My daughter enjoys an old family portrait at my in laws home in which her father, the baby of his family, is a baby in the photo. Recently, she brought a stool over to the picture, kissed her finger, and then put her finger on her father as a baby. I told her I thought that was really special to which she replied,
Daddy’s so cute!
Then she asked my mother-in-law,
Was daddy a happy baby?
She’s such a little love 
My first grader is wrapping up her second year of dance. I think it will be her final. Though she has mostly enjoyed it I sense it is losing it’s appeal. I was able to sneak a peak at her the other day and was dying at the cuteness!
Though I can no longer say out loud that she is cute because my big girl gets angry and bellows,
I’m not cute! Babies are cute!
You may be wondering about the little one. She no longer dances. She made it very clear last year that it was no longer an interest of hers.
Betcha can’t guess which ballerina is mine?!
(Yes I did write about this last year but it was worth repeating )
When I woke up this is how I found 2 out of the 3 kids.
I love how they cuddle. It truly fills up my heart.
But I also wonder if this need to be so close sometimes is related to their twiness. Little sister cuddles with them too but there is something about these two when they lay together. It makes me think about them laying all over each other in the womb. Perhaps there is a memory of that togetherness that they still seek?
I awakened yesterday morning to the sound of my children singing happy birthday to Martin Luther King! It was so seriously cute.
They had no school and I have a cold so I stayed in my bed a little longer than usual to rest. When I stumbled out my daughter asked,
Can Martin Luther King hear us in Heaven?
I told her I bet he can. She said,
Well I know God hears everything so if he didn’t hear us sing God will tell him happy birthday.
Unbelievable!
Then we got going to the children’s museum. It’s really close to us and I wanted to get there right at 10 when it opened because the place is always really mobbed. I brought some passes I won which was a huge score because otherwise I would have been out close to 50 bucks for two hours of hell fun.
My son complained that it was going to be lame and that he’d rather be playing video games. But then he saw this giant climbing thing and all bets were off!
Though we’ve been to the museum a few times, they have no prior memory of it. This climbing thing was always off-limits to them because they were so little. It saddened me, in a way, to watch them crawling around with big kids.
We did bubbles, building blocks, musical instruments and all sorts of migraine inducing fun stuff.
After 2 hours I they had had enough.
But not before they stared at themselves…all of them…for another 20 minutes!
How was your MLK Day?!
Last Sunday we attended a birthday party for my mother in law…her 80th!!!
It was just for immediate family.
My in laws, their 7 children…
and their 7 spouses,
and the 19 grandchildren, and one great grand child (plus another great grand child on the way)….
We are a large group that is usually all together only once a year on Christmas Eve.
For this reason, Christmas Eve is my mother in law’s favorite day. And with the same thought, we knew what would make her happiest would be for all of us to gather in honor of her for her big birthday!
And this is one of my favorite photos of the day…
My big girl with a little admirer...her first cousin's child (I think this makes him her first cousin once removed)
I understand why my mother in law feels so blessed.
And doesn’t she look fabulous!?
Greatest Birthday Present!
4 Wonderful Things About Our New Trampoline:
1. The children are contained
2. The children are getting exercise and releasing their unlimited energy
3. The children LOVE it and can’t enough
4. A great way to stay warm (jumping) while getting fresh air!
I was a little worried about safety but at this point I am sold on the greatness of a trampoline.
Any other trampoline owners/users out there?
Last year a friend gave us The Elf on The Shelf.
I had no idea what it was all about. All I knew was that I would see those boxes all over Barnes & Noble, you know, when I used to take the little one to story time.
Well hello it’s just about the cutest scam incentive around to get kids excited about behaving because Santa, or in this case, his elf, is watching.
The children named him, Smiley, though the girls insist my son chose the name and they hate it. And they tell this story every. day.
So this is our second year of Smiley. I didn’t know when he is supposed to reappear. I decided Dec 1 would be good. (and then I actually read the book and did some research and it seems that he comes back on the Thanksgiving night…but considering I was getting goody bags ready for 31 children…that would not have been ideal.)
This morning I heard screams of delight.
Smiley came baaaaaaack! Mommy Smiley’s heeeeereeeeee!
So then my first grader began her litany about how she’s behaving and what she wants. Then she figured she’d better write it down.
Dear Santa,
I always try my best to be good.
But I really can’t because of my sister and brother.
I want an iPad and a real magic wand and a happy napper and a wogelle (???) pet.
xoxoxoxo
I love how all my kids are asking for iPods and iPads and their parents don’t even own any.
Now in addition to moving that Smiley to a new spot this evening I had to remember to take the letter!
So tell me about your elf. And any elf moving tips would be appreciated.:)
On the last day of roller hockey season dads and sons were invited to play one another.
This was so exciting for my son who approached the task with extreme seriousness.
Thanks to my incredible new camera I was able to snap the greatest picture in the world.
For the first time, today I watched one of my children star in a school play.
It was a play about Thanksgiving and my daughter was a “narrator” dressed as a Native American.
I really have no idea what the play was about.
Well it was obviously about Thanksgiving as there were pilgrims, native americans and then some animals. But I was so busy relishing in the cuteness that I didn’t even follow the story!
Little one, on the other hand, was pretty captivated.
My daughter had been practicing her lines for weeks. It was so cute to see her up there all proud!
My daughter’s wonderful teacher allowed 4 children (who are twin siblings of the children in her class) to be greeters at the school entrance, hand out the playbill and direct guests to the gymnasium.
Little man took his job very seriously!
These moments are precious and I am thankful to be a part of them.:)
Do you ever find yourself contemplating what you are thankful for as Thanksgiving approaches?
Well if I had to be outside cheering for the homecoming parade, I was praying that at least the weather would be nice…and it was gorgeous! We met up with our friends and the kids gathered with their flags to cheer on the parade. It was truly very cute. And it was also nice for the kids to run into lots of their classmates who were all running wild on the car-less street.
The next day I was feeling a bit guilty. Our friends were traveling out east with several other families for pumpkin picking. We opted not join them. Maybe it had something to do with memories of last years trip, but truly we are just too exhausted. The weekends are packed with activities. We wanted to lay low a bit.
Instead I gathered the kids to go to our town fire department for fire prevention day.
This was way more my speed. It was very close to home, not too crowded, and once again the kids excitedly ran into classmates and friends.
The fire department did some neat demonstrations that mesmerized the children,
but hands down the best part of the day according to the kids was the free cotton candy!
Do you find yourself running from one activity to the next, even on the weekend? Do you ever feel badly about turning down an event?
