Ladybugs!

Elena started planning this party as soon as we got done with Joseph's pirate party, two years ago.  I haven't been ready for it, though.  I was pregnant and nauseous for both those birthdays.  This year I got things together.  We made flower hair clips, though I didn't get pictures.  We played Pin The Ladybug on the Picnic.

We ate aphids on a log and flower sandwiches on a picnic blanket.

Daddy made another one of his famous piñatas.

We found an actual ladybug in the grass.

And we ate yummy cupcakes.  I'm really happy with how they came out.

Thank you to everyone who could make it out, we were so happy to have you here.

Beginnings of Birthday Fun

James turned 4!  After Joseph and Grant's birthdays he's got this down.  He knew all about what to do with presents and candles.  It's the first time I've seen him excited about something somewhat abstract.

I Swear! Other Stuff Happened, Too!

I've been a bit absent, the last couple months.  The late stages of pregnancy will do that.  Things happened, though, I promise.

I planted bulbs, and though only the paperwhites came up they were my favorites anyway.   One of then even bloomed!

We had the usual Easter party at my Mom's.  I missed having Dad there, especially with it being a new house and all.  So much change, but having family together will always be the same.

We colored and hunted our own eggs, at home.

The kids decided to film their own movie, a thrilling adaptation of Little Miss Muffet.  This would be one of the stills from the set.

The Aztex are back!  And we got tickets!  We've been to a couple games and it's always a good time.

We got a car, too.  It is a Mazda5, but not the one from the other post.  For $5k less we got 2 years newer, 50k less miles, leather seats and tinted windows.  Yeah.

A sunflower sprouted up in our back yard, fell over, then produced blossoms all up the length of the stem.  There's probably 100 or more flowers on it.

Joseph turned 6!  He asked for a square cake that was chocolate with chocolate and M&Ms.  He wore his Super Cape to the soccer game, too.

Yes, Lucy came two days later.  Several people asked me when I was due, at church.  I told them "Technically, a week and a half.  In all practicality, any day, now."  I was at that very moment having contractions that never actually went away.  Here she is at home, getting all settled in.

She makes the big kids (all 3 of them!) look enormous.

And finally, today, at about noon, Joseph lost his first tooth.  He's so excited!

My, How You Lose Track of Things...

James pushed a button on the keyboard, and now the computer refuses to acknowledge that Linux exists. Because of that, I didn't want to put my pictures on the computer. I hate Windows but put up with it because it lets Jonathan get paid (what idiot designs a website that only works with IE? Payroll, apparently...). And now I can't share all my pictures because, well, I don't have the camera, anymore. That one's a rather involved story that I will not get into, here. We'll just leave it at "we don't have the camera, anymore." Sooooo, here's what I've gleaned off my cell phone.

First off, we moved in March. It was kind of sudden and what was in our price range and fit our requirements landed us in the next ward over. It's an odd adjustment, after nearly 7 years, but we're coming around. Mind you, they're making a new ward in just 2 days, so we might be adjusting again, soon.
Moving meant driving the kids to school every day, too. Not fun, but at least they got to finish out the school year before they had to change that, too. Joseph's birthday was the first day of Summer Break, and it was a good one. We had chocolate cupcakes, presents, and lots of fun inventing a new game called "Warf!" I'm still not sure what the rules are, but they kids still ask for it.



Determined to make the summer both fun and something Jonathan can participate in, too, we have our Calendar O' Summer Fun! We've been to the library's special reading club activities, including meeting some police dogs. We've played at the park. We've even gotten to go on some trips. This is the wheel from the Mormon grist mill in the Marktplatz in Fredricksburg.


We also got to see the new Orion space capsule as it passed through on the way to New Mexico for testing. Joseph got to look at the model of the emergency launch abort system that the tests are for.



Much less fun was Joseph's MRI. Our pediatrician noticed that our boy's got a serious noggin on him--like, nearly adult-sized, and he's just barely 5--and wanted to see if there's anything odd going on in there. This was a real... adventure. It took a half-dozen tries and an extra three hours to get it done because the first two sedatives didn't take and he woke up part-way through the first scan. Why the sedatives? Have you ever tried to get a 5-year-old to lie perfectly still inside a buzzing metal tube for 30 minutes?

