27 October 2018

Halloween preparations... Mr. Brown is up in the panhandle cleaning up after Hurricane Michael and reminded us to be sure and do jack o'lanterns this weekend!

Rose Pink made sure to change into appropriate attire for the activity.  We have some friends staying with us, and they're former JWs who had never carved pumpkins before.  So that was fun too.

 

Rosebud got happy with the Sharpies on hers.

 End results:

 Rosebud's kitty pumpkin (it's all cats with her... guess what she's going to be for Halloween?)

Then the sun came out and the boys needed sunglasses.  Sun in Florida is no joke.  Nut Brown and Bobo were both making Avatar the Last Airbender pumpkins.  Nut Brown carved four of the characters into his.  Bobo got hold of the tiny pumpkin saw and went to town on his.  He did most of it by himself and I think he ended up with three faces on his, plus he cut out the bottom of it.

Lit photos from that evening of Bobo's and Rosebud's pumpkins:

25 October 2018

At the end of September, Mr. Brown and I got dressed up and went to a Gold and Green Ball hosted at the stake center.  I was so excited for it.  I wouldn't let him see my outfit ahead of time but I told him it was all black, so he went and got new clothes too, all black to match me.  (We're so cute!)  We danced and danced for three straight hours.  There was a live band, and we had so much fun!  Rose Pink watched the younger kids for us, and we had such a good time together.

24 October 2018

We found $78 plane tickets and so we flew back to Detroit to work on our favorite service project ever!

Winter clothing distribution!  20,000 pounds of clothes and five solid days of hard work!

Also friends!

It was good to be back with friends and to work hard at a worthy project.  Things felt different about it this year, though - less unity, less common spirit... it was just hard work with less spiritual reward.  But it was so good to be back in Michigan with our Michigan ward!!

24 October 2018

We went to the beach at the end of September.  This picture captures the beach experience as a responsible parent - always checking for my four fluorescent rashguard babies - pink, yellow, orange and pink, although the small pink one is usually right next to me because she's very cautious about the waves.  Living so close to the beach is one of my favorite parts about living in Florida!

15 October 2018

So in this picture, Rosebud is flossing my teeth.  In the evenings I usually floss Bobo's teeth (he's had a lot of cavities and even gotten a crown) and after seeing that, Rosebud occasionally asks to floss my teeth.  It kind of tickles and it's just sweet and silly, which is why I asked Nut Brown to take a picture.  But the funniest part of this picture is what she said to me as she put her fingers in my mouth: "This is going to hurt a bit."

10 October 2018

I love Bobo's tenderness.

1 October 2018

Some artwork from Bobo and Rosebud.  Bobo's is from his Sunday School class at church.  He told me that he put the puzzle together and then drew his family on it.  I love how affectionately he feels towards us.  

Rosebud had a blast with a pen, while sitting on a short stool and using a tall stool for her desk.  Super cute to watch, and I liked the art she produced.

30 September 2018

September has been a bit of a blur.  I'm working a very busy yearend closeout and am very very glad to see the end of it today.  This afternoon Rosebud and I decided to make 'material mosaics' and collected some different textured things in a muffin tin - rice, salt, tortilla chips, dirt, wood chips, grass and dead bugs - and then glued them on pieces of paper.  I'm not sure we made lasting artwork but it was fun.  We ran out of dead bugs first.

8 September 2018

Rosebud loves to pretend to be a kitty and will turn into one at random times.  Sometimes it helps to get her into bed if I invite her to snuggle up like a kitty and she'll lay down while making tiny little meows with her tiny little voice.  The other night she said her prayers as a kitty, and the preciousness of an extra tiny little voice saying, 'Dear Heavenly Father...' cannot be expressed.

17 September 2018

Bobo hugged me this morning and said, "Mom, I know I was born into the right family."  Warm happy feelings!  I said to him, "How do you know that?" and he replied, "Because I'm really good at making gun noises."

13 September 2018

Rose Pink has joined our D&D group.  We play with two other (young) couples on Tuesday nights, and Rose Pink is playing an elven ranger with us.  It's a fun time, and the other couples are good at including her.  It's nice to see her learning more about interacting with adults.

She asked to take a civics course this fall, because all her friends are taking civics in ninth grade and they say it's really interesting.  So we got a civics textbook and she'll be working her way through that.  School starts for us again at the beginning of October.

The other day I asked her to help me color some people puppets for nursery.  She likes coloring, so she took on the whole project, and brought me back puppets with five or six different skin colors.  I loved the unconscious application of diversity - so glad that she's growing up without (or with less of) a feeling that people can be othered based on their skin color.

11 September 2018

Rose Pink and Nut Brown spent time building a world together.  See if you can find the sawmill.  Smiley faces indicate allies.

9 September 2018

Putting Rosebud in bed just now and I said, "Do you want me to sing a song?" and she said, "I want a song, but the songs are all dead."

7 September 2018

Rose Pink has been reading a trilogy of books called "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children".  It's very gothic, and Mr. Brown advised me not to read it.  It's just her sort of book though.  She read Lovecraft awhile ago, and thought it was boring, but she likes Poe.  She finds the horror and suspense stimulating and interesting.

5 September 2018

We spent Labor Day weekend at my sister's house in Tallahassee with her family and my parents.  Mr. Brown stayed at home and had a restful weekend, and my brother-in-law went down to Tampa to see their son there, and my sister and I sat up late and talked and talked and talked.  Being closer to her has been such a wonderful thing!  So glad to count her as a friend.

We arrived pretty late on Friday because I ignored the GPS and we ended up going almost 90 minutes out of our way to make up for it.  (oh well)  We went to Home Depot on Saturday morning to do the free kid project, which the kids really loved.  That afternoon, Grandma split the grandkids into two groups and had them each do a skit, which was fun.  Then we went to the pool and went swimming, and then Grandpa took all of us out for Chinese food.

