Giant James!

IMG_7162, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Here he is! The giant James! Still adorable! Still with the teen idol hair!

He can climb up on the couch himself and say my name. He is 17 months and very cool. And there's a new baby coming! I wonder what kind of big brother he will be. I think he'll be a great one!

Beanie's Birthday!

IMG_5587, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Happy Birthday, Beaniegirl! I hope you have a year of excellence down there in North Carolina! Good reports, good work days and fun weekends!

You still look like a teenager to me! Happy happy!

In Which We Travel

IMG_6538, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Down in NC for Johnny's birthday (old man!), we had many stay-at-home adventures, which I will tell you about later. But one super fun thing was playing Just Dance on the Wii.

Well, actually it was fun to watch everybody play, because they are doing the same dance moves and it's like watching one of those spontaneous dance numbers in musicals, but it's real life and with people you know. And you haven't lived until you've seen my brothers dance to Kylie Minogue.

In Which We Coin a NEW PHRASE!





A photo montage dedicated to my brother John. Introducing:





The Photo Johntage!

Piggy Banks!

heather 070, originally uploaded by feathermar.

I have a thing about piggy banks.
Well, to be honest, I have a thing about piggy banks and mugs and pitchers and tiny little odd one-offs and salt shakers without a pepper and shiny brooches and...well, I digress.

But this beauty is mine! Well, for a little while. I bought some piggy banks. They were so sad in the sun at a garage sale. But I saved her with her jaunty hat and her gold paint. She's a good girl. She saves her money! I can't walk past a face like that and not buy it. If she's not for me,she's for someone else. But I like her.

And...I bought another one while I was out. OH, piggy.

In Which We Create Our Moveable Photo Booth

IMG_5824, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Cost: 12 bucks!
One awesome photo frame and everybody gets a picture! Montage to follow!

Happy Birthday to me...

In which I celebrate my birthday

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without actually telling you about my birthday!
Because look at all of these AMAZING SPRAY PAINT colors! Yellow! Gray! Green! Pink! Two different Blues!
Andy got me a gift card so I could pick out all my own! You know I love to spray those altoid tins! Sweet Geez Louise. I couldn't wait to try out each and every one. Then I put button magnets in 'em to sell on my Etsy! Awesome.

In Which I am Reminded About the Greatest Tea in The Whole World


In May, Burns and Nat and I traversed down the coast to Chincoteague, where we met a lot of local people and saw the wild horses and made gluten free pancakes. This you knew. This I talked about.
But...what I didn't detail...what you don't know... is that we went to a real afternoon English Tea With Tiny Sandwiches and Awesome Scones.


It was at the Channel Bass Inn, and Barbara (the English innkeeper) was awesome. She made little cream cheese sandwiches, and really delicious ginger scones and told us stories of her Friesian exhubs, whose name was "Fokker" and you can imagine how hilarity insued.
Then we met David, her husband, who is a CHIMNEY SWEEP! No, for real!
And we shook his hand, because Burns said it's good luck!

(um, his tshirt says "Your Chimney Sweep Loves You" - awesome.)


And we may have danced around the living room a little.



And we took a tour of her gardens, which ranged from English to Japanese and everything in between. Barbara's gardens were rivaled only by her extensive collection of outdoor cats (!).


So, to sum up, if you're in the area - go hang with Barbara and David - you're in for a treat. Just don't eat breakfast - it's a three course tea!

Blast from the Past

IMG_9490, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Carter, 3 years ago. Now, she has no more baby face and all little girl face.

When the Bear was very tiny

Baby Sean with Grandpa's fingers, originally uploaded by feathermar.

When Seaniebear was first born, John and Bean lived here in New York. When Seaniebear was first born, Lochlain was a year and a half old. When Seaniebear was first born, I only had a FILM camera.
A lot has changed since then.
But now he is four. Happy Birthday, Seaniebear! I love you!

And I am late in blogging it.
(But I won't apologize because his dad hasn't written about anything since THANKSGIVING!)

In which Z is for Zeppelin



While in Maine, perusing the shops, I did see this awesome set of blocks with a Z is for Zep wooden block. I think that's weird and awesome.

In Which We Recap Some Excitement!

Katie and Gail and I went to Maine! To see the puffins, round two! We traded Colleen for Gail this year. I wanted to have them both, but the Stones keep telling me I can't always get what I want.


There it is. The great puffin. We learned that it is called "the clown of the sea." Gail was laughing while she recited that fact, but after she saw one she said, "Hey, it really is the clown of the sea!" True story.

On the boat, you stop sort of by this island with a lighthouse and a regular house on it. Then, you see the puffins far far away. Scientists reintroduced the puffins to Maine. They borrowed some from Canada, and then brought them here to mate. Next, they waited for the babies to come. Then all the puffins left, because that's what they do. But they come back to where they've mated or where they were born. Then the scientists left some kind of dummy puffins (fake, not stupid). And when the puffins came back, they thought it was safe, because the dummy puffins were there and having a safe time!

After you see the puffins, you leave to look for whales.
And guess what? We saw a mama and a baby whale and they were HUGE!

