DOD

I was in the laundry room just minding my own business yesterday when David showed up, parked himself next to me and announced, "Mom, I love you more than a cow!"

Golly, David...

Mom, I mean I love you more than I love cows.

Yep, thanks for clearing that one up, son. I feel so warm and fuzzy inside now.

Ben's Christmas Crafts

Ben is my crafty guy. Someday he'll be the Props Dude in his college theater shop. He has an idea for every season and lots of ideas that don't follow any season at all. For Advent, he decided to put together these little gems. He has a Christmas diorama - notice his living room even has an icon corner. Then he made this tree out of cardboard which serves as a centerpiece for our dining room table.

12 Days of Christmas

Enjoy a little piece of what we experience daily! Thanks to this family for their sense of humor!

Nativity Icon Ornaments

Every year I usually let each child pick out an ornament for the tree that will become theirs forever to take to their trees as adults. This year the Christmas budget was a bit low so I managed to find a set of Orthodox shrinky dink icon ornaments. The shrinky dink sheets cost I think $14 and I paid that again for a set of Sharpie markers - which made my ornament total significantly lower than allowing each child a $10 ornament. Anyway, they turned out beautiful and we were all glad we tried this project. They are study enough to last for years and beautiful enough to be cherished for all those years. I have no idea where Ruth got to in these photos and no, I don't know what is on David's face.
Miriam, of course, chose the Theotokos.

JT chose a traditional icon of St. Nicholas.

Remember This? Friday

In my search for the anti-Barbie to get my girls for Christmas, I had this flashback of the Sunshine Family. This was another of Heidi's toys with which I was seldom allowed to play until she got a bit older and stashed them in the attic where I would sneak up to play. (And why is it that Heidi had all the cool toys....hmmmm?!) There was a mom and a baby and a dad and I think a grandma. I actually got a lot of dolls off of ebay to give the girls for Christmas but the poor dad in my lot is naked. The highlight of the Sunshine Family was the farm set Heidi had. The chicken actually laid eggs and the little pump actually pumped water. That chicken had to be the funnest thing going.

Two Dancing Girls

Miriam and Ruth had their first ever dance recital last week. The recital was just a small teaser for the Spring recital which will be full blown costumes and everything. For now, enjoy their first ever dance number on a stage! (They are the two on the right side - I'm sorry to say the girl in the middle was *not* supposed to be standing in front of their friend Dasia the whole time!).

Quote of the Day

After raising 3 girls and 3 boys I've decided boys give you gray hair and then girls make you want to make you pull it out.

Dorothy
mom to 3 boys, 27, 24, 18 and 3 girls 26, 23, 16

Remember This? Friday

I had one of these as a kid. My Snoopy was very spoiled and the instant I gathered enough money I would be off to the Hallmark Store to buy him more clothes. He had the fireman outfit, the sweater and matching hat, the dr outfit and lots more. I even made him a mummy costume. He's still here somewhere. I had thoughts of passing him on to the girls but I don't think they'll take very good care of him. I guess he'll have to wait a while longer before he gets loved again.

Who's Who?

This is for all you true Momilies junkies out there - can you name these baby pics? (No fair chiming in, Daddy!!)

Posting Frenzy

In an effort to get caught up on long-neglected posts I have gone into a posting frenzy. Even though I posted all of them this evening, I have dated them according to the time when they actually occurred. It is my hope that many years from now as the children peruse the posts of this blog, they will never know that it took me 4 months to get their birthdays posted and our family events in order...So be sure to take a look at our Halloween evening fun, Miriam's Birthday and Annie.

Feast of St. Nicholas

Today is the feast of St. Nicholas. We celebrate this feast by putting gifts in the children's shoes. It's nice that our habit is to line up all the shoes on the steps anyway - makes it much easier for St. Nicholas to come along and fill their shoes. They each got a wearable gift and a small bag of chocolate coins since St. Nicholas was reputed to have tossed bags of money through the windows of girls who could not afford a dowry to get married. Happy feast day to all you Nicholases out there!

Remember This? Friday

So...can anyone identify these.....?!

Tali Testing

Woohoo!! It worked!!! I finally have a card reader and I'm back in business with my photos - I'll be busy for a while since I've missed a ton of birthdays and other events (If only I hadn't left the camera in Ohio!!). In the meantime, enjoy this little shot of her Royal Plumpiness and this Birthday Boy Ben post!

Annie!

For those who missed the live show, I have a few photos of the production which my dad took. He's not exactly an ace photographer (sorry Dad) but I was having camera issues and could only get the pictures the night he was there and I wasn't sooo....hopefully you can get the idea. Ben had a few various parts. He played the police officer and the radio announcer (no pictures of that - it was just his voice) and Bert Healy the radio show host (how 'bout that jacket and the slick hair?!). As usual, the youth company he's been working with put on a great show. JT ran the light board - he's become Mr. Bill's de facto expert. They both did a great job and it was fun to dig up this old classic story and watch it again with a cast of young, budding actors.

Remember This? Friday

It doesn't get any better than this. We watched the Muppet Show every Sunday evening while eating ice cream at our "stack tables" (little wooden tables that stacked in a pile when not in use). The show inspired my oldest sister Beth to become a puppeteer. She created her own puppet workshop in the basement and made some truly incredible puppets which she used in her production company Menagerie. She hired me and our middle sister Heidi to perform with her. We started out doing birthday parties and eventually we traveled around quite a bit doing schools, festivals and other larger venues - I know I went to NJ, PA, VA and all over MD with her. Not many people I know can say they've worked as professional puppeteers! I loved every minute of it (well, except for the thumb tack incident but I'll save that post for my therapist..lol). Beth worked with lots of other folks through the years and I stuck with her while Heidi drifted out of performing. Beth then began doing stage productions in venues where her audience had to come to her. Eventually that developed into a non-profit community arts center - Open Space Arts - which still exists today under new direction. Bork! Bork! Bork! Bork!

