Brenna's brownie trip

Hi all. So yesterday's fiasco of uploading pictures makes me think it is my computer because it just took about 10 seconds to upload these pictures. Not sure why that is, but it has been so frustrating.

Anyway, Brenna had an absolute delight at her brownie field trip yesterday. The only mishap happened at the begining because she forgot about it!! So, she went home as usual. Running late myself, I was already behind when I called to see if she was at home. I told her to hurry up and run to school (it's a great thing we only live a block from the school)!! As I saw her running up to the parking lot (sans Brownie uniform), she was wearing a Redskins jersey with her leggings. She looked so cute with her hair flying behind her. It reminded me how lucky I am to have these years with her. As she ran closer I could see she had been crying. It was so hard to see sadness written on her face when she should have been happy to be out on a beautiful day going with friends to see nature.

When she got to me, I pulled her close and hugged her sooo tight, asking her what was wrong. She said that she had had to leave the house so quickly (because I told her to) that she forgot to tell Daddy where she was and she was afraid he was going to be mad at her. If only...they could stay this way. I looked into her eyes, and they were liquid and sad and i wanted to fall into them. I settled her fears by telling her that I would tell Daddy.

She jumped into my friend's car with these red splotches on her face that she gets when she cries and a smile to equal them as she saw her three friends already waiting in the car. And I don't know why, but as I walked home, tears fell down my face.

And she returned with that same smile, only slightly bigger from all that she had experienced in the last two hours. And everything seemed right in the world.

Hands up for Caring

Brenna got to put her handprint up for caring. She is an amazing little girl and loves to help (except at home with her brothers, it seems). She loved having her hand on the wall along with her friend Caroline. She was so cute and all smiles.


I can only say I am so frustrated with blogger as it has taken me 6 1/2 hours to upload these pictures. I know I need patience but this kind of trial is not a fair trial; I've been hung out to dry!! :)

Pictures of Noah's soccer game

So here's the story to go with these pictures!! In the second picture you see Noah right up against someone on the other team. You can't tell exactly what's going on, but let me tell you that the other team is holding Noah. And he kept doing it. So, Andy heard Noah say at one point, "The kid keeps pushing me."
Unfortunately, the other kid decided to say, "Too bad." Now at this point, I must digress to say that nothing infuriates me more or gives me more insight that his parents are doing something wrong. I'm sorry, that may be harsh, but what kid thinks like that? I would have expected something like, "no, I'm not," or "I can't help it." But nothing as malevolent as "too bad," which shows no remorse. He was also kicking Noah in the back of his leg. Anyway, back on track.
So, as I said unfortunately the other kid said this which made Noah take matters into his own hands. The next time Noah saw this kid coming at him, knowing that the kid would grab him to hold him back again, Noah decided to lunge at the kid, kind of do a little juke at him. When the kid realized that Noah was willing to come at him, he changed his tune and left Noah alone for the rest of the game!! I also have to say that after Noah did that he looked at Andy, saw that Andy wasn't wholly upset and smiled as if to say I took care of it.

Now, I have to say that I really hate it that Noah resorted to implied violence, but on the other hand, talking didn't work. The other team player had no interest in what was right or following rules and Noah wasn't willing to have it continue the rest of the time. I'm not sure what Noah should have done. I actually fault the coach and parents of this other kid for not being aware of what was happening and stopping it.

keeping up through pictures

Happy Easter.

What to do while we're waiting for dinner...

I can only tell you that my children think that every tree was meant to be climbed. And everytime I think about the Von Trapp children's legs hanging from the trees I have to agree with them. Love these pictures.

Eggs to Dye For

I can hardly believe we have lived near my brother, had children at the same time since their daughter was born 8 years ago and we have never dyed Easter eggs together before. I'm glad we decided to start a "tradition" today! Michelle and I were amazed at how quickly all of the eggs were bright and multi-colored. We reminisced: Michell about making the perfect rainbow colored egg with her brother (I don't think I ever attempted to make a rainbow egg) and I remembered using rubber bands to make multi-colored eggs by wrapping the thick and thin rubber bands around the eggs and then layering the dip on the eggs adding a rubber band with each new layer of dye. It was a lot of fun. I think all of our children just dove in and went for it. I was certainly amazed by the lack of planning on Noah and Brenna's part to make any "art" out of their eggs. They just had complete abandonment and true excitement about dipping the white egg in and having a bright egg coming out of the cup.

I don't need to mention that my daughter must have abandoned rule following the most as she dyed 9 eggs while the others only dyed 5 or 6. Oh well.

Thanks Todd for making us lunch. You make a great tuna sandwich.






Happy Easter and happy Easter activities everyone!

Celebrating Delaney's birthday

We had a great start to our spring break celebrating (our goddaughter) Delaney's birthday. Delaney loves chix parmesan so Katie made that with salad and bread. It was wonderful and Delaney couldn't help but feel like a princess to have the dinner of her choice. Cake and ice cream were the cherry on top of the dinner. We sang happy birthday and then off the kids went.
Lately, with Tobin out of the picture, Delaney, Noah, Jay and Brenna have been choreographing dances to songs that they then want to perform for us!! What courage. This night was no exception. Up the stairs they came to tell us they had something to show us. Down the stairs we went to be a rapt audience. We had a lot of fun watching them. This was their third time and this time it worked like a charm; they did a great job and actually had some really good choreography. I love watching them. Each time I do, I am amazed at their courage because I remember one time as a young girl, spending the night at a friend's house, I got up to "dance" in front of her parents and I hardly moved at all. Inside, I felt like I was, but looking back I saw that, frozen with fear, my movements were a small gesture of what I had practiced for them in the safety of a bedroom. So, I was all applause when they finished. I am so excited for them that they are sure enough to put on a show and make big movements in front of the adults. Now, when we mentioned talent show....they screamed. It was a great night. We missed Tobin though who is at the beach with friends.