Friday Photo

This photo is from my parents' 50th anniversary celebration which I have yet to blog about in spite of it having occurred in March. I love this photo of my two nephews washing dishes. I have a sneakin' suspicion whatever they washed got re-washed by my brother-in-law later but, hey, at least they tried. These two were born exactly one month apart and have been best of friends ever since. They are as different as night and day and yet they "get" each other - you couldn't ask for a better friend than that. They've remained close even as they've grown older, made new friends, gotten into different things. JT joined them in preparing for the party by putting together a way fun powerpoint presentation. The party, by the way, was a smashing success. It was such a wonderful tribute to 50 years of our parents' life together.

Nate Enters the Terrible Threes

I've always thought two gets a bad rap compared to three. Three has historically been a horrible year around here - they're still acting like 2 year olds but it just isn't cute anymore. They argue longer, scream louder and test you harder. Last week I found myself arguing with Nathan about the fact that he was arguing with me...sigh... So it is with fear and trepidation that I post about Nate's third birthday. We even celebrated it a couple of days early (he'll never know the difference) to accommodate the two scout meetings we have on his actual birthday on Thursday. For this year he just got the usual family affair - a day spent making his own decisions, helping bake a cake, picking out his birthday dinner then eating the dinner, the cake and opening presents. Next year I may throw him a party - I usual do for Four since it is a time for me to celebrate the end of the Terrible Threes.

Party hats must be worn.

Hamburgerth and hotdogth for thupper with thoda.Our new fave cake recipe - Chocolate Zuchinni cake (Nehemiah blew out the candles the first time - they had to be re-lit and then we watched Nate spit on the cake for quite some time before they were out again).Elmo underwear from Adora and Miah.Some cookies and candy, a fire engine puzzle, a wooden fire engine from Muffy, a magnetic chalk board with magnetic letters and a box of dinosaur magnets.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Friday Photo

I look awful in this picture but I really love it. I am so digging Tad with a beard and how cute is Alex? This was taken in the park in Lewisburg right before we graduated from Bucknell. Alex was our love child - we got him free from a local farmer who had the whole litter abandoned on his property. There were two other Bucknellians with Alex's siblings we would see on campus from time to time. We kept him in my dorm apartment for about the last month or so of classes and snuck him around everywhere we went. At the time Tad and I were taking a religion class together (we won't spend too much time discussing why the Engineering major got an A and the Religion major got a B in that class...) and we would bring Alex to class and he would sleep under the desk at my feet. I was also running a light board for a production and Alex would sleep under the board. Tad would come up to the booth every hour or so and take him out to do his business. Alex died on Father's Day a few years ago and we still miss him. This is a digital picture of the original photo and it does have lots of fire damage so I'm surprised it came out as good as it did. This photo makes me feel all young and in love all over again. I am crazy about that bearded dude!

Hey Look!

The baby in my widgit hit 34 weeks and flipped upside down! What fun! I can only hope the real baby is actually in that position. Baby was in perfect position and then last weekend went through some major gyrations that made my midwife a bit unsure if baby's bottom is bottoms up or bottoms down....sigh...seems like this has happened before...

How to Make a Feingold Sno-Ball

Go to your local sno-ball stand and buy 14 cups of plain ice (you can't do this at home unless you have one of those ultra ice crushers that makes the really fine ice and oh, and you might need to scale down a bit on servings for your family). I can get all 14 cups of ice for about $4 from my local stand.

Add kosher for Passover Pepsi or Coke or Dole Pineapple juice.

Hand to your kids.

Watch children smile and make a mess.

Friday Photos

These are some shots from New Year's Eve I never got around to blogging. You can see who made it and who didn't!

DOD

Overheard in the hallway a few minutes ago:

Dad! Dad! I know how you can get tinker toys to come back to you! You throw them against the wall and they come right back to you!

Just Keep Swimming...

