The Family Reunion

I don't even know where to start my post about the family reunion we went on last week-- it was just so jam packed full of things and I didn't take very many pictures*. Usually I let my pictures do most of the talking, but this time I decided to actually live the vacation rather than take photographs of other people participating. 


It was difficult enough to juggle nursing Edith with feeding the other kids and participating in activities, without adding in taking photographs. One of the things had to go, and I'm pretty sure that starving your kids while on vacation is in bad form. Plus, they yell at me.


We vacationed in one of my favorite places on earth. I love that there is a park, swimming pools, miles and miles of bike paths, tennis, and golf (which we didn't take advantage of this time) right outside our doorstep. Not to mention all of the fun things we did at the house-- air hockey, homemade shrinky dinks, games galore, singing, Sharpie tattoos, pedicures, hot tubbing (I never got the chance, but I will next time. I plan on hitting the spa at the lodge, too)...


It seemed that most of the time the older kids were doing things separately from the younger kids, so I didn't really get pictures of the girls doing much of anything. The most important thing is that, whether I took pictures of it or not, everyone had a fabulous time.


I did manage to take a picture of the bike path while we were out on one of our family walks, but none of my kids actually biking on the paths. Go figure. 

Thank heavens my sister, Auntie Art, came through on that one...

She took these other cute ones of the girls, too:

And I'm stealing this photo from my SIL, Jazz Hands:

I managed to take a few photos of folks hanging out at the house...

gotta love those windows!

and a few of my kids while we were on family walks....

...but I mostly just took pictures at the park and the pool. Maybe I'll do a separate post with those, in fact. Oh, and I'll do another post with the family pictures, too. Don't want to overload anyone. Yet. 

I'll just share a few photos of the Sharpie tattoos Auntie Art did for a few of us, though. It was one of my favorite at-home activities. Rophone has always wanted me to get a real tattoo and this just fueled his fire. (I got another one on the inside of my wrist that I loved, but we neglected to photograph it.) Pasty white legs are in, dontcha know...

Pen even got in on the action, getting an owl (she loves owls).

Seriously, so cool. Thanks, Auntie Art! 

We had a great time doing everything and can't wait to go there again. I'm glad my kids love the place as much as I do and were able to have so much fun with their cousins. 

*Okay, so my camera took 680 photos while we were there. That might seem like a lot to some of you (okay, most of you), but the majority of those 680 photos were logged while taking the family shots and when I took Senior pictures for my nephew. So, not a lot of pictures of the things we did.

Friday Favorites

It has been a truly stellar week.


1. We are on vacation in one of my favorite places on earth. It is a place that is tailor made for an active vacation-- we have biked, taken a dip in the pool (more than once) and played lots of tennis. Awesome. 


2. The vacation was a family reunion with my family. I have forgotten how much I miss singing with them. No one killed anyone else, and as far as I know, no one irreparably damaged any familial relationships. Always good.


3. I got on the computer only to make my Scrabble plays when prompted by my family, and I didn't miss it at all. Tells you how happy and fulfilled I have been this week. 


We leave tomorrow and I'm sad about it, so you won't find me mentioning it in next week's favorites. I definitely look forward to when we can come again.

Friday Favorites

This will be quick-- it's late and we just spent 14 hours or so in the car.


1. Bud's barfing was, indeed, a one-off. Hallelujah. 


2. My brother, Rib, and his family were in town all week. We had a lot of fun together.


3. I spent all week pretending we were going on vacation, and what do you know? We went. The drive was long, but I am so excited to be here. This will really only be a vacation for the kids of course, for the adults it's a trip. Rophone and I will leave the kids behind one of these days and go on vacation and relax.

Gender Confusion

I just noticed that Big was grabbing himself like he needed to go pee.


Me: "Hey, Big, let's take you pee."


Big: "Violet. My name is Violet."


Me: "Oh, yeah. Sorry, Violet. Let's take you pee."


Big: "Okay." (and then, as we're walking to the bathroom) "..and Ginger is 'Nikki', you are 'Colette' and Daddy is 'Paulina'."


Me: "He's the cutest 'Paulina' I've ever seen."


Big: "She."


Me: "What?"


Big: "SHE is the cutest 'Paulina' you've ever seen."


Me: "Oh. Yeah. My bad."


