Sarah: On Tuesdays, we wear pink

An otherwise fruitless trip to the thrift store was saved when Valori and I checked out a Series of Unfortunate Events notebook. Jackpot.

When your cheer squad needs a communal notebook, you find the first notebook around and make it work.

See? Fixed.
Now, what belongs in a cheer squad communal notebook?

Obviously. And now, the highlights:

Unconditional love. Except for burn victims (gross).
I support the showering rule, though.

Don't bossy. And also, don't bee a pig.

These are really just rules for life. Thank you, high school girls everywhere.

Lisa: our life now

A month ago, life at our house changed forever, and--I think--for the better. On June 21st at 7:46 pm, Hazel Madeline Smith was born. While I was in labor, Nora wrote Hazel a message in my notebook. Jeff helped her spell it, but I think the idea and the words are all Nora.

There's something so difficult but so incredibly magical about a three-year-old opening up room in her life for a new baby sister. I can't wait to see their relationship grow, and I can't believe how lucky I am they're both mine.

Lisa: you can't hide talent

My father, esteemed and eminently respectable attorney, doodled an imaginative interpretation of the hand of Robert Baden-Powell during church. Luckily, Sarah's sticky fingers did not allow this masterpiece to pass unnoticed into the wastepaper basket.

(Click to enlarge.)

Lisa: Live Life to the Fullest

In October of 1992, my deepest aspirations apparently included:

1) Playing pieced-together sheet music on the flute
2) Graduating
3) Getting married
4) Wearing ill-fitting clothing

and let's not forget,

5) Becoming a tiger.

Ah, junior high school, with your ridiculous assignments and even more ridiculous students. We couldn't get to high school without you.

Lisa: sorry

Lisa: Echinoderms (the low lifes)

Thank goodness Blake's mom had the forethought to save this science assignment. That's right, my friend, it's a comic book in which the phylums battle it out for control of the world--and the echinoderms WIN.

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

Blake may not be able to take full credit for this masterpiece. There seems to be a dispute over authorship with his friend Brian. All I know is that I couldn't let that keep me from immortalizing it here.

Lisa: perhaps the three plagues are dorkfaces, cover bands and cologne

Lisa: Hand-drawn Friday

We had our Bon Voyage party for Sarah and Marci at the Crown, and I felt the occasion called for a little festive headwear. I did an image search for some of the famous landmarks they'll be seeing in Europe, and drew simplified versions onto colored paper. Voila! Crowns at the Crown. It's not the first time, but it might be one of the best.

Canal houses in Amsterdam

Parliament building in Budapest

London's Tower Bridge

Tyn Church in Prague

Roman Coliseum

Hairy Coo from Scotland

I miss you guys!

Sarah: (Someone Else's) Handwritten Friday

I loved this little video (via A Little Hut).

What is your favorite letter?

Sarah: Why I Don't Scrapbook

My contribution to Handwritten Fridays was going to be something hilarious yet charming, scrawled in the most effortlessly adorable handwriting you have seen to date. You were going to envy the charmed life that I lead and wish you had my penmanship. Then I remembered that the script that exits my pen is not the fine lettering that I have described above. And Lisa's entry reminded me of the ephemera I uncovered when I moved out of my apartment. I present to you my quote book, circa 6th grade.

I was truly the Van Gogh of $2 colored pencils.

This collage is truly a post-modernist masterpiece.

I was alright at basic calligraphy, I think.

But not so much at basic spelling.

For more quality submissions to Handwritten Fridays (though slightly less inspiring than the quotes above, I'm sure), check out Lisa, Marci, Andrea, E, Claire, and Angie. Because they rock.

Lisa: Sorry, Mom.

I thought I'd kick off Handwritten Fridays with a few truly useless but laboriously handwritten items that have (against all reason) survived for THIRTEEN YEARS since their creation.

You see, kids, in the dark days before text messaging, public school students annoyed their teachers by passing long, detailed notes to each other, expounding upon the controversial topics of parental injustice, how close they were to failing Bio, and the heartbreak of unrequited love.

If that student of yesteryear were lucky enough, the object of her unreturned affections might pass her a sweet, encouraging note like this:

(Yes, since you ask, I had a crush on him for five years. Can't you see why?)

Lisa: a long time ago we used to be friends

I survived my ten-year high school reunion.

Blake was a good sport and came with me to the dinner part on Friday night. Here we are with Melissa (left) and Emily.

Here I am again with Charles, whose endlessly capable wife Mindy planned the whole reunion. In this picture I look about one-fourth as freaked out as I felt about the whole thing. My dress was pretty hot though--Sarah pointed out it was even worn to the premiere of Step Up by Arielle Kebbel, who played Dean's wife on Gilmore Girls.

Saturday morning we had a picnic so that everyone could bring their kids. Below: Jaak, Molly, me, Blake (not MY Blake), and Marianne.

The main thing I learned at the picnic was that all babies hate me. Seriously, I would try to hold them and they would look at me and scream, violently flail away from me, turn into a limp noodle in an attempt to slither down to the ground, or some combination of the three. I think they can sense my complete non-emanation of any kind of mothering vibe. Don't worry, Charles the 4th (below) was much bigger when I tried to hold him, so there was no actual breakage.

Saturday night I felt somewhat redeemed because these kids don't hate me.

They love me. But at least part of that is because I will draw pictures on the table-paper on demand. A tiger? A snake? A giraffe? Abraham Lincoln? You got it.

A tiny baby monkey? There's nothing I'd rather do right now than draw that for you.

In other but not less self-absorbed news, I now own a magenta RAZR phone. It is the awesomest phone of all time AND its camera has a special function just for taking self-portraits. That's right. Maybe I will use all of these...

to make one of those photomosaics where all the tiny pictures (of my face) make up one giant picture (of my face). Maybe then the gods of vanity will be appeased. You can only hope.