You're so Vain..you probably think this song is about you...

Esther made this "parrot" last week. I asked who she was making it for. Her response..

"...I am going to keep it for myself, I only give the bad ones away to people..."

Who me - really, little ol' me is FOUR?...

..well, not really yet...but soon. Due to scheduling conflicts with the launch of Matilda Jane's Spring season, we decided to pretend your birthday was earlier this year.

We would have been just fine with the ruse if Eloise would not have learned how to read the calendar and figure out that it really was not your birthday on Sunday. Darn Kindergarten.


So I am so sorry that as you now are shouting triumphantly "I'm 4, I'm 4, I'm really 4" that your bubble is burst as Eloise yells back "no you are NOT, you are NOT 4 yet...Mommy is just pretending..." You will forgive me one day, right?


Anyway, so Happy Early Birthday sweet girl - I know you enjoyed your pseudo party with your pseudo friends, eating your pseudo cake and opening your pseudo presents...at your first real birthday party with your friends.


..even "if" it wasn't really your birthday, I think everyone had a really good time...who wouldn't - jumping, running, swinging, being thrown into a pit of foam. We live for this stuff.


..and really who wouldn't love a cake adorned with resurrected Dorothy the Dinosaur. Yes, after spending $20 for a custom made marzipan Dorothy last year...she now retreats to our freezer awaiting her yearly resurrection upon Esther's cake until her obsession with Dorothy and my secret love for Anthony the blue Wiggle subsides.

..and don't worry, I will give you even more hugs and kisses on your real birthday...but in the meantime, you can still say and think you are FOUR, you deserve it.

xoxo,t

Warning - boring shopping post ahead...

Spring came to our door yesterday, in the form of a gray and nondescript package from overseas. "Must be clothes for the girls" Jed said as he tossed it across the room at me with a bit of disgust. Yes, Spring clothing is arriving almost daily now. Giving me fits of happiness whilst giving Jed pains of bank account hemorrhaging. Such is life keeping his lovely, stay at home, pregnant wife happy. I am just doing my best to stimulate the economy.

The package that came yesterday came from Joules in the UK. This is only our second season buying Joules, and after the reactions yesterday, it won't be our last. You can visit their site here and shop for yourself! The mommy clothing is just as exquisite and cheap in my eyes. ;)

Now, we receive many(tons) of packages at our home, and unfortunately most of the time the girls just peak, shrug their shoulders and go back to whatever they were doing before mail-time. If I want them to try something on, I now have to physically pin them down, strip them down, wipe the tears away and give them a bag of M&M's.

Joules receives a different reaction - both packages that arrived this season were greeted with ooohs and aaahs and stripping in front of me to desperately try on their new digs. ..and the fight is getting it off of them after I have taken a few pictures. They love the stuff - justifying more purchases I believe.

What I like about Joules - it is so well made, it is relatively(in my world) affordable, it is unique, it is soft and comfy on their skin, the fit is incredible - I have a VERY hard time finding clothes to fit 34 lbs 49" Eloise and Joules is sweet perfection on her, it is cute and most of all - my girls LOVE it.

...but best of all right now with the dollar strengthening right now, even with a bit of a charge for overseas postage, it is now CHEAPER to shop in the UK and Europe than in the U.S.A for boutique clothing. Okay, maybe this doesn't help our economy...but when I still want to feed my addiction for fine clothing for my girls, it sure stretches my clothing budget by a lot. I am married to a Republican after all.

Happy Shopping!
xoxo,t

How I see my Sister...

Typically, this is how Esther sees her sweet sister Eloise. She looks up to her, gazes lovingly into her eyes, and watches her with wonder and delight.

But when asked to draw a picture of her big sister - Esther must see Eloise from the eyes of fear...her usual perspective...like when she gets caught playing with one of Eloise's most prized possessions and Eloise attacks - coming at her with crazy curls flying, eyes big, mouth open and screaming, with arms outstretched to nab her prey.

The likeness is uncanny.

xoxo,t

Lordy, Lordy...the Splen Ten is 40...

The Splen Ten is turning 40 this year. Most of us have already passed that milestone. We are throwing a party for ourselves this June to celebrate our birthdays. Fitting isn't it that a group who named themselves the SPLEN TEN are now throwing a party for THEMSELVES.

Yes, in high school - there was a group on 10 of us popular girls who evidently thought we were fabulous and deserved a name. Why does this crack me up now? We were like a girl-gang..but wore designer dresses, lip gloss and really big hair. Of course, we did like our Virginia Slims..so maybe that is what made our gang so cool at the time.

Our day jobs were to be the popular girls, the cheerleaders, on the National Honor Society and top of our class, in the French Club, and well to wear our hair as big as possible and wear blue eye shadow. ..but at night we cruised Broad for older boys, drank Boonesfarm, smoked Virginia Slims and dreamed about getting out of that small Indiana town and fast. I think just about every John Mellencamp song was written for our teenage experience. Our theme songs for sure.

Of course, we blame Cindi Lauper and Madonna for the obscene use of Aqua Net. Looking at those pictures above, we must have used 12 cans between us all that day. Also looking at the picture above, I am assuming it was MY mother taking the bottom picture as I am giving her a nasty look - that look was pretty much plastered on my face throughout my Senior year as I awaited getting on that Greyhound bus the day after High School graduation to escape that Small Town existence. I never looked back.

Now here I am some 22 years later - no big bangs, no blue eye shadow, no Virginia Slims, and much better taste in wine, riding that Greyhound(Airplane 1st class) back to Indiana to reminisce about the good times, the bad times and just to have some crazy fun with my best girlfriends - most of which I haven't seen in 22 years. I just hope that I am not the only pregnant one. That would be like so not cool.

xoxo, t.

I am so easy...

Earlier this week, a box arrived postmarked from Arizona. Sent Priority, marked fragile, heavy and smelled quite fantastic.

Upon opening the box, yellow and orange loveliness and the aroma of citrus filled my house.

Now for the past four days, I have been arranging them and rearranging them, smelling them, sleeping with them, and of course eating them - savoring them and occasionally sharing them.

Thanks, Mom...for picking this lovely fruit, sharing it will us and bringing some sunshine into the cold and gray Minnesota Winter days.

Note to all people living in places where citrus is available to you at anytime, especially in the Winter - Pick Some, box them up and ship to ANY person - really, ANY person who lives in Minnesota during the Wintertime. It is really the most glorious gift I have EVER received.
xoxo,t