What's Not to Love

Our good friend David, while in town for a conference, stopped by to say hi last month.

The girls loved having Mr. David around.  It might have been the My Little Pony shirt he wore

or maybe it was the astronaut freeze dried ice cream and edible moon rocks he brought from the Smithsonian museum,

or it could have been his cool voices as he read them bedtime books.

Whatever their reasons, Joe and I loved an excuse to stay up late playing games, chatting, and otherwise being irresponsible.  What's not to love when David comes to town.  It's fun for everyone!

Parking Spots

We need a sign.

It would read: 

Stroller Parking Only

All violators will be towed at owner's expense.

Minus Clothes

If you want to know anything about what my day looks like, just ask Theia.

Hers is very similar.

Minus one important detail:

clothes.

Watercolor Ponies: Inaugural Edition

Watercolor Ponies **
by Wayne Watson

There are watercolour ponies
On my refrigerater door
And the shape of something
I don't really recognize
Drawn by careful little fingers
And put proudly on display
A reminder to us all
Of how time flies...

A sheep made from Xandra's handprint and cotton balls from a recent MOPS morning. 

One of Theia's pictures from Sunday School.  I assume they asked the kids who they were thankful for and Theia's response was, of course, daddy.

We got a book with princess stickers in it at Christmastime.  The girls recently enjoyed using many of the stickers to create what you see below.

Xandra's is above and Theia's is below.  The artwork is actually very telling of their personalities.

A river scene Xandra made in Sunday School with one of her very favorite people, Mrs. Tallman.

Below Theia worked with crayons.

Xandra's artwork with Christmas stickers from her stocking.

Xandra's work from MOPS.

It's been neat to see Xandra's coloring change in the last few months.  Her coloring is becoming more dense and moving ever toward coloring in the lines (see the yellow coloring below) when she's patient.

In the following picture she asked me what she should color every part of this picture.  She only had red, blue, green and yellow to work with if you're questioning my color choices.

Both girls' work from a MOPS lesson on the Ten Commandments.

Theia's sheep from MOPS.

More coloring from Xandra.

The girls have both received a stamping kit recently, so they've been putting their stamps to good use during naptime when Joey and Aliyah are still asleep.  Here's just one of Xandra's pictures.  The rest, of which there are many, are currently decorating their bedroom walls.

But, baby, what will we do
When it comes back to me an you?
They look a little less
Like little [girls] every day
Oh, the pleasure of watching
The children growing
Is mixed with a bitter cup
Of knowing the watercolour ponies
Will one day ride away

**If you've never heard this song, it's worth a listen

The Difference

It's Palm Sunday today.  One of my favorite Sundays all year long.  I love thinking about Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, reflecting on how he is Lord of All, and seeing the preschoolers of our church walk the aisles waving palm branches during the singing portion of our worship service.  I tear up every year.  Hosanna.  Hosanna.  He has come to save us. 

I was also thinking today how different these two were at this time last year.

On Palm Sunday last year, Joey looked like this and Xandra held her first palm branch in the preschoolers (not so) triumphal procession through the auditorium.

Today Joey is crawling and

Xandra's Palm Sunday experience was fun instead of torturous (Theia's also in the video, a few kids back from Xandra).  


Joe looked at me today after the kids passed through the auditorium today and said, "What a difference a year makes."  I couldn't agree more.

Always

Before I was a mom, I never understood how these kinds of things happened.

If someone is just doing their job and watching the baby, how does he get marker all over his face.  He's only 6 months old for crying out loud, it's not like he can get into the cabinets and get the markers down.  What he can do, however, is play directly beneath the table where his sisters are coloring with markers (while I have an explanation for why he has marker on his face, I can't really think of a good explanation for why I let them play with markers) and just when his mommy steps from the room to help one of his older sisters, and although his mommy will only be gone from the room for 30 seconds tops, his two year old sister will undoubtedly throw her uncapped marker on the floor in his reach.  When mommy enters the room and sees big sister's hands marker free, she will immediately look to the floor and see the baby happily chewing on the writing end of the marker.  That's how these things happen.  In a matter of seconds, always when mommy leaves the room, and always with the writing end positioned in the baby's mouth. 

Always.

In Farmer Joe's Garden: The Assistant Edition

There's one sign that spring has officially arrived at our house:  Farmer Joe has begun planting the garden.

Farmer Joe received a subscription to the "Seeds of the Month Club" for Christmas and has been receiving several seed packets in the mail each month.  It's like Christmas all over each month when he opens the envelope to reveal the new seed packets.  What a thoughtful gift! 

All of these new and different seeds lying around  has given him the itch to get things started a little earlier this year.  It was no surprise when I caught him planting the garden two weekends ago.

Not only does he have new, exciting seeds to plant, he's also recruited new help this year.

She can't read, doesn't like to get dirty, is inexperienced, and doesn't like vegetables.  

