The Temperate House

Carrie had a photoshoot at the Gardens and when I heard she was planning to tote two of her kids along and accomplish the photoshoot whilst wrangling the kids, I told her we'd be happy to meet her at the gardens and entertain the littles so she could work. So we popped on shoes (and rollerblades) and headed out. While I was walking in the back with Edie while trying to keep half an eye on Gussie on his bike way out ahead, I noticed Catherine and Mary helping Michael Jr along on his rollerblades and had a serious episode of de ja vu. I had to search through almost a whole year of blog pictures when we got home because I couldn't remember exactly when the picture in my head was from, but I finally found it. Five years doesn't seem like all that much until you see what a difference it makes; 2, 4, and 5 is worlds away from 7, 9, and 10!

Carrie ended up wearing the youngest but we had a fun time exploring the new children's center with Lily. And when she was done with the shoot we all meandered through the Temperate House, Climatron, and model train show together.

I love when they all just decide to line up. It's almost like they've been to school.

When you're out and about with a mom photographer who knows how hard it is to get in the pictures, you end up in the pictures. Thanks, Carrie!

Yep, 9 and 10, not 4 and 5.

The Temperate House and Climatron have lots of warm weather flowers year round. I like it.

We stopped by the model train show on our way home, which is a vast miniature land with several different trains running through. They all like it but it's hard to keep curious hands from exploring the exhibits so not many pictures.

Except for a sunny fountain, because.

Also Edie made this alligator and she said it is going to eat you.

Edie is Three!

Edie's birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day this year, so she lucked into a big Thanksgiving dinner party, just for her! At least, she thought it was just for her and that is just fine, because all those people would show up for her anyway.

Edie declared her party would be a dancing party, so she wore her sparkliest dancing dress, over her regular clothes, with a t-shirt that Gussie had received on his third birthday and passed on to her as her present that morning layered in between. She knows when she has accomplished something phenomenal.

Then she asked me to take a picture of her with a mostly-eaten cookie on her head. Daddy wasn't so sure about that idea.

Cousins! Hi Olivia!

This cake. Edie wanted brownie cake, with frosting, in heart-shaped pans. Fine. And I found a couple reindeer statues that I knew she would love because she would declare them elk and she loves elk ever since our trip to Colorado. So I thought it would be fun to use the two little "elk" to hold a her birthday cake banner. Except when I got the paper out to write the banner Edie insisted that she would write her own banner, and she knew exactly how to do it. She took the marker and slowly sounded out "hhh-aaa-ppp-pp-yy Bbbbb-iiii-rrrrr-thththth-ddddd-aaaayyyy Eeeeee-dddddd-ieieieiei Bbbbb-uuuuu-gggg" while writing carefully. Then declared triumphantly, "See!! I told you I could write it. It says 'Happy Birthday Edie Bug." I didn't argue with her.

It seems to me there are two types of people in the world: those who revel in the singing of the Happy Birthday song directed at them, and those who wish a trap door would open in the floor revealing a hole for them to sink into. Edie is clearly the reveling type. She was SO excited everyone was singing for her. If you're not sure what it looks like when someone is beaming, just sing Edie the happy birthday song with candles and you will get a prime example.

Two days before her birthday, Edie told me her favorite present was going to be the little fluffy stuffed puppy that looked exactly like Charlie. I had not bought her a little fluffy stuffed Charlie because she had never mentioned wanting a little fluffy stuffed Charlie, so I thought she was going to be very disappointed with her birthday presents. And wouldn't you know, I walked into Target for something else later that day and there on the stuffed animal shelf was a single little fluffy stuffed Golden Doodle, just the color of Charlie. It's like she planned it.

This is Edie saying "Oooooooh. He's so cuuuuute!!!"

And this is her mermaid sleeping bag, which fits perfectly on her new low loft bed, which I will admit was a little bit of a bribe to try to get her to stop coming into my bed about two hours after she falls asleep every single night (she told me she did that because her toddler bed was too tiny). A month later, I can say with confidence that the tiny toddler bed was not in fact the problem, but we are making progress, and I think the mermaid sleeping bag is helping.

At three, Edie loves dressing up and all dresses, the twirlier the better, because singing and dancing are also great fun. She is a master story teller and passionate hand talker, and will put on a show for anyone she thinks will stand still long enough.

