Family Photos

I know, I know. Easter was AGES ago. But I just got my hands on this pic and had to share. I love that Charlotte threw on one of her plastic necklaces at the last minute, and that you can see the multitude of bruises on her legs that she is always sporting. And Anson holding the play gun the way he is, well, I think a picture's worth a thousand words. :)

The Fords always manage to get a good group photo at some point during the year, while the Adams family struggles. I think it has something to do with the fact that we only all see each other about once or twice a year, and the number of children doubles! Maybe this year we'll make it work.

Love to you all!

Happy 4th!

Lee's Fruit Pizza

17 ounce sugar cookie rolls from Pillsbury (1-2, depending on size of cookie)

8 ounce block of cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Fresh fruit

Spread one package of premade sugar cookie dough onto baking sheet, pizza pan, or other cooking dish. (Because this baking sheet was large, I used two packages of cookie dough, but 1 1/2 would probably be enough.) Cook as directed. Let cool completely.

Mix softened cream cheese (light is OK), sugar, and vanilla and spread evenly over cookie.

Put in refrigerator to cool. This will keep the fruit juices from running into the icing.

Once cool, place fresh fruit of your choosing on "pizza." Keep refrigerated. Serve and enjoy!

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh

This morning Charlotte and I are off to pick up Anson at his first week of sleep away camp. He did not appear nervous at all about being gone from us for a week, and judging by the photos the camp posts on the web each night, he has had a blast!

We got a few shots dropping him off.

Each cabin had a theme. There are four counselors and about ten kids per cabin.

That's Charlotte out in front of the cabin. It is as rustic as it looks. Thankfully, the heat wave here in NC broke for the week he was there, but it's back up to the 90s today.

Probably one of the only times Anson noticed we were still there after we arrived at the cabin was when I asked him to pose for these pictures.

Anson was excited to score an upper bunk, too naive to know that heat rises...

One of the reasons Anson wasn't more nervous about being away from us was that he was in the same cabin with his two best buddies, Rhys and Wesley.

I miss him!

Absent

We've been busy. Here's a sneak peek at what we've been up to.

Charlotte finished preschool a few weeks ago and her end-of-year ballet recital is tonight. Anson's last day of school is Friday, and off to sleep away camp on Sunday. That means Mom and Dad are swamped and trying to fit in recertification studying, teacher presents, work on the lake house, and some sleep in there somewhere. Not to mention our day jobs.

Be back soon!

Blast from the Past

I was chatting with a friend today whose son is now 12 and about to enter middle school. In a few short months, he's transformed from a polite, even cute, 5th grader to a smelly, surly, perpetually bored pre-teen. Where does the time go?

It made me nostalgic for when the kids were little, and I looked back at my iphoto albums from the early days (e.g., when I first got this particular computer).

These two photos made me smile....

Can you believe these are the same people? (Sorry for the random bad iphone photo of an actual photo.)

It's verra, verra hot

'Nuff said.

It wasn't me

I walked into our sitting room the other day to discover this on our relatively new leather ottoman.

Yes, that is a stick figure and an umbrella scraped into the leather with a fingernail.

Can you figure out who the culprit is? Note the sparkly pink flip flops.

When approached, she claimed, "It wasn't me!" But under stronger interrogation, she caved. I count ourselves lucky that we've gotten this far without more incidents like this.

That's parenting, huh? BTW, these photos are what the ottoman looked like AFTER vigorous cleaning and conditioning attempts to minimize the scrapes.