Author Archives: lisa

The Big Red Barn

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Every time we drive down to Spring City to visit my parents, I see the sign for the Big Red Barn and its “world’s best ice cream.” This time we finally stopped and checked it out. It was packed with people, and was a little more of a commercial operation than I expected (I guess I thought it would be a more rustic mom-and-pop situation). In addition to fruit, fudge, and baked goods, they sell old-fashioned candies and the sort of country-cute tchotchkes you might see at Kneaders or Gardner Village. Of course, we did get some tasty fresh creamery ice cream cones.
They had a little area on one side of the barn set up with hay bales and pumpkins, and there was a whole family camped out on the bales, getting holiday photos taken. I couldn’t resist snapping a few of Nora before we left.

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pajama party

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I still can’t believe how fast the year went by, and how quickly my little Nora bean got to be two years old. Thank you so much to our awesome friends and family who genuinely love Nora and indulge me and Blake–you guys made her birthday party so much fun. We found Nora the perfect wooden play kitchen, and she got plenty of cooking toys to go with it, along with so many other darling gifts.
I also had everyone help with a craft project that has turned into one of Nora’s most loved possessions. Everyone wrote Nora a sweet message with fabric markers on a new pillowcase, and I took everybody’s picture and ironed their faces on next to what they had written. Now when she’s lying in bed at night, I can hear her talking over the baby monitor about all the people who love her.

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You never do know what’s round the bend

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My friends and I have a longstanding tradition of Crown Burger birthday events. Over the years these have gotten more elaborate, with crowns for the honorees and themed goody bags for everyone. I kind of can’t believe we haven’t posted more photos of these grand affairs. ANYWAY, this year the girls threw a surprise Crown birthday party for Nora, with a Curious George theme. How cute are they??

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Andre

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For one brief, sunny day, a glorious chicken named Andre was part of our lives. RIP, little buddy.

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on the wagon

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The night of Nora’s birthday, the Smiths took us out to Mimi’s for dinner and then gave Nora the awesomest wagon money can buy and a new set of Grandma’am’s adorable homemade flannel pajamas.

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Nora insisted on putting the pajamas on right then and climbing into the wagon–and really, wouldn’t you, too?

Fine Lady

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My cute grandma brought over a beautifully wrapped birthday gift for Nora. Let me take you through the sequence of events here.
1) GG remains completely stationary and expressionless the whole time Nora opens her present.
2) Aw, it’s a dollar-store ‘Barbie!’ Nora insists on unwiring all the ill-fitting accessories from the box immediately.
3) Wow, her dress is a bit…revealing. No underpants, huh?
4) I take my first good look at the doll’s packaging.
5) Wait a second, are those photos of actual liquor bottles?
6) This is clearly stage lighting. And…is that a POLE?
7) A stripper Barbie. GG HAS GIVEN NORA A STRIPPER BARBIE. I guess that makes sense, since the series of dolls is called Fine Lady, and this model’s name is Beauty.

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All I can think of is that these ended up at the dollar store when some importer didn’t look too carefully at what he was buying until it got here. As far as the Chinese factory where they made, they must be laughing at us right now…and/or they just think that’s what Americans like.