Sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday morning,

this is what life looks like here...

Taming the wild beats

Yesterday we had a yard sale.  It was not a large yard sale.  We thought maybe Ezra would enjoy being a part of it, so we brought out his friend, the giraffe, and stuck him on it.  The sign for the sale was $8.99.  We made $10.  Victory.

Bug

A girl selling ceramic curling irons in the mall stopped us the other day and offered to give Bug a princess hairdo for free.  The top picture is the result.  It would have lasted longer, had Bug not been rained on that night.
Also in an attempt to lessen the number of things I do and give the kids more responsibility, about once a week I let the kids pack their own lunches.  Here is Elsie packing her lunch: sandwich, juice, spaghetti, feta.  Excellent.

Lately

Elliot had to complete a diorama for 1st grade.  It had to depict a wild animal in its natural habitat.  Of course he chose Siberian tigers.  We learned a lot about them in the process.  Here you see the label for his project and the tigers themselves.  I think Michael had as much fun helping as Elliot had making.  It's good that we have a creative papa in the mix.  I'm not much for creating things, unless they're songs.

Yesterday Elliot and Elsie decided to make this tower of cups for Ezra to knock down.  Isn't this what big brothers and sisters do?  Ezra liked it...

New Year

Every year this wonderful thing happens where Michael's parents keep our children for a couple of nights over our anniversary (January 1).  Michael's childhood best friend, David, and his wife, Aly, join us for those nights.  This year we even had a free cabin from one of David's sisters.  We had a couple of nights kid free, and then decided to gather our children for the last night.  They LOVED it.  Here you see our kids with Asa, David and Aly's 4 year old.  He warmed up to Ezra whom I think really liked him.  The lake was beautiful and the weather was perfect.

Can't believe we've been married 8 YEARS.  8 years, 4 houses, 3 children, 2 jobs.  1 marriage.  Good stuff.  I'm thankful.

Christmas

Here is a PR photo for Mary.  She's going on her "Mothers of Peace" tour soon.  And here is one of her looking entirely too old next to the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.  Later in the day she had a tea party with her new tea set.  Elliot and Ezra enjoyed their first bath together at Yaya's house.