The Fab Five!

The kids pose with new baby Annabel (here about 2 months old).  She is now almost 4 months old.  It's been a crazy, tiring, wonderful adventure so far.  Maybe I will be able to start posting regularly again after Christmas.  We shall see....

Front yard nature

Yesterday evening we discovered that a robin has chosen the bush right next to our front door as the place to raise her babies.  For a couple of days I've noticed her flying away as soon as we open the front door.  Yesterday, the kids and I finally took a little time to investigate the bush.  And sure enough, this is what we found:

I hope we haven't scared the mother robin away permanently.  The kids were so excited to find this so close to our house.

I often lament the fact that we live in a "sterile" sub-urban neighborhood instead of further out in the country where nature is all around.  This is a good reminder that if we just take a little time and are quiet and observant, then we can find nature here, too.

Painting with friends

Today we had a nice afternoon catching up with some friends that we haven't seen in a while.  And the kids (well, the girls, at least) created some artwork a la Jackson Pollock.  Lovely way to spend an almost-summer afternoon.

This one is my favorite:

Peaceful Morning

It's 8:00 and the kids are all still sound asleep after a very busy day yesterday.  And I don't think they will wake anytime soon.  We had an early morning and a late night with a lot stuffed into the middle.  It's days like this that I'm so glad we don't send our kids to school.  I love that we can let them sleep in on a Tuesday and catch up on some much needed rest.  I also LOVE that it gives me a couple of unexpected (and also much needed) hours of solitude.  Ahhhh.

First Communion

J celebrated her First Communion today.  She was so excited.  We bought her a special dress and veil for the big day (that hopefully will be used by three more girls in our family someday.)  She looked beautiful and she did a great job.  We are so happy for her on this special day.

Colonial crafts

On a recent trip to Historic St. Mary's City my girls each got a doll making kit as a souvenir.  The kit basically consisted of fabric that had been pre-cut into shapes for the dolls body and head, arms, legs, and dress.  Then there was some stuffing and some yarn to sew on for the hair.  It's a lot of hand sewing for a little girl.  J has been up to the task.  In fact she has been sewing nearly every spare moment she has.  She even worked on her doll Friday night in front of the television during our family movie night!

Here she is sewing the dress right after breakfast.  You can see the doll (minus the hair) next to her.

Happy Halloween

This little girl has been obessed with "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" ever since Gramma came for a visit and played make-believe with her. Every morning when it is just me and her in the dimly lit kitchen in the pre-dawn hour, Mama Bear and Baby Bear share a bowl of porridge. It fills our tummies and warms my heart. And this Halloween has given me the perfect opportunity to bring out the old bear costume I made for M so many years ago (with Gramma's help, on a hand-me-down sewing machine with a broken foot pedal.) It was his first time trick-or-treating. He was 22 months old and the costume fit him perfectly. T is 30 months old and it's a bit big on her. Even so, it is perfect. I have a feeling that she will be wearing that costume for weeks to come. :)

Brick Fair 2010

This past weekend we took our kids and one friend to the Brick Fair in DC. Even for someone like me, who is not really into Legos, it was pretty amazing. All the creations on display were original designs. And all of them were incredible.

Here are our kids looking at some of the creations done by young kids:
They were neat, but I know M can (and has) made some equally interesting creations at home.

They had a big room set aside full of Legos for people to build with while they were at the Brick Fair. I thought that was a great idea. Seeing all those amazing creations, I know my kids were itching to try building something themselves.

This one doesn't look as impressive in the photo as it was in real life. It was a series of motorized contraptions that moved plastic, marble-sized soccer balls along a course all the way around the room. It was a definite favorite.

This one was my favorite. A scene from Ghostbusters:
Almost makes me want to buy M some more Legos. Almost.

Belly ring

My daughter called me into her bedroom this morning to show me this:
I asked her where on earth she saw something like that. She replied, "I made it up myself!" Great. My daughter independently came up with the idea of a belly ring. I've always said that I'm going to be in trouble when C is a teenager. I think I may already be in trouble.
At least this time she just used magnets.

Simple Pleasures

I love it when my kids find things to amuse themselves that don't require any store-bought toys. Especially when they end up creating something beautiful. My husband recently trimmed our cherry tree out front. We ended up with a bunch of green sticks and twigs of various sizes. Perfect for a nine year old boy with a knife in his pocket.


A miniature wooden flower from M to me. I love that boy!

Sometimes you just have to laugh

A couple of nights ago I was putting the kids to bed and my four year old, Cara, was really trying my patience. She was in the bathroom having a meltdown over brushing her teeth. I wasn't making any progress and it was getting later and later. So I called in for back-up. Unfortunately, when my husband got upstairs, he had even less patience than I did. (It had been a really long day.) As we were standing outside the bathroom together listening to the screaming coming from inside my husband noticed something on the wall. It was a patch roughly 4 inches in diameter, about knee-high, and whiter than the wall. I bent down to get a better look. I scratched at it with my nail and a little scrap of paper came off. I scratched off 20 or so more little pieces of torn paper that had basically been stuck on like paper-mache with (I can only assume) spit. And underneath I found this:

I just had to laugh! Even as frustrated as I was, the image of Cara executing her "brilliant" plan to cover up her graffiti brought tears of laughter to my eyes.

I think she left her mark just the night before. But, it was pretty well concealed. Had we not been standing around right at that spot, it might have gone unnoticed for much longer. I kind of wish I had left the paper-mache on, because now it's much more noticeable. And I'm not sure how to get ball point pen off the wall without taking the paint off too. Wait a second...I've got more paper and plenty of spit. Hmmm.

New step

The CCD year started tonight for us. J has been looking forward to this day for two years, ever since M went to his first class. The day she gets to go off to "school." She was up early and dressed before I had even rolled out of bed. She was out on the swings in the backyard before breakfast, no doubt daydreaming of all the exciting and wonderful things that would happen in her CCD class.

I really think my kids like being homeschooled. They tell me they do and I'm inclined to believe them. But there is something sort of mysterious and alluring about real school. I think maybe they have watched one too many Magic School Bus episodes.... So it turns out that CCD isn't quite like real school. After all, it's one hour a week and it's at night. And there definitely isn't a daily field trip on a magic bus. But she came home all smiles anyway.

And M enjoyed his class. And I got to spend a little extra time with just C and T. I think this is a good thing.

Next up for this space: Pictures. Soon I will figure out how to add some. Soon.