21 February 2018

This was a long weekend because of the Presidents' Day holiday.  Saturday morning, Mr. Brown and Nut Brown went to a wetlands festival together, and Nut Brown came back talking about how he got to hold a live snake.  He enjoyed the one on one time with Mr. Brown a lot.  Rose Pink was invited to the temple with some friends, and ended up spending the whole day with them because there was a youth fireside that evening for a visiting Apostle as well. 


In the morning, I worked on moving a mountain of mulch and forwarding our plan to mulch most of the backyard.  We have made a surprisingly good start of it!  Bobo and Rosebud helped me by riding in the wheelbarrow and raking the mulch out while I shoveled the next load.  Bobo is quite a good worker when he settles into it. 


After lunch, Nut Brown did his chores while I moved some more mulch and then we went to the big library downtown.  I love this library for its hugeness!  Nut Brown was not as impressed as he expected to be.  I guess I talked it up a little too much.  It is fun to begin to explore a little more in Orlando though.  And I always love a library!  We accidentally stole some pencils that the kids were drawing with, but Nut Brown decided that we did need to take them back, so he returned them.  When we were checking out, the library employee was super friendly, and asked the kids to draw pictures for her.  I love it when people are friendly to my kids.


On Sunday, I was laying down on the couch with Mr. Brown (he was pretty low all weekend) and the kids came out and decided to pamper us by bringing us lemonade and then playing Labyrinth with me.  We had a fun time together.  Unexpected kindness is touching. 


Mr. Brown and Nut Brown went out for a Cub Scout hike on Monday morning.  While they were gone, the rest of us worked on getting the annual garden in and planted, thus increasing the number of things I have to water every day.  One of the benefits of having a well is that I can water without regard to cost!  My pecan trees have little leaves on them, which I find super exciting.  A friend also gave me some rosemary and chive seeds, so we planted those.  Down here rosemary is a perennial and Mr. Brown has dreams of a rosemary hedge.


After lunch on Monday, we went to the beach (except Mr. Brown).  We scoped out a new beach called Playalinda Beach, and it was super nice.  It's a good rocket launch vantage point, which is why it was chosen for this visit.  One of Rose Pink's friends from church came with us too.  We splashed in the waves, played in the sand, ran up and down the beach, ate snacks, absorbed the sunshine, and had a great time.  We had to leave before we were ready, and then the evening was a little hectic because everyone needed showers when we got home.  Still learning how to plan a trip to the beach!  It was lovely to go.  I am so glad that the beach will get to be part of my children's memories.  It was always important to me too.

18 February 2018

I finally have a new bike!  Mine was stolen off the front porch on New Year's Eve (boo) and I have been riding Rose Pink's bike to work for awhile now.  REI had a garage sale where they were clearing out old inventory, and I bought a brand new Cannondale for half price.  It was still expensive, but it's a really nice bike, and I love riding it!


Also in Adrian's news, we have found a tree company who will dump free mulch in our yard.  They operate a yard just a couple blocks from us and came by and dumped the first load last Saturday.  I'm so excited about this!  Mr. Brown and I spent Friday moving it around the yard, and it's made such a big difference already.  It really feels like one of the roadblocks for moving out with our plans for the yard has come unstuck, and it was just at the right time too. 


The pecan trees that I ordered came in last month, and I planted them and have been watering them faithfully.  They are so small, the kids call them "Mama's twigs".  I'm super excited to be moving out on that as well... next up, sweet potatoes!  The mulch will help with those too.  It's going to be kind of the foundation of a food forest for us, beginning the enrichment of our sandy soil.  Mr. Brown is also pleased because the more mulch he spreads, the less he has to mow. :)

16 February 2018

This past weekend our friends Holly & Michael from Iowa came to visit!  They were celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary with a trip to Harry Potter World and came over to see us as well!  We went to a British shoppe (very small), Lake Eola park downtown (Mr. Brown & I were unimpressed, but Nut Brown badly wanted to ride the swanboats) and then out to dinner at a place that they chose called 'Mrs. Potato'.  It served us hashbrowns wrapped around a filling and fried... delicious!  We played Stipulations while we waited, and it was pretty fun.  This game is right up their alley.  Rose Pink said, "I've just gotten my dream job to fly as an astronaut to Pluto..." and Holly said, "...but you have to ride with Barney the dinosaur!"


On Sunday afternoon we went out to the Orlando Wetlands so they could see alligators, which we did.  We saw one walk across the path in front of us about forty yards away, and on the way back, there was one with its snout sitting right on the path.  He looked like he was waiting for us to pass.  We were a little nervous about being quite so close, but Rosebud was in the stroller so I took Bobo firmly by the hand and we walked past on the other side of the path without incident.  Totally cool!  We love the Wetlands.


We also played Apples to Apples, to the children's great delight, and then Spencer and I played a Sherlock Holmes game with them later.  They are such good friends!  It was really fun to see them.

15 February 2018

Mr. Brown has set up an evening chore chart so the older kids rotate between helping him cook, setting/clearing the table, and washing the dishes with me.  Last night was Bobo's night to help me, and he cleared the drain rack by turning the dishes into ninjas and demonstrating all their special moves to me.  Bet you didn't know that leftover dishes could work together to defeat forks!

14 February 2018

Last night Mr. Brown and I went to play volleyball at the church, and when we got home, we found that the kids had put hearts all over our dresser.  Happy Valentine's Day!

13 February 2018

I came home from work the other day and Rose Pink brought Rosebud out to me in the backyard and said, "I'm so DONE with this baby!  She's kept me from doing my homework ALL DAY!"  Apparently Rosebud wanted to watch cat videos on Rose Pink's laptop, and play kitty with her and Bobo, and generally be with her all day.  Rose Pink is a good sport and a loving big sister but she has been saving up her video game turns (earned by finishing her homework) to watch the Hunger Games movies and she wanted to get her homework done!  So Rosebud and I finished watering my pecan tree twigs in the backyard together.


She has finally gotten to the stage in her development where I am sad that she's the last one.  I wasn't sorry that she was the last six month old, or the last one year old, or even the last eighteen month old; but now that she's two, I'm sad that there's no more two years olds for us.  She is so joyful.

5 February 2018

Rosebud's verbalized vocabulary has increased substantially in the last few weeks.  Last night at dinner she said, "Mama, Ramses broke it." and today digging in the garden with me, "My trowel is gone!"  Her enunciation is about what you expect from a two-year-old, but her vocabulary is remarkable and growing.

3 February 2018

Last night Nut Brown decided that he got to stay up with me and help me make giant cookies (he earned one for finishing the Book of Mormon, and Rose Pink earned one for knowing some scriptures during General Conference - long overdue).  We hung out in the kitchen mixing things and he told me bad jokes that made me laugh and reminded me very much of his father.  I love him so much!  He is so funny!

2 February 2018

Tonight, Mr. Brown was playing long distance D&D and Rose Pink was out baby-sitting so the boys helped me with the dishes and then we ran out for taiyaki.  I sent Bobo in to ask Mr. Brown what flavor he wanted, and he came back and told me that Mr. Brown had said that he wanted more than one, but that he (Bobo) had told Mr. Brown that if he wanted more than one it would have to come out of his own money. 

On the way home, nomming our taiyaki in the car, Rosebud started to sing, "Taiyaki in my tummy!  Taiyaki in my tummy!"