Thursday, August 23, 2007

And I wondered what on earth we were going to do today







Off to ride bikes. I think Claire Helen would sleep on her new bike (a hand me down from a cousin) if she could.

Sunday, August 19, 2007


Claire Helen and Claire Helen's fuzzy mommy in a bouncy house at a neighbor's birthday party earlier today(a buddy who was at creative arts camp with her a couple weeks ago, and who yells from her backyard to ours to see if Claire Helen and Simon are available to play. Good fun.) . You want to be all curmudgeonly and, "Oh, what ever happened to pin the tail on the donkey and a sheet cake?" but MAN that was fun. Claire Helen and Simon were in there for hours, bouncing higher and higher and higher, too out of breath to laugh. You can't quite tell from the angle, but she's about 2 feet in the air in that picture, grinning like a fool.

Claire Helen's birthday party, lo these many months ago. Don't try anything stupid, lady. My muffin. Arrrr.

Blowing out the candle on her cupcake tower/cake. She was VERY concerned about getting that top one up there.

Last night we hosted Mat's cousin's family overnight for the second weekend in a row. The kids are now convinced that's what happens on weekends. They're going to be mighty disappointed next Saturday, with an empty top bunk and only Mom and Dad to chase around.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Wow, it’s been a busy couple of months. We’ve been flying all around the country, cousin hopping, hosting people here, and generally powering through the summer. It’s been great, but we’re glad to be at home for a month before our big (National Lampoon’s) Great Britain Vacation.

What prompted me to sit down and write today is fear that I will someday forget Sumya, Claire Helen’s imaginary friend. She’s always been an imaginary friend sort of kid, but in the last month “Sumya” has really become the archetypal imaginary sidekick you always hear about. She in present at every interaction, and even gets the blame for transgressions I’m fairly certain were not her fault (unless you know of a lot of gnome-fairies who can draw on walls).

Sumya, who is apparently half gnome half fairy, has purple and green hair, wears purple and green clothes, and used to live in a purple house, but now lives in a green house. She has a baby brother and sister named Funny and Binty. She lives in the forest and has a birthday every single day, but doesn’t yet know how to blow out birthday candles. She’s 4 feet tall and sleeps underwater. Her mama doesn’t appear to be very on the ball, letting her baby brother “take her ball when she was still using it” and “not letting her play big kid games because she said they were grown up games but they weren’t.” Other than that glaring difference (ahem), she is apparently much like Claire Helen and Simon’s mommy. Sumya attends Claire Helen’s preschool, as well as another preschool where she learns French and eats cookies. She eats at a table in our living room, under the rug.

Pretty neat, eh?