Rain Dance

 

Here are Jamie and Henry taking a rainy walk around the block. 

Henry is annoyed for three reasons. One... it's raining. Two... he was forced to wear the too small raincoat while Jamie gets the cool too big poncho. And three.. Jamie was making a huge deal about how fabulous and fun it was to wear the cool too big poncho that makes all of your dance moves look more awesome then you ever thought possible. 

Sometimes big brothers really can be just insufferable.

   

Our Own Easter Miracle

Our family had it's own Easter miracle today. 

Karl and I were able to get these four wombats to church not just on time, but actually EARLY for the EARLY service.

It was amazing.

I am not exactly sure how it happened, but we knew that we wanted to be at church early today to get good seats. Still, we couldn't but feel like fabulously competent parents when we arrived early and had our choice of where to sit. It was tough not to slap high fives as we settled ourselves into the center row, close to the pulpit, mosh pit seats of Knox Presbyterian, but we restrained ourselves.  Better to act as if you've been there before. I can pretend that this sort of punctuality is no big deal for our family... but I think we all know better than that.  

So anyway...

From my, one-time actually early to the early service, family to yours...

Wishing you all a day of Easter light, hope and promise. 

Happy Easter.

Safe Water Project

 Lily totes her gallon of water... some kids chose to carry it on their heads, some on their shoulders.

My kids know something now, that they didn't know last week. They now know how tough it is to walk any distance while carrying gallon jugs of water. They learned this as a a part of a walkathon project to support and raise awareness for the Children's Safe Drinking Water foundation. They were presented with information all about the importance of safe drinking water and how difficult to find it is an many parts of the world. 

As Jamie explained it to me "...even if there is water close by, someone may have pooped in it, and drinking poopy water will make you sick." So the kids of the family are often times called upon to carry the water home from the source. Even little kids as young as 4, carry water for their family.

To get a feeling for how difficult of a task this is, the students were asked to tote gallons of water while they walked laps. The younger kids carried water with a friend for 30 mins. The older kids walked with their water jugs for  6 kilometers... the average distance that children in developing countries are required to walk to find water.
I was skeptical about how the students would react to carrying water, and pretty sure that they wouldn't be very positive about participating. I expected some major push back based on the protests from my own little darlings when I ask them to carry in groceries for their tired old mom. But that was not the case at all... those teachers work serious wonders when it comes to kid motivation. The mood during the walk was spirited and festive and even though their arms were sore, I didn't hear one kid complain about why they were carrying water jugs for miles around the sports field.

It's not everyday that such a lesson of compassion is truly understood. My kids definitely felt it in their arms, but they also had a better notion of how fortunate they are to have safe drinking water readily available. When I asked Jamie about the project he said..."I can't believe that kids have to work so hard just to get water, my arms were killing me!" Ok... I think he got it.
 

Rosie joined in the walk with her big sibs for a few laps

The middle school students marching for their 6K.

Happy Three!

Bring on the birthday!

Our Rosie entered her three's on her own terms... three birthday songs and a pink pony cake. She kicked off the final of her birthday songs with an impatient reminder for everyone to "...stop talking and sing me my birthday song."  Then she threw her head head back and fully embraced the glory of being three years old.

Rosie rounded out her birthday weekend with her best buddies, sporting her new fabulous birthday cowboy boots (they light up!) and pink swim googles.

So far being three is very stylish + very amazing.

When you tinkle on your sparkle...

                          

We have a new family law that when you tinkle on your sparkly shoes it's time to officially retire them... no matter how adored they may be. 

Once kid pee and faux leather meet, there is really no way to get that freshness back in spite of Rosie's plan to "just put 'em in the washin' machine." While I had planned to save her first pair of little sparklies for posterity, I thought it would be less smelly to remember them photographically.

 

 

T-Ball Dreams

All great t-ball players sleep in their caps.

Henry got his first uniform ever this evening and has his first t-ball game on Saturday morning. He is so excited about about playing that when he put his cap on he said that he was never, ever taking it off... not even to sleep.

Here is our H-Bomb, sound asleep and dreaming his t-ball dreams.

Four Dates, One wipeout, No Blood, No Problem.

I've learned that unless I schedule "alone time" with only one of our kids at a time, it just doesn't happen very often. So... in an attempt to make the kids school stay-cation over their spring break a little less lame... I let each kid choose their own "something fun." 

Four kid dates in four days...

Henry wanted to go on a "bike ride by the river." I don't exactly own a bike so I borrowed Mary's and took both bikes and a boy to Friendship Park. Henry had a great time but was very condencending of my biking skills and mostly insisted on riding behind me so that he could make sure I didn't fall. For this reason I was in front of little H-Bomb when I heard the skid clatter of 6 year old meets the concrete behind me. 

"I'm ok..." he said checking out his knees and elbows from underneath his bike. "No blood, no problem." I didn't know that he had developed this as a personal maxim... he tends to get scrapes and bruises a lot so this saying will serve him well.

 

 Henry overseeing his Ohio River.

In the space between the tracks and the river...

Mary loves to organize and was happy to spend some quality time with mom being blissed out in the Container Store a sort of haven for tupperware boxes and cheap shelving. 

While it's definitely not most folks idea of a fabulous afternoon, Mary was able to spend a considerable amount of time wandering the aisles and imagining all of the organizational possibilities.

Lucite, Rubbermaid and more!

 

I agreed not to post photos of Mary's Container Store good times if she looked dorky... I think she is by far the cutest thing in the store. 
Lovely plunger pose.

 

For Lily, it's all birds all of the time...

She chose to go to the Newport Aquarium, not so much for the fish, but for the cool birds.

We were able to schedule some extra penguin love in a small group. Lily and I and 10 other penguin fans were escorted to a smaller behind the scenes room for a short penguin lesson and the chance to get up close and personal. 

Miss Lil is a dedicated feeder of the lorikeets... no matter that this obnoxious fellow just grabbed the little plastic syrup cup away from her and spilled it down her armpit... gross, but you can't argue with bird love.

Lily and friend sporting similar expressions... it was a really interesting penguin talk.

Jamie loves art and chose to go to a paint a pot studio and let those creative juices flow. He wanted to paint a teapot... he often has Sleepytime tea in the evening and thought that his own personal teapot would be cool. He also found some other cool stuff to paint... a skullhead, and a little box in the shape of a great white shark... very awesome.

 

As a bonus, the studio had a little pond complete with cute turtles and a fountain inside the studio... could not be a more fabulous artistic environment. 

Unlike her big sibs, Rosie and I spend tons and tons of alone time... in fact she is usually doing whatever it takes to avoid any more one on one time with just me. She had the very best week imaginable... almost all of her brothers and sisters hanging out with her every day of the week.
Good times, good times...

Here is Miss Rosie, loving life at her favorite place with some of her favorite people.