A Day With The Monkeys

Mr. Golden Curls with the Flamingos.

While in Texas my sis-in-law and I took all 6 of our kids and the little boy she watches during the week to the Dallas Zoo (oops, editorial correction, Ft. Worth Zoo). It was a fantastic zoo where you could really see the animals up close. It was also a perfect time, not too busy so we could let the kids run ahead of us a bit instead of fearing they'd get lost in a crowd.

The crew, minus me, I'm the one taking the picture.

My handsome explorers

A lioness playing with her babies fascinated the kids.

Mr. Golden Curls checking out the babies

Boy in a bubble, oh, and a meerkat

The penguin habitat was super cool. They even put on a show for us, swimming right past the glass. Later that night Lil' Spitfire told Pappa the zoo had a "penguin factory"!

My absolute favorite part of the zoo was the very last thing we did, visit the Primates. How fantastic to stare down the eyes of a gorilla from only inches away.

I hold onto Lil' Spitfire while he communes with his long lost twin. When we were walking up to the Primate building we told the kids in our best dead pan voices "Alright, this is where we sign you into your new home to live with the monkeys. It's been great knowing you, we'll come visit." We're mean like that.

Lil' Spitfire's Reign Of Stubborn Turns Three

Grumpy little jammied super hero. You should really click to enlarge this pic and check out this kids mega lashes! They're gorgeous but look out, they just might knock you down!

My baby boy turned three last week while we were in Texas. I can hardly believe it. He wanted to celebrate with a Wall-e birthday so Wall-e it was. It was a little strange to celebrate his birthday in someone else's house and doing that made me realize that all of the boys' birthdays up until now had been celebrated in the same house with the same friends and family, a little sad. But it was also a lot less complicated. With 4 cousins, Aunt, Uncle and parents the guests were built in, no invites to buy, fill out and mail, no stress leading up to the party, it all worked out well. All but waiting until 10pm for Pappa to return from his seminar! I thought the poor kid might explode from a day of waiting. And I think my sis-in-law and I might have exploded had we heard one more kid ask if it was time for cupcakes!

He worked really hard at giving me a genuine smile in spite of his grumpy 'tude.

Ah! And none too soon!

Can you tell this kid is into super heroes these days?

The third birthday of any grandchild in my husband's family means they receive their family bracelet from Grandma. Lil' Spitfire has been asking for his for months and months and was so happy to finally be wearing it. He was also over protective the first few days telling anyone who tried to touch it "No, don't break my bracelet!"

A slue of braceleted family members

Mamma holds Lil' Spitfire's still tiny hand

When we got home from Texas a surprise was waiting on the doorstep for Lil' Spitfire. It was a matchbox car track from Uncle Casey and Auntie Kristin! He couldn't wait to open it and immediately dumped out his entire basket of cars in preparation.

All built and ready for a test drive.

I think he likes it!

I Will Survive

I'm still alive, just barely. My week in Texas is over. I had a blast but it's time to be home for awhile. Just wanted everyone to know I still exist and I'll be back to blogging in no time, hopefully tomorrow though I may just pass out for the weekend. It's not even 10pm and I'm wrapping things up and calling it quits for the day. Coming soon: the most amazing visit to the zoo, my first experience with homeschooling and other tidbits from my Texas-sized week, see you soon!

The Stars At Night Are Big And Bright

(clap clap clap clap) Deep in the heart of Texas! Mm, I love Pee-wee's Big Adventure! I'm down in Texas this week. I'm not really sure why we're bothering with a mortgage, at this point I'm thinking we should just couch hop. We're already doing that 50% of the time anyway. The Bohemian has a class at Perkins school of theology where they are going to cram a semester's worth of work into 7 days, doesn't sound fun to me. What is fun is getting to hangout with my sis-in-law all week and that's what I get to do!

My baby's not a baby anymore, Lil' Spitfire turns 3 tomorrow!

We arrived two nights ago after 7 hrs of driving and last night we celebrated my baby's 3rd birthday which really happens tomorrow. More of that to come later when I have more time to share pics. Right now I just wanted to say hey while I had the chance because with a household that now contains 4 adults, 7 kids 8 and under, homeschooling and 3 dogs I imagine the week will be a blur of activity. That and I've been reunited with my beloved Dance Dance Revolution and have yet to play it!

Favorite Things: My Beloved Coffee Mug

This coffee cup is one of my most favorite possessions, drinking out of it makes me just a smidge happier than when I drink from any other. I like it so much because it encompasses several things that I really love all in one mundane, functional, common item: coffee, art, signatures, the color black, and Chicago.

A Day With A Budding Artist

We've been trying hard lately to make sure we spend some one-on-one time with the boys. They just do so much better when they aren't together all the time and it gives us a chance to appreciate their individuality. It also gives them the much needed chance for some undivided attention. Last week the Bohemian and Mr. Golden Curls drove to Little Rock to spend his gift card on me, get a purple milkshake at The Purple Cow etc etc. and Lil' Spitfire and I stayed home. This was not at all ok with Spitfire until I leaned over and whispered in his ear "We can get out the new paints you got for Christmas." Suddenly going with Pappa was not at all important and they couldn't leave fast enough for his liking, he was ready to paint. Now that's my boy!

I had so much fun with my little man!

I'm amazed at his concentration and the fact that he does more than just play in the mess of it as though he's playing in a sand box. He actually tries different things to see what happens and made the discovery of mixing paint to make new colors. He absolutely loves the huge set of glitter Cars paints he got for Christmas. Well, technically that was probably brother's gift, but what belongs to one belongs to both! He was also very excited to painting on canvas.

When he switched to the water color paint palette I looked over at him cleaning his brush in this jar and had some kind of bizarre clash of worlds-nostalgia-flashback thing happen. This silly jar is one of the things I used all the time when I painted my gigantic, moody, abstract, mixed media pieces in college. It still has my paint ringed around the inside and sludging up the bottom and now here it was on the kitchen table with my child's sweet tiny little hand in it painting on a coloring page.

While he got into flinging paint I decided to test out our new portable DVD player. So I could go ahead and completely brain wash him into being an artist, I went ahead and played my new Living Art Museum Tour DVD. My parents got it for me so I couldn't complain again that they'd never taken me to an art museum. I don't know, seems a shoddy replacement and I'm still waiting for them to send me to the MOMA to make up for all my pain and suffering as a child! Actually Spitfire really liked the DVD and every time the painting changed would look up and ask "what's that one?"

He painted and painted for about an hour and a half before it was lunch time. I had to bribe it all away from him to avoid a fit pitchin', I don't know how long he'd paint if left to his own devices. After lunch we did some serious building with his new bristle blocks and then it was off to naptime when I actually got several hours of 100% peace because his brother wasn't home to roll around yacking and "napping" on the couch.

Best day ever!

Present But Not Accounted For

I've been having a hard time with this move. I can't believe we moved here a whole 5 months ago because I don't feel any more at home than the first day we arrived. Our house is coming together slowly and I'm trying to get into, and adhere to, a new routine/schedule. And I swear I'm trying my hardest to see in this town what others seem to but it just seems to me a really sad place to live. Every time I drive through town I wonder what I should be doing to make this community better because it seems so obvious to me that it needs some serious love. We've been so busy since moving too! I don't think we've ever traveled so much in a 5 month period, Florida, North Carolina, many trips back and forth to parents' houses, which are much further away now. I would guess that half of the weekends since moving have not even been spent in our new house.

I've also realized that ever since we moved I kind of lost my coveted day off filled with mocha, scrapbooking in a gorgeous store, and anything else my little heart desired without any mothering duties. Isn't my husband awesome for recognizing mothering is a job! I'm a person who requires a larger than normal amount of alone time. I need time to be able to think without being interrupted, to daydream, to gain positive perspective on my life. Without that chance to look in at my life from the outside I go a teensy bit crazy and start to dislike it. Absence really does make my heart grow fonder. That day off helped me make it through the week, no matter how rotten it was. Lately I've been more and more nutso and driving my family down with me. "Why am I so much crazier these days? Oh, yea, I'm not taking a day off!" Even when the Bohemian would send me out of the house or take charge of the boys I wasn't really taking advantage of that. I changed that today! I clocked out of mothering gig, sent to boys to Pappa with 100% of their requests, locked myself in my craft room with music blaring, took Mr. Cash on a Pug date to Petco and Starbucks, accomplished, daydreamed, refreshed, ahhhhh. I'm so much better now!