Envy Warning: My Kid Has Mad Skillz at Looking "Touched"

Though this may not seem like a critical life skill, nonetheless, Atticus is gung-ho about perfecting the skill of instantaneously looking touched in the head. And he can do it in a multi-varied spectrum of idiotic expressions. Here: replete with a feigned booger-tasting flourish.

The slightly-off version where he can move only one eye inward and skew his mouth just so.

Perfection.

Proof that he is indeed quite handsome.

He has also taken on an apprentice though she has, thankfully, yet to be able to cross her eyes.

 

For the finale, let's take a gander at the magnum opus.

Building a Family for 40 Years!

Two weekends ago we drove down to my folks on a Saturday morning and completed a surprise for my mom and dad's 40th anniversary. They decided to take a trip by themselves to the Smokies over their actual anniversary in early June. But us kids wanted to at least get together for a low-key meal to say congratulations and let them know we love them. My sister-in-law came up with the idea of trying to surprise them. So it went like this: Bekah called them that Thursday and said she had a few days off and was coming down. (She hadn't been down there in quite a few months but is known to be spontaneous like that so Mom and Dad didn't think too much of it.) Then my sister-in-law Lindsey and brother Aaron said they were coming up for a couple days since they wouldn't be seeing them until our week together at the end of July. So they drove up with their two kids. My mom had to work Saturday morning until 1 pm. So my brothers, sister and sister-in-laws all conspired together to say the kids were going to eat a later lunch so let's go to the park and have mom come over after work. My brother Jonathan ordered pizza from a neighboring town. Brad and I left with the kids early Saturday morning and made the 5-hour drive down to pick up the pizza and other picnic supplies. Then we drove to the city park and kid in our van in a cul-de-sac until my mom showed up. Then we sent the kids down to where my parents were watching the other grandkids playing. We achieved a fun and successful surprise (-: Yay! Congratulations, Mom & Dad for 40 years of faithfulness and steadfastness in marriage and family.  The more I see the hurt and brokeness of families disintegrating, rippling down and out through friends and family and generations, the more I am deeply, soberly thankful for your commitment to each other and to our family.

All the rest of the photos are from my sister-in-law Lindsey (which is why she never shows up in the pictures )-:) except the instagrams which are from my sister Bekah (I had photo-editing mishaps with my computer, so most of mine are gone.)

Thea Belle

Grant

Clark, because I didn't get him in the park photos

Felicity, for the same reason

My sister-in-law Robyn and niece Daphne

Mom & Deke on the back porch

My brothers Aaron & Jonathan with my dad in the back yard

Grant & Atticus

Grant

Lilly

Some Pretty Things

Felt flower headbands I found via Bleubird blog. You can find them at Pretty Little Things on etsy.

Ace & Jig clothing company...found it via the blog From Me to You.

Amazing felted wool rainbow rug...I can't remember where I found this but there is a very similar one here.

led string lights with "flower" covers made out of egg cartons (diy here)

Dress obsession: Moulinette Soeurs (just about everything they make); Often found at Anthropologie. I WILL master this "Reed" pattern...might take a few years of experimenting with dress-making. But my dressform and me are ready to take it on. I have decided to champion for making the un-dowdy housedress be the old-lady uniform again. Maybe by the time I am 70, I will wear my hair exclusively up in braids and only wear cotton dresses.

Diamond Point Bow Ties are my favorite.

A helpful visual catalog of different types of bow ties from the Cordial Churchman website.

If I magically woke up and looked like Penelope Cruz I would wear this dress with something I have labeled in my brain as Sohphia-Loren-Italian-Summer-Vacation-c.1966- High-Heel Wedges. And red lipstick.

from Giant Dwarf

Before...

My grandmother Helen Beatrice (Crull) Ackland and my grandfather Jeff (Jefferson Baldwin] Ackland [my dad's parents]; This grandma is the one I remember most because she was very involved in my life. She died of cancer when I was a freshman in college. My grandfather was quiet and hard-working and tall and lanky. I don't remember much about him because I was 8 (?) when he died of cancer. I remember sitting on the front cement steps of the farmhouse eating a spoon of peanut butter with him -- we both *loved* peanut butter. I remember him sitting long-legged cross-legged at the kitchen table reading the newspaper while my grandma made breakfast -- always bacon and eggs and toast and strong coffee.

My grandmother Geraldine (Beulah) (Mitchell) Trout and grandfather Homer Trout [my mom's parents]; My grandmother died of a heart attack when I was also 8. I only remember that she liked game shows and cats and smiled easily. My grandpa drew quite well, always dressed dapper, liked fast, sleek cars, flea markets, people, and had false teeth that he would use to great effect by suddenly rising from a couch-nap to roar and drop his teeth causing all of us waiting grandkids to squeal and screaming laughing from the room. Every Christmas he gave each grandkid a brand-new box of crayons and a new coloring book. He loved brand-new crayons. Once he drove his car on a town sidewalk because the traffic was too slow and he always told me stop signs were merely "suggestions". I may or may not have dreamed that he one time completely "Duke of Hazzard-ed" over a drainage ditch whose bridge had been removed for repairs. I will always believe that it actually happened.

My great grandmother Mae (Hill) Crull [My Grandma Ackland's mother; She died when my grandmother was very young.] When my grandmother died she left me her mother's garnet and pearl in rose gold wedding ring. I never wear it because I am afraid I will lose it.

My great grandfather John Crull [my Grandma Ackland's father]. I know virtually nothing about him except that he and Mae had 8 (?) children together and that he had farmed up near Freeport, IL. It has been a family legend that his ancestors were horse thieves, but I don't actually know this to be fact.