The Devious Snail plays in his school jazz band, which means that I get to hear more of this lovely trumpet being practiced in the evenings and sometimes even early in the mornings before he heads off to jazz band rehearsal before school.

The Banana had been looking forward to her golden birthday for years. It ended up being a ridiculously crazy busy day, but we managed to get a little celebrating in. One of her big requests was balloons!! Since it was her golden birthday, I splurged and purchased two bunches of…

I was gifted with a giant zucchini earlier this month, and it was so big that I had enough zucchini to make 5 dozen muffins and two chocolate cakes! I was very excited that my friend posted the recipe for her amazing zucchini chocolate cake on her blog. It was…

He’s growing like crazy. He’s also eating like crazy. He only has .25 inches to go before he passes me in height.

Since they will be in choir rehearsals every Sunday evening starting this week, I let them pick the beach for our Labor Day weekend Sunday night excursion, and they unanimously choose the sandy beach. They swam, turned cartwheels in the water, and ran races in the sand. The Banana brought…

Mr. TOF headed to fifth grade for his last year of elementary school. I miss my stay-at-home learning buddy, but he’s really excited to be back at school. These two are both in the same building again since The Banana has moved to high school. They crack me up all…

We were driving down the highway and we passed one fo those “Adopt a Highway” signs. She said, “Mom! Since you haven’t actually been able to adopt any children, maybe you would like to adopt a highway!!!!” I’m thinking it is not quite the same.

We drove to Stony Point, which was practically deserted, and the evening was picture perfect! The weather was astounding. The sunset was one of the best all summer, and we were blessed by driving back home with the most beautiful vibrant peach glow — it was breathtaking. The Devious Snail…

August was full of glory even though there was a lot of hot, dry and windy weather. Here are some little images from our yard and neighborhood.

Mr. TOF and I read a book about Venice, and I learned so many things I didn’t know about this interesting city, like how glassblowing and glassmaking has been an important part of the history of the city, and the history of the four golden horses on top of St.…