Here we go!

This week, I started two things that make me very happy: 1) my garden, and 2) guitar lessons with Erin.

My friends helped me plant a variety of lettuce and spinach seeds indoors on Thursday and the first of the lettuce sprouts popped through the surface just this afternoon. Yay!

Grand Rapids Lettuce wins first place for germination!

Now I've got them under the lights. This week has a couple of BEAUTIFUL days forecast for some outdoor soil work. I will also have to muck out the chicken coop soon *ugh* and fortify my garden beds against bunnies *UGH*. This is my 8th growing season with this backyard garden and I still haven't found a bunny fence I like.

As for guitar lessons, Erin and I are taking them together at the same time from the same teacher. This is way more fun and sustainable than private lessons for me. First, accountability. There's someone else planning on these lessons and practicing for these lessons, and it's a lot harder to skip a lesson or put off practicing when I know Erin will notice ;) Second, fun! We get to ride to and from the lessons together. Third, duets! Our teacher selected a book series that he says is "foolproof" and also happens to have 2-guitar duets every few exercises. There's just something I love about playing duets. They don't even have to be performance-worthy. I love sight reading music with someone else, especially if we're not that awesome at it, because it's just for fun. There's no pretense. And you go through it a few times and then it clicks and woo hoo! Or it fails miserably and you laugh it off and turn the page. Alice is just getting proficient enough at the piano to play this way with me and I LOVE it. Absolutely love it. It pushes all my happiness buttons. To eventually get to do this with Erin on our guitars...squeeeeeeee!

In other news, James lost a tooth! His fourth. He tucked it into an envelope and left it for the tooth fairy (which everyone in this house knows is me...we have never been believers here...when someone loses a tooth I offer them the money right then or they can get it "tooth fairy style" under their pillow). Of course I forgot. After James reminded me of my oversight this morning, I snuck into his room and made the switch. I found this in the envelope:

"Dear tooth fairy, I really want more money."

And he wanted the tooth back, too. Hm.

I climbed all the way up onto his loft bed this morning just to hang out with him for a bit. He pulled out his special black satchel and said, "This is my Murder Kit. You're not allowed to look in here." I could clearly see a foam pirate sword sticking out the side zipper. Them Matthew chimed in, "And don't look in that metal box by my bed. That's my Murder Kit. In case we have to murder someone." James told him to hush or he'd give away too much information. I asked Matthew who they would possibly need to murder. He shrugged and clicked his tongue, "It's just in case."

I was "dying" to know what else they thought they would need in their Murder Kits, but that was the end of the discussion. No, wait. A little later, James pulled out a wad of dollar bills rolled together into a tight tube and secured with a rubber band.

Hush money? Getaway funds?

What does the world look like through James' eyes?

Robert's world is clearly tainted green with black seeds:

Kiwi!

The Boys

Sometimes I casually refer to the male children in our family as "the boys". One male child finds this grouping a little insulting, and insists that "the boys" should mean James and Matthew exclusively. I haven't decided where I stand on the issue, though I certainly understand both sides.

Matthew was a little droopy after preschool yesterday. I could tell it was going to be a napping sort of quiet time, but only if I nudged it along. Napping quiet times are blissful for the both of us. So, I decided we had a couple long errands to run and ta-daaaaaaa!

Sometimes I get my wish.

Yes, that is Matthew in a swim suit and winter coat. He managed to find a sleeping position that doesn't flop him around at every turn and stop light. Hooray for semi-conscious physics!

And then there is James. I am 9 whole hours behind on my goal to spend 40 hours of one-on-one time with him. As a middle child, it's hard to get him all by himself. He's either clumped into whatever Matthew is doing, or clumped into whatever Robert and Alice are doing. We will be taking an outing to the Indianapolis Zoo in a couple weeks, and I may have a camp out in the backyard with him soon.

He's a different kid all by himself than he is with his siblings around. I totally, totally get that. Did you know that his teacher gave him a 4 for social-emotional learning this last quarter? That means he's performing above and beyond grade level expectations for sharing, conflict resolution, managing frustration, expressing himself, and being a good citizen in class. My James? Really?! That tells me a lot about him. It demonstrates that he is completely and totally aware of the people around him, their hot buttons, their moods, and everyone's expectations of him in those situations.

I love, love, love that he's socially aware and capable of acting appropriately. I can work with that. It's only a matter of teaching/practicing self-control from here on out. Whew.

Listening in from the outside as we wait for Alice at the skating rink.

Robert is all about video games right now. He plays "educational" games at school and during his screen time at home. He's an avid reader, too, and really into the Percy Jackson series. I'm completely in love with his developing sense of humor. Personality-wise, he's an interesting conglomeration of rational, proactive logic and unfiltered outbursts of raw emotion. Alice was a little like that at this age.

