Arden's 5th Birthday - Take 1

We had a grand old time celebrating Arden's birthday, though we missed both sets of grandparents and wish we could all celebrate together! This is one of those days a personal jet would come in handy. Forgive the quality of the pictures, they're from my iPhone which, without perfect light, just don't turn out all that great.

We kicked off the day with a trip to Cracker Barrel, the birthday girl's wish. This alone demonstrates our love for her, Cracker Barrel at 10AM on Sunday morning is insanely busy.

Working on some word challenges while we waited for breakfast...


No pictures, please. Notice at the left of the picture, Dora taking photos with her phone. A well photographed child, she is.



After breakfast we headed to visit Nonna where we did cupcakes and Happy Birthday. No pictures of this event, we were both focused on making sure Arden didn't get crumbs on the carpet or chocolate frosting on her dress. :-)

Next up, a trip to Uncle Bobby and Mandy's house for pizza, cake and presents. We intruded on them since it's still tough for Bobby to get around thanks to his major softball injury.

An attempt at a nice 5 year picture. Operative word, attempt.


How old are you? 5

And also...flash if the gang sign 5.

The cake! Arden designed it and Market Basket made it happen. She loved it and it was delicious. I think they will be our go to cake makers from now on. $13.99 for 1/4 of a sheet cake that was beautiful and delicious? Win.

Singing Happy Birthday!

Ah, the gifts. It's nice to be the only child, grandchild, niece!

Woody! Mandy compared finding Toy Story toys to the Cabbage Patch days of our childhood.

A fleece pirate blanket. She is wrapped in this right now, it made bedtime even after all that sugar easy as pie.

Toy Story card from Grandma Joanne and Pops! A singing Toy Story card to boot!

"Just what I always wished for!" -- The Toy Story Mobigo game!

The talking, light-up, wing spreading Buzz from Grandma Joanne and Pops. Notice a present theme this year?

She's been begging for a scooter since we went camping with Alina a few weeks ago. We've heard a lot of "I sure hope I get a scooter...did I get a scooter?" the last couple of days. Good thing we got her a scooter!

Surrounded by her art supplies from Auntie Nette. I think Annette bought out Target's entire art department. She put some of it to good use making 'creations'.

Painting Uncle Bobby's nails with her new glow in the dark nail polish.

Playing with Woody and Bullseye

And Buzz!

It was a lovely day, and we still can't believe she is 5. I need to do an Arden at 5 post, but that will have to wait until another day! Suffice it to say she's brilliant, delightful, stubborn, hilarious, unique, beautiful and well, maybe a little bit perfect.

Happy 5th Birthday Arden!

From this ....


To this....

These last 5 years have flown by!

The One in Which I Say She Was Right....

Eating 'local' is not something I've ever given consideration. Why yes indeed I am (er...was) one of those people who never thought about where our meat or produce or milk came from other than the store. Did I think about the chicken being from a farm owned by one of the only two companies who produce chickens now? Nope. Dora has been pretty focused on the health consequences of added hormones and preservatives in meats, dairy and even produce. The first share we got from our CSA include strawberries. I remarked on their size. Her response? They're small because they aren't pumped full of growth hormones. Strawberries on steroids? Nice.

Part of her campaign for eating local was gently cajoling (ahem...forcing) me to watch Food Inc. one Sunday morning. Repulsive, sad, and eye opening. It's not easy to watch, but I'd suggest it. If nothing else, it makes you think.

I wasn't too sure when we joined the CSA...and I really wasn't too sure about having a whole pig in our freezer downstairs but let me tell you...she was right. Healthier? Absolutely. But it also tastes different...better. Go figure. It forces us to cook outside the box. We have steak now, because of the CSA meat share...that's just not something we were buying before. We have cuts we've never had and we're forced to do something with. We have vegetables we've only heard of in passing (or, if you are me, you've never heard of before). Example: kohlrabi. It's a german turnip. Dora made a kohlrabi soup tonight. It's delicious. We paired it with homemade biscuits topped with Dora's homemade (CSA) peach jam. It's fun. And it helps to be married to someone who can make something delicious out of just about everything. Even if she's never met one of their kind before.

Our fridge overflows with veggies and fruit. Our freezers, both upstairs and down, are chock full of meat that hasn't been pumped full of anything. We stop every weekend at our dairy, where we buy milk. We're invited, of course, to go meet the cows from whence said milk came. Thus far, I've passed. C'mon now...it's summer. They are cows.

To eat this way is not effortless, nor is it necessarily cheap. Okay, it's not cheap. But we paid up front for the season, and obviously for Sausage the pig...and our weekly market trips total nearly zero. Cleaning products, bread and diet coke (ahem...from the earth, entirely chemical free soda) tend to be the only things that make the list these days.

Does any of this mean I see myself milking goats or cows and collecting eggs from our own chickens (or, apparently, ducks)? No. Excuse me. No. But I'll continue support our local farmer, so long as that farmer is not me.

