Waiting for Picasso

I was at a friend's house the other day for the first time.  It seemed like every room was adorned with at least one framed piece of her children's artwork.  Nicely framed, at that.  The artwork was the perfect personalization to the home.  I loved it.

Patiently, patiently.  There's a corner in the family room waiting to be filled with W's masterpieces just like this:

{via The Violet Hours}

Or perhaps something more organized, like this:  

{via Blonde Designs}

Teaching Moments

Headed to Girls' Camp this morning
to teach teenage girls life skills,
stuff they can't learn in civilization,
and the like.

{thank you Clayton/Woodsmill gas station for today's object lesson}

Have a good week!

I Want This

How amazing is that sofa?

{Karen Barlow via d*s}

Swagger

A must watch. This is amazing.

What We Learned Today

Katie:  Do not fill bathtub with any more water than absolutely necessary.

Winston:  For best results, shake head while flailing arms to maximize amount of water thrown from tub to floor/mom/walls/towels/clothing/etc.


Katie:  Always dress child in onesie before putting to nap/bed.

Winston:  Running laps around the crib in the nude is easy.  Just pull those two little velcro-ish straps and you're ready to go.

{Note:  To prevent future humiliation/blackmail to the little one, no photos were included in today's post, though such evidence does exist.}

What a Nice Surprise

A belated Mother's Day surprise since I wasn't home for the big day myself.
What started without a single bloom has blossomed beautifully.
Thanks Davey.

Home Again, Home Again

***This post has taken me entirely too long to finally get up here.  Apologies.***

It was so nice having more than just a quick weekend or holiday visit to spend some time at home with my family.  We arrived early Saturday morning.  Winston desperately needed a nap, so my dad volunteered to stay home with him while we went to lunch.  When we arrived home, we learned W was introduced to Poppy's way of life right away.

Yes, that's W zipped into my dad's jacket riding around on the lawn mower.  Awesome.  My dad said W didn't take much of a nap, and since he needed to get the lawn mowed, he naturally took his grandson out to help.  W didn't last long.  The hum of the lawn mower put him right to sleep in is little fleece-zipped cocoon.  I think he rather enjoyed himself.  

What else did we do?  

Visited the dinosaur park.  

W and Lizzy faced off on horse-/bronco-back.  

We had a campfire.  

W got really good at walking/running.  

We played with Norma, my little brother's dog.  Norma is a pit/heeler puppy that barrels through the house and licks everything she sees.  She is so cute, and she loved W.  Norma would get W any chance she could, and W smiled the whole time.  

And W learned how to use a drinking fountain.  I always grew up with a drinking fountain in my house. Perhaps my mom got tired of cleaning 10,000 cups a day, so a fountain was installed.  I never thought it unique until high school or college and people thought it was so funny (perhaps even odd) that we had such a thing.  W thought it was pretty amazing, too.  We did a lot of this.

And, the big highlight, Megan surprised everyone and showed up unannounced.  Hooray!  I love being with my sisters.  And W really liked having a stair-climbing partner to play with, too.  

Thanks for such a fun trip!