the first day

School started last week.

Eloise could not contain her excitement for even one more day so it arrived just in time.  She was very ready to start kindergarten.  I thought we were too.

We all headed over to school on the big morning that seemed at once like it would never arrive and like it arrived way too soon.

Eloise picked out her outfit for the first day of school.  It was not something new I had bought especially for the occasion.  It was a two year old sweater dress on a 91 degree day chosen solely because it was the color purple.  We had received a letter the week prior from Eloise's future teacher.  In it, Ms. Lampa told us a little bit about herself and included the fact that she loved the color purple.  Eloise was adamant about wearing that purple dress and well on her way to attempting to secure the spot of teacher's pet.  She also threw in a purple headband for good measure.

We made it to the classroom and said all of our "hello!" and "how was your summer?" and "he got so tall!" as we milled around with all the other parents.  Ms. Lampa gathered the children on the carpet to read two stories and then we were told that the parents would be leaving.

The second story was "The Kissing Hand".  You've probably read it.  Basically it is about a little racoon that is going to school and is nervous about missing his mommy so she puts a kiss in his little racoon paw and tells him that whenever he starts to miss her to open his little paw and her kiss will be right there.  Stop crying already!

After the story, Ms. Lampa said she had a surprise for the kids.  She gave them each a Hershey's Kiss and told them they should take it to their mom or dad and tell us that they will be fine and that if we start to miss them we can see this little kiss.  I am openly crying in the classroom at this point.  Eloise brought us each a Kiss, bid us farewell, and we were on our way.  Kicked out.  Goodbye.

I wasn't worried about Eloise at all.  She is an amazing kid and so ready for this next big step.  I will admit that I spent the rest of the day in our 50% quieter house looking at that Hershey's Kiss and thinking, "That's it?"

I mean, I'm not sure what I expected, but I felt like rushing to silkscreen a t-shirt with the the phrase,
"I took my kid to kindergarden today and all I got was this stinkin' Hershey's Kiss".

The feeling was fleeting.  So far I am delighted with the school, thrilled that Eloise is so happy to go everyday, and proud of us for not messing up too badly for 5 whole years.

Onward and upward.

purple?  check!

can we start school now please?

storytime

my reward

and just to torture me, harriet has been 

walking around in school-ready mode for weeks.

slow down, please!

beans, beans the magical fruit: part II

I love coffee.  I love the taste, the smell, the act of preparing it, and the daily ritual surrounding it.  I don't drink coffee all day long but I can't remember the last time I missed my morning cup... and sometimes afternoon cup.  I have been drinking coffee since high school.  I owned coffee houses with my family for 9 years.  I drank coffee throughout both my pregnancies and two years of breast feeding.  (Neither of my children appear to be stunted.)  Listen, I love the stuff.  I would not be ashamed of the label 'junkie' in this context.  

For years now I have been using delicious, locally roasted beans and making my coffee with a French Press every morning.  In the summer, I make iced coffee using a toddy coffee maker.  All of this was going along just fine until I met The Saeco.

While home visiting my parents, I noticed a behemoth of a coffee machine on the counter.  They had just gotten it from my brother and he was extolling it's many virtues to them.  I kind of poo poo'd it thinking it was just another gimmicky machine using the pods or some other dumb, flash in the pan idea.  Then, I saw my brother push one button and I watched The Saeco brew the most beautiful crema topped espresso that I had seen in a long time.  Also, it was delicious.

We headed home and kept thinking about that coffee maker.  It was so easy, so delicious, so convenient. The only problem, it was pricey.  The price kept us from ordering it for some time but we talked about it almost every day.  Seriously.  Every day.

The next visit to my parents I stayed a whole week and took advantage of The Saeco for seven days in a row.  I was sold.  Now, to convince Mike.  I planned to make a few spreadsheets and maybe do a PowerPoint presentation to prove to him it was worth it if we just stopped going to the coffee house and maybe lived without electricity for a month or two.  Turns out, I didn't have to convince him at all!  Unprecedented!  Mike was already sold.

