Bugs

These little beauties showed up on our porch the day we found of our baby is a girl.  They hung around for over a week.  Beholding them really inspires me to up my photography skills one day.

Front Yard Wonder

I occasionally have a pangs of sadness about the fact that my kids don't have a proper yard to play in.  You know--no grass, no fence, no tree house or mud pits.

But occasionally we have days like this where the kids get to romp in the puddle-lucious wonder made possible by the lack of grass and fence and mud.

Puddles are simply awesome...

...especially with rainbows in them.

Double rainbow!  

It was quite the celestial display.  Experiencing it felt like a serendipitous encounter akin to stumbling upon a spontaneous street performance.

And then clear skies.  Nothing sad about that.

Clarksville

I love our neighborhood.

We had no idea that when (by divine intervention) we were able to lease a space for Medici in Clarksville, we would come to love it so much.

It's rich in history, has nicely situated commerce, is full of fascinating neighbors, has two highly usable parks, and our very dear elementary school is tucked right inside.  And of course there's Medici smack dab in the center of all that. What's not to love?!

But we also had no idea that when (again by divine intervention) we bought our tiny little condo in Clarksville, we would grow to a family of seven.  What, seven?!  Still trips me out.

So now we are at a very interesting crossroads.  Five kids in this cozy 1000 sq. ft. just doesn't seem to be the plan, although we have done it quite happily with four. And I know millions of families around the world have more people and less space.  So I'm working hard not to have an attitude of entitlement based on our kid-per-square-foot ratio.

Bottom line is, my heart's desire is to move.

Options for moving within the neighborhood seem to be very limited.  But after a small freak out, I can now say I have total faith that the right place will come at just the right time.  But will that necessarily be in Clarksville?

I hope so.  There are so many treasurable memories to be made here...like these at Nau's Enfield Drug Store.

This place has been open since 1951.

Elia, her best buddies and the siblings got to drink milkshakes after school.  This is before the sugar rush, believe it or not.

Lauren is a reliably photogenic sweetie-pie.

Isabella, setting the tone.

Hannah, telling me to get out of her face with my camera.

Lauren's sister Kelsey and her mini-me.

Poor milkshake man.  He did more than his share of shaking this day.

Isabella's little sister and Austin's classmate, Andrea.

Bit-o-heaven.