Good times

We spent what seemed like a good portion of the weekend at Marissa (Kris's sister) & Gary's new house. They now have a pool, so I think we'll be spending a lot of time over there, at least until the end of the summer. Good thing for them that summer's almost over, so hopefully they won't get sick of us. We all had a great time, especially Nora. Spending time with Dominic (Marissa's son, whom Nora adores), swimming, playing with their dart game-- all add up to FUN for Nora.



Also, we're excited (and a bit nervous) that we get our new windows on Friday. I'm anxious about the possible mess (dust...possible lead paint??? I need to do some research on how to clean up) and a little sad about losing the old windows, but overall it will be good as long as everything goes smoothly. I even found some new homes for the old windows. Several people at work have asked for some for decorating projects. I was originally worried about finding homes for the 15 or so panes that have the original glass, but those are all spoken for, as well as about 15 of the old frames with newer glass. Wish I'd thought to charge a couple dollars each!

1st Birthday!

Yesterday was Charlotte's first birthday and we went to Kris's parents for dinner to celebrate. She got a TON of clothes and some toys that she just loves. Doesn't it look like she's amazed at all the cool stuff?



Charlotte also discovered a new place to sit-- the bottom of a shelf in Grandma & Grandpa's sunporch. She was on and off of it more times than I can count:


We all had a blast.


I got a bunch of great photos, but don't want to post them all here. So click on one of the above photos and then on "joannac5950's Photo Stream" to see more (birthday pics are in the "July 07" set, but feel free to look around).

Jamaican Jam

Have I said before that I love being within walking distance of downtown LS? We walked to the Jamaican Jam reggae festival last night and Nora had a blast playing in the squirty things (with colored lights, no lesss) that they have in front of city hall. Who knew they had those? If we had, she'd have worn her swimsuit. The city hall is a nice place to have these kinds of things because people can sit on the steps (there are many) AND in the street. So we're thinking they'll start to have these kinds of events in front of city hall, instead of on Main where they usually have them. (Some of the downtown streets are under constructions right now.) This is unfortunate for us, because it makes for a longer walk, and I'm sure the businesses on Main are going to miss out on some profits. In any case, we may have Nora wear her swimsuit next time. Luckily, she has the best dad in the world-- Kris took his shirt off so Nora could take her wet clothes off and wear his shirt home. Walking shirtless through downtown during an event was probably not at the top of his list of things he'd like to do someday, but he did it anyway. Such a good dad.

Ahh... Love

Background: A couple of months ago, we bought a Dyson. I totally love it and raved about it for weeks. (Hey, our other vacuum was 10 years old. A new one was definitely reason to celebrate...Can you believe I'm old enough to have such a grown-up thing for 10 years? I can't.) I even took to using it as a verb, as in "I'm going to Dyson."

It was obvious that Nora had picked up on my enthusiasm for the Dyson when she told me "I gave that to Charlotte. It was on the floor, but it was clean because you just Dysoned." And last night when we were eating our (deliciously addictive) burrito bowls from Chipotle, Kris asked Nora how she liked her burrito bowl. Nora replied "I love it as much as Mommy loves her Dyson." I kid you not.

Hippo teeth

I just HAD to capture Charlotte's hippo teeth. Nora had the same adorable gap in between her first 2 uppers. But Nora's showed every time she smiled. Charlotte's only show if you're looking up at her or she's lying down. Simply adorable, if I do say so myself.
This one is a little better shot of the teeth:


Not much news to share today. We're all (finally!) well. Knock on wood. At least one member of our family was sick with stomach flu or fever/sore throat every day for the last 2 weeks. Finally on Thursday we were all well! Hooray!