I took several self-portraits today, but none of them really turned out the way I wanted…except this one I took early this morning, goofing around with photobooth while I ate breakfast.

After breakfast Brenda and I spent a few hours in the basement, organizing and sorting stuff. I mainly sorted toys and board books into “keep” and “give away.” Then I dragged Annalie downstairs and after reminding her that her birthday is coming soon and she won’t be able to fit any new toys into the house unless she gets rid of some old ones, went through the toys again with her. She was reluctant to part with any of her toys, and all the baskets went back onto the bookcase almost as full as they had been when we started. She is one of those kids who really does play with all her toys, though, so I can kind of see why she didn’t want to part with very many of them.

Then we dumped all the stuffed animals out of her Boon chair and I was quite surprised at how many of those she was willing to get rid of. I’d say she probably parted with a quarter of them. And she cheerfully handed over a dozen pairs of too-small shoes that up till now she refused to get rid of, and a rolling suitcase with a wonky zipper. That made me happy. I love getting rid of stuff we don’t use or need anymore. It’s my favorite part of moving, the sorting and purging that we always do.

Brenda and I got so involved in what we were doing that we forgot to watch the clock and suddenly it was almost time to leave for our top-secret blogger meet-up!* We weren’t sure who all was going to show up, but we figured we’d at least get coffee and check out the shops nearby. Carrie (who came over here for a playdate last week, she and Brenda have known each other online for years) and her husband and son arrived at the same time we did. We had just settled down in some comfy couches when Christine and her family arrived.

We hung out there for a little while, and something really cool happened while the other adults chatted and corralled their kids: Annalie read this book to me! Not entirely willingly, and with a bit of prompting, but still! She read every word! Also, when she came across the word ‘and’ instead of stopping to sound it out she just read it off. I’ve been trying to convince her for ages that she knows that word, she sees it all the time and doesn’t have to sound it out, and I guess she finally believed me. I was so proud. Later on in the evening she figured out how to tie her robe belt in a bow without any assistance. She’s also figured out how to add two single-digit numbers in her head without counting on her fingers or even saying the numbers aloud.

We didn’t last long at the coffee shop, because the kids were getting antsy. Carrie had the foresight to check Google Maps beforehand and knew there was a playground just a couple of blocks down the street, so we all walked there. Good thing Carrie was on top of it or it would have been a much shorter meet-up. And that would have been too bad because it was really fun!

Shanee showed up with her daughters and sister while we were at the park. I was glad she found us even though she had been running late and we had left the coffee shop, because it was great to meet her! As a fellow Epiphanie-bag owner and Nikon user, she is clearly an intelligent person. Plus she’s funny and brought a bubble wand that all the kids LOVED playing with.

Annalie loves her fancy black sandals that have a bit of a heel. I had forgotten that we might go to a park when I told her she could wear them to the meet-up. When we got to the park and Annalie started climbing on the chain bridge I asked Troy if he thought we should have Annalie take her shoes off so she wouldn’t trip over her fancy shoes (which she was wearing with a dress originally, which we took off because she was hot; good thing she had on the shirt and shorts underneath). Troy said, “How else is she gonna learn to run in high heels?”

I replied, “By growing up to become a brainy-yet-beautiful law enforcement agent who has a fondness for geeks and dangerous situations?” Troy thought I meant Sarah Walker, but I was actually thinking of Dana Scully. I guess there are quite a few characters who would fit that description.

The kids ran, climbed, slid, and made bubbles while the grown-ups chatted and chased the littles around. Pretty much every time I’ve met someone from the internet it’s been fantastic, and this was no exception. I knew Shanee a little bit from Twitter, and I think I’ve seen Christine’s comments on a couple of blogs, but that was it. I really had no contact with them till today, yet I liked them both immediately and had a great time chatting with them.

After a while, Christine and her family had to leave to head to a prior engagement. The rest of the kids were good and worn out and begging for water, so the we all walked to a nearby frozen-custard shop. But first we stopped at a gourmet cheese and wine shop that had all kinds of yummy-looking things for sale.

When I first glanced at the sign for the Mild Red Pepper Sauce, in the lower left of the above photo, I thought it said “Mildred Pepper Sauce” and I was quite intrigued.

A forest of wine bottles. They had some really cool-looking wines in there. I told Shanee that I pick my wines pretty much based on how much I like the label, and she immediately nodded and said, “Me too. I also choose my books by their covers!”

In a store like this I’m betting it would probably be pretty hard to buy a bad bottle of wine.

Brenda and I admired this packaging but were unwilling to pay $8 for a single bar of chocolate. Plus the kids were getting whiny about their need for water, and they’d caught sight of the frozen-custard place across the street.

There was a looooong line for the treats, but I think it was worth the wait in the end. I had a couple of licks of Annalie’s raspberry sorbet, and ended up finishing Bug’s for her because she just wanted the cone. It was delicious.

Brenda bought a cone of lemon meringue frozen custard even though she doesn’t really like ice cream, because the flavor intrigued her. I ended up finishing her cone for her too, because it was too much coldness for her mouth to take. It was delicious too, light and lemony with bits of pie crust throughout.

Apparently President Obama has eaten at this custard shop before, and they memorialized the visit by painting the chair he sat in. That’s not something you see every day. Though I suppose it’s far more common around here than it is in most of the rest of the country.

After the custard was eaten we said our good-byes and drove home, tired and happy. The top-secret blogger meet-up was a success!

*It wasn’t really top-secret. Brenda called it that for fun.