Sunday we went to church, which I just love, because the ward in Tallahassee is so wonderful!  Sometimes I tell Mr. Brown that we should move to Tallahassee so we can be in that ward.  Then it was board games for most of the afternoon, and we left to drive back just after dinner.  At the moment we're listening to Howl's Moving Castle as the audiobook, and the kids AND I are completely entranced.  I know they're listening to it now without me and I've just about decided that I must get it out of the library in order to to finish the story!

4 September 2018

31 August 2018

Nut Brown's birthday this year was kind of a bust.  He was disappointed in several things.  He had been talking about a couple of different activities earlier in the year for his party, but when we started planning it, he didn't advocate strongly for anything and Rose Pink ended up setting up a party that involved playing Live Action Clue in the living room, having a silly string fight in the backyard, smashing a whale piñata, and then eating cake.  Only one of the three invited families could come, and then Nut Brown was disappointed that he didn't win the Clue game, and then we couldn't go outside to smash the piñata because it was raining.  The silly string canisters ran out after about ten seconds.  He felt that Rose Pink wasn't listening to him well enough when planning the Clue game either, and he was disappointed that he didn't have enough budget left over to buy another gift.  He wasn't satisfied with the spending account that we gave him for the funding.  I hadn't had a whole lot of energy available to devote to his birthday, and was grateful for Rose Pink's support that made the party possible.  I felt that it wasn't a great party either so I could understand his disappointment.

(We had a good time playing Clue.  I think we should set up a Sorry board in the living room sometime too; I think that would be fun as well.)

Nut Brown has talked about it for a couple weeks afterwards, and I did get a better accounting of the funding together that satisfied him.  Eventually I learned that he had wanted a surprise party but didn't know how to tell us.  If he told us, then it wouldn't be a surprise, so he didn't say anything, and hoped we'd figure it out.  As a result, he didn't get either of the events that he wanted, because he wasn't talking about them or about what else he wanted with us.  I was disappointed that he was disappointed, and felt like I'd failed somehow for not making sure he was happy with his birthday. 

Mr. Brown explained to me that Nut Brown was learning a valuable lesson about communication, and finding out that if you don't tell people what you want, then you're not likely to get it.  He had a conversation with Nut Brown a couple nights ago as they were doing after-dinner chores about it, and told Nut Brown that he also had wanted a surprise birthday party this year.  "You did?" I said in surprise.  He told Nut Brown that he hadn't told me, because he wanted it to be a surprise, and when I asked what he wanted for his birthday he'd said, "Nothing special."  And guess what he got for his birthday?  Nothing special.  We went out for breakfast as a family, and that was it.  So he was now telling Nut Brown that the same thing had happened to him – he'd gotten exactly what he'd asked for, which wasn't what he wanted.  A very important lesson!

29 August 2018

On Sunday the kids and I sang a musical number in sacrament meeting, a medley of 'I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus' and 'Lord, I Would Follow Thee'.  The kids put in a lot of effort and work on it, and although we didn't sound the greatest, I was proud of them for their willingness to practice.  It was so sweet to watch Bobo learn where to come in and be so proud of himself for knowing that he could do it.  The ending was written really, really high, and when we suggested re-writing it so sing a lower, unison line, instead of a high two-part line, Nut Brown resisted because he didn't want to give up the coolest part of the song, the part where he and Ramses got to stand out, in his opinion.  He worked really hard to learn the high notes and practice singing above his natural register.  Rose Pink ended up with a solo line at the end that was really beautiful.  Even Rosebud learned the words and sang with us - 'Love one another as Jesus loves you'.  We improved so much as we practiced, and I was so proud of us!

12 August 2018

I ask Bobo after church: How much peanut butter do you like on your peanut butter sandwiches?

Bobo says, "Nine percent."

10 August 2018

Last night, working in the kitchen, Rosebud comes up to me and says, "Mom!  You're wearing a pink apron!  I have to hug you now!" and then she did.  She loves the color pink.

She just got another haircut last night.  She refuses ponytails and so her hair gets so messy and tangled.  So I asked if she wanted a haircut and she said yes.  After her bath, we turned on the kitty videos and I trimmed a couple inches off.  So it's short and cute again.  She went to bed before Rose Pink and Mr. Brown came home from church so they were surprised to see her this morning.  She was so pleased with her ability to sit quietly and get her hair trimmed successfully.  I love to see her grow.

6 August 2018

We spent our staycation doing fun things and ignoring (mostly) the chores, and eating ice cream.  Monday we made candles and went shopping.  Tuesday we went to the public library downtown, and got the brakes on the minivan fixed.  Wednesday the kids and I went to St. Augustine, and visited the old fort there and went to the beach, which was totally and completely cool.  We took a picnic and didn't have enough time at the beach because the fort was more interesting than I expected.  I definitely want to go back and see some more of the old city and visit the fort again with Mr. Brown.  Thursday we rearranged the furniture.  Mr. Brown said that we should finish moving in since we've been here for a year, so we put the toys in the office closet and changed the kids' beds around and threw some things away.  Friday we mowed the lawn and the kids and I went to the science museum downtown.  It was packed and crazy, but we loved it and so we bought an annual pass so we can go back during the school year when everybody else is in school.  Nut Brown has been asking to return ever since we got home. 

We ate a lot of ice cream and a lot of treats and slept in and did as few chores as possible, and did some adventurous things so we can see more of what there is to see in Florida.  Super fun!

5 August 2018

Doing a puzzle with Rosebud today and as we put each piece in place she'd say with satisfaction, "That's the way to do it!"

4 August 2018

Mr. Brown and Rose Pink were talking about polygamy, and Mr. Brown said, "Besides, what would you do with all those husbands anyway?" and Rose Pink replied, "Boss them around, probably."

3 August 2018

Started the day with two kiddos who came in and curled up in bed with me.  Bobo is always the first one up these days, and today he decided to come in and lay down next to me and snuggle.  Rosebud was next up and wanted to lay on my chest, and Bobo moved over between Mr. Brown and I.  Super sweet cuddles.

