mosquito summer

poor pickle. his first summer is full of mosquitoes.

this time last year, he was in my belly, bouncing around, oblivious to the fact that his poor mama was suffering through the hottest summer on record. then, not only did pickle wait past his due date for the official beginning of fall, he decided to make his appearance on the morning the heat broke into a cool, crisp perfect day. thanks, guy.

now he is witnessing record amounts of rain, the coolest july ever and the attack of the mean mosquitoes that come with the dampness. the mosquitoes don't bother the rest of us for some reason, but they love the tasty baby man.

clara's cabinet of curiosities

for about a year, clara has been collecting things that she finds on her walks to and from school. a few weeks ago, she chose her favorite items from the collection and arranged them in a shadow box. instant wunderkammer. the best feature is the phonetically spelled labels for "butterfly, robin egg, cicada, seed pod, leaf, acorn, flowers, pomegranate, seed pod."

tree house

that's our house, barely peeking out of the pecan trees. sadly, this will probably be the last summer our house will look this way. the lots next door, which have been in a family estate since the 1930s, are for sale and will surely be developed very soon.

6th birthday party: mommy's favorite moment

daddy's pre-film powerpoint presentation.

for 5- and 6-year-olds.

***giggles***

6th birthday party: celebrate!!!

as costumed guests arrived, they went to work decorating their hollywood stars with glitter, spangles, pom poms, googly eyes, feathers and origami papers. then they lined up at the concession stand for popcorn and lemonade and were ushered into clara's movie palace for a screening of the general, featuring buster keaton. it was a huge hit with the 5-6 crowd, even though it required full-time question answering, courtesy of rodney. after the movie it was snacktime, followed by the present-opening frenzy. it was a great success of a party and fun was had by all.

6th birthday party: anticipation

time goes by very slowly when you're six, it's your birthday, your parents have turned one room into a movie theater, another room into a bakery filled with pink cupcakes and sugar cookies, there are craft projects covering the floor, and YOUR FRIENDS WILL ARRIVE ANY SECOND TO BEGIN THE FESTIVITIES.

summer crafts

teaching clara crafts from my childhood is the easy part of mommy's summer craft camp. keeping pickle from eating the supplies is the big challenge.

mac geek baby monitor

don't worry, this only happened one time, when atticus fell asleep in the middle of the bed and i needed to be in the kitchen.

pretty geeky, eh?

Happy Fourth

IMG_5368.JPG, originally uploaded by gibbsie.

We had a splendid Fourth of July, culminating with sparklers in the backyard, which Clara loved. The best thing about the Fourth for her is it's her birthday eve. That's right: tomorrow Clara will turn six! I can't believe it, and neither can she. All week she's moped, saying, "I'm not ready to be six. It feels like I just turned five yesterday." You're telling me?!

Little Klaus Nomi

Little Klaus Nomi, originally uploaded by gibbsie.

Sometimes (heck, most of the time) Pickle lets loose. In addition to his killer Klaus Nomi hair-do, the little man gives a glimpse into his true self. Rock on, Atticus!