Found A Blueberry Patch!

There is indeed a local pick-your-own blueberry farm right nearby - only about 20 minutes from the house! Yippee! We were there this morning and picked 4 pounds. Hot work, but well worth it as I have bags of berries in the freezer now. :) Takes a lot longer to fill a bucket with blueberries than it does strawberries. They are open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 7am-noon. Leave me a comment or email me if you want the details.

Have Dog Will Travel

I'm very new to this whole dog thing, but did you know you can put the dog in the car and GO places? :) Kind of just dawned on me that we don't have to just walk in our neighborhood. Duh. So we went to a nearby park tonight and it was so lovely. Felt like the temperature dropped 15 degrees under all the trees. We were hoping Alex would show off and venture into the water (aren't poodles bred for something having to do with water?), but he was very skittish. Surprise surprise. We did watch a beautiful standard poodle/poddle mix jump right in and swim around. Alex just stared from the banks. And I purposefully left the camera at home. Oh but wait, my phone has a great camera now. Darn. Must take pictures! I'm thinking we make dog walking field trips a habit.

I often find him holding the dog. He thinks it's fun that Alex is so little and likes to be held. I realized he never really held his baby sisters for me! I'm thinking Alex will be quite spoiled.

Took a little coaxing to get him out of the car. He was really skittish at first.
If we're by the water as the sun sets, I have to get pictures of Fancy.
so much for trying to protect his head from the sun...I guess I call this one sun burn.
yup - my little camera phone and i will get along just fine... :)

OK, and we're trying to plan our Chicago itinerary and we're getting nowhere because I'm making Geof figure out latitude and longitude coordinates for Chicago so I can use a solar calculator to determine what time would be best photo lighting-wise for use to take the architectural boat cruise. Can you say romantic anniversary trip? :)

This project's in the bag

Anyone remember this time 2 years ago when I had a brand spankin' new baby in the house, along with 3 and 4 year olds, and I managed to have a super duper craft project just about every day? How on earth? And where did those organizational skills go? Well today we finally had a project to do. The kids illustrated their own reusable grocery bags! Exciting, I know. But it was a fun project and they are thrilled that they each have their own personalized bag. I have about 6 more that we can do, but I'll save those for other hot days when we need something to do.
It's really easy. You just need:
- child's drawing
- scanner or camera and printer
- iron-on transfer paper (such as Wilton's transfers for dark fabrics)
- iron

Have your kids make a masterpiece, and then either scan the image (or do what I did and take a photo of the artwork and load it into the computer). Resize it if necessary, and print the image onto the iron-on transfer according to the package directions. Then iron onto the bag. Viola! Pretty easy and a fun way to remember those precious childhood drawings. I'm thinking I might raid Hi-Hat's folder full of artwork that I have saved over the years and transfer some of those onto the bags, too. Thanks to Family Fun mag for this great idea!

Dinner is SERVED!

OK, some of  you are GREAT at doing the cooking ahead thing.  I'm so-so at it.  I do it in phases.  I seem to be in a phase of dinner time denial these days.  Anyway, here's the solution for all of us who have trouble now and then with dinner... :) 

Bon appetite!

(this post inspired by Geof, who suggested that dinner would be much easier if we could just find dinner pellets)

