Gavin's New Hobby

It's a good thing Dan doesn't look at the blog very often, he's not terribly happy with Gavin's new hobby.

The kids were upstairs playing this morning while I was doing my workout. Gavin came up with this outfit on his own. Isn't he stunning?

Happy Birthday, Joleen!

I took some words
from my heart today
letting the ink fill out
the letters on my card.
Six simple words appeared,

I love you.
I miss you.

I wondered whether to speak
of laughter or of tears,
to speak of hopes or of dreams,
and came to this.

I love you.
I miss you.

And now I send them skyward
attached to a balloon,
lifting effortlessly
to meet the clouds,
and I think of you.

I love you.
I miss you.

Happy Birthday, Joleen!

Happy Valentine's Day

First I have to apologize for neglecting the blog for a few weeks. Dan has been out of town and I haven't had a moment to have a quiet thought, let alone update the blog.

I sequestered the kids yesterday morning to take a few photos. I ended up making Tristan miss the bus, but it was worth it. My little valentines were bright-eyed and excited for the day.

I saw Tristan sneak into my bathroom early in the morning and later found this cute note on my mirror. It melted my heart! Tristan is such a sweet little boy. I hosted book club last week and one of the (off) topics of discussion (there have been more and more of those lately, but that's another story) was the difference between boys and girls. One of my friends insisted that every mother should have a boy because there's nothing more special than a mother-son relationship. Looking at the little note taped to my mirror yesterday morning, with its plain white paper and scribbled, misspelled words, I had to agree.

I found the red and blue hearts in the hall bathroom later yesterday morning, after Jolie had seen Tristan's note. I was in the office and she came in asking to spell all sorts of words such as "love" and "from". She and Gavin then came in asking for scissors and glue dots. After a while Jolie asked where I was going to brush my teeth. Their subtlety was overwhelming!!!

We took my Grandma out for dinner last night. The restaurants were very crowded and busy, but I didn't care. The last thing I wanted to do last night was stay home alone with the kids and cook. After putting our name in, we left Applebee's for a while to do some shopping at Target and when we came back they had our table ready. Grandma bought each of the kids a little toy so they were thrilled. We had a really nice time and I think Grandma did too. She seemed happy to get out. We didn't get home until late but the kids were really good about getting ready for bed.

We had a fun Valentine's Day and we hope you did too!

Buttercup

We had a little Super Bowl party here tonight. Tristan has been getting more interested in sports and a few days ago he asked if we could have a party. Like a good mommy I obliged. In truth, I'm always looking for a reason to have a party, even if I have no interest in football.

I picked up a deli tray of meats and cheeses last night and made rolls and brownies this morning. After looking at all the food and realizing our party would be much more fun with them, I called mom and Dad and invited them to come over. We watched the game for a while and then mom and I took Jolie and Gavin into the living room so the males could be more attentive to the game.

As you can see, tonight Jolie finally got the sister she's always wanted. She took Gavin upstairs and put him in one of her old dresses and put barettes in his hair. We ended up having a dance competition with the two of them ("Kathleen" and "Buttercup") in the living room.

Oh... anyone who knows us well is probably wondering about Dan's reaction to the dress. Do I really need to say?