Brenda and Bug went home on Wednesday. I’m so glad they were able to extend their trip. We not only got the house almost completely done, we managed to do a bit more sightseeing. And of course we just enjoyed having them around a little bit longer! I’ll write a post about the house soon. And one about Dana & Leo’s weekend visit, and one about our college friends who happened to be in the area and came by for dinner, and one about the other fun stuff we did in the last week.

B, thanks again for flying all the way across the country, doing most of the unpacking and organizing, hanging all my pictures, pitching in with the chores and dinner-making, and just generally being such a good friend! I miss you already and am looking forward to many late-night IM chats.

See all that stuff on the floor? Yesterday I spent hours working on organizing the bathroom, sorting through all the shampoos and lotions and bandages that seem to accumulate and multiply in bathroom cupboards. I should really say, I spent hours trying to work on it. I kept getting distracted by children needing food, or helping Brenda hem and hang Annalie’s curtains, or reheating my coffee, or a million other things. (If you can’t spot me, check Troy’s shaving mirror in the shower. Or view largest to snoop!)

I’m sort of shrugging and sighing over the fact that I ended this 7 Days with a lame photo of my messy bathroom. But I’m also cutting myself some slack. I’ve had a busy week!

One of the things distracting me yesterday was this project. We were making a photo wall! I’ve wanted a photo wall like Joe & Kassie’s for ages. This house has the perfect wall for it, so I’m finally gonna have one, whee! We laid all the photos down on paper in the arrangement we liked, traced around the frames, and marked where the nails would go. Then we hung the paper on the wall and hammered the nails right through the paper. Worked like a charm.

While we were hanging frames, Annalie built this pet shop out of mega blocks, filled it with her Littlest Pet Shop animals, and drew some posters. She offered to sell me a puppy for the price of a black-and-white cookie. I thought that was a pretty good deal.

We took the kids to a park near our house on Thursday. Apparently they have not refreshed the mulch on the playground, because this bench was a bit higher off the ground than normal. So while the kids played, Brenda and I sat, drank our lattes, swung our feet and felt like little kids. It was fun.

We didn’t realize this playground was there till just a few days ago. It’s kind of hidden back in the trees around the block from our house, but it’s very close! We could probably even walk there, which is really nice.

Annalie and Bug both approved of the park.

Earlier that day we went out for lunch. Bug wasn’t quite ready for me to take her photo in that first shot, and after I took it she said, “That’s not how you pose! Here, I’ll show you how to pose.” Then she tilted her head and smiled sweetly for me.

Then I tried to get Annalie to pose for me since she was wearing the arm warmers CC knitted for her. I wanted to send Heather a photo so she could see how Annalie loves these and wears them all the time. But she gave me a fake eye-roll, the little stinker. She cracked up right after I took that one.

Notice what Annalie is eating? When we walked up to the register to place our order, the friendly young guy behind the counter said, “Let me guess…two macaroni & cheeses for the kids?”

I’ll admit I felt a little smug as I replied, “No, actually…my daughter would like a small tomato soup and a ciabatta bread, please!”

The guy laughed good-naturedly. I’ve said it before: I love that my daughter loves soup!

These are Troy’s lists. The one on the left (on the paper that says “This looks like a job for Superman!”) is the one Brenda and I have been adding to, with items like “hang knife bar” and “move boxes to attic.” The one on the right is Bug’s list. She told us, “it’s a little bit of work, and a little bit of party!”