Its been a busy week. We've had some kind of get-together every night this week, and its been really fun. Things are coming together with the house, furniture has been purchased, some pictures have been hung, but we kind of forgot to start settling in socially. Its nice to have started that. Even Milena is making some friends.

Claire definitely has the advantage. She's friends with EVERYONE in her class. Then a few weeks ago she moved from Kindergarden to first grade, and so now she's friends with TWO classes. We'd put her in Kindergarden again because of different age requirements in WI vs.

Maine. We figured a second year of kindergarden never hurt anyone, but I guess she was paying attention last year and didn't need a repeat. First grade is awesome, I'm told.

I've done a bit of painting. Claire's room used to be pink PINK! Pepto-pink. I thought it would be fun if she got to pick the new color. But she's artistic, and that didn't go well. She was talking about painting squares and stripes and swirls and using 17 different colors of paint. So I told her that I would be picking the colors, and she finally agreed to that as long as there would be 'more than one color, Mom'. So there are three, and it turned out really well. I have before and afters, I'll post them later.

Then I gave our bathroom a facelift. It used to be a lovely mint green:

And now its so much better:

It felt good to paint over the green with a really nice brown. I took out the big bulky white blinds and put window film up, which I love. I hung some pictures. Then I got some towels and rugs that match, a new shower curtain, and suddenly its like a new room. Milena's is next.

Also, last weekend we went to Green Bay, and the highlight of the trip was the zoo. I love this picture:

Claire drops the giraffe's cracker when she is surprised by its tongue poking through the fence, looking for that cracker. Good stuff.

6

Claire turned six on Tuesday. The highlights were bringing blueberry muffins to school, going out for pizza and of course opening a few presents. She's having a party this weekend, and we're all looking forward to that.

Settling in.

We've been at the new house for almost two weeks now, and things are slowly getting to where they need to be. You can tell which rooms we spend the majority of our time in: the kitchen, living room, and Mike's office. Those rooms are pretty well set, but the others still need some attention.

Its so nice to be able to just move right in, as opposed to the last house we bought, where everything was stacked up on one side of the house while we made the other side livable. This time around, we don't have to paint/resurface/replace/fix anything, though there are a few 'just for fun' painting projects in the future (Claire's room, the master bath and possibly Mike's office). Those projects have a much better chance of getting done now that Claire is back in school. Today is her second day, the first full day, and the first day she rode the bus. Very exciting for all of us. The whole routine of getting Claire up and to school and then coming home and having breakfast is so nicely familiar. Mike is usually not home or in bed, Milena goes down for a nap shortly after, and then I have some time to myself. I like to think I'll use it to Get Stuff Done. But actually, I read the paper or play around online.

Last week we spent some time in St. Germain. It was nice to get away for a bit. We had some campfires, watched the sunset, did some mini-golfing (I dominated), and Claire and Mike rode some horses. At Elmer's Saddle Horses.

Elmer must have a good sense of humor.

Fun times.

Also, I found an old picture of Claire, back when she was about Milena's age and had the coolest hair around.

Even together, Dave and Milena can't come close.