30 April 2022

This morning, at the donut shop, D requests a chocolate eclair and then asks, "Why do they call it 'barbarian cream'?"

28 April 2022

Rosebud is a non-stop producer of wonderful artwork, including painting, crayon drawings, lettered posters and school work.  I told her that she was limited to putting up four items at a time on the refrigerator, which made her very sad.  Fortunately for her happiness, she figured out that there are more magnetic surfaces in the house and now we have artwork attached to the metal shelving in the kitchen and on the back of the front door.

25 April 2022

General Conference weekend, Rose Pink took Bobo and Rosebud to the playground between sessions.  

Also we got the stomach flu that weekend and Rosebud was home from school for three days.  Mr. Brown was sick too, and Nut Brown came down with it on Wednesday.  Here is Rosebud keeping me company on one of her days home.

She is making a doll wearing traditional clothes of her ancestors for Diversity Week at school.  I offered her Scandinavian or European Jewish (since I'm 45% Scandinavian and 23% European Jewish) and she opted for European Jew, so the doll is wearing a long dress and a headscarf.

21 April 2022

 

Rose Pink's spring choir concert was the second weekend in April.  They had rehearsal on Friday afternoon, and then dress rehearsal and two performances on Saturday afternoon.  We crashed at friends' house Friday night and then headed back for more on Saturday.  

Here's the entire high school women's choir (with one photo-bomber boy in the back).  There are five choirs in the concert (kids, middle school, high school women, high school men, and adults).  She was in most of the numbers but there were a few that were just the adults, or just the adults and the kids.

Moms are asked to volunteer backstage and I was assigned to the high school sopranos to run the walkie-talkie for that group.  We practiced being all the places we had to be on Friday afternoon (stage right!  balcony! lobby between numbers! back to the balcony!)  There was a lot of waiting around.

I worked the 5:00 show and then attended the 8:00 show.  It was pretty great!

(she was up in the balcony for most of the show)

I was worried about the music being performed in a way that would manipulate me into crying, because I would have completely fallen apart after being away from home and being so tired.  But my antidepressant medication squashed all that!  I could tell all the places where I was supposed to be moved but the medication was like, Nope! No emotions for you! so that was great.  At the end of the concert, as they finished singing Be Still My Soul, I could still feel the Spirit, which was wonderful - a very clear sense of peace and calm in response to the musical prayers that were offered in the concert.  And it was that much clearer because my emotions were suppressed.  I'm so grateful for that gift.

I really admire this choir and the directors.  I'm really glad Rose Pink gets to participate in it.

21 April 2022

 On Good Friday we went for a long drive (4 hrs) to look at Texas wildflowers.  In Burnet we found the largest bluebonnet we've ever seen.

Overall the drive was something of a disappointment.  We saw a lot of flowers on the side of the road around Llano and between Llano and Burnet, but there were not as many as we expected, and the second half of the drive was pretty much barren.

When we got home, Rosebud wanted to go to a park, so she and I went to Brushy Creek Park and discovered the field of bluebonnets that we had looked for everywhere else that morning.  It was beautiful, and you could smell the bluebonnets.  Next year we will just visit the park and save ourselves the drive!

Here is Rosebud on top of the dam in the park.  The flowers are in the meadow on the shore of the lake in the distance.  She and I walked across the dam to check on another wild patch on the other side and see if there were more wildflowers there.  Alas, nothing.

Another cookout- the weather has been wonderfully mild for late April, and we have taken advantage of it.  Mr. Brown got the grill rack out of the garage and we have made hamburgers as well as hot dogs.  I love having fires in the back yard.

19 April 2022

A few things from around the day-to-day.

Rosebud loves to color.  Here she is working with Sharpie markers on the pictures on the inside of the pullup box.  She is trustworthy with permanent markers!

On Saturday morning, if kids get their chores done, they get donuts.  Here we are heading home from the donut shop.  It's within walking distance!  They know us there, and they know that my kids ask for different fillings in the eclairs besides custard cream.  Bobo's favorite is lemon filling in a maple eclair.

Rosebud and Bobo washing the car.  It was definitely cleaner when they were done, and they were all wet!

A photo of Bobo.  He doesn't like having his picture taken so I often end up with sideshots.  This time I got his whole face.  Sure love this kid.

Rosebud and I experimenting with squeezing orange oil from orange skins into a candle flame, something I learned from my dad.  Super fun, and she was amazed.

12 April 2022

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit at the end of spring break!  Rosebud and Bobo and I went to stay in a guest house with them (in the same town where we live) and Rose Pink and Nut Brown popped in and out for the weekend as busy teenagers.

Bobo wanted to make leprechaun pots of gold for the ward St. Patrick's Day potluck. (white chocolate truffles dyed green)  Here we are putting the final touches on - gold sprinkles.

Sunday afternoon we went to one of the new parks in town.  The weather was lovely.  Here we are playing foosball...

and retrieving a Frisbee that went in the water.

Unfortunately laying on the ground gave Nut Brown an allergic reaction on his legs so our outing was cut short so we could take him home to get some Benedryl.

