5 June 2017

It has been a crazy couple of weeks!  I went to Kansas for work the week before my birthday, and then right after I got back Mr. Brown went out of town for a funeral. We felt that we needed to get the house ready to sell, so the weekend after THAT we hired painters and spent that Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day) staycationing out of the house.

We had already made a list of places we wanted to visit one more time before we move, so we checked off Greenfield Village, the rocket park and Bagger Dave's.  (Bobo calls it 'Dagger Days' which I think is much more interesting.)  The painters were still painting on Tuesday so Mr. Brown and the kids met me for Mediterranean food for lunch and we checked that off as well.  It made both me and Mr. Brown feel ill even though it was so delicious when we ate it, so we are probably done with that for good.

We squeezed in family pictures on Tuesday evening (see above).  Which is good because the camera is currently broken.

The carpet guys came on Wednesday, and the photographer on Thursday.  The house was listed on Thursday afternoon, and the realtor scheduled open houses for Saturday and Sunday so we went out of town to visit our friends in Mt. Pleasant.  It was a lovely and relaxing visit for us.  I'm so glad they're moving to Charleston this summer, which isn't TOO far from Orlando so we might be able to see them again.

If you're going to check out the pictures of our house online, look fast, because the realtor came over today and went over the seven offers we received over the weekend!  Happily one of them was a really, really good offer, so we accepted it and we're hoping it works out.  Also we're hoping to get a final offer from Florida and start date soon... moving out on faith here! 

It was a lot of work to get the house ready for pictures and ready to sell, but at least it was only for a couple days.  Accepting the offer means we're off the market and so we don't have to be ready for showings at the drop of a hat.  The kids have been troopers, and Mr. Brown took them to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 since we got everything ready in time.  I feel really good about the decision to sell and really happy with the offer we accepted.  I'm looking forward to what comes next - whatever that is!

26 May 2017

We were at a friend's house and Rose Pink picked up a children's thesaurus and flipped through it.  "What's this?" she asked Mr. Brown.  He explained that it was to help you find more than one way to say something.  Our child of the large vocabulary gave the pages another spin and said, "Huh." It was clear that she could not understand why you would need something like that.

25 May 2017

Rosebud got her first haircut.  I said to Rose Pink, we need something that will distract her so thoroughly that she won't be bothered by me snipping away in the back.  Rose Pink said immediately - Baby Einstein!  All the kids wanted to watch, and sure enough, Rosebud was completely absorbed by it, and I cut her hair in back so it's the same length as the sides (she had a bit of a mullet), and I trimmed the sides so they were a little more even.  She looks like a little girl.  Sweet baby.

23 May 2017

Today the kids and I went and took the free tour of the Renaissance Center downtown.  It was okay, but I was really looking forward to getting to go up to the top and look out, and turns out that it's closed for construction.  Boo.  We did get to see a cool glass sculpture called 'Borealis' and a neato model of downtown Detroit that we wanted to spend more time looking at than we got to.  Fortunately, there was also a giant granite map of the world outside with key cities marked that was fun to run around on, followed by a picnic lunch on the river walk, and then a splashpad that I didn't know about.  So overall a successful trip!

Tonight was the last OHMI concert for Rose Pink.  Although Mr. Brown and I have been frustrated many times by how OHMI is organized, there is no doubt that Rose Pink and Nut Brown have both benefited from and enjoyed the music lessons they've received there, and we'll miss it for sure when we move.  Fortunately my parents agreed to stay to the end of the concert and bring Rose Pink and Nut Brown home afterward, which will fulfill a wish of Rose Pink's.  I just put Rosebud and Bobo in bed - they are exhausted after today.

22 May 2017

Happy birthday to me!  Mr. Brown organized a surprise party for me but then had to go out of town unexpectedly for a funeral and so sprang the surprise over the phone (I was out of town for business) three days before.  So I hosted my own surprise party.  It was very nice- my parents and the Scotts and three of my good friends from the ward came.  The kids and I bought fourteen helium balloons for me.  Nut Brown had made flowers for table decorations and Mr. Brown left two pans of lasagna and a giant green salad for dinner. Rose Pink made my birthday cake.  The balloons were a spur of the moment purchase - I just wanted some for my birthday and they were a delight to everyone. We ate in the backyard and it was so nice to be with my friends.  I would be so happy to stay here in Michigan with them.  It's really going to be a wrench to leave.  Deborah made me a pound cake and Donna Rae brought me soap.  The Scotts brought themselves and our friendship and it was so nice to be with them.