Peeking out of his block fort

Bobby at 40

I can't let Bobby's 40th birthday pass without notice. He's downplayed it a bit, as he usually does with his birthday, but I find turning 40 pretty darn monumental! And I wanted to mark it with at least 40 memories and pictures that I have of Bobby. Please note, I've only known him for 22 of his 40 years on this planet. Feel free to add any of your own memories in the comments section :)

1. When I first met Bobby, I noticed he wore his watch on his right hand. That's one of the first signs of a lefty. But lo and behold, he was a RIGHTY who just happened to prefer wearing his watch on his right hand. Waaaaaay more interesting and rare.

2. On one of our first Sundays in Illinois, our old school bishop was announcing new callings over the pulpit for the congregation to sustain. He asked that "Sister Bobby Evans" stand to be sustained as a primary teacher, then got a little shock when a goateed Bobby (clearly male) stood up.

3. 

4. On our wedding day, as we walked out of the temple to join our families for pictures, Bobby totally reached over and pinched my bum. Dude!

5.

6. On his mission, he wrote me a couple letters on Pinky and the Brain stationary.

7.

8.Wrestling the kids in the living room. They invented a game called "Kids Go on the Couch".

9.

10.

11. Early on in our marriage I learned one thing right away about Bobby: If I attempt to annoy or pester or tickle or tease him in any way, he immediately does it right back to me...grrrrrrr. Infuriating, that one.

12.

13. One afternoon, long before having kids, we ended up with food poisoning from a Mexican food restaurant. The two of us took turns with the one toilet in our apartment. My turn. Your turn. My turn again! Your turn again.

14. Hearing him raz his siblings.

15.

16. We packed up our apartment to move to Illinois. My parents drove the truck hauling the U-Haul and Bobby and I drove in our little car. That first afternoon/evening, Bobby got feverish and sweaty and pale and sick. We stopped at a motel for the night (right next to some very busy train tracks), and he was perfectly fine the next morning.

17.

18. Losing to him again and again at games. I swore off playing with him ever again. (I have since learned to lose more graciously, but I'm still too competitive to have fun playing against Bobby).

19. We used to spend hours and hours every week lying together on the couch, watching Wheel of Fortune and The Simpsons.

20.

21. Watching him step up and take over when I've hit my limit. I've seen this again and again and again.

22. The way his long hair used to drape over his face when he looked down at something. *swoon*

23.

24. Daddy-itis/(Bobby-itis): the inability to find something you're looking for when it's right in front of your face. We don't presume other daddies suffer from this ailment, but the daddy at our house certainly does. There is a Mommy-itis (Susan-itis), too. We're on the watch for early signs of Alice-itis, Robert-itis, James-itis, and Matthew-itis.

25.

26. Bobby taught me how to eat (and appreciate) a fresh mango. Mmmmmmm.

27.

28. If I approach him with a concern or problem, his first response will be "Did you pray about it?"

29.

30. One night, one of our kids was so croupy and struggling to breathe that we decided a trip to the emergency room was necessary. I stayed home to care for a baby and Bobby went to the ER because I couldn't bear the thought of my child suffocating to death in the car right next to me.

31.

32. He smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving one year. Like he cooked it that way. He didn't consume it that way.

33. The devilish look on his face when I dared him to propose to me. I didn't think he was ready, but man, I was SO wrong.

34. Singing out loud together to Nirvana Unplugged in the Acura Integra.

35.

36. He hates the digging hole in our backyard.

37. When Alice was a few months old, Bobby got the news that his employer would be shutting down the site completely and he would be out of the job in a couple months. He walked the entire 4 miles home and I could see the weight of his news before I heard what had happened. He wasn't angry. He wasn't upset at all, actually. He was all quiet resolve. In the two weeks that followed, I saw him carry this enormous weight as he researched, indexed, and applied for jobs all over the country. I had never seen anyone so burdened and so determined before...and I haven't seen it since.

38.

39. He was holding Alice a few minutes after she was born and said I needed to hold her again. I take her from his arms and he promptly faints to the floor. It had been a long, stressful, exhausting sort of experience.

40. Once, before we were dating or married, we celebrated his birthday by playing Atari games and eating rainbow sherbet ice cream.

41. There was a toddler who thought Bobby was the best fun in all the world. He would invite Bobby to dinner and to come over and play. That was before we had our own kids and lost all our fun ;) 

42. He could play the first few lines of "Blackbird" on his acoustic guitar.

43. When we moved into our current house, the curtains were straight out of the 70's and very hideous. I asked him if they bothered him. He said, "They're ugly as all get out, but they work just fine and I don't really care what they look like if they work."

