Relatives from PA came visiting to my parent's house over the weekend so we went and spent the night. Although I knew that cold weather was forecasted, I was unprepared to dress Sylvia and Gus appropriately for a morning walk. So they had to borrow Grandma and Grandpa's clothes.

We all had a nice time. Gus quickly made friends with my uncle the train engineer (and his wife, and the group of people outside the restaurant where we just had lunch, etc).

Here's Gus in his new mama-made train shorts.



Here's Gus in his new shorts at the playground right after skinning his knee. He held those shorts up for at least 20 minutes before forgetting about his injury.

A forest fire was reported on Wednesday on a local mountain range. It's still burning although after blazing through 300 acres, the worst is over. I took the kids for a ride to get a good look. All we could see was the smoke.

This first picture shows where the fire began and is concentrated.



Here's a shot about two miles from the barn.



This is what we saw right before we got to the farm to drop off my niece. You can just make out the smoke to the right of the first ridge.

I took the girls and Gus to meet some friends at the science museum this morning. We were done around lunch time. I met my brother-in-law and picked up my nephews while he went to a meeting. So I took all 6 kids to Chick-fil-A for lunch. Believe it or not, it was easier having the extra two older kids. They carried Gus in the parking lot and helped make sure everyone stayed together. It was really crowded but I could reserve a table and leave them there while I ordered. After lunch I brought them home and they had a blast outside. Here's everyone in the carport.



Once the temperature hits 70 degrees, it's a sure thing that the hose will be on and that Gus will be naked. He can't stand any wetness on his clothes. We're working on that one!



Millie had a great time too!

My niece and nephews are on Spring Break this week. Laila spent the night with us last night. The girls did a lot of coloring and drawing last night along with a game they called "Sister Fight". I let them watch a Bella Dancerella dvd before bed. Here they are practicing ballet.



Here's Gus joining in the fun.



(he was really excited about trying on Laila's green socks)

One of Gus' favorite outdoor toys is the plastic red and yellow ride in car that my parents bought for Sylvia years ago. When we first received it, I was afraid it was a big waste of money because Sylvia took little interest. Good thing we kept the car around.

Gus is decent at sharing until it comes to a few things and this is one of them. He pushes it to the top of our driveway and rides down, he uses the storage space in the back as a bucket and mixes all sorts of concoctions, he's been known to try and escape down the gravel road in it, he'll even just sit still and hang out in it.

We participated in 3 Easter Egg hunts this year. Well, the 2nd one was really Sylvia using the eggs from the first one and hiding them herself in our yard. The 3rd one was the best...the kids got ungodly amounts of candy. This hunt was at my sister-in-law's house. She took all the little ones (minus Gus) for a tractor ride while we hid the eggs. The weather was beautiful. When the ride was done, everyone filled up their baskets and then we roasted hot dogs. I think Sylvia and Gus have eaten more candy in the past couple of days then the rest of 2008 combined. Good thing the Easter Bunny filled up their baskets with books!

I am encouraged! 

We had friends over a couple of days ago.  About 20 minutes before they were to arrive I asked Sylvia to tidy up the playroom.  I thought that would at least give her enough time to clear a path.

I was delighted to find the room cleaned with 10 minutes to spare!

It can be done!

The Lawn in Spring

My collard greens have been doing really well this past month. I've got enough growing for at least a meal a week which saves me the $5 it would take to buy the equivalent organic greens at Whole Foods. They are some of the best greens I ever eaten. Perhaps I do have a green thumb after all!


Here's Rex's sprouting patch of peas. He rigged up the fencing to keep out the many rabbits populating the area.


The man who lived here for 50 years before we moved in enjoyed beautifying his lawn. Currently, there are at least a hundred bulbed plants sprouting or in bloom.

Here's a tangled view of our unruly forsythia.

These violets spring up all over the place.

My onion patch is coming along exceedingly well.

And look who's still carrying around his tool.

Sylvia's First Book...Written for Millie

Millieu BDileu
FuM Sylvie McGee

Millia Bidillia
by Sylvie McGee

Wu Dea
Mile BDileu
was not Fele ooGD
wun uv the man
DiD noT Giv
a TooWe

One day
Millia Bidillia
was not feeling good.
One of the men
did not give her
a toy.

The wich
wus Fere
haPe

The witch
was very
happy.

MDileu
BDileu
was Fere pra

Millia Bidillia
was very proud.

The back depicts the three other books in this series (yet to be created)!

Millie is the only child I've had that will eat jarred baby food. She only likes the savory dishes though. No prunes and oatmeal for her. She's also getting better at gumming up little pieces of real food. She loved the corned beef and Irish Soda bread from yesterday. Sylvia refused practically all food until she was a year old. Gus was around 8 or 9 months before he was interested in more than nursing.

