Da Beach

We went to the beach one afternoon while on Spring Break. I swear we had fun, but you wouldn't know it from most of these pics.

This is exactly what GG1 looked like every day of her life until she was well over a year old. I thought something was wrong with her because she rarely smiled and always looked skeptical. Come to find out, that's just her personality: guarded yet moderately enthusiastic. 

Ah, a tiny smile. Perhaps the sun, sand, and surf weren't so bad after all. 

But put her sister in the picture with her, and GG1 is all smiles. The day GG2 was born was one of the best days of my life. For one thing, I had another sweet baby girl to love. For another, when GG1 came up to the hospital to see her for the first time, she clambered up onto the bed immediately, hugged and kissed GG2, rubbed her tiny face and said, "Sister." I had been afraid that maybe she would be jealous or not like the baby. Nope, immediate and total acceptance. I cannot say the same thing happened when MOS was born. But my older two girls are best friends.

Moving on...nothing to see here.

Guess who didn't have a good time at the beach?!? 

Here we are quietly accepting of the cursed beach, sniffling quietly while Mommy takes pictures of our pain. 

We will keep our peace no more! We demand justice! Or at least to be picked up! 

And here we've moved on to quiet reflection as the sunset glints lightly off a lone tear fixed on her cheek. Maybe MOS's obnoxious tongue provides better fodder for photographic memories than this mournful kid!

Ok, finally, someone who looks like the beach is a rad place! 

Or a place to achieve that delightful wind-blown look that was so popular when I was in high school...I have even more pics from Spring Break, if you can believe it. They're all of GG3 and she looks pleased in most of them. Stay tuned, if you're in to that sort of thing.

SPRING BREAK!!!!!

Here is a small sampling of pictures from our Spring Break last week. The kids and I went to my parents' house for a few days. A delightful time was had by all.

We got doughnuts from my favorite childhood doughnut shop that is exactly the same as it ever was. What bliss to eat a delicious powdered doughnut on a sunny day at the park. I myself ate twelve or fifteen. I lost count. I also did not look as cute as GG1 when I ate mine.

GG3 ate multiple doughnut holes, which are such odd things to me, but the kids love them. Her glee was almost palpable. 

Then she had to have a good thumb-sucking session to cleanse her palate. 

Later that day we went to Monkey Joe's which is OH MAMA IT'S THE BEST PLACE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD WHEN CAN WE COME BACK I HAVE NEVER HAD SO MUCH FUN IN MY WHOLE LIFE WATCH ME MAMA WATCH ME!!!!!!!! 

Then we went to a nice restaurant which fortunately has a courtyard since my kids are not used to eating at places that require utensils or napkins. 

Ignore how sweet GG1 looks in this picture with Key. I had just gotten back from disciplining her behind a bush in the courtyard. GG1, not Key, although Key could perhaps use a bit o' whoopin'. Grandpa, can you help me out? 

Here I am doing my best Senior Class of '95 pose. I look awesome, as usual. The waitress is delivering our sixteen inch pizza, of which I ate twelve inches. 

See? Utensils are not a good idea with my children. They get so stabby with them. 

He's sucking up to Key here because he had just jabbed her neck with his fork. (see previous picture for details)

This is GG1 trying to kiss up to me because she ate a whole slice of my pizza while I was trying to prevent GG3 from dumping over my Diet Coke. I know, I know, why a Diet Coke when I am consuming 2500 calories worth of pizza? The world does not make sense, people. 

Grilled cheese sammiches are pretty funny.  

I think perhaps Grandpa didn't want to be recognized.  

Key and GG3 are laughing over something funny that GG3 said. It went like this: "Mama! Mama! Glurg! Bler! Glurg!" Hilarious! 

Then we left the courtyard to attend the St. Patrick's Day "parade." Parade is in quotes because it consisted of the following: One (1) Middle School marching band (you can imagine how delightful they sounded); One (1) pick up truck with a partially deflated something in the bed and some kids sitting on the deflated something chucking green Mardi Gras beads; One (1) fire truck; and THE BUDWEISER CLYDESDALES. It was a weird parade. Didn't stop GG1 from being traumatized by the Middle School band. They were not the best. 

