Playing with the Big Boys

[First off, I need to apologize for the quality of the photos. The first thing they teach you in photography is that light is the most important element. However, I have never taken a photography class.]

 

We went down to Auburn for a family birthday party. Dwayne’s cousins have kids in their tweens and teens. If anyone can enlighten me on the familial relationship between my kids and their kids, you will have taught me something. But in the meantime, we just call them all cousins.

Trent (white), Noah (blue), and Alex (black*) took advantage of the sunshine and got out the football. My kids went outside to run around and started off playing chase, hide-and-seek, and of course, discovered how great the old apple tree is to climb.

 

But my kids were watching the big guys covertly, and Wesley was hooked when he saw them play ball. I will say that though the boys are giants, they are gentle giants, and not only let my three play football with them, but taught them how to tackle. Well, okay, they pretended that Kyla and Piper’s efforts actually made them fall.  And then threw Wes on top.

 

If one doesn’t count the quality of the photographs, these might be some of the best pictures I ever taken.  They capture the sheer joy of all the kids and the good, good hearts of the guys. 

Take a look at Trent (the oldest) and Wes (the youngest).

 

Logan was inside during the games, but I had to get a picture of him here, too.

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* This is in reference to shirt color, not skin color. Noah is NOT a smurf.

All Fool’s Parade

Our little (very little) city celebrates its birthday with an annual All Fool’s parade the Saturday before April 1st.  We went last year and the kids got more candy than they’ve ever gotten trick-or-treating, so Kyla and Piper have been asking about this parade all year.

 

Kyla started us off the right way with special headgear.  (Now go put that back in Mama’s room, please!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought Kristin was one of my best friends (and she must be, to drive up to go to a rainy parade with my family!), but Kyla has claimed Kristin for herself. 

 

 

 

There was still a light drizzle by the time the parade started, but with our raincoats, rain boots, scarves, and extra layers, we actually enjoyed ourselves and didn’t think much about the weather.

 

Ronald’s chauffer had the easy job.  Ronald wasn’t so popular this time as he wasn’t giving out candy. 

 

But the Easter Bunny was giving out hugs!

 

And high-fives!  (And his helpers were giving out plastic eggs full of candy.)

 

Well, I thought we were all having fun.  (Maybe it was just me.)

 

The Y had an (indoor) kids’ fair in conjunction with everything else.  All the kids got their faces painted. 

I will say that it took Dwayne and I a long time to go thr0ugh all the swag after the kids went to bed.  Even after throwing a lot of it away, our goody basket is still fuller than ever.  (It didn’t help that after All Fools’ Celebration, we went to a family birthday party.  A party that had a very big, very stuffed piñata.)

Newspaper

It may surprise you to find that my personal philosophy expands beyond  1) despising Disney princesses, 2) recycling everything I can, and 3) always considering ways of helping others (because I’m not all hippy).

In addition to those, I also strongly believe in paying for news.  It is very easy to get free news on the internet, to the detriment of newspapers subscriptions.   I will always say I get the daily paper so that I can easily read the comics.  And I do read the comics.  Usually first. 

But the real reason we subscribe to the paper is that good journalism requires paychecks.  I want to live in a community, nation, and world where there are people paid only to discover and report what is going on there.  I don’t believe a society can be democratic without free press….that people pay for.  I don’t want the government to be in charge of giving us the news and I don’t want to leave it up to volunteer bloggers or Yahoo.  I believe supporting NPR (yes, it is pledge week) and buying a newspaper—even when one can get the news for free—is a civic duty that ranks up there with voting.

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I did not mean to write this post quite this way.  My original intention was to share this Living Social deal to get the local paper for 50% off.  But now you also got a piece of my mind. Yahoo.

The Seattle Times

26-Week Sunday Home-Delivery Subscription and Unlimited Digital Access ($39) or 26-Week Weekend Home-Delivery Subscription and Unlimited Digital Access ($49)

Indoctrination, Two Tales

Story 1:  Kyla learned her do-re-mi’s in children’s choir a few months ago and I’ve been wanting to show her that song in Sound of Music ever since.  The movie came in from Netflix earlier and we sat down to watch that scene together this afternoon. 

I have seen this movie two dozen times in my life, but not since I've become a mother.  I saw something today that I have never noticed before.   Julie Andrews is biking with all seven children—the youngest in a child’s seat on Julie’s bike—and not a one is wearing a helmet!  I couldn’t even hear the music while I watched this in somewhat fascinated horror.  And I realized how indoctrinated I’ve become about car seats and helmets and organic carrot sticks. 

 

Story 2, where I have done the brainwashing:  My favorite overheard conversation this week has been Kyla and Piper coming up the stairs arguing.

Kyla:  Piper, you and me are princesses and we have to go do our homework.

Piper:  I am pig, not a princess.  Oinky-oink-oink.*

Kyla:  But you can be a pig princess.

Piper:  Oinky-oink-oink.  Kyla, I am not a princess.

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*From her current favorite Piggy and Elephant book, Piggy Day.

Locker Room

It is NOT okay to take pictures in the locker room, of course, but when I found my camera in my jacket pocket, I made an exception for Wesley.  Kyla was changing after her swimming lesson and Wesley occupied himself by trying on her suit. 

Thumbs up to Spring!

“Worst Day Ever”

Piper has recently decided that almost every day is, at least briefly, “the Worst Day Ever”.  She can go to a birthday party, play hard, eat pizza and cake, open a really nice goody bag, and get a bit of a tummy ache, which made this, as you can guess, “the Worst Day Ever”. 

So the fact that today was in the 60’s, Daddy was home, we played outside all afternoon, there was a still a point where she declared this to be the W.D.E.  I have photo evidence that if this is her W.D.E., she leads a pretty charmed life. 

 

I find this picture hilarious, because Kyla keeps asking me, “Mama, can you see me?  I’m camouflaged as a branch!”  [She knows exactly what camouflage is, but hasn’t grasped that dressed fully in bright orange makes her stand right out against early spring!]

 

See that arm to the right of the chimney?  That’s my beloved husband cleaning off the debris from the roof.  What I raked up from around the house more than filled our yard waste.

…With Whipped Cream on Top

Wesley does his best to keep up with his sisters with applesauce and cinnamon. 

Why Wesley Gets Vacuumed Occasionally

Kyla was reading to me, Piper was practicing writing next to me, when I realized it was quiet.  Too quiet.  And two of my children were behaving perfectly, which means….

…a baking powder spree. 

 

Completely unrelated to anything but his shirt, I was surprised today to discover Wesley can identify and pronounce “triceratops”.  And he can only put on baseball caps backwards, because he holds the rim and slides it on from front to back.

Piper’s Pup

Piper dressed her “remote control” dog up in doll clothes and taught it how to walk off the table to do tricks.  They are both quite pleased with the results.

Un-nutty

Kyla convinced herself a long time ago that she only liked creamy, as opposed to crunchy, peanut butter. For the first time since, I inadvertently bought crunchy and put it on her pancake this morning. 

“Mama, this is the wrong kind of peanut butter.  This is the crunchy kind and I’m an unnutty kid.”

 

 

 

Oh, all evidence to the contrary, my Kyla.  All evidence to the contrary.

 

And another kid who is quite nutty in his own right.  He pulled these shorts over his head, called it a dress, and used them as a bib until bath time.  Piper used to do this, too.  But with my underwear.