2 August 2018

Watching Nut Brown and Bobo work peacefully on a 300 piece puzzle together on the living room floor- my heart is so happy.  Gotta love these moments when they come.

29 July 2018

We have been listening to a Percy Jackson audiobook, from the series by author Rick Riordan, and it has been super fun for all of us.  Nut Brown loves these books - they turned him on to more serious reading, and he loves the author's sense of humor.  He laughs and laughs as he reads them, and he loves listening to the audiobook because it makes him feel like an expert.  I love to see his happiness and joy.  He really lights up from the inside when he's happy.

25 July 2018

We went to the thrift store to do some shopping for Halloween costumes, and Mr. Brown found a realio trulio cosplay costume that fit Rose Pink.  She tried it on and loved it- it's from some video game that we don't play but of course it's super glamorous.

One secondhand cosplay costume: $6

Watching my morose 13 year old light up and be playful: priceless

-----------------------

We also found a toy cash register for sale for $3 that bings and does real math and wow, that is a priceless toy too.  Bobo and Rosebud have been playing with it nonstop.  I think Rosebud regards it as a computer/laptop.

It was a good day at the thrift store - there was a scooting toy shaped like a turtle which we purchased for $2 (this is why we don't give our kids presents at Christmas...) and Rosebud is riding around our huge open space in the living room on the turtle with her boppy on her head at this very moment.

24 July 2018

Bobo last night sat on my lap and looked at me and said, "I see into your eyes, Mama."  I said, "And what do you see?" and he said, "Smiles... and Papa... and love... and one more thing.  It starts with an 'H'."  I guessed 'Honda' and 'hamburger' and he laughed and said, "No, Mama!  Home!"

23 July 2018

We just returned from a farewell visit up to our friends the Peers in Charleston.  They are moving to Idaho at the beginning of August, which is so far away!  We will miss them very much.  We went to the children's museum downtown, and on TWO double dates for dessert and a walk on the waterfront.  We went swimming in their apartment pool, and took the kids down to the waterfront downtown one morning.  We also watched our kids and their kids play together and have so much fun.  There were card games and video games and imaginary play, and altogether no fighting, in spite of the fact that we were all cramped into a three bedroom apartment for three days together.  They are such good friends.  We're excited for their good fortune to be going to Idaho but we will miss them SO much!

We were supposed to go on to Ohio after this visit in order to attend a family reunion on Mr. Brown's side, but I have an upper respiratory infection (going on 3 weeks now) and Mr. Brown wasn't feeling well either, and Rosebud and Nut Brown have also been coughing pretty badly for a couple weeks.  I throw up when the coughing gets bad, and we didn't feel up to the drive or the reunion or the time away from home, plus we didn't want to get everybody else sick.  So we went home instead.

We got home Saturday evening, and everybody crashed.  Only Mr. Brown and Rose Pink went to church on Sunday, and after all the other kids got up, I went back to bed and slept for two more hours.  Rosebud is experienced with amusing herself next to a sleeping parent and when I came back to full consciousness I found books and drawing papers scattered over the bed next to me with vague memories of her talking to me about what she was doing.  I suggested to her and Bobo that they get out the toy kitchen and toy food and do some cooking, and that occupied them for another hour of delightful sleep, at which point I felt like I could get out of bed without immediately wanting to lay down again.  It has been so nice to be home.

8 July 2018

The other evening, Mr. Brown went out into the backyard to (what else?) shovel mulch while I was putting kids in bed.  Nut Brown eventually made up a glass of ice water and took it out to him, and said, "I thought you might be lonely" and they worked together and talked about Norse mythology.

6 July 2018

We've found a website that matches up gardeners with arborist companies for free loads of mulch, and as a result, we are able to get a lot of mulch now.  My sister's family was here last weekend and spent a good chunk of Saturday helping us clear the mulch pile and get it spread everywhere.  That afternoon, just after we'd finished, another company called asking if we wanted to take a load and we said yes (this is our fifth).  He left it in the backyard for us, and my sister looked at this brand new heaping pile of mulch and said, "Do you ever get discouraged?"  Her question surprised me so much because it felt like asking someone who was running a marathon if they were discouraged after the first hundred yards.  We haven't gotten far enough along in our plans for the yard to get discouraged yet! 

4 July 2016

This morning was the 4th of July breakfast at church and I discovered that the pavilion behind the church is actually quite nice - well built, with nice picnic tables and ceiling fans!  There were a bunch of fun games for the kids that involved catapults and water balloons, a beanbag dunking game, paper rockets fired with an air compressor, and badminton.  Someone also brought facepaint, and Bobo and his best friend got their faces painted the same way- in the same way as Rose Pink as well.  Rosebud got a tiny little rainbow on her cheek that she was very pleased with.  The food was not so great as usual, and I got a chance to talk to some Brasilians (who apologized for not coming to dinner last Sunday, but begged our understanding that it was a Brasil match in the World Cup... we forgave them) and with another Spanish-speaking family also in our ward.  It was cloudy, so not too hot, and we had a good time, although we then came home and lay down for awhile afterwards!

2 July 2018

Our dryer died, and a friend gave us a new one.  Mr. Brown gave the old one to Nut Brown to take apart, which he did and had a great time working on.  He pulled the drum out and had Bobo push him around in it in the backyard.  So he's braced inside it, and Bobo is rolling it over and over and over.  Eventually even Nut Brown got a little seasick.  Then they brought it inside and strapped it to a piano dolly, and have been pushing each other around the living room in it.  Nut Brown used cardboard to make doors for the "coach" and they had a lot of fun with that, too.  Interest has finally waned, however, and now the drum is going to be turned into a planter in the yard.

