31 May 2026 (3)

 

31 May 2026 (2)

Rosebud and I went around picking mulberries this afternoon. We tried the shaking method that Grandma taught Rosebud. We visited six trees and came home with 2.4 lbs of berries! Rosebud was very pleased.

Then we sat on the bed and folded origami together.  We made frogs.  Rosebud made a bunch of other things as well.  That was really fun too.

31 May 2026

Rosebud played her viola in church today as part of the Primary singing A Child's Prayer. She did so well! She was transposing into the alto clef on the fly and also having her first experience matching tempo with a pianist and choir and she was great! One of the ward members who is a school band director came up after to let us know that she has excellent tone on the strings for such a young player. She is something special with her music.

28 May 2026

 We celebrated National Hamburger Day by going to Burger King.  Nut Brown opted for a triple decker with an extra patty.

26 May 2026

<3 I love him so much!
 

24 May 2026

Sitting on the couch watching Nut Brown and D make a bower out of crepe paper in the dining room for my birthday while listening to Brad Paisley and teasing each other. Rosebud is in her bedroom making music on her ukulele and recorder. Love these kids.

Theme this year was a sunflower!

22 May 2026

Nut Brown decided that a great birthday gift for me would be the opportunity to go with him to make his temple covenants and receive his endowments!  So that's what we did.  My parents also came down to attend with us. It was lovely.

On the way home, my parents and I stopped off at a graveyard in Baltimore to see the graves of my father's great-uncle and great-grandmother.  It was really neat.

When we got home, my parents offered to take us out for dinner.  I chose a Greek restaurant and we celebrated my birthday with a delicious dinner!  Yum yum yum.  It was a great way to spend my birthday!
 

17 May 2026

 Rosebud wanted to learn how to start a fire, so she and I spent Sunday afternoon messing around in the fire pit out back.  

13 May 2026

This year for Mother's Day I asked my kids to make cards that thanked me for three things that I made possible for them.  First up, Rosebud: 

Her three items:

1. Thank you for showing me to use the library catalogue, it makes things easier to check out books. I love you.

2. Thank you for stopping me from throwing most of my stuff away. My life would be worse without them.  (this references the massive cleanup we did in her room recently)

3. Thank you for having people bring clothes that didn't fit so that I could have plenty of choices.  Now I where clothes that I like.

Card #2 from Rosebud:

Dear Mom I love you very much you do so much. you give your all and you love us.  I look up to you, I want to be like you someday.  You are irreplaceable to. You do so many things for us, no matter what I do I can't compensate, but what I give you know is the best I can.  Lots of love, Rosebud.

From Nut Brown:

And from D:

 A card that says 'George' over and over.  Happy Mother's Day to me!

11 May 2026

I present this image to illustrate a) Rosebud preparing to audition for the talent show and b) her very personal sense of style.

9 May 2026

Busy day for musical performances this week.  First up on Tuesday, D's final performance in the middle school choir.  He was nervous and excited as usual.  The performance went well!

Afterwards we walked over to Sonic for ice cream as our usual celebration.

On Thursday it was Rosebud's turn.  She sang with the choir:

and then performed with the orchestra:

We went to Box Hill Pizzeria for dinner and got her a chocolate eclair the size of her head to celebrate.

We are so proud of both of them!

 

5 May 2026

 D needed cardboard for a project at school, and he loaded it in the car himself.  He thought it was very funny!

4 May 2026

 Last night Nut Brown and D were silly in the living room ripping off their favorite YouTube comedian.  It was so fun to see them having so much fun together.  D is going to miss Nut Brown when he leaves on his mission.

1 May 2026

 A couple nights ago I was on the couch listening to Rosebud practice the viola.  She's been complaining about being bored during lessons because she's already learned the recital pieces.  That night she muttered to herself, "I'm not going to constrained by the teacher's assignment" and she turned the page and started a new piece.  Happy to see her choosing to stretch and grow.

Later she sat down next to me to tell me about her day.  She said, "Recess was not good today because my friends and I started a game but then it went awry" (she pronounced it "aurry")  I love how big her vocabulary is.  She's never shy about asking us for a definition of a word that she doesn't know.

This afternoon we went to her steel drum concert.  The music teacher started a steel drum group that meets before school, and she came home right away and asked if she could join it.  She plays a rhythm set of three drums called a "guitar".  The group played together very nicely. It was a pleasure to listen to them.  Plus the teacher invited us all to try out the drums afterward, which was also very fun!