makeup, music and magic

it's finally happened.

i overheard other moms telling me stories of their little girls getting into makeup drawers and investigating the goods. but harper never seemed interested.

until sunday.

all was quiet. i was picking up the house. michael was taking a quick reprieve from moving wheelbarrows of mulch around the yard.

out of the corner of my eye, i caught her. sitting on the floor outside of the bathroom, all quiet as a mouse. eye shadows surrounding her. small green compact and powder brush in her tiny little hands. i grabbed my camera and snapped away, and she seemed to completely ignore me for the majority of my pics. she'd look up occasionally, like oh, hey mom, just playing in your makeup.

***********************************

on monday, we had our last music class for the semester, and have until the fall for classes to resume. harper has been taking music classes since she was 6 months old. at first, i was doing it more for me, to give her and nana an outing to attend. but we've continued to sign up and after 5 semesters, harper truly enjoys her time with her friends and the teacher, ms. angela. she loves to dance around the room to all the songs. she squeals when the egg shakers or drums are pulled out. she hoards (or attempts to) a majority of the instruments during the free play song. she belts out sporadic words to all the songs that we've learned in class and on the cds over the 9 week semesters. she hugs ms. angela at the end of the goodbye song. she requests songs by name while we drive in the car. i love watching her be inspired and thrilled with music. music fills me with a variety of emotions and brings back memories. i only hope that these classes fill harper with good emotional memories, too. they definitely have for me.

the whisper song...shhh...shhh...shhhhhh

dancing away. the big mirror often sparks the dance moves.

and the poor old tree said "oh no!"

our friend, bryce. we often visit the park after music mondays with bryce and his brother, graham and their mama, katie.

********************************

chalk is a magical thing. a colorful box of wonder and amazement, which creates hours of fun and sparks awe in little eyes. i bought a {crate} of 52 pieces of chalk, hopefully to last us through the summer, providing endless possibilities on the driveway. hopscotch. name drawings. driveway cities like i used to create growing up. nothing says summer like chalk covered hands and feet.

and i just had to include this photo, because it's magical to me. {daddy and daughter sweetness}

beautiful littles

it's time for another beautiful littles post of all the things we're loving at this moment. some days there are too many to count, so here's a smattering.

a new favorite breakfast

start with some blackberries/raspberries/blueberries or combination, pour on greek yogurt, a bit of honey and muesli cereal (or granola) and you've just tasted heaven. i swear if i could only eat this every day for the rest of my life, i would be a happy girl.

skype

being able to connect with family and friends, whether you're 5, 50 or 500 miles away matters. and now, instead of just hearing their voices, we can see what they're up to. one morning, harper wanted to call papa. he and nana live no more than 7 miles from us, but to see the smile on her face when we dialed him up and suddenly his face appeared on our screen was magical. i grew up with corded phones and the bagged cells. harper actually gets to see anyone she wants to talk to. (maximus is even mystified by where in the world papa came from. and apologies for the crummy camera settings that turned my dad red!)

opameal

i adore the way she asks for oatmeal in the morning. opameal? and she devours it. it took me years of getting over the mushiness of it and forcing myself to eat it because i know it's good for me to really start enjoying it. i'm thankful that she has liked it from the start.

out of this world sandwich

i discovered this on another blog, and i know i've had something similar to it years ago, but this is a.maz.ing. sesame seed bagel. hummus spread on both sides. feta cheese sprinkles. alfalfa sprouts. cucumber slices. tomato slices. i think i've eaten it 4 times in the past week or so. of course, every time i made it i was so looking forward to eating it that i forgot about my camera, or else didn't have it with me, but just imagine the taste. it's divine.

oh these are the people in your neighborhood...

being able to walk down 3 houses and find a very close friend to chat with, dance with, count toes with. harper and hunter magically light up and spin into little balls of energy and laughter when they get together. and the moms and dads sit back and watch, soaking in the smiles and catching up on things. looking so forward to this summer and what kind of trouble these 2 can get into.

