Dad and Clara began the day the way every day should begin –

Oh, just look at her sweet fluffy baby hair lit by the rising sun…be still my little mommy heart.

Tropical storm “Danny” is going to be with us on and off this week- but today, the SUN WAS SHINING! First we went to the pool and then the dads and bigger kids charged out to the beach!!

You’ll notice the moms and babies are not pictured because we were back at the house napping. You heard me right, the moms and the babies were napping &/or lounging. Quite blissfully, I might add.

This day was a beautiful gift. As I have been looking through these photos this feeling came over me – if I were to put it into words the words would be these – “I ADORE THESE PEOPLE!”

Holy cow, how I adore them!!

We made it.

For the first four hours it was actually fun. Not always easy, but fun.

I was thinking to myself the thing about a vacation is this – you take away all your daily cares (the laundry, cleaning, errands, your calling etc and so forth) and what remains is your kids and your husband. And you can just BE with them without feeling the pull of your daily responsibilities. And THAT is a beautiful feeling.

Until you hit the 6th hour of your drive.

with at least 3 more hours of driving ahead of you.

And then you want to ask your husband to pull the car over, let you out because walking the rest of the way sounds like it would be a better idea.

Clara had well and truly had it by the sixth hour.

So instead of asking Jan to pull over and let me walk the rest of the way the Quality Inn welcomed us to their really great parking lot

where we ran around and frolicked for a good while.

This short break and our iPhones saw us through until…

we could smell the water

AND

touch it!

Tomorrow morning we will strap our children into their car seats.

Turn the key and listen as the engine of our Sienna mini-van turns over.

Back out of our drive way

and spend a good 9 – 12 hours on the road.

(You KNOW that is going to inspire a blog post…)

BUT before we can go, go, go we must

PACK, PACK, PACK!

So today that is what I did.

And I did it with Hot Sand (and her little sister) right by my side.

It is hard to decide who was the better helper…

Just look at that face!

The best helper….hmmm? It is a toss up.

Added to packing we had to run errands – Hot Sand accompanied me to the grocery store.

Um, she was pretty much noticed (this outfit didn’t stop cars like her blue strictly ballroom outfit has but people did sit up and take note!)

The very hip, college age check out girl who was wearing skinny jeans and cheetah print wellies said she LOOOOOOVED Millie’s look. In fact, she told us that she wears a similar thing when she goes clubbing.

I was basically speechless and tried really, really hard to block the mental image of this girl in a tutu. (I am still trying to block the image).

Clara was in and out of everything I did all day long.

But I am one of those people who can’t just pack. I have to do OTHER THINGS too.

Like calk the stink’n tub.

Am I the only one with this problem, or are other people as nuts as I am?

I also find time to send 100 emails and play practical jokes.

(Don’t ask.)

As of tomorrow I will be posting from a different State.

North Carolina, here we come!

My baby fit the entire state of Kentucky in her mouth!

Surely, that has got to be a record.

At the very least, it should inspire song…

EVERYBODY SING!

“She’s got the whole state of Kentucky in her mouth.

She’s got the whole state of Kentucky in her mouth.

She’s got the whole state of Kentucky in her mouth.

She’s got the whole state in her mouth!”

Your four year old CAN’T fall asleep.

She really can’t.

(must have been that 20 min nap she took on our afternoon drive to Target, darn it!)

So what do you do?

Scold her after she calls out for you (and wakes her younger sister)?

OR

Say, “What the heck! We’ll make tonight a late night.”

and then you pass her off to her dear old DAD, or as the case may be — Prince Charming.

Next,

Do this –

While watching this –

while wearing this –

And then, this is a MUST, you absolutely must get your “snugs” on.

Make them snugs count, little princess, because when the clock strikes 9:00, you needn’t fear the coach turning back into the pumpkin, but rather Prince Charming will turn back into your dad. And you know what that means.

It means bed time!

Yesterday, after coming home from my second home, the mall, on my desk was an envelope –

Inside the envelope, a card from my husband telling me how much he liked my blog.

Next to the envelope this little gift…

Clearly it HAD to feature here, on this blog, which inspired it’s purchase.

To all the husbands out there who read their wives blogs (but most especially to my husband who reads my blog),

THANK YOU!

We love you for it!

From previous posts you will know that Tess was here with us, and now she is gone.

We miss her.

She left a bit of void, so to speak.

Tess was becoming part of the family, blending in with the furniture, it was starting to feel like she was meant to be here – ya know?

Anytime Millie mentioned something she was going to do – mail letters, write a song for, pinch bottoms of etc. she would mention that her plan included doing this for/to Mom, Dad, Clara and Tess.

The night she said good-bye to Tess – she did it like it was no big thing, as if like she was some cool, untouchable teenager. I was surprised that she wasn’t more emotional.

Ah, the emotions were there, just under the surface.

They began to bubble up as we were going through her evening routine.

While brushing her teeth she asked:

“Mom why does Tess have to leave?”

I did my best to explain that Tess has a life (a pretty cool one, in fact) that exists beyond the one she shared with us for the month that she was here.

Millie then said, “Mom, remember when Esme left?” I nodded yes. Then Millie just looked at me with sad eyes, “That is how I feel again.”

While she was praying:

“Please bless me not to be too sad that Tess is leaving. Please bless Tess that she will be safe flying home.”

My all time favorite was when I went in to her room to turn off her reading light. She woke up in a half awake/ half asleep state and said, “Mom, I gotta tell you something…Tess needs snacks for her trip.”

You are loved here in Madison, NJ.

We miss you.

BUT

we are also very excited for you to hit BYU in your NEW WARDROBE!!!.