My dear children, all day, celebrated my birthday with me.  Nut Brown kept giving me hugs.  They loved the balloons so much.  Nut Brown also gave me a Lego set that he'd built himself out of the family legos.  He'd drawn out directions for it, just like the sets you get at the store.  It was priceless.  I love my family so much.  Mr. Brown wished me happy birthday every time he talked to me.  I miss him.  I will be glad when he comes home tomorrow.

12 May 2017

Rosebud is just the cutest funniest little girl.  She recently got over a lingering head cold and double ear infections, and I got so many sweet cuddles while she wasn't feeling well.  She is still cuddling the same way, where she puts her arms out and her head on my shoulder and just snuggles.  I love it.

She has added 'hat' to her very small vocabulary.

11 May 2017

Nut Brown has a shirt with a picture of a hero sandwich that says "Super" on it.  Bobo was studying it the other day.

Bobo: Why does your shirt say 'Super' on it?

Nut Brown: Because this kind of sandwich is a hero sandwich, and it says super, like super-hero!  Get it?

Bobo: (laughing) I get it!  ---pause--- Why is it called a hero sandwich?

Nut Brown:  I don't know... maybe because it saved Subway?

4 May 2017

Tonight we are getting ready for a drive back to Davenport to visit some old friends and also family.  Our Michigan birthday is May 5, 2010, and it is super funny to Mr. Brown and I that we are going to spend our Michigan birthday this year driving back to the place we came from to get here.  Hee hee hee.

Rosebud loves stuffed animals and recently grew into a pair of footie pajamas that had moose on the toes.  She was completely enamored of said pajamas and walked herself into a wall because she was so busy watching her moose feet go down the hall.

2 May 2017

Nut Brown also loves word play.  The other night during dinner preparations he said, "What do you wear on your foot that's not a sock?" We all said, half distracted, "a SHOE" and he said, "Bless you."

1 May 2017

Bobo just had a birthday and turned five!  He's so pleased to be a year older.  Camera is still out of order, so no pictures of our birthday boy and his Batman party.  Nut Brown was the party planner and he made the piñata himself, even.  There was a Batman cake, and a treasure hunt when it turned out that Joker had stolen the contents of the piñata.  It was very low-key but fun.  The low-key part was also good because we are pretty sick with a head cold at the moment and weren't up for all the guests we had invited on the day of the party.  Thankfully only half of them came.


Bobo is still working on reading - he's getting better and better and never argues with me about practicing any more.  He also just learned to play Uno and is ready to take anybody on in a game!!  This past week he learned to roller blade without holding my hand, which is excellent.  He figured it out when on a walk with me and Rosebud, when Rosebud was walking too slowly.  He loves to laugh and tell jokes, which are five-year-old jokes, which means that he's always saying, "Get it? Get it?" at the end, because he's so pleased with his own cleverness.  So often I don't actually 'get it' but I tell him I do just to enjoy his laughter.

29 March 2017

Went up to get Bobo in bed and found that there was a pillow hanging off the end of it.  I went to move it and he said, "Don't move that, Mama!  That's what makes my bed a fish."

17 March 2017

Nut Brown and Bobo are walking around the house with flyswatters, using them to flip sticky gel stars on to the walls.  Peel off and repeat.

This afternoon while I was making dinner, they sat at the kitchen table and told me about their Lego rocket ship.  Nut Brown started humming, and then singing a parody of "The Man On the Flying Trapeze" about his rocket ship - 'It flies through the air with the greatest of ease/the daring young man with the rocket ship skies/his movements are graceful; all ships he could please/but my ship he's purloined away'.  There were verses - we had a good time playing with words and ideas for the tune.  So fun!

4 March 2017

I'm slicing olives for pizza.  Bobo says, "Oh! Mama!  I love it when you cut them into circles with other circle inside it!"

3 March 2017

Video games spill over into the rest of life too, including art by the four-year-old.

 They're the reward for finishing homework, and now that the toys are pretty much all packed (waiting on that elusive Florida move) the kids are even more interested in video games.

Top image is a representation of Castle Crashers, the bottom of Terraria.  At the moment, they're really into playing Lego Marvel.

1 March 2017

Paczki Day yesterday!  We made our own and invited the Scotts over to eat them with us.  Yum!  This is a Detroit tradition we'll be taking with us when we leave.


