life in pictures

her first day was a success. her second day was AWESOME! I think I must explain labschool a little...it is a parent co-op program in which we receive education about the development of our chid and also participate with our children during the actual "school time". Piper attended the toddler program last year and we went once a week and I was with her the whole time facilitating her learning through playing (the philosophy of labschool is learn by doing). This year she's a 3-day "preschool kid" (she likes to call herself in regards to anything she does that makes her feel grown-up) and i work one day a week but instead of it being just me and her i am in charge of 4 kids throughout the day among other responsibilities. It is an amazing program and I wouldn't want her anywhere else. it has really challeneged my thinking about learning and schooling and Piper has just really adjusted so well, it's me that has had a difficult time letting go as is the case most of the time.




All of the parents stayed the first day as it was sort of an orientation for the kids and then this past wednesday was her first real day. It didn't hit me until i wa son my way to pick her up that she really is a "kid" now. All the working parents said she had an awesome day. It is difficult for me to describe the level of comfort I feel knowing that she is in an environment with adults that really care about her and feel similar to me about parenting issues and philosophies.




This is Fin. She is just so different from Piper. She is all about living life to it's fullest and making sure you know how she feels about things especially when things are not, in her opinion, the way they should be. This was her first day of the toddler program at labschool. We are going 1 day a week and i'm so excited to experience this with her.



I sometimes worry about the way I interact with Finley compared to the way I interacted with Piper when she was that age. The second one just doesn't seem to get any breaks, you know? So, I'm really happy that we are getting to do something together, just me and the birdie. Her first day was also amazing although she was exhausted about three-quartes of the way through and got kinda grumpy.



Here is a project I'm working on right now (in my spare time, ha!). I bought these chairs and a table at the goodwill for $50. The chairs had these covers that weren't that bad from a design aspect but they were incredibly dirty and filled with that musty ciggarette smoke smell so they needed to be recovered. I have one finished. But, I really like how it turned out. Then this week i got the west elm catalog in the mail and saw some very similar chairs for like $199 each! I had to pat myself on the back for that and that mine are actually vintage rather than "vintage inspired."



And our stairs. Nice, huh? I am so embarassed to show them and cringe whenever we have people over and they see the dismay state of these poor steps. We tore the carpet off these stairs 2 YEARS ago before we even moved into this house. We were set on finishing them in wood ourselves and you can see where that got us. Jason is very efficient in many areas, in handy things around the house however, he is no Bob Vila and i finally decided to take matters into my own hands and call someone and now are stairs wil be finished next week! I can hardly wait! It's funny. When we moved into this house we thought we got this incredible deal, and we did compared to what we could sell this house for now, but after living here for just a few months it was apparent that we had a strong dislike for the neighborhood and the outside cracker-box architecture of the house still makes want to sort of vomit. BUT, then we had another baby and then we had a lawsuit and then and then and then...life, life, life. Now? We love the pool that we put in and the landscaping is 75% finished and we painted the house which makes me want to vomit less. We still dislike the neighborhood and location but are set that we need to stay here until we can afford to buy land (a lot if it) and build our own house that we will live in forever where our girls can be married and bring back their own families to visit. So, in the mean time, I really want to focus on making our house a home for my family (it's about time, right?). Besides, home is really just where your family is, not the place you mops the floors (which I did today thank you very much, i hate mopping).