Small spaces

Millie loves to sit in containers.

She packs up her dolls and they climb in to any available basket or tub. 

A cozy spot by the fire

 This is my favorite place to sit and read.

Typical

This is what it looks like around here in the mornings.

Everyone busy playing Legos in their pajamas. Even Millie.

His getaway failed

The Lego thief tried to escape by diving into Anja's coffee. Or something.

Fireplace

It was still on the cool side so we decided to take the opportunity to try our fireplace.

This is a feature the old house did not have and we are looking forward to using it next fall.

Local wildlife

I like the kind of nature study that can be done without any special effort on my part. This sociable squirrel was watching us have lunch.

We've seen him at Iso's house before (around here he's known as Iso's squirrel). He doesn't have a tail but it doesn't seem to hamper his movements at all.

Into everything

Now that Camilla is moving around quickly she gets into more mischief. Lately she has discovered cupboards. There are few of them that don't have latches in the kitchen.

The school cabinet in the dining room was full of paper. She loves paper.

Lost in a good book

She is a girl after my own heart.

She's reading Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild here, a book I have read many times.

These things happen

Mark left his cup of tea undefended and it was attacked by dinosaurs.

Roll it and pat it

Penny helped me shape the rolls for dinner. She had a great time.

 And the bread dough can take rough handling.

Can you spot the ones made by kids?

They love to eat their own creations.

Sitting outside

The weather has been so nice here that even the baby came out to sit this afternoon.

She's wearing vintage Finnish pajamas that belonged to me and my sisters. I think she might be the last baby to do so, the zipper is about to give out. They've had a good run.

Helena stirs the onions

for our refried beans. We've been a bit better about using our kitchen helper system. Penny is really going to want a day of her own soon and I'm not sure how to make that work. Having two days each week for the big kids was easy for everyone to remember.

The shoe basket

Sometimes Penny empties the shoe basket when she is looking for a pair of her shoes.

And sometimes she empties it so that she can have a place to sit.

Penny still loves

holding the baby. It just does not get old.

Shaping rolls

The kids love to make their own rolls. From left to right, Helena's, Henry's, and Nora's creations ready to go into the oven.

The tummy pocket

Penny likes to tuck things into her shirt. You never know exactly what she'll decide to tote around, but Legos and other small toys are the usual suspects. Today she and Henry were playing with cars and I noticed she was looking a little lumpy. She had 17 matchbox cars stashed in there.Silly baby.

Fall

Mark cleaned up the yard today and the kids had a chance to do some jumping in the leaves before they were bagged up. Fun!

Small spaces

Penny loves to crawl into little nooks and crannies. One of her favorite places to hang out is the bottom shelf of the bookshelf. She also likes to empty the board books from their basket and sit in it.

Busy baby

One of her favorite self-appointed tasks is to clear all of our shoes off of the shelves in our closet. Today after finishing that she decided to empty the laundry basket as well.

Our raspberries

are ripening. We check on them every afternoon.