A must

We had a very special birthday at our home recently (the 11th is recently, correct?), and I'm just remembering to blog about it because I am the most on-the-ball space-case that I know. 

It's a gift I have.

 It was Ee-ee's birthday. While she was napping, Emmy and Jonah decided to redecorate her cardboard house, which Emmy made for her birthday last year.
Ee-ee was thrilled with the new look.

 And also with her birthday blueberry muffin.
She actually turned three, but Emmy was concerned about her being able to blow out that many candles.

Nice job, Ee-ee! We love you. We're glad that you are part of our family. You take very good care of my big girl. I will happily celebrate your birthday for many years to come.

What? Again? In the same year?

I can't even believe this is happening. I am about to blog about skiing for the second time this week. What?! I know! Exclamation point for that!

Tess called me last night to inform me that it would only be $5 for me to ski if I came in the morning, and Emmy's still free cuz she's little, and we ski on a budget around here, so this morning we packed and drove over! 

We were greeted by an unusually large dog named Tank.

Hi Tank. Watch the upholstery. You're adorable. I love you.

 Emmy and Tess took off pretty quick, and the 4 babies and I stayed at my Mom's.

 Ready to go! Midget skis are the cutest.

It's all about the princess helmet cover, right? Made all the difference.

Power Snowplow! You go girl!

 It's so funny to see her skiing here on my own home turf. I skied here when I was the same size as her. They didn't have this fancy magic carpet lift thing way back then, but I managed. Something along the lines of riding up with my Dad and holding onto his pole the whole way down. It worked.

They skied for a couple hours, then came home for lunch and then it was my turn!
We of course had to do the classic photo-of-yourself-on-the-chairlift-photo, but Emmy was very interested in something going on below us.

 And she had just eaten an oreo.
We only had a little bit of time because Tess had to get back to teach a lesson, so we did the real lift just once, then played on the magic carpet some more.

Emmy has skied since she was 2, but this is the first year that she has begged to go, and truly loved it. Know what I mean? Of course a 2 year old is going to like sliding down a snowy hill, but now she really loves to Ski. Totally different.

One more shot in the parking lot:

She was smiling right up until the shuttered... uh... shuttered. (?) "It's too bright, Mom!"

So that was grand and good, and after Tess' lesson she came home and Hanna and I went back for a couple runs on "The Big Lift."

When there's only two lifts at the resort you can get away with calling them "The big lift" and "The little lift." 

Hanna's 10 years younger than me, and by the time she learned to ski my Dad had passed on the teaching responsibility to me. She and I were laughing at the memories of me teaching her to ski when she was 6, and she remembered that she had a photo from the day I taught her. And she found it for me!

That's her! 11 years ago! And that's me up the hill behind her. She totally rocked. And I'm so glad that I'm not any closer in the photo because I was STY-LISH in those days. I tell you what.

Way back then, when we were so young and immature, we had a repertoire of songs that we would sing on the long ride up, and we may or may not have sung them again today. Loudly.

So fun. So so so fun.

Thanks again, Tessie Mo Messie. You make skiing possible for this boring old lady.

Welcome to the moment

Recently in our home:

Emmy sidled up to me and, mustering as much of an air of importance as she could, stated  "Mom, I do think the time has come to... Count My Dresses."

I'm not sure what I was expecting her to say, but this grand announcement left me slightly baffled and I dismissively told her "Great idea."

An hour or so later I found her in her room, with every dress out of the closet in a neatish pile, with all the hangers sorted into piles by color. 

 The dresses were each receiving a try-on as well.

 Jonah was giving his expert opinion on whether or not they still fit.

They were each given a twirl or two (or seven) to check the poofy-factor, which Jonah was also judging.

Don't the purple socks just really make the outfit?

Emmy is an organizational wizard. She will organize anything, over and over again. Scarves, cloth diapers, baby spoons, rocks on the driveway - nothing is safe.

 She and I made this to organize her ribbons and bows, and they get organized daily. She can also be seen wearing any number of them throughout the day.

Things might be dull around here some day, but that is not this day.

Happy Jayne

We had cousins at our house last week. This is a favorite kinda thing.

It's funny to watch these two littles become more aware of each other. They're so different, but they get along well. I think they even like each other. You know, so far.

That goes for these two as well. They're close in age (though not in size) and their imaginations blend nicely. When Emmy gets involved it can get a little haywire, but just the two of them is perfect. 

I'm not saying that Emmy can be... over powering. I'm just saying. And I'm not positive what exactly I'm saying. I'm just saying. Something. Moving on...

Tess and Co. do come over often just to play, but this particular event had a reason: I needed a baby sitter, and preferably one with milk. You know, that kind of milk. You don't need details, right? Right. Thank you. Tess thanks you too. 

Because I was heading out for more than one hour, and Claire has her needs. And I was going skiing. 

what.

I know. Me. The used-to-be-passionate-about-nothing-else-skier. 

I worked in the ski industry from age 13 to age 22 when I had my first baby. It took up a large portion of my life, and I lurved it. One of my ski industry jobs was at a ski shop, so naturally I had all the nicest of the nice ski gear because it was cheap because ski company people love to give employees great deals because if you're wearing it and look cool, other people will want it too. I know, hard to believe, but I used to almost be cool. 