We saw them for a long time. Then we went back to shore.

Of course we wore some funny headgear...because why would you go on vacation without funny headgear?

and we ate at cool Bar Harbor places! (BA - Hah -Ba)

And saw Iron Man 2 at the Criterion!

And I got this awesome vintage Florn clock!

And this very cool orange tea tin!
Katie got some Gone With The Wind stuff. I also scored some birthday presents, which is always super awesome.
After we got home, I met Luke Healy!

Who was very suspect of me the whole time. I must say that he has a very nice round head.

Then it was July 3rd and Gail and Joe's Big Bash for Birthdays and Anniversarys and Of Course Our Nation's Independence. It's a long title for a party, for sure.

Our chocolate faced friend!

And we had a great time!

And Gail and Joe danced!

And Ed brought an island! (RIP the swan)
And I'll put together a cute kid montage for the next post! But I'm running out of daylight! And gas in my brain tank!

In Which I get a New Nickname


Went to Fire Island with Cat and Shannon and Alicia and Missy on Memorial Day weekend. Was fun and hot and beverage-filled. Note: If someone offers you Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier, take it! Take it and drink it and be thank me later.
I also walked around the beach with my spray on sunscreen approaching fellow pale-ys with the superhero words of "Are you wearing enough sunscreen? You are burning! Let me spray you!" I was like the Pope Of Sunscreen - "Close Your Mouth. Let Us (S)Pray."


The next day, Andy and me went to visit some of his friends and then went to visit some of my friends.

In Far Rockaway

In East Rockaway

With this guy

And this guy

And Miss Christine!
And then it was Ed's 40th surprise party...which I missed the surprise of!

But it happened and it was fun and I'll tell you more about it when I have time...but I'll leave you with this exciting new portrait:

smiles!

Picture 126, originally uploaded by feathermar.

James and my pops. Memorial Day. Jamie was running around and being a crazy person, but as soon as my dad picked him up he was all chummy and huggy and smiley.
Oh, boys.

Sometimes

heather 029, originally uploaded by feathermar.

it gets a little messy.
We do like to take pictures of ourselves when it's windy and Gail smooches the bebe. The hair starts blowing and...well, we still look good.

It's hard being soooo adorable.

In Which there is a Haircut

heather 011, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Gail cut the boy's hair, and I think it looks great...and I think he looks like a big boy. Crazy.

Feather's New Toy

IMGj, originally uploaded by feathermar.

I recently acquired the Fuji Instax Instant Camera. I love love love it!
I want to take a gabillion pictures with it and wallpaper my life. If only the film wasn't a billion dollars.
On a side note, look at James William in his short pants. He's awesome.

Easter mowing

IMG_2669, originally uploaded by feathermar.

I have been awfully sick and in a terrible way. But picture this: a few weeks ago, it was Easter! And we went to Gail's house! and there was ham! And it was delicious! And we took James outside and he mowed everything and then we went down to the schoolyard and he mowed everything else. And this is my favorite picture of that day!

IMG_2801, originally uploaded by feathermar.

John and Bean and Loch and Seanie and Rich and Carter came up for Roly's suprise 40th birthday! (Happy Birthday, Rol!) Because they were here anyway, Gail and Joe threw a little 1st birthday for James - more on that later. James is having TWO first birthday parties...mostly because they have a tiny house. This weekend is Jamie's real birthday! But it was great to spend time with our little friends...even if I had the stomach typhoid and thought I was going to die on Thursday and Friday! Even if I played freeze tag and thought that was the end of me for sure! Even if I was so tired at the end of the day that the mind-numbing "Barbie and the Island Princess" wasn't the worst possible thing to watch. Even if I couldn't eat the cool baseball cupcakes.

Where We Go To The Zoo!

Gail and Joe and James offered to take me to the Central Park Zoo to see the puffins for my birthday! That was in August, and with my terrible summer schedule and their school starting...well, March is when our trip came to fruition.
Wednesday we took the train in to the city and went to the zoo! After many subway elevators that smelled delightfully of urine, we were strolling around the city with a curious baby.

We got there just in time to see the Sea Lions feeding, where they put on a little show.

James was not so interested in the sea lions, but he did like watching all of the big kids running around.

These are the tufted puffins, which look different than I thought they would. James has this stuffed Noah's arc that has tufted puffins and I thought they were crazy looking fake birds from some crackhead toy designer. Turns out I was wrong.

James liked the sheep in the petting zoo.

Joe liked the giant cow...or bull...I'm not sure - I didn't look!

At FAO Schwarz, James found a toy he liked

a little rubber ball! He didn't even look at the jungle of stuffed animals in the front! He crawled around chasing his rubber ball, looking at the outlets they have in the floor and checking out the wheels on his stroller. He wasn't really interested in the rest...
While we were running around checking out how crazy awesome everything is...


James fell asleep.
We made our way back to the LIRR, and James eventually woke up.

He pretty much entertained himself

by staring

at all the crazy people on the train.

And we had a great time! Thanks for my birthday trip, Gail and Joe and James! It was superfun!