5 yr old toast

Five years ago today my youngest son was born.  In the hospital, I was given the above pictured bread to eat.  Something about the presentation struck me as wholly unappetizing so I passed, but for some reason I brought it home with me.  I guess I  like to watch it age in comparison with my beautiful boy.  Happy birthday August!

my trip to chuck e. cheese

I recently went on my first adventure to Chuck E. Cheese's.  I had been able to avoid it for a long time, somehow always drawing the long straw, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.  Most of the credit for my good time goes to this picture which I found stuffed behind the photo booth there. Given the lack of irony in this boy's eyes, I assume it was just bad timing that the camera caught him with his finger in his nose.  For me, it just humanized the whole place and I couldn't remember why I had resisted for so long.

this one runs on fat

sweater weather

Just handed this sweet little ditty off to my cousin who is expecting.  My sister-in-law had passed it on to me.  Perhaps it's too far beyond its prime but I wanted to see it worn one more time.

yummy eats

Here's a few from a recent shoot I had with Jason Woods for Edible Magazine.

nice rack

My husband, thomas, designed this snazzy bike rack.

farewell summer

Charlotte's Web is one of the best books ever written.  It's one of those books that was written for children but is really just a vehicle to pass on wisdom to adults.  I cannot read it without crying.  The novel travels from spring to autumn and so, no matter what season of year I pick it up, I always feel as though I have picked it up at the perfect time and that it is speaking directly to me and my current experience.

My two boys are eager to read books that contain more action than Charlotte's Web and I guess it's true that when I read it to them, I am doing it in an act of selfishness.  Still, I do think that they absorb some of the sweetness and insight that the book offers.

I have been trying to read it to them this most recent time since the spring and I finally had to do it by trapping them on an hour long train ride with only that book available.  By the second chapter my older one was begging me to continue, and last night, the day before their first day of school - the surest sign that summer is over, we picked it up again and read chapter 15 (see above).  Of course the tears came.