Flashback Friday: March 2006

I thought this video was appropriate given the sibling rivalry theme of yesterday. This is in our kitchen when we lived in Memphis.




In case you can't make out the audio, Emma is shouting, "No Evans" and, surprise, Evan is shouting, "No Emmas".

Ironically, the inspiration was a peace march we had attended a couple days before.

Lest You Idealize

We may be surrounded by the peace of nature up here on our hilltop, but sibling rivalry (sibling reality?) often shakes things up.

Those of you who keep up with us on Facebook will have to forgive my redundancy. There, the caption for this photo read, "I suppose if I were a different kind of mother I would be intervening instead of taking pictures..."

 I could blame it on being distracted by my new pocket-size camera that I can whip out at a moment's notice, but I have had this problem for longer than that. We were looking through some of the 35,000+ pictures (no, I am not exaggerating) on the external hard drive and I have quite a selection of photos of children whining, crying, arguing and fighting. These certainly don't represent the bulk of what I have- most are your usually sweet, smiling, adorable children standards. Truth be told, I find it difficult to get the camera near Eli without him putting on a huge, showy grin- a la Gilderoy Lockhart.

I do have a parenting philosophy that finds me stepping back to let the kids figure things out for themselves sometimes (and, no, when they've resorted to fisticuffs isn't usually one of those times), but I also enjoy looking back through photos and remembering the not-so-perfect moments. It is easy for me to get nostalgic about how much happier/better-behaved/easy everyone was when I look through the recorded moments of the highlights. Having a few of the not-so-shining moments- both of childhood and parenthood!- helps me keep things in perspective.

So, how about you? Have some "reality photos" to share? I'm planning to dig through the archives for some of mine- there are videos, too!

Wordless Wednesday

 

It isn't just socks that go missing around here...

 

Loft Bed

Curt was off work Monday, so he and Emma tackled a project that has been waiting in the wings- a loft bed!




 


 


 




 
 

I'll be rich...

 

...when they're old enough to have money in their pockets. Because if it goes in their pockets, I'm sure to find it in the wash.

Sick Days

Greetings from the land of the puny children! We seem to have had one little thing or another taxing our immune systems here this week. And to qualify myself for the Bad Mother of the Year Award, let me just say, if they're going to be sick, can't they just feel bad enough to be still and quiet and sleep? Instead we've had just enough symptoms to keep us home and away from social contact. And grumpy. Did I mention grumpy? The kids have been a little out of sorts, too. ;)

I've been the healthy holdout so far. Although I am sure it is certain doom to acknowledge that fact. The three kids have each had different symptoms, all spaced out just enough to where you think things are back to normal before someone else goes down. And Curt has had the good fortune to get a little bit of each ailment. That or he is a hypochondriac. But don't tell him I said that. We're just starting to be nice to each other again.

A benefit to all this, though, is that my calendar, which was fairly full this week, got weeded out considerably. And though extra laundry (yes, Eli was *that* kind of sick) and caretaking has called for much of the newly-available time, I have also managed to catch up on some of my neglected to-do list and fit in a little time for catching up on email, phone calls and now, a long-overdue blog post.

In our downtime we've enjoyed lots of board games, some play dough creativity that left my floor a disgrace, and a fair amount of read-aloud. There has been room rearranging and closet cleaning tucked in there, too. All in all, not a bad week.

The Great Escape

The title might lead you to think that this post would be about the latest escapade with our goat, Wally. Or it could just as easily be about our hound dogs who take off through the woods (and usually straight toward the interstate) whenever they get the chance. While both of these have occurred since my last post, I am actually writing about the 1963 World War II adventure film.

The film that seems to have inspired my children to create spy holes in our walls. The film that has my 7-year-old sleeping with his baseball glove at night. The film that now has my 4-year-old worried that his newly set-up bunk beds might fall down- of particular concern to him since he's on the bottom.

We also watched West Side Story this week. Wonder what that will stir up...

We're just getting started...

The pictures are from when we had 2 inches, now we're up to 6 inches. We will likely have more than a foot before all is said and done. The kids are out enjoying it before it gets completely dark! More pictures to come as it builds...

 

 

 

Maybe It's Time to Finish that Halloween Post...

Ah, my patient readers. Thank you for returning in mid-December to finally see my pictures from Halloween...

Remember the guessing challenge? Had enough time to figure it out? Here's the big reveal, all suspense gone now that it has been over a month and most of you have seen the photos on Facebook anyway :)

Good guessing on Evan and Emma-

 

DRACO MALFOY

Ok, so this facial expression doesn't quite convey the character, but it was a little frightening to see some of the images in the movie and how much Evan actually does resemble Draco Malfoy- remember we're talking the first one, back when the actors were wee little children!

 

HERMIONE GRANGER

And Emma has perfected the bushy-haired Hermione. You should see her 'do right after she brushes it upside down...

 

DOBBY

Eli's costume was my favorite to create. Came up with the idea the night before, slept on it and then set out to find odds and ends around the house to pull it all together! Meet Dobby the House Elf.

 

I knew that old, ripped pillowcases would eventually serve a purpose! And, yes, we know Dobby wasn't in the first movie, and yes, we know he didn't start wearing lots of socks and hats until he was a free house elf...

 

Here's what the wire became! Not exactly magnifying my eyes, but not half-bad for making do with what you have :)

 

PROFESSOR TRELAWNEY

And the full ensemble, put together by my fashion consultant, Emma.

 

And here we are all together. My cousin, Lyle, joined our ranks as Dumbledore. We talked Curt into dressing up at the last minute! The original idea was for him to just be a fan at the Quidditch World Cup, some random wizard dressed as a muggle. But the rest of us had character names, so we dubbed him Mr. Weasley.

 

And here's where we went! Had a great time. Some stayed in costume longer than others through the showing, and all but one of us stayed awake through the whole movie. You might guess Eli to be the one to fall asleep, but you'd be wrong. Yes, I sometimes think my husband suffers from narcolepsy.