The Easter Bunny showed up for a surprise visit at my mom's house last month!

More currently, Millie does not seem to be acknowledging the time change last weekend and we have been getting out of bed just after 6am ever since. I don't mind though. I enjoy getting a jump on the day. On the other hand, Sylvia requested to move back into the same bedroom with Gus a few weeks ago. And lately they have taken to romping and playing when they should be quietly looking at books and calming down. Consequently, they're sleeping in to close to 8am. So now I can actually take a peaceful, unhurried shower. With the bathroom door closed!

I love it when I find a good routine. Our day goes smoothly and much is accomplished. After 6 months of incorporating Millie into our life, I am close to being as energetic and productive as before she blessed us. However, I don't mind a day here or there when spontaneity rules. I checked my email early this morning and found out that my oldMOPs group (which I previously attended when I was a local) was in need of moms to watch the nursery for this morning's meeting. So instead of the anticipated morning of school and story time, I packed the kids in the car and got there just in time to babysit a room full of 2 and 3 year olds. I even took the 9 of them out to the nearby playground (way out across the parking lot) while toting Millie. I must admit, the trip to and from the playground was a little stressful. But the rest of it wasn't so bad and I got a chance to catch up with some mom friends I haven't seen in awhile.

We got back around lunch time and it was a normal day after that. The weather was beautiful so we spent a couple of hours outside on the lawn. Yesterday, while we were outside, a couple of men were doing some survey work along the edge of our property. I noticed them as soon as I saw Gus start running towards where they were working yelling "Hi!...Hi!". He got there before me and just stood there observing their work. I let him stay there since they were right next to the sandbox and he wasn't doing any harm. When they started walking back towards the road Gus ran after them, again yelling "HI!". I guess he's my shy one.

Rex got a free dinner at the gig he played at tonight so I cleaned out the fridge for the kids and I. Millie got her first taste of hummus. She seemed to like the first bite or two, but that was all she would eat. And yes, that tasty treat on my plate next to the hummus sandwich and cheesy grit bake does happen to be potato chips with shredded cheese and sauerkraut. Sylvia and Gus got more normal fare, cheeseburgers, chips, and apples.



Here's a cute picture of the three of them in the playroom after supper.

We had a lot of wind and rain last week. Unfortunately in the midst of it a large limb from one of our cedar trees (already heavy with sap) snapped off. Rex was happy to get a chance to use his chainsaw again though. I know he misses his solitary times in the woods cutting up downed trees into firewood. He counted the rings and found out that the limb, which was about a quarter of the way up the tree, was 65 years old. I was in the house while all this was happening. Sylvia ran in to tell me to come out and look at the "Beaver House". I was too busy and didn't really take her seriously until a day or two later when I got a close up look and found that Rex had built the kids a little house out of the cedar boughs. It's still standing and the kids are still running around the yard pretending to be beavers.

Spring has sprung!

My newest creation...the romper, not the baby. I modified and combined a Kwik Sew pattern with an Ottobre pattern and added a skirt to give the illusion of a dress. It's all one piece. I'm tempted to make more but I don't think a dress that long will be practical when she starts crawling.

It must be a phase. Sylvia went through the same thing at 2.5 years of age. I was shocked that a child that young would take such a liking to computer games. Gus is now obsessed with the same games at www.uptoten.com and the funny thing is that he prefers switching the language over to French, just like Sylvia did. I've taken to shutting the computer down during the day to keep him off of it.



Gus must be enamored with Millie. When Sylvia got a couple of baby dolls this past Christmas, he commandeered the smaller one as his own. In the last couple of months it became his little side kick. He took it out with us on errands and even began sleeping with it. A couple of days ago, Rex brought home a little multi-tool. It looks like the doll is in second place now. During story time last night, Gus clutched his tool and every now and then would lean in close and whisper, "Ma...tool."

School's in Session

After an eight month break, we have started formal homeschooling again. Things are going considerably better this time. Sylvie and I spend anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes per subject every weekday morning studying phonics from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, writing with Zaner-Bloser, arithmetic with Singapore Math's Early Bird 2A workbook, and piano with Alfred's Basic Piano Library 1A. We also fit in story time whenever Millie needs her nursing break.

This is one of the ways Gus spends his time while we're schooling.



Sylvie has taken up a real interest in drawing. I am of course the proud mother who sees genius in every scribble but I have been especially entertained with some of her recent drawings. The picture below is from a couple of weeks ago.



I recently brought home a drawing book for children that I had put on hold using their online system. After looking through it I decided to put it back into the library basket for an early return, deeming it too advanced for Sylvie's taste. She found it, nevertheless, and has been avidly copying the princesses, castles, clowns, snails, cars, rockets, etc from it for the past two weeks.