21 June 2018

Our dryer died, and Mr. Brown encouraged Nut Brown to take it apart before we put it out by the curb.  He had a ton of fun doing it, and thanked Mr. Brown for inviting him (which is kind of a big deal).  Nut Brown took the drum out and had Bobo push him around the backyard inside it, while he was basically doing propelled somersaults.  He got tired of it after awhile, and then he brought it back inside and strapped it on to our piano dolly, so now the kids give each other rides around the living room inside it.

20 June 2018

We're officially out for the summer!  Back to school on October 12.  To celebrate, Mr. Brown and kids went to Wal-Mart and cleaned out the discount bakery rack.  He also gave the kids certificates for finishing their grades.  Bobo was so pleased with his.  When I put him in bed that night, he told me that he wanted a certificate for his birthday for not dying before his seventh birthday.

18 June 2018

Rose Pink went away to girls' camp for a week and had a lovely wonderful time. They were in cabins near a lake and they had classes every day and free time to hang out, and they stayed up late doing crazy silly things.  She had a total blast.

16 June 2018

Bobo tells me a joke:  How do you get in trouble in Star Wars?


Mama: Um, I don't know.  By joining the dark side?


Bobo: No, by trying!


Mama: ????


Bobo: Do, or do not!  There is no try!

------------------------------



Rosebud tells me a joke:  Knock knock who salad!

Mama: ????

Rosebud: Knock knock who salad!

Mama: (gets it) Salad who?

Rosebud: Ummmm... ummm.... people eating salad!

(this sounds like a four-year-old joke coming out of my two-year-old)

15 June 2018

I have an unforeseen problem with my work commute.  Rainy season has started here in Florida, and the weather is lovely in the morning.  I ride my bike in.  I get off work about 4 - 4:30.  It rains every day, lightning and thunder, for an hour starting at 4 - 4:30.  So far I've waited it out or just gotten wet... clearly I need to get into work by 7 so I can leave at 3:30.  I didn't expect the regularity of the daily downpour!

14 June 2018

The other day Rosebud woke up early (as she always does) and came in to see me.  Then she went off calling for her brothers, who were still sleeping.  I said to her, "Please don't wake your brothers!  They're still asleep!"  She came into my room making crying noises, and then lay down on the floor facedown.  She picked her head up and said, "You don't understand my problem."  I was surprised to hear this from my 2-year-old and said, "Oh, I'm very sorry you're upset!" She picker her head up again and looked at me and said, "Don't talk to me, Mama."  And then she 'cried' some more and then got up and went out to the couch where she lay down and sulked for a few minutes, and then she came and asked for breakfast.

26 May 2018

Reading scriptures with Bobo.  We get to the part where the Liahona points which direction they should go.

Bobo: How did the Liahona work, Mom?

Mom: It's not explained in the scriptures.  I don't know.

Bobo (very seriously): Let's Google it.

25 May 2018

Why do my kids always end up in bed late?  Wednesday evening I practiced bike riding with Bobo and then it was time for baths, but he asked very sweetly if we could blow bubbles and because he'd worked so hard at bike riding practice, I said yes.  I blew a thousand rainbow shimmering spheres in the front yard, and he and Rosebud ran around as ninjas and popped them all.  I blew and blew as the sun went down and it was beautiful and peaceful - and suddenly it was late and kids are late to bed again.  But I'll never forget it.

23 May 2018

Happy birthday to me!  Bobo and Nut Brown were invited out for the day to Legoland with friends, and they went and had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed very much knowing that they were off having a wonderful time.  Mr. Brown and the girls took me out for lunch to a Thai place for curry, yum, and brought me some of my most favorite chocolate as a gift.  Some former coworkers in Michigan remembered my birthday, which warmed my heart.  Master Guns also remembered but waited until almost midnight to text me, so I thought he'd forgotten!  Mr. Brown had planned steak for dinner, which is a super treat for me, but we were still full from lunch so we didn't have dinner.  But that was a treat too, because Nut Brown loves steak as well and I was a little sad for him to miss it.  Then another friend randomly chose that night to bring us a dryer, since ours has been broken for several months.  It was very sweet of him, and I had a good time hanging out in the front yard waiting for him.  Mr. Brown took Rose Pink to volleyball so I could stay home and get the first reports from the boys of what their day had been like.  It was such a wonderful day for me, mostly because of Mr. Brown.  He is so good to me!

21 May 2018

We now know what Rosebud's favorite color is.  She has begun to identify everything that's pink as 'mine' and 'for my birthday'.  It doesn't matter what the item is- she wants it to be hers 'for her birthday'.

She recently got a new Sunday dress - it's really cute, black with red and white flowers.  Rose Pink told her that it was her 'princess dress', and so now she says she's a princess, without any other real context for what that might mean.  Her Sunday shoes with bows on the toes are her 'princess shoes'.  Tonight I put her in bed and said, "Good night, chicken," which is one of my terms of endearment for the children, and she said, "No, Mom, I'm a princess."  Except that she doesn't say the 'r', so it comes out, "pincess". 

19 May 2018

This week I've been doing grammar homework with Nut Brown over the phone at lunchtime.  I love it.  He's so funny and I love having 20 minutes on the phone with him.  I told him how much fun I have doing this and he looks at me and says, "That's because you LIKE grammar, Mom."

17 May 2018

There's a book about Pete the Cat and his four groovy buttons.  It's a super fun story and both Rosebud and Bobo like it.  Also me.  I told Rosebud that the snap at the top of the zipper on her footie pajamas is her 'groovy button' and when I'm putting her in bed at night, if she finds out that it's undone, she cries out, "My groovy button!  My groovy button!" until I fasten it.

A couple days ago, Bobo found the container of miscellaneous buttons in the toy room and brought it out to the living room.  When Rosebud saw it, she exclaimed, "My buttons!  My groovy buttons!  Oh, oh! My groovy buttons!" and poured them all out so she could play with them.

