"Look at my new pants!"

There is just one single quote from this week, but it had me pathetically rolling on the floor.  Grandma was kind enough to send a new, real outfit (of which Andrew has ZERO since I do 95% of his shopping at consignment sales).  The child hardly new how to contain his excitement.  He opened up the matching shirt and shorts and while jumping (as he does), exclaimed, "Look!  New pants and they don't even have holes in them!!!!".  I kid you not!  Straight from his mouth. Now, in my defense they were new shorts, rather than pants, so of course they didn't have holes in them.  But he's right.  Every single pair of pants that he had this winter wore a hole just below the left knee.  It's no wonder the way he jumps/slides/falls, always on his left knee.  Most of them were Children's Place on sale for $6 the week before Christmas.  I refuse to give up on a deal like that!  So I had them all professionally patched, week by week, for another $6.  Well, you can guess how long that lasted. This was the only reason I was excited for our unusually warm March.  Then April had to come...unusually cold, of course. At least he never got a note sent home from school about needing new pants...or for wearing shorts when it was only in the 40's! 

When Daddy was out of town Saturday, we decided to do some birthday shopping at Barrack's Road (i.e. new work shirts from Jos. A Bank.) Since everyone was cooperating, we decided to stroll ALL the way down to Harris Teeter for their daily deals.  Of course a trip to HT means a cookie (making it the best grocery store EVER!).  Walking back, Andrew talks Margaret into giving him hers. The sweet girl obliges. Andrew took two big bites and said, "Look, Mom.  A boat!"  And by golly, look at that!  I should say he was right!

Chilling on the bench next door in Angel and Heather's yard...
perfectly pint sized for Margaret and Annabell (5 months older).

Margaret LOVES wearing her sunglasses, despite the hand grip here.

After a stunning 4 inhabited nests up under our deck last spring, I had not checked this year...though I suspected activity due to the flurry of birds on the deck this year snatching the last bit of coco liner from my empty window boxes, last year's attack on me and subsequent downfall of several babies that could not yet fly led me to leave well enough alone so far. But I finally got the nerve to grab the ladder and check. Would you believe I came down that very day to see TWO nests on the ground? 

I have no way of knowing what happened, but it can't be good when you see bits of light blue egg scattered around.

So sad.

I am always fascinated by the perfect insides of a nest.

One morning this week, a teary Andrew emerged from his room first thing because Daddy wasn't home to see how clean his room was.  We'd spent a good 20 minutes the night before carefully putting everything away. I should have thought to have Daddy come look then.

The best mail I've received all year - my 10" locks were successfully received and accepted for use in a real-hair wig for a cancer patient. I love how they phrase it....“Thank you for giving so selflessly to women who are faced with hair loss from cancer treatment. Your healthy ponytail will help give self confidence back to a special woman who is battling cancer so that she can fight the disease with a little more dignity….your donation will be joined with five others and transformed into a high quality, real-hair wig…”