, the owner watched our kids chase each other around the trunk and told us that this was the most beautiful tree in the neighborhood. Since we've moved in, a week hasn't gone by without someone in the neighborhood telling us that we have the most beautiful tree in the village. One neighbor joked with us that we didn't realize that we were buying a tree that happened to have a house next to it. Cars are slowing down to take a look. Kids are jumping in our yellow leaves. Adults whom we haven't met are posing for pictures on our lawn. It's that beautiful and we feel so lucky.

literally hours of fun for these two whose new favorite past time is raking leaves

my raking buddy

people we don't know getting out of their car to come pose for a photo by our tree

yellow, orange, red

Camels and leaves

my cute fresh produce at the pumpkin patch this weekend.

camel rides at a pumpkin patch? whatever, they loved it.

and the camel's name was george. bonus.

eloise earhart

whhhheeeeee

strapped in safely (we hope)

are we sure about this?

pure joy

awesome

eloise walking her babies

raking (and jumping in) leaves

Weekend

We had a lovely weekend with Jon and Lo visiting. The girls mostly lounged and drank wine and colored and read while the boys did some work around the house, such as hanging Great Granddaddy's portrait, the mirror and hooks by the back door, a disc tree swing and Halloween ghost. Next project is to somehow remove the raccoon that is calling our garage his home. Thanks so much for visiting, Jon and Laura - please come back soon!

ghost and swing in our most beautiful tree

George and Lo strolling our beach

Our sweet 5 year old

My (our) sweet Eloise turned 5 years old today. We celebrated with her class at school and had lunch with a new friend and Hamma came to visit and we answered phone calls all day long from all of our thoughtful family members (and friends too) and we had pizza and a Cinderella cake and opened gifts. Such a spesh day. And speaking of spesh, oh how we love our little Eloise and feel so thankful for her. She's the type of girl who tapes drawings of her family above her bed to be close to her when she sleeps at night. She prays to God that her three favorite dolls become real, and then carries them with her everywhere in case they come alive while she is away and she won't be able to care for them. She helps her brother before even doing for herself. She is most content surrounded by books and can read to herself for hours. She is strong-willed and likes to be in charge but is also so loving and kind. She likes to meet new people and makes friends easily and jumps in with both feet to new things. She makes quick decisions and then always immediately changes her mind and goes with the opposite. She oftens reminds me that she is still learning how to live in this world, and has made me realize that so am I. We took her downtown for a pre-birthday dinner last night and on the drive home asked her what her favorite part was. She thought for a sec and answered "This isn't about dinner or even about birthdays, but everyday. My favorite part is being with you and Dad and George. This is the best day ever." Happy 5th Birthday dear Eloise!

Stain Queen (that doesn't sound right...)

Have I mentioned that we bought a 90 year old house that needs a lot of work? Unfortunately, or perhaps very fortunately, I have the tendency to be impulsive and somewhat obsessive - once I get my mind on something I need to move forward, and quickly. And we are pretty cheap and feel like we can save money on many of the smaller projects that we can do ourselves instead of hiring them to be done. Combine that with sunny weather this week and being trapped at home in the afternoon while my little buddy naps - and I made a quick decision to stain our deck. Like most projects that I begin, it was a bigger job than I'd envisioned. But after 2 afternoons and 10 hours of painting, I am almost finished. And it looks great. So much better. See for yourself?

before - red

 after day one

almost done!

I have some outdoor furniture on order too. Don't worry Jon and Dave, it's white (of course). We also have chimney men here this week rebuilding and relining our chimney. That is one project we will not be doing ourselves (although we should've enlisted Poppy's help :) Photos of that mess to come. 

Brrr

This is what we looked like during breakfast this morning. We cannot safely turn on our furnace until we have our chimney work completed later this week, so it has been a crisp 58 degrees inside our house the past few days. And for the record, it feels colder than it sounds.