15 May 2018

There is a poster on my bedroom wall right this moment that says, "Garden Variety Greatness!  The Exploding Eggplants... in concert May 22 in Orlando!"  The kids have started a band, and the first performance is for my birthday.

7 May 2018

Mr. Brown is still recovering from pneuflugraines - pneumonia + flu + migraines.  My mom came to stay with us for a few days last week since my sick leave was basically exhausted from the previous two weeks of the flu, and that was a welcome break from taking the kids to other peoples' houses every day so Mr. Brown could rest, because he wasn't ready to take care of them.  He's better now, but still lays down a lot and has to rest often.


We had Bobo's birthday party on Saturday.  His favorite friends and their families came over and we cooked hot dogs on the fire and they jumped on the trampoline, and I put together a quick treasure hunt for the birthday boy and his buddies.  It was a lot of fun.  Mr. Brown made the most delicious potato salad with some sausage cut up in it.  Bobo, sweet boy, wanted to get a number '5' candle to go with the number '1' candle we had and then make a plus candle, so that his candles would spell '5 + 1'.  So we did.  His friends gave him a kite and a lego set, and he was a happy, happy boy.


Sunday night, he was still wakeful at 9 pm, so he and Nut Brown blew up his light-up balloons and took them out to the trampoline.  Then they had a sleepover on his bed. 

1 May 2018

Rosebud pretends to be a kitty at night sometimes when I'm putting her in bed.  She sings along with her good night songs by meowing.  She's so adorable.

30 April 2018

Nut Brown was reading the grocery list in the car on Monday as we whisked off to do the shopping.  "Tom paste?" he said.  "Tomato paste," I translated.  "Mmmm," he said.  "Like tom sauce and chop tom."  Pause.  "Poor Tom," he said.

27 April 2018

Happy birthday, Bobo!  He's been eagerly anticipating all week.  Mr. Brown went into the hospital on Monday night with what turned out to be flu and pneumonia with a side dish of migraines, so we've been scrambling a bit this week.  Fortunately our friends in the ward have been able to help watch the kids, because I've used so much leave the last two weeks already. 

Bobo wanted pizza and Spiderman tv for dinner, and he wanted to spend the day at his best friend's house.  He got both of those wishes.  He also got some super fun gifts - Mr. Potato Head from his sisters, a foam sword from his brother, new scriptures from his parents, and a cool bed tent from his grandparents, plus birthday money from his other grandma.  He was so pleased with all of them and clearly felt very special and loved.  He is such a sweet and wonderful boy, and deserved every bit of the fussing over that he got today.

Mr. Brown is home from the hospital now, but is basically on bed rest for awhile.  He is getting better, but slowly.  He gets migraines from looking at any sort of computer screen, though, and so he's on an Internet diet, which he has been really grateful for.  Going to the hospital also revived his sense of humor, which has been a blessing to us all! 

19 April 2018

We've had the flu for a week now.  Bobo kicked it off last week when he put himself in bed at 4:30 pm and didn't get up again til the next day.  He ran super high fevers (102, 103) and we started going through ibuprofen and acetaminophen like crazy.  Rosebud succumbed briefly (put herself in bed at 6 pm one night) but then had no other symptoms.  We gave Bobo lukewarm baths to help bring his temperature down, and they always had a miraculous effect.  He would go from weeping and incoherent to a cheerful (but sick) little boy who would laugh and tell jokes and get himself dressed.  Amazing to see what a difference a drop in body temp of a couple degrees makes.

On Saturday, Mr. Brown took him to urgent care and they said, "Flu."  At this point Nut Brown and Rose Pink were also sick, and Mr. Brown wasn't feeling so hot himself.  Rosebud and I spent the weekend taking temperatures and dosing people with ibuprofen and acetaminophen and then got a lot of quality time together working on my projects, because everybody just wanted to be left alone.  It was actually kind of a gift.  As Mr. Brown said, having the flu is actually kind of a blessing - you have an acceptable reason not to go anywhere and not to have anyone over, so you can really rest.  Super nice.

I worked half days all week so I could come home and help while Mr. Brown was trying to feel better, but this morning I definitely woke up sick, so no work for me at all today.  Mr. Brown is starting to get better but he's still pretty sick.  Rose Pink and Bobo and Rosebud are all basically better. Nut Brown caught a throwing up bug in addition, so he's having the extended version.  The hardest part right now is trying to take care of Rosebud, who is her normal healthy energetic self and wants much more engagement than Mr. Brown and I have to give right now.  Hopefully we'll be better in a couple days.  Or a week.

15 April 2018

Rose Pink, my redheaded fairskinned fully sunscreened daughter, at the beach, looks at the group of girls in bikinis tanning and says, "Why do people want to be tan?"  Gia and I began with some vague explanations and she followed up with, "But if people are discriminated against because of their brown skin, then why would you want to have brown skin?"  I love watching her think.

13 April 2018

A friend of ours started a volleyball group at church on Tuesday nights.  Rose Pink baby-sits for us and Mr. Brown and I go play.  There's been some disagreement about the format and structure of the group, and Mr. Brown spent a large amount of emotional energy the last couple days listening to people and trying to help them choose not to be offended.  Then last night he had Cub Scout committee meeting, where he again had to spend a large amount of emotional energy to get people to move through the planning.  He came home exhausted and frustrated and said, "I hate this."  There are some things about Florida that have been really, really difficult for us.

12 April 2018

Our camera broke (sad face) so no pictures for awhile.  Two weeks ago Gia came to visit and we went birdwatching at the Orlando wetlands, and to the beach, and watched a lot of General Conference together.  Rosebud has really begun to get over her fear of strangers and had no problem making friends with Gia, and going on walks with her, and reading books with her.  We walked down to the Blanchard trail and park several times too.  It was a good visit and I'm glad that she came.


