{This Moment} At The Pool

{This Moment} A weekend ritual. A single photo -no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Wishing you a weekend of happiness! xo 

Catching Up

Hello, lovely blog reader(s)! My apologies that my entries have been so inconsistent lately! I had all intentions of posting far more than I have and for one reason or another the end of each day arrives and I haven't achieved that goal. It's hard to believe that I have been blogging for nine years now, and there are many times (especially lately) where I feel like the things I post here are too repetitive, too predictable. and so I hold off on sharing which creates long gaps of time between one post and another. I do love sharing about our days and I love that a record is being generated of the girls' childhoods so completely (and I really do need to start printing it out in book form one of these days. So, in an effort to not get too much father behind I figured I'd share a few pictures and stories about what's been going on since I last posted a week ago.


This past autumn, the girls and I were invited to join this wonderful Waldorf co-op! Over the last couple of years I have been feeling like we should find a co-op to be part of but had never found one that felt like a good fit for us and then lo and behold we were invited to join this one! Ryan and Kelsey are two mamas that I had met years ago when all our girls were little. We would gather for lantern walks and other festivals with many of the other area Waldorf homechool families but since the girls and I weren't really there enough (other than the festivals) we didn't know people very well. Fast forward to this past summer when Ryan put out an announcement about a book club and the rest is history. That one time at book club lead them inviting us to join their Thursday co-op. We were honored to have been invited and started getting together with the group on Thursdays in December to do holiday crafts. The co-op is four families, each with two daughters and if you saw all eight of these little girls together you'd think they'd been together since they were babies hanging out on blankets! 

 The new co-op session began last Thursday with the group working on free-hand geometry (which is awesome since that is not a strength of mine). They meet each Thursday from 10:00am-2:30pm and in the words of Grace "It's like the best of both worlds, mama! We get to go to school with other Waldorf homeschooled girls while still being homeschooled!" The timing of this co-op coming into the rhythm of our days could not be any more perfect!

Sadly. our lovely Thursday ended on a not so lovely note. On my way home from the gym I got in an accident. I was at this red light, signalling to turn left, with no one across from me. When the light turned green I began to turn and shortly after noticed a car was coming directly at me at a rather high speed. I knew that if I didn't do something I was going to end up with this car plowing through the passenger side of my car. I drove in such a way that the brunt of the impact happend to the passenger side quarter panel (and the bumper and the drivers side quarter panel). And the worst part is, the car that hit me KEPT ON GOING! They didn't stop and see if I was OK, they just fled the scene. Needless to say, I have been pretty shaken up since and while I have never been a nervous driver before I sure feel like one now. I have NO desire to get back behind the wheel any time soon if truth be known, but sadly I am going to have to face that fear soon as there are days that Dave's not home until after bedtime and I don't want to have to ask for constant rides to and from the studio from the other dance moms for the next month or more.

On Saturday, Grace baked four dozen cookies for the youth group bake sale. Though none of us Tschernes were going to be at church on Sunday (me, because I have to be at work-church and Dave and the girls because they have to be at Wachusett) we still want to make sure that we are supporting the events and activities that go on at Plymouth and we knew that these cookies that everyone loves would be a good stand-in for all of us! Sadly, we weren't able to get them there before Dave had to go to work, but in the end it all worked out! Jane and Bill came to our rescue, 

bringing a Valentine surprise for the girls and joining us for dinner! Sharing a meal with them was just what we all needed after how crazy things had been since my accident (and it got me out of the funk I had been in ever since)! So, while our weekend started on a not-so-great note it sure ended ona lovely one (and another Patriots Super Bowl win to top it off too)! xo 

Homecoming

In which we see Sydney and her boyfriend before they head to the homecoming dance this evening! xo 

A Sweet Surprise For Grace And Emma

A few months ago, my dear friend Sade took a cookie decorating class from a super talented cookie artist. After seeing what she created that night, I commented that I'd love to go with her sometime. So, when another class came up she invited me to come along. While I had a blast, it was clear that Sade has much more talent in this area than I do, and has been working to perfect her craft ever since. Last week she told me that she would love to decorate some cookies for the girls and asked me for some ideas for shapes/themes. 

Inspired by Grace's deer doll, and knowing how much the girls love woodland creatures, she made some sketches and created these beautiful cookies for them. 

She shared the above picture on Facebook and we hatched a plan for when she could come by and drop them off. I didn't tell the girls a thing (after all, ya'll know how much I  love to surprise them). This past Sunday, before Sade and her family went to church, they stopped by with the gorgeous cookies. And as I knew would be the case, the girls were over the moon when they saw them! 

They arrived in a bakery box, with a few in bags. Sade wanted us to decide if the bags helped keep them fresher longer (the consensus was, they do). 