44. He's chosen strawberry pie for his birthday dessert every year that I can remember.

45. He no longer has an appendix.

Chicago

Susan said she would let me do the travelog for our Chicago trip, so here it is...  (Yes, that is a reference to Susan's post). Susan hates Chicago, and really all big cities generally.  I think it all stems from an incident years ago when she was caught off guard by paying $50 a night to park at a hotel and then having to tip the people that parked it, along with some other trauma.  So that means we have not gone there very much.  We have gone on a few occasions, but it is mostly by train and just a day trip, which avoids hotels and parking entirely.  My hang up has mostly been kids.  Road trips, even short ones, with small kids is painful and close to impossible without a second adult to handle the constant needs of the kids.  I had wanted to take the kids to some of the great museums up there for a while and decided that we needed something to do while Susan was out of town, because bored kids sitting around the house is just as painful as bored kids sitting in a car, but just slightly less likely to cause an accident.

This time the trip up and back was actually really pleasant.  Alice and Robert are old enough to take on some of the responsibility for the younger kids' needs and Matthew is finally old enough to enjoy a book on tape for more than a few mins.  In the past, there was a constant battle between James wanting stories and Matthew wanting music (wheels on the bus like music).  Which as you may guess also made it difficult for the older kids wanting to read or listen to their own stories.  So the day before the trip we went to the library and got books on tape, actually play-aways which are MP3 players for a single book.  Each of the kids got to pick out some that they wanted, including plenty of Captin Underpants and Timmy Failure.  After that, we went to the store and picked out snacks, which will not be named because of Susan's request to not know what the kids ate while on vacation.  Alice was in charge of snacks for the kids and Robert was in charge of entertainment (mostly making sure that everyone had headphones, and appropriate volume, and fresh batteries).  It worked out great for the 2 hours up there.  For the ride back the next day Matthew slept the entire way which avoided some issues there too.

Day 1: Field Museum

When we first get there we find parking right across the street at Soldier Field.  We walk in, flash our tickets and the kids see this.



a giant dinosaur.  They are amazed by it and before we can go upstairs there is a docent there with a real sabertooth tiger skull that the kids can touch if they are gentle with it.

I like how they can mix in learning with the excitement.  Alice, Robert and I, using English and the Spanish Alice learned in school, we were able to decipher the name of the cat (Smilodon Fatalis) which the kids got a kick out of.

We went upstairs, saw the Pacific Islands exhibit because that is what is at the top of the stairs.  It was interesting, but the kids got bored with it before we finished the loop so there are not that many pictures.



After that, we got to see more dinosaurs and mummies, which is what most of the day turned out to me. I am not going to divide it up too much.













Rocks that helped the dino digest its food. The kids liked seeing the parallels without chickens.


James was really impressed by the size of this fish.













Getting ready for the 3D movie about Egypt.



I didn't take as many pictures of the mummies, but the kids really liked them (not just the Egyptian ones, but from all over).

We also got shrunk down really small to explore some dirt.




We also went to lunch and got some souvenirs, but are not really worth showing.  Neither is us hanging out at the Hotel relaxing after the long day. Suffice it to say that our afternoon was mostly uneventful.

Day 2: Shedd Aquarium

The next day we went back, but this time turned more towards the right after leaving the parking garage and went to the Shedd Aquarium.

Upstairs is a typical aquarium and Matthew got really bored after just a few of them, but we persisted for a while.



















Finally, we drove home...



Overall it was a really good experience and I would love to do it again with my awsome kids.  Just wish we could get Susan to go with us next time.  Perhaps we could try something different next time.

Alice is 12!

It finally happened, ladies and gentlemen, Alice is officially 12 years old. It's too bad she won't let me take any normal pictures of her...

Monday Night Fun with upside-down mouth people.

Prepping her own birthday dessert (strawberry pie) for her own birthday dinner party with her own friends. Dude. That was one of the easiest and most satisfying birthday parties I have ever witnessed. She can do that EVERY year, if she wants.

Pizza Balls and Pizza Braid

"I am smiling"

I really, really need help with selfies *sigh*, but this captures her real smile for a moment.

I didn't intend for this to be a butt shot, but, well, sorry. The weather was AMAZING today so we rode our bikes to a birthday party about 4 miles away on less than friendly roads. She did great! She's a tough little lady.

I love this girl. Love her! She's my Alice. The kid who first made me a mom. The baby who ate, slept and grew by the book (her pooping behavior was less than conventional, but I digress). The toddler who decided one day she was done with diapers and potty trained herself. The preschooler who wore three dresses a day and tights on her head and ate tomatoes nonstop from the garden all summer. The kid who found school to be the highlight of her day. She makes me look like a good parent, but I swear she came pre-programmed with empathy, joy, love, confidence, intelligence, intuition, and maturity beyond her age. She's taught me about love and courage. She's a radiant example to me of integrity and moral strength. She shows me how to bring people together. How to let go of the things I cannot control. How to enjoy the moment I'm in right now.

I just marvel as she does her thing. Twelve years strong.

Happy Birthday, Girlie.