The Dress

I mentioned to my dear husband that I was going to have to take the girls shopping for a few new pairs of warm pants for winter. A guilty look suddenly came over his face. "What???" I ask. And he confesses, "I took Caitlin shopping for a Christmas dress yesterday." More guilty looks. "It is polyester." He knows I hate polyester. "Caitlin loves it."

When I saw the dress, I knew what he meant. Caitlin had to have picked out this dress. It was red with puffed sleeves and the skirt was ruffled and embroidered to within an inch of its life. And it had crinoline underneath. And, the coupe de grace, it had a matching doll's dress. OMG. It is a polyester nightmare to be sure, but it is Caitlin's polyester nightmare. And she looks like a princess in it.

I guess it could be worse. It could be dry-clean only.

Perfect Day

Today was about as perfect as a day could get. We started by going to the Baltimore Farmers Market and getting the most AMAZING apples. We picked up some honeycrisps that were just slightly smaller than Caitlin's head and, oh, so sweet and tasty. We got wonderful fresh veggies including shallots, garlic, broccoli, chard, as well as eggs and some meats for Jeff. Then we had breakfast at the City Cafe. Coconut lattes are the best way to start the day. After we unpacked all the food, we went on a family bike ride to Lake Elkhorn. We stopped at the Sewell's Orchard Fall Festival and did the moonbounce. Then, to top it all off, Amanda came over to babysit while Jeff and I finally had a calm and relaxing meal at Le Bistro Blanc where everything was quite literally wonderful. Ok, can we do this day over and over again?

Smiley Pancakes

Caitlin was helping me make pancakes this morning. She was in charge of chocolate chip distribution. Her first few pancakes were very liberally sprinkled, but then she made one that touched my heart. She made a smiley face pancake, because I sometimes make smiley faces for her and Gwen. I can't help but think that one day she'll be making smiley face pancakes for her own little girls because that the way her mommy did it when she was little.

True story: Last night Jeff and I were having dinner when we were greeted by the restaurant owner. After he left I told Jeff that I think he owns the incredible motorcycle we saw out front. I joked with him, "I can just tell, I'm psychic." Jeff put his fingers to his head and said "OK, what number am I thinking of?" and I immediately answered, "pi". The look on his face froze, except for his eyes which stared at me shocked. Yep, I guessed right. I'm not really psychic, I just know my husband really, really well.

No Shopping Challenge

I have decided to give myself a challenge. No clothes/shoes/accessory shopping for one whole year. I told my husband about this and, after he quite laughing (and that took a while), he asked what he should give up. Well, my jaw practically hit the floor. Usually, this sort of thing is not my husband's cup of tea. Even better was the challenge he came up with. He is going to give up take-out containers. Naturally, we completely forgot when we went out to dinner tonight. So, we decided the terms would be this: He get three free passes just to get in the swing of things. Then, for every takeout container that he gets, he pays a $5 penalty to the Sierra Club. Sometimes, I just think my husband is the coolest.

There's Food in My Dirt

Dinner tonight is Amy's cheese pizza with carrots and beets straight from our garden. Time from garden to table - less than 1 hour.

Tally-ho

We took the Blueberry girls to the Renaissance Festival today. I am kind of in a state of shock at how much my delicate, petite, fairy-princess of a six-year-old loved the sword fighting. She liked it; she really, really liked it. Nevermind that the broadswords probably weigh as much as she does. Her eyes lit up and she laughed and laughed and clapped and clapped. She refused to try any other amusements until the show was completely over. I sincerely pray she didn't understand a word of the banter between duels, as it would make a sailor-on-leave-after-a-three-year-tour-of-duty blush up to the tips of his ears. Unfortunately, she was able to quote some of it later so I may be getting a call from the teacher after school tomorrow.