As a side note---just to give you more of an idea of the power of this thing---I witnessed my dad, who at 65 has never, to my knowledge, purchased anything for himself at a store let alone on the internet, come towards me waving a piece of paper on which he had written The Saeco's information.  He said, "What is it called?  Amazon?  Amazon dot com?  How do I order one of these for my office?"
Well, I'll be damned.

The night I got home from Toledo, Mike and I went online to order it from Costco and, I swear, as soon as I hit 'confirm order' we checked the front porch to see if it had arrived.  What seemed like an eternity of 4 whole days later we had our very own Saeco and we were in love... with the coffee.

My only concern is that it is too easy, too delicious, and too convenient.  Iced or Hot.  Day or Night.  For Here or To Go.

It has never been easier to be a junkie.

here he is in all his glory

reminders

 I was thinking about how Eloise talks like a 45 year old woman most of the time, how she reads chapter books on her own, how she constantly corrects my grammar (and she's right), and how she is starting kindergarten in just a couple weeks.

 I was thinking about how she is so grown up now and such a real little girl.  No toddler or baby anywhere in there anymore.

Honestly, sometimes being with Eloise it is easy to forget that she is just 5 years old.  Luckily she leaves little reminders like this in her bed for me to find.

she's still my

       baby in many ways

advice

One day you might meet a man who agrees to not only take you on a date to the Sing-a-Long Sound of Music but also agrees to wear costumes that you made out of curtains to look like the Von Trapp children.
 
If you meet this man you should marry him because he will love you unconditionally even during some of your craziest episodes (see above).  He will support you and encourage you and make you laugh every single day.

I took my own advice seven years ago today.  No regrets.

Except, maybe this photo.

mike's expression is priceless

happy anniversary

one night in lakeside

Don't go thinking we had a perfect vacation this year.  Sure it was fantastic and all but there was one night, our last, that will live on in my memory.   Now, whenever I get that, all too often asked, question:  'Liz, tell me about a time when you thought you might actually go insane?' I have an answer.

Mike left the cottage on Monday to head back to work and other family members were arriving for phase II of the week.  I was lucky enough to hang around for a couple extra days with my girls, but that meant that we would have to become roommates.  How bad could that be?

The first night went fine so I believe I went into the second night with a false sense of confidence.

Just to set the scene of our room:  Bunkbeds.  Eloise was in the top bunk.  I was in the bottom bunk.  Harriet was 3 feet away in a pack 'n' play.  Our bedroom was on the second floor of the house which included 3 other kids in nearby rooms and their parents. There were also people sleeping on the first floor.  When I retired to my bunk that night both girls were sleeping soundly.  Goodnight.

At some point Harriet woke up with a few little cries and couldn't seem to get back to sleep.  I got up to check on her, realized she had a dirty diaper so I decided to change her real quick.  Looking back, I think that this was the exact moment things started to go downhill.

Harriet got more and more upset which woke Eloise up.  She started talking to Harriet and telling her jokes and stuff.  I tried to explain in my best whisper-yell voice that I was attempting to get Harriet back to sleep and let's just quiet down and go back to bed please, lovely and sweet and precious child.  If you ask Eloise she might describe my phrasing a little differently.  Please don't ask her.

I put Harriet back in her 'crib' after giving her a  mysteriously hysteria-causing drink of water.  Of course she didn't want to go to sleep!  She could see us right next to her!  Also,  have you ever tried to put a baby back to sleep while a 5 year old giggled and told knock knock jokes to her nearby?  It doesn't work.  She cried and screamed and I just held her because I didn't want to wake up the entire household.

This scenario, and variations of it too grisly to divulge, went on for about an hour and a half.  I think it was an hour and a half but I wasn't entirely sure because I had lost my watch earlier that day.

Finally, I said 'fuck it' and decided that we would just get up and get packed and leave first thing after breakfast in a little bit.  Great plan.  I turned on the light, Eloise and Harriet read books and colored.  I proceeded to strip the beds, break down and bundle up the pack 'n' play, get everyone dressed, pack all the suitcases, and wait to hear some other signs of awakening in the rest of the house.

Nothing.