Thank you, Sade, for creating such gorgeous cookies for the girls! They were as delicious as they are beautiful and we are honored to have been the recipients of some of your lovely creations! xo 

On Boxing Day

The day after Christmas, Boxing Day, has traditionally been a day of mellowness and Lego building for our family. I'm not sure when or how this became our tradition, but that's how it's been for as long as we've been parents (and especially so once the girls were old enough to be into Legos).

This year though, after a very mellow first part of the day, we spent the second part of our Boxing Day with some of our very dearest friends. Bowling (candlepin) and eating ice cream (at our favorite place) was a glorious way to end another lovely Boxing Day! xo

{This Moment} Friends

{This Moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo -no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause savor and remember. If you are inspired to do the same leave a link to your moment in the comments section for all to find and see! We wish you a weekend full of happiness! xo

At The Lake

Today was our first trip to the lake this summer! It's hard to believe that we waited this long to go, but we thought it might be wise to wait until after the initial summer rush was over (i.e. after the 4th of July). Our dear friends Jennifer and Abigail met us there, and since Abigail will sadly not be able to attend Grace's birthday celebration this weekend she brought a little something for her to the lake today. It was such a lovely surprise! xo

{This Moment} Lifelong Friends

{This Moment} A Friday Saturday ritual -no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraoridinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link to your moment in the comments section for all to find and see. We wish you a lovely rest of the weekend! xo

Breaking the "no words" rule this week to put some words to this sweet picture. Grace and Abigail have been friends for almost ten years. Jennifer and I met at a playgroup when the girls were tiny, eight week old babies laying on blankets while we chatted. What started out as a sweet friendship between mamas has grown into a sweet friendship between mamas and their daughters (with Emma joining the mix about eighteen months later). What a gift to have a friend for your entire life. My hope and prayer is that they remain friends for the rest of their lives, too! xo

A Beautiful Wednesday

An absolutely glorious day like today called for an outdoor adventure with friends! xo

Pottery Painting

February Break + pottery painting = a great way to catch up with friends! xo

Sunday Fun

Any day that involves a giant slip 'n slide is definitely a fabulous day! xo

A Gathering Of Friends

 For the last few years Grace has chosen to have her birthday celebration with her friends at the lake in town. It's always a joy to have everyone there with us and this year was surely no exception. The weather was incredible (thank you, Mother Nature!) and everything about the day was simply fabulous! 

The sunflower theme was so absolutely perfect for our summer birthday girl. It wasn't something that we had planned, but rather something that happened very organically. As soon as she decided to put a sunflower on top of her birthday cake the rest just fell into place. From there it was decided that she'd like cupcakes with sunflowers for her friend gathering, and after that we were fortunate to happen upon the final packet of sunflower seeds at the farm when we stopped by to pick a few things up for dinner. "Let's decorate little envelopes with sunflowers and put a few seeds in for each family as a thank-you gift." I suggested. She loved that ideas so much that that's just what she did. 

 Thanks to a recommendation from the girls beloved yoga teacher and our dear friend Alexandra we found an amazing cupcake shop for the cupcakes for Grace's gathering. With the renovations going on I knew that it would be best not to take on the baking and decorating of cupcakes this year, and goodness we are so very glad that we went this route! The cupcakes from CocoBeni Confections in Northborough are simply the best around! Everything about them was fabulous and if you are local to us we highly recommend them for all your cupcake needs! We were thrilled to see that they offered mini-cupcakes (as that is really what we wanted for this celebration) and just loved how gorgeous they all came out! Jess is beyond talented, and we are so very glad to have had the chance to meet her and have her decorate these sweet cupcakes for this wonderful gathering yesterday. Thank you, Jess, the cupcakes were a big hit and we'll definitely be buying cupcakes from CocoBeni for years to come! 

 A gorgeous setting to celebrate her ninth trip around the sun. 

These two have known each other since they were about three months old and have celebrated every birthday together (they are two weeks apart). Their friendship is so very sweet and it is my hope that it continues for the rest of their lives. 

 Allison painted this picture just for Grace. Such a sweet gift and as soon as the renovations are done we'll be hanging it up! 

 "Mama, look, it's a deer!" 

 You cannot go wrong with a Magic 8 Ball! We've had lots of fun with this one already! 

This year in lieu of gifts Grace asked that her friends bring donations for the animal shelter. She was so excited to see all the wonderful things that everyone selected for the dogs and cats! Thank you, friends, for helping the animals in honor of Grace's birthday! We can't wait to drop off these wonderful gifts at the shelter. We know that they will be very much appreciated!

Thank you, friends, for coming to celebrate with us! Having you all there truly was the cherry on top of the sundae that was Grace's ninth birthday! We hope you had as much fun as we did, and we look forward to many more wonderful celebrations with all of you! xo