While Tess was here we spent most of our free time shopping for new clothes, for HER.

We know you have a lot to think about and because you are so loved by your big sister,

B E H O L D!

I have made you a FASHION CHEAT SHEET. When you wake up in the morning (and it’s quarter to one) think about having fun and leave the wardrobe decisions to your big sis. Here are a bunch of different combos that work. These are subtle difference here – sometimes the addition of a necklace can make all the difference.  From this point forward please refer to me as Anna Wintour, suckaz!

I call these “variations on a navy blazer”:

with the flower                 blazer, pink jeans, white shirt, anthro necklace

same deal but with purple gingham shirt (w/ flower and necklace) and same combo only with pink shirt and dark wash jeans.

Variations on the banana republic skirts:

Gap stripe sweater          J. Crew staple sweater & button down white shirt

Staple items – black t-shirts and your back cardigan, that go with almost anything

(you get the idea)

Navy Cardigan extraordinaire:

With this outfit you could interchange with any of your button down shirts, or do a white t-shirt for example.

Old hoodie (with attitude), new scarf:

Millie suggests these combos:

I think she is on to something with the necklace as a crown – it is very Never Ending Story, don’t you think?

We already can’t wait for you to come back.

Until you do- have fun at school and don’t be afraid to look totally and utterly fabulous.

RA, ra, ra, ra, ra! Ra, ra, ra, ra, ra! Ra, ra, ra, ra, ra!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Tessy!

My sister Tess left Thursday morning.

She’d been staying with us a month.

Before she left we had a little celebration.  She wanted pizza so I asked the NJ King & Queen of Pizza where we should go and they suggested a recent discovery in the Village called,

All hail, the King and Queen – they know their pizza.

Oh, yea!  and there was more than just food at this celebration.

I asked Jan to snap a photo of me and Tess.

He told me that he would like to take another because something funky was going on with my chin. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I mean I do now, looking at the photo. But at the time I was confused.

He tried to coach me, “Look straight in the camera”

“Nope, not there yet, and now you look like you have crazy eyes. Just look STRAIGHT into the camera.”

SCARY-NESS! Now you’re all going to have nightmares, so sorry.

Further attempts were also pretty bad, as you can see.

Cam even got in the mix to show me what I was doing wrong.

Finally when Nikki posed with us I figured out what Jan meant.

“Look straight into the camera, oh! you mean straight into the camera.”

And that was that.

Tess, you thought this party was for you, but it was really for my chin.

(P.S. and a B I G thank you to Uncle Jeff for picking up the tab!)

Once upon a time there was an errand that needed running (WOW! there’s an opener for ya!)

A post office run.

So the mama took her two bear cubs, one by the hand and one in a stroller, into town.

Before they could leave the house the big sister said, “Do you think this outfit will do, for the post office?”

“You mean you want to wear your winter dress, with rhinestones on the sleeves, that you can’t even zip up all the way, your sparkly red shoes, your “somewhere over the rainbow” socks, and carry your Toto too?”

BUT OF COURSE YOU DO!

Off to the post office they went.

And after that job was done. A siren call was heard. It was the call of… the thrift store.

“Come to me! Park your stroller on the street, because rent is high, this space is tiny and we have so much stuff in here that you can barely see the floor. If you can get through the front door, there’s treasures to be had! You must dig through all the crap to find it. But it is here. Of this, I promise you.”

The call was strong. It could not be resisted.

But Homer did not write this tale —  even though I know you’re thinking this tale is one of mythic Greek proportions — so unlike the sailors who met a deadly fate the Mama bear and her two cubs DID find

t r e a s u r e.

(If we’d taken the stroller inside we might have never made it out alive!)

It even sparkled!

The Mama Bear thought that the big sister’s first outfit of the day could not be beat.

Boy, was she WRONG!

(This new outfit was somewhere between Strictly Ballroom and Starlight Express.)

You can’t touch this!

Oh, but there is more! (who needs a fairy god mother when you’ve got a local thrift store!?)

The Big Sister Bear said,

“This is red. This is what hot sand looks like. Call me,

HOT SAND

whenever I wear this, okay?”

“If you insist.” replied the Mama Bear.

Not all the treasures were chintz.

Some even had a little class.

Cue, baby bear!

Cost of this item? $7.50, with the tags still on it which means – never been worn by anybody but our very own Baby Bear.

Not bad, eh?

And that is the true story of when the Bear family found treasure at the thrift store.

Me: Hello?

Me: Oh, hi!

Barbara: I am just calling to tell you about my new line of rugs.

Me: Oh, that is so kind of you Barbara, but I think it would be better if you just kept them to yourself.

Barbara: But I can’t darling! I know you. I know your taste. You are going to L O V E  these!

Me: I beg of you, don’t show them to me.

Barbara: You’re so cute, Liza – when you play hard to get.

Me: Your cute too, Barbara.

Us: Giggle, giggle.

Barbara: Where was I?

Me: You were telling me all about your ugly St. Bernard.

Barbara: I don’t have a St. Bernard.

Me: Oh, well I had better go!

Barbara: NO, I wanted to show you my NEW rugs.

Me: (whimpering) Please don’t do this to me…

Barbara: Here they are, you little cutie!

Me: OOOOOOO! That is so nice!

Barbara: And check this one out, honey. This would be perfect in your breakfast room.

Me: You are so right! How much is it?

Barbara: Oh, I think it is around a bazillion dollars.

Me: Right.

Barbara: When I made this one I was actually channeling your essence.

Me: How do you do it?

Barbara: I have got your number, my friend.

Me: WOW! So that is what is going on. Could you do me one favor?

Barbara: Anything.

Me: PLEASE, STOP CALLING!