Clearly the children did not enjoy the "parade." 

Key and Grandpa tried so hard to get everybody to cooperate for a family picture. Sorry, y'all, but that attempt was about as successful as the "parade." We did lots more stuff but I'm tired now and need to go lie down. I'll post more pics later and you can pretend that you were right there with us, enjoying the parade and all the food we ate. Except there wouldn't be any food left for you, since I ate it all. The end.

e.e. cummings, I salute you

In Just-

spring       when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles     far       and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far       and       wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

 from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

     the

             goat-footed

balloonMan       whistles

far

and

wee

e.e. cummings

It's spring. Not quite, but close enough. My washer is silently crying in the laundry room. It knows what's coming.

But my babies are happy. The world is indeed mud-luscious.

Besides, when else are my children going to be this happy? This carefree? This filthy? Ok, they'll be all those things the next time it's muddy. 

Don't you wish, just for a second, that you could go gloop your hands and feet in the mud?

Because maybe then, just for a bit, you could be this happy. Because it's spring.

Best Fwends

Here is MOS with his Best Fwend. MOS wuvs him weally weally much.

MOS and Best Fwend wike to pway and eat.

They both make the same sound when they pway outside. It sounds like this: "MWOP! MWOP! MWOP! MWOP!"

After they pway outside they wike to wie down on the cowsche. Vewy tiwed. MWOP! MWOP! MWOP! MWOP!

I enjoy Best Fwend almost as much as MOS does, because when Best Fwend comes over, my workload goes down considerably.  The two of them gallop around the house in their cowboy boots, clopping up and down, then gallop outside and clop around out there. They both like to hit things with sticks, they both like to kick soccer balls and throw footballs. In short, they entertain each other for hours and that makes me one happy mama. Granted, two three year old boys are way more work than one three year old boy, but the stress of trying to keep MOS entertained is reduced when Best Fwend visits.

Best Fwend, who is also three, comes over once a week. And the best part is that MOS goes to Best Fwend's house once a week also. Best Fwend's mom is considerably more crafty than I; MOS comes home with glittered leaves and pictures of tractors that he has colored. I feed MOS and his best fwend, keep them from hurting themselves too badly, and send them outside periodically. And that, my friends, is my parenting philosophy in a nutshell: go outside to throw that/hit that/scream that loud. You may come in a little while and I will feed you and then you will go back outside. I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into my life.

Geek Family At Play

 I know all of you have been wondering what the Geek Family does for fun. Well wonder no more!

Here is GG1 with GH's new toy, the Thing-o-Matic. That's really what it's called. It makes stuff out of plastic. I have no further explanation for it. It is one of those Geek Things which I do not understand. Needless to say, GG1 is a huge fan of it. It is fun for the two of them and that's very important. Plus it keeps GH from doing dangerous things with his air cannon in the back yard. The Thing-o-Matic smells funny when it heats up the plastic and it cost a ton of money. It also took GH over thirty hours to put together. To date he and GG1 have made a snake, three whistles, and a cube. And he made a tiny hat for my friend Beth. She was unusually excited by it.

GG1's idea of fun is to lounge languidly in our flowering pear tree and read a book. She also likes to blow the whistle made on the aforementioned Thing-o-Matic whenever someone walks under her tree. 

GH has fun wrasslin' with the youngins in the back yard while GG3 plays with a pair of calipers. She's measuring things in microns these days.  

GH really enjoys being walloped by his chirrens. 

A quick break to suck the ol' thumbie while Daddy assesses the damage inflicted upon his beaten body. 

I like to smooch GG3's smoochy-kissy lips. SMACK! 

More resting. Hmmmm, do I see a theme developing? 

GG1 comes down out of the tree in time for GH to do his very best Luke Skywalker/Han Solo/He-Man mash-up. Unfortunately for GH, he is unable to lift me up onto his shoulders, owing to the fact that I've had four kids and am not a waifish young thing anymore. However, he has tiny children so he can heft them up and imagine that he is mighty and strong. Which he is, of course.