First Holy Communion (and the tooth fairy)

I know I haven't even posted Easter pictures yet, but I was actually more excited about today's pictures so I'm posting those first. I'm pretty sure I never claimed this blog would be chronological.

Way back last fall a few other teachers and I started teaching a First Communion prep class for about twenty kids at our church. After much study, First Reconciliation, a few hours of dress shopping, and a bit of practice, today was finally First Communion day! The kids all participated in the Mass and got to receive their first communion in a packed church full of family and friends there to celebrate with them. 

I know no one is looking at me in this picture; I snapped it while herding parents and helping the real photographer get set up and I had already told the kids they could take a break from picture-smiling for a minute, but I like it because it provides a little peek into many of their personalities. It was fun to get to know them over the course of the class.

Here are the real ones from the photographer:

And from before Mass. Catherine had very specific ideas about her dress: it had to be down to the floor, and "not too fancy" but with a little decoration, and have little sleeves. She was overjoyed with her choice when it arrived and she tried it on. She spent just as long choosing the perfect lace and trim for her veil.

She was a little overwhelmed by everyone complementing her as we waited outside the church before Mass.

I didn't take any pictures during church, but I'm mom enough to admit there were a few tears on my side of the aisle. Mary helped by distracting me; every thirty seconds or so she would poke me and smile at me like this, to show me that her tooth was getting looser and looser.

After Mass and pictures we headed back to the house for lunch and then an Open House party, so we spent the afternoon with many friends and family and the storms even held off until everyone was headed home. 

This is what you get when you have one brother who is in an anti-cooperation phase and one brother who loves tomatoes.

And what about the tooth fairy? So far Catherine has lost 8 baby teeth and Mary has lost 2, and neither of them ever wanted to leave their teeth under their pillows for the tooth fairy because they didn't want to give up their teeth (all have been kept). This is fine with me; I think the tooth fairy tradition is a little bit odd, honestly. But every time one of them loses a tooth, the first thing every single person they encounter asks is, "Will you put it under your pillow for the tooth fairy?" Mary lost her third tooth in the midst of the festivities today, and I guess after hearing that about 50 times, she decided she wanted to test out the tooth fairy route. She sealed up her tooth in an envelope and slipped it under her pillow.

About 12 seconds after I tucked her into bed this evening she came running back out of her bedroom shouting that her tooth was already gone. Indeed, she had an envelope with her name on it in her hand. She ripped it open and it had a nice little note from the tooth fairy (in familiar handwriting) and "a piece of money". Naturally, I asked what kind of money. "There's a 10 on it. Ten dollars!" 

"That's a very generous tooth fairy," I replied as I pointed her back towards her room and she skip-hopped-twirled her way back to her bed.

Catherine was listening from her bed and when I tucked Mary back in with her note and $10 bill Catherine was too excited to keep it to herself. "Mama!" she whisper-shouted. "I was Mary's tooth fairy! I wrote a note and signed it with lots of love from the tooth fairy and put $10 in it. I wanted to wait until she was asleep but I was afraid I would fall asleep before she did so I just switched the envelopes early. Now Mary got a present from the tooth fairy just like she wanted!"

Kids are kind of amazing. I'm starting to think we should let them run a lot more things. 

Turning Four

No, I haven't forgotten how to blog. I've just completely failed at reconciling the number of things I'm supposed to do each day with the number of waking hours in those days. The result is that something will be neglected, and I didn't think you'd mind too much if I neglect the blog about the children rather than the children themselves. Most days.

Earlier this week Grandpa and Grandma took the kids and I on a quick overnight trip to Trout Lodge to celebrate Michael's birthday. I know, blog neglecting made it look like I totally forgot his 4th birthday, but I didn't. On his actual birthday we fulfilled Michael's birthday requirements: chocolate cake with chocolate icing and vanilla ice cream at the park.

For some reason I only have pictures of Gussie from that afternoon, but we were all there!

Fast forward a couple weeks to his birthday trip to Trout Lodge with Grandma and Grandpa. As much as we were hoping for warm weather, the first afternoon was rainy and cool and damp, so we started with some inside activities. The older kids painted ceramics while the younger kids (Gussie and Olivia) burned off some energy in a gym. Mary chose a tea cup, Catherine chose a vase, and Michael chose a bulldozer.

While they were painting I made a "4" crown for Michael.

