stop to smell the roses ...

I mentioned last time that our yard was blooming with zillions of roses and I wanted to show you that I am truly not exaggerating ... I've blogged before about how our tiny parcel of property was subdivided about 60 years ago - it was formerly the walking garden of the (far more grand) house next door.  Sixty years ago, they sold the very back end of their backyard off and an adorable cottage was built (our house!) without disturbing too much of the gardens that already existed - including many of the amazing roses that line the street front still today!  Our 4-foot picket fence is completely engulfed every year in late June by the zillions of roses that come into bloom at this time each year ... but enough of my chitty chat, the proof is in the seeing ...

road to the left - about 3 feet of grass leads you to the fence on the right that you can't even see beneath all the roses!

there are about 4-5 mature peony plants - gorgeous!

And roses in every shape and shade from pink to red!

they stretch out toward the street AND toward the house on the other side - did I mention how huge they are?!

so dense you can't even see the fence that's right in front of you ...

Seriously, the last couple of weeks of June are a real sight to behold at our house - incredible, isn't it?!  We can't take any credit for the planning or placement, but Manbug definitely gets all the credit for the very rigorous maintenance of these fussy (but oh so worth it) plants ... these gorgeous couple of weeks make all those late nights of spraying and clipping after work all worthwhile!  And yes, if he is able to find the time to deadhead all of these zillions of blooms once they drop their petals, we will have a FULL second blooming in August!  But in the meantime, what's next on the garden cycle at our little cottage by the sea?  Would you believe it I told you we have hydrangeas so large they block windows?!  We have 6 in all (though not all as large as this one) - can't wait to photograph them in full bloom - usually right around the 4th of July!

father's day weekending ...

How cute is this little card made by my big ladybug for father's day?!  It shows our Manbug over on the left with all his ladybugs (I'm the third) scurrying toward him ... note the ballcap and that his manbug tail is wagging ... I love seeing the world through their ladybug eyes!  So the weekend ... first weekend of summer vacation ... busy busy ... how can that be when there were no plans in the calendar?!

summer skating

manbug sailing

ice cream trucking

downtown hanging

summer friends appearing

 aimless bike riding

rose garden bursting

early-to-bedding

father's day-ing ...

breakfast in bedding

little ladybug room rearranging

2x opti* repairing

BLT-ing (farm fresh tomatoes - yum!)

swimmingpool overcrowding

2x opti* launching (sailing camp starts friday!)

outdoor grilling

sunset biking

wonderful ... 

one of literally a zillion roses that burst open this weekend at our house

I want to publicly thank Pam at Views from My Kitchen Sink for this fabulous "weekending" format that she uses ... I fell in love with it and openly steal it from time to time - I'm getting better at condensing, Pam, aren't I?!  ... *and ps, for anyone who wasn't here last summer, an opti is a child-size sailboat (picture a bathtub 7+ feet long, 3+ feet wide, and 18 inches deep ... with a sail ... and yes, they are sailed single-handed (solo) from the time the kids are about 9+ years old) - let the sailing season begin!

image from here

the crinkled heart ...

image via pinterest

Have you heard me mention that little ladybug's 4th grade teacher might just be the most fabulous 4th grade teacher on the planet?  Well, she is ... the best ... fabulous ... incredible ... brings tears to my eyes to think that our journey with her is over now that she has taught my youngest child ... deep deep sigh ...

On the first day of school last Fall, in the first 15 minutes in fact, Mrs. M tells the children the story of the crinkled heart.  I know a lot of my bloggy friends are teachers, so some may already be familiar with this one?  The story starts out with two freshly cut paper hearts that represent each one of us ... then Mrs. M asks the children to think of how hurtful words might impact a person's heart.  As the kids volunteer their ideas of hurtful words, Mrs. M crinkles one of the paper hearts with each example until it's all crumpled up.  At this point, Mrs. M asks the kids to share positive words instead and as each example is shared, she uncrinkles the heart until it lies flat again.  But the lesson is, of course, that no matter the amount of uncrinkling you do, that heart has been impacted and will never look like the one that was left untouched by hurtful words.  Thus, the school year starts with a beautifully illustrated lesson about the power of our words.

After the lesson, the pair of hearts are hung in the front of Mrs. M's classroom and remain there for the entire school year as a constant reminder of the impact our words have on one another.  On the last day of school, a lottery is held to see which lucky student will get to take home the pair of hearts ... and guess who the lucky ladybug was who came out of school grinning ear to ear as she held her prize?

They will be hung in a place of honor right over the desk in her bedroom - a constant reminder of the best school year a little bug could ever ask for ... thank you so much for your magic touch, Mrs. M ... we'll be forever blessed by your impact ...

going going gone ...

