Recital Pictures

Piano Recital 2012

Mia had another great piano recital today.  She learned two pieces, played one of her own and also played a duet with Mateus on violin this year.

Reference for Plymouth

In case you are curious about our trip to Plymouth, my post is coming at some point, I think.  In the meantime, just check out my sister in law, LeNan's post about the trip.  She took way better pictures than I did.  In fact, I don't think I even brought my camera now that I think about it.  Her blog is dustinfrancisfamily.blogspot.com 
More to come -

Getting Bigger Every Day

On bad days, I cannot wait until my kids are old enough to be reasonable with me.  Although, when I really ponder that one, I wonder how reasonable my parents really think I am.  On the good days though, which are many, it breaks my heart just knowing that each day my babies get older and bigger and more independent.

Mia is becoming so grown up.  I cannot believe she is just weeks away from being double digits - and all that goes along with entering that new era of childhood.  She is more and more aware of what she is wearing and has been spending an increasing amount of time gazing at herself in the full length mirror.  I feel very contented in our relationship lately.  She still seems perfectly comfortable talking with me about anything that is on her mind or what other kids are talking about without their parents ears to hear.  While it is certainly trying sometimes to face off with my confident, clever little girl.  It is also very rewarding that she isn't easily dissuaded from what she thinks is right and fair.  With the ever more difficult piano pieces her teacher assigns, there is always beautiful music flowing through the house.  

Lennon is becoming more aware of his skill at comedy.  He is such a little snuggler.  I especially appreciate it because he wasn't so fond of it when he was younger.  At bedtime, I usually lay down with him until he falls asleep.  That being said, he is usually fast sleep and breathing deeply within a 5 minute window.  Lately, he has been saying, "You can snuggle me as tight and as long as you want, Mommy!"  He still loves machines and science and baking and regularly creates his own recipes - some of which work better than others.  This week he made a gluten free strawberry oatmeal bar that actually turned out to be delicious!  We were playing with some fraction blocks that we had borrowed from our neighbor and I was explaining how two halves are equal to one whole.   He stopped me and said, "I know.  I understand math, I just want to play with these."  I'm always asking him to please not get any bigger and to promise never to leave me, just in a joking way.  Most recently, he decided he really needed to explain to me why that wasn't going to work out for me.  I really felt like he thought I was a pathetic little child who needed help understanding.  This is about how that conversation went:

Lennon: Mommy,  did your mom ever ask you to not grow up?

Me:  Probably.

Lennon: Did she or not?

Me:  I guess so.

Lennon:  Did she ever ask you to never leave?

Me:  Probably.

Lennon:  Yes or no, Mommy.

Me:  Yes, I guess.

Lennon:  Well, think back to that whole process of when you did leave her.  That's what I'm going to have to do.  That is what it will be like.

He certainly knows how to put one in ones place.

We are all soooo excited that Shelby is almost done with school.  As I type he is at class and after tonight he only has three more class meetings and will hopefully present his thesis project on Thursday barring any more emergency room visits.  We are all feeling a chaotic mixture of deep sadness and extreme excitement over our impending move further south.  I can't even really fathom how hard it is going to be, especially for me and the kids.  However, we are all looking forward to being able to spend more time with family.  The prospect of being able to own a home for less than $400k is also pretty cool, I must say.  

A couple of recent shots from a hike we went on 

Lennon in the Rockery at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary

Mia, with our new downstairs neighbor, Holly, feeding the chickadees out of their hands

Easter Eggs a New Way

We tried something new this year with Easter Egg dying. I read about a great idea and everyone was into it so we did it. We made two colors of dye, blue and red, using purple cabbage and yellow onion skins. We were all really surprised at how deep red the yellow onion skin dye came out.

First, we collected flowers and leaves from the backyard

Then we laid the flowers or leaves across the egg and stretched pantyhose over each egg, which we secured with a twisty tie. I thought this was going to be difficult for the kids, but it really wasn't that bad. Everyone had fun creating different designs.

This is the eggs after we pulled them out of the cabbage dye, before we peeled away the flowers and pantyhose.

The final product. They turned out really cool. Everyone has a different favorite. A few of them cracked, I'm guessing from over boiling. I think we'll try again before Easter because everyone had fun and it was so easy. I want to find ways to make other colors of natural dyes. I was thinking of trying to find a way to make a yellow dye.

Not So Complimentary

Today I rhetorically asked Lennon, "How do you keep getting cuter?" I was not quite expecting the answer he came up with. He said, "I don't know. Probably, I'll start getting less cute, when I get really old. Like you."

Managing Without Our Girl

After settling in to Mia being away, we are actually having a really great week. Monday, we went to my moms group at church as usual in the morning. When we got home, Lennon played with Mateus and Bianca right up until bedtime out in the yard. The weather has been amazing this week and we've basically spent every minute we could outside. Well, except for Tuesday morning when I took Lennon, Mateus and Bianca to Chuck E Cheese in the morning. At school on Tuesday, Lennon was sent home with a project. He brought home Froggy, the class pet puppet. He was to take care of Froggy for the day and have his mom write down what they did together. I had promised Lennon a movie night while Mia was away, so we decided to go for it while we had Froggy to entertain. We rented Rango and Lennon got a tiny ice cream.

This morning we got up and went to the drive thru car wash which Lennon is newly obsessed with. Afterwards, we went to the zoo- with Froggy of course. Lennon wanted deviled eggs for lunch and I was hit with sudden inspiration and turned his deviled eggs into a little spring flower using celery, spinach and cucumber. He thought it was pretty cool. After I picked him up from school we went to the store to get stuff for grilling burgers in the perfect weather we're having. We got home around 4 and he didn't step foot inside the house from that point until just after 7 when he had to come in for a bath and bedtime. He and the Lima kids played with the hose and were all completely dirty and exhausted when it was time to come inside.

I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but so far, he's managing just fine with his sissy gone for a few days. He has been adamant from the beginning anytime we say she's going for a week, that it is, indeed not a full week. She is going from Sunday to Friday. He has also suddenly rebelled against any book that rhymes. In his words, "I don't like trick books. Books that make you think it's going to be a story, but then it's just a poem."

Lennon's Lunch