Sunshine and Summertime

At the studio we have spent the last few days unpacking boxes of new bisque. Spent today getting all the new pieces out on the shelves. Tomorrow is movie night and we are watching Bolt!, one of my favorite new disney movies. We are also getting ready for summer camps that start July 6th and run for 7 weeks.
At home we are in a constant state of cleaning. Who knew 5 year olds made such a mess!! We are trying to plan some fun camping and other vacation trips because we just realized that June is almost over and before we know it school will be starting again!
Peep the Diva (as she is sometimes known) has been helping at the studio writing tickets for customers, and unpacking bisque. She is also helping at home by playing with the dogs and working in the yard. This summer is a little bittersweet for me. She is done with preschool and about to move on to Kindergarten. I want to fill the summer with all things "5". I want to suck up all the sweetness that she is and enjoy every minute of her.
She has a lollipop sale business at the studio and she is saving her money to take us to the beach. I can't wait!

The balancing game

Father's Day is this Sunday! And the Em's opening weekend is this weekend! We are taking advantage of this coincidence and will be attending two games this weekend. In the meantime we had an order arrive yesterday (got it all unpacked and put away...yeah us!) and a birthday party for 40 kids this evening. I'm thinking by tomorrow night I will be ready for a hotdog at the ball park.
It's a never ending attempt at balance. And I'm beginning to accept that it will never actually balance (the bookkeeper in me has a really hard time with this) but that the tilt of the scales go back and forth. The magic happens when you can keep them pretty darn close. And I'm doing a much better job at this these days.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads.
Congratulations to all the grads.
And keep up the great work to all the moms!

I amaze myself

So I had heard about this ping/pingle thing and was a little intimitated by the technology of it all. But tonight I sat down and figured it out. All by myself!! Yeah me!
Now it is my hope that I will be posting a little more frequently....we'll see :)

Two extra kids = 10 times the work!

As most of you know my husband and I have one beautiful daughter. And absolutely no plans to have any more. We are happy with our little family and enjoy the time we have together just the 3 of us. I am grateful to have a fairly big extended family whom we get to see frequently. This weekend for example we had my two nieces as houseguests while my brother and his wife had a little vacation. Their kids are 5 months old and 3 years old. Add to that our 5 year old and we had a house full of little girls. The house got messier than it has in a very long time. The laundry pilled up higher than I imagined (I forget how much laundry new babies make!). The volume of screeching laughter and giggles was tremendous. It was fun and silly and girly....basically it was fantastic!
Meanwhile the studio is working smoothly thanks to my amazing staff. I work a handful of shifts and this week one of them was Saturday from 12-5 so I could teach a clay class for a group of 7 year olds. I happily left the bigger girls home to play in the yard with Mike and the baby and I headed to work. It really brought back memories from when Courtney was little. We spent a lot of time at the studio when she was brand new. I had the playpen and all the paraphernalia that comes along with a new kiddo. This time however, I was not as prepared. We got through it, mostly because my niece is a trooper and the best little sweetheart since my own baby girl. I was impressed with my multitasking abilities if I do say so myself. We had a great time, the clay kids made some fantastic projects and I got to smell the sweet baby head sleeping in the baby pack. It was a fantastic weekend and I'm so thankful for my family, my staff, and my life.