She can talk all day with a massive vocabulary, and although (thanks to Gussie) she no longer says "peanu-tare" for peanut butter or "Tessa Benca" for Teresia Benedicta, still has a few toddler pronunciations that I'm in no hurry to fix, like "bamana" and "Dimpsdus" (Christmas) and starting every word that begins with an "l" with a "y" instead. She refers to her siblings as "my children" and is lost without them. She has started lifting up her feet and gliding on the balance bike and walks or rides her balance bike just about everywhere now; I hardly wear or carry her. She gives great hugs and tells me she loves me at least fifty times a day. If she's awake, chances are, she's having fun. And she likes wearing things that are not hats as hats.

The other day I asked her if she would be my baby forever and she said, "No! But I be your big dirl." I'll take it. Happy Birthday Edie Bug!

A Visit From Dema and Grampy T

Well I blinked and I'm somehow months behind on the blog. I'm going to try to get caught up before I take a million Christmas pictures and have to deal with them also!

Dema and Grampy T came up for a long (but not long enough) visit in early November. There were no holidays or events to schedule around, just a couple weeks of (mostly) nice Fall weather and lots of fun! And I'm squishing all my pictures in this one post.

Edie loves when there are book readers around. She is fully capable of exhausting every reader in the house with her appetite for books, so she takes full advantage when reinforcements show up.

It took two goalies to defend Mary's pre-soccer practice warmup.

They also got to watch Catherine and Mary each win their final soccer game of the season, although I can't seem to find any of my soccer pictures right now.

Mary has been begging to see the Discovery of King Tut exhibit at the Science Center since she saw the billboard before it opened, but I had been putting it off because the exhibit web page made it very clear that while young children were not banned from the exhibit, any in attendance were expected to be able to remain quiet and calm and to NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. Several of my children are not yet in possession of those important skills, but thankfully Grampy T loves history as much as Mary so we picked a day to go to the Science Museum all together, and Dema and I explored the more kid-friendly parts with the younger kids while Grampy T accompanied Catherine and Mary to the King Tut exhibit. It was good timing since we had just finished up a semester of ancient history and much of the ancient Egyptian information was still fresh in their minds (and all reports are that it was a worthwhile exhibit).

Meanwhile, we played with trucks and blocks in a sunshine square. (Yes, sometimes I wonder why I bother to leave the house with them since they seem to end up doing the same type of thing no matter where we are, but they like it.)

I'm not sure if Edie is supposed to be up there or not, but she was proud of her climbing skills and happy with the view. She was very disappointed to hear my answer when she asked if she could take it home.

One of our favorite activities is to watch the balls travel through the giant ball maze suspended from the ceiling, but in order to move the balls up the elevator to the start of the maze you have to move this hamster wheel. Edie wasn't quite heavy enough so Grampy T had to jump in.

We had a lot of other fun at the Science Center but even with two extra adults, keeping track of all the kids and taking pictures at the same time is tricky.

On our walk back to the car Catherine spotted a large pile of leaves under a tree. She loves to throw leaves around, and made it look so fun that the kids who had already made it to the van turned around and went back to join her.

Although now that I think about it, she might have changed her opinion on leaf piles a couple weeks after this when she went to scoop up a pile of leaves at the playground and quickly jerked her hand back with a very large bee attached to her wrist. I guess he had cozied up in the pile for the winter?

We obviously had to spend some time at the playground after dropping the girls off at their last market morning for the season.

Edie still loves swinging. Even though she is fully capable of pumping herself in a big kid swing, she still likes climbing into a baby swing and enjoying a free ride.

Of course we went to Ices! Winter will not keep us from ice cream.

And it was actually warm enough to eat outside.

This is Edie's "chocolate is life" face.

I don't know if we were on our way to or from somewhere or if we were just out for a walk in the neighborhood, but we made a stop on Flora to find all the fairy houses and build a leaf pile (with sticks and hands and feet, since we had no rakes).

He's an eagle, flying.

And landing in his leaf-nest.

I think maybe I was too lazy to take my camera off auto because all my leaf action shots are blurry.

Michael recently decided Catherine is the most fun member of the family when it comes to tackling, and Gussie will pile on top of anyone already on the ground. Catherine, for the most part, indulges them.

A tree on the way home.

Our last morning was a trip to the library where Gussie and Michael got some good building tips and tricks from Grampy.

It was really great to share our day-to-day with them again, even for a short visit!