We po' . . .

. . . but we ain't that po'!



While setting up the Christmas tree, the kids were so anxious to get decorations up (and they hadn't seen our box full of stuff yet) that they ran into their rooms and grabbed old Christmas socks and started decorating on their own! We were all quite relieved to find a box of "regular" tree decorations in the basement :-)

Ready For Snow?

Our cars under 2 feet of snow:

Our back door with snow up against it:


Miss Eliza in her snow suit!

Thanks, Secret Santa

Decorating our gingerbread houses delivered by Secret Santa last week:

Watch Out For Chinese Food

While on the way to a Christmas get-together, we were discussing our manners and to be sure to ask Mom or Dad before indulging in the treats that would surely be present. A child (who asked to not be named!) said, "Yeah, and most food is ok to eat but maybe there is, like, some Chinese food and it could be contagious so you shouldn't eat it."

Good thing we have all been well-instructed in what is safe and what is not!

How to Die of Embarrassment

Take a potty-training child out in public.

Twice in one day.

First time, said child pees in pants on the way up to friend's house. 'But we're doing so well,' you said. 'We don't need spare clothes,' you said. 'I'll take her straight to the potty when we get there. Nothing to worry about,' you said.

Good thing friend has a daughter close enough in size that you can borrow some clothes.

Then go to a Christmas party. Diaper on this time. We learned our lesson. Said child wants to go potty at friend's house. The diaper is already really wet, so throw it in the trash and she can be bare under her pants for a little bit. 'She's just gone potty so she won't have to go again for a long time,' you said. 'We won't be but a few minutes longer, anyway,' you said. 'Nothing to worry about,' you said.

Good thing your friend has a shower in the basement and a brand new bottle of disinfectant wipes handy (which you empty scrubbing off all the toys and the floor in the playroom). Good thing all the other neighborhood guests left before the older kids come running upstairs to announce the exciting news.

Said child walked home in mom's sweater. And not much else.

Eliza Ruth, 2 yrs old

It's a little late in posting, but here are a couple videos of Eliza's 2nd birthday (we had some company over for dinner that night):

And a couple 2 year pictures:

Sunday Walks

What to do at the end of a Sunday stroll in mid-Autumn:

How to Lose A Baby Parakeet

Step 1: Open bird cage; turn attention away from open cage for 1.83 seconds.
Step 2: Watch child open front door.
Step 3: Run screaming outside and watch baby parakeet flying 50 feet above neighborhood trees.
Step 4: Blow a goodbye kiss to baby parakeet :-(

Aurora Louise, 5 yrs olds

Aurora is a budding kindergartner this fall.

We had a delightful party at a park with several friends and even had a bit of a water balloon fight. (We tried some fun games with the balloons, but no one under 10 was coordinated enough to do them, so we just let everybody grab and throw!)

Sunday Afternoons

What to do when Mom is on the phone with Grandma? "Makeovers!" Jasper came running in to tell me they (the kids) giving makeovers. And would I like one? A little fearful of what I might discover, I grabbed the camera and headed down the hall to see this:

Yes, Jasper is wearing mismatched PJ's over his church clothes (he likes layers), and Sam did most of the making-over. I don't know what my boys know about makeovers, but since this all involved brushes, combs, and 273 hairclips, I'm ok with it :-) And yes, I had my hair done up before dinner!

Hah!

Our parakeet eggs started hatching at the beginning of the week. Now we have one hatch about every two days (the spacing with which they were laid) and we have 3 baby birds so far! The video is a little grainy and the 'proud papa' is squawking in the background, but you can see all 3.

Gardening

I'm very proud of my first good handful of small tomatoes. We have some cherrys and some yellow pear tomatoes. All very tasty, and starting to be ripe every day. Our favorite was the "Snowman" tomato we picked a few days ago.

And Now There Are Six

Our nieces moved in a few weeks ago, so our bunch of 6 kids now keep us busy full-time (because only having three kids before still left us a few moments of peace and quiet from time to time . . .)! Here they are in all their liveliness:

Well, It's Official . . .

'Patrick' is absolutely, undeniably Patricia! We snapped this quick shot after she laid the first egg. There are now at least 4 (though she is protective and it's hard to get a good count...).

