31 July 2015

Good things that come out of children's television: pointillism executed with acrylics and qtips!

21 July 2015

Nut Brown has been on a roll losing teeth.  Last Thursday at the park he said to Mr. Brown, "Papa, I think I have a loose tooth."  Mr. Brown looked in his mouth, and then he pulled the tooth out.  It had been so tightly jammed between two other teeth that by the time Nut Brown noticed it was loose, it was ready to come out.

On Sunday at church, Nut Brown was playing with another loose tooth, turning it so that it was at funny angles.  Bobo was totally weirded out by it.  Then Nut Brown went to the bathroom, and when he came back he showed me his tooth in his hand - he'd pulled it out himself in the bathroom.  Right when he got back, Bobo asked to see his mouth.  Nut Brown grinned at him and Bobo exclaimed, right in the middle of services, "You missing teeth!"  He carefully examined Nut Brown's extracted tooth, and then said to me, "Are you missing teeth, Mama?  I'm not missing teeth.  See?"

20 July 2015

Rose Pink & Nut Brown wrote a book!  I especially love the page numbers.

17 July 2015

At our last stake conference, Nut Brown produced this image of Joseph Smith's First Vision:

Also this drawing of a dragon:

16 July 2015

Mr. Brown gathered everyone in the kitchen one night and decided to read scriptures together while they were eating ice cream since it was already late.  He saw he had everybody and said, "Now that I've got everyone in the kitchen..." and went to get the scriptures.  Nut Brown immediately got up and went and sat on the cellar stairs out of sight on the other side of the kitchen, so that when Mr. Brown came back, we weren't all there any more.  Prankster!

15 July 2015

Rose Pink is going to be a mermaid in play that she and a friend are putting on.  We were working on sketching out her costume.  She was not satisfied with my understanding of what was needed, so she drew for me a step-by-step process of what she wanted to happen.

 

14 July 2015

The city recently painted bike lanes on the roads here, including on the road we ride to the library.  On a recent trip I let the kids ride in the bike lane.  They took pride in riding right over the bikers painted on the pavement in the bike lane.  Rose Pink said to Nut Brown, "Where did you get on that last one?  I got another skull."

13 July 2015

Nut Brown was playing around the other day with our initials, melding them in various ways.

11 July 2015

When we read the scriptures lately, the kids have fixated on the phrase 'the reign of the judges'.  So whenever we run across it, we repeat the following four lines:

1. It was raining judges?
2. That must have been a heavy rain!
3. Nah, judges are mostly full of hot air.
4. Now a rain of frogs, that would be something!

Even Bobo will jump in to start it.  It's fun to be silly together.

10 July 2015

At our 4th of July feast in the backyard, Bobo offered thanks and said, 'Thank you with it's so beautiful... it's so beautiful...'  It was a very sweet prayer of thanksgiving for the beautiful afternoon and anticipated meal, and it summed up both Mr. Brown's and my feelings of gratitude for our place in life at the moment.

8 July 2015

At the park the other day Nut Brown was being wheelbarrowed around by Mr. Brown.  Bobo wanted to do it too, but wasn't able to keep up quite so much with Nut Brown.  So he wheelbarrowed over to Nut Brown and tackled him, so they ended up rolling around on the grass.  Ah, said Mr. Brown.  The recurring strategy of younger brothers.  If you can't win, wrestle.

7 July 2015

Thank goodness for friends.

4 July 2015

The kids treated us to a 4th of July parade in the front yard.  They marched around from the back singing the Emperor's march from Star Wars and then threw confetti on us.  Happy 4th!

2 July 2015

We bought a minivan and went to Maine in June.  Mr. Brown's family was having a family reunion there and we were excited to visit!

On the way out we stopped in Kirtland, Niagara Falls, Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove.  Also we stopped in Albany NY at a cool graveyard.  Here lies Chester A. Arthur.  We were listening to the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, so it was a good place to get out for a bit.

When we got to Maine, there was a moose to greet us.

One day we played miniature golf with pirates.

while Bobo slept

but eventually he woke up and he and I played a round together.

Happy pirating for all!

The rest of this post is largely a photo dump of all the rocky beaches we hung out at, because basically what we did was go to the beach, over and over, and climb on the rocks and dig in the sand and pick up shells.  It was a lot of fun.

The water was much too cold for most of us, but Rose Pink enjoyed wading.

Also we got to walk on the bottom of the ocean when the tide went out- we walked across the bay to an island.  Very cool.

A bear bid us goodbye as we left Maine.

The trip home was just driving, for two straight days. 

We saw a lot of neat stuff and did a lot of fun things!

26 June 2015

The kids and I walked up to the corner store last evening, and Rose Pink bought ice cream for everyone (she has a generous heart) and when we were walking home the kids were walking in front eating ice cream on sticks and just for a moment they lined up in height order as they were talking and walking and eating, and it was a happy sight, my dear children having a good summer.

