Owls, Mushrooms and Snails, Oh My!

For many, many, MANY years I've wanted to get into pottery. I've never done it. But I still want to, and if I ever do, I'm going to make a pair of salt & pepper shakers that look like mushrooms.

Here's a picture from the party over the weekend (more to come on that in a minute) in which I'm wearing that green sweater I put the buttons on. Awhile back a girl I went to highschool with posted on facebook that she's having a little girl and is thinking of how to decorate the nursery. She got lots of suggestions and mine was "Owls and hedgehogs in pinks, greens and browns!" It's not an incredibly original idea but a cute one and it made me want to give the girls their own room just so I can decorate it that way. I would of course also have possums in there... in fact, I would make everything in their room from various prints of the "Frolic" line that their little kitchen aprons and Pink-Pink's blanket is made of. I freaking love possums. I think they are so, so cute.

On Saturday morning the girls and I went yard saling. We weren't going to, but we'd had a nice morning already by the time Martin left for his interview for TEMA and the girls were happy, so I went for it. We walked up to Highland Park for their big neighborhood garage sale day. It was pretty much a big bummer. Anja got a cute little rabbit for fifty cents, but other than that, it was a bust. On the way home, going down 6th street, Greta screamed pretty much the whole time. She was so tired she didn't know what she wanted.... she didn't want to walk, she didn't want to ride, she didn't want me to carry her, and I tried everything but nothing kept her from screaming her little head off. About halfway down the hill we came to a house where a VERY OLD MAN was doing yardwork. I mean, this guy was at least a hundred years old, and probably two hundred. So we come up to his yard and he looks at me with this sad face and says, "Madam, do you need some help?" Luckily, giving Greta my cell phone kept her mostly quiet for the rest of the way, and then we stopped shortly at Martin's mom's house and visited for awhile with everyone there (family and friends) before making our way down to the Farmers Market to meet up with Martin. We saw a few friends there too, and it was a nice day to be out.

After the yard sales and the Farmers Market we drove up to the river for our nephew PeterXavier's birthday party. He turned FOUR on Sunday. I can't believe that. Unfortnately, I didn't get many good pictures. (Martin and I are tentatively planning to buy a nice camera for Christmas as our Christmas present to each other... we would both benefit from it. He used to be pretty into photography and I have one of his photos framed in our living room. Our little 5-year-old Coolpix doesn't quite cut it anymore though for more than regular snapshots.) The day included LOTS OF FOOD as it always does, and lots of family.

Greta really enjoyed both the green beans and the cake. Here she is with some cake that may or may not be hers. Eating with Greta requires great caution... she will take any food she sees no matter who it belongs to. Everybody watching the frisbee match going on in the yard between Uncle Morton and Christopher.

Sunday was yardwork day. Martin worked hard all day and DID get a lot done, even if the most of it was moving only one of the giant vegetable boxes over from the neighbors yard. But he also cleared brush (goodbye, Jungle!) and mowed the lawn. It was suppoed to rain all day and didn't, which was a good surprise. Anja and I played in the garden for awhile, pulling weeds and planting basil... today we will plant our two tomato plants and two pepper plants, and maybe if we have access to the car we will get some seeds. We've decided to afterall plant some seeds, even though we're a little late. We'll just do it and hope for the best with a later harvest.

Anyone who has been reading this blog knows that I am pretty dead set against the idea of having a boy baby. EVER. After my two delightful daughters, the idea of a little boy and what to do with them and how to channel all their boy engergies TERRIFIES me. Obviously, I won't send him back if I ever do get a little boy, but if I had a choice I would gladly take many many girls. But yesterday I realized that it might be nice for Martin to have a boy--even though he also says he'd be ridiculously happy just to have daughters. After dinner last night it was still barely 6:00--two hours before bedtime. We wondered aloud what to do to keep the girls happy until that time, and Martin suggested he take Anja fishing! So he loaded his tackle box and fishing pole and Greta and I took her pink stroller to walk around the pond and the four of us drove up to Armstrong Park. Such a good idea--Martin cut up some old turkey we had for bait and had everything ready to go for them... but Anja was more interested in frolicking through the grass, singing and picking flowers. Martin ended up fishing by himself (and not catching anything but watching lots of little fishies nibble his bait away) while the girls and I sloooooowwwly made our way around the pond. It was a very fun time, but I felt kind of bad for Martin and sort of, for the first time, hoped that *maybe* he'll get himself a little boy someday. Maybe.