I ducked out of the room for a minute so I could find a clock and figure out what was going on.  The first thing I noticed once downstairs was that it was pitch black out.  Not a good sign.  I rounded the corner of the dining room into the kitchen and focused my eyes on the microwave clock.  Just because there was no way that could have been right, I confirmed the time with 4 other devices.

It was 2:15 a.m.

I hurried back upstairs, now, in a real panic.  I got into the bedroom just in time to see Harriet fall backwards off the bunk bed ladder she had climbed halfway up.  That went about as you might expect.

I announced that it was the middle of the night and we would all be going back to bed.  There would be no more talking or playing and we would just have to go to sleep.  As the words were leaving my mouth, again, in a very polite and loving way, my eyes traveled to the stripped beds and the now nonexistent pack n play.  Dear God.

The phrase, 'caged animals' kept popping into my head.

Eloise climbed back up to the top bunk, I threw her a fitted sheet and a naked pillow and said goodnight.    I told her if we both stopped talking to Harriet she would eventually just fall asleep (I was trying to convince myself). I think Eloise saw the fear and panic in my eyes because she finally, finally quieted down.  I lay down on the floor and Harriet, who had not received the memo about playtime being over, continued to wander around the dark room alternating between singing and crying and yelling.

The next thing I remember was waking up to daylight (!!) in the bottom bunk with no sheet or blanket or pillow.  Was I back in college?   I looked over to find Harriet asleep, face down, on the carpet also with no sleep accessories.

We all made it through the night.  Now, all I had to do was get everyone and everything into the car and embark on a 3 1/2  hour drive to grandma and grandpa's without falling asleep.  That will seem like a piece of cake.

the girls happy in their room on the 1st day of vacation.  

seeing this room again gives me a knot in my stomach.

cottage crew

We recently returned from a great, great vacation with friends.  The Cottage Crew consists of our family and two others.  We have been renting a summer cottage in the Harbor Country region of Michigan for 5 years now.  It is beautiful, relaxing, quaint, and convenient to the city---only an hour and a half away.

When you rent a house you never really know exactly what you are going to get.  Last year we had a terrible place.  I mean horrible.  I remember going in the house for the first time, kicking our shoes off, and, in feeling the dampness of the carpets, commenting on how nice it was that the owners had them cleaned before our arrival.
No.  We were so naive.  That wasn't the case at all.  The carpets were damp from mold and mildew and years of water damage.  That was just the beginning of our Tour of Disgustingness.  That place was awful.

This year's cottage was the complete opposite.   A beautiful family home with a gorgeous swimming pool, gardens galore, and a block and a half walk to the beach.  The most difficult decision each day was 'beach or pool?'  And... how early can we put the kids to bed?

We played, cooked, read, drank, swam, ate, danced, and enjoyed each other's company.  I was sad to leave and I can't wait to go back.

our cottage 2011

eloise asked me to stop the car and take

this picture as we were leaving

so she would 'never, ever forget it'

transport to the beach

I believe I'm politely saying, 

"honey, don't take that picture, please"

eloise and harvey and a friendly game

of bowling

croquet on the lawn.

just like the kennedys.

eloise and clara during our nightly, post-dinner

dance party

it wouldn't be a cottage vacation without

a trip to Oink's ice cream

ice cream + summer = happiness

plot of happiness

When you take a vacation (more on that later) in the middle of summer you are undoubtedly going to miss some things that go on in the garden back home.  Luckily, upon our return I was pleasantly surprised to find that I hadn't missed too many red tomatoes and to find that my little "plot of happiness" garden was in full bloom.

This year I decided, with Eloise's help, to plant a big ol' crop of zinnias in front of some of our tomatoes.  Zinnias are super easy to grow from seed and we planted about 4 rows of them way back in April.  They love tons of hot sun and attract much needed pollinators to the veggies.  Also, as much as I love to grow and eat tomatoes, they are not the most attractive plants to look at once August rolls around.  I now have a lovely screen of vibrant flowers shielding the tomatoes outside and vases of vibrant flowers covering most of the tabletops inside.

Viva la summer!

so much beautiful color!

my happy view from the kitchen window.

"cue the butterfly!"