Happy Belated Birthday Kelly!

Kelly's birthday pictures were lost in cyberspace for a while, but we are ready to send her a belated happy birthday on the blog.

Happy Birthday Kelly!!!!

She turned seven last month and had the good taste and highly developed sense of fun to ask to go to the beach for her big day.

We swam.

We sat and...

...lay around.

Michael crawled around on the sand and...

...Stan and I kicked some sand around playing Frisbee.

Naomi loved the Cheetos!

Dancing the School Day Away!

Gwen danced Two Step with her dad at the fourth grade dance recital last Friday and Heather competed in the Dance Club end of the year shindig on Monday.

Here are Heather and her partner getting ready to dance.

Gwen was there Monday, too, even though she was too young to compete this year. She was one of the lucky students chosen to put the signs up for each dance.

A line of dancers waiting to hear where they placed...

...and Heather and her partner receiving their third place ribbons.

Applause

If you are feeling congratulatory, why not add to the applause for
Rachel (promoted from junior high),
Heather (honor roll) and
Gwen (honor roll)?

Congrats, girls :)

Dessert

Today for dessert, Summer made brownies. She garnished them with strawberries stuffed with sweetened cream cheese and milk chocolate chips. Yum!

Spring Concert

The school district had their Spring Orchestral Concert this past week. Gwen played violin with the Elementary Strings, Heather played viola with the Intermediate Strings and Summer played cello in the high school orchestra.

Here are snippets of each one of them. You can see the top of Gwen's head in the first one, Heather's elbow in the second and Summer's bangs in the last one. If you listen at the beginning of the last video, you can hear the Mo singing along.

The Littles are Getting Big

I took Michael and Naomi to the park the other day. I had my camera with me, so before we left, I had them stand by a tree to get their picture. I must have taken 15 or 20 shots of those two and there wasn't a single one where they both -

1.were looking at me, and

2. had their eyes open, and

3. were smiling.

So...here are two pictures with the funny looking sibling cropped out.

Thanks, Sandra!

Kelly went to birthday party last Saturday and her friend's mother posted some pictures.

I thought Kelly was so cute, I am sharing my favorites.

I really should have...

...taken a picture of it. It was so pretty! I guess I was too busy eating it...

Last night for dinner, Summer made a salad out of the following -

lettuce

avocado

craisins

bell pepper

parmesan cheese

nuts toasted in sugar

radishes

grapes

sugar glazed rose petals

homemade olive oil & balsamic vinegar dressing

Well, it has been a while...

...and I really wanted to catch up today, but I was also sad to replace the backyard picture of Naomi. So here's another version, in multicolor, with some Beethoven in the background. Enjoy!

Hodgepodge Part 1

It is the end of the school year and our calender is overflowing with concerts, dance recitals (more on those later), piano recitals, school plays and all around fun, fun, fun. Here is Gwen dressed up as a volcano...

...and Heather as an Iroquois.

Snippets from the older three girls' spring piano recital...

Hodgepodge Part 2

While the older kids have been developing their brains and discovering their talents, there have been exciting things going on at home. Naomi, aka "The Caboose" has been learning to use the potty. One of the selling points I used with her was pointing out that her panties are so nice and soft. She really took it to heart.

She loves her panties!

Also, I have been honing my skills as a dish drain sky high stacker. I wish it was an Olympic event.

Hey, that's a good idea, the Mom Olympics. Any suggestions for "sports"?

After-Snack-Face, End-o-the-Day-Hair, Cheesy-Girl

Happy Mother's Day

I love being a mother. Even though some days it seems like a thankless job, today it sure doesn't. I am being spoiled rotten.

I said that out loud when I wandered into the kitchen while Stan and Summer were cooking dinner and Stan said,
"No, you were rotten when we got you."

