Inspection

Little lovey

Craft time

Afternoons go so much more smoothly if we have some little project. I cut a door and a window into an OJ bottle with a box cutter and after some creative interior and exterior decorating by Caroline - voila! - instant fairy house. We went to Michael's and picked out some tiny wooden things to make the fairies' abode a bit more comfy. I got some peg dolls and fashioned some wings out of pipe cleaners and faces with markers.

The great thing about this project is that it has entertained her for hours. I had been looking at fairy dolls at toy stores for around $10. This entire setup probably cost me $10 and she loves it! A toy store doll would have been boring after a day, I'm certain. This homemade version has inspired a whole lot of imaginary play, flitting about, and pixie-dust sprinkling. Happy Caroline = Happy Mama!

More visitors

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Get your own

Emily and Jonathan came to visit us last weekend. Saturday morning was yucky and rainy, so we waited until the afternoon to head downtown. We went to the Contemporary Art Center. It was built by a famous architect, so Emily and Jonathan really wanted to see it. It's also the home to the Unmuseum. Caroline had a blast exploring and touching and doing. I think the adults enjoyed it a little bit, too!

It's really easy to entertain two architects for an afternoon. We just hopped in the car and took them by all the neat and famous buildings in town. :-) There are quite a few, especially on the University of Cincinnati campus.

After the driving tour, we headed down to Newport and went to the Hofbrauhaus. It was very fun. Caroline is still doing the chicken dance.

Sunday, we had waffles at the Coffee Emporium - about 2 blocks away from our house. That's dangerous. Those waffles were delicious! Then we took Caroline to the park. Emily must have pushed Caroline in the swing for 30 minutes. Kevin swung the baby right to sleep. With all the children in expert hands, I really wished I had brought a book along with me.

It was another great weekend entertaining guests!

4 months

I just don't have words to express how incredibly blessed the three of us feel to have this little one as a part of our family. She is so amazing and we praise God for her life!

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
Psalm 103:1-2

Stats: 11 pounds, 11 ounces; 23.5 inches long

Play dough

Homemade play dough inspired an afternoon of creating.

Mommy made a bunny.

It was a very fun activity!

Visitors

We had a special set of visitors last week - the Halford girls! We loved having our friends here!

Story time

Slumber party!

The Dales visit

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Get your own

My family came to Cincinnati and it was a lovely visit. We went to the Zoo on Saturday. It's a really nice zoo and we enjoyed so many of the exhibits - the gorillas, the manatees, the baby tigers. We wanted to eat at the Hofbrauhaus Saturday night, but the wait was too long. So we wound up having a good time at Johnny Rocket's instead. I was a little disappointed, but as my mom reminded me, it's really just about having a good time together no matter where you are! And we certainly had a good time all weekend long!

Park

Home in Cincinnati

Here we are! The move went well, but we could have done without a bum U-Haul, a shared illness, and plumbing problems. We think our new home is very nice. We are very fortunate to have found such a well-kept rental home. I think we were able to adjust quickly because it's very similar to our Midtown Memphis house.

Our living room

The girls' rooms are upstairs with a bath between them. Caroline wants to show you her room.


She has a huge closet for an overabundance of toys. Closets are a novelty for us. We had one real clothes closet in Midtown. Now we have 3!


Helen's room needs some work. She's still Mommy and Daddy's roommate, so it's a low-priority room. I'll get some better pictures of it later.

This little area at the base of the stairs is our "playroom." The window seat opens up for storage. I'm thinking I need to make some pillows for it...

Downstairs master bath

Our bed really isn't this shiny. The flash must have been working overtime.

Dining area

Here I am, probably on my way to do something wifely.

We have a lot more counterspace in this kitchen, but we miss our big pantry!

The basement isn't much to look at, but it's a fantastic multipurpose room - laundry/ironing areas, a sewing/craft area, an extra refrigerator (Kevin's much-coveted "beer fridge" :-) ), a computer workstation, a TV/play area, tool storage, and plenty of room for Caroline to have wheely bee and tricycle races. It's a really great space.

Yay...all of my sewing things! I've been using this area quite a bit already. I picked up about 6 new projects to work on before we left Memphis. I feel very lucky that we had enough room for me to bring all of my fabrics and ribbons and notions.

Our backyard is lovely. It's shady and has a great deck.

Guard dog - looking for squirrels, I'm sure.



Our neighborhood is nice. There are a few young families, but we haven't made any playmates yet. We can walk to a downtown-type square with shopping and dining. One of our next door neighbors is the sweetest lady - 82 years young and does all her own gardening! It's an amazing yard and she has already been very generous in sharing her flowers with us.

Everything we need is so close by. Caroline's school is about 1 minute away from the house. It will literally take me longer to load the kids in the car than it will to drive there. I'm sure Helen and I will be doing some strolling to drop her off and pick her up.

Our adventures here in Queen City are off to a wonderful beginning! We're looking forward to this year!

Independence Day

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Get your own

About a week before the 4th, I bought tickets to the Cincinnati Pops concert on the river. I purchased lawn tickets and had grand visions of lolling around on a picnic blanket, enjoying the music. No one told me to plan on rain and temperatures in the 60s on the 4th! We decided early in the day to upgrade our tickets to pavillion seats. We were still able to make it a very enjoyable evening. Caroline got a tattoo at the kids' station - very exciting. Caroline really enjoyed the music, but was scared to death of the fireworks (even though she told me as she was headed up for bed, "Mommy, I really liked the fireworks!"). Helen was good and relaxed in the sling for most of the evening. I don't think she fussed once - not even during the fireworks. It turned out to be a fun evening and I'm sure we'll always remember it!

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