We had a little break in the rain late in the afternoon so we sneaked in a pontoon ride on the lake. Michael had two things he wanted to do on the trip, ride a boat and ride a horse, so we jumped on the boat ride as soon as we could just in case the weather didn't cooperate and we couldn't do much else.

Gussie thought the life jackets were a little restricting.

Catherine and Mary took turns taking care of Olivia.

At one point Grandpa asked Michael if he wanted to come back to the back of the boat to see the motor and the wake, and he suddenly had his hands full keeping five kids from jumping overboard.

It was chilly and we had our umbrellas on standby, but it was a fun ride.

Thankfully, our second day was sunny and free of rain. We hopped in two canoes as soon as the boat house opened, but I don't have any pictures because there is no way you can convince me to take my camera into a canoe with Gussie and Olivia in it. The kids didn't last very long in the canoes (even though none of them were rowing) - I think the tippiness made them all a little nervous.

And after the canoes it was straight to the barn for horse rides. The kids all officially want to live on a horse farm now.

Gussie insisted on wearing a helmet like the other kids but he didn't ride.

He still enjoyed the horses though.



Michael got to go first and choose his horse, Bones. When we first walked up to the horse he tried to back out of riding all together, but I talked him into it and after a few minutes he was all smiles. Then he convinced Grandma to let him go for a second ride.

(Side note: Michael's face isn't really that red; it is a layer of paint left over from the full face Spiderman mask he had facepainted on the first day. I had to try to get most of it off at bedtime the first night because he tripped while running wildly in the cabin and smashed his eye on the corner of a hefty lodge-type wooden bed frame. So I was trying to make sure he hadn't seriously damaged his face and he was telling me every time I touched any part of his head that it was hurting, the end result being that as soon as I could see it was a small scratch and black eye I gave up on the remaining face paint.)

Olivia was nervous at first also but Grandpa's steady hand helped her enjoy her ride.

Mary and Catherine could not have been more pleased, unless maybe we let them go riding off into the sunset or bring their horse home.

They're all certified cow hands now.

There was a little creek running near the barn that was completely overflowing its banks due to the last couple days of rain. The kids immediately dropped their socks and shoes, rolled up their pants, and jumped in. I stuck a toe in at one point to help Gussie so I can tell you truthfully that the water was near freezing, but they didn't care at all.

Only Michael ended up a little wetter than he had intended. But he was distracted by Mary, who found a turtle in the grass. At first she thought it wasn't a real turtle because it was so tiny and not moving at all, but we assured her that it was real, just a very very young baby turtle. Then Grandma took a closer look and we all agreed it was a good thing it wasn't moving at all because it looked to be a snapping turtle. He survived all the kids and we left him in the grass on our way out. No one lost a finger.

Our last activity before we headed out was archery, because Mary really wanted to shoot a bow and arrow. You had to be at least five so the younger kids played around on a mini golf course while the older kids practiced archery.

But I don't have any pictures of archery because immediately after the photo above, I took Michael into the nearby bathroom building and told him I had to step out to check on Gus and would be right at the door if he needed help, and as soon as I stepped out the door he started screaming hysterically. I popped back in and couldn't figure out why he was standing there screaming hysterically until I managed to follow his wild eyes and saw the hornet sitting on his shoulder. By the time I got to him and swiped it off (and stomped it), it had already given him a good sting. Thankfully it appears he is not allergic to hornet stings and was feeling back up to playing after about ten minutes, and he had a good story to tell our neighbor Sophia when we got home.

And Mary chickened out on archery anyway.

So the trip was a mixed bag for Michael Jr: a black eye, a fall from the bunk bed ladder, and a nasty hornet sting on one hand, and two boat rides, a horse ride, a spiderman face paint mask, and a custom blue bulldozer toy on the other, not to mention two days with Grandma and Grandpa. I think he'd agree that he still came out ahead! Although next year he might want to stick with just cake and ice cream.

The Chickens Have Landed!

Thanks to the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit of some friends of ours, we now have four backyard chickens living with us! They (the friends, not the hens) are starting a business that provides the rental of a complete backyard chicken setup for the warmer months so anyone can have backyard chickens without having to figure out the ordinances and procure a coop and buy the chickens and the feed and waterer and figure out if their yard will work... everything is taken care of and delivered, with a chicken hotline for questions to boot. We're doing a bit of a trial run of their coop design and the process in general. The chickens arrived yesterday afternoon, and by yesterday evening it was clear they are not getting their chickens back.

Michael Jr. claimed the black and white one and named her LuLu. The dark red hen is now Mary's, and her name is Emma.

