Good Grief!

I know all the childhood stages have their beauty and magic. Each little year has its own precious traits that last just for a little while before they poof, vanish.

But let me tell you, wow, I am so very much loving this stage Ginger is in now. Age 3 years 4 months is just as sweet as it can be. She just breaks my heart every day with how sweet and positively amazing she is...all that defiance of age two is a distant memory.  Hallelujah! 

She's confident, herself, and oh so lovely.

 

This dress is without a doubt my favorite dress-up costume the girls have ever had.

Paprika got it as a birthday present from my Grandma and Grandpa when she turned three, and it's still as lovely as the day she first wore it. It's a favorite around here. It's often worn with a crown, but on this day, Ginger wanted to be a princess bunny rabbit.

If the headband fits, wear it! ;-)



We've been doing a lot of art projects around the house. The girls painted this bird house earlier this week. I have to get a picture of the finished product. It is spectacular! ;-)

It's a big mix of purple and green and blue. What can I say, it kept them occupied for half an hour and they were so proud of the finished product!



Paprika has been busy learning piano. She got it into her head that she wants to put on a Christmas concert in our house and invite all our neighbors to come hear her play. Now, she JUST started learning piano in what...September?!  I mean, she started lessons technically in July but her teacher was so awful she didn't really learn anything until we switched teachers.



She has made it her goal to learn TEN holiday songs by Christmas (this is in addition to all her regular pieces). So far she has down: Jolly Old St. Nicholas and Up On The Housetop. Eight more to go!

She often practices standing up because otherwise Violet will toddle over to the chair and try to climb up on Paprika's lap and play herself! I have started giving Ginger and Violet a bath together in the evening, so Paprika can at least have twenty minutes or so uninterrupted to practice. Otherwise, the sisters (Violet especially) will not leave the keys alone long enough for Paprika to practice her pieces.

As Paprika would say: Good Grief! :-)
 

Vote For The Handsomest One!

I did it! I voted!

I discovered about a week ago that my absentee ballot had gone missing.

 Then, a few days ago, I found it in a deeply graffitied state. It had been made into a spontaneous art project by one little Miss Ginger.  Oops!



I knew I wanted to vote, but wasn't sure how it would happen now that I was absentee-ballot-less. And with my child induced agoraphobia, I really didn't want to bring the kids with me to vote.

But then my civic fervor got the best of me, and I decided Come Hell or High Water, I was going to vote, goshdarnit!

 So, after I dropped Paprika off at school, I took Ginger and Baby Violet with me to vote. Baby Violet had already been to the polling place that morning with Mr. M (he took her before work) - so she was like a little celebrity. Everyone kept saying, "Haven't we seen that baby before?!" I think they thought I was trying to vote twice. Haha.



Before school, we had been talking all about the election. Our kids don't watch TV, so they really have no idea what's going on.

Paprika (age 6) has been reading up on her own - and in the past month or so has been very interested in the Presidents and early suffragists. She is fascinated by Susan B. Anthony (she can tell you her whole life story), and is especially interested in past Presidents like: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. She knows all about their histories, what they stood for, how women got the right to vote, etc.

But since she doesn't watch TV or anything like that, she really has NO idea about this current election. None at all. So, this morning, I was explaining to her who the two candidates were in a non-partisan way and then I asked her how she would vote.

She said: Well, if I were an adult, I would be voting because of Susan B. Anthony. She voted even when people were mean to her. She ignored all those bullies and voted anyway. If I could vote, I would be like Susan B. Anthony and ignore all the bullies and I would vote for Barack Obama because he is the handsomest.

Then, Ginger (age 3) says to me: I know who I will vote for! I will vote for myself! And I will marry myself, too! I want to get married JUST to myself!

So, there ya have it. My girls carefully weigh all the facts before deciding their votes.  ;-)

Maybe next election we can talk about the real issues. Today, I just felt like a success getting in and out of the polling place in one piece!   Now I'll be on pins and needles waiting to see who wins.  :-)

I Am Grateful For My Neighbor's Barking Dog

Did you go see Flight this weekend?! It's been two weeks since I saw it, and I am still thinking about it. I am so proud of Mr. M for his work on it (he edited the plane crash sequence).

I loved the movie - and I would have loved it even if Mr. M had not worked on it (but the fact that he did makes me love it even more). It's about addiction, and anyone who has lived a life addicted or with an addicted person can relate. I guess it's one of those movies you either get or you don't. My family has a long and deep history of alcohol and drug addiction (which is why I don't really drink). I saw so many facets of living that truth played out on-screen.

