Laying Around In The Grass

Brian and I had a VERY productive weekend around the house -- Brian painted a bunch of the trim, including the garage door, and we only have one side of the house trim to do up high before it's done.

Meanwhile, I cut back a bunch of the bushes, took a few dead things out, and trimmed roses until my forearms were scratched up. I even trimmed the fruit tree so we can walk under it with the lawn mower without losing an eye from the branches.

It's amaazing how much better everything looks when you clean it up. Most people probably wouldn't even notice, but we do!

Nora spent a lot of this weekend playing in the yard too. She brought a lot of her stuffed animal friends out and played with chalk on the back porch.

And yesterday, after her bath and all our work was done, she pretended to go to sleep in the grass, laying down with her friends Cookie Monster and Pooh. It's amazing how her ability to play is expanding and becoming more creative -- like feeding her stuffed animals and having them kiss each other goodnight.

The shirt she's wearing in this picture is one a friend of my parents made for me when we lived in Taquara, Brazil. I was 3 or 4 at the time, and it was hand-painted and my name "Julie" was painted on it too.

I was always a dark haired, dark eye-ed kid, so I thought it was kind of neat that the shirt fits Nora, and the image on the t-shirt is more like her than it ever was of me!