This blonde hen was claimed by Catherine, who named her Marie. Marie is probably the queen of the brood. She is also one of the three who gave us an egg today!

That egg in the corner is wooden. Apparently chickens lay eggs where other chickens have laid eggs, so you put a wooden egg where you want the chickens to lay eggs. In our case it didn't work, as the hens all laid their eggs in a nice little leaf nest on the ground in their house. When we found the first two, I moved them to the nesting box, but Miss Marie still laid her egg on the ground where the others had. No matter - at least they were in the house.

The girls were ecstatic about finding eggs today. I almost expected an opposite response, but since the chickens arrived, all Mary wants to eat for every meal is eggs.

Catherine made me take a good close-up picture of Marie's egg so she could always recognize her egg out of the group on days that we don't see Marie actually go into the house to lay her egg.

Emma is either the friendliest or the hungriest of the hens. She spent a lot of time on the porch looking through the door into the kitchen today.

So far I only had to catch one chicken, LuLu, who escaped by snuggling down under a little gap in the chicken wire fence Daddy strung up to keep the chickens out of the garden boxes (and the alley and the highway). Catherine was in the backyard with the chickens (where she spent 90% of the day today) and saw her slip under, so I was able to catch her before she got out of the yard or even to my garlic shoots.

And this is Gussie's chicken, whom he named Horse. So far Horse is kind of the quiet, loner hen. Perhaps her name has her feeling a bit on the periphery.

Catherine and Mary have both written me thank-you notes for letting them each have their own chicken, and told me how fun it is to have chickens, and exclaimed that they can't believe they see chickens when they look out into the back yard. They scour the kitchen for scraps to feed the chickens, and "accidentally" drop a banana that then has to be fed to the chickens, and refill the food and water for the chickens, and crush eggshells to spread around on the ground for the chickens, and relay play-by-play accounts of the chickens taking dirt baths in the yard. And Michael and Gussie run around in circles with the chickens and hang out in the coop with the chickens. They're all very pleased to have backyard pet chickens.

I'm pretty pleased that they're all so happy to have pets that eat grubs and baby bad bugs, will till the garden for me before I plant, eat up kitchen scraps, keep the squirrels at bay, under no circumstances have to come into my house, and give us daily eggs!

Marie, Emma, LuLu, and Horse. So far, they're a good brood.

Horse!

I'm so behind on pictures that these are now from at least a week ago, maybe two (three?!).

The kids and I met Grandma and Olivia at the zoo one of the warm afternoons. I think this was probably Gussie's first trip to the zoo since he has become so fascinated with all animals. He was in heaven.

He was also extremely worked up and wanted to see everything, and is in a phase where he would much rather walk than ride in the stroller. Plus it was Spring Break for some of the city so the zoo was packed packed packed.

All this adds up to me completely losing sight of Gussie for about 60 seconds, but I'm guessing my heart blew through about four years of its available resources in that minute. Mary wanted her picture on the giant beetle.

And then Olivia wanted to climb up.

And somewhere between those two attempts at pictures, Gussie wandered off to find the source of that choo-choo. I learned a long time ago how much putting my eye to the camera viewfinder limits my wandering toddler awareness, but somehow in the midst of a spring-break busy zoo, I forgot Gussie wasn't buckled into the stroller. I seriously think my brain is slowing down. {Last week I took three kids to swim lessons with zero swimsuits.} But thankfully Gussie didn't wander far and a brief parting of the crowd brought him back into view.

But other than Gussie's solo zoo viewing, we had a very fun trip. Right now Gus knows two words for animals: bird and horse. Everything that flies or hops is a bird, and everything that looks mammal-ish is a horse. So he spent a good part of the trip pointing excitedly and shouting "Horse!" at every animal we saw.

Elephant? Nope. Horse.

It was a warm, sunny afternoon so a lot of the animals were taking an afternoon nap. Usually one of our favorite stops is to watch the hippos swim around, but this day we only saw the one, snoozing in the sun.

This bear was trying to get in a good nap also. The kids all thought he was hilarious.

On our way out, we debated waiting in line for the sea lion tunnel. The girls voted no, but Michael Jr voted yes and it was his day, so we waited. They were all happy in the end because one little sea lion (or is this the seal?) was very friendly. She kept swimming laps past the tunnel, and every time she got close to it she would nose her way all along the glass.

Gussie must have been undecided about whether it was a bird or a horse, so he just nosed his way along the glass as well.