 It is a really beautiful film, and one that spoke to me on a deeply personal level. Go see it! :-)



I was unloading my camera this morning and noticed that I have an incredible number of photos of the girls at parks. It seems all we ever do is go to parks! Haha!  We go to at least one/day - and sometimes more.

I have sort of a child-induced agoraphobia, which is just to say that I don't like taking all three kids by myself into crowded places. It is super overwhelming to me. So, if we get to a park and it's too crowded, we leave and go to a park that's empty. I don't take my kids to crowded carnivals, etc. by myself - I could do it when we were just one or two, but now that I have three tinies to juggle, it's just too much for ME! :-)

So, needless to say, we have a lot of park dates just the four of us! It works well because the girls rarely have to compete for the swings!



On Friday, we met up at the park with a little girl Ginger made friends with at swimming. The little girl is almost 5, but she and Ginger get along like peas and carrots. ;-) It's so cute to see Ginger making her own friends - she was so excited for her little playdate.



Last week was the Halloween swim party for Paprika's swim team. We skipped it! I know that sounds terrible, because she would have loved to have gone...but it was just one of those things. I could not see how I could take all three kids by myself to a swim party with hundreds of kids, loud music blaring, and how I could possibly keep tabs on Ginger, Violet, and Paprika all at the same time...especially since two out of three would have wanted to swim.

The swim party was at the same time as Paprika's piano lesson (which we had missed the week before because I went to the Flight screening). I didn't want her to miss piano again. But, I had a logistical conundrum because Ginger had her swim lesson on the day of the party, and I didn't want HER to miss her lesson either.

So, I ended up letting Paprika play on the iPad while I waited with her and Violet in the van while Ginger had her swim lesson.   Paprika had no idea the party was even happening. Problem solved. Then, I let Paprika wear her costume to piano lesson and she made her teacher a Halloween treat basket - so she was very excited to give it to her teacher.

The big lesson is that I am learning that I can't do everything. I can do what I can do...but I am just one person. And it's okay. There are some days I can pull it all together and pull off magical feats of childhood, but mostly, I am juggling a lot of balls and just doing the best I can.

The funny thing is that it's really me who sets these high expecations of perfection...the kids are happiest with the simple, little things. Paprika was as happy with taking her little gift to her piano teacher as she would have been with the swim party. It's my own expectations I need to reconcile. ;-)



November is a big month to talk about gratitude and to mark each day with something one is grateful for...the truth is that I am grateful for so much. I am grateful for everything...and I often recount all the obvious blessings in my life. What can I say, I am grateful to be grateful! 

It is easy to say that we are grateful for all the good things in our lives...is it such a stretch to look at all the obvious blessings and recount them?

Instead, I am challenging myself this month to be grateful for all the hard things in my life - to be grateful for my challenges, and all the struggles I encounter...the parts of my life I would gladly wipe away.

Just a thought: maybe the most significant lessons come from the challenges...maybe those are the parts of my life that are actually my greatest blessings.

Therefore, I declare that I am grateful for every last thing, right down to my neighbor's constantly barking dog (he teaches me patience) and those darned leaf blowers that always wake Violet up from her nap (they teach me flexibility).  ;-)

 

It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe. - Robert W. Service

One Week Left!

This is my last week of my baby being officially a baby. Next week she'll be over a year old and a toddler. Of course, leave it to me to get hung up on these little milestones and anniversaries.

 I drive Mr. M crazy with all of my made up anniversaries, like "the anniversary of our first date" and how I celebrated our "almost-versary" the year before we got married. Haha.

What can I say, I like to make the most of every last little moment. ;-)




Violet is talking, walking, playing piano... She loves her big sisters, and knows how to let her voice be heard (translation: she is very loud!)

Her favorite things to say are: What's dat? And: Who's dat?




She points to the things she wants and shakes her head no when there's something she doesn't want. She loves her baths, and loves adventure. She gets very dirty, so it's a good thing she loves her baths. ;-)

She is fearless, happy, funny, and determined. She knows what she wants and gets so frustrated when she can't do it.   She wants to rule the world but her little body is holding her back.  Isn't that how we all feel sometimes?

 

I want this next week before her birthday to go in slow motion. I want to remember every second of her babyhood, to somehow harness it before it slips away.