The other day I went in to get Rosebud up from her 'nap' (she'd really been playing in her crib for an hour while I was hoping she'd go to sleep) and found her in the middle of a conversation with her stuffed chimera, Kimmy.  She was holding it in front of her and talking to it.  I said, "Hey, baby girl!" and held my hands out to get her up.  She looked at me and shook her head NO and then looked back at Kimmy.  I could see her reconsider almost immediately and she dropped Kimmy and stood up and held her arms out to be picked up, as if she had said, "No, wait, I DO want to get out of bed!"


We have child gates up on the basement door, the upstairs, and the bathroom.  When Nut Brown is coming downstairs, he routinely leaps the gate from the third step up.

28 February 2017

Nut Brown spearheaded construction of a tank in the upstairs bedroom.  They built the turret and gun, and created elaborate displays and instrumentation inside as well.  They also built a target for practice.

Then they didn't play with it much, because the fun was all in the building!

25 February 2017

We were up to see our friends the Peers in January.  They will soon be moving when they head out for internships as part of his PhD!  We will be VERY sad when we are far apart.  Our kids play so well together, and so do the adults.

Rose Pink attended YW for the first time in their ward.  Doesn't she look so grown up?

The best faces I could get from them before church on Sunday morning.  I think my kids are totally adorable.

I completely love this little oriental outfit someone gave Rosebud!  Plus it's super warm for the winter.

24 February 2017

Rosebud loves to dress up.  She drapes scarves around her head and neck, and seeks out hats and asks to have them put on.  She dug through the bottom drawer of my dresser and pulled out my silk long underwear top and slung it over her shoulders and toddled around with it for awhile.  So fun to watch her enjoy the smooth fabrics and fun patterns!


She has an annoying habit of pooping right after you lay her down for a nap, so you have to get her back up and change her diaper and then put her back in bed.  I just went in to get her, and she had her boppy over her head and around her shoulders.  Super cute!


She walks around on her knees when she can't be troubled to stand all the way up.  And she also LOVES to be underneath blankets.  Making a tent with a sibling or parent is a recipe for a long fun time.  And Rose Pink just discovered that she likes having water poured over her head in the bath.  This is a first for any of my kids.  But she laughs and chuckles and if you stop, she tries to do it to herself!

23 February 2017

Tonight, reading scripture, Mr. Brown prompted Bobo with his verse (Mosiah 29:33):

Mr. Brown: And many more things...
Bobo: and many more things
Mr. Brown: ... did king Mosiah write unto them...
Bobo: ...did king Asiah write unto them!
Mr. Brown: ... unfolding unto them all their laundry...
Bobo: all their LAUNDRY!

For the rest of the verse, he inserted 'laundry' everywhere, and laughed and laughed.  When he laughs, we all want to laugh.  So we all began adding 'laundry' through the rest of the chapter... it was so funny!  "the disadvantages of having an unrighteous king to do their laundry" and "every man should have an equal chance to do his laundry" and "cast in their voices concerning who should do the laundry" and "to judge the laundry according to the law".  Hysterical.

22 February 2017

Yesterday I was sick with a head cold very much, and Mr. Brown wasn't feeling so great either, and when we got to the end of the day, I said to Rose Pink, "I will pay you five dollars if you help Papa with the dishes," and she got up at once to help.  While they were working on it, I heard Mr. Brown say to her, "Pause helping me for a minute and clear the table - let's do a favor for your mother."  When she came to me later for scripture time/private time, she said, "Mom, you don't have to pay me the five dollars.  It was fun to be with Daddy."

Bobo cleaned the living room to get some more video game time, and I awarded him fifteen minutes.  He said, "YES!" and Nut Brown immediately asked if he could play with him.  Bobo said very adamantly, "NO" and persisted in spite of all Nut Brown's entreaties.  Then Nut Brown gave thanks for dinner, and added a request that "Bobo will enjoy his video game time" and when the prayer was over, Bobo turned to him and said, "Nut Brown, I changed my mind.  I want you to play with me!"  I said quietly, "A little kindness goes a long way."  And Nut Brown said, with a satisfied smile, "It sure does."  I'm so glad that my kids have a whole arsenal of ideas to use to get the things they want.

Tonight, I sat with Bobo at the table while he carefully wrote labels for all the parts of his Ninjago coloring page.  I spelled 'katana' and 'gold' and 'rope' and 'grass' and 'arm' and everything else he could think of.  Then Nut Brown invited him to a joint bath and that's what all the squealing and splashing from the bathroom is.