willow's birthday party

we spent the afternoon at willow's house for her third birthday party! unfortunately both darran and stacy's cameras broke recently so they asked if we would take some pictures of the birthday girl and her buddies. it was alot of fun having a good excuse to snap away... and that we did. there were ALOT of good photos of all the kiddos! for the sake of time and bandwidth, i only included pics of my own two here. enjoy!

savoring summer

nothing like ice cream with your buddies on these last few days of summer!

HOLIDAY WEEKEND SALE!

the HOLIDAY WEEKEND SALE is on in the shop-- there are lots of great deals, including many new dresses (those rarely go on sale, folks!). go check it out!

Felting with toddlers!

we are signed up for another season of art classes! luckily the day and time work well with naps and preschool and general two-kid craziness, and will serve as a nice afternoon activity on those particularly long days! the first class was a special one, as it was outside at Willow's house instead of at the Art Center. the kids learned how to felt wool! isa really loved this class because it involved playing in soapy water and being outside and going home with a really cool handmade ball! some kids (or moms?) made nests, others made little pouches, too. for her part, sylvi hung out with her friend Alice on the blanket and watched all the big kids running in circles. though i think the days of her being content to sit and watch are coming to an end. after a few minutes she was doing everything she could to make her way to the action!

isa's big girl haircut

sitting up straight like a big girl.

very serious business.

perfectly pink nails.

checking herself out in the mirror.

well, suffice it to say that this "real" haircut went much better than the last one! isa took the whole thing very seriously, and while she did admit that it was "a little scary" afterwards, she was a champ! as promised, she got her finger nails painted and everything. the haircut itself was more of a trim, so there isn't really a new hairstyle to show off or anything, just a very proud three year old with shiny new nail polish!

a baby baby

they say that some kids just gravitate towards baby dolls and others just don't. sylvi is definitely a part of that first group-- the girl just loves babies! these pictures were taken this morning after she got up from her nap. she was happy as a clam to lay on the floor and snuggle her baby for a long while. she talked to it, kissed it, poked it's little eyes and chewed on it's foot. i see more dolls in our future.

on an unrelated note, isa and mommy have a fun date this afternoon! we are going to attempt (again) to get her a real haircut. i have a good feeling about it this time as isa is very excited about going to the "beauty salon" with mommy and getting her hair cut and nails painted. yes, that's my bribery. we have special light pink nail polish for the event! every time we talk about it and i tell her that i will paint her toenails while she sits (still and patient) in the chair, she puts both hands in the air and shouts, "And these too mommy! My fingernails too!" here's hoping it goes well! stay tuned for pictures...

a group effort and new wheels...

sylvi wants nothing more than to stand up and start walking! so we got her a little push walker wagon that she can play and practice on. it came in the mail today and after a half hour of trying to put it together myself (with bad directions, a cranky baby and a meddling toddler), i decided we'd just wait for daddy! at that point it became a group effort, as you can see in the pictures. sylvi LOVES it and is very serious about practicing her skills. now if we can just figure out how to keep isa away from it long enough for her to do so!