 But, this week will be business as usual - busy - filled with swim lessons, piano practice, school, homework, and everything in between. Before I know it, Friday will be here. It always comes.

 I just can't believe a year has gone by since I held this tiny baby in my arms and wondered about all the things she would be.  Here we are, one year later, and I can't imagine her being anyone except who she is...wild and wonderful. 

And I guess the birthday is just one day - because really, every day is a celebration with this girl in my life.  I still kinda want to freeze time, though!  ;-)

 

Spooky Day!

We made it through Halloween - just barely!  The above picture is our family photo of our ecclectic, rag-tag bunch of costumes.  Ginger ended up being a purple butterfly, Paprika was Merida, I was a Mommy Giraffe, Violet was a Baby Giraffe, and Mr. M was a Gorilla. 

After three years of owning that gorilla costume, he got to wear it!  Too bad that when he put on the mask and hands, it freaked Baby Violet out so badly, she could not stop crying.  Poor girl!

Paprika had a full morning at school.  Mr. M had the day off work, so he went to her class to help out and take photos - since we are the classroom photographers, after all!  They had a costume parade, a little carnival, a class party  - all very exciting.  He took almost 500 photos of the day, and so it's been a little overwhelming sorting those out.  I think I might be done looking at them when Paprika goes off to college. Haha.




This year I decided to tackle Halloween with a plan.  I knew otherwise we would be sitting around all day counting down the hours until trick or treating.  Since Paprika got out of school at 11:30am, that left a lot of time before trick or treating.  So, the night before Halloween, I wrote out a schedule (down to the hour) of what we were doing. 

First up, we decorated pumpkins:



Since I wanted the girls to be able to really participate, I just let them paint the pumpkins themselves.  Much less messy than carving, and they loved making their own creations:



Anything goes when you're painting pumpkins...



The girls had a great time doing it, and it took the better part of an hour:



Then it was time to make brownies.  Mr. M did that with the big girls while I took care of Violet.  It was just a box (the Ghiradelli double chocolate chip mix)- but the girls thought it was the best thing ever.  Yum!




Here's how they turned out.  They were ALL gone by the next day - and guess who ate them?  Not the girls!  Mr. M and I both had a terrible stomach ache and swore off chocolate (for at least a little while):




This was Baby Violet's LAST "First" Holiday!  So, this was her very first Halloween - and she'll be ONE a week from today.  So, from now on, every holiday is her SECOND holiday.  She got into the Halloween spirit.  She loved checking out the pumpkins:




Here are the pumpkins post-decoration.  They are an ecclectic bunch, too!



So, after all that (plus lunch at Rubio's), you would think it would be time to go trick-or treating.  Right?!  Well, you would be wrong.  So, while we were waiting we decided to carve a pumpkin traditional style.  All we had were teeny pumpkins, but they were good enough!



The finished product:




Then we went trick or treating.We went to a neighborhood where the houses are very close together and the streets are closed to traffic.  It was packed and crazy, but very fun. The girls had a blast.

 

This was Ginger's first year trick or treating, since she slept through Halloween last year! She quickly got the hang of it!



We just trick or treated as long as the girls wanted to, but after awhile, they were done!  They said, "Let's go home and pass out candy."



They ended up getting a TON of candy (both girls had brimming buckets) - and they honestly did not even care about the candy.  They just enjoyed saying Trick or Treat (and Thank You!) and meeting people. 

In the past two days, they haven't even eaten their candy.  Guess who's eating it?  Me!  Time to send it to work with Mr. M.  I never met a peanut butter cup I didn't like - so...yea, it needs to go and NOW!  ;-)



When we got home, Mr. M sat with Paprika on the front porch and passed out candy for about two hours.  We had bought at ton of candy to pass out, and it went quickly (we get a LOT of trick or treaters in our neighborhood).  Mr. M loved scaring everyone and finally got to wear his Gorilla mask.  ;-)

Paprika's favorite part is passing out the candy and asking everyone about their costumes.  And she was SO HAPPY to get rid of the big red wig.  As much as she loved being Merida, she loved taking off that wig even more!  Haha.

 

After that, we went inside and watched The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  I bought it (Amazon Streaming) - so now we have it every year to watch commercial-free.  I think it's going to become a tradition - it's the perfect way to unwind after a long day of festivities- plus it distracts the kids so the adults can pick out the best of the candy.  Just kidding...sorta!  ;-) 

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