woodstock vt getaway

for our 5 year wedding anniversary we went to woodstock vermont and stayed at the woodstock inn and resort. what a luxurious place! we checked in around 3 pm and went out to discover the town.

our inn is in the background of this picture...

we stopped by a little townie cafe and had a shrimp, cheese cracker and fizzy izze snack to tide us over to our 8:30 dinner reservation.

after wandering the town, we headed over to the inn's athletic center and spa where we swam and went in the whirlpool and sauna. so relaxing. our dinner was at the restaurant in the inn, and we had an amazing meal that started with a mixed drink made with maple syrup, a cheddar cheese fondu, scallops and steak, new zealand wine, and then finished with maple creme brule. yum.

in the morning we checked out and headed down the street to the Mountain Creamery cafe for breakfast.

this covered bridge was right in town, so we walked over it.

then we headed to billings farm and museum, which i grew up going to. i probably haven't been there in nearly 15 years or so. it was a lot of fun to see it with adult eyes and remember how much i loved going there as a kid.

we got to pet the baby calves. some of them were only 3 days old.

after the farm, we headed up a dirt mountain road until we found a farm where they make their own cheese and maple syrup and give tastings. we bought 3 blocks of cheese, some cheddar and horseradish spread, and a pint of maple syrup. oh, and some maple sugar candies for ella.

then we headed back to the athletic center and spa, which we had day passes to, and we played tennis outside for awhile before relaxing in the pool area again.

it was such a lovely getaway. vermont is an incredible state and it was kind of cool to experience it for the first time as a tourist instead of as a vermonter. good times.

a rare sight

video of ella onstage

so here is ella on stage! she's the little monkey with the purple tank.

when i showed the video to elenora she said "where's the light show?" it took me awhile to figure out what she meant, but apparently she expected the video to be a lot brighter because the whole experience was so bright for her when she was on stage.

oh, and just as an aside for a clever thing she said, she put one of her stuffed animals (a bunny) on another stuffed animal (another bunny) and said "violet is having a bunny riding lesson."

stealing the show

elenora's ballet recital was fabulous. she was so excited about it and not nervous at all. we've been reading a book called "little ballerinas" that shows little girls in dance class and at the end of the book they go on stage to put on a performance. so she has been prepared for what the show will be like.

here she is just about to go backstage.

there's something about sending your little one through the backstage doors and having them shut with her on the other side...

...and then to see her come out on the huge stage with the lights shining down!

elenora danced a fair amount through the performance. sometimes she would start doing a move and kind of get stuck on it and not realize that the teachers were doing other moves, but the teachers were in the wings and ella was in the very middle of the stage, so it was hard for her to really keep focused on them. anyhow, i was so proud of her and i think she did great. she's the littlest and the youngest of all the girls in her class. she looked so small next to all the 4 and 5 year olds.

at the end of the performance i jumped up and ran out the back of the auditorium to collect her...

...so i completely missed her solo performance!!! apparently all the little girls filed off-stage, but elenora just stood in the middle of the stage by herself (to the audience's delight) looking adorable until one of the teachers came out and took her by the hand and led her out, waving, to great applause. talk about stealing the show!

as soon as i scooped her up she said "can i do it again, mommy?!?" and i said "not until next year, but you can dance all you want to at home."

5 years today

5 years ago i married my best friend. it hasn't always been easy, but at the end of the day he's the one i share my heart with and who makes me laugh.

when i got home from work today, j. had flowers for me and took me and ella to a garden shop to purchase a potted plant for the porch. i chose a salmon colored geranium plant. little did i know how much the hummingbirds would love it! it looks so beautiful on our back deck.

this afternoon i had to rush elenora over to beverly for her ballet recital rehearsal. she was so good and as soon as she came off stage she said "do i get to do it again?!"

i took her to momby's and then headed home. j. and i went out to dinner in newburyport at a little bar and grille where we could sit outside and overlook the water. afterwards, we decided to swing by j. and m.'s to babysit for them so they could go out and celebrate their anniversary as well. when we got home we took a nice long walk in the warm night air.

oh, i got j. tickets to tanglewood (the "wood" part of my anniversary gift) to see joshua bell in concert in august.

next friday we head to vt for a short get-away.

playroom

here are some photos of our playroom. on the floor are the contents of a package from mimi for elenora. we will eventually get a real chair for the corner that currently has just the little rocking chair in it.

here's the little activity table that i found. it's the perfect height and seats 4. i actually fit into the little chairs quite comfortably. the blue one is elenora's favorite.

elenora and i have been enjoying hosting playdates at our house the past 2 afternoons. yesterday aurora and s. came over and today e. brought penelope and baby eli. how fun to see the children running around and playing so happily and to not feel claustrophobic in our home!

here is ella playing with the seashells and magnifying glass her mimi sent her.

ella's potty training continues to go very well. she had 2 and 1/2 completely dry days, and has been wearing underwear instead of diapers or pull-ups for everything except naps and bedtime. we have taken multiple outings with training pants on, and she is able to hold on until we are at a bathroom again. it's pretty exciting after 2 and 1/2 years of diapers.