Color My World

The news events of yesterday got me thinking, so indulge me a bit. I don't usually get nostalgic or caught up in news events in a personal way (though I am a talk radio junkie). But something about the news of Michael Jackson's death really impacted me. I am not one of those fanatical fans (but, yes, I have the albums). I think his life reflected the tragic experience of a man highly gifted by God but who did not know His grace, how to use his talents for His glory, and highly caught up in personal adoration and gratification from a world in need of an idol. But that being said, yes, that 7-year-old little girl intently working out the choreography to Bad and Thriller in her backyard was me. I'll admit it. I LOVED his music when I was a kid. I had the action figure and I could make him moonwalk like nobody's business. Too bad my brother stole the tiny little sequin socks. I still want those back. Anyway, what was the point? Oh. The point. So I was listening to all these Michael Jackson songs playing over and over in the house yesterday (because the news was just too interesting to turn off on a blistering hot day...), and I was burning this Vanilla Lime Yankee Candle that smelled just like one of my old Strawberry Shortcake dolls (Lime Chiffon, I believe was her name). I felt like I was in my backyard in Roanoke 20-some years ago playing while my Mom watched out her sewing room window. I was in awe of that all day, because my. memory. stinks. Stinks I tell you. I have lots and lots and lots of trouble remembering things, especially from when I was a kid. It's rare that I have a vivid memory from being elementary school aged, and I just can't describe what it felt like to actually be able to see in my mind my old swing set with the grapevine behind it and bees swarming about. My little inner tube trampoline that played heavily in said MJ choreography. The steps leading up to the little screened in porch. The fence between our yard and Mrs. McGregor's driveway. Seriously, I might just have to cry!

And did you know I'm a synesthete? How's that for a cool new word of the day? I see words and letters in color. Always have. And I believe Kellen is, too. (My name is green, by the way, with hints of orange). It's hard enough picking baby names without also having to be sure the color of the name is pleasing to me. I need lots of sensory input to form associations for my memory. If I was studying for a test, I REALLY needed the TV or radio on in the background, not to watch it, but so I would have something to hang facts onto for recall. Then later, the test question would call up the particular song lyric or line from the song/show that played in the background while I studied, and it was much easier for me to remember what I needed to. So yesterday was kind of sensory overload for me and the memories just kept flooding in. Cool.

And I think that's why I'm borderline obsessed with pictures. A lot of what I remember from being a kid comes from snapshots I have seen in albums. Same goes for my own kids. If I don't have a picture of it, forget it. It may as well never have happened. And so I document. Hopefully my own kids have better memories than I do, and they will have no trouble recalling the fond and not-so-fond experiences of their childhoods as the years go by. But just in case, I'm here with my camera, trying to capture the many unbelievable ways they are blessed, the ways they have blessed their Mom and Dad, the relationships they have formed, their successes and mistakes, the mundane of the every day and the excitements of every day. The beauty that God has created on this earth and the ugliness that will make them cling to His mercy and grace.

So now on to some more memories for the kids.

1. Little Rella's First Ballet Class! she has been looking forward to this since about march. she's been asking over and over when she gets to go to class. turns out she wasn't quite as excited when she realized she was to go in without me, so I'm glad I decided just to bring mr. fuji along since I ended up taking most of the class myself. hopefully as the summer goes on, she'll get more comfortable about going into the class by herself. she seems to be by far the youngest in the group. but she's cute!

2. Pool time with friends. hi-hat is not the most confident in the water, mostly because he doesn't want to get water up his nose. turns out this $1 pair of nose clips was a sound investment! literally swimming in no time. i never would have thought back in my nose-clip-wearing days of synchronized swimming that my son would be the one to also wear nose clips in the pool. but hey, whatever works!

did I mention the nose clips gave him confidence?!

hmmm. I'm a bit afraid of her in this picture!

just having too much fun!

and I had to post the little lady getting clean after her swim. :)

3. Slip n Slide fun. if you know me on facebook, this is old news, but I like the pictures and I really like the slip n slide. when I was a kid, the slip n slide was staked into the ground with sharp metal stakes every few feet along the slide. should have been named the "slip n slide you way to cuts and scrapes." always ended up with cuts, tears and band aids. but we kept coming back for more! (how's that for some childhood memory?!?!) now there are just two plastic stakes at the top of the slide. the kids love it. wondering if i'll dare take a turn before the summer ends... don't hold your breath.
Will post more about Fancy's 5th birthday later, but for now it's Saturday with no agenda, so I'm going to go hang out with my kids. and maybe light a candle and listen to some 80s music...

Her mouth runneth over

This post dictated by Geof.  I must first emphasize that Little Miss Rella (the barely 2 year old) was very angry about going to bed.  So Geof is wearing the above shirt, which he received in 2006, but the award still stands.  

Rella says to Geof, "Where you get dat shirt?"

