A very merry unbirthday...

You only get one birthday a year, Mimi - but if you wait a whole month to share the pictures it almost like you get to have it all over again!  The lovely Mimi - oh so dear to the kiddos, celebrated her birthday on May 5 - and while we did a little coconut cream pie to acknowledge her special day - we waited until the real party that weekend for the full celebration.  It wasn't easy planning a party for Mimmers - as she appears to be much more comfortable in the role of party giver rather than party receiver.  Moreover Mimi goes all out on our birthdays - cooking favorite foods, making individual birthday treats, and finding just the gift you were hoping for.  She's pretty amazing, which is why we all wanted to be sure she had a special day as well.   

Is it summer yet?

As soon as Memorial Day weekend comes students, teachers, and mommies from coast to coast are bitten by the summer bug.  The three day holiday is like a sweet promise of things to come - warm weather, lazy days, suntan lotion, bare feet... For kiddos and those fortunate enough to enter the teaching profession, summer seems to promise an endless holiday - a much needed break from the onslaught of stress that we deal with day in and out.  The world turns into my beach and every day seems brighter than the next.

Ushering In Summer...

Hello my friends... I hope that you are all having a super marvelous Memorial Day Weekend.  It's always one of my favorite weekends of the year - filled with joy and hope, the excitement of summer and more hamburgers than you can shake a fist at.  

The stuff they dream of...

I think that one of the absolute without a doubt most fantabulous things about kiddos is how easy they are to please.  The littlest things make them happy - extra hugs, the tickle game (which basically involves an adult never really leaving the couch - just stretching your arms out and wriggling your fingers a bit while making some sort of "I'm gonna getcha" noises), painted toe nails, a plucked flower, chocolate milk, ice-cream from a store. Today PopPop took all 6 of us to dinner at Shells before going to see Mimi's wonderful Art Show.  After our tour Daddy took the boys home for tubbies and PopPop took all his girls (mommy included - HURRAY FOR COFFEE FLAVORED ICE-CREAM) to dairy swirl for a little post show treat.  The girls were SO excited - twirling, hugging PopPop to say thanks, thanking the cashier, grinning from ear to ear while choosing their flavor and sprinkle combination... The cute HighSchooler behind the counter smiled and said "I don't think I've ever seen two kids this excited about ice-cream!"  What can I say - we don't get out much... but then this sage 17 year old added "The thing is - most people forget that ice-cream is a treat".

Daddy's Helper

It's one of the greatest mysteries on Rosebud Street.  The child who covers his ears if the conversation gets too loud - yet screams the loudest also runs terrified of the Vacuum - but insists on pushing the dust buster.  Each time the garbage disposal is turned on the little man runs to your side, looks up, eyes wide and says "dada okay? okay dada?"  The same situation with the hair dryer.  And he absolutely will not leave your side until the sound has abated and he is assured of your well being.  He cries at loud horns.  Runs for your arms when neighbors cut their grass... so why is it that when Tony cut the grass this weekend, Jackson followed along until daddy had no choice but to let Jack help too.

Full Bloom

I'm sure that you're just about as sick of garden posts are you are puke posts - but what can I say - that's what the last few weeks have been - puking inside, garden outside.  Hurray for you though, this time, I pick garden. 

I can't say just what it is that I find so captivating about our little garden this spring.  Out of curiosity I looked back over the last few years of photo archives and as I suspected - not a one.  So why this year?  Is the garden better?  Perhaps.  It's certainly fuller - lusher.  Could also be that the last few years of my life are a blur, so I didn't actually ever really notice the garden aesthetically before.  But I think it's something more - if you'll forgive my blatant sentimentality, I think I associate the garden with my children.

A Mother of a Day

Oh friends, where to begin on this... the mother of all Mother's Days?  It was filled with all sorts of merriment and excitement and through no lack of effort on anyone's part ended up with me stripping puke covered clothes off myself not 1, not 2, but three times.  Them's the makings of a good story.  Too bad I'm too tired to tell it really well.  Still, I will try my best - this is, after all, for posterity.

Hit me with your best shot...

Epic mommy fail with the picture a day, but you guys, I was SO SICK!  Like sososo sick that doing anything besides sucking on an ice pop was complete and utter torture.  Basically, it shook down like this:

Emma did a little random spit up on Saturday Morning - but went on to nibble on her meals through the rest of the day.  So seemingly insignificant that I forgot about it actually.  Belle, Jack and Daddy all got various degrees of intestinal difficulties beginning on Sunday and Alex joined in the merriment on Monday morning.  I had to take off of work on Monday to help tend my troops (four puking and or pooping babies!) - especially since poor daddy tried to drag himself into work in his delirium resulting in him passing out around 3:00 PM.  I was feeling good, nursing my kiddos back to health (though admittedly I was not as sensitive to Tony's needs I should have been, but totally didn't grasp the scope of his agony until later) and feeling like this whole mess just may pass me over... and that, my dears, was my first mistake.