Grandma and Bobo playing with balance to make a hanger sculpture.

Grandpa and Rosebud working with melty beads.  This was a pretty popular activity for the weekend.  Lots of creations made.  Grandpa made the front end of his Dodge van out of melty beads!

Grandma and Bobo playing games together.  They both like puzzle games, and this game is one where you have to use a fixed set of pieces to build a path for marbles to roll on in a certain order.

We had a tea party for breakfast.  Here is Rosebud putting her tea set away after it was washed.

We went to an art gallery/museum called Wonderspaces in north Austin.  It was amazing!  It was so cool!  We all enjoyed it.  (Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for making it possible for us to go!)

Nut Brown meditating in the giant tent made out of plastic grocery sacks.

A hanging matrix of LEDs that shifted their lighting periodically - mind boggling.

Painting with our bodies.  This was the favorite of the kids.

There were many more exhibits, including spinning 3D-printed flowers, a virtual reality boat trip, a sewing machine orchestra (scariest sewing machines we've ever seen), and a piece that was ten foot vertical strings strung on a wooden frame that really messed with your sense of perspective.  After that one, Nut Brown said, "We need to leave before my brain breaks."  We really had a good time exploring the whole place.

Also, last note, the house across the street had a tiny free library shaped like a TARDIS, and Bobo was immediately on it, and read several books from it over the weekend.

14 March 2022

We had a fire pit night last week in the backyard with some friends that Bobo decided at the last minute that we should invite over.  They were available, and he was so excited that he made this sign to put on the front door so they would know to come straight into the backyard.

We had a good time together.  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and ate chips and potato salad and talked and laughed together.  Nut Brown built the fire and it worked very well.  Mr. Brown has scheduled fire pits every other week so that we get to enjoy a bunch of them before it gets so hot we don't want to be outside any more.

12 March 2022

Some more treasures from Rosebud.  So impressed with her interest in writing.

9 March 2022

Rose Pink has started working at Sonic!  She carhops, takes orders, and makes drinks.  We are so proud of her!  She is learning lots of skills, and not just the ingredients of cherry limeade.  We also enjoy her stories about malfunctioning machinery and funny orders that people place!

27 February 2022

Mr. Brown made cottage pie (shepherd's pie) for dinner the other night, the same day that we read about Esau selling his birthright for pottage in Genesis.  At dinner, Mr. Brown suggested that maybe a filling of lentils for the cottage pie would be an interesting experiment, and Rose Pink said, "That would make it pottage pie!"  Our kids are so funny!

25 February 2022

Bobo: What's for dinner?

Mr. Brown: Slugs.

Bobo: Again?

24 February 2022

I love how Rosebud has just decided that now she can write, and she does.  On this piece of paper she is listing our family's names.  She writes all the time, and is not afraid to attempt spelling.

The boys came down dressed the same (blue shirt, black pants) on Monday morning, and sat down to play video games together.  Twinkies!

23 February 2022

Nut Brown brought this drawing of an elbow that he did home to me last week.  White colored pencil on black paper.

17 February 2022

Bobo built a Minecraft sword out of sugar cubes.  Here he is pretending to lift it off the table.

15 February 2022

Valentine's Day is not a day of extraordinary celebration at our house, but with two elementary school kids there was a bit more preparation for it.  Both of them had to make a Valentine's box and bring valentines for their classmates.

Rosebud took a shoebox that Rose Pink decorated for her, and she opted for folded boxes with a couple pieces of candy inside.  (she used some of her Halloween candy and then I gave her some leftover Christmas candy for the rest)  She decorated the boxes, and I cut them out and creased the folds, and then she filled them and folded them up.  She was very pleased that she could do that by herself.

Bobo also made up valentines for his class (all 25 members - such a big class!)  He chose a hedgehog stamp and incorporated three of his favorite things: Minecraft, Star Wars and sharing information with others.

He was lukewarm about making a box, so Mr. Brown and I made a paper mache volcano for him.  Rose Pink helped with the painting and the clouds. 

He said it was the best one in the class.

Our ward had a family dance for Valentine's Day on the previous Saturday.  Here is Rose Pink competing in the limbo contest (in three-inch heels!).  She was one of the last contestants, too!  I wish I had gotten a better picture of her in her dress.  She was wearing a formal with silver heels and she looked fantastic.

Here is Rosebud helping blow up balloons ahead of time to help decorate.

On Valentine's Day morning, the kids woke up to yarn trails that led from their bedside to a small heart box of chocolates.  The yarn goes all over the house.  I love strewing it all over the night before.  They ate those for breakfast, and then we hurried out the door for elementary school with Valentine's boxes and bags of cards and forgot Rosebud's backpack.  For dinner, Mr. Brown made borsch (because it is valentine's colors) and heart-shaped chicken nuggets.  Happy day of love!

10 February 2022

Bobo is doing a poetry unit at school and he brought home the following:

For one of the acronym poems he wrote that he was "Annoying" and when I asked him about it, he said that's what people always told him at school.  He is not having as much fun at school this year as he did last year.