Category: family

Vacation: Days 3 and 4

July 20, 2011

I know, after all those pretty Harry Potter pictures, this is a really bad one to throw at you. But it’s the only photo I took in the last two days.

The vacation, although filled with good company (hooray for R+D!) and good potential, has taken a bit of a downturn. The beach house is not quite living up to what we had in our imagination.

Now, I should say, we’ve been very lucky with online house rentals up until this point, so I suppose we were due for a dud. The house was nice enough, but it just had…issues.

The worst of which was the mosquito problem. We have also discovered that Ellery is QUITE allergic to Florida mosquitos. She got all these bites in the 30 seconds she stood by the hose area so we could wash the sand off of her. If you count carefully, you will find 14. There are countless more on other parts of her anatomy.

Speaking of sand, the beach is a bust. The waves are rough and the beach is full of trash. This was quite surprising, as, you know, the beach was a bit of a selling point and all.

The pool has been nice, but is full of sand. It could use some gentle love and care, and loses a few extra point on account of its proximity to the mosquitos.

There are other weird things, too. About half an hour after Tom and I began unpacking, we realized our bedroom had no door. The only trash can in the whole house was in the kitchen. We were missing important cooking items like saucepans and cookie sheets. And the blinds were broken, permanently shut, obscuring our view of the ocean.

Despite all this, we’ve had a great time swimming, playing, and laughing. Because really, with company that good, we could be just about anywhere.
Vacation: Day 2

July 18, 2011

A few weeks back we told the kids we were going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter while we were in Florida. And I’m not kidding when I say, it was like Christmas in our house. The kids went wild.

So first thing this morning, we made our way to Universal, and people, it did not disappoint. I was amazed at all the details and how much it looked like stepping in the movie. The kids picked out wands and shopped for chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s beans.

We rode the hippogriff roller coaster (Ellery declared it WAY too scary, but Neko and Shep loved it).

Selfishly, I wanted to spend hours there, exploring all the details of the stores. I also wanted to ride the supposedly amazing ride, where you zoom around Hogwarts, but none of the kids were tall enough.

I suspect I’ll go back one of these days, and spend all the time in the world on the finer details. But in the meantime, I can’t stop smiling as the kids play Hogwarts in our hotel room with their wands (thank you Barb!), brooms (thank you R+D!), and a few other finds.

Truly magical.
Happy Mother’s Day

May 8, 2011

Today Tom gave me the greatest Mother’s Day gift of all.

Believe me, I like a day of pampering as much as the next girl. And I’m not one for jewelry, but you can win my heart with yarn, fabric, or a gift certificate to the Container Store.

But what I really wanted was time in this house, all by myself—to purge.

The house has come last on the list for some time now. Cleaning has meant shoving things on the closest available shelf, or building a precarious stack so there’s room to attend to the crisis at hand. If the door closes on cabinets and closets, it’s good enough. And when I do try to get rid of things, someone inevitably wails, “But I neeeeeed that!”

But, today, when Tom took the kids away for six hours, I got down to business. By the time I heard little feet again, I had thrown out three huge bags of trash and filled two boxes to donate. Shelves were holding just enough, some even had some room to spare. I even eked out some space for summer projects.

It seems wrong to be this elated about a day of cleaning, but I am ECSTATIC. Jubilant. Walking on air.

Somewhere in the midst of it all I stumbled upon this queen driving an excavator, which made me laugh out loud, as it seemed quite symbolic of my whole Mother’s Day.

(Wishing a very Happy Mother’s Day to my own, incredible mother. I love you!)
Egg hunt

April 24, 2011
Sleeping

March 7, 2011
Family walk

March 1, 2011

The weather turned, and then the sun came out. And with it, I’m feeling that itch to be outside.

After dinner, I decided to take a walk. The Oldest wanted to come with me. And then the Youngest. And then suddenly we were on a family walk.

When I take these walks with my kids, it reminds me why I love living here. We found little holes in the grass where mice made their winter homes. The tracks of deer. The kids delighted in milkweed pods that burst open with silky seeds.

They found the intact wing of a bird, which may sound repulsive to some. But my junior naturalists aren’t squeamish. They were fascinated by the delicate array of feathers, and insisted on bringing it home to take to science tomorrow.

They threw dozens of rocks in the pond. But the highlight? Cattails. I never lived near a pond growing up, so I experienced my first cattail as an adult. It starts as this innocuous looking, compact plant. But with a few swift moves, it explodes into this huge cloud of fluff. It beats most anything in the fireworks aisle. The kids could do that for hours.

I can’t wait until the days stretch longer, and we can fit these sorts of outings into our evening routine more often.

On a side note, these photos were taken with Tom’s phone. Hooray for pocket technology!
Morning routine

February 22, 2011

Mornings are a challenge.

There’s breakfast to be made and consumed, pajamas to be shed and clothes to find a put on. My kids grumble a bit about all these things.

And quite frankly, I don’t blame them. I really don’t want anything other than coffee until 10am and would happily stay in my pajamas all day. So, um, they come by this honestly.

But we do need to get to school, work, and all those other things that exist out there beyond the walls of our house.

We’ve mostly nailed down the getting dressed and eating thing. But the last thing that was making me crazy was getting stuff together. We try to walk out the door at 8:30am, but at 8:40am, we’re inevitably still looking for a glove or hat or something. Things are supposed to make their way into cubbies, but, arg, we’re always missing something.

My new rule? At 8:00am you must stop what you’re doing and find every single thing you need for the day. If you don’t find it then, you won’t have it for the day. This might sound a bit cutthroat, but I know my kids. They really do want to go to school with two gloves and their hat (no recess unless you have the proper attire). They like to eat lunch. But they also like to procrastinate just as much as I do in the morning. We can all use a deadline here and there, right?

At 8:10am this morning, I couldn’t have been happier to see this big pile of stuff, ready for the day.

Hallelujah.
Gymnastics party

February 12, 2011

Lots of running, jumping, and playing. Tired kids in bed early. Can we do one of these every Saturday?
Joe

February 7, 2011

Will someone please tell me how that little tiny baby is somehow navigating the house like a big kid these days?
Tulips

January 31, 2011

Whenever I go somewhere with a child (or three) in tow, I try not to be in a hurry. I try to budget in plenty of extra time.

But today I had to get to the grocery store, as people can’t stop talking about this whole Ice-pocalypse business. And this is my afternoon to watch my nephew. And then pick up the older kids from school. Plus, I need to pick up Kendall so Tom and I can go see a talk about conservation planning this evening. By the time it is over, the impending doom of Bad Weather will be upon us.

So grocery shopping? It needed to happen in the next 45 minutes.

Ellery and I hustled in, me scooting her around as quickly as I can. Suddenly, she’s yanking at my sweater, and I manage to peel my eyes away from the produce to see what she wanted.

“Mom, we REALLY need flowers!”

I was a few minutes late gathering my nephew. But she was right. We really did need flowers.