Wow. Grampa can draw a serious giraffe.
I'll be that good at drawing someday.

This is our "Wow, that mommy is really mad at that little boy" face.

And this is my "I really love when Grammy
comes to visit!" face.

If you go up these stairs, you arrive at the
top of the best invention ever: the slide.

Winona calls upon higher powers to see her through this safely,
while Jezebel impatiently pushes her onward.

Fun!

Super fun!

Morning milk and jam. Ha!

I'm playing soccer with my friend Nora, and about 30 other 3,4 and 5 year olds. This is now my third year with this clinic and I'm getting pretty good. Meaning, I don't just sit and make daisy chains, anymore.

 Nope, I use my game face. Bring it.

To celebrate the Equinox, Mom and Dad packed us up in the car right about the time they usually pack us off to bed and drove us out to a field in an arboretum where other lucky souls who got to stay up past their bedtimes gathered around a gorgeous stone circle and campfire under the full moon to play drums, share food and sing pretty songs.

Granted, I was slightly distracted by my wet feet and my exhaustion, however, I'm not quite bought into Mom and Dad's assertion that this is better than Christmas. But, as you'll see in this picture, I am being a good sport. (And truth be told, I did say soon after this shot, "This is the best time I've had with my family!" My feet weren't wet, yet.)

The kids are in bed so it's too late for pictures. But we have some breaking news here at Chez Grossman: Winnie has a loose tooth. She and Mike were at a party tonight (celebrating someone's abundant harvest-turned-salsa, which had to be eaten by friends and neighbors lest it go bad)--Winnie was eating corn on the cob (with salsa) when she "felt something weird in her tooth." Yup, lower front right tooth is loose.

Tonight's bedtime story was about The Happy Little Girl and the Tooth Fairy. There's a part of me that feels a little weird about these stories of jolly men coming down chimneys and fairies leaving surprises (isn't this just lying tied up in a pretty package?), but most of me remembers how excruciatingly exciting it was to think about the tooth under the pillow and what it would be exchanged for in the night. So, now she wiggles her tooth and feels all grown up, and I head to my sewing machine to make a little tooth pillow... for the fairy to easily find the tooth, of course.

Learning how to climb up on chairs is a skill that should not be underestimated. Whole worlds open up to the blessed few who can access table tops.

Mom tells me to "Sit Down," but let's get real. How am I supposed to get any perspective on my artwork from here?

Today, I helped Mom make cookies. Usually this means that I come up with a great idea, i.e. "let's make cookies!" and then stick around long enough to be sure it will actually happen before consuming myself in something more fun. Today, I did it all: made sure all the ingredients were on the counter. Measured everything, broke the egg, poured everything into the bowl, mixed the batter (and later "folded" the walnuts into the batter), greased the cookie sheets, spooned the batter onto the cookie sheets, and even did my part to help clean, as seen below. We'll call it "the first rinse."
I thought the cookies were great. Dad said, "HMMMM! They taste really.... healthy."

Coming from the guy who's sprouting lentils,
I'm not sure that's as negative as his tone implied.
We've entered into a "raw food heavy" season of prepping and eating food at Chez Grossman. Mostly, dad's learning all kinds of new tricks, most of which involve submerging beans and nuts under water for days at a time. You can only imagine the sight of our kitchen these days: little pools of beans and nuts, jars overflowing with sprouts...
and me just wondering, "Are the cookies done, yet?"

Jezzy recieved her quilt from the Gammas today. It's a tradition among mom's group of college friends that every baby gets a quilt composed of individually-made-with-love squares, assembled by the Master Gamma Crafter Mellisa. I have one, now Jez has one, too.
We are lucky and loved!

G'night.

This weekend, I discovered wheels. And gravity. Combine the two (as on, say, the sloped driveway) and you have a ROCKIN' good time. (And parents whose speed surprised even themselves when they saw what I was up to).

After the initial bike discovery and launch, things quieted down a bit and the camera came out, so you get a much more docile scene.

The mount....

...and the bell. I think mom liked it when I sat here playing with the bell; at least she wasn't running after me, breathlessly expressing her appreciation for helmets.


In other news, I, Winona, am offically in the Big Kid Preschool Room. This is the last stop before Kindergarten so I'm honing in all my school-preparedness skills now. I am also getting mighty good at creating my own rationale for how I think things ought to be, explaining to Mom and Dad precisely why their train of thought is ludicrous and justifying antics in ways that leave mom and dad speechless. (You've met them, so I'll assume that you are duly impressed with this).

I teach Jezebel everything I know and I gotta say, this kid's quick.

I am taking piano lessons and loving it. I love to do things well, and get flusterated (my word and a good one, I'm sticking with it) when I get re-directed. This is, I suppose, a good lesson in learning how to learn without the Flustration.
I, Jezebel, think animal sounds are beyond hilarious. Especially the pig. And the cat. I mean, have you HEARD these things? Hilarious.
P.S. The floral headband is my idea and my doing. I assure you that it would not be there under any other circumstances.

Every once in awhile, either by default or design, I (Julie) try to have back to back unscheduled, unplanned days. It seems crazy to even say it, but with all there is to do, both of necessity and of desire, days seem to just get scheduled and planned. A three day weekend is as good of a time as any to say, "nope. got nothin'. nothin' goin' on."--and just see where that takes us. Often, it takes the wee ones to the loft for dress up and tea parties or to the front yard garden for rock digging and water redistribution. (It takes Mike to his studio, without exception!) Which means, it can take me to the laundry, the vacuuming and the dust bunny herding--to be interrupted only for snacks, books, the occasional bandaid application and the time it takes to get Jez down for a nap. This weekend, more specifically, it took us here:

Summit! Can't get much higher than this!