Intrepid Murmurings

Emma dancing to Bob Marley (yes, she chose to do this over cupcake eating!),

Elsie with blue frosting, Delia with pink.  

Last night I got three hours of sleep, thanks to a combo of a late night (my fault), insomnia (rare for me) and a sick feverish kid flopping around beside me (as usual she was thrilled to be with us but Could. Not. Sleep. in our bed and eagerly went back to hers eventually).  The day could have gone really poorly due to the circumstances, but it was actually pretty great.  Emma went to school full day (a rare treat) and had a fabulous time. Delia is the sick one today, and she was really dragging but rallied off and on, especially around dinnertime and right after (dancing a bunch too) thanks to fever meds.  

I know, cupcakes are not the best food for sick kids, but we don't always follow the rules around here! Thanks to my cousin Sarah for the delicious fancy cupcakes (and sorry TT for missing your birthday playdate!).  Oddly, my kids decided dancing was more fun than cupcake eating, so they mostly just had a bit of the frosting and are saving the rest for tomorrow! 

    

   

   

   

Delia in green helmet, Elsie in pink helmet, Emma in blue dress

Linking up this week with other Wordless Wednesdays at Natural Parents Network and Hobo Mama

This is an incredibly photo-heavy Christmas recap -- way too many photos but I just want to share it all!  We had a wonderful and blessed Christmas and feel so very lucky.  It was quiet and as peaceful as it can be with three little kids going nuts over new presents -- though we missed Lonnie's side of the family who were all in France this year! We tried hard not to go overboard with gifts but boy does it add up quick with three kids -- especially if you try to give both "individual" gifts plus handmade group gifts, Santa stuff, and presents from other family members. We were able to cut down on packaging and cost quite a bit this year by mostly making things and buying or inheriting used toys, though I did buy a fair bit of winter clothes, hats, gloves and shoes.  

I can't WAIT to share more about our handmade gifts -- there are some sneak peaks below, but more coming on each of them!   

   

Not too many pics of stocking opening -- we have that on video but haven't downloaded it yet!  Here's Elsie and Delia sitting with their tubs of stocking loot & assorted other belongings (that's chocolate santa remains on Elsie's face):

 

Opening presents on Skype with Lonnie's family in Paris:

  

The rest of the day we had a fairly leisurely time of opening presents, hanging out with Grandma Cynthia and Grandpa Richard, and nibbling our way through a lot of delicious food...

           
More info on tie-dyed silk playscarves in an upcoming post....they turned out great!

      
Lots more on the handmade tree blocks and fairy dolls coming soon! We love them!

 

  
Lonnie checking out his new work boots, Elsie proudly wearing her new snow boots and Delia LOVING her new (to us) skates (she went around our "loop" about 20 times in them!)

 

     
This is a mini sandbox that we assembled, with 3 hand-carved buckets and 9 tiny wooden tools Lonnie made to go with it.  They are amazing!  (And messy!).  More coming soon!

 

We had our "fancy" dinner on Christmas Eve, so Christmas dinner was pancakes (cut into shapes with cookie cutters), leftover egg dip, veggies & stewed dried fruit.  Ha! The girls loved it!

Hope your holidays, whatever you celebrate, were warm and merry this year! Happy New Year!

Push the coffee (play) table aside, crank up Bob Marley, and let the kiddies go...

Elsie in pink & monkeys, Delia in tie dye, Emma in pink dress 

       

 

       

 Linking up with Wordless Wednesday Posts at Natural Parents Network, Hobo Mama and A Lot of Loves.

Man, I am sorry to be falling back on photo posts so much, but NaBloPoMo is definitely a challenge to my time budget around here! For me, photo posts are so much easier and faster than actually thinking up and writing out "real" content.  I enjoy doing those more informational or meaningful posts -- they are much more satisfying than slapping up some photos -- but alas.  I want to spend time with my husband, too, enjoying our first ever real fire in the fireplace, in more than 2.5 years of living here!!!  Woo hoo!  (All the toys had to be dragged out of the fireplace first, ha ha).  

Onward.  Today we got a lot more snow, our first real snowstorm the girls can remember -- our last one was two winters ago, when Emma was 2.5 and E & D were 6 months.  Emma was alternately thrilled and frustrated at the unpredictability snow creates --  while she LOVED that we finally had snow on the ground and "winter is here!", she did not love that her dance class was cancelled, as was her school conference, literally minutes before we were to leave.   However, it was beautiful and festive all day long, and the girls kept wandering over to windows, staring out, for long periods of time.  Much more interesting than our usual rainfall!