Friday night, we had Cub Scouts over for a cookout - about 35 people, who all actually fit pretty nicely into the yard.  We have plenty of space for running around!  On General Conference Saturday, we invited a lot of people over for an egg hunt in the backyard, which was really fun.  It was super easy to set up since most people brought their own eggs and we just set up snacks and some chairs and hung out. On Sunday morning, Mr. Brown asked me cautiously how many people were coming over that day!  (The answer was no one.)  We continue in our quest to be a unifying force in our ward.


Last weekend, I took the kids and ran up to see my sister in Tallahassee.  Highlights include a fabulous parade on Saturday morning celebrating Tallahassee history - it poured buckets but we stuck it out, and it was so worth it!  The kids came home with approximately 652 bead necklaces.  Also my sister and I sat up late late late both nights talking and talking.  On Sunday morning the kids and I went to church and found that the ward there is amazing.  I was greeted and looked after in a way that was warm and welcoming.  The Relief Society meeting was incredible.  I told Spencer we should move to Tallahassee and move into that ward.  Also of note, Bridie went to nursery in a strange ward all by herself without fussing, although she was nervous!


It was an exhausting weekend and Mr. Brown and I spent the first couple days of the week recovering.  My sister's family will be at our house this weekend.  Her oldest is in a residential facility near Tampa and they have a family therapy session on Sunday so we'll be watching her other kids.  Yay!  I'm glad we live so much closer now (although four hours is still far) and can see her so much more often.

6 April 2018

The other day Mr. Brown and the kids were playing around with the tongue twister "The sixth sick sheikh's sheep's sick" and as they fooled with 'sh' noises, Nut Brown said to Mr. Brown, "Be careful, Papa, you're getting awfully close to swear poo." (a reference to the word s***).  "Swear poo" is our new favorite exclamation.

4 April 2018

Gia was here visiting over General Conference/Easter weekend, and Rosebud really warmed up to her.  She would hold her hand and ask her to read books and was really interested in spending time with her.  We were walking the other day, and Rosebud said to Gia, "My mom actually cut my hair."  Her vocabulary is so amazing!

Since the dryer broke, we've been drying laundry on the line and Rosebud has decided against wearing pants mostly.  I think it's because of the harsher texture of some fabrics when they're line-dried.  So we went to the thrift store and let her pick out some more dresses and some super soft pants.  She was completely thrilled to be in charge of choosing her own clothes and was so excited to come home and wear them.  One of them (camera is broken so no photos, sadly) she calls her princess dress and wants to wear it all the time.  It's super cute, and she's super cute.  I was working in the yard when she came out to show me the dress (Rose Pink had helped her put it on) and I said, "You look so cute, Rosebud!  You look so pretty!" and she said, "Thanks, Mom!" and went back inside.

2 April 2018

Bobo, showing me a rug burn or something on his knee:

"Mom, I have an ow on my knee."  He pokes at it with his finger - it's already scabbed over. I make appropriate sympathetic mom noises.  He pokes at it again and says nonchalantly, "Yeah, I gotta regrow some skin."

1 April 2018

So yesterday (31 March) we're walking and Mr. Brown says, "You know, tomorrow is April First!  And April Fool's Day!"  Bobo says to me, "Mom! Tomorrow is my birthday!" and just when I'm about to explain that his birthday is at the end of the month, he grins and says, "April Fool's!"  Clever boy.

25 March 2018

As part of Rose Pink getting older and starting into the hormonal craziness of teenage years, Mr. Brown and I have been quick to point out to her when she's behaving 'like a teenager', rather than being her usual self.  Our idea is that if we identify the behavior, she'll learn to see it as well so that she can make more informed choices about how she wants to respond to things.  Nut Brown has cottoned on to this as well and now he loves to tease her about how she's such a teenager, so overdramatic, and generally make fun of her.  This drives her nuts, and she responds with more over-the-top dramatics, which he really loves.  This is a new dynamic that I wasn't expecting from him!

23 March 2018

Mr. Brown taught Rosebud the words to "I'm A Little Teapot" and she will do the actions and then sing the last line all by herself - "Tip me over and POUR ME OUT!"  It's so adorable.

20 March 2018

Rosebud loves to sing!  She learns the lyrics to the songs that I sing to her at night, and joins in.  She also learns the lyrics to songs that she hears on the radio or from the computer, and she sings those too.  She surprised Mr. Brown the other day by busting out The Smiths' "Stop me, oh oh oh stop me!"  Lately she's also been repeating, "and a happy new year!" from We Wish You A Merry Christmas.  She loves to sing 'I'm A Little Teapot' and will do the last line "tip me over and POUR ME OUT" all by herself.  Another new favorite is 'knees and toes' repeated ad infinitum, from Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.


When I'm singing to her at night, I will sing a song for several nights, and then after a week or two suddenly she'll join in with me and sing all the words.  It's amazing to listen to her and realize the extent of her interest and her memory.

19 March 2018

This morning Mr. Brown and I were awakened by a little girl who climbed in bed with us and sang Jingle Bells, and then announced, "I'm a kitty!  Papa, you're a kitty!"  To which Mr. Brown replied, "Oh good!  Did you know that kitties like to sleep a lot?" and the little girl said, "WHAT?!"


I cut her hair short on Saturday night while she was watching cat videos.  She likes it and it's very cute but it was so sad to Mr. Brown and me because it made her look that much more grownup!  I may have cried about it.


Sunday night I painted fingernails with Rose Pink on the porch.  Rosebud had hers painted (twice) and Bobo got ladybug/inverse ladybug patterns on his fingernails.  Rose Pink wanted shamrocks drawn on hers with a toothpick, and I mostly succeeded.  She was pleased with it.  Our Hispanic neighbor came over to borrow a wheelbarrow and he has started calling me 'Mama'.