Trip to OR & UT

While helping my father pack up his house and drive some things to Utah, I snapped a few family photos.

Morgan & Martin ready for Birthday cake!

Uncle Dirk

Michelle & Aurora

Max's Banana Ears

Mason & Aurora

Mackenzie and her crown

Cousin funny faces

Martin, Father, & Mark Jr.

Father & Uncle Dirk

Derek

And a few NON-family photos:

An interesting mushroom we spotted in a cememtary in Portland

Oregon Slugs . . .

Eliza Ruth, 18 Months

So, Susan, you remember how I was telling you about that broken ab machine that Jasper pulled in off the street?

Now it's a shoe launcher . . .

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Sam came running into the office yesterday yelling that Eliza was eating chocolate in the kitchen. I went quickly to see what she could have gotten into and discovered a mostly empty box of bittersweet baking chocolate on the floor. There stood Eliza, 2 (1 oz.) squares in each hand, and another halfway in her (tiny) mouth! She had taken bites out of all of them--plus two more on the floor! I wish I had taken a picture before wrestling the chocolate from her and cleaning her up. But I guess I can sympathize . . . when you need your chocolate fix, you gotta take whatever you can find!

Australia In Our Front Yard

Our great neighbor brought by the joey, Boomer, from her zoo again yesterday. It is so funny to me that I almost never saw such a small kangaroo while in Australia, and yet here we had one hopping around my very own front yard right here in urban America!

Soccer Mom

Samuel

Jasper's Soccer Team:

Hammock swinging fun

Spring Hiking

Sam has been asking me (Peter) to go backpacking for a while. Last week we went. Two days, 12 miles, and beautiful weather in the Shenandoah mountains. It is enough to make you want to give up civilization.

There was much playing with sticks and water, but by far the most memorable part of the hike for the boys was being bitten by ticks and living (just barely) to tell about it. In the week since we have fielded well over 100 questions about ticks (examples: "Why did God make ticks?" "Could some ticks suck out all your blood?" "what would happen if a fish ate a tick?"). I am hoping that in time the fun will stick with them more than the memory of having their bodily integrity thus compromised.

We also had lessons on hypothermia (it was cool and the boys decided to go swimming in a freezing stream in the afternoon), bear bags (in which you hang your food outside of
camp during the night so a bear does not rip into your tent to get it, a prospect that terrified a very tired Jasper) and why the park service would not let us build fires in the backcountry (as the burned out remnant of a forest fire mixed with new growth taught).



(after an editorial comment from Michelle, I think I should point out that I changed their clothes after they got out of the creek).

Overall, it was a memorable trip.

Smart thinkin', but . . .

The boys are in charge of getting the recycling bins to the curb for garbage day each week. Sometimes they don't mind the job too much, other times it is such a battle. For some reason this week, they were really motivated and enjoying it. They helped each other up the hill to the curb, played along the way, it was great. 20 minutes later I hear them come in the back door. As I walk toward the door I notice the recycle bins back up on the porch (I HAD just seen them--confirmed--on the curb moments before). I ask, quite confused, why the bins were not on the curb. Sam explained with great pride that they figured they would save themselves a trip tomorrow (hauling the empty bins back to the house) by dumping all the trash on the street and bringing the bins back with them at the same time.

Hmmmm . . . well, I hadn't thought of that one before! We were all bummed after talking about how the very nice garbage men WON'T pick the trash up straight off the ground.

To top off this charming childhood moment, we discovered this morning that a torrential downpour during the night had carried one of our bins 3 houses downhill in the little 'river' that runs along the curb in the rain. The only thing that prevented it from rounding the corner and continuing on for another block or two was a pile of yard debris. T'was a garbage day to remember!

Bird Fun

The kids love to play with their birds. These are their most recent photos and a couple video clips:

Kangaroo, Part 2

Our preschool group took a fieldtrip to the zoo a couple weeks ago and here is a video of our FANTASTIC neighbor, Kate, showing off Boomer, the zoo's joey. (Yes, he's the same one who visited our house a little while back.)

Easter Beauty

Easter pictures: