Organizing the garage:

Let's see. We'll put Eli here, and I think Lizzie can fit here...we need easy access to Ollie so we'll put him down here and that leaves just enough room for Ivy right...here. Done!

The Dream Club Presents:

A Variety Show!

The Highlight of the show was the Terrifyingly Entertaining Remake of the classic by The Weathergirls: "It's Raining Men."

The Dream Club took a Literal Interpretation Approach (this is not for the faint of heart!):
Believe me, we were all on the edge of our seats!
I would love to get our video of this uploaded... it's something to see!

Almost inspiring...

This was taken this summer when my Dad wanted to record the kids singing this beloved song sweetly and sincerely to inspire his Sunday School class.

This was the third take, and the more serious we tried to get them to be, the worse it got.

Dad was about to delete this video from his iphone, when Mom and I declared it "family heirloom" status. Especially for Ivy. Please enjoy:

Mystery Trip

I've been torturing our children.
No, really, I have.
On Tuesday, we told the kids that we have big news and that we're going on a trip.
We told them we'd be gone for 3 days, and that we're leaving on Sunday.
But we didn't tell them where!
And every day this week, I've been sending them on wild goose chases to throw them off the trail, and basically giving them no more information.

Day #1:

Day #2

Day #3

Finally Erin came last night! We had a special scavenger hunt this morning!

I was especially proud of rhyming "frisbee and" "Disneyland"...The kids had to unscramble the letters to figure it out. It took until D-I-S-N and then the lightbulb went on!!


California, here we come!

Concerts and Recitals!

The last two days have been fraught with musical performances!

Last night, Lizzie and Eli had their piano recital. They each played a Christmas song as well as a lesson song. I was so proud of how well they played! Maybe we'll even get a video for you of those...we'll see how energetic we're feeling.

In this picture, Eli's thinking, but eventually he gets around to playing, and he played very well.

And tonight, Lizzie's class had their musical performance: Lizzie had a solo, a speaking part, played the extra recorder part, and even beat out the beat on drums for one song! She was all over the place! She had so much fun and really did her parts well. And the music teacher, Ms. Osborne, is truly phenomonal. I'm so happy she's teaching music at our kids' school!

And her sweet friend Audrey came just to support her even though her concert isn't until tomorrow night! What a great friend! :)

Halloween on Veteran's Day?? So sue me.

The Halloween Wrap-up! Adam was Himself 15 years ago... This is what a Busy Mom's Halloween costume looks like. I happened to be wearing a zebra-striped shirt that day...add some fake lashes, and voila... Zebra!

This was the Annual Pre-Trick-or-Treating Chili Dinner - the only way we actually get to eat a decent dinner before the candy influx - Thank you McCooks!
This is the face of Halloween Night anticipation!!

This is after we have Tricked and Treated ourselves to exhaustion. Now we're all hanging out on the driveway passing out candy to the last trickle of Treaters.

This is Lizzie playing with the Funny Glasses.
Oooh! Scary Ninja with the humungo glasses!

This is Ivy after asking if we can have some of her hard-earned candy:

This is what the beginning of a late night sugar crash looks like. Time to go to bed!

Kids on the GO!

Future Opera Buffs?

Erin's Met Opera, Peter Grimes, was on PBS on Sunday morning. It's a dark opera about the tortured soul of a fisherman.

Lizzie, Eli, and Ivy couldn't get enough!

That night we asked what they wanted to watch for our family movie night, and they all agreed on Peter Grimes.

Strange, strange children.

Belated Easter Pictures!

Our Easter Sunday was so busy, that we never took the obligatory Easter Outfit Pictures. We were lucky to get the kids dressed that morning (or any morning, for that matter!). Well, last Sunday, we tried to recreate the moment, because I've been feeling guilty looking at everyone's beautiful children in their beautiful Easter clothes. So, we found a green place in our yard and snapped away. And this week, our rose bush went beserk, so we took a few more. So, Happy Passover instead! :)

First Tomato

Have you ever read the Bunny Planet series of childrens' books by Rosemary Wells? Aunt Janet introduced them to us. In it, children who are having rotten days dream about going to the Bunny Planet (and the Bunny Queen is Janet), where she shows them "the day that should have been." One of the books in the series is called "First Tomato." The child is asked by her mother to go out into the garden and pick the first ripe tomato. She says: "it smells of rain and steamy earth and hot June sun; in the whole tomato garden it's the only ripe one." Doesn't that perfectly describe the smell of a fresh garden tomato? And the excitement of finding the very first one of the season?