Geof replies, "I got it for Father's Day, before you were born."

She simply replies, "Take it off."

I'm not tired, so I'm posting

So this story was hee-haw funny to me tonight, but mostly because I think I was really tired.  In fact, I know I was tired because I fell asleep at 8pm and took a 2 hour nap, and thus I'm now wide awake in a quiet house and posting.  Combination of too many late nights and adjusting to having all three kids home all day.  Anyway.

At about 2:30, Hi-Hat decides we should go to the pool.  I agree.  However, Rella really needed a nap after being up in the middle of the night to eat a bowl of cereal and have a lengthy wide-awake 2-year-old chit-chat with Geof, who was not so wide awake.  Anyway.  She needed a nap.  So I told Hi-Hat he could start getting things ready, and we would go when Rella woke up and Daddy came home.  About a 2 hour wait.  Then I realized we would need to eat dinner (because aren't you supposed to swim on a belly full of pork loin?).  Pool trip would have to be pushed back a bit longer, but not too much since I had dinner ready at 4:30.  Ridiculous.  Plates hit the table, and it turns out that even a nice long evening at the pool is not enough incentive to cajole three children into eating pork loin.  Rella was literally running to the front door announcing that she wanted to go to Chick-fil-A for "chicken and boo-shies."  Fancy started the waterworks.  The green beans were too spicy (they were not spicy).  The pork hurt her teeth to chew (it was actually cooked quite nicely, not dried out like I often do it for fear of undercooked pork).  The rice.  Well the rice dared to have those black long grains that must, to  her, look suspiciously similar to her beloved bugs.  More screaming from Rella because I put ketchup and mustard on her plate to help her eat the pork.  She wanted the condiments squirted on her napkin.  Meanwhile, I think Hi-Hat was realizing that his sisters were ruining the chances of the trip, so he's shoveling in the meal announcing that "this is the best meal ever, Mom!" (hoping flattery might get him somewhere?).  Thoughts ran through my mind of me jumping up, whisking the girls plates away from them and hurling them into the sink and sending them to their rooms.  But I did not.  I'm not sure exactly what we did, but it was decided in the end that Geof and Hi-Hat would go to the pool and I would stay home with the girls.  Once Fancy saw that the gears were in motion for the boys to leave without her, she started to inhale her dinner.  She got all chipper and says, "Mom? This is magic.  Before the beans were spicy and the meat hurt my teeth.  Now they taste great!  They changed!"

OK. So dinners have been eaten (except for Rella, but at least she licked the condiments off her napkin).  Everyone is suited up .  Bags packed.  Head outside.  I start herding kids into the van.  Not sure why since the pool is 10 houses down the street.  Geof says, "oh? we're driving?"  Kids are already buckled in, so we drive.  Get to the pool, and the pool is closed.  Pool cleaning people are there with machines and hoses and nets.  I assume a malfunctioning swim diaper and a mortified parent were involved, but whatever the problem, pool was closed.  It is now a little after 6:00.  Geof whips out his handy dandy new iphone (seriously, how did we function without it before 2 days ago?), and we look up the community pool that we hear has a great sprayground and wading pool.  Got the hours, directions, fees, and off we go - all just wearing our swimsuits.  We will only have about an hour at the pool, but so much effort put in so far that we were not giving up.  After a stop at the bank, because this new-to-us pool is not free, we make it to the park.  Hmmmm.  Looks somewhat quiet.  Sprayground and wading pools are closed.  OK.  We have been on the road for about half an hour, and the kids have been disappointed twice.  Bed time is approaching but we need to find something fun for the kids.

Frozen treat it is.  How about Goodberry's?  Lots of chatter about that.  Hi-Hat decides he would rather go to Sunset Slush.  We don't have our slush cups in the car.  Would have to go home and get them.  So back on the Goodberry's idea.  But we're all in swimsuits and I really don't want to eat there in my swimsuit.  So how about we pick it up and take it home.  Well if we're taking it home, why not just go to the grocery store and buy a gallon to bring home?  Well if we're going home anyway, why not just get the slushy cups?  Hi-Hat - "I want to go to Sunset Slush!"  Fancy insistent from the back - "I want to eat mint chocolate chip AT Goodberry's!"  Geof from the driver's seat, "This is the most ridiculous trip ever!"  Me from the passenger seat, "WE'RE NOT EATING AT THE ICE CREAM STORE BECAUSE MOMMY DOESN'T HAVE ANY PANTS ON!!!!"

