We had a lovely day today and I expect another tomorrow. LB and I read books and played and cleaned and played and talked and laughed out loud. I worked on some cards, the Molly dog played on the deck and Brennan continued to pretend that any object in front of her (including her old burp cloths she is forever dragging out) is a dog. Tim has gotten to ride his bike to work for the last two days and rode around on his lunch breaks as well. We are definitely digging the nice weather. In case you hadn't heard, today was the official start of the Derby Season in L'ville. There was a gigantic celebration downtown tonight, a yearly event called
"Thunder Over Louisville" (referred to simply as "Thunder" by the locals). There have been flybys and practice formations over our house for the last two days in preparation for the air show. I think there were something like 60 aircraft involved in the show. The big capper of the night is a huge fireworks display. It goes on for 30 minutes and is allegedly the largest in North America. One of the bridges is closed, as well as parts of the interstate. Apparently, there is a shower of fireworks off of the bridge. So, anyway, we had a late dinner on the deck and watched the show. Although we aren't downtown, we have a perfect view of the fireworks from our house. I made a blackberry cobbler (I'll post pics and a link to the recipe tomorrow) before dinner and, after LB was in bed, Tim and I enjoyed a little cobbler with soy milk outside. A lovely end to a lovely day....
I wanted to share a few pics with you from our day:
Works in Progress-
This is some of the laser cut paper that I was using today. I typically don't cut sections out, as it is a big pain, but I wanted some individual butterflies and didn't have any others.
This is part of a small set of "thank you" notes that I am making. I think I need to do more sets. They seem to fly off of the virtual shelves.
These are some recently quilled items. I used one on a birthday card today. I hope to get it photographed and in the shop tomorrow. I have yet to decide what to do with those remaining. I was going to add a new heading for the pics of Tim, LB and I, but then I got all deep and philosophical and realized that we are works in progress as well. Mmmhmm...go ahead, bask in the glory of my evolved state.
LB was loving the braids today, for some reason. She usually tries to take them out, preferring instead to have her usual comb-over style that she is constantly brushing out of her face. I can't believe how grown up she looks in these pictures!
The second pic is of her Pippy impersonation. Perhaps this would be a good idea for a Halloween costume. We could paint some freckles on her and gel out her braids. She already dresses like Pippy half the time. The child would like nothing better than to wear mismatched pajamas every day.
I need to photograph all of the silly faces she makes on cue. She added a new one yesterday, "pouty." She has been doing "cheesy smile," "angry look," "thinking face," and "surprised" for some time now. It's adorable, even if you're not related to her.
The first outdoor photo is dinner on the deck in the aforementioned mismatched pajamas. As you can see, she likes to wear a little dinner as an accessory to her ensemble.
She's watching the fireworks quite seriously. It took her a while to decide that she was enjoying them. I thought Molly might freak out, but she handled it like a champ.
I tried to get some pics of the fireworks, but you see how well that turned out. You can see our bat box in the first one.
The second one is as good as it gets. I guess it does a nice job of representing our view, but the fireworks were amazing and I was hoping to capture some of it for you.
Brennan is a little confused. She has had so many Christmas celebrations with different people that she doesn't actually know when Christmas was or that it is now over. We just returned from yet another trip to WV (this one for the weekend) to visit with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. They live in York, SC and don't make it up this way very often. I hadn't been down to see them in over a year.
We celebrated Christmas again with them, making LB even more confused! It was a good time though. My nephew is so grown up and talking constantly in his cute little Southern drawl. And my sister-in-law is pregnant, and I got to see the bump. We shared gifts, some good food (my stepmother veganized her sweet potato souffle for us), and spent a lot of time talking and playing with the kids.
We also celebrated with my cousins from Indiana who were in town staying with my grandmother. Jacob is 22 and Michael is 16 and, at the risk of sounding really old, they are such good kids. Another cousin that lives in town was there as well (David, who is also 16) and he is awesome too. What boys their ages would sit around with relatives playing board games and chatting on New Year's Eve and Day? I was impressed. The pic is of David, Michael and my nephew Clay.