I was overwhelmed at times with the sheer amount of dressing, gear managing and negotiations it took to get two toddlers and a preschooler out into the snow, and back in, and out again at various points during the day.  I assume you work out the kinks if you live with this kind of weather long enough -- like which clothes fits who, how to put mittens on toddlers (and keep them on!), getting enough snow boots so someone doesn't have to cram a snowsuit into rain boots, etc, and instilling in them the fact that they can't drag out and play with wet muddy snow boots in the living room.  Ah well.  

So here you go, more photos! None of these are great, due to poor lighting and swiftly moving kids.  But you get the idea....

This was technically taken after they were in the oven, actually, though check out the biscuit recipe here.  Whenever I start cooking and the girls notice they start pushing chairs over to "help", and it often does NOT work at all, with three of them trying to get in on the action and me with no counter left to squeeze into! I might have to start taking Hobo Mama's approach of cooking on the floor, because the "counter wars" can be brutal around here!  

In any case, Elsie (in pink) and Delia (in blue) were having fun here and look so grown up to me in these pictures!  Yipes, where'd my little babies go?  At least they're little enough to still love playing "peek a boo" behind the chairs...

Back at the beginning of September, we visited my parents in Vancouver, Washington.  Elsie and Delia headed out by themselves for a stroll, so I tagged along.  Later we met up with Grandma and Emma to pick blackberries, play ball, and take a hike down in the woods.  Ah, summer.  Ah, home sweet home.  

P.S.  The big maple tree they are walking under here at the end, and up above next to the dog house is where Lonnie and I were married. The picture following the dog house is lichen on the dog house roof.  My dad made it when I was a kid, and its been through two relocations!  Now, its filled with leaves (and perhaps rodents), though, not dogs!  

The guests 


Decorating cupcakes 


Delia decorating 

Elsie & her cupcake


Singing

Parachute party games 


We had fun!

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday posts at Hobo Mama and A Lot of Loves 

I am only now getting back to the backlog of photos from last month -- many I took when we were down for a visit to my parents down in Vancouver.  During that trip, my small point-and-shoot encountered an unfortunate death by way of water (one of the kiddies accidentally dumped water into my open tech bag, and it went straight into my camera, with battery hole open because I was charging, whoops!).  Carrying around my bigger camera is not compatible with ushering passels of small children out and about, so I have not been taking as many photos of our recent outings. So, here are some from a few weeks ago, some indoor shots from Grandma and Grandpa's house -- it was rainy, but we didn't care!   

 

Lest these angelic photos mislead you, these two year olds are so TWO, and I swear, they have been creeping (and leaping) to a new level of exasperating.  They steal toys, freak out over the thought of sharing others, scream and holler, and bite and pull hair.  They have Very Strong Opinions about all sorts of things, including clothing, what they want to do (or eat),  and about what they can Do MY SELF.   They feed off each other (and Emma) and its both funny and really hard to deal with.  

Today, I attempted grocery shopping with all three, which I have done somewhat successfully from time to time, and it was a big failure.  Fighting over spots in the car cart (Emma), throwing toys and shoes (Delia) screaming, crying and clawing at my shirt (Elsie), biting and hair pulling (Delia again).   Whee!  There were many points where they were fine, but several rough patches, obviously, as I raced to finish my shopping. When its just two of them it usually goes pretty smoothly, but three just pushes us over the edge I guess!  Geesh!   

They also haven't been sleeping all that well (just too many wakeups at night and short naps -- they are still staying in their Big Kid Beds at night, for the most part).  Lack of sleep does not help the situation, though.  

They are also hilarious and amazing with their language and imaginative play, and when they do play together (which is often) it sometimes goes incredible well, so its not all bad!  I am just having a hard time adapting to the new normal, ha ha. 

More tomorrow!   

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday posts over at A Lot of Loves and Hobo Mama.   

Ten simple things bringing me joy this week:

 

Peeps sharing a family meal

We don't usually do matchy matchy around here much, especially not all three, as Emma has Very Particular opinions about what she wears.  But this was too tempting.  Emma already had and wore this outfit, and when I saw it come up on sale again I grabbed two more for the little ones.  Note individual choices for leg and footwear.  Delia loves her "Docky Boots" (Doc Martens) and I do too.  

In all photos, Delia on left, Emma in center, Elsie on right