25 June 2015

Nut Brown was up early the other day and was anxious to play video games, so I offered to help him with his spelling from work.  I called as soon as I got to my desk and he and I spent 20 minutes on the phone while I read my email and called out his spelling words for him, to help him get a jump on his homework and get him that much closer to video games.

24 June 2015

Just back from a family reunion vacation in Maine. Tonight when praying Bobo said, Thank you for Maine, and thank you for Maine, and thank you for Maine...

My aunt, a retired schoolteacher, just cleared out some more of her school stuff and gave us her collection of Newbery Medal winners, plus a complete set of Harry Potter, which Rose Pink carried off immediately to her room.  Tonight when we were reading scriptures, she decided to imitate Hogwarts teachers' voices for her verses.


---------Later Update: What We Loved In Maine----------


*On the way out, we stopped in Kirtland, Ohio, to visit church history sites and see some friends from our ward who were serving a couples mission there.  We really enjoyed getting out of the car and walking around to all the buildings.  My favorite was the Whitney Store, although I did also love the herb garden in front of one of the houses.  We drove past the Kirtland temple, but didn't stop to go in.


*We also stopped at Niagara Falls.  It was amazing and wonderful.  All that pouring water.  It is awesome.  We took the walk over the river to go out on the island where you can look straight down over the falls - frightening and wonderful.


*Day two of the drive out, we stopped outside Albany, NY for some reason and visited Chester Arthur's grave.  It was pretty cool.  Kind of randomly placed in a random cemetery. 


*In Maine, we drove up the coast instead of taking the faster inland route.  Next time, we'll take the inland route.


*We rented a vacation house separate from the big one the rest of the family was in.  It was adjacent to a hotel and we had pool privileges, which we used at least once.  The house was really big, for our little family.  Bobo and I slept together, and Mr. Brown upstairs, and Rose Pink and Nut Brown in another bedroom.  It was a short drive up to the big vacation house (which was hidden away and hard to find the first time) but it was so good for our family to have its own space.  I sat up late one night and watched the Stanley Cup finals with Rose Pink.
*We walked across the bottom of the ocean to an island when the tide was out, and got passed by a bus.
*We ate breakfast at the Blue Cat Restaurant, and had biscuits as big as our head.
*We went swimming at Echo Lake with a big group of cousins and siblings.  Too cold for me but Rose Pink enjoyed it.
*Rose Pink remembers seeing the jellyfish with Lucia.
*We spent a foggy, chilly afternoon at Seal Harbor, which had a billion shells and weird worms and a creek running into the ocean.  Rose Pink (fearless of the cold) went wading with Aunt Amy.
*The kids and I spent a sunny afternoon at Compass Harbor, which is a beach within walking distance from the big house.  We built sand castles and climbed on the rocks.  Nut Brown collected crab pieces, and Bobo stepped on a crab (we tried to heal it but I fear it did not end well).  We watched the tide go out.  It was very peaceful and so fun.
*We had to buy swim shoes at the local Wal-Mart because all the beaches are rocky and can't be handled barefoot.  But with swim shoes-  lots of fun!
*One afternoon we walked down to Compass Harbor and met a girl named Becca with her parents.  She's a marine biology major, and she got in the water (in her clothes) and pulled up sand dollars and other marine life for us to look at.  Ever since, Rose Pink has wanted to be a marine biologist.
*We played pirate miniature golf at the mini-golf course.
*We sang 'Shake It Off' with Uncle Peter at the family talent show.  I talked Rose Pink into singing 'Wade In The Water' with me for the show but then ruined the ending.  Nut Brown did some gymnastics moves and flips.
*Mr. Brown spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking for people. 
*The house had a lovely outdoor patio (although narrow, because of the cliff top) with a beautiful view and chairs - wonderful for sitting outside.
*We drove around Acadia National Park and stopped at Thunder Bay - listened to the crashing waves while climbing on the rocks around them.  It was amazing.
*When we left, we immediately wanted to go back again.  It was gorgeous, wonderful, and amazing!

8 June 2015

The kids were singing a song they learned from some friends that goes, "I'm so lucky 'cause I got you!"  Bobo joined in joyfully and sang loudly, "I'm so yucky cause I got you!" which made the rest of us laugh.

4 June 2015

Bobo prays with me every night.  One night, he had a very sore bum as a result of playing in wet pants for several hours, and he began his prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father... my bum hurts," in a very sad little voice. Last night he began by saying, "Dear Heavenly Father... Mommy is beautiful."  He also gives thanks for things by saying, "Thank you with..." as in, "Thank with the cookies."  But he doesn't have 'th' yet, so it comes out, "Sank you wif de cookies."

2 June 2015

Last week Bobo was getting his diaper changed and was playfully resistant so that both of his legs ended up in one leg of his pants.  He didn't want to fix it, so he hopped out to the living room like that.  His siblings were immediately taken with this, and switched their pants so that they could all be mermaids together.  There was a lot of laughing, and a lot of hopping, and a fair amount of falling down on their bums.