29 April 2023

Rosebud and I went to help a friend of mine who is starting a "flower farm".  We planted about eighty plants together this afternoon.  It was a lot of work but I really enjoyed working with her! Turns out she knows a lot about how to transplant purchased plants into the ground.  Maybe we can go back sometime and help again.

27 April 2023

Bobo turned eleven!  Rose Pink made him a Minecraft grass block birthday cake. He was so happy all day!  Mr. Brown sent a birthday box for him, too, and he really enjoyed painting the dragon in it.

 

24 April 2023

Happy Earth Day!  Rosebud brought home this drawing of the earth and sun giving each other high five.  And Bobo is very proud of this rabbit drawing.

 

22 April 2023

Rose Pink arrived in Maryland! We closed on our house on Wednesday and she arrived on Thursday.  On Saturday we were at the DMV getting licenses and titles in order, and she put the license plates on her new car.

She is super happy to have her own car now!  She bought it from the lady who sold us her house.  It's a 2010 Chevy Malibu with 92K miles on it, with a sun roof and leather seats.  She's really enjoying the additional independence, although driving it has been a bit of an adjustment since it's bigger than our Hyundai.

21 April 2023

The elementary school PTA held a "Night At The Museum" science/history fair.  Rosebud really wanted to participate and she chose frogs.  We read a lot of books, and she chose facts to put on her board.  She and I worked on it together, and we played a recording of frog sounds at her display.

Her teacher came to see the exhibits her class had prepared, and she gave certificates to the participants.  Rosebud is very fond of her teacher.

It was also the night for student art displays.  Here are Bobo's ceramic snails:

and Rosebud's watercolor turtle:

It was really fun to work on this project with her, although it took longer than I thought and we were scrambling at the last minute.  Rosebud was happy to have completed the project.  And Bobo was so pleased at the pride of place his snails had.

16 April 2023

On our drive out to Maryland, Rosebud asked why there was a large space at the edge of the road that we didn't drive on.  I told her it was called the "shoulder" and why roads have shoulder.  She nodded understandingly and since then has continually referenced it as the "elbow of the road".  I've corrected her a couple times but it hasn't gotten fixed in her brain yet.

The other day we were talking about houses, since we have just bought a house here to live in.  I asked her what her dream house was like.  She said, "I don't know, Mom, I have pretty weird dreams for a kid.  ... oh, wait, did you mean what would be in my house if I could have anything I wanted?"

Love this little girl.

14 April 2023

Just back from a spring break visit to Texas to see Mr. Brown and Nut Brown and Rose Pink!  It coincided with Easter, and we had our friends the Weeks over to celebrate with confetti eggs.

   

Good times!

It was also the weekend of Rose Pink's last concert with MCO.  This time it was in a proper venue, and the performance was amazing.  I'm so sad to be leaving this behind in Austin.  I wish they had something in Baltimore.  The theme for the concert was "I'm So Blessed" and the music was phenomenal.

 

18 March 2023

This weekend the kids and I did some minor hiking (~2 miles) in Gunpowder Falls State Park.  It was along a creek, and it was beautiful.  There was an old stone wall at one point, and a ruined stone farmhouse.  

22 March 2023

We played hooky yesterday and went down to DC to see the cherry blossoms.  It was beautiful! We walked over to the Jefferson Memorial, which was also lovely.  We also spent some time in the Museum of Natural History again, mostly looking at gems, rocks and minerals.  So many amazing things to see.

14 March 2023

 Happy Pi Day!  We had pita pizzas for dinner followed by key lime pie.

8 March 2023

Mr. Brown's older sister invited us down for a visit.  They live in Silver Spring, just outside of DC.  We drove down and rode the subway into DC and visited the Postal Service Museum, which was really fun!  History of mail carrying through the years, an opportunity to sort packages, drive a semi, ride in a mail carriage on a train, learn to type in zip codes, and of course lots of stamps.

The subway was very popular.  The cousins were blase but my kids thought it was pretty cool.  Cousins were very much fun - a girl the same age as Bobo and a boy the same age as Rosebud.
 

Here are Bobo and his cousin with the stamp design they made themselves.  Fun visit - I'm so glad that she invited us.  Hoping to get together again sometime.

