Picture pages, pictures pages, lots of fun with picture pages.

The holding pattern has been broken! Slightly. We've discovered, the hard way, that it takes at LEAST two months to get your practicing license if you're newly graduated, and people don't like to hire you if you don't have a license. Therefore, Mat had to find an in-between job to keep us fed and sheltered in the meantime. And who took him back without batting an eye AND raised his pay? Why, yes, that would be KinderCare! We may be against the idea of putting kids in daycare in general, but they've been pretty good to Mat. Part of the payraise came from moving Mat to the front office instead of making him a teacher again.

Anyway, one day Mat came home, took off his shoes and socks, and disappeared to a kid-free zone momentarily. I turned around to find a small child donning her father's socks, then his shoes. She's funny kid, and very shoe-obsessed.

I had the camera out for a moment tonight, and Annika asked to have her picture taken. Mat started teasing her, and this picture was the result.
We're exploring ways to keep ourselves occupied in the summer heat, and one option is playing with chenille stems (known as pipe cleaners when I was in grade school). The last time we tried the chenille stem thing, they ended up in a shapeless, twisted heap that stabbed my foot (not seriously--there was no blood) when I least expected it, two weeks after we bought them. Those got thrown away quickly and I swore off chenille stems for a while. Anyway, I momentarily forgot my promise to myself while we were standing in the dollar store looking at chenille stems and we ended up with a package. To avoid a repeat foot-stabbing, I decided to make something a little more permanent. These flower crowns are doing the trick, for now.

I believe that I mentioned my Christmas/birthday gift this year: the Pirates of the Caribbean version of LIFE. I love it, and the love is transferring to the children. So we've started a new tradition: Anyone who wants to play "Pirates" has to wear a pirate article of clothing (Daddy has a pirate attitude) and we listen to the soundtrack while we play. It's most enjoyable. Now if we could just teach Afton how to spin the spinner without laying across half the board.

Locks of Love is going to be about a pound of hair richer soon. In the meantime, I now sport this haircut, just in time for summer: