Photorama-rama

My return to the blogosphere by no means marks me as the only member of the family harboring literary ambitions. Here is Katharine, feverishly at work composing the Great American Novel.









And here is Katharine after a losing encounter with a brown marker:








Lia's most-prized Christmas present was The Breadbaker's Apprentice. Her foremost New Year's resolution has been to undertake the apprenticeship. Here is some of her handiwork. Pictured nearby is also some of Julia's handiwork. Her class made sculptures for their unit on "Friends and Family." In the picture she proudly hoists her bust of Eli.

With Julia at school for 6-7 hours a day, Eli and Katharine have become tight friends ("chums," Eli would say). Their adventures range from the artistic to the culinary.

Here is a sample of Julia's fan-mail to her teacher, mentioned in yesterday's post:

Here's Eli looking stylish and sophisticated with kremped (sp?) hair:

Here's Julia, hoping that they call her on a mission, and looking the part dazzlingly in the meantime. No matter how big she gets, this is the little girl I'll remember:

And here is Sister Collings with her companion, Sister Collings:

No investigator, no matter how hardened, could resist this formidable pair.

Speaking of formidable pairs, here am I back at my birthday party (hosted by the incomparable Bayly family) with the inestimable Brady Pope, karaokeing with desperate abandon to the ear-assaulting strains of a 1980's hair band. It only took about ten days for me to regain my spiritual and intellectual equilibrium. Ecce the real reason for my blogospheric hybernation:

Here is Lia after losing a wrestling match with Katharine. It's hard not to lose a wrestling match with Katharine:

Katharine triumphant:

Are people in this country legally allowed to be this cute?

We have an old picture of Lia and Julia in almost exactly the same positions. Lia has lost none of her maternal touch; her daughters adore her equally, though her husband's adoration surpasses them all:

Don't you wish you could snuggle me like this blanket?

"And this is mine everlasting covenant, that when thy posterity shall embrace the truth and look upward . . . ." (JST Gen. 9:22):

A special treat for the girls is when, around laundry day, they get to wear one of my T-shirts in lieu of a nightgown. Here is Julia sporting the colors of the Italian national soccer squad. You'll have to ask her what she is doing:

Here is Katharine, after reading an exquisitely hilarious line from Emily Dickinson:

Even the best mommies need sometimes just to chill:

Way back before Christmas we had the Thomas family over to make gingerbread houses for family home evening. Eli was an especially assiduous architect, even if she could hardly see anything:

That's all.