Well today is First Tomato Day in our house. Can you believe it? We found 4 red, ripe grape tomatoes in our little garden, and each child got to eat them fresh. Picking and eating the first fruit of the garden is an exciting day indeed.

The Elusive Ice Cream Truck

We have a phenonomom in our neighborhood. It happens every Wednesday afternoon, when the kids are usually outside enjoying the pleasure of school's early release. And every Wednesday, I forget. Until...

"MOM!!!!! I heard it!! I heard the Ice Cream Truck!" I hear as Lizzie and Eli make a beeline for their piggy banks and scrounge up enough change to make a dollar.

The ice cream truck business, a symbol of innocence, suburbia, and childhood nostalgia, has a great racket going on. They've invested most of their energy towards making the loudest possible speakers to blast their annoying tune far and wide so that you can hear the truck coming from four streets away, usually even from inside our house. And herein lies the problem.

The kids hear the music, and bolt to the front yard, only to find an empty street, with the music playing somewhere in the background. Close enough to be mouth-watering, but nebulous enough to not know which direction to face.

Ivy is clinging to me, repeating "I scared Ice Cream Truck Man," which might be her first justifiable and rational fear. I suspect she might be the only one thinking clearly in this group and I'm not going to do anything to allay that fear. Just keep repeating that to yourself, Ivy.

Lizzie and Eli were so disappointed to have missed The Truck that I consented to riding our bikes (Eli with a fistful of bills) around the entire block, looking for the Ice Cream Truck. By the time we got back to our house, we'd seen no sign of the elusive Truck. It's enough to drive little kids (and the adults with them) mad! Eli was a wreck, tears streaming down his face, begging me to get in the car and find The Truck. I thought about it for a second, but then decided against it. I had to draw the line somewhere!

For the next 45 minutes, the kids clenched their quarters in their grimy sweaty palms as they rode their bikes up and down the sidewalk with their radar-like ears listening for any sound of the Ice Cream Truck tune. If they only used half of the energy to listen to me as they did for the Ice Cream Truck, our house would have much cleaner rooms, homework would be finished lickety-split, and we be on time to many more activities.

Eventually, we flagged down the Ice Cream Truck as he finally decided to saunter down our emtpy street. I love how Lizzie jumped up and down and waved her arms in the air from the sidewalk like she was being saved from a shipwreck. Wait a minute, maybe I should have been the one waving and jumping...

So, the battle was won! Stewart Kids vs. Ice Cream Truck, and the kids came out ahead. I have a suspicion that Ice Cream Truck ice cream tastes better to them than ice cream from our freezer for having had to do all that work. Maybe I should make them chase down their dinner in a singing van, and they would appreciate that better?



Next Wednesday, I'm not taking any chances on disappointment: I'll remember to keep the kids inside, turn up some loud music, and have a dance party.

Adam's New Camera!

Adam's Birthday present finally arrived this week! He has had more fun taking pictures, and today we finally figured out how to download them onto the computer! Here's our week in pictures:

Happy Adam...

...Me practicing with my accompanist for the NATS competition coming up in February...

Ivy dressing up as a "Bumble Beem," as she calls it...

...Eli laughing his head off at FHE...

...Ivy in her snuggly "Frosty the Noman" jams...

...Lizzie has the lesson for FHE...

...I was hoping for a bit of ice cream...

...Ivy wakes up...

...Stewart kids and Andrews kids on the trampoline...

...Eating dinner with the ham and cheeseball...

...Ivy just out of the shower...

...Ivy at dinner.

Hope you all had a great week, too!