We're so lucky. Conor's Dad has a few bay area clients, so he's in the area fairly regularly. Which means we get to see him and feed him a meal or two. The girls die over their Papa Jim. They adore him so much! This week, we only got him for breakfast, but we made a little family event out of it and soaked him up. Thanks for coming!

So I got bangs. 

Sometimes I'm a little unsure about them. I feel like I have a face with lots of hard angles. So sometimes when I look in the mirror, I see one more hard angle. But sometimes I feel like my face is too soft, especially in my cheeks and then I think the bangs balance out my longer face well.

But most of the time, I really like them. They feel edgier to me. And just different. Sometimes the outer needs to reflect how different the inner has become. And since I wasn't going to get a tatoo, bangs were the trick.

I also cut a good amount off the length of my hair. Like a lot. And it feels so good. 

Each year our Young Women (ages 12-18) in our church put on a spaghetti dinner and a dessert auction and a bake sale to raise money for camp. Each girl makes one dessert to auction off and each of us leaders help by making desserts and items for the bake sale. Our family has undergone a makeover of sorts, and so I was happy to pull out my kitchen aid mixer and make some of my favorite recipes. I made 80+ chocolate chip cookies (I didn't even eat one!) and one 2-layer chocolate cake. I also made a mini 3-inch, 2-layer cake for my girls and promised them a tea party. It's the little things that often make us the happiest. After supper one day, we all sat around the table and shared our tiny cake. The girls drank milk from their tea cups, Holly poured. And life was jolly.

A while ago, a Calgary friend gave me a whole whack of beautiful hand-me-downs for my girls. I recently pulled out all the "new" spring dresses in Holly's size and pressed them and Holly has had a wonderful time wearing them all. She had been dying to wear this purple dress, especially since I told her it was just for Sundays (it's linen and I don't want it to get trashed with everyday play). When Sunday finally rolled around, Holly was so pleased and couldn't wait to get it on! We had a bit of a stand-off about the braid in her hair, but it turns out I'm more stubborn than she is! Holly has a lot of feelings about clothing and hair and I think we're making some break throughs. Oh happy day!

I've been meaning to make a birthday banner for who knows how long! Finally, I made one in time for Greta's birthday. I love the idea of having something special that comes out for birthday times, which also means I have to put it away inbetween! I plan on making some other holiday banners. I feel like banners are less intrusive than other holiday decor and much more eye-pleasing. 

For this, I sewed the bunting, cut the letters out of felt and used fabric glue to glue them on. Then I used a thing strip of biased tape to connect them all. I really like how it all turned out! It made me happy to have this hanging for Greta's big day and I'm looking forward to pulling it out for my birthday later this month.