This is it.  The last day of ladybug school.  One morning it's business as usual with the morning school routine and the next morning there's no routine whatsoever ... summer vacation is just hours away ...

Above are our end of year teacher gifts ... this year we packed a "summer vacation survival kit" for the teachers and filled it with a small book, a bottle of root beer, a handful of fresh baked brownies and cookies, a package of microwave popcorn, and a handwritten note from the heart (one from me and another from the big - or little - ladybug).  The last 2 gifts in the lineup were packed in pretty reusable oilcloth lunch sacks - we gave one of those to little ladybug's "lunch buddy" teacher ... somewhat like an advisor, little ladybug's lunch buddy was assigned to her last Fall and ate lunch with her - just the two of them - every Tuesday all year long!  The lunch buddy program is such a sweet one, unique to the 4th grade ... it's really wonderful to have that special one on one time, little ladybug will probably miss that more than anything else next year!

As for the class gift ... I was a 4th grade room parent this year and we followed a long-running tradition at school: collecting a single flower (we ask that it come right from your own garden if possible) from each child in the class on the final day of school.  This is another gift that falls under my "personal, affordable, and practical" umbrella ... all I had to do was supply the vase and stand there this morning as the kids trickled in ... one by one, each child put their own unique flower into the vase as they came into the classroom and placed their own special card nearby ... within 20 minutes, we had a full colorful vase and the homemade cards were overflowing nearby - good one, right?!

saw this one on pinterest and love it - how cute are these simple extra touches?!

oh happy monday!

Never thought I'd put the words happy and Monday in the same sentence, but today is happy again ... my baby is back from the Cape, healthy and in one piece!  And even better, she had an incredible time on her Girl Scout retreat, never struggled at all ... nothing but happy memories an an extra dose of confidence for having taken the step (meantime I've aged 5 years).  Want to know the sweetest part?  She brought back gifts for each of us from the Audubon gift shop, the sanctuary where her troop did some volunteer work.

This is what she chose for me ...

A mommy turtle and her baby ... perfection.  And it didn't stop there ... she brought an emperor penguin home for her dad, complete with baby penguin tucked underneath ... "because daddy protects me" ...

Little ladybug chose this fawn for her big sister ... "because she's so beautiful".  It was a wonderful evening last night to have all four of us sitting to dinner together and hearing all about our Girl Scout's proud adventures ... lots of laughter and love - the moments you wish you could freeze forever.

So the ladybugs are off at school this morning - and I'm heading out to get the spare tire taken off my car.  And to replace the perfectly good tire that sits across from it as well ... grrrr.  But despite my fate to waste half the day sitting at a tire warehouse and spend half our monthly budget in one swoop, it's still a Happy Monday ... our little ladybug is home ...

rough day ...

Today I feel sad ...

It's Saturday, it's been gray and raining all day long, it's only 61 degrees.  That alone should be enough to make someone sad.  But adding to my melancholy is the fact that my little ladybug, the one who just had her birthday, is away.  Like 3+ hours away.  She's on a 2-night Girl Scout retreat on Cape Cod.  My baby has only a handful of sleepovers under her belt - and all of those were a stone's throw from home.  On the one hand, I'm so proud of my little bug for taking this big step and feeling confident enough to go, but underneath my supportive smile, my heart was sinking as I waved goodbye yesterday.  One day later, I'm missing her so much and my mind is racing in every worst-case-scenario direction.  Between the rain and the worry, I didn't sleep a wink last night.

Then just to add insult to injury, one of my tires was flat this morning.  As in, sitting on the rim flat.  Manbug kindly refilled it before hitting the water for the day (he sails rain or shine.  every Saturday.  have I mentioned that sailing is his religion?), but it was flat again within 10 minutes.  Long story short (because yes, there is a long story - one that involves 3 gas stations, AAA roadside assistance, the pouring rain, and me soaked to the bone), the tire has a gash on the outward facing surface that's so big, the tire is unfixable.  It needs to be replaced.  But because the tires are 3 years old, I can't replace just one.  It needs to be a pair of new tires (alignment issues - who knew?!).  Is it any wonder I feel sad today?!

Deeeeeeep sigh ... she'll be home tomorrow.  And all will be right again.

ten ...

My baby turned ten today ...

I can hardly believe it - my heart breaks to think that it's been that long since I first saw her beautiful face and counted her ten fingers and toes, such a perfect tiny newborn she was ...  

Fast forward a decade and this is where my little ladybug is now ...

