hurricane irene graciously celebrated mom's bday by making landfall the day before and knocking out the power in ct for 5 days! poor mom had to spend her bday in the dark! down in philly, bunks and i were lucky to have light, although outside, dark stormy clouds loomed!
i made myself a turkey and apple meatloaf in case i'd be stuck without food, but thankfully, all was well.
during the hurricane, i finished up mom's bday shirt for this year (only a week late this time!). the fabric is this cream cotton with little red flowers all over. i got it 2 years ago when i visited erin in durham, nc!
i used the same pattern as last year's bday shirt, but this time i added a collar and made half-length sleeves with less of a poof (i drafted patterns for both!!). also, i didn't want to make her another ruffled shirt, so i made 2 panels of 1/4 inch pleats on both sides of the button placket. surprisingly not difficult to do, although very tedious. i love the result though. they come out so neat!
mom, modeling the final product:
she asked me to chop off a view of her head. hehehe. here's the back:
she's going to wear it for her first day of school tomorrow with new earrings that i got her in boston!! meanwhile, poor bunks has started shedding (it always starts at his nose!), thus resulting in many restless episodes of mischief-making. 
i set him loose on my barrel of fabric scraps to keep him away from this project so that i could actually finish it. he spent hours atop this barrel digging for buried treasure about which only he knew, hehehehe
3) i get exploited for child labor!! 2 weekends ago, dad ripped out the light blue carpeting in the master bedroom, 
and he and i installed new oak hardwood flooring! my job was to lay out a random pattern and to hammer the boards in place while he followed with the nail gun. 
this world needs "28-year-old" child labor laws! isn't the floor pretty though??
so i decided to make myself some squash soup! i garnished it with some of bunks' parsley!
(these pics are actually from this past winter... darn teaching! it takes over my life!)
the perfect blend of tart and sweet! i carved bunks' name on top, since carving "helen" would seem narcissistic! 
i forgot to take a pic of the finished product. oops.
may you have many more years of mischief-making!
here's the final result! 
thrilled it's finally done!!!
can't wait to start them! 
today also happens to be julia's bday. how appropriate! happy bday jules!
bunks escaped, unharmed.
and orange bread for sarah and my road trip to the jersey shore! i had never been before. it was awesome!
round 2: dessert for mom's visit to philly while i drowned in summer school work. 
she was wonderful, cooking me meals and taking care of the bunks. i'm so lucky to have such a wonderful chocolate-loving mom!
michelle, a good friend from my brown univ. days, and i treated ourselves to a lavish breakfast when she visited a couple weekends ago. we actually made it 2 mornings in a row; it was that good!
and now, summer school has started. it's more intense than the regular school year because we meet for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week (even more than my teaching load during school!!). so, don't be surprised if my attention to this blog continues to be limited. i will be done july 22 though! i'm teaching algebra 1, which is a nice change from the intense calculus teaching load that i had during the school year. the kids are HILARIOUS. naturally i had to bake them a treat since i had to subject them to the torture of a quiz on thursday. cocoa devil's food cupcakes with raspberry frosting!
here's a closeup of the faux-drawstring ties.
lan's had sweet peas all over. 
here are her faux drawstring ties:
unfortunately it didn't fit her, so mom gets another pair of flannel pj pants! she currently owns the most helen-made pj pants out of anyone! hehe. i'll make lan another pair after the major black friday flannel sale at joann's this november. maybe i'll get them to her in 2 years, if she's lucky...
