28 November 2022

Bobo has really taken an interest over the past few months in perler beads - the plastic beads that you melt with an iron to stick together.  He both follows patterns and freestyles, and sometimes he sells the things he makes to kids at school.

10 November 2022

Rosebud is home from school today because of a fever and cough.  We let a bunch of flies in the house last night with going in and out during a cookout (first of the season), and she is running around downstairs with a fly swatter.  I'm upstairs at my desk and I keep hearing WHAP! "Did I get it?"  She is so pleased with herself when she does manage to smack one.  So far she's killed two.

5 November 2022

 Halloween! Our favorite holiday! This year Mr. Brown orchestrated family costumes for the first time ever. We did Alice in Wonderland. Rosebud was Alice, and I was Big Alice (already drank the potion), Rose Pink was the Queen of Hearts, Nut Brown was the White Knight, Bobo was a card soldier, and Mr. Brown was the Hatter! It was a lot of work but it was also really, really fun. Our friend Dani helped out by lending us her Queen of Hearts costume and helping with the White Knight helmet. Mr. Brown made his hat and the White Knight helmet. I made Bobo's cards. It was work down to the last minute and we were really tired afterwards. But we learned a lot and are already planning for next year!

We wore the costumes to the school fall festival (which was a bust this year because they held it inside because of the weather) and to the church Halloween party (which the kids enjoyed but not so much Mr. Brown and I - we put a lot of work into it as members of the Activities Committee).

I was so worn out after all of it that I didn't want to go trick-or-treating, which is my favorite part of Halloween! I had decided to go but to do it in a car and have the kids hop in and out. This distressed Rose Pink so much that she actually started to cry, so I gave in and we walked like we usually do. It was a perfect night for it, and we had a wonderful time! Our neighbors were generous and there were lots of people out and about enjoying the evening and the surge of generosity that is Halloween night. After 30 minutes, I texted Mr. Brown and told him, "You were right." We had so much fun!

Pumpkin carving really only happened for Nut Brown and Rose Pink. Rosebud took hers to school, and Bobo declined to carve his. Rose Pink saw a giant pumpkin for sale for only $20 that she had to have, so she bought it. She also picked one out for Nut Brown that was almost as big as hers.

Final result:

Final FINAL result:

16 October 2022

Sunday afternoon activity at our house.... Reading. 😊

15 October 2022

As part of our Halloween celebrations, we went to the floating pumpkin patch at the Leander city pool.  Rosebud and Bobo went with two of Bobo's friends.  The weather was warm enough that all the kids jumped in to swim after their pumpkins.

Afterward they painted their pumpkins and then posed for pictures.  Rosebud made hers into a Junie B. Jones pumpkin so she could take it into school for the book character pumpkin patch in the school library.  Bobo turned his on its side and decided to make a star-nosed mole.

 

2 September 2022

Nut Brown earned his first belt stripe in jiujitsu!  (he's the one on the right who is checking out the new stripe on his belt) You have to earn four to advance to the next belt.  This happened sooner than either he or Mr. Brown expected, and we are very proud of him!

30 August 2022

For our twentieth anniversary this year, we wanted to go back to where it all started....

We decided to go back up to Oklahoma and see some of the places that we spent so much time when we were falling in love.  Since we celebrate our anniversaries as "family birthdays", the whole family went!

First stop on the drive up: Buc-ee's, which is the greatest travel center ever invented!

We stayed in a vacation rental that was really close to all the places we wanted to visit.  That night Nut Brown and Bobo and Rosebud gave the rest of us foot massages!

The next day we started with the zoo.  The Oklahoma City Zoo is one of the best zoos we've ever visited.  We went early in the morning to get the best time in before it got too hot.  We had a wonderful time and took pictures with all the statues around the zoo.

The lions were kind enough to go to sleep in the heat next to the window:

Rose Pink and Nut Brown rode the camel at a very slow pace:

And we fed the rays!

Then some of us rode the carousel

and then we discovered that Mr. Brown's wallet was missing!  Momentary panic until the carousel attendant helpfully called around and reassured us that it was in the lost and found and no harm done.  Relief!

That night we marked our family birthday with dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant ever in Norman.  The proprietor remembered us from the last time we were there when Rose Pink was maybe three years old!  And the food was still amazing!

The next day we started with the bone museum... the Museum of Osteology.  I've been looking forward to this ever since we planned the trip, and it did not disappoint.  

Eventually Bobo told me that he was a little creeped out by all the empty eye sockets, and Rosebud told me she was afraid the upper balcony would collapse, so we wound things up and went to meet Gia and Aunt Joellen and her kids at the skating rink!

Bobo got along great with his cousin Joseph who's the same age.  We went to Joellen's for dinner and had a good time playing video games (Bobo and Nut Brown), looking at cookbooks (Rose Pink) and talking with Joellen and Gia (me and Mr. Brown).

The next morning we checked out of the rental house and went thrifting at one of our favorite OKC thrift stores.  

It was not as awesome as it used to be. :(  We did have a couple of good finds.  Then we drove down to Dallas to stay with our friends the Atchleys for a couple days!

Good times ensued.  Mr. Brown and BJ's birthdays are very close, so there was a joint celebration with cupcakes.  They also rented a slip and slide bouncy castle for Saturday morning, and we went to the national video game museum in the afternoon.

At this point we were pretty much worn out, so we left Saturday evening instead of Sunday.  It was really nice to get home to our own beds.  We slept really well that night!

It was a good trip, and good to go do some fun things together.  Happy twentieth birthday to our family!

29 August 2022

One of the most joyful things about my life is that I have to clean up piles of books left all over the living room all the time. At any given time we have at least 30 books out from the library and they are always being read and left out.  I love living with other readers!

This summer I paid Bobo for every book he read that I chose.  He read a lot of Newberry Medalists and Honor books, and I liked talking about them with him.  Some he liked better than others.  Some were boring.

Rosebud learned to read this summer and she prefers graphic novels to picture books.  We packed away all the picture books that we have read and treasured with our kids.  So I have been reading her an assortment of graphic novels and helping her practice reading with early reader books.

Rose Pink reads avidly whatever she wants, usually YA books of some sort.  She also reads books on her phone.  Nut Brown mostly reads D&D rulebooks, and not much else.  I love that we have books all over the house and that we go to the library at least once a week!

27 August 2022

The other night Rosebud and I were going to the store (she and I are buddies and go everywhere together) and I had the window down and my arm out the window, and I saw in the side mirror her little hand hanging out the window too, just like Mom.  I love her so much!

We went to the store to get ice cream to celebrate "Fri-yay!" which is how we mark getting to the end of the week.  On our way home I said, "We should get french fries too!" and she said, "Yes, because that would really make it Fry-day!" which I hadn't even thought of.

24 August 2022

Towards the end of August, we had a surprise birthday party for Mr. Brown!  He has always wanted one and I successfully organized one for him this year.  It was just our family but it was a surprise and he was so happy. :)

The kids all got gifts for him.  Nut Brown bought some ginger beer and wanted to sneak it in through his bedroom window.

Then there was the party!  There was food and drink and cake and more gifts from all his children. And me.  It was a lot of fun to celebrate him, and to work on this with the kids!