Over the past week or so Big has been Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Violet, Angelina Johnson the Quidditch player, Raja Bell, Joe the Construction Worker and Sarah. Big stays in character better than anyone I know-- he even wants to pee sitting down when he's pretending to be a girl (it's important to immerse yourself in the character to really pull it off, don't you know), and he can switch back and forth without missing a beat.  


Things can get a bit confusing around here. I have a hard enough time remembering the kids' real names! My poor, poor brain.

Friday Favorites

1. I turned 40 on Saturday. There was nothing traumatic or terrible about it. I posted about it here.


2. Rophone has been able to be around a lot the past few days. Always nice.


3. Bud threw up yesterday. It's not one of my favorite things, but I am happy that it was short-lived. He felt fine when he woke up, ate breakfast, and then all of his barfing, etc. was compressed into a 1 1/2 hour period between 11 and 12:30, he was singing by 3 and eating again by 4 pm. I don't think we've ever had anyone go through that kind of thing so quickly. So, yeah, really not one of my favorite things, but if it has to happen this was definitely the way I prefer it-- short-lived and not in the middle of the night. Now I'm just praying that Bud was a one-off and no one else gets it. Hopefully the pain in my tummy is just because I'm hungry...


4. We took our car in to be fixed today and were surprised to find that there wasn't nearly as much wrong with it as we'd feared. Which means, of course, that it costs much less to be fixed than we thought it would. Yay.


I'm hoping that next Friday I'll be headed on vacation, so maybe you'll have to be happy with an abbreviated phone version of favorites. We'll see.

The Four-Oh

I turned 40 yesterday. I'm really having a bit of a hard time wrapping my mind around it. If I can borrow a quote from my brother, it's like, "I thought I would be older when I was this old, or at least more mature."


I'm not the only one who can't believe it. Bud made me this fabulous card:

All of the other kids made me great cards, too. Big dictated his to Pen.

Looks like Ginger thinks I'm old enough to retire.

Pen's card was lovely, and nice, but she'd kill me if I posted proof that she likes me. So, I'll just show you the exterior.

The girls also made me this cool bandana bag...

... and Pen hand sewed this little wallet and the girls made me a few button rings. Talk about being spoiled!

Friday night we went to dinner at my folks', and my sister and her husband hauled their new twin boybies down for the feast. It was nice, and my mom surprised me with a few dear friends that showed up for dessert. It was a great evening.


Then, on Saturday, Rophone made me steel cut oats with berries for breakfast. Num. After a super good veggie sandwich for lunch, we went to the library as a family. I can't wait to dive into the books I checked out. We had brown rice and black bean burritos for dinner (again, num) and then hung out as a family until the boys went to bed. 


At about 9 pm, my sister (and husband and boybies) and my younger brother and his wife (Rib and Jazz Hands-- they had just pulled in from a long day of driving) came over to hang out with us. We talked, played games, and ate. I am so glad they made the effort to come hang with me on my special day (and I loved the thoughtful little gifts, thanks!).


My 40th was just the way it should be when a newborn is involved-- low-key and quiet. Now, next year when I turn 41? That's when we're going to ditch the kids and do something grand! I can hardly wait! (I love you, kids)


Thanks, family and friends, for making my birthday super!

Friday Favorites

It's a good thing I'm doing this today, since tomorrow my mind may be gone.


1. On Monday, Edith and I graduated from physical therapy! Now that we have her neck stretched and her head nice and round, we just have to keep it that way.


2. Edith turned 4 months this week. I can't believe how old she's getting.


3. I finished my Ashlland 365 Day Photo Challenge photo book. Finally. I actually was just a few pages shy of finishing a year ago, but lost motivation to finish since I couldn't afford to purchase one. I still can't afford one, but it's nice to have that weight of a project unfinished off my shoulders. It feels good to be done, and this way when I can afford one it's ready to go!


4. Rophone only had to work a few hours this morning. We're going to try to get stuff done around here so we don't have to clean on my birthday tomorrow. 


5. We're going to dinner at my folks tonight for an early birthday celebration. They are going out of town tomorrow and will miss my actual birthday, so tonight it is! I'm excited because my sister, her husband, and their new twin boybies are planning on being there. It should be a fun and very baby-centric evening (not exactly what I would have expected for my 40th).


Time to go blow out some candles!