Wheeeee

Yesterday was a rollercoaster.
It began during the night when the Elder woke up crying with pain in her foot.
She jumped off a play structure a couple of weeks ago and landed wrong.
I assessed her foot at the time and it seemed sprained to me.
She's been running and jumping rope and riding her bike since then, and we haven't been too concerned.
Just as a precaution, though, we went in yesterday since she was complaining of pain.
She had an x-ray and our doctor confirmed the sprain, gave us an ace bandage and told us to medicate as necessary.
Then we met up with some friends at the beach, had a picnic lunch and some much-needed catching up.
Both of my friends are teachers, and we don't end up seeing them during the school year.
After the bigger kids swam for a little while we met some other friends at a playground.
The Younger's kindergarten class had a reunion. It was great for the Younger to see his friends again, and we mad a couple of playdates for the next week, and then I get a call the Elder has a fracture in her foot.
The radiologist had a chance to thoroughly check over her x-ray and had found something that my doctor hadn't seen.
So there followed a frantic drive across town to get to the orthopedist in 25 minutes, all the while I am wracked with guilt that I have let my daughter walk around on a broken foot for 2 weeks.
They got us right in to see the doc, and after his examination the earlier sprain diagnosis was confirmed.
The doctor asked the Elder what she was doing the day before that might have exacerbated her foot pain, and she said she had been jumping rope, though she only went half-way around the block while doing it.
So, the remedy is to lay of the jumping and running for a couple of weeks, and wear good shoes instead of sandals for the same amount of time.
With a huge sigh of relief that I hadn't been neglecting a fractured foot, I passed out and took a nap while Brian got the kids ready to head to my parents' house so we could go to a party.
The party was an end-of-year recap with The Singers, and it was just what the doctor ordered (so to speak)
Brian got to meet my singing friends, and we listened to our latest recording which is shaping up quite nicely.
After all that, we hit the hay around 9:30.
 Hopefully today will feel more like this -

for though I enjoy rollercoasters, I wouldn't want to ride one every day.

Summer Colours Week 4

Today is Red.

Summer 17

We had a beautiful morning at Minnehaha Falls and Creek this morning. The water was pleasantly cool and the kids got right in there and had a splashy, floaty time.

Summer Colour Week 3

015, a photo by fifthlampdown on Flickr.

Summer Colours Week.
Pink today

Yarn Along

I have been clicking along on the Ariana Shell. Only about an inch to go in the body.
These 14 inches of stockinette feel like they've taken forever, but it's a nice project to bring wherever I happen to be (park, backyard, on a walk) and just knit, knit, knit without thinking.
I have been flipping through Anne of Ingleside this week.
It's an episodic story line, so I can just pick it up anytime and jump right in.
What's in your reading list this week?

Head on over to Ginny's to see more great reads and cozy knits.

Summer 16

We spent the morning in my favorite place, down by the river at Crosby Farm Park.
The river is really high today. This is our favorite climbing tree in our favorite place, and the water is almost up to its trunk.

Here is the same tree when the water is at its normal levels.

We got really dirty, and some of us got really wet, and it was a glorious time.

Summer Colour Week Day 2

Today is Mellow Yellow.
You must go and check out the flickr pool for Summer Colour Week.
It's beautiful!

Summer 15 and Colors Week

Today is Green in Poppytalk's Summer Colours Week.
We have had a lovely day enjoying the beautiful weather.
This morning we met our baby group at the wading pool. The water was freezing, unfortunately, so the babies didn't do any splashing, but we still got to hang with each other and ogle cute babies.
The weather has calmed down considerably since last week's crazy thunderstorms, and it was a good day to just sit in the backyard and knit while the Elder read from Swiss Family Robinson and the Youngest looked up into the trees.

See you again tomorrow when the Colour Week color is yellow.

Summer Colors Week!

I just found out that this week is Summer Colors week on Poppytalk and I couldn't be more excited!
I love the challenge of coming up with a photo that fits the daily theme.

As far as our Summer updates go, yesterday and today I have spent almost every moment of non-working time re-knitting a sweater.
I do test knitting for a local yarn company from time to time and the last sweater I knit came out too small due to my own gauge issues.
I had hoped that blocking it would help, but that wasn't the case, so I have been furiously knitting to get it to them in a timely fashion.
Luckily, the sweater only takes 6 balls of yarn, and I am into my 3rd ball now, so I could finish by the middle of the week.

Now it's time to have some cookies, and watch the much anticipated new Aaron Sorkin show on HBO.

Have a relaxing Sunday evening.

Summer 12

Yesterday was our first trip to the ol' swimmin' hole. As you can see the Elder and Younger were quite excited.

I ended the day passed out on the couch at 9, and missed posting this yesterday.
Hooray for Summer!