Raising Arden

It's hard to believe, but we are closing in on 5 years old. Raising Arden has been, and I'm sure will continue to be, a total trip. She is brilliant, fabulous, and perhaps more than anything, unique. When Arden was born we were *so* happy to have a girl. We stuffed her into dresses and put bows in her hair. Dora went out and the first gift she ever got her, well, the first gift where she could really understand new toys, was a set of twin dolls. Those dolls have lived with us for 4 years now, and she's left them at the bottom of the baskets. "Arden, don't you want to push the dolls in your stroller?" "No, I'm pushing Stitch."

Arden is, without a doubt, who she is.

She loves to fish...


And be a firechief (that's her brother, Curious George)

Entirely unsure of what to do with a Barbie, Mermaid Barbie or not. Looking to Hailey for guidance, perhaps? (If she never gets into Barbie I'll be happy...all I remember about my Barbies and my grandmother's Barbies are the teeny tiny shoes). At least this one doesn't have feet!

Hailey knows what to do though!

Ah, back in the comfort of her superhero gear.

Fierce.

A limboing pirate

Takin' down a scurvy pirate with a water canon

Counting her treasure

One of the greatest picture of all times, an early celebration of two almost 5 year olds. We are so, so lucky.

Running

Dusting off the cobwebs (and the guilt).

This about sums up the last few weeks...


We've been running...and running....after a month at the lake we came home to a semi-renovated bathroom. For the first week home it pretty much looked like this:



Due to this...we ran away to a campground last weekend. We had a delightful time with friends, even though my foot was attacked by a Cheez It hoarding duck.

Arden collected kindling for the fire. This is her genuine smart-ass smile.

We're heading into the home stretch of the bathroom renovation, I'll post pictures when all is said and done.

I still have some more pictures to post from the month at the lake, but here's a highlight. Grandma Mary and Nonno took her on a pirate cruise. She requested last year's costume. She had a fantastic time shooting the water canon at the dirty ol' pirate, collecting treasure and doing the limbo.

The pirate cruise is also a chance for education, apparently. This is the Santa Maria, I think. Well, it's one of those ships. I paid attention in history, I swear.

This is Plymouth Rock. Yep. That's it. Overwhelming, isn't it?

And finally, she wanted me to take her picture sitting up on this ledge. As to why? Your guess is as good as mine.

The upcoming weekend is one where we'll finally be home...sort of. Our contractors plan to be here at least a few hours each day, so we'll probably get out of the house and go find something entertaining to do.

We are 43 days away from our vacation to DisneyWorld. But who's counting.

Warning: Not Deep or Creative

The two...or maybe 4 people who read this blog may have noticed a bit of a blogging break. D's folks are renting a lake house for a month about 15 minutes from our house, and we've been here since July 3rd.

Not surprisingly, the first two weeks have flown by. They are captured, at least to some extent, in the pictures below. I promise a more in depth post soon ... including our master bathroom renovation that is happening while we're staying here. In the meantime, a sneak preview of our time here...

Packed up and ready to go. Yes, we're only 15 minutes from home. Yes, we packed the Pacifica to the gills. You're not really surprised, are you?
We have blown bubbles at the lake....

And watched the neighbors set off fireworks....

We have played with friends.....

And perfected our gang signs.

We have celebrated Mary...

And we have enjoyed the suitcase full of gifts from Nonno and Grandma (Stay tuned for a full post on Nonno.)

We have been swimming and floating and swimming some more.

We have gone bowling....

Mary using bowling as a teachable moment.

We have played games...

....Created by our little dictator

Manicures at Mandy's House of Nails....

Movie star...

We have danced with pneumonia....

....and taken a spin through Floating Hospital

We have fed the ducks and the fish....

And enjoyed some quiet moments just embracing this gift.

The Post in Which There is No Rhyme or Reason

Yet another busy week around these parts. We are on the horizon of a major bathroom renovation so have spent the week cleaning the house in preparation for strangers in workboots to take over while we're at the lake. We also met with the folks who are handling the remodel again to pick out tiles and faucet design and lighting etc. I suggested we do my initials in a gold inlay in the floor. It adds flare, don't you think? And probably significant value to the house.

We'll document the renovation, of course...the afters better look a whole lot better than the befores.

A few pictures of the kid...

As usual, she loves to help in the kitchen. Here she is making Mama's lunch. I'm relatively certain she used about a pound of meat, but she was so proud. And I'm not gonna lie, I'll happily let her take over this job when she wants.


We had dinner on our front porch a few nights ago. It had such an impact on Arden that she took it upon herself to decide we were eating out there last night. She even set the table on her own. I found it terribly cute, so I took a picture.

Which leaads me to this picture. She looked at the above photo and told me it was too dark. Her solution? See below. She found her flashlight to add light. I took this picture...her response? "See? Much better." I'm pretty certain she will be a chef/photographer when she grows up. Good thing that Bravo offers reality shows for both.

Tickled to have milk in a goblet.

She's a walking advertisement for my hospital's Harbor Walk & Run.