She decided to help him feel a little more natural for the camera.  These were taken the day before Mr. SP’s birthday to document his last day of being six.  These two are quite something, separate and together.

I was doing the laundry.  My sidekick of the smallest variety went missing.  I didn’t notice for a bit, and when I did notice I had just a few things left in my basket to finish so I folded a little more quickly.  Suddenly YaYa called from downstairs, and I…

I have been looking for a working old manual typewriter for a long, long time.  In fact, I wanted very much to give The Banana an old typewriter for Christmas last year, but the only old manual typewriters we could find were far away, and expensive to ship. I knew…

Last Wednesday we took a quick walk to one of the cemeteries near our house to blow off the cooped up stink.  There is a big rock that The Banana and Mr. SP love to climb up in one of the cemeteries, and while they were climbing, Mr. Trouble on…

Even though I so do not enjoy cooking, I managed to pull together a roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, Grandma Edna Cranberries, rosemary bread, and the infamous Mason/Dietrich traditional raspberry rice pudding.  I cooked all this while avoiding a toddler who spent the morning grabbing things off counters that…

Mr. SP was very skeptical about sharing a birthday with the Thanksgiving holiday, but in the end, it worked out fine to share his special day with our low-key Thanksgiving celebration.  The morning started out with his sisters jumping into bed with him and goofing around, and then bit by…

We have just enough snow to cover the ground white.  The Banana was the most excited about it, and she convinced Mr. SP to go out and play in it with her.  Of course Mr. Trouble on Feet wanted to be included too, so out we went. I have wanted…

It seems the stomach flu likes to find our house just in time for Thanksgiving.  I have spent several Thanksgiving holidays with some of the most miserable cases of stomach flu I’ve ever experienced since I’ve been married.  It’s looking a little precarious again this year. Mr. SP was the…

This has been our first week of weather that is cold enough to warrant some extended bundling to go outside.  We have been outside, but for shorter periods of time than we’ve been used to and because the sun sets so much earlier now, we are left with extended hours…

Have I told you HOW much I LOVE it when my toddlers, who just aren’t really exposed to remote controls very much, mistake those flat things with oodles of buttons for a telephone?  It is truly endearing.