Ok, really, mom? I know the sun's out, but it's COLD and this water is FREEZING!

Yeah, yeah, yeah...just smile for the camera and say 'Happy Spring!' 

 In one of those "I have to get out of the house immediately" moments, I loaded the girls into the car and we headed to a place where we could stick toes in the water--or they could anyway; too cold for me--sit by the river's edge, climb a few trees and soak in some sunshine. This was my first "post-op" day that I've felt up for such an outing, and as soon as I realized that, there was no turning back. Granted, a tad chilly, but it was a fun afternoon.

A shot in which Winona Lou shows off yet another gap in her smile... lower (her) right taken by the tooth fairy last night in exchange for a Fiver since the tooth fairy had no change in the house. When will these modern children accept debit cards, I ask you?

There is something oddly relaxing and joyous about throwing rocks in the water. Between the three of us, we drastically altered the landscape of this bend in the river today with all the rock displacement we did. After a rousing game of "sink or swim?" (find an object, guess what it will do, throw it in, cheer), we went back to throwing rocks. When our fingers were numb, we decided it was time to call it a day...

There was a wedding on the grounds and we had to walk across a footbringe in front of the Bride and Groom getting their pictures taken--and Winnie was smitten. "Why aren't we invited?"
"They're strangers. They don't know us, so don't invite us."
"Can't we just have a wedding then? I love Connor. I could marry him right here tomorrow."
Gulp.

Found one! And then I found 17 more....

Then dad made egg salad while we had hard-boiled eggs for snack. 

After getting rained out of the bike ride/ scooter ride @ the park, we came home to have a tea party in the fort. The sun came out just as we got under cover. Ah, Oregon spring, we love you, we do. 

 We stayed in the fort long enough to weather a pretty decent rain storm, which was the highlight of my day. My camera had run out of batteries by that point, but it was pretty cool to be cuddled up in the fort, with hot cocoa and the wee girls for the four and a half minutes it lasted, before the sun came out again. 

For a fun change of pace, we tried to go au naturale this egg-dyeing season. 

Beets- Red

Tumeric and Yellow Onion- Yellow

Coffee-Brown

Hibiscus, Red Wine and Purple Cabbage- Purple

The results were mellow, earthy colors; not the brilliance of the Paas Pack, but worth repeating (and improving).

The pictures don't quite do justice. The blue/purple was my favorite, since it turned out sort of silvery, and although they all look like deeper shades of the original brown egg shell in the pictures, the colors were more purply and bluish than represented here. 

In other news this weekend: a birthday party at a fun, new park...

 and Family Fun Night at the Y! 

The highlight of this Friday night adventure was Winona's Swim Spectacular. Winona and her 4-5 year old friends swam the width of the pool and back (W chose the breast stroke one way and a version of the butterfly for the return trip). Then they jumped off the blocks and swam to the side.

Learning to swim is a pretty awesome pre-school perk!!

And here's one of Jez on dry land, although she tried her darndest to get off our laps and show us her stuff in the pool, as well.

 It's all enough to wear a girl out. 

I love pockets. And I love water. Seems a cryin' shame

that the two aren't more compatible.

Most things--and believe me, my specimens are many--

go in the pocket...

and stay in the pocket.

Not water.  

A few "reflections" on our weekend. HA!

The ladies in the family (sans Lucy) headed up to see some fab friends and meet the newest addition: wee Coletta, who is by every measure, perfection.

So, that would be Kiva, Julie, Roberta, Ione, Winona, Linden, Jezebel and Coletta. You do the math. Roberta aptly named it Girl Pandemonium. If you've read Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, you're starting to get the idea. 

Welcome, wee Letty. 

You are spectacularily (no, it wasn't a word before this child, but it is now) scrumptious.

Have you ever seen such studious looks accompanied by tiaras and boas?

Me, either.

These three play so well together, all things considered (ages, three's-a-crowd, distracted mamas, inevitable sleep deprivation and late meals --see "distracted mamas" etc.) 

Off to the science museum! 

First thing I found was the Chipmunk Suit. If they're not going to let me be naked (i ask often and try frequently), then I might as well be dressed up as a rodent. 

I want to pet the fish.

Don't tell me I can't pet the fish.

You know how I feel about not being able to pet the fish.

You don't? Well, let me remind you.

The best part of this was the Proud Big Sister exclaiming,

 "LOOK, JEZ! You're as tall as mama's HAND!"

"Hey, Nona, can you smile like Fred?"

Gammijas Winonie and Ione. J'adore...

On Losing 40 Pounds, Gaining A Good Deal Back on Melted Cheese and Welcoming in a New Season Before Dozing Off...

A lot can happen in 60 days. One could, say, go to yoga 60 days in a row, if one felt so inclined.

Mike did. And he did it. Sixty consecutive days of 1.5hour yoga classes that take place in a 105degree room with instructors who chant things like, "Gobackfarbackwaybackmoreback. Lock your knees. Go back. More. If you feel pain and it's good pain work through it, stay with it. Go back. And.... change" as they guide you through the same sequence of postures designed to heal and strengthen every last cell in the body. They say if you do 60 consecutive days, your life changes. 

Well, he got a felt "OM" crown and that's gotta count for somethin'.

We all got a fondue feast (his choice for an appropriately decadent way to indulge).

 The cheese was pretty hilarious. 

 And now, it's Spring! These fantabulous creatures you see before you are watering cans in disguise.

