Christmas 2018

Guess who got a new camera!!!

Soot Sprite!

Just kidding.  He doesn't like the new camera.  It Makes Noise.

Katie at 14

Had some time in between turkey bastings to get this post up!

So my baby girl turned 14 two weeks ago.  Whenever I look at all our baby girl clothes stored away I get a little nostalgic, but really I'm enjoying this stage with two teenage girls in the house, too.  It's nicer now that Katie has passed the age of 13, and we'll just leave it at that. ;)

For her birthday she simply wanted to spend it in total leisure: staying in her jammies, playing video games, writing stories, chatting with friends, eating special birthday foods, and not having to go anywhere. 

She is a woman after my own heart!  Since as a homeschooling mom I have the power to determine when school breaks are, I have decreed that all birthdays are family holidays, which everyone appreciates.

One of the things I am appreciating most about Katie is that she loves baking, so she insisted on making her own birthday cake: cupcakes in cones.  She had a particular artistic vision for coloring and swirling the batter.  I was happy to leave that in her charge.

she was cold

We had to postpone her birthday party because of a virus that was taking its sweet time to make it through the family; but she's planning on having a spa night sleepover with friends.  I gave her a strict budget for supplies so we wouldn't go bankrupt over face masks and cuticle oil.  (It's actually been fun taking her and her best friend shopping for the supplies.)

Here is a good representation of Katie these days:

except usually she's in jammies.  (one of the very best things about homeschooling!)

She is never without her binder of stories and pictures.  I am going to start making her purchase her own paper.  She already went through 3/4 of the looseleaf I bought on sale in August for SCHOOL purposes.

And here, to shock everyone, is Katie-at-13 vs. Katie-at-14:

13-and-change

14.  aaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

So that's our Birthday Bear!  Still as creative and hilarious and sarcastic as ever, and we wuv her wots.

Our cat can Can-can, can yours?

oh joy! oh rapture!

MINE.

Apparently he really, really likes sequins.

(A friend's daughter borrowed my ancient and venerable can-can costume to wear last night.  All your hard work, Mom, is still being appreciated and put to good use!)

All Hallows Eve 2018

In the "leaving things to the last second" catergory:
a) we bought these pumpkins this morning:

note to self: buy more carving knives for next year

b) Andy was undecided about his costume until 3 pm:

I think it turned out well -- Katie helped him pick it out

isn't he adorable??  look at his widdle tail!

Ninja Jojo (that's just fun to say)

Daniel went as Link again

Toothless/Nicky wanted a sad face pumpkin

"Nicky, show your wings and go ROAR!"

also b) I used leftover fabric from the girls' capes and pinned it to Nicky's hoodie to make the wings.  I did exactly zero sewing of costumes this year.  (I used pinking shears to cut out the girls' capes -- no hemming!  Score!)

isn't Katie's Triforce pumpkin AWESOME?

you'll never guess which musical Miriam's into these days...

Someone tonight asked them if they were twins. 

"Kuuuuubooooo....."

(reference)

the post-op trade fest

Nicky ate most of a Hershey's bar and didn't like how his chocolatey hands felt so he decided to wipe them on the carpeted stairs.

Soot Sprite dressed up as a familiar for Halloween

When we got home from trick-or-treating he was sitting up in one of the bedroom windows, lit up from behind.  He looked exactly like a cat silhouette decoration.

ooooooooooo!

The only picture I didn't get but wish I had was a shot of our whole group.  We had 4 other families join us for pretty much our own Halloween parade.  After about one street we inevitably divided up into 3 separate groups, based upon walking speed.  Somehow I ended up with the boys, which was of course the fastest group.  For them candy collecting is serious business -- you don't waste time!  Of course all the teen girls lagged behind, since all they wanted to do was chat. 

Once the small fry were done they all went back to our house and dumped their candy on the floor to examine, trade, and devour.  That's another picture I should have got -- sundry super heroes and army men camped all over my living room, surrounded by a great sea of chocolate and lollipops.

We didn't seem to have as many trick-or-treaters come to our house this year (aside from the 20 or so who were part of our own group), so we have lots of leftover candy.  Oh, darn!  (I always make sure to get all my favorite kinds, just to prepare for this very eventuality.)  (Also, I'm so glad I recoverd from that food poisoning in time.)

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Andy is 6!

testing... testing... 1-2-3... does this thing still work?  excellent!

Andy had a big week last week.  We started off with the feast of one of his patrons, Pope Saint John Paul II -- the Great -- on Monday.  Feast days equal dessert days, and are therefore a Big Deal.  Katie, who is rapidly becoming The Resident Baker, whipped up a batch of snickerdoodles in honor of the occasion.

Then Thursday was his 6th birthday.  Unfortunately it was just another work day in some ways; Miriam had class, so we still had to haul ourselves out of bed early so Miriam could discuss bones with her advanced biology class for 2 hours.  (Her teacher, who is now a practicing physician, used to play rugby of all things.  So he had all kinds of stories about all the bones he broke when he was younger.  His poor mother.)  Actually, Andy didn't really mind -- while Miriam is looking at slides of cells or speaking Spanish we get to hang out in the nursery (classes are held in a very hospitable church's basement classrooms) and play with all the toys.  Since birthdays are automatic holidays in our house, I didn't bring any school to do.  So Andy and Dominic got to play with friends and eat snacks and cupcakes that we brought to share.  Not too bad a deal. 