I've enrolled eight of the kids in swimming lessons - 2 weeks of 50 minute lessons every day at an indoor pool located within a local public middle school. They are having a blast - (except for JT who is grumpy about being put in the "C" team and wants to know why he can't win every day...sigh...you can take the kid out of the competition but you can't take the competition out of the kid.) Thanks to Grammy and Tata for helping to subsidize this great learning adventure too! JM and David are focusing their efforts on getting their faces wet and floating. JM's back float has gone from a perfect "V" shape on Monday to actually having his hair touch the water yesterday - now *that's* progress!! David has concocted a whole pool-full of sea creatures which he spends his down time blowing up complete with sound effects. The girls share a teacher with one other student and are working on various types of locomotion through water while the big boys are working on perfecting their crawl and butterfly strokes. I don't envy them that butterfly thing - never could get the hang of it myself. Philip, with his inherently noodly body, is actually able to best perform the proper undulations. They are all doing fantastic though and it puts my mind at ease a bit that they are getting the practice and skill I never had the opportunity to develop. Bonus points for getting eight kids involved in the same activity at the same time and place!!

Phlipism

For the past several years the family has grown a garden with the understanding that Philip is sort of "head gardener" since he's always had a bit more interest in it than the others. Yesterday he went out to water the garden - which he does faithfully every day rain or shine - and I asked him if anything is ready to pick from the garden. He couldn't answer me as it seems he doesn't actually *look* in the garden when he waters it. So I suggested he look around this time and see what's growing. I looked out the window a few moments later to see him enthusiastically plucking minuscule cucumbers and zucchini from their vines. I told him to stop picking and explained to him that what I wanted was for him to *look*, not pick, and then give me a report about what's growing. He followed my directions, came inside and reported to me and then went back out to finish the watering. But first, he picked up each vegetable he'd plucked from the vines and carefully replaced them back in the garden from whence they'd come.

Friday Photo

JT and Ben with Fr. Greg on the day of their First Confessions last year. The girls recently had theirs but I was sick in bed and didn't get pictures. In the Orthodox church babies are baptized, given Eucharist and the equivalent of Confirmation all during the Baptism and Chrismation ceremony. So First Confessions are a new point of understanding in the Faith and are usually done about the time Roman Catholics do First Communion.

How to Have a Tali-Tantrum

Decide to be unhappy about something and begin to scream:Grasp ears with hands and scream some more (you may need to pause the scream while you adjust the hands):Throw body to floor while still in a sitting position then lay head gently on the floor:Kick, scream and continue to roll around:Tears optional.

Oh I get by with a little help from my friends

The other day we put Miah in time out where he was wailing and bemoaning his terrible fate. I watched Nate walk over to him and say, "Miah, need help?" To which Miah wailed "Yesssss!" Nathan replied, "Give me your hand." Miah gave him his hand and Nathan gently walked him down the hall and away from time out.

Friday Photo

I'm trying something new. I'm swapping out my Remember This? Friday posts for Friday Photos. So each Friday I'll select a random photo from photo archives and post it for all to enjoy. Here's the first one! We had a fun - but brief - visit from Mike Baldwin and his lovely wife some months back about which I never got around to blogging. The kids had a blast with them. I think Ben must have taken this picture since he's the only one not in it!

Happy Birthday Philip!

Second in our run of Summer birthdays, Philip turned 12 today. He's finally outgrown the idea that Independence Day celebrations are all about him but it's still fun to have some extra excitement around his birthday time. He had a friend over and Tad and Adora took the whole crew to Chuck E Cheese while Tali and I stayed home. Tali threw crayons and I cooked the birthday dinner. The trip to Chuck Yer...er E. Cheese was actually a family treat to reward all the children for putting up with hours and hours spent in the car this past week and sitting quietly by while Adora and I dealt with the aftermath of a car accident last week.

When they got home we had Philip's birthday dinner. He specifically requested meatloaf, corn on the cob and watermelon. I threw in mashed potatoes and a carrot cake which he found very yummy. He's improved so much this past year on his special diet that I'm working towards weaning him off of it for a season so the corn, cake and potatoes were all new to him.

He opened some fun presents - a snorkle, mask and flippers for the pool, a slip and slide, some party poppers from his younger brothers, a football of his own from Ben and JT and a sandbox road making tool as well as a racing set from his friend - and then Tad suprised him and his friend with a trip to the theater for Ice Age 3 in 3D. He had a fantastic day.

Happy Birthday Phlip!!