The spoiling started Thursday when Stan brought me flowers. Being a botanist, he has superior taste in flora :)

Then, on Saturday, he said he would take care of everything and I could do whatever I wanted - bliss! I sewed. I wanted, optimistically, to finish my entire mending basket, plus a couple of projects. I didn't get all the way there, but I had a lot of fun trying. I made a curtain for the little bathroom...

...a pillow from some embroidery Heather made for me , a skirt for myself...

... and everything from the mending basket that took thread that wasn't white.

Mr. Amazing really did handle everything AND he painted the laundry room purple, with the kids' help, for a Mother's Day gift.

Today, Heather made pancakes all by herself (they were delish) while Stan made bacon and eggs and everyone brought me breakfast in bed. Stan bought real maple syrup to go on them, which I haven't had in years. It is a treat that brings me back to my childhood in New Hampshire.

For dinner this evening, Stan and Summer did all the cooking. I wandered around the house taking pictures for the blog. Summer did not want me to take this picture, but after much negotiation, she agreed to let me blog it :)

They made Ham a la King...

...and cranberry almond salad...yum!

All the kids gave me cards, Heather and Kelly each gave me books of artwork and the kids gave me one box of chocolates and Stan gave me another one. See what I mean about being spoiled?

Thanks, family, I love you all!!!

Mo Colors

Naomi is pretty good with her color names, especially when bribed with candy :)

Date Night

Stan and I take turns taking each of the kids out for dessert and maybe somewhere else they want to go, if there is time. Michael and I went out the other night and had a ton of fun.

First, we fed some ducks. Michael wanted to go to the place with swans, but since the spot he was thinking of is 6 hours from our house, we compromised and stayed closer to home. After that we went to the mall. I let him pick out six or seven different kinds of candy and we shared them. Next, promising him I'd be quick, we went to H&M and I bought sweaters for Summer, Rachel and myself. Lastly, we went to the puppy store and played with a two month old Boston Terrier. It was so cute! I always get tempted to buy a dog when we visit the puppy store, but this is the first time I have actually played with one. Even at that young age, it sure smelled like dog! It sort of cured my doggy dreams for the moment :)

It is so hard to get good help these days.

This morning before breakfast, some of the kids were in the back yard. Naomi found her jacket, which she had left out overnight, muddied and soaked in sprinkler water. She brought it to the kitchen, handed it to me and said, "Dirty."

Then, while we were eating breakfast, she dropped a blog of Cream of Wheat on the table. She looked at it, looked at me and said, "Clean this."

I scooped it up with her spoon and holding it up to her mouth, replied, "My, you are imperious, aren't you?"


She said, "Yeah," and ate her bite of Cream of Wheat.

Happy Birthday Heather!

Heather turned 11 this month.

Happy Birthday Heather!!!

Some of the girls were on spring break, so we took the opportunity to head to the natural history museum on her big day.

Here is our eleven year old with Kelly in the darkened room of dioramas.

I really enjoyed the dioramas. I liked them as much for the landscapes painted on the curved walls as for the up close views of the animals. This was the biggest one.

The rhinoceroses were neat. I liked the birds they had in the background.



The kids loved this baby boar.

Here are Gwen and Michael looking at the grizzly bear. Michael liked the bears - all of them.

My favorite part of the museum was the birds.

Rachel gave Heather a key chain digital camera for her birthday. Here is the birthday girl using her new toy.

I thought this branch covered with hummingbirds was nifty.

Here is Kelly pointing at a teeny tiny hummingbird skeleton...

...and Michael looking at the breed of rooster with the longest feathers.

There was a bug zoo in the basement and Naomi LOVED it.

After the bug zoo, we went to the gems and minerals collection. Naomi was bored. At one point, she pulled on my pant's leg, looked up at me and said, "Bugs!"

Ends and Odds

Talk about blind faith!

We tortured some friends by putting broccoli on the pizza when they came for dinner.

They must be as crazy as we are, because they liked it!

Rachel made homemade marshmallow eggs. Who would have guessed you could do that?

And, finally. a picture of the kids on Easter Sunday.