I’ve been really enjoying my birdies lately. I love Wren at 5 and Phoebe at 2.5. Fun, sweet, crazy times. The girls are having more fun together, laughing, playing, goofing around. They even have an inside joke or two. Love me some birdies.
Thanks to Judy for the sweet capture on a July afternoon.
Summer Selfie.
A portrait of my birdies, once a week, every week, in 2014.
Where did the week go? Zoom! We were in the midst of Cherry Festival here in Traverse City and now we are enjoying a quieter summer again. Aaaahh.
Wren and I had fun visiting a new place in Traverse City – the laundromat near Tom’s 14th street. Loved the mural and the chairs. Wren enjoyed looking at everyone’s clothes going round and round. “Oh look, they’ve got a pink shirt too!” It’s easy to forget that simple things can be so novel and exciting. Reason #743 why it’s so great to have children in my life.
Wren is now 2/3 of a hay bale high. We’ve been driving by hay bales quite a bit lately and we got to wondering how big they actually were, or how little we actually are… So we got out and had to check them out for ourselves.
We spent one evening at the Cherry Festival and finally found a ride that tiny Phoebe could go on! Speed racer! They spent all their lemonade stand money on a ride and a sno cone. It’s our new Cherry Festival tradition!
A portrait of my birdies, once a week, every week, in 2014.
I’ve been taking pictures, but haven’t posted them. Again! Such.is.life.
So here is a catch-up post of photos from a few weeks. Early summer! Enjoy.
Nothing quite like sitting on a pile of books.
Summer is.
Our fairy.
Return to Sand Mountain! Big Hill, little birdie.
The Cherry Queen escaped from Cherry Festival.
We can’t keep up with the strawberries in our garden. A good problem to have!
I think Phoebe Jane might be living off of popsicles this summer?
The summer of the fairy. Porch living!
Phoebe Jane’s first haircut! She did great. Very poised.
And we returned to one of our favorite Traverse City gems – Sixth Street’s Secret Garden.
Thanks, early summer.
Thanks for all your support in the form of e-mails, texts, shout outs on Facebook, calls, and more. I ran the 40-mile Solstice Run over a week ago and we reached our $30,000 goal for On the Ground’s women’s empowerment programming in the DRC. We couldn’t have done it without you!
It was the longest, shortest night of the year. Beautiful and ugly, difficult and loads of my kind of fun, humbling and inspiring. I did it! There were lots of ups and downs throughout the night, but I’m proud to say that I finished with a smile on my face and injury-free. I made sure to keep exercising almost every day since then – boot camp classes, yoga, hiking, running a bit, stretching. It’s helped. I feel good!
Now I’m glad to move on with my life and work on catching up with everything else that stayed at the bottom of my list while I was training and raising money for this incredible cause.
Onward!
A portrait of my birdies, once a week, every week, in 2014.
Silly Phoebe Jane at the Black Iris Farm.
Walking home from church on Sunday with Wren Sabina the Fairy. I love this little path near our house. A little neighborhood treasure.
One of our favorite spring traditions is a visit to the Black Iris Farm just west of Traverse City. It is one of my happy places. It’s so relaxing and inspiring out there amidst the colors and the smells. The breeze was blowing and the lombardy poplar trees were dancing. If you’re looking for the top Manhattan tree care company, Manhattan Tree Care experts are standing by 24/7 to handle your routine or emergency tree service needs, view the page for more information.
I realized as I was looking at pictures from three years ago that Phoebe wore the same little green jacket that Wren wore while running through the iris rows. Time! Easy there.
I’ve never seen the iris farm quite as vibrant and fragrant as last night. We cut some flowers to take home, had a picnic, got dusty and explored. Took a few pictures too…
See you next year, beautiful iris farm! We love you.
Our amazing Wren Sabina turned five a couple of weeks ago. A whole hand! In some ways it feels like she was just born because that time is still so fresh and magical in my mind and heart, but in other ways I can vaguely remember my life without her presence. Time is so strange, isn’t it?
I’m so proud of the person she’s becoming. In her own words, “this is going to be a big year. I’m going to read, ride my bike and swim.” She’s going to “rock it,” as Wren likes to say. And she certainly will. She is strong, feisty, funny, beautiful, determined, graceful, brave, and smart as a whip. That’s my girl.
Happy birthday, my darling daughter!
A portrait of my birdies, once a week, every week, in 2014.
Wren in the garden with the allium.
The little birdie is getting very adventurous!
Birdies together. And we weren’t sure if we’d see the grass again after this winter…
A portrait of my birdies, once a week, every week, in 2014.
Oh my, the time has gotten away from me again. Please excuse the multiple weekly portrait posts!
A couple of morning portraits. Sleepy birdies on the porch.
Every Thursday this year Wren danced her big heart out in tap and ballet class. We got to see the culmination of her work at the dance recital this week – on her fifth birthday. She did a beautiful job. She just loves dance. I’m so proud of our little dancer!
Another great thing about dance is that Wren got to be with her best friend, Maddie, on Thursday afternoons. They have so much fun together.
Congratulations, beautiful and strong dancer! Keep up the hard, spirited work.