Thank you, Grammy. We adore them! And they will be put to very good use as soon as Mother Nature stops taking care of that watering job for us. 

 Hi! I'm up to some sort of mischief and just wanted to say hi! I say lots of stuff now. Two word sentences are my biggest leap forward into the Land of the Verbal, i.e. Daddy Home! Read Book! Nona  No! Milk Please! And then, the real trick comes when you say it 58 times in a row, with a growing sense of urgency and rising volume. Mike theorizes this to be Darwin's natural selection at work with the Second Born, ensuring--against all odds--that her voice is somehow eventually heard. Sort of the toddler equivalent to dandelion seeds... Chances are good ONE of these suckers will take root and someone will get me my godforsaken glass of milk.

And here is a glimpse of mama's very favorite time of day. Now, the cynical among you might think that it's because my wee angels will soon be asleep, freeing me up for whatever my own night holds. And you'd be absolutely right. But, another far dominant reason is that this is the very sweetest and cuddliest ritual we have... and we get to do it every night. We read books (2-3 choices per child) and sing songs (2-202, depending on a variety of factors) and then, eventually Jezebel dozes off and Winona accepts the fact that all good things must end--for the night--and bravely says goodnight.

This bed is the full size mattress hoisted off of the girls lower bunk bed (upstairs) and plopped down next to our bed in our room downstairs. We call it our Bear Cave and I'm headed there now. 

Good night and Happy Spring! 

Thoughts on Japan, Chores and Priorities

The funny thing about having a Five Year Old is that we can no longer get away with spelling things, evading questions, or listening to the morning news. The first gets us in trouble only because Winona knows that the series of letters indicates that there's something secretive afoot--not because she can actually keep up with our spelling (Although, spell "cookie" aloud and you might as well just say the darn word). 

And, we used to be able to change the subject. Forget about it.

Mom, did you wash my fairy princess dress?

Hey, sweetie, wanna go to Disneyland and then get ice cream? Twice?

Sure, but what about the dress?

And, finally, the morning news. We don't watch TV in the mornings, with the exception of an occasional Super Why or Sesame Street. But I listen to NPR on the way to work and Mike reads his morning news on the internet which is often augmented by video. In both cases, little ears listen. And I often forget. She reminds me by piping up with an occasional, "Are they talking about Obama?" or "What are they talking about, Mama?" from the backseat. Of course, the stories jump from one to the next quickly and the hummingbirds migration (I said NPR, didn't I?) quickly leaps to suicide bomings before I can press "PLAY" on the CD player... and frankly, I often forget. So, I get questions like, "Why do they bomb people?" and "How come they died?" more often than I'd care to admit. And it's a fine balance--protecting and educating, one that Mike and I both probably fault on the side of providing too much information, but add it to our long, long list of mistakes we will make before they can tell their therapists all about it. :) 

Long story short, she knows all about Japan. Or, she knows that a "SooMommy" (great!) caused a lot of destruction. This is her picture of "Japan covered in Water." 

And this! This is a picture of the scene I walked in on after finishing up some gardening today. We had all been outside together, when some sprinkles came in and Winona headed inside. Jezebel and I finished up some chores, put away our tools and headed in about 20 minutes later... to find Winona proudly announcing that she had "done the laundry." I gave her enthusiastic encouragement, assuming she had "done the laundry" like she often "makes dinner" in her play kitchen. But, turns out she had emptied the actual dryer, "folded" the clothes on our bed and used her stool to get the clean clothes out of the wash machine and into the dryer. The only thing left for me to do was press "Start."

Pinch me.

And when one simply cannot decide what is more important--food or sleep--

one can choose to do both all at once. 

This kid. Oh, this kid. Tonight Mike said,
"Is this what roller derby girls are like as kids?" 

(If you are unfamiliar, Roller Derby is a competition in roller skates involving tremendous speed, aggressive play and dogged determination to stay on two feet and win).

So, yes. I'd say that this kid is prime material for Roller Derby. 

As soon as she wakes up.

Winona has caught wind of a Talent Show coming up in a couple of weeks, 

so she's preparing The Circle Game for the big night. Still working on the verses,

but she's got the chorus pretty dialed in. My favorite part was before the camera was rolling--she was in the hallway and she asked me to announce her, and then said, "In just a minute..." For the next 30 seconds or so, she quietly whispered the words to herself and then, "Ok, Mom! Ready!"

Weekly Book Report: The Opposite 

by Tom MacRae, Illustrated by Elena Odriozola

(For other Monday Morning Book Reports, see this great blog) 

Fun, silly and smart. We love The Opposite!

What would happen if everything that happened was exactly the OPPOSITE

of what was supposed to happen?

 Nate finds out that you have to be smarter than The Opposite to return things to normal. 

Highly recommended: Ages 3-5 ish probably best!

It's been typical "change of season" weekend-- rainy, overcast and cold one minute

and sunny and inviting the next. So we did a lot of scurrying into boots and jackets for some

time in the sun and then 

running back inside for indoor activities as the clouds rolled in.

We did some drawing,

 and Popsicle Stick "art"...

and some work in my journal, which is where I do Book Reports now. 

I'm working on a book report on Turtles.

 Then, back outside again to play in our fort!

 And dig for worms.

 I woke mama up this morning with my socks and shoes in hand,

saying, "Worms? Worms?"

We found dozens of them. I really like it when Mom finds them and shows them to me, 

but I have yet to get too excited about touching them myself.

 Which is probably a good thing as far as the worm is concerned.