a new friend and potatoes

Saturday morning Isabelle received a package from the mail man - "he brought me a present?"  she squealed.  "No, not the mailman, I think this one is from grammy & grampa", I say after noticing that familiar natural nova tape wrapped around the box.  Isabelle bounced as she unwrapped her (belated) birthday gift from her grandparents and instantly hugged her new friend.

isabelle and her new friend allison

And what a sweet new friend she is.  She is a fare trade doll made by hand from a small group of women in Peru, "...the women clean, card, and spin the wool, hand-dye all of the materials, and bring each component together into a beautiful, lovable doll".  And well, some may think I drank the juice on this one, but I have to say she is a very lovable doll.  Isabelle is practicing taking on and off her clothes (again and again), usually gently telling baby not to cry.  Feeding baby, taking her on a stroll, and making sure she gets plenty of sleep.  And then we both get to talk about the new baby that will be coming in December and Isabelle assures me she and Allison will be ready for her new baby sister or brother.

In other news we harvested one of three rows of potatoes!  And they were delicious!  Isabelle had so much fun watching as Aaron dug and the little potatoes would show their dirty red faces - "there's a chunker one" she would yell with big ones...and "ohhh there's a little baby one" she would coo with the small ones and she would dart in and grab them out of the dirt.

                                  
                                            

And after a quick toss with olive oil, rosemary, a little s & p and roasted for about 25 minutes they made for a lovely side to go with our local clear water caught salmon and coleslaw (cabbage & carrots a la garden).  What a lovely and scrumptious Sunday.

yum