It's getting ridiculous

I now have a brand new computer (praise God for a hubby who likes to build them as a hobby!)and a brand new camera (Happy Birthday to me!) but I still can't get my pictures from said camera to said computer for posting here. For awhile we thought it was the batteries - how ironic that hundreds of dollars worth of equipment was stymied by a handful of $2 batteries, huh? Now it appears that there may be some other problem with communication between the two (our problems really do usually come down to a lack of communication, don't they?!) All this to say, sorry for the loooong hiatus in significant posts here. The problem should be rectified soon I hope and then you'll have plenty on which to catch up!

I have updated the FAQ's post with a detailed description of our laundry system - apparently I do have some time to burn!

Remember This? Friday

*Loved* the Rice Crispies Guys! Here's the original commercial of them from the 50's and note that it's a full minute long - and check out all the sugar they toss in that bowl. It looks just like how I liked mine - with a layer of sugary milky goodness to scrape off the bottom of the bowl when the cereal's gone.

Remember This? Friday

The Lemon Twist - stick the ring around your ankle, get it spinning and jump it like a jumprope. There have been many, many incarnations since but this was the original - another toy my sister possessed and rarely let me use. The lemon had some sort of little beads in it that rattled around as you jumped - hours of entertainment in the pre-Nintendo age! My gym teacher (back when you had gym teachers and not Physical Education Specialists) actually used to use these as a station for our annual "Play Day".

Conversation

David: I just had a race with my pretend friends.

Mom: Oh, who won?

David: I did!

Ben: How did you do that?

John Michael: He butted.

Happy Birthday Ben!

This starts that time of year when, for about 2 months, I have 3 boys the same age. Ben finally joined JT and Philip in the 11 year old club today! The stinker didn't have many surprises as he picked out most of his own presents and even decorated his own cake but he had fun being the Birthday Boy for a day. He even made his own birthday hat. He picked lasagna and corn for dinner and a plain vanilla cake with plain vanilla icing. Adora got him the Indiana Jones lego set which he set up on his cake with the candles lighting the way - looked pretty cool even though this isn't the best of pictures. He asked for one thing and one thing only from his grandparents - a plasma globe. The cool electric effects didn't show up on the pictures but he wanted this to be the center piece of his castle-themed room. Now he just needs to build it it's own pillar. His dad and I got him another lego set which he picked out and accompanied to the cash register. His brothers did manage to surprise him with a Narnia sword which he really loved and his Dad found him a vintage set of Star Wars RPG manuals. That should be fun. Happy Birthday Benny!

Davidisms

concerntrate - when you're angry and you have to work to fix your provlem

shinner guards - protection worn on the lower part of your legs during a soccer game

greem - the color of grass, trees, etc.

sleebs - the part of a shirt in which one puts their arms

Pumpkin Personality Profiles

We don't celebrate Halloween in this household but we've always had a party to attend. This year, we didn't have the convenience of an excuse to slip away for the evening so I broke down and allowed them all to carve pumpkins. They've always wanted to do it and, dang it, it is really fun but they were told to stick to joyful rather than ghoulish themes. I love the end result - all the pumpkins reflect their personalities in some way.

Ben's is the most complex and artistic. He couldn't justify the activity, though, without giving it a nod to the faith by carving a little cross in the bottom. Philip's is simple and all about him - I love this picture of him.

I love the long eyelashes on Girly's pumpkin - cute and girly, that's my Miriam.

Ruth decided on a flower - simple but feminine.

JT carved his initials which are very important to him since he shares them with 3 generations of fathers before him. He also went for the complex contrast by carving away the background.

David has the slasher pumpkin. If you look closely you can see where he hacked away at it with his carving tool. He is our "All Boy" boy, always slashing, hacking and fighting something.

Betsy's has a simple, well-executed face. She has a bit of the family artistic streak in her as well.

JM's is just plain goofy-cute like him. Nathancolored on his with markers then sat down and had a pout and...

Tali...well... what more could I say? Bald, bald, bald as a pumpkin, bald.

Remember This? Friday

This one's for the locals. This is Count Gore de Vol who hosted a show - on the local public television station - titled Creature Feature. He would dress up as a vampire, begin his show lying in a coffin and then climb out and introduce the movie of the evening - usually some ancient science fiction flick involving some sort of otherworldly monsters. I watched his show regularly with one of my girlfriends when we had sleepovers (and when it was appropriate for girls to have friends whom they called girlfriends). Now here's the kicker - remember our recent return to Star Trek fandom excess? Well, Count Gore was actually there - still dressed up as a vampire and still playing the same character - how pathetic is that?! He now has an on-line show of his own. Please, please, please, though, do not look him up (or Creature Feature for that matter) if you want to save yourself from some rather unsavory internet trash. (And, by the way, this post is the closest I will ever come to "celebrating" Halloween - I prefer to party with the living saints!)

Ack! Our First Teenager!

Happy Birthday to Miriam who turned THIRTEEN today! We've finally reached that point in parenting when we can say we are surviving a teenager. God is good to me by making Miriam the first of such creatures in this household. Sweetness doesn't get any sweeter than Miriam and even when she's acting teenish it just makes us giggle and love her all the more. She went for the lasagna dinner (much to Ben's chagrin who also scheduled in lasagna for his dinner next week) and shunned the traditional cake and ice cream for pumpkin pie. This doll was her favorite gift and has become a permanent accessory. These jammies were lookin' way too big and she refuses to wear them even though she asked for new feety jammies. The cookies from her little brothers were a happy hit too. Happy Birthday Girly!!