SINCE MY DEAR BROTHER has been working like a horse, staying overtime at his job and doing construction on his house, I haven’t been able to talk to him in weeks! Until a few days ago, when we finally had a moment to catch up with each other…

And so as I’m talking to him about school and the weather and his stock portfolio, he is getting ready for work and seems a bit distracted. He tells me to hold on and I can hear the muffled sound of people talking. I’m holding on for a good four minutes before he comes back on the line. When I ask about who is there, and does he need to go?, he simply replies that he put down the phone to watch the footage of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s VMA speech on YouTube. ON YOUTUBE! He couldn’t even wait to push play until after we got off our long-lost-sibling phone call! I swear, if that boy didn’t make me laugh, I would clobber him.

GOOD GOD, HAS ANYTHING SWEETER graced the pages of the internet than the birth of Tessa Tangerine to the blogging family at Pacing the Panic Room? Don’t know what I’m talking about? (“Who gave birth to a tangerine?”) Allow me to explain how this growing family has stolen my heart.

Panic Room daddy blogger has been photographing his wife, Cole, and stepson (“Littlest Buddy” or “LB” for short) throughout Cole’s pregnancy with weekly letters to their growing not-yet-born. Two weeks ago the baby was born at home with the assistance of a midwife. (Hooray for home births!) They named her Tessa Tangerine.

I’ve actually shed a few tears (hormones, anyone?) hearing about this new sister-brother duo in action. (“Your brother kissed you when he met you, and wanted to get in your crib with you.” Does it get any better than that?) Welcome to the world, Tessa Tangerine! You are one lucky little sister…

LB says goodbye to Tessa before school.

ON A RECENT WEEKLY BLOG perusal, I came across these photos in a post titled Field Day. And all at once I was flooded with memories of this time of year 15, 16, 17 years ago when the whole elementary school would relocate to the comfort of the expansive track field and metal bleachers at the high school for a full day of field games and watermelon (and of course, that colorful parachute-like thing). So this elementary school scene got me thinking and thinking about my tried and true sisters of those days. The girls with whom I spoke made-up languages and I played outside until dark.

From left: T, Jamie, my dearest childhood friend Amanda (big sister to Jamie), and me

Along with our classmates and the neighborhood kids, T and I spent so many summer evenings on the quiet street in front of our house. We played and pretended–we pretended to be royalty and beach-goers and parents. Since we were always pretending, now it’s hard to remember what really happened and what happened in our collective make-believe minds. I think I prefer memories like that.

MY DEAR FRIENDS (who happen to be sisters), Annie and Alex Ensign, contributed this Easter gem to our “We Match” photo gallery. Apparently all these matching frocks and jumpers were made by their mother, and as the story goes, there are a lot more Ensign children than the ones pictured here–I think 12 in total. That’s a lot of sewing. Send your Easter photos to claimingsisterhood [at] gmail [dot] com.