A long overdue update

A few weeks ago, Grandma and Grandpa R came to visit on their way to Holland on vacation. We had nice and sunny weather while they were here, but our brief beach trip certainly wasn't as warm as our other recent trips.

Visiting Crane Beach on a very windy day

Walking with Grandpa, whom she has started calling Baba

Clearly low tide

Posing with our chilly girl

A couple days after Grandma and Grandpa left, Avonlea Jane was in The Clothes on Their Back, a charity fashion show for the Salem Mission. All of the models were wearing clothing provided by local merchants, and Avi was one of the child models for Crunchy Granola Baby.

Arriving in her organic beach outfit. It was a little chilly, so we had to add a long sleeve shirt.

Refusing to wear a sunhat

Lining up to walk

A few days later, Avonlea Jane got into Mommy's make-up again. With her second lipstick attempt, you can see her application skills are improving, as she actually put it on her lips and not the toilet, floor, walls, and her hands like last time.

Avonlea Jane has a subscription to Wild Animal Baby magazine that her great-grandmother, Mawmaw gave to her. She absolutely loves these magazines and carries one with her almost everywhere. Whenever a new one arrives in the mail, she promptly takes it to her rocking chair, where she reads it cover to cover.

Getting her magazine about baby skunks in the mail was excellent timing, because later that week she got to see a baby skunk at the Peabody Essex Museum. Every Wednesday, the museum has a storytime and a craft for kids, but during school vacation weeks, they also have guest events for kids. The week of Patriots' Day, the museum was visited by a whole host of critters. Avonlea Jane got to see a baby skunk, a tarantula, a tortoise, a flying squirrel, an alligator, a chinchilla, a milk snake, a python, a parrot, and an iguana.

Leaving the PEM with a drum she covered in tissue paper during the craft time. (She did the top and bottom by herself.)

With the nice weather we've been having, we finally decided to do our front landscaping. You can see in our "before" pics that the front of the house was rather uninspired.

While we did the work outside, our pack 'n' play finally got its first use. Avonlea Jane was content to hang out with toys and snacks for three hours.

Watching Daddy plant

The "After" shots:

It will be nice to see what everything looks like as the plants mature and fill in.

For David's birthday this year, I had the above portrait done of the house.