Here you go Nana

I was talking to my mother in law about how Miley turns into a pile of gush when he sleeps. Here's your photo evidence.

Grandmas are definitely inspired

My mom and dad sent Tate a glider for his birthday last month and (sorry guys) it has sat unused in it's box for the last few weeks. Spring break and the accompanying boredom forced us to explore all the options. Tate came running into the kitchen one of the days with the glider box in his hand and yelled, "we can finally do this!" It had been raining forever and I kept putting him off, so I agreed and Tate built it in the backyard (with LOTS of help from Katherine). It was one of the biggest hits ever with our gang of neighborhood kids. Way to go Grandparents - You rock!

Snowy Easter

The Easter Bunny came while we were at church and hid eggs all over our house. I thought he was going to hide them outside, but apparently, he and I didn't communicate well enough and the eggs, plastic and real, were all over the house. I sure hope he doesn't hold it against me that my house looked as though a tornado had been through it before church!

Miley was our very best finder, seeing as he's the closest to the ground and most were at his eye level. He mutilated 3 hard boiled eggs before we realized he had found them and was "sampling".


There are reasons we don't have a very good family picture. Two of them. Both happen to be wearing sweater vests here.



Tate was so very excited to find his basket, I might have to start hiding more of his stuff just to get this kind of reaction again.





Lucy found hers behind Tate's unmade bed!



I don't know if weather or full bladder are to blame for this picture, but it was COLD! Right in the middle of the egg finding, we started seeing flakes falling from the sky and it was all over for me right then and there. It can't snow on Easter! I didn't even feel like eating all the kid's chocolate, so you know it was serious.



Miley's learning early how to woo the ladies. Chocolate and a funny hat.



He ditched the candy halfway through and went for a slide. You know my kids are nature-deprived when a 31 degree slide wins out over free chocolate. Off the ground, no less!



The following pictures were my attempt at a nice picture of the kids. Just use your imagination to put the best one of each kid together to make a decent picture, because it'll never happen.

Sorry if I'm one of those people

You know those people who mistakenly think their kids are beautiful? Not the ones who have actual cute kids, but the unfortunate bunch who gush about their human-hyena hybrids as though they could win any beauty contest hands down, when in reality, the mere sight of the child too early in the morning is enough to startle you wide awake. Don't get me wrong, I think all children are cute in that "your head's too big for your body thus I will overlook any major aesthetic definciencies" kind of way. But you've all seen those kids that I'm talking about; those that look as though they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. And yet, wonderfully, their parents seem not to notice as they call out to you to come take a gander at the newest milestone little Junior has reached. You steel yourself not to flinch as you peek over the edge of the blanket and marvel that all parents have installed in their hard drive an ability to love even the most fearsome of offspring. My parents are prime examples of this, as I myself can lay claim to having lived through a set of teeth that belong on a California Raisin, and ears that could double as sonar equipment. And yet, they never let on that I looked like a giant fruit bat because they loved me. So excuse me if you don't agree, but I happen to think that my children are great not only in that giant-head-teeny-tiny-body kind of way, but that they are beautiful.

Banana bread and housework

I have two very special helpers. They have their very own special brand of help, and when they lend a hand, it's sure to be exciting.

Spring Break is over and done.

So much for posting each day! We had water everywhere for the first 3/4 of Spring Break, so when Friday came and it was finally nice enough to venture out of doors, I didn't stop to blog. So sorry. Thursday was nice and drizzly, so we had the first official Clown Olympics out back. All the neighbors and then some got together and each big kid teamed up with a little kid to try their hand at clowny shenanigans. It was tons of fun. We also made bird feeders this week, although I have yet to see any bird using it as we intended. One adventurous squirrel tried rapelling down to steal seeds, but other than that, it seems to be decorative.







Friday we headed to the Bronx Zoo for some sunshine and it was a fantastic day! Lots of running and shouting led to several very tired people that night.

Yesterday, we put in about 6 hours in the yard (Jake did way more manual labor than I did) to make it springy, but I don't have pictures of that yet. Too tired from all that digging. Later, I promise!

Don't worry, we've not washed away!

Blogger won't let me put on pictures right now, but don't worry, we're slowly drying out. More details later.

Spring Break days 1-3

My sister-in-law did a post for each day of her spring break. It was great because we got to see all the fun stuff, the swimming, the trampolining, the yard work. Since I want to be just like her, I had every intention of doing just that.

Then the storm from you-know-where hit and we've been like contestants on survivor ever since. No longer am I trying to stage lovely pictures of the educational outings we're taking or the healthful homemade foods we've lovingly made together. No, now I'm trying to save my food storage and brand new washer and dryer in the basement from washing away and watching Jake dig trenches through the lawn (that I've been working on every day for the last three weeks) to divert the water that was spilling through the basement windows.

(Notice the caution tape to keep people off the new grass seed I've been putting down and watering. Yeah, I watched that all wash away down the stream and into a sewer grate. I hope those rats appreciate the nice green lawn down there this summer.)
Forget the educational healthful garbage too, we're watching Spongebob 24-7

and eating whatever will keep them quiet long enough that we can take shifts going into the basement to push the water across the floor up to the pump. That's right, UP to the pump.

The house has sunk since the pump was installed and it now sits at the highest point of the basement, meaning we have to get some serious water down there for it to even turn on.
It slowed down enough today that some neighbors came over and I raided the emergency boredom buster closet. The visors I bought to keep the sun out of our eyes at the zoo are coming in handy to keep the rain out. Everyone decorated their own (mine's the yellow one)

and it turned out to be fun enough that the afternoon was salvaged.

Don't mind the fact that Miles hasn't worn pants all day. At least the kids are being nice to each other now.

I think the talk about "Noah had to put up with noisy elephants and lots of monkey poop for 40 days, so you can be nice in the house together for 5 days." really helped.






Miles has this lovely habit of inserting the entire meal into his mouth before beginning the chewing process. Not so effective if you need to breath before the meal is done.

The girls got a little carried away with the sticky flowers.



(look closely and you can see a small stream that runs between our house and the neighbors. I looked out once and lawn furniture was floating down it. No kidding.) Don't be fooled by Jake's flip flops. It's stinkin' COLD! We just don't have rain boots and our feet were wet anyway from standing in ice water in the basement while we broomed.

All zoos are not created equal

We had a freakishly warm day several weeks ago, so some friends and I decided to go to the zoo. Not the Bronx Zoo, where we usually go, but to the Beardsly Zoo in Connecticut. While we had a lovely time walking around without our coats, the zoo left a little something to be desired. Like animals. Besides the one tiger and some ducks, there wasn't much to make me feel as though my $16 was well spent. I think we may have brought some of the wildest animals with us.

Killer Dodgeball

We have a new game in our neck of the woods. It's the brainchild of our amazing creative director, Katherine, with some consultation from her assistants, Briana, Jenifer, and other assorted children. It consists of as many bouncy balls as we can get our hands on and as many children as the neighboring houses can spare. The object of the game is to be the last man standing,



but it's a bonus if you can finish the game without a severe head injury.


So basically, you run like mad,


throw the ball at anyone you can,


and stay away from anyone you got out last game.
If you're hit, you have to sit where you fell,


and stay there until someone rolls you a ball or until somebody runs close enough to you that you can trip them and steal their ball.


It helps if you can catch,


but that's not required since stealing is also allowed.


Some don't enjoy it as much as others, but with lots of threatening, begging, and yelling, even Lucy can get in on the action.


It can get pretty intense,


with lots of siblings abandoning any sense of family loyalty,


but with the exception of Miles, whom we detain in a swing,


everyone seems to enjoy it.


So, who wants to play again?