Anyways, my point is, that those days have come and gone. Way gone. "Cool" no longer means "cool" in my world. "Cool" these days means "low temperature." 

Do you want to see me the night before getting my things together to go skiing? Are you sure? Ok. 

Can we move on? Thank you. 

I woke up every hour that night, thinking it must be time to get up and go. It felt very Christmas-eve-ish. 

So I went skiing. 

My brother-in-law (Hi Levi!) had two free passes to Deer Valley, and he knows about my suppressed skiing desires, so he took me. Bless his generous heart! 

When I arrived, it was pouring rain. I took a picture of my windshield while I waited for Levi. When it's raining in the parking lot, it's snowing on the lift. 

Much happiness ensued.

Sarah (Levi's very significant other) joined us, which was delightful. The day after this she flew up to Alaska and is now working for a Heli-Ski company. I know, right? The cute part is, she didn't know how to ski! So she met us there, and I taught her! So not only did I get to have an awesome day of skiing, I also got to dust off my instructor skills and share my ski-love with someone new. I loved it, thank you Sarah!

Not only was my day absolutely perfectly fantastic, but my kids had a ball too. Looks like Tess might want five kids after all, now that she knows she's a pro. 

She also took all of these beautiful photos, thank her very much.

Jonah was happy at the kitchen sink, washing dishes. For two hours.

After that he mopped the floor. From his chair.

No, this isn't the kids anxiously awaiting my return. They're watching for the favorite neighbor who was coming to pick up Emmy. 

But I might pretend they're watching for me...

Just like I might pretend that this little gal missed me. Doesn't she look really torn up about me being gone? Mmm hmm.

There was a lot of mud involved in the play of the day. Like I've said before: bring it on. Mud boots are our friends.

And may I end on an entirely different note. Look at these blue eyes.

*sigh*
Gorgeous.
Don't get me wrong, I love the blackish deep brown that monopolizes my children, but I often find myself gazing at my little Calvin and forgetting what I was thinking about.

Mud, Glorious Mud!

Have you been craving a little spring?

Oh. It's already spring where you live? Huh. Well. Here in the frozen Rockies it's still winter. But spring is peeking in. 

And with spring comes the mud. And I welcome it.

Yes please. This was last week when it was warm enough to melt the snow but still chilly enough to need a coat. Not so this week! It's light jacket weather - my very favorite.

Sunshine, where have you been? I've missed you so!

We live on a quiet street. It's even more quiet since our best buddies moved. 

That nice quiet street becomes a nice muddy driveway long before you reach our house. Emphasis on long. And muddy. And completely lovely.

Claire enjoys the first twenty minutes or so of her rides in the backpack. After that she gets so sleepy the rest of the walk is a blur. 

You know those big signs that come out when the weather's really bad that say "Chains or Snow Tires Required" as you head up the mountain? I'm thinking about making one for our driveway that says "Mud Boots Required". Because they kinda are.

Homeschool Art History

Emmy woke up grouchy this morning. Unfortunately (in this instance), Emmy's moods tend to be very contagious. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

We definitely had to increase the cool of our homeschooling today.

It started with pulling out my Michelangelo book for a brief life history of the man. It was his birthday on Monday, did you know that? He was born 536 years ago. 

You should have heard them trying to say Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. 

You should have heard me trying to say it. 

Can you believe this guy gave 5 years to the painting of this ceiling? I struggle with a painting after 5 days. 

Not to compare myself with the guy or anything.

After the lecture portion of the lesson, there was only one thing left to do. It was hands-on time!

What better thing to paint than the underside of the kitchen table? Who actually sees under there besides Claire? No one, that's who. 

Did you know that Michelangelo painted with a brush in each hand? Apparently Jonah does too. He dove right in.

Emmy was a little more meticulous. 

I was going to make a scaffold for them to lie down on while they painted - but upon further investigation it turns out Michelangelo didn't actually lie down on his scaffold, he just looked up while he painted. For five years. 

I wonder who his chiropractor was.

And lest you think highly of me unjustly, I must give the credit to this brilliant homeschool activity to my dear Mommy. My siblings and I got to do this to our kitchen table when we were little too. 

Then we also painted the top. And I'm pretty sure the legs eventually received their fair share of paint too, am I right Mom? Being raised by a hippie was the BEST.

Hi Claire. Sorry, you're too little. 

"What Mommy? I'm too little, you say? I'll show you too little..."

Hey! Give me that back! Sheesh Claire, aren't you supposed to be loading the dishwasher?

ahem.

Jonah decided that painting the floor was much easier on the neck.

And after snapping that photo I looked down to this:

Which was really cute and not too harmful so I took a photo. Then she did this...

and I'm pretty sure my camera got dropped. And I'm pretty sure her tongue is still blue.

And here we have Jonah's masterpiece:

He calls it "I'm hungry."

Not really, that's just all I could get him to say.

And Emmy's:

"This is you, Mom! Because I know you've always wanted blue hair."

How did she know that?

"This one is Daddy, except for I forgot to paint his eyes."

I can see some resemblance there, can't you?

"Mommy? Why are you in my favorite spot?"

Clean up was another matter all together.

I love washable paint. In fact, I Lurve it.

Putting Emmy (and the rest of us) back into a good mood was totally worth the mess.