my new lens and the way her eyes pop

i haven't even hit the nail on the head with what this lens can do, but from the second i put it on my camera body, something clicked. her eyes turned more blue. her personality started to shine through more. the background blurred so as not to distract the viewer from the main focus of the photo. and i look back now at everything i have snapped before this lens, and i think uggh, what an amateur. this lens makes me feel so much more professional. (this picture doesn't do her eyes or my lens justice, but there are more to come.)

bathtime

she's starting now to want to do all the washing up herself. she pours the water on her head and uses the washcloth in her other hand to wipe off the drips in her eyes. bathtime is so peaceful, and there was a brief phase only a few weeks ago where she didn't even want to take a bath. but now she's back to enjoying it.

hope you're enjoying your beautiful littles today. we had lots of activities this weekend, so more pics to come.

a long, rambling post

so, i have lots of pictures to post this time. surprisingly, because last week, my camera fell out of the car onto pavement and the lens popped off. and then it wouldn't stay on. i took it into the camera shop and they told me it wasn't worth fixing it, and that i should purchase a new and better lens. nice way of saying my current lens was kind of crappy. and i'll admit, it's not the best, it came with the camera body, but it was getting us some great shots and we were capturing her life. but alas, i just had to research a new lens and finally ordered it on friday. should be here this week and i'm so excited! better pictures (hopefully) to come. although i have to keep telling myself that it's not the camera and lens that make the photographer, it's the photographer behind the camera and lens that make the photographer.

first off, we were blessed with some sunshine for the first time in days! i took advantage of it to get some sun flare shots throughout the weekend.



and we made a pie for a bbq with friends saturday night. oh, delicious little girl, she has to try everything she helps me whip up.

we lapped up some fruity popsicles on our front porch after a yummy lunch while our eyes were shaded with some fabulous specks. harper loves to accessorize, and glasses have become a new favorite thing.

sunday brought a busy morning. we started out with a family run at the park. well, michael ran, as he is training for his 10k in a few weeks, and harper and i walked and played on the play structures. actually, after only a few minutes, harper wanted to get out and run to find daddy. and that girl ran! for almost 1/2 a mile with only a few stops. she's a dancer, a runner and a climber. loving her energy.

we ended our run to find daddy waiting patiently for us on the other parking structure, needing some rest after his 60 minute trek!

harper watched daddy climb up the curved ladder and then wanted to try it herself. and she pretty much only needed a little guidance and some daddy hands on close watch in case she slipped. otherwise, it was all her little strength and determination that got her to the top.

here's daddy just monkeying around.

on our way home, we stopped at nana and papa's for a quick visit. one of harper's favorite things to do is to look out the window at the pond behind their condo and search for duckies. she's thrilled when she seems them swimming around.

before naps, we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and plant our vegetable seeds in our garden. michael finished the building of the structure and filling it with compost and soil last week, and we just had to wait for the rain to stop and the dirt to settle a bit before we planted. harper made sure she had her "gubs" and shovel, but instead got her hands directly in the dirt and helped me sow. did i know what i was doing? nope. do i have a green thumb? don't really think so. but that's the fun of it, trying something new and out of my comfort zone to show her that she can do anything she wants. and if mid-summer we end up with still only a pile of dirt and a weekly visit to the farmers market for our produce rather than being able to walk in our backyard, then we research more, plan better and try again next year.

after long naps, we lounged for a bit. harper loves to lounge on daddy and they giggle and chat and read books and talk about their days. it's sweet to witness.

at the end of the day, as the bathtub was filling up and i was vacuuming up the grass and crumbs from our perfect-for-us weekend, harper came running into the kitchen and wanted to help me. so, i brought up an old favorite. our tiny upright was the first vacuum that michael and i had in our apartment, and i held onto it with the intent that someday, our children would {hopefully} take to imitating mommy and daddy doing chores and it would be the perfect size. and it was. she had the biggest smile on her face, and was so proud of the work she was doing to help. i'm going to hold onto this picture and show it to her in 10 years and remind her how much she begged to help. i'm certain there are child labor laws against this, right?

glad you made it to the end of this long post. thanks for sticking to it. see ya next time.