Spring on The Deck

If only I knew what was in store for me on Sunday I would have picked up Saturday and given it a big ole hug - because it was just about as perfect as Sunday was terrible.  (There were lots of lovely things about Sunday - really!  But it ended with such a bang that the rest of the day was overshadowed by fallout from the explosion.)  Saturday was sunny.  Saturday was warm.  On Saturday no one was sick.  We took long walks before lunch, snacked on the deck, and ran barefoot through the grass.  It was the calm before the storm.

This and That

I apologize - Sallie and Mom, for not being up to date with my picture postings.  Goodness, I still have Moms birthday/Kentucky Derby Party to write about, and don't get me started on the garden pictures and cute kid happenings...

Things have been a bit crazy here, and by crazy I simply mean that I got distracted by life and forgot to take a picture of it.  It's mostly job woes.  Money is always an issue here, and come the end of the school year I find myself questioning my placement and wonder if there's a better fit financially somewhere else. It's not that I don't love teaching or love what I do - even where I do it... but somethings gotta give with this budget, and I think the cards are in my hand.

while you weren't looking

It was like the perfect storm for Alex:  Mommy was tied up with work, Daddy wasn't home yet, big Sisters were still sleeping, and someone accidentally left the bathroom door open.  I kind of knew this was happening - even though I couldn't see it... I had to finish a phone call with a parent and post the recordings of today's lessons, and I really really had to pee.  Parenting Code dictates that in a situation like this your child will either a) cover themselves with vaseline, b) take one bite out of every piece of fruit in the bowl on the table, or c) dump the toys  in the toilet.

Flower

When Bella was a baby she called flowers Mamu... I can't really say where it came from - Tony and I used to think it was a combination of Flower and Mommy because she knew that I had painted the flowers on her bathroom wall.  We still laugh about the night when we had both girls in the tub.  They were about 1 1/2 years old.  Emma pointed to one of the flowers on the shower curtain and said "flow-wuh".  Belle smiled and clapped:  "Mamu!"

little necks

 Of all the baby parts that I love to love - I believe that my absolute favorite is little baby necks.  At times I feel I'm almost obsessed with them - pulling their collars aside to give them a nuzzle.  Their little necks are always so warm, so soft, so perfect.  Every time I see on of the babies like this I marvel at their straight, strong backs, that little curve from their neck to shoulder - the line of their arm as it presses against their side.  My fingers itch to grap a pencil and sketch them - see if I can create that curve again.  At times the desire to do so is so strong it's almost painful - and yet I've refrained from doing so, because something tells me that my re-creation attempts could never come close to the original.

Glamour

Today was the first, of what I can only assume will be many many internal conversations that I will have with myself about the girls (and boys) choice of clothing.  As previously stated I dig it when we all look co-ordinated.  I love when the kids look put together.  I will frequently grab one of the four mid sprint to comb their hair, straighten a skirt, or untuck a shirt... usually while saying something like... "hold on a second... you look like nobody loves you..."  So when Emma said she really wanted to wear this big pink flower with the black band to school today - it took all of my will power to agree.

Touch A Truck

I had been feeling quite neglectful with the kiddos lately - like we never DO anything or GO anywhere... never mind that it is like preparing for battle just to leave the front door - I mean, will these kids have any memories of things that are not at the home of a family member?  Now they will!  Hurray!  Enter Touch a Truck!  A fabulously priced fundraiser from the Junior League tipped off to me by the lovely Mrs. Kaufmann who has helped organize the event for the last few years.

A bow or two...

It's a lovely rite of passage when your daughters decide that they will do YOUR hair, instead of you doing theirs... and boy {bow} howdy were they excited about this!  They went through their hair box very carefully, selecting each and every clip-able bow - and then they completely adorned the top of my head with them.  I'm not going to lie - I think I look pretty radical here.

...Bring May Flowers

They all arrived a few weeks early, coaxed into spring by our unusually mild winter.  The April showers were sparse and light, but May first brought with it a splendid array of flowers in our little garden.  After dinner, the girls, daddy and I took a tour of the yard.  The girls helped me snap these pictures.