Playground Fun.

Today was such a beautiful spring-like day that we cut the schoolwork short and went out to enjoy it!    I even saw numerous large flocks of geese heading north again!

Gina (5) being pretty.

Gina being normal.

Philip (2) absolutely loved his first ride on the seesaw.

Course Mom had to do all the pushing, or else he'd be stuck 5 feet off the ground.

Noelle (top) and Natalie, 9 yrs old.

Easy as 1-2-3. Not.

 Natalie's hair has been a nightmare of tangles lately.  We tried to schedule an appointment, but our stylist was away on vacation.  SOMETHING came over me today and I got the wacked-out idea that I could watch a YouTube video and do it myself.  I've been cutting the boys' and Andy's hair for years, but I was always afraid to try the girls.

Anyway, after fighting and crying our way through two more days of tangled webs, I went for it.  The video said to wash, comb out, and put the hair into a low ponytail with two elastics.  Then chop off below the lower elastic.

Easier said than done.

Chop is right.

What have you done to me?!?

Then part in the middle, comb forward, and even out on a diagonal from back to front.

It wasn't quite as simple as she made it look on YouTube, and the finished product isn't as angled as I would have liked.  It's probably going to need a lot of touch-up tomorrow, but she likes it.

June.

Natalie with her patriotic berry shortcake!

Regina is by far the most tech-savvy kid I own.  She had been adeptly using our Kindle tablet for the first two years of her life (until I killed it).  The first time I showed her how to operate a mouse, she was spot-on.  

My beautiful hanging basket of Lantana, a gift from my wonderful oldest daughter.

Philip backed himself under his dresser and couldn't get out.

He's determined to fall and break his head.  This is the only place where the stairs aren't completely kid-proofed.  I really gotta get plexiglass on that side.

I won my first stuffie from the claw machine!

Regina's shiner is almost completely healed.

Saturday night Noelle tried to show me how well she could go hand-over-hand across the rungs on the swingset.  She almost made it.

Her face impacted the ground.  Hard.  At first I thought the bloody nose was the only injury, but while we were stanching the nosebleed, she started complaining about her arm.  At first she said the upper arm hurt, but later said it was the elbow.  No matter...either way it meant a trip to the emergency room.  Thankfully the xrays didn't show any breaks, so we're just managing the pain until the soreness goes away, and she can wear the sling whenever the arm bothers her.

Pictures from the Twins' First Holy Communion

Noelle (L) and Natalie (R) on their First Communion Day, pictured with Fr. Adam

Natalie with Philip and Regina

Natalie

Natalie

Noelle

Noelle

Two of a Kind

But which one is which?

February 24, 2014

Sock Babies

I found this craft idea and couldn't resist - making a Baby Jesus out of a sock.  You can read more about the tradition here.

As an added bonus, all the socks were matched from the sock-matcher basket while we were looking for stray white socks to use for the craft!

Dear Sarah,

Wigs 4 Kids.

The picture is a little blurry...but the twins each had 11 inches of hair cut off to donate to a nonprofit wig organization...NOT Locks of Love, which I discovered does NOT supply wigs for cancer patients or burn victims, and DOES charge for its wigs.  The organization we chose is listed below.  We would have gone with Wigs For Kids (international) but they required 12 inches of hair, and we only had 11 to give.

Worth A Thousand Words

I must add that although her first ride traumatized Natalie, a few weeks later she willingly went on this ride again with only Theresa and Noelle, and she fearlessly came down the big splash with a triumphant smile on her face.  Unfortunately I didn't buy a copy of THAT picture, but the memory is etched in my heart.

Regina!

"Regina, can I take your picture in your new dress?  
Stand over here!"

"No."

"Please, honey?"

"Did somebody say something?"

"C'mon, Regina?  Please stand up?"

"La-la-la-la-la.  I can't hear you!"

"Oh, alright already. "

"Oh, sure, you'll pose with your sister 
for as many pictures as you want."

"As long as I can run over and see every picture 

as soon as you take it!"

A Date With the Tooth Fairy.

Natalie came down the stairs this morning, screaming in panic, "Ahhh!  Ahhh!  My tooth feels funny!"  After a quick assessment, we realized that there was no injury involved - it was just a loose tooth.  Apparently nobody ever told this child that her teeth were going to fall out.  She quickly calmed down when we told her it was normal, and it didn't seem to bother her most of the day.

Just before bedtime, I heard her start crying upstairs - "My tooth!  My tooth!" - in a terrified, panicked voice.  Brian dashed upstairs to her rescue and brought her down to us, gave her a calming hug, and sat her on the couch to check out the problem.  She opened her mouth and he said, "Hey, kiddo, your tooth is gone."  "Really?" she inquired with an instant smile.  

Crisis over.

She may be Twin B, but she gets the prize for First Missing Tooth.

Good thing I have some cash on me.

Picture Parade: Growing Like A Weed.

This dress was ankle length when I bought it last summer.

Picture Parade: Chess, Anyone?

Several weeks in  December and January were spent emptying my mother's (and my) homestead because we finally had a buyer for it.  Nobody had lived there for over a year, but it had only been on the market for a few weeks when, shockingly, we received the providential call that would lead to a sale!  

Unfortunately, being my mother's only child, and the only willing relatives, it fell to my family to completely clean out four floors (and sixty years) of accumulated junk memories, keepsakes, and precious possessions.  Apparently, my mother, grandmother and grandfather didn't throw much away.

This is not to say that there were not many treasures to be found.  It's just that it was backbreaking, arduous, thankless work that mainly fell squarely upon the shoulders of my husband and my two sons at home, Brian and Conor.  However, both Brian and Conor will each tell you, if you ask them separately, that he did most of the work while the other goofed off.  To their credit, though, each of them virtually gave up their social lives and sports activities for weeks, and they really did work their tails off to get the house cleaned out by the deadline.

Long story longer:  the chessboard in the picture below was purchased in Juarez, Mexico, in 1982 by my grandparents.  Back then it used to be safe to cross into Mexico, and the shopping there was a real experience for a Northeast girl like myself.  The chessboard is pink and tan marble, and they also purchased a set of marble chess pieces which, unfortunately, did not resurface during the attic excavation.

The chess pieces themselves came from a complete set of Renaissance Chess Figures manufactured by E.S. Lowe that were fairly popular in the mid-20th century.  (You can find them all over ebay.)  The box and board were flimsy, water-stained cardboard, but the pieces were intact, and there was an inscription in my mother's handwriting recording the year bought.  Amazing that I spent the first 18 years of my life living in that house, and never once before did I come across that chess set.

It was a marriage made in heaven.  Also salvaged was an octagonal pedestal table my grandmother always kept in her living room which was almost the perfect size for the chess board.  I've long dreamed about purchasing one of those pricey chess tables, but instead this was the ideal sentimental substitute.

Overnight, interest in chess flared in my house.  Chess challenges were taking place day and night.  And naturally, the younger girls took an interest in the game:  What is this piece called?  How does it move?  Will you teach me to play?

While they were first beginning to learn, they would challenge each other to some very interesting games using their own rules.  And sometimes they would just freewheel it.

I love the pattern Natalie created here.

Picture Parade: No, You Can't Live Up There

Natalie asked me today if we have any spare scraps of wood so she can build a fort in the tree and live there.

Mommy, Are You Gonna Be Mad?