tomorrow is j. and my 5 year anniversary! he's going to take me out to buy me a potted plant for our stoop or porch. then after ella's ballet recital rehearsal, he and i will go to newburyport for dinner and a walk by the ocean. i have a very exciting gift for him... my hint is that this is the "wood" anniversary.

ella in our new home

elenora was playing one morning this week, and she was pretending that her bunnies were having a party. j. overheard her excitedly tell her bunnies that they would be having radishes and broccoli at the party, so he grabbed the camera... of course, she didn't really want to explain the party menu to the camera...

this is what ella and j. did the other evening as i got dinner ready...

day 4

again today, ella went poop on the potty. she wore underwear on an outing to appleton farms where we hiked for an hour and didn't have any accidents.

i'm so proud of her and hoping this is it.

a first

today was our first outing with training underwear (not pull-ups or diapers) on! and she stayed dry for the whole trip, which was about 45 minutes to an hour long. i'm so proud of her. and then before her nap she went poop on the potty for the third day in a row! hopefully this will be the big transition out of diapers.

napkins

elenora is suddenly a "big girl now". she sits at the table without a high chair, and sometimes without a booster seat. she likes to have a napkin during her meal and wipes her own mouth and hands so well that we barely have to clean her when she finishes. she's been pulling her own clothing on. she can go down the steps in our home without holding my hand (with me hyperly spotting her, of course). she helps me to do the laundry. and she is back on the potty training track. 2 days in a row she has gone poop on the potty. and this afternoon she kept her training underwear dry from the time she got up from her nap until her bath. she lets me know when she has to go pee on the potty, and she holds it until she's there.

she's napped the last 3 days, too, which is nice.

friday afternoon elenora and i went to s.'s house and it had been such a muggy day that s. pulled out a small kiddie pool and filled it with water for the girls to play in. i stripped ella down to her panties, and aurora went buck naked. i found 2 old blankets in my car and the girls alternated between jumping in the pool and making forts or rolling in the blankets. meanwhile, s. and i drank homemade sun tea and sat in the late afternoon sunshine. then we all had watermelon.

s. caught a few of these magical moments on camera.

it was the quintessential childhood afternoon experience.

a question elenora's been asking me lately is "where do people die?" i think that it is on her mind because momby's dog, crystal, is very old and has been sick and is likely going to die soon, so we've been preparing her for that. spud, another dog, passed away in the past year, and then ella went to h.'s grandfather's funeral a month or so ago, so i guess this is the third death that she is dealing with in some way. anyhow, on our way to s.'s the other day i think we passed by something that reminded her of crystal and her next, very serious, question was "where do people die?" i told her that people die all different places, but that mostly people die when they are both very old and very sick. i told her "you and i are not very old." and she said "is daddy old?"

god bless her. i reassured her that daddy is not old.

out with the old, in with the new

here's the last video from our old apartment. it was sort of sad cleaning the kitchen there for the last time... that was a good home we made for little elenora mae. that song "this is where we used to live" kept playing through my head as i moved the last of our stuff out.

we moved all our stuff on saturday with the help of friends. it was exhausting, especially since j. and i had moved so much stuff over just by ourselves during the previous week. after a lunch of subs and beer with our friends, i set to work pulling ella's room together so that she would have a non-chaotic space that felt like home.

the first thing elenora wanted to do when she came to our new home was to be placed in her crib to play with her friends. she was so excited.

momby brought us an amazing dinner saturday night. we ate on paper plates because i didn't unpack the kitchen until monday afternoon.

sunday morning we just sort of lazed around getting used to our home. then while ella was supposed to be napping (she goes days without sleeping during nap time) i went to the old apartment to clean for a few hours. i was so ready for a nap myself, but luckily momby helped me with the cleaning of the old place. then ella went home with her mamaw for a sleepover and j. and i finished cleaning the old place just in time to get dairy queen before it closed.

monday morning i worked, even though it was a holiday. i'm training the new auditor at work and wanted to start the week ahead of the game instead of behind. when i got home i unpacked the kitchen, which felt amazing. then we headed to the b's for a memorial day cookout. ella spent the night again so that we could stay after her bedtime and play games, but j. and i headed home early enough to take all the empty boxes out to the garage and consolidate them.

what a huge task it is to move house--even just a couple miles!

it was so good to get elenora back yesterday and have her in our new home after such a crazy weekend.

yesterday afternoon i went to target and bed bath and beyond to get a few home items. it was pretty discouraging to see the prices on things like curtains. but i found an activity table with chairs, some hampers, curtain rods, and a very cheap bookcase. i'll have to find curtains elsewhere. why aren't the panels sold in pairs???

here's a video of the upstairs of our townhouse, which is fairly well put together, though there are definitely things that still need to be done.

the downstairs isn't yet put together (other than ella's room) so i'll post video of that in a few days.