She does, however, possess some things that Farmer Joe's previous assistant has always been lacking:  desire, zero knowledge of the drudgery/futility of weeding, and patience.  I'm sure it will be a beautiful partnership.  Let's hope it's one that allows Farmer Joe's former assistant to retire her gardening gloves.

This Place Is A Zoo

On March 18 we ventured to the National Zoo to celebrate a friend's first birthday.  It happened that this was the first really beautiful day of spring this year.  That meant the zoo was packed.  The zoo was so packed that it took us over 30 minutes to find parking once we got to the zoo.  Our friends, who were about 10 minutes behind us didn't even make it into the zoo parking lot before it hit capacity.  While they ventured into the nearby neighborhoods to look for parking, the kids and I enjoyed some sights on our own.

We started at the prairie dogs.  While they're difficult to see in the above picture, they were actually out of hiding and sunning themselves for all to see.

Next we were stopped to see this waterfall and the orangutans came out on the O-line.

The O-line is a special series of platforms connected by wires for the orangutans to climb on.  They hang right over the sidewalks and make a great view for anyone passing by.

After all of our excitement with the orangutans our friends called to let us know the party was ready to begin.  We hustled down to meet them and enjoyed a picnic lunch and birthday cake.

After lunch we saw the lions and tigers.

The lions and tigers put on quite  show for us, looking straight at us, yawning big and walking around.  After awhile one of the tigers went into hiding.  At this point our crew of kids started chanting.



The lions also had newborn cubs.  Thee cubs were out and playing, too.

Our last stop for the day was to view the elephants.

Aside from the parking glitch and forgetting to take the birthday girl's present, it was a trouble free morning.  That's pretty impressive for 11 kids, 4 moms, 3 strollers, a baby in utero (not ours!), and a bunch of caged, wild animals.  And, unlike our Halloween adventures with this crew, no one asked us if we were a preschool.

Jayhawk

She's basically ready for kindergarten now. Her mastered words include bandicoot, potty, twelve, mean guy, and Jayhawk.

Irish

St. Patty's day was much anticipated at our home and as a result, the girls were fully dressed in green from head to toe when I opened their door to greet them in the morning.  For breakfast we enjoyed some green oats and green milk and then headed to Brookside Gardens, a local garden that hosts a St. Patty's Day walk for preschoolers.  We started the walk in the craft area with many of our MOPS friends. 

The older girls were so intent on completing their hats that the rest of our MOPS group went ahead of us.  As we were attempting to catch up a few minutes later, Aliyah had to go potty.  At that point I gave up trying to catch up with everyone, went back to the potty with the kids and then enjoyed the rest of the  morning just me and my kids.

One of the stops on our walk was to run around this amazingly large holly bush.  It towered several stories above us and it took a long while for Xandra's little legs to carry her all the way around it.

Along the way we enjoyed a scavenger hunt.  We were given a card to check things off as we walked.  Here we are finding the leprechaun's gold.

We also found the rainbow and then the Easter bunny.  He's about a month early for his annual appearance, but he was so fun looking I couldn't resist the picture.  He at least dressed in green for the occasion.

We followed big green foot prints along the path and read lots of signs that held instructions and jokes, which were both mostly over the girls' heads.  One sign told them to hug a tree

and they thought that was pretty fun.

At the end of the walk, we found the leprechaun.  He even had an Irish accent.  I guess that means he was genuine.

He gave us some pea seeds, which we've already put in the ground.  He also directed us to a station where we potted a spider plant for each girl.  Xandra has been dutifully watering all of the plants each afternoon during naptime.  The girls each got a juice box to enjoy for snack and generally enjoyed the sunny, beautiful weather.

At the end of the walk, we found some friends enjoying a picnic by the pond.  We hung out with them for a few minutes and then headed home for lunch. 

When Joe got home the girls happily shared all of their adventures with him over a cup of green milk.  I chimed in with a joke I picked up along the garden path. 

Trisha:  Knock knock.
Joe:  (large eye roll, apathetic voice)  Who's there?
Trisha:  Irish.
Joe:  ...
Trisha:  "Come on."
Joe:  "Irish who?"
Trisha:  "Irish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day."
...crickets....
Trisha:  Hahahahahahahaha.

Goin' Green

In celebration of the coming holiday, the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day we hosted our friends, the Seagers, for a green lunch. 

Everything on the table was green:  shamrock jigglers, grapes, granny smith apples, kiwi, potatoes with parsley and oregano, pumpkin bread (not green, but leftovers I was trying to get rid of), black bean breakfast burritos made with bright green eggs, 7-UP, and green rice krispies for dessert.   With 10 kids between us, we opted to avoid all green foods that came in the form of vegetables.

In honor of the celebration, everyone, except for Colin and myself, wore green.

We didn't want the other colors to feel left out.  

Maybe next time we'll take up a bit more of a challenge and celebrate chartreuse instead.