6 March 2023

Not everything here has been smooth sailing regarding kid relationships.  At one point Bobo told me that he and E (their 7yo daughter) were bonding over troubles with Rosebud.  However, Bobo has become really good friends with EJ (their 3yo son).  EJ thinks he's wonderful and fun, and Bobo has discovered how much fun it can be to big brother a much younger child.  He chases EJ around and threatens to tickle him and plays games with him.  He came in the other night and very proudly told me that he had helped get EJ ready for bed.  My friend is already planning to hire him as a baby sitter when he turns 13.

News from Texas: Nut Brown was dropped on his head during jiujitsu class and sustained a bad concussion.  He's been banned from screens for almost two weeks now and out of school.  It is getting better, but slowly, and he's very bored but also worried about making up all the school work.  We have been praying for him.

3 March 2023

Bobo has been learning how to sew from a woman at church.  The first project was a pillowcase - he chose black and gray.  Although he complains about going, he was extremely proud of his pillowcase when completed.  Here he is showing it off by wearing it on his head.  The next project is pajama pants!

24 February 2023

 

The elementary school PTA held a Valentine's dance for the kids.  Rosebud was really excited to go, and she chose her dress with care.  She was pretty stoked as we walked in, but the music was so loud and the kids were doing less dancing than just running around screaming that it was really overwhelming for her.  So we went and had a snack, and then back to the gym.  They played some game with hula hoops that she didn't get a chance at, and then she stood in line to do the limbo but so many kids cut in front of her that she didn't actually get up to the bar.  After that, we decided to call it a night and go home.

21 February 2023

 

We made our first venture to DC on Presidents' Day! The kids were excited to go to the natural history museum.  Bobo in particular was in awe of all the monuments and museums that we passed.  He kept saying, "I can't believe we're really here!"

The natural history museum was a little crowded but way cool!  We toured it in a very ADHD fashion, looking at exhibits until we got tired of them and then running off to see something else.  I think Bobo's favorite thing was the giant megalodon model.  We also looked at the Hope Diamond, ancient Egyptian artifacts, ocean stuff and bugs.  The kids were done after a couple hours, so we ate lunch and went home.  It was really neat, and one of the best things is that we can go back whenever we want to see the rest of it!

18 February 2023

 

Rosebud was assigned to make a diorama of dolphins for presentation during her class's "learning day". She wanted to make one that showed the dolphins feeding from a school of fish, so she made a school of fish on a circle of cardstock using flecks of aluminum foil, and two dolphins.  She painted the shoe box and we hung the three items from the top using thread.  She put them all very close to the top, and when I commented that it made them hard to see from the front, she reminded me that this is how it actually works - the dolphins herd the fish towards the surface of the ocean before feeding.

Parents were invited to come to school and view the diorama and ask questions (the kids were prepared with notes on note cards to answer questions), and then we got to do a math activity with our kids.  I was not expecting too much but it was really, really fun to see how excited the kids were to share what they had learned.  Rosebud and I had a really great time doing the math activity together as well.  It was so fun to see what her class is like and spend some time with her at school.

14 February 2023

Mr. Brown and Rose Pink sent us a Valentine's Day package!  There was a bunch of candy and some Valentine's Day toys.  It was so fun to receive.  We felt very loved.

 

That morning, we had the web of yarn all over the house leading to a box of chocolates.  The web was exceptionally large and tangled this year because I did it for all the kids in the house, not just mine.  Then we had pink heart pancakes for breakfast with a box of conversation hearts (their family tradition).

Rosebud was excited to make valentines for her class, but Bobo was not so enthusiastic.  He was worried about making the wrong kind of valentines and the other kids thinking they were stupid.  In the end, I made some up for him that referenced Star Wars and included glow sticks, and sent them to school with him with instructions to bring them home if he decided not to give them out.  He came home very happy and told me that he had given them out, and that the other kids thought they were cool!

10 February 2023

Rosebud dressed as her favorite character from a book for school and chose a kitten named Chi. The cuteness is sometimes just overwhelming!

 

6 February 2023

For Hedgehog Day this year, we actually had a hedgehog guest!  Our friends have a friend who has a pet hedgehog, and we invited them over to celebrate with us!

 

3 February 2023

When we were first contemplating moving across the country, one day while driving to the library it got really quiet in the back seat. I looked back and found this scene.  "What are you doing?" I asked.  "We're practicing sleeping," they said.  "For when we have to drive to our new house across the country."