A monkey. A squirrel. One happy family.

We recently spent the weekend in St. Louis with some good friends from Nashville. Baseball, botanical gardens, and the magical City Museum - such a treat! As long as she had snacks, Annie was content to watch the game. Kiddos at the ball game. Getting sweaty (and whiny) at the Missouri Botanical Garden. City Museum! Brave Ella climbs. Skateless park.  Annie waiting for her turn on one of the giant indoor slides.

Just like that, Ella is finished with elementary school. Today was her first day of 6th grade summer school, and while last year we had to arrive at pick-up armed with IDs and be on an authorized list and talk to someone with a walkie-talkie to get our child, this year they simply boot her out the door once the bell rings. See ya tomorrow, kid! Good luck. Welcome to middle school. After Ella's 5th grade graduation ceremony Ella has started riding solo around the neighborhood and made her first trek to the grocery store to get a loaf of bread! Almost summertime means s'more time. Getting fancy for a night out - celebrating school's end. Play it loud, Annie June. Annie at the YMCA Camp Mudd. Ella at the YMCA Camp Mudd. Rock on, dear ones. The coming weeks are full of camps and trips and adventure for our girls. We are all so lucky. Happy summer.

Ella in a tree. Homemade kites! Homemade popsicles! Chapter books. Sleeping sisters. I am filled with gratitude. XO, dear ones. LZ

I know. It's February and we haven't posted Christmas pictures yet. We celebrated once in Florida and twice in Missouri and then it was Ella's birthday and then Valentine's Day and we're already talking about spring break and somebody make time slow down already. Whew. My kids don't even look like this anymore! Everyone got their hair whacked off. Annie got a Peter Pan-inspired pixie cut and Ella didn't want to be left out. I'm just super happy not to be fighting with anyone over tangles anymore.  Annie lost her first tooth on Ella's 11th birthday. Big stuff happening. I can hear middle school galloping towards us with astonishing speed. Here is Annie just after she and Spencer finished making the batter for a blueberry bundt cake. (Note the awesome bed head.)  And a Valentine's Day picture! (Again: bed head.) We seem to respond to cold weather with baked goods. Hugs and smooches (and cake!) to you all.

From our family to yours. 

We made our annual trek to Starr Pines Christmas Tree Farm last weekend and found a little beauty in record time. After 60-degree weather and sunshine the previous day, the quickly plummeting temperatures on this particular morning came as a shock. We found our sweet tree quickly so we could get back to the hot apple cider as soon as possible. Happy holidays!

"Let's try a new philosophy this Halloween," suggested Spencer. In the past we've allowed the girls to eat a couple of pieces while out trick-or-treating, and then they can have a piece every night or so after dinner if they eat well. This means that by the time Valentines Day and Easter roll around, they still have Halloween candy, and this new candy gets mixed in with the old. We can't sneakily throw it away bit by bit, because these kids notice. It will be April and Ella suddenly wants to know where that package of gummy candy shaped like body parts is. Um, in the landfill? Consequently, we have way too much candy around (half of it stale) all of the time. This year, a local supermarket was offering a trade - bring in your candy the Monday after Halloween, weigh it, and get that much in produce/bulk items for free. Spencer pitched it this way to the girls: you can eat whatever you want on Halloween, then set aside 10 special pieces to save, and trade the rest...