Puddles and Slides

We expect Spring to be a season of thunderstorms here, and this year has not disappointed. We've had our share of strong winds, downpours, pop-up storms, steady rains, a little hail, thunder and lightning, and plenty of interesting clouds to keep us entertained. It's so hard to catch in camera, but this particular patch of clouds moved across the sky in a constant vertical rotation, like a slow motion fat tornado column up in the sky (it was clearly never actually going to be a real tornado).

All the rain of course makes for plenty of puddles for splashing, which is Edie's favorite.

You can't see it, but there is a playground right behind me. Normally you can't keep Edie off the playground, but today the puddles won out.

Where are my big kids? Is it possible they are getting too big for puddle jumping?

No, it can't be possible. It must just be that this was right after church and they didn't want to get wet and muddy in their nice clothes. That doesn't equal being too big for puddles at all. Edie actually took her shoes off before jumping in the puddles, which was nice, but she definitely rode home in a diaper with her wet clothes on the floor.

But lest you think any of them are content with keeping their feet on the ground, here's another playground on another day. The last four or five times we've been to this playground, Edie has climbed the steps to the Tallest Slide Around, stood at the top for a few minutes, and climbed back down. But this time, she was ready to try the slide! And for as tall as it looks, it's actually not fast or scary at all. So she slid again, and again, and again, and just kept climbing and sliding while her siblings generally monkeyed around.

And then a couple other families showed up and I got the "are you seriously letting that tiny baby climb up those stairs and slide down that slide" look a few times. I have to admit: that never stops annoying me. But I will grant that they are big stairs; Edie was quite tuckered out when we got home.

Reading Time

"Just bring some picture books to Mass," they say. "Or even some quiet books," they say. "She'll flip through the pages and be entertained for five or ten minutes, looking at all the interesting pictures," they say.

I don't actually know who says this, but you see lots of kids at church looking through books and being quietly entertained by the pictures. Edie is not one of those kids. When Edie looks at a book, sure, it looks quiet enough:

But in reality, it sounds like this:

She screams "MAMA" at everything she wants you to name until you acknowledge and name it. Or you can give her a hymnal at church, which she will open and scream-sing babble while pointing at the music. Endearing, but no less disruptive. She might be the first kid to force me to the cry room off to the side.

Happy Birthday Kali!

I guess it's been a busy Spring; I'm pretty sure we don't normally go to this many parties!

We were all happy to help Kali celebrate her 6th birthday, but especially Michael Jr because Kali is his best friend. I am sure of this because he tells me all the time.

Aunt Mel opted for an outdoor play party at their place and it worked out perfectly. We had warmth and sunshine and everyone enjoyed playing outside, then it got a little windy right as we were wrapping up, and then it stormed on our way home. Good planning, Aunt Mel!

Some of Tiny Town came along with Catherine and Mary for the party (thanks again for the peg doll blanks, Dema!).

This tree took quite a kid beating, but Aunt Mel said it happens every day after school so I guess it was up to the challenge.

Edie was happy to run around in circles while grabbing handfuls of pretzels.

Other than bubbles and a giant frisbee and a baseball and bat and sticks and a ditch full of water, the hero of the party was this Ninja Turtles cake (Aunt Mel asked for a lot of pictures).

The wind threatened to force us to only pretend the candles were lit, but a quick double-fisting of lighters got all six of them, even if only for a moment.

Kali was pleased, and the inside of one layer was green!

I think Kali could hire herself out as a professional stand-in gift opener. She has so much fun and is so visibly pleased and excited about everything that she could be a great help to anyone who enjoys their gifts but isn't so talented at openly expressing it. We'll let her try it for her Uncle Michael this Christmas.

Yes, all my kids were right up in the gift opening.

Happy Birthday Kali!

Little Flowers vs Blue Knights

Let the party recaps continue!

Catherine, Mary, and Michael had their end-of-the-year parties for their Little Flowers and Blue Knights clubs at church. The girls had a tea party with their longest skirts, hats, decorated tables, tea and treats, and a little play recapping some of the saints and virtues they learned about this year.

I was making this skirt for Catherine, and when we got to the "hemming" part, she refused to let me hem it. It drags at least five inches on the ground. I suppose when she shuffles a hole in the bottom then she'll let me hem it.

This is how Edie entertained herself during the tea party.

Catherine and one of her best friends, hiding from my camera.

We had also made a new skirt for Mary that week because she has apparently grown a couple inches recently so that none of her long skirts cover her hoop skirt anymore. We learned pockets, which pleased her a lot.

Group shot!

While the girls were at their tea party, Michael and the Blue Knights were having a bon fire. I sneaked out of the tea party for a bit to hang out with Michael and watch their badge presentation. The atmosphere was a little different, what with the swinging around of marshmallows-a-fire on sticks, but they were clearly having a good time.

It looks like we'll be able to wrap up our school year around the end of May, and then next year I have to start officially recording for Michael Jr as well. I'm having a "how time flies" moment...

Gussie's ISO

One time Mary had an umbrella with an owl on it, and she loved it, and she left it somewhere and it has been lost for ages. So one of her first communion gifts was a new umbrella. Ever since she has had that new umbrella, Gussie has been pondering what his new umbrella is going to look like. He's got it all figured out now; I typed this out verbatim during a conversation with him a few days ago:

"I want an umbrella with tractors and dirt piles and cement trucks and shovels and dirt piles on it. And tractors that are digging, and tractors that are dumping dirt, and dump trucks that are on it too. It should be blue, but the dirt piles are gonna be black, and tractors are gonna be yellow, and the cement trucks are gonna have black engines and yellow cements. And there's gonna be bulldozers putting dirt in dump trucks too. And there might be police cars on it. And there also might be tow trucks on it, so... that's all."

He asks me at least once a day if his new umbrella is going to be delivered that day or not. Since I have never seen an umbrella that looks even remotely close to this, I'm broadcasting his In Search Of request so you all can keep your eyes open and point me in the right direction if you see it.

He also wants a pair of overalls because it has finally gotten hot enough that he agrees he probably can't wear his snow pants every day.

Also he drew a horse.

And he's been asking to ride on my back pretty much all the time, which Edie does not think is a good idea at all but Gussie doesn't care. He asks me to take pictures of us every time I wrap him up. It's funny how the kids have picked up on how I take pictures of things I think are beautiful or great or funny or I want to remember; usually if any one of them is particularly proud of something they will ask me to take a picture of it.

Now I'm imagining this same picture, with Gussie in a pair of overalls holding his perfect construction umbrella over both of us.