That's about it. Here's a bonus picture, to tide you over until the next post, of a roadside dive on the way to Fredricksburg. If I'd had a drink in my mouth, at the time, I'd have snorted it right out my nose.

Pirates of the Duck Pond

Yes, I know the party was three weeks ago. My computer annoys me, and that's where I'm going to leave it. Also, there's a ton of pictures here. You have been warned.

I've been wanting to do a pirate party for Joseph for months. I think I'd started pondering such things in February or March. He loves The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, Peter Pan, Penelope and the Pirates, The Pirates of Penzance (and really, any three-year-old who knows and loves a 19th century operetta ought to be rewarded, somehow) and any sort of pirate themed toy or activity. They use coat hangers as hooks and boxes as ships, fighting monsters or hunting treasure all through the house. How could I not?


We were a bit worried about the weather, which alternately threatened baking heat or torrential downpours, but the big day dawn cool, slightly cloudy, and perfect for a morning in the park.

We had lots of things to do and would be earning pirate gear as we went. First we made parrots from green TP rolls and bright feathers,


and read a story while munching cheddar whales and pretzel squares.


We headed over to Pirate Cove to do battle with a fearsome ship, to earn bandannas. We even raised our foe from it's watery grave so we could sink it again. The geese wandered over as the ship first dropped anchor and watched what we were doing.




Everyone who would stay put got to play Pin The Eyepatch on The Pirate (and earned an eyepatch in return). James had his own patch to play with but was far more interested in everyone else's.


Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the treasure hunt. Jonathan was hiding clues, and I was trying to catch the intrepid band of small pirates. Jack's dad managed to catch some shots, so maybe I'll be able to prevail upon then, once they've unpacked their things in KY. In any case, we drew up picture clues for the kids to follow all around the park, leading them to a great red X that had a "treasure box" full of popsicles beneath it.

After eating popsicles and watching the ducks for a few minutes, we headed back to harbor for a pinata, made by Jonathan. Joseph has made a complete 180, in regards to pinatas, in the last year, from a sort of shy fear to total enthusiasm. All the kids had a great time laying into it, getting in some seriously good whacks. Daddy may have done his work a little too well, though, and he had the honor of finalizing the destruction his work.






Finally, it was cake time. I know, there's been a lot of ships, but you have to admit it's a cool shape. We simply could not get the candles to light, though, because the breeze was just a bit too brisk.



The cloud cover broke up as we were wrapping things up, and we simply couldn't clean up fast enough in an effort to beat the start of the heat. Joseph had so much fun with his friends, and while we wish more of his cousins could have made it we know that it's tough when we're all scattered. Happy birthday, Joseph!

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

On the evening of Thursday, June 1st 2006 we went to HEB to get gummy bears. Why? Because I was 9 months pregnant and I really wanted gummy bears. Our checker saw the giant belly and asked us when I was due. I smiled and said we were kicking him out in the morning. I can not even express to you how glad I was to be having that pregnancy come to a close. After a brush with pre-term labor and the subsequent nervous freak-outs I'd been to the hospital several times already and I was ready to just be done. The next afternoon, I held my eldest son in my arms, my 20-month-old daughter looking on in awe. The two have been best buds ever since. She changed his diapers, "read" him stories, and fetched him blankets and toys. As he got older, they started to share adventures. Today they're nearly inseparable, but I've noticed some interesting differences. While Elena flits from one activity to another, Joseph will happily play Legos, or look at books, or smash play dough for hours on end. My mom discovered that he has a habit of sorting things by size or shape, then lining them up. Joseph's also much better at remembering manners, saying please and thank you with only infrequent reminders. And now here he is, four years old and starting to write his name. He's got such intensity and concentration in whatever he does, whether it's jumping off walls or learning ABCs. This boy is such a wonder to me.

I have pictures of our little family celebration, but they're all sideways. I would turn them, but that would involve putting them on this computer, which I refuse to do until it acts the way I want it to. So, sideways they will will stay.