Thanks for the nudge, Sarah. I did it! Here are the last eight.

23:

Jack, our godson, at Chick-Fil-A.

24:

The smaller loaf of bread was Annalie’s. She wanted me to draw a sun on top, so I did.

25:

Playgroup.

26:

I asked the girls to line up for a photo, and Annie climbed up on the railing and started clowning around.

27:

Finishing the puzzle. With bedhead.

28:

Annalie watching a DVD with headphones on to block out the sound of the vacuum cleaner.

29:

A chain I helped Annalie make, to count down the days to (1) Gramaw’s arrival on May 3rd, and (2) Annalie’s birthday on May 9th. We keep forgetting to tear links off so the chain is longer than it should be.

30:

Aaaaaaand we’re done. After a whole month of remembering to document a tiny moment a day, I almost blew it on the last day, taking this at 11:30 pm as I was blogging and watching a cheesy flick on Oxygen.

a quickr pickr post

9: Annalie likes to type in all caps.

10: Just back from the grocery store, Annalie sits down on the Diet Coke to enjoy her lemonade in a bunny cup.

11: Annalie & her friend Kara disappeared for a few minutes during playgroup. I found them under the kitchen table, decorating it with stickers.

12: Annalie drew these bunnies and the tulip below them entirely on her own. What makes this a tiny moment to me is that this is the first time I’ve seen her draw (a) animals that were immediately recognizable for what they were, and (b) eyes that have a pupil!

13: Troy contemplating his handiwork. (He replaced a board in the deck.)

14: Getting a package ready to mail. Annalie thought we should paint the box “to make it colorful and beautiful.” Can’t argue with that. So we painted it.

15: On the way to our weeky Bible study potluck, I took a photo of the cupcakes Annalie and I had made for dessert because they’re on the red tray that my friend Erin gave us for Christmas a couple of years ago. I’d been meaning to tell her that I use the tray all the time and love it, so while I was thinking of it I snapped a shot and emailed it to her from my phone.

Since a couple of people in our Bible study have allergies, these cupcakes were made with this dairy-, egg-, and nut-free recipe. I didn’t have any non-dairy margarine on hand so I just made the icing with 3 c. powdered sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a couple of gradually-added tablespoons each of water and lemon juice till it was of spreading consistency. Despite being egg- and dairy-free, these cupcakes were really yummy!

16: Annalie doesn’t take naps every day; only on those days she seems to particularly need one. This was one of those days. Here I sit amidst the morning’s mess, enjoying an increasingly rare break during my day.

17: We woke up earlier than usual, and saw the lovely pattern made by the light shining in our hall window.

18: Annalie doesn’t like stuff in her hair–no ponytails, braids, or clips. But she was hot and asked for a ponytail, and then left it in most of the day.

19: There’s an ice-cream shop on the boardwalk that sells tiny cones for 75 cents each. We go there often with friends during summer to eat ice cream, walk along the water, and watch the sunset as the kids play on the adjacent playground. This is the season’s first tiny cone!

20: Before dinner, Annalie getting some lap time with daddy.

21: While our kids played, my friend Lynn and I made bracelets for our church’s VBS fundraiser next Sunday. These two are mine.

22: Our neighbor stopped by our driveway for a quick chat and Annalie handed her friend Gabby a dandelion through the window. (That’s her little sister Annie in the other carseat.)

For the 30 Tiny Moments group on Flickr, nudged into it by Sarah. It’s working; I am loving my new camera more every day! Twenty-two days down, eight to go.

a quickr pickr post

We hosted our weekly playgroup this morning. Kara came over wearing a blue flowered dress that Annalie also happens to own. Naturally, I had to find that dress for her so she could put it on, because what’s more fun than dressing just like one of your friends?

Nothing, that’s what!

Kara and Annalie were thick as thieves the whole morning. They colored together. They spent a long time playing “Grandma and Mommy and Baby” with one of Annalie’s babydolls. They sneaked up to Annalie’s bedroom (which is off-limits during playgroup because that’s where I hide the mess that’s normally in the living room) together. They were having a great old time.

After they came back downstairs, Annalie asked me to help her find her stickers. That’s not a special request or anything; she is allowed free access to her sticker collection and is allowed to use them however she likes, as long as she likes putting them on paper or someone’s clothes. I rummaged in her art drawers and gave her the whole zipper bag full without thinking twice. That was first my mistake.

Ten minutes later, I realized I had not heard or seen Annalie or Kara since handing over the stickers. Losing track of them was my second mistake. I found them creating their own sticker art gallery on the underside of the kitchen table.

I managed to keep a straight face long enough to remind them that stickers are not for furniture, and suppressed the urge to have them pose for a photo with the stickers above them. They crawled out from under the table, gave me the remaining stickers, and went off to play.