New Shoes and An Outfit Grammie Made...

Here is Helena all ready for school in an outfit Grammie made her, along with adorable tights and her new "shiny" shoes. We went to 8 places yesterday and finally found shoes narrow enough for her feet.

Helena is holding "Sugar" one of the American Girl Doll pets. She bought this on her birthday with her very own birthday money from Great Grandma and Pop-Pop. She was sooooo excited and felt so grown-up to be able to buy something with her very own money. "Mommy! I must be so big now b/c I get to buy something and pay for it with my very own money!" She kept exclaiming over this and every time I looked into the backseat on the way to the mall, she was sitting thre beaming. Who knew this would be so much fun?! I'd have given the child some money ages ago had I know haha.

Fairy Houses

Summer Camping

Haven't blogged in a long while, but not b/c there has been nothing to say: au contraire we have been very busy. But I'd like to try again to record these rapidly passing precious moments of Helena's growing up years.

In the last year, Helena has gotten *sooooo* tall! She's lost that roundness to her face and if you put any credence in Waldorf growth milestones, she could, at just 4 and 1/2 reach over her head to touch her opposite ear. This was around the same time that she learned to read. This summer she learned to swim, so it's been a year of milestones.

We took a solo mommy/daughter camping trip this summer up to Lake Harris and Goodnow Mt and had ourselves a lovely time. Mostly... Living on a dead end street with no street lights and no traffic and utter quiet, I was rather disgusted by the lights, noise and traffic on our campground. Seeing as I had no problems putting up our tent nor any problem making a roaring campfire with wet slabs of pine, I'm feeling some genuine backpacking is in the works for next year. None-the-less, we had ourselves an adventure: great campfire food, journaling, climbing Goodnow Mt and using our secret "girl power" ;) to rejuvenate us, she having a nightly s'more and last but not least, building some magical fairy houses.

The picture on top is of Helena resting on the summit of Goodnow. I was so proud of her hiking all 4 miles of it! She was also an excellent helper at the campsite, gathering kindling, helping to set up the tent, carrying dishes to be washed and more. A great little teamplayer!

The Brain Member

Helena has her own way of re-member-ing things. She locks it up in her "brain member". Then when she wants to see it she makes a little unlocking motion near her forehead wherein the facts unroll like a piece of paper. She writes down the recipe or whatever it is and then locks it back up. I love that she calls it a "brain member".

Red Neck Dreams

So Helena was playing just outside the garden in which Joe was working. She informed Daddy that her name was Lucy and this was her farm he was working on. He was the neighbor. Daddy said his name was Fred. Helena made sure that Daddy knew how to get to her house across the street so he could come visit. He could only stay for 9 days however, and then he *had* to leave! After they were clear on this, Helena - I mean Lucy - went off to water her dog whom she called Bubba (aka Starbuck).

Springtime Fun

May Day 2010

This year we attended a very old fashioned May Day celebration, complete with May Pole. Helena even got to participate when they asked for volunteers! Mostly she had fun that day hanging out with her friends, wearing her own May wreath and playing in the creek for hours. It was a very *hot* first of May!

More of the Tulips

Picnic at the Park

Several days before the crowds of the local tulip festival, Helena and I enjoyed a lovely picnic.