19 March 2018

I spent Saturday outside working in the yard (yay).  The kids did their Saturday chores on Friday so we had a breakfast fire with eggs and pancakes and sausages, which was way fun.  Our dryer died recently so we've hung up a clothesline, which I like better but it takes way more time.  Mr. Brown and I tore down a bunch of small thorny trees that bear unknown and possibly poisonous fruit that died in the frost in January, and I raked the load of mulch that Mr. Brown moved into relative smoothness.  Also I planted some cantaloupe seeds and set up the sprinkler for the garden beds.  Three of my four pecan trees have leaves on them :D and I'm pretty happy about that!




We went for a ride-and-run, and I ran a whole mile, which I haven't done since junior high.  Yay for me!  Bobo also ran a mile, but he did it twice.  He's a champ!  Mr. Brown ran six miles, which is an even longer ways.  He's a champ too! The rest of us were on bikes/trailers.


Mr. Brown and Rose Pink went to see the Lara Croft movie, which is based on one of our favorite video games, and I played Legos with Nut Brown and Bobo for an unexpectedly long time.  Bobo said I could be his girlfriend and assigned me a Lego person and the name Blanca.  I helped Nut Brown build a lego catapult that launched a ball when struck by a falling domino.


The kids finished their schoolwork earlier in the week so spring break started a little early.  They have five weeks off now, and Nut Brown is planning to build a pair of stilts with Mr. Brown, and Rose Pink is going to work on some Personal Progress stuff.  They are really excited for the break.  So is Bobo, who has plans involving video games (lots of them).


Bobo has recently become a very good reader.  His spelling and reading curricula have taught him to sound things out, and he participates in scriptures in the evenings by reading verses basically by himself.  When he does reading practice with me, he reads me the book instead of reading me a couple pages.  He's also started reading signs to us and sounding out anything with letters on it.  I'm so happy for him!


My sister came to stay with us overnight last week, which was super fun.  We're going up to see her for a weekend in April!  And last week I took a half day and we ran over to the Strawberry Festival to see my brother Chris and a couple of his friends.  (Chris's idea)  We had a fun time thinking about strawberries while we watched a dog show, a pig race (Bobo won a blue ribbon because his pig won the race) and a not-so-great magician.  Also we scoped out the chickens and rabbits on show, and watched the intermediate division of calf showing.  It was a good time and it was fun to be with Chris.


At church they combined the Sunday meetings of the youth/children's programs with the Spanish ward that shares our building (sacrament meetings at either end of the block) so now I have extra kids in nursery who don't speak English. Fortunately there's a bunch of people in our ward who do speak Spanish so I'm thinking I'll look for volunteers for a couple weeks to help everybody figure this out and get comfortable.

18 March 2018

The other night when I was putting Rosebud in bed, she decided that she was a kitty.  She crawled into bed and lay down and said, "Kitty hungry."  So I offered the kitty some fish.  We sang some more songs, and she crawled around and meowed a bit.  I bid her good night and gave her a hug and a kiss, and she made her usual unsatisfied noises about Mom leaving, then said, "Kitty drink!"  So I got her a drink, and then she lay down and curled up with her boppy and said, "Kitty nap."  I tiptoed out and she went to sleep.  I just love this little girl!

17 March 2018

Rose Pink got green elastics on her braces at her last appointment in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day!

15 March 2018

Rose Pink got an email address and a laptop for her birthday, and she's been venturing into the online world.  At the moment she watches a lot of hacks videos on YouTube, and she's been trying them out in real life.  Some have worked out but some have been disappointments to her.  I'm glad to watch her grow up in a new way, to learn to negotiate what's true and what's exaggerated and who/what she can trust online.  Slightly scary for me as a parent, but an important step forward.


Mr. Brown has been very firm about how he feels about heels (it's not good).  As part of exploring feminine adulthood, Rose Pink has been very interested in grown-up clothes, and she came out dressed for church the other day in a black sweater, a leopard print miniskirt and high heeled boots.  She looked great!  The boots had four-inch heels, so she was basically as tall as I was.  She looked like she was very excited about how mature she felt. 


Off we went to church.  We get settled in the pew and I look over and find that she's taken off her boots, so I lean over and say, "Put your shoes back on!  If you take your shoes off then your brothers will have theirs off too!"  She slid them back on.  After church, we came home and she took them off and said, "I'm never wearing heels again!  They make my feet hurt SO much!"  I think she threw the boots away.  Mission accomplished.  Sometimes you learn by doing!

14 March 2018

The other day Rosebud pulled herself up on top of the Igloo water cooler on her tummy, stretched her arms out, and proclaimed, "I'm a flying baby!"

13 March 2018

Reading the Book of Mormon with Nut Brown and we come across the phrase, 'one eternal round'.  I say, "One eternal round- because there's no end to a circle, it just goes around and around and around, just like the Lord."  Nut Brown says, "A triangle doesn't have any end either - you can go around and around it.  Or a square.  Or a trapezoid.  I can see why they don't say one eternal trapezoid... that sounds like a spaceship."

12 March 2018

Bobo came in the other morning with a slightly runny nose.  He made a snorting noise as he sucked his snot back up into his proboscis, and then said, "Mama, sometimes my nose makes a caterpillar noise."


He's so sweet in the mornings.  He and Rosebud both generally wake up cheerful and are a lot of fun to be with in the mornings. He's gotten a lot better at playing with her, too - they've both gotten older, and I often see them playing games together.  Lately one of their favorites is climbing into the fire pit when the fire's out and using the burned wood to write on the cinder blocks.  They get very black in the process.  I came home from work and found them at it, and Rosebud had a roasting stick and she came over and offered me a 'marse-mawoow'. (marshmallow)  Super fun to see them learning to enjoy each other.

8 March 2018

Buenos dias, como estas?  Our new passion is working on our Spanish using Duolingo!  Mr. Brown, Rose Pink and I are all investing in daily practice and Mr. Brown, who had years of Spanish in high school, is helping the rest of us practice with each other as well.  It's really fun to work on a language together!