Summer 11

After returning last night from their big adventure the Elder and the Younger lost no time this morning and started the day with a bike ride to their favorite place.
The grandparents picked them up soon after for one more fun outing. They all went to the Real Pirates exhibit at the Science Museum. 
The Younger was bursting to tell me when he got home that he held a real pistol! and touched real pirate gold! and the cannon balls were much smaller than he had thought! and a cannon is very big!
Through all of this excitement the Youngest and I stayed home, took a walk and had a nap. 
It was a big and productive day for all.

Summer 10

The other day I was chatting with a couple of co-workers about the fact that our open sign was broken and we hadn't replaced it yet. 

One of them jokingly said that I should knit one, and yesterday I did. (special thanks to Sarah for the photos)_

To make the sign I went into Word and enlarged the word closed as large as it would go and still fit on a page. Then I printed it out, traced it onto knitters graph paper and knitted the sign using the chart.
This worked up so quickly, I could see making signs for the kids bedroom to hang over their beds someday.

In other news, there have been some really intense storms in MN this week.
We've got a very little amount of debris in our yard, only dead twigs so far luckily, but a few blocks away lots of people lost power and there were a lot of trees down.
Thankfully we weren't hit as hard as Duluth. Everybody send happy thoughts to northeast MN and northwest WI, their cleanup will take a long while.

 The Elder and the Younger returned from their adventure with the grandparents and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
It's nice having them back.

Morning Thoughts

When faced with the pile of laundry on the left and the adorable baby on the right, how does one choose?

So, we decided to take a walk.
My kangaroo pouch is in the wash, and she's not quite big enough for the ergo yet, so I was wondering if I should wrestle the stroller out, and wishing I had another option.
I started thinking about a moby wrap and how handy that would be, and did I have 4-6 yard of any fabric in my stash.
And then came my super brilliant idea of the day...
About 10 years ago I used to teach piano for a Pakistani family who would travel to visit relatives every year, and one year they brought me a couple of beautiful cotton saris.
I grabbed this one and wrapped us up and voila! It's beautiful, much cooler than the kangaroo, and she's evenly distributed. I also tried her face-out and it was a breeze.

So we took a lovely walk and my Youngest was able to look out at the world while we walked instead of being all scrunched up inside the sling.

I think she liked it.

Summer 9

Today was quiet at the fifthlampdown household.
The Elder and the Younger are away at Grandparent camp.
We'll see them again on Thursday, but not before they have lots of fun in a hotel pool and arcade, swim in a lake and spend time at the trailer and visit the Science Museum to see an exhibit about Pirates.
As for us grownups and the Youngest, we're laying low.
The weather is very humid and hot, so I spent most of today huddled in front of the tv watching one of my favorite movies of all time, knitting and recuperating from mastitis.

I'm combining today's Summer update with Yarn Along-
The Ariana Shell is coming along. I am in a section that is 14 inches of stockinette, so it's slow-going, but I can do it anywhere and not think about it.
I'm reading a biography of Abigail Adams called Dearest Friend by Lynne Withey for book club.
It's an interesting read.
There's a lot of John Adams in here, but not at the expense of Abigail's story. Ms. Withey makes the time period come alive. She puts in great details like how Abigail procured the goods to care for her house and feed her family, and what it was like raising children in colonial America.
So far, I would definitely recommend the book to history lovers.
What's on your needles and off your bookshelf this week?

Summer 8

I just spent the entire day winding this ball of yarn.
Well, that and a 4 hour nap...

Summer 7

What a lot of rain.
We've had stormy days here for a couple of days, and it looks like that trend is going to continue for a few more.
The lightning and thunder have been particularly impressive in the last hour or so.
We had a pretty low-key Sunday, no parties, no car trips, mostly we just hung out around the house and tried to stay dry.

For some that meant finding games on Dada's phone, and for others it just meant being close to someone that you love.
Happy Fathers' Day to all the Dadas out there.

Summer 6

Today was another busy one, but my last really busy day until the fall.
It began with a delicious breakfast with the soprano section of The Singers.
We indulged in perhaps the tastiest bacon I have had in years. Crispy on the edges, but creamy in the middle.
Mmmm. I wish I had another plate of that right now :)
We followed breakfast with our final concert of the year.
It was brief, just about 1/2 hour, but the music was amazing to sing and we had a very warm reception from the audience.
After I taught a quick knitting class we were off to a graduation party (our second this week) and now we're all exhausted and ready for bed.
Happy Saturday and Sunday to you all.

Summer 5

Today we met up with a dear friend and her children at the Como Park Conservatory and Zoo. (here she is snuggling The Youngest)
We try to get to the Conservatory at least once a year, and today I was reminded of a trip we took in 2008.

What a difference 4 years makes...

Summer 4

I saw a great quote on facebook today and I just had to share it here.

‎"It’s amazing how lovely common things become, if one only knows how to look at them." 
~Louisa May Alcott