Happy Birthday to my baby ... my littlest ladybug ... my special ladybug girl ... you fill my heart with so much joy - your mommy loves you more than words could ever ever say ...

poppy and rye

You might recall that my little ladybug has a knack for creativity ... well, today her final 'IRP' was due at school.  The last of 3 book reports assigned throughout the year - a book chosen by her to enjoy and write a report about afterwards. But in addition to the written report, there has been a creative component to each one as well.  And this is where my baby truly shines.  The first one was a "story in a can" ... a coffee can that was to be decorated and filled with 10 items relevant to the story.  For that one, she painstakingly recreated the cover of the book out of model magic on the lid of the coffee can to amazing results:

The second IRP's creative component was to make a homemade hat that was decorated with some sort of relevancy to the story.  Hers had actual mechanical moving parts that depicted a scene in her book (The Penderwicks on Gardam Street) where the family dog took off running while his leash was tangled and attached to a red wagon with a child and her stuffed animals still inside.  It was an amazing effort ...

who takes an assignment to make a hat and turns it into this?!

Well, the IRP due today was to be the most challenging creative assignment of the three ... the task?  To create an original game board designed around the story.  Each child had to create the game, the board, the pieces, the concept, the rules, etc.  The book this time?  Poppy and Rye, the 3rd in a 6-book series about a family of forest mice that she has been loving this year ...

You can see above that Poppy wears an earring and that Rye's ear is scarred from a scuffle with an owl.  So what did little ladybug's game pieces look like?

I'm sure you can see Poppy and Rye are the first two mice in the lineup - so how did the game board turn out?

No detail left behind, this game board depicts the part of the book where the mice must rescue Rye from the beavers (see dam at bottom left corner, complete with a beaver inside!).  The starting point is the great rock where the mice live in the forest ... the players travel through the forest and across the colored squares and pick cards (1, 2, 3, or 4) that will either speed up ("get a ride from the hedgehog, advance 3 spaces") the journey or slow it down ("thunderstorm - lose a turn").  You can see the shore of the river marked in sand that she collected at the beach ... and the homestretch of the game is a trip down the river and into the beaver dam (made from crumbled sticks from our yard).  The winner is the first to reach the beaver inside!

And as if the game she created wasn't enough effort, she took it one level higher by creating this amazing box for the game ... an exact replica of the book itself ...

4th grade has been the best ... a great age developmentally and a year filled with an unbelievable amount of learning ... not to mention the wonderful projects and assignments from one of the all-time best teachers on the planet (no joke - the best).  What a wonderful year it's been.  What I wouldn't give to put a lid on all of this and bottle it up right here ... truly magical ... so proud of you, my little ladybug!

june june ...

I just can't believe how quickly time is moving these days ... we've been on a collision course as we speed head-on into the intersection of where school ends and summer begins ... I don't dare open my eyes, I'm stressed enough as it is!  I've been juggling all that comes with this time year: room parent checklists, teacher gifts, girl scout plans, final parent/teacher meetings, little bug's birthday prep, trying to balance the summer calendar - the camps, the houseguests, the sailing schedule ... the juggling never ends!

The May/June birthday season is always a big part of the frenzy at this time of year ... not only is it my littlest ladybug's birthday this Wednesday, but I also seem to have a large cluster of other May/June birthdays within my circle of friends and extended family as well.  I've never actually counted it up until today, but there actually 13 birthdays that need to be recognized with gifts over these 2 months!  The kids gifts are pretty easy for me ... but assign me the task of gifting for a girlfriend and this is where I start to freeze.  The cost, the effort, the pressure ... it can be a lot!  I do have a few tricks up my sleeve though.  First and foremost?  Books!  One of my favorite books to give is this one written by Anna Quindlen:

image from amazon

Books can be a personal decision, so I try to steer away from fiction and keep it light.  With that in mind, another favorite gift is this very funny light read by Stephanie Dolgoff ...

image from amazon

Another favorite gift idea for girlfriends is a single cupcake packaged in a clear reusable food container (upside down, cupcake sits on the lid with the container as the 'lid' around it) from a local gourmet food store.  They look something like this ...

image from here

Both of these ideas have served me really well ... thoughtful, easy, local, affordable, easily dropped off by a doorstep ... my kind of gifts!  Generally speaking, I think I do ok with birthdays so long as I can fall back on some variation of the above standbys ... sweets and books!  But it does make me nervous that those are the only tricks up my sleeve ...

Until last night.  It was a 40th birthday party that a girlfriend's husband put together for her at their home ... it was a nice size, about 20 couples or so, super fun and casual - but I was really torn about what to get for her.  Though we're certainly friendly, she's not someone I know well, so I wouldn't normally give her a gift for her birthday.  What to do?  Hmmm ...

How cute is this?!  I found the idea on (of course) ... pinterest.  Found the jar at Marshalls, the gumballs at the grocery store, and made the tag at home right on the computer (bell bottom font - fun!) ... a gift that's unique, fun, thoughtful, affordable ... and perfect for a 40th!

How about you guys ... any fabulous gift ideas to share?  I'd love to bulk up my idea closet ...