After a lunch of crepes with strawberries and whipped cream another friend whose birthday was earlier in the week had a party at the park that afternoon, so we got to hang out with more friends and eat cake.  (October parties at the park are always a gamble -- thankfully the weather cooperated and it wasn't too cold or windy that day.)  (We also got a couple weird looks from the other moms there who were with their sweet little tiny tots, as our ginormous crew of 14 obviously school-aged children took over the playground.)  And THEN Daddy came home early and made pizza for dinner and we had MORE cupcakes for dessert.  Add to that that he got just what he wanted for his presents and he got to choose what video game everyone played that evening, you have one happy six year old.  When I asked him at the end of the day how his birthday went, he said, "AWEsome."  (Actually, it was more like "awethome" because of that adorable little lisp.)

Then on Saturday we had a little party for him with all the usual suspects (best friends, neighbors).  I wasn't involved in the planning of it, but apparently I ought to have been -- there were a couple details that weren't decided until the last second, and the activities were not very well regulated (at one point we had bored kids wandering around the house).  Well, lessoned learned: always double-check the plan.  At any rate, Andy was happy and loved being with his friends, so that's what really mattered.

he wanted chocolate cake with strawberry icing and sprinkles and a rainbow made out of jellybeans.  (that icing was AWESOME -- I was eating it straight out of the bowl)

the requisite Silly Picture

Andy's six-year-old brain has been doing all kinds of fun stuff.  He's starting to read random things on his own -- he's always sounding out words wherever we are (remind me never to take him into a public bathroom).  Meanwhile, we're on the letter "D" in his phonics book.  ...I think I need to pick up the pace a little.

He is also obsessed with swear words.  Not that he SAYS them, he just tells me often about the one or two times he heard someone say (a mild) one.  When he gets mad he says "STUPID!" which I guess is the six-year-old equivalent of a swear word.

He is also obsessed with weaponry of every kind.  Everything he plays with turns into a weapon eventually.  We have a lovely wooden educational set of letters of word boards -- all those little letters have been guns and bombs and bad guys for a long time -- I don't think they're ever actually used for their intended purpose.  So for his birthday he wanted a gun with a scope.  I REFUSED to buy the dart sniper rifle he saw in Walmart (really, Nerf???  I lived in DC in 2002!) but we found a cool Star Wars nerf dart blaster that makes laser sounds, and also has a scope.  And the darts glow in the dark.  So, yeah, way cooler and better than the future-terrorist-in-training toy.

We have fun speculating about what Andy will be when he grows up.  He definitely likes all his ducks in a row -- and if you gave him some toy ducks, that would be proved literally.  He understands the whole "place for everything and everything in its place" thing instrinsically, which is awesome.  It's always nice for a mother of a large family to have one ally in the battle against total chaos! 

We'll see what this year brings for Andy!

ISO plant recommendation

Hey friends, I need some gardening advice ASAP.  So, this is the planter where Mr. Pickles found the EVILLL poison ivy.

kindly ignore the giant watering pillar of ugliness

Living as we do in a state that gets, on average, 10 inches of rain in the summer, keeping the weeds at bay is exactly like shoveling while it's still snowing.  It's a hopeless and demoralizing task.  (90% of that green stuff in the picture above shouldn't be there.)  The only way to have any kind of chance of keeping ahead at least is to crowd 'em out with intentional plants!

So... what should I plant there?

Japanese maple behind it, new sandbox to the left, dying bleeding heart to the far left

It's in the backyard, so it gets very little sun thanks to the giant tulip poplars behind us.  (which are lovely in the summer -- keep the back much cooler)

lilacs to the right

There's one very meek hydrangea in that back corner, but out of frame to the right is another planter with two more flourishing hydrangeas, so I am not attached to this spindly one at all.

Now I love creeping phlox -- I just discovered what it was this spring.  Would that be too flat and boring for the whole box?  It's 8' square.  Or maybe I could plant two things -- one that blooms in spring, one in summer?  I currently don't have anything in the back that's blooming right now -- the crepe myrtles are glorious right now but they are all in the front.  Actually, I take that back -- there is also a small hibiscus that's putting out a few tentative blooms, but they're not visible from the dining room.

(view from dining room, with "empty" box dead center)

I don't want anything too tall, since I don't really want whatever I plant to compete with the maple or lilac behind, which leaves out forsythia, which I also love.  (Forsythia is also a plain-looking hedge 11/12 of the year.)  Also, it HAS to be a perennial, since I know myself well enough to accept that I cannot keep up with an annual bed.  I have two pots lining the driveway in which I was supposed to keep fresh annuals, and they are a sad, sad sight.  (I'm not going to humiliate myself by posting a picture of THAT, nossir.)

So: flowering perennial(s), not too tall, shade-tolerant, possibly blooming mid-summer.  Oh, also not poisonous to children.  Important to put that in there too.

Recommendations?

Belated Spring Photodump

Picking up from the last photodump...

March

Happy First Day of Spring!

poor confused Camellias

Krazy Kitty likes the snow (it makes him much easier to spot)

tfw...

...almost all the schoolwork is done, the standardized tests have been taken, there are no more recitals/performances coming up, all summer plans and camps have been arranged, all doctor appts have been scheduled, and everyone has clothes to last the summer.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Also, I feel totally lost.  What the heck am I supposed to be doing with myself now???  It feels very unnatural to be able to sit on my deck and sip iced tea and read a novel in the middle of the morning! 

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So, what are we up to?  This week, blessedly not much.  This is the first week of our sort-of summer break, inasmuch as those who haven't finished all their schoolwork yet have a much lighter load, and there aren't any places that people need to be driven to (at least until the camps start).

Miriam on the piano

Here's a preview of what Miriam's going to play for her recital this Friday:

"Gardens in the Rain" by Claude Debussy (with toddler accompaniment)

Winter photodump

January

umm, don't think you fit there any more, Baby

arrr, fercious pirate kitteh wants all yer catnip

Nicky "helping" Miriam to practice