First Day of School

What a big month! Will started preschool today. How on earth is that possible? It seems that just yesterday he was the size of his 3 week old brother. My friend Vannessa warned me that this would happen- you bring home your new baby and suddenly your older child looks like he's 35. It's true that I've been wondering lately when Will got so big. I suspect by next week he'll be driving himself to school.

Despite his efforts to convince me that he didn't need to go to school because he already knew all there was to know about being an astronaut (the career choice du jour) he was won over right away by a Play-Doh activity and didn't even seem to notice us lingering outside the door, blowing kisses and whispering useful advice like 'Be good' and 'Listen to your teacher'.Thank you, Miss Toni, for a great first day of school!

Drumroll please...

Soren Edward Smiley

arrived Saturday, August 1st at 4:49pm
Oh, hello feet. So good to see you again. And you're looking so thin. Nice pedi, by the way.

Merry Christmas in July!

It's that time of year again. And it was appropriately un-seasonably cool for this year's Christmas in July celebration! We had a great time with...

bubbles

sidewalk chalk

a Christmas tree pinata

(You have no idea how hard it is to find one of these in the middle of summer. Thank goodness for www.christmaspinata.com- no joke)

pass the parcel

and a celebrity appearance by Rod Stewart!

This is my concrete goose wearing his Gingerbread Man costume. He's pretty awesome, right? Someday he'll get his own blog post.

Whew! Only 6 more months 'till Christmas!

Goodbye Little Pink House

Never will I be able to listen to John Cougar Mellencamp's 'Little Pink Houses' without thinking that Mr. Cougar Mellencamp must have driven down our street and noticed our darling house and been inspired to write a cool song.

On Friday we closed on the sale of our Little Pink House. It was a great house with great neighbors. It was the first house that Rick and I owned together. It was the house that we brought Will home to when he was born. We were sad to see it go.
On the other hand... what a great feeling to not own 2 houses. A very cute young couple bought it and I'm sure they will love it as much as we did.

This is the stained glass window I made when we remodeled the bathroom.

Remember when...

SPARKLERS

WERE THE COOLEST THING EVER

Despite the fact that we made the trip to Phantom Fireworks and got a bunch of neat pyrotechnic tanks and planes and battle ships, Will was most interested in the sparklers. And there were about 75 of them in the box.

Sorrows drowned in a fountain of popcorn butter

To console ourselves after the loss of Mr. Fish we took Will to see his first movie.

UP
He did pretty well. He only cried when the dogs were being mean.
I cried a little too (must be the hormones).

R.I.P. Mr. Fish

The victim: Mr. Gold Fish

Age, at least 5 years
Previous known address, the dinky pond in the backyard when we moved into the house.
Brief obituary, Mr. Fish had grown and flourished since Rick redid the pond into a fish oasis. He leaves behind to mourn his memory 4 half-brother fish who had previously resided in our pond in German Village.
(Photo withheld to protect the queezy)

The scene of the crime: Our normally tranquil backyard pond

Main suspect: Urban Heron
Could not be reached for comment

Local enforcement officials report that security in the area will be beefed-up in the form of more frequent patrols of the perimeter by a resident chocolate lab

On a happier note, Rick's pepper plant grew this really terrific pepper.