Harrison brought home a folder full of work he did at school last week. A couple of his math worksheets made me laugh. Here is what he did when he was asked to show his work:
My parents like to talk about their life-long friends and what they're up to now and how they are connected to people they know now. Usually these people are mentioned by their full married names (In case I knew them before they were married. Which I didn't. Ever.) and some sort of trivia about them is mentioned to try and jog my memory. (Which is never jogged. Ever.) When we'd visit these old friends, they would often tell me that they remembered when I was a baby and they can't believe how tall and unbelievably beautiful I've become (or something like that).
As was inevitable, I have become my parents. My dear friend Rachael (you know, the one I used to teach preschool with?) came to visit her brother and sister-in-law Becca (you know, the one I met through my book club in Chapel Hill?) who happen to live right here in St. Louis! Can you believe it? We sat and chatted while we bounced our babies on our hips and I imagined running into them years from now and telling their kids that I remember seeing them as babies and I can't believe how tall and beautiful they are. They will probably roll their eyes and not care.
Last night Jeff and I went to Forest Park to check out a hot air balloon "glow." We walked and walked and walked (like pioneer children) until we finally got to the top of a large hill and saw this in the distance:
It was so cool! All my dreams came true since I didn't get to see the balloon glow at the Sucky Sandy Hot Air Balloon Festival last year.
Jeff had never seen hot air balloons this close before, so mostly his dreams came true.
I know I'm not completely in focus in this picture, but I really like it.
During the festivities, there were bagpipers. No reason.
After all the balloons were packed away, we all sat on blankets and watched five minutes of fireworks.
And then we made out, or something. Good times.This morning I took Chloe and Miles to the Missouri Botannical Gardens. Chloe wanted to be fancy today so as to spread joy to the commoners.
Miles made airplane noises the whole time. I think he was making fun of her.
Believe it or not, there are only so many pictures I can take of my darling family. So I asked my friend Beth if I could take pictures of her darling family. 
It was harder than I had anticipated. Apparently not all children are used to having a camera in their face all the time. Most of my shots of the oldest boy turned out like this:
In exchange, she gave me an old cedar chest that was taking up space in her home. 
I decided it was the perfect place for our Rock Band instruments. So, naturally, I spraypainted it and replaced our old system:
With this:
(I was going to post this on the Friday Sew'n Tell blog, Allyn. Then I remembered that it's technically not Friday, anymore, and I didn't sew anything. But whatever, dude. Project done!)Chloe recently developed a habit of chewing on her hair. It's gross. It makes her hair stink and it's much harder to comb. I told her that if she didn't stop, I would cut off her hair. I guess she thought I was a liar.
I am not a liar.
The chair is the new Naughty Chair (Jeff says it's appropriately painted Carolina Blue) and the cabinet came with a nursery set I got from Craigslist. I'm so sad I didn't take "before" pictures of it! It used to be a vanilla color with silver knobs and a couple of crazy "Keep Out, Baby!" contraptions on the front. I spray painted it, added wooden knobs, and distressed it. It's my new favorite piece of furniture. 
Harrison continues to delight us with his great ideas. On Sunday the kids wanted to make cookies, but we didn't have any brown sugar. Harrison suggested he run to the neighbor's house and ask for some. He did and as we were finishing up the dough, he said we ought to thank the neighbors by taking them some of the cookies. Then he thought that maybe our other neighbors would be sad that they didn't have cookies. And that's how we ended up making cookies for all of our neighbors. 
Chloe loves spending the day with Mommy and Miles. Or maybe she doesn't. I can't really tell. Yesterday she was stung by a hornet. She took it pretty well. Later she told me "If you're being stung by a bug, you're not having fun." She turns everything from batteries to feathers into her special friends. I should probably get her some real friends. 
Jeff loves his new job. I love that he's home in time for dinner. He was even able to go to Open House at Harrison's school. Jeff says the pictures of Harrison's teacher don't do her justice. "She's really pretty," says Mister Never Going to Harrison's School Again.
Miles cries. And his poop stinks. And I think he hates puppies.
(Happy now, Jeff?) 