7 March 2018

Rosebud, last night, was sitting on my lap for scriptures.  She likes to have a turn where she repeats part of the words after me.  Last night she was waiting for her turn and suddenly said, "Behold the reign of the judges!" So of course we went through the whole routine for her: "That must have been a heavy rain!  Nah, judges are mostly full of hot air.  Now a rain of frogs, that would be something! Either way, I'd want an umbrella!"  It was so cute to see her pull up a phrase that meant something to our family during scripture time.

5 March 2018

The other night, putting Bobo in bed, he says to me, "Mama, I can see in the dark!  As long as the light's on a little bit, I can see in the dark!  It's my superpower."

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!"

31 January 2018

Today Rose Pink and Rosebud tried out a pediatrician and went in for annual checkups.  Happily, the pediatrician was satisfactory to everyone so we have one less doctor that we need to find.  Rosebud was due for another immunization, and Mr. Brown talked to her about which arm she wanted it in, and she was concerned but very calm and chatty through the whole thing.  It was extremely impressive, especially for a two year old.


Tonight we paused in the front yard to watch the moon rising - an impressive sight.  We don't have streetlights in front of our house, but the moon has been so bright the last couple nights that you wouldn't have noticed.  After getting pajamas on, Rosebud asked to go back outside and look at the moon again, and we did, gazing in silence at the huge silver orb still low over the trees in our backyard.

25 January 2018

Bobo got this bear blanket from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas.  He loves it.  He comes out every morning wearing it, which is just an explosion of cuteness and a wonderful way for Mama to start the day.  He's always cuddly in the morning but being a bear makes him extra cuddly.

22 January 2018

We were given a very large bunch of wiki-stix for Christmas, and it has resulted in creativity and hilarity.

I wish I also had a picture of our kitchen wall.  We've used them to make designs and write messages on the wall, too.  Super fun.

20 January 2018

Our friends the Scotts came to visit and we went to see alligators! In the wild! In some nearby wetlands.  It was totally cool.  We also went to see a natural spring with manatees, which was also very completely cool.  We are definitely going back there when it's a little warmer.

There's also a beautiful cypress swamp at the wetlands, very evocative. 

It was so good to see them.  It seemed completely natural for them to be at our house, rootling around in our kitchen and laying on the couch, because they are so much a part of our life.  I'm so glad that they came!  Mr. Brown and I miss them very much.

19 January 2018

Grandma and Grandpa went to a state fair of some sort and sent us souvenirs.

We added them to our dance party to enjoy them!

Nut Brown incited the dance party by going 'moo' in time with the music.  He's so funny!

18 January 2018

We've had a season of birthdays this past week, since the girls' birthdays are only two days apart.  Nut Brown prepared several things for Rosebud's birthday that were really sweet.  He bought and wrapped a gift for her:

 

and he made a piñata for her party shaped like a pizza, because that's one of her favorite things!

 

We made pizza for her birthday dinner, and then ended up having cake the next day.  Mr. Brown put lots of candles on her cake to celebrate, and helped her blow them out.  She was a little unsure about what to do as the star of the show, but she did blow them out with help, and looking at these pictures afterward she kept saying, "my birfday... my birfday..."

Her cake was a pound cake from a special recipe given me by an old friend!

 

Rose Pink had a mango cheesecake for hers.  I think she got more than her share of candles as well, but you know, lots of reasons to celebrate.   

Our friends the Scotts were visiting and gave her a pair of Wonder Woman socks (with tiny capes!) and my parents sent her a Wonder Woman throw which she loved immediately and wrapped around herself.  Rosebud went and got her boppy and wrapped it around herself the same way and followed Rose Pink around... it was super cute to see how she wanted to be like her big sister.

Some friends of ours came for dinner a couple days later and brought yet another cake to mark their birthdays.  Rosebud knew the drill at this point and was perfectly ready to light and blow out candles.  Super fun.

And we're not done yet... Rose Pink's actual birthday party is this weekend.  We're cooking out in the backyard with friends from church and eating cupcakes and playing games.  Should be lots of fun!  Rose Pink said she wanted a surprise party, and so we planned one (with Nut Brown, who really wanted her to get what she wanted) and then one of the kids at church gave it away!  Oh well.

17 January 2018

At night I sing to Rosebud when I'm putting her in bed.  She is intent on learning the words to the songs and surprises me sometimes with how much of them she knows.  The other night she sang the whole first line of "I Am A Child of God" with me.  She also knows a fair chunk of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", which we are still singing together even though it's January.  Mr. Brown and the older kids have taught her 'I'm A Little Teapot', and when they sing it together, they pause for the last line and she finishes by herself - "...and pour me OUT!" which is so completely adorable.




We often go through difficulties when she is requesting a song and I can't tell which one she's asking for.  I'll start to sing what I think she asked for and she will shriek NO NO NO! at the top of her lungs and I take a deep breath and (usually) ask her if she wants to sing Merry Christmas, which she always agrees to.




A couple days ago she pulled a new one on me when after finishing a verse of a song, she announced, "The end."  I wasn't sure if I'd heard it right, so I went on to the chorus, but she interrupted me to say again, "The end."  So now I know that we're done with a song when she says, "The end."  I didn't even know she knew that phrase.

15 January 2018

Nut Brown working out what sort of pumpkin he wanted for Halloween this year.  He pays a great attention to detail when he is drawing or forming letters.

11 January 2018

Last night the older kids and Mr. Brown went off to church activities, and Bobo said that he wanted to jump on the trampoline (in the dark) so he and I got out the light sticks he got in his stocking for Christmas and he and I and Rosebud jumped on the trampoline in the dark with light sticks and told stories about Star Wars and ninjas.  It was amazingly fun.  He and Rosebud were both late going to bed because of it but it was worth it.

10 January 2018

Rosebud, when she gets creative, prefers to draw tiny circles.  (See above.)

8 January 2018

A talk written by Nut Brown on his own for Sunday school.  He's pretty amazing.