And the story would have ended at our neighborhood pool if we had just decided to walk.

Say what?

More from the mouth of my littlest one...

As she walks up to me and hands me a camera.

"Mommy? Cheese me!"

What's Your Name?

Geof to Rella: "What's your name?"

Rella: "I big guuurl.  I 2 on my buh-day."

Glutton

I don't think Alex will be hungry tonight.  Today he stole ate:

- Poor Rella's corndog (now that's a funny sight - a miniature rat poodle carrying a corndog in his teeth)

- Poor Rella's banana

- Poor Rella's hamburger steak (which she actually refused to eat and he salvaged from the garbage)

- Poor Laura's popcorn.

I'm thinking Alex is going to quickly become Rella's best friend.  I am not looking forward to cleaning up during our walks tomorrow...

We got him clipped today, so instead of our white fluffy teddy bear we now have a rather large rat with a poof on the end of his tail.  It's really awful, but we love him anyway. :) No pictures, but maybe tomorrow.  Seriously, just imagine the rat with the poof and  you've got it.

Oh, and this is humorous.  We bought this nice fluffy sheepskin looking little crate liner for Alex's crate, and when we got him we commented on how it was the same as his coat.  After the first day he started dragging it out of his crate and playing with it.  He does not like to sleep on it.  Tonight he started playing differently with the liner.  I'll be tactful and say that Alex is now married to his crate liner. :o  

Finally getting around to post, doggonit!

So I've been swamped lately, all by my own doing, so I haven't had much time to post/scrapbook/cook/clean house/bathe children/do laundry/read/make play dough/color with glitter crayons/swim/sleep ...

The last week has been filled with dance rehearsals, my 10th wedding anniversary, an out of town wedding for which I was assigned to be the photographer, a dance recital for which I was assigned to be back stage mom to 10 4-year-olds for about 4 hours, a few last minute kindergarden assignments which involved making a diorama about Mrs. Nelson, preparations for SSA, a few photo sessions to finish up work on, and our new dog, who I hear running around upstairs with his long sharp nails on our hardwood floors. sigh. I love him, but I think I'm nuts.

A few random things I wanted to post.

1. I am no longer doing the Project 365 photo journaling project. I'd need about 365 hours in the day to keep on top of it. I suspect I would have stopped running/taking kick boxing a while back, too, had I undertaken such disciplines at the beginning of the year. But I don't think I can be accused of not taking enough pictures each year, anyway. :)

2. Turns out I am pretty darn good at managing a dog. I only say that because I am a self-proclaimed "go with the flow" kind of girl. No schedules, no lists, no super strict discipline (thank you, God, for good-natured children!). But with Alex I am no-nonsense. And I am shocked. I keep thinking, "who is this girl?" He seems to know that I am the one in charge, and so far he A) sits at our feet when we're on the sofa, B) does not cross the invisible "do not cross" line before the kitchen island, C) does not go on the second floor or in the basement, D) sits while I put his harness/leash on, D) has quickly become manageable on the leash (he was not leashed before). I've got the great Victoria Stilwell dog training commands down pat (which is mainly short bursts of "ah-ah" to get his attention). I am a big fan of the show It's Me or the Dog.

3. I think it's funny that Fancy has become a HUGE fan of "I Love Lucy." We've found the reruns on the Hallmark Channel and have started enjoying them together. She then reports on them to Hi-Hat when he gets home from school. "Lucy is always getting into so much trouble with her dad [Ricky]. She buys too many hats."

