Typically atypical

Legend-ary

"Did you know our school is named after a legend? Literally, a legend!"

Never a dull moment

"I just need to be me."

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched

An illustrative reminder.

Privacy?

What's that?

Eleven

Times change.

You wake up one morning. The number after your name ticks up by one.

And you realize something just isn't quite right with your little world.

The sun peeks through your windows and its light is set further ablaze by the color of your soundings.

This can not stand.



And so ... we change.



But as we do, we have to remember. ...

Some things always stay the same.

These days

I know I'm going to miss these days ...



Messy, lazy, blurry days.

Snow day

He could not contain himself.

I couldn't contain him, either.

She knew I didn't want to go out in the cold and the wet.

She didn't want to go out there either.

But something in my face ... 

She's called it The Look of Disappointment ...

Made her haul on her dayglow coat and too-small boots and pretend to care about snowmen of the smallest stature.

Karma and the kitten

Life and death.

Hat Trick

I think I have finally reached a parenting trifecta.

Some things are just important ...

For instance, not risking "love" by crossing it out ... (Stepping on cracks, though ... that's cool.)

*****

Getting them to fall asleep can seem like an art form ...

But really it's just the material of nightmares.

*****

Best of all is what your daughter will learn from watching all 208 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" ...

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"Hey mom! Come look at the strip club I built in Minecraft. I call it 'Barney's'."

From the Why I Married Him department ... Brought to you by the Mouths of Babes department ...

MOM! Dad is doing his own dental work!

How we roll

...  or, more accurately, how we would have rolled if the People's Parade wasn't rained out.

Talk to the hand (puppet)

Doorjam puppet theater ....

It's pretty easy. 

You just make two curtains: one with a 14 X 17 window opening, and a smaller curtain that fits under the first curtain.  

Get yourself two tension curtain rods ... (one will support the lower edge of the window opening).

One yard of fabric ...

One fat quarter (for interior curtain) ....

One yard of bias tape ...

Felt or fleece scraps for the opening border ...

And matching thread.

On Father's Day the shoe is on the other foot

If the kids want him to do anything for them today, they have to put on his socks and shoes.

Otherwise, he claims, he won't leave the house.

How did this come to pass, you wonder?



"How many times have I put on your shoes and socks?"

"I mean ... you take them off and want them back on about six times a day. ... If you calculate those six times a day by seven years ... well, let's just say that's a lot of stinky feet."

"Oh ... and one more thing ... If it rains, you are going to have to carry me."

Pool is open ...

Which means *someone* will be starting fires with pool water.

*Someone* will be putting them out with pool water.

And their mother will be losing the perennial battle with weeds ... and pool water.

Mouths of babes

"Mom! I just flossed. There are no more calories on my teeth."

Joy is ...

107 birthdays ...

Cousins ...

And a bed for bouncing ...

Power struggle

Don't worry. The dog won.

Of course I asked ...

"Where's the milk crate strapped to the handlebar, and the alien wrapped in a blanket? "

Olympic dreams

They did it!

They took the GOLD MEDAL!




Our own Three-Beanie-Boo bobsled team!