three for tea

We had a tea party for lunch today. Girls only! Last night we made a list of everything we needed and this morning we ran to the market for a few last minute items... like umbrellas for our sandwiches and rasberry tea (because it's pink). We worked all morning making sandwiches and snacks and tea. Boys are nice, but tea parties are much more fun without them.

notes and monsters

Little Dean left this afternoon for a trip to Missouri. Missouri is very far from Georgia. Charlie's parents are vacationing there this week and generously offered to take litlle Dean along. He's been asking every day... "am I going to Missouri today?" "Can we look at Missouri on my map?" "When are we going to Missouri?" I'm also very excited to have a week with the girls all to myself. I made little Dean a note to read for every night of the trip. I remember my mom doing that for me when she went to the hospital to give birth to my youngest sister and it was very special. I can still remember what some of her notes said. I quickly machine sewed some fabric scraps to the front of each note for a little color and texture.

I also made little Dean a scary monster... to scare away any scary things that he might encounter. And also to use as a pillow in the car.

I think he was more excited about the monster than he was about the trip! He said, "this is the coolest monster that I know because he has a bow tie." Anyway, I'll miss little Dean. Lots of girl time blogs this week!

planting

We planted tomato seeds and pepper seeds and sunflower seeds in my empty pots. One of our goals for this summer is to start some kind of garden in our enormous new backyard. And since our dear friends sent the kiddies a package filled with gardening goods, we got a good start. They like dirt.

It's raining here this afternoon. Perfect weather for nail polish and movies! I'm also busting my tail to get little Dean all packed for his big vacation with Charlie's parents this week. I made him lots of prizes. More details about that later. Happy rainy Saturday!

earth day cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes for our little family earth day celebration. We had my famous-ish shrimp and corn soup (because I make it using only fresh ingredients... no cans or bags or bottles) and salad for dinner. Then cupcakes for dessert.

We've spent the past two gorgeous days swimming in our lake and fishing and giggling outside. It's been dandy and swell.

right on top of that rose

catching up

This is what my painting table looks like today. I'm finishing lots of projects so I can move on to my next massive undertaking. I'm putting together a summer art camp for kids in our community. I'm very excited and overflowing with ideas. More details coming soon. Hope you are having a busy day! Drink some coffee with a splash of chocolate milk.

it happened so fast

This is Millie G. She is really something. She loves quietly drawing and making lists for hours. She loves lip gloss and aprons. She loves watching Cinderella and talking about ballet. Millie G woke up one morning last week with her hair all pulled back. Like it was in a massive messy bun... but worse. Since I don't usually leave her long curly hair pulled back when she goes to bed, I thought it was strange. I started digging in the "knot" (that looked exactly like a bird's nest... only tangly-er) to find the band or bow or barrette or whatever it could be holding all the hair back. I got my fingers to me middle of the chaos only to squeeze something sticky and chewy. Yes, you've got it... gum. I knew that mayo, or peanut butter or various oils and sauces... o yes, and ice could get gum out of hair. But before I could try any of these methods... I had to find the gum. I put conditioner in her hair and started combing... I combed... and combed... the knot wasn't budging. So I thought, maybe I could just cut around the knot and get the gum and nobody would notice. I got the knot cut off and then she had a nasty curly mullet... like from 1985. Millie G. looked up into the mirror... then her little lips got all sad and a tear rolled down her little face and she said "make it beautiful." So of course I started crying. We went to the salon and the nice lady cut it all off. It really looks cute and fits her personality. So here you have it... the new Millie G. (at least until the hair grows back)...

And one last look at the old Millie G...

one week ago

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter. Since last Sunday many, many things have taken place in our home. One week ago seems like one month ago. Here's a little sprinkling of our life last week...

1. Little Dean's first t-ball game

2. spontaneous overnight camping trip to Jacksonville

3. cut millie g.'s hair off... little incident with gum... pics soon

4. tent in the girls room

5. spring cleaning

Hope your week was nice. Embrace every moment... and eat a donut!

cupcakes for spring

I love making vanilla cupcakes. I also like playing with drops of food coloring in my homemade buttercream icing. I mixed yellows and reds and blues to make these spring colors. The kids put the icing and sprinkles on. It was a delicious afternoon of baking

Hope your Saturday is sweet! 

handmade backpack

I made a backpack for Millie G. She likes it. I wanted to make her a little messenger bag, but (since I never follow a pattern) it got a little wide and looked better as a backpack. It's perfect for coloring books and lip gloss and barbies and extra hair bows.

There's even a secret pocket on the back side for little secret necessities.

More pictures of our Easter morning cutie pie-ness coming soon! Hope your week is warm!

spring painting

I had a picture of the earth in my head. Sometimes I get images and colors in my head then I dump it all out on canvas. I had two old paintings that were ugly so I painted over them with this. Charlie wanted it for his office so I painted these words from the Bible on it.

These words became dear to our hearts a while back. God is very good! Hope your Easter weekend is filled with reminders of the new life that comes only from our marvelous Creator.