Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday present from Charlie

Tomorrow night is fancy date night. The Little Girl is not invited, my dress is getting cleaned, Charlie is making reservations, and there will be live music with a promise of some dancing. If tonight's dinner guests assist, I might even convince Charlie to learn some grown up dancing. (Nothing wrong with 8th grade dance slow dancing, but I would love some swing, or latin dance moves too....) 

Buckets of sweet pickles and piles of fresh produce.

I have been spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen lately. It has resulted in a few things. First off, I am going to reread the book Once a Month Cooking and start putting it into practice. Second, we have three batches of sweet pickles sitting on the counter.

Popsicle in Door County

Third, I have really been enjoying the deliciousness that is homemade ice cream. Last week was raspberry (from our garden) chocolate chip, and today I am making chai flavored ice cream.

Earlier this week, Charlie installed a diaper sprayer for me. By random chance, all stinky diapers since then have happened when a certain little girl was wearing a sposie (left over from a weekend out of town at a wedding). However, I am very much looking forward to having it to use. I do not even care if you judge me. I am thrilled to have a little bit of shiny to use.

The Little Girl and I went up to Door County, WI for a couple of days last week. We had a lot of fun camping with Papa, picked up a lot of cherries, and went to a lot of antique stores.

What's in here Mama?

The amazing part? Despite the fact that someone was too excited to nap, she was not really fussy or crying at all. Too tired for her eyes to focus or her fingers to work well enough to pick up an ice cube? Yes. (She sucked them up off the table instead.) She even stayed up extra late, so she could sit on Papa's lap and enjoy the campfire for a while. Charlie, unfortunately, had classes to attend, but he did not complain, and Gretl probably appreciated that she got to stay home in the air conditioning.

After weeks of blockading all of the bookcases to prevent damage to books, I decided to remove all of the grown up books from the lower shelves and let the Little Girl play. Unfortunately, her playing resulted in the little clips holding the shelf getting wiggled enough that a shelf of books came crashing down. Luckily, she had moved on

to causing mischief elsewhere, but it was enough that I decided to make some changes. Almost all of the big people books were boxed up and taken downstairs. (If we want to read a book, I will get it from the library.) Also going downstairs were three of our four bookshelves. Furniture was rearranged, and the new set up makes the whole space much more open. There are a few more things for me to do in the dining room before we are totally finished with moving furniture, but it is pretty much finished in here. I love that it is much more open and less cluttered in the small space. Plus, there is totally room for us to practice some fun dance moves now. Next quest my dear Dread Pirate Roberts? Dance partner. Music to be queued up as soon as he gets home today....