4. Hi-Hat finished kindergarden today. As much as I've complained about the lack of opportunity for me to be involved in his classroom, I'm very impressed with his teacher and all he has learned this year. It's like she's imposed a classical curriculum on top of the county curriculum. I was delighted to open his last-day-of-school backpack and find an entire summer curriculum waiting for us! He came home with a wonderful hard-bound reading anthology (the kind I remember when I was a kid), a set of watercolors and watercolor paper for making summer paintings, a social studies workbook, a book of math sheets, a cookbook, and a booklet of ideas for summer learning.

On to some pictures.

Fancy doing the ever-popular "shovel" hop step as a Busy Busy Bee.

ok. little girls do not need makeup. but the are SO cute with it on! Just wanted to smooch those red lips!

watching and waiting for her new dog . . . he's here!

hmmm - not quite sure he looks very natural with the dog. And a note on his coloring. He's a white toy poodle, but he's in the process of turning apricot. So it looks like he sat in a puddle of mess. He did not. Well, maybe he did, but that's not why he looks this way. He's getting the full treatment at the doggie spa tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to see his face!

meet the dog - Alex aka Henry aka Alex.

ONE DAY THIS CHILD WILL GIVE ME PAYBACK FOR THIS PHOTO
(but I really had to post it)

Rella really wants to be potty trained. I'm not there yet. I need at least a week with the dog. She has started removing all her clothes by herself, after which she "goes potty" by standing naked in the bathroom and flushing toilet paper. She does it on her own, even if I'm off somewhere else in the house. So I often find her this way. The dog just made it priceless when I found them looking at a book together yesterday afternoon.

I do intend to do a post some day about my brother's wedding this weekend. It was wonderful! But. it. will. take. me. all. summer. to. go. through. all. the. 1000s. of. photos.  You can see what I've proofed so far here.  For now, I'll just post one of my favorites of my sweet handsome brother hugging his brand new wife.

Cookout Gone WILD

WARNING!!!! If you do not like things that might be classified as creepy-crawly, you might want to forego reading this post. And by creepy-crawly I mean things with lots of legs, bushy tails, or start with "sn" and end in "akes."

[this space left blank for the faint at heart who don't want to risk seeing the pictures, which really aren't that yucky anyway]

This weekend was Fancy's end of the year cookout with her preschool class. This has been such a great group of kids, and most of them have been together in preschool since they were 2 years old! What fun to watch them grow. I'm about to break out into song here - "Let them be little..." Good thing you can't hear me sing. Anyway, the cookout. I'm not posting pictures of the kids. The kids were kids - same old same old. Monkey bars, slides, hot dogs, sand, bubbles, etc. However, I encountered some rather interesting wild life at this event. First, Fancy found this:

I have no idea what it is, but it must be some sort of -pede with all those legs. It was about 3 inches long. I'm hoping that since I pointed it out to her and told her she could pick it up it is not a dangerous creature. Who knows. Really, what was I thinking? But if you can get past all the legs, see his little head? I think he's kinda cute!

Next we went for a walk down to the water. I spotted something flashing in the water. Oh, it's a fish! Wait, something doesn't look right. How is it swimming along the surface like that? Oh, it's more than a fish. It's a poor little fish caught in the mouth of a water moccasin heading right toward the shore 5 feet from where we are standing. Look kids! Let's watch. Let's move closer. Accompanying smart mommy with some sense decides we need to get out of there so as not to upset said snake. But I want pictures! Again, what was I thinking? This one is not so cute, but at least I got my picture (and can I just say that we were on a small bridge near these rocks, and according to Bill Cosby, snakes can't climb stairs - it's a scientific fact, says Theo - so certainly they can't climb small bridges!).

Dinner and dessert. Uneventful. Lots of yummy leftover dessert to take home. We're cleaning up and notice a squirrel hanging around. He jumps on the table and starts eating some crumbs. Cute!

Wait! What do you think you're doing Mr. Squirrel?

And that was the end of our cake! (he sent it flying across the picnic shelter floor and even the squirrel was too scared by the clatter to enjoy it.)

And because this is my blog, I will, after all, post one picture of the kids. I think she qualifies since her hair seems a little wild. :)