Celebrating Mediocrity

I can't help but think of the line from Incredibles where the Dad is talking about his son's Graduation.

Helen: I can't believe you don't want to go to your own son's graduation.
Bob: It's not a graduation. He is moving from the 4th grade to the 5th grade.
Helen: It's a ceremony!
Bob: It's psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional...

Still though, it was super cute, and Olea was THRILLED with it and that's what matters. They did a great job.

And for the record, My Olea is Genuinely Exceptional!

Family Walk

It's just so pretty here.

and he's pretty cute. Look at that cranium amplified by the helmet.

Garbage can

oh dear!
Nev has thrown herself away!

I was walking past the loft in a hurry trying to help Zurich use the potty and noticed a little head peaking out where it shouldn't be. Forget the potty, I had to run for the camera. How did she manage? At least she took out the old garbage first.

Japanese Beetle

oh blast it all. Olea and I found this today on the property. Now, that's just not cool, there is a lot of grass here and these little devils are not good for it.

FHE fun

So for Family Home Evening we try to have a lesson. It is usually pretty short and sweet with ages 1, 2 and 5. Last night Gary used the Friend magazine to give a lesson around this article. The kids were sitting on stools on the living room floor. Gary was actually in the middle of singing a song related to it to the kids when Nev and Zurich started standing up and sitting back down on their stools and laughing their heads off. Of course Olea joined in and laughter continued. Here's a lil video of the giggling fun.

So I guess you could call that our activity for the night. It proved to be a useful activity since Nev then tried standing on her own for the first time. See how she squeals to let us know how much coolness she is exhibiting? We skipped treats since the kids were already on one and didn't need any more sugar. Hope you had a fabulous Monday.

Iris

This morning I sent Olea off to school with an Iris. While this may seem insignificant to most this was reminiscent for me. Last Friday Olea came home from school saying something about it being her teacher's last day of school and that she graduated that day. Olea was very excited about it and wanted to bring something for her teacher when we got to our house she saw that the white iris's were blooming and asked if she could take one to her teacher. I told her that if she remembered and was early enough (this is a problem) she could give one to her teacher on Monday.

This morning Olea was wasting time shutting her brother in the coat closet instead of getting her coat and shoes on. So again she was pushing it to the late end.

When she finally sat down to put her shoes on she started freaking out, "My flower! You know those white flowers that grow in our garden, you know the little garden out front, not the really little one but the bigger little one? Well the white flowers that are alive, I like those ones, the white ones with the lelow inside and you said I could give one to my teacher for her last day of school this day. So can I pick one?"

I lie not. This is how she talks. It takes FOREVER to get to the point and with other little ones and a husband that needs attention too, it gets quite exhausting and quite frankly I often tune her out. If that little quote is in anyway misrepresented, it is that I left something out.

I was irritated by this point because she was going to be late and if I took the time to cut off a flower and package it like I know.... she would certainly be late.

However, as annoyed as I was, I couldn't deny her this.
Why?
Because I remember in elementary school, when the end of the school year came around and the iris's started to bloom I remember my mother cutting off an iris or two, wrapping the stems in a wet paper towel and putting it in a plastic bag tied off with a rubber band. I remember walking to school in jacket weather with the sun just peeking over Flat Top carrying my precious irises to my teacher.

So this morning I took the time to cut off an iris, package it and send it off to school with Olea.

The bird's nest

So that wasn't working... on a seventeen foot ladder....

Ya, that's high, very high. Can I just take a moment and say I am glad I have a husband. I am afraid of heights. Gary just earned his MAN OF HEIGHTS merit badge today.

Removing the nest

Tightening the cornice we'll paint the screws later.

Ya, it was high.
Thanks Gary.

Green Grass and bumble bees

Monday evening was beautiful and the kids were still itching to play outside. Nev is braver now and crawls out into the large grassy area, instead of just crawling up and down the concrete stairs.... ( I like her in the grass much better). Zub played some mini football with Olea. I love this shot of him. Olea often is too excited about life to get a good picture of her. After time outside we had a lesson on Reverence for FHE (since Olea is having trouble with this again) and then made these sweet treats. Simple, DELICIOUS and cute. I got them via Morgan. We used large marshmallows sliced up for the wings.

Birds need a home too

though I like the sound of birds...
I do not like that they have a nest in the cornice of my house.... or that the cornice is at LEAST 20 feet up off the ground and I don't know where we are going to get a ladder for that....

So while I agree that Birds need a home too I do not want them to make their home in mine. There are some trees that are tall enough on the property, use them instead!

therapy

been feeling kinda overwhelmed lately. it could be my thyroid, it could be a semi interested potty trainer, it could be an almost 6 year old, it could be the let down after a miscarriage, it could be that I haven't been on a date in a LONG time (but silver lining: hubby and I are going out tonight) it could be lack of sleep, it could be Mother's day is coming up (now that I'm a mom, i think I hate this "holiday"), it could be life in general

So here's somethings that cheer me--

Edited the pics a little, uploaded them to costco, had them print 8x10s, picked them up while grocery shopping and then came home and replaced the other ones and rearranged the frames on the wall:
this is the best before pic I could find

and here's what it is now. I like it better. Small changes.
Gary also pried the extra stand off the back of the frames so now they sit against the wall the right way.

Olea's ladybug outfit for the Kindergarten Bug Ball:

I heat-n-bonded the spots on and then stitched around them all since Olea wanted it to wear for fun, not just once. She sure looks tall in this pic.

These pics reminds me of Alice in wonderland:

It's Nev playing with Olea's doll house.

Saturday Morning Music fun:

I love watching Gary play with the kids, I mean seriously, all of them are smiling, how is that not the best?

Zurich pushing Nev in the pram:

going on walks, is so therapeutic

And yes, even Gary and his new bow make me happy, because Gary is happy.

Pictures

So the other day Olea was having spring pictures at school. So I took the babies in, no risk right? I don't like the proof, I don't buy it. I can handle that. And it was over FAST. Which is good. But I didn't think they probably got a great one of Nev because she was so confused at what was going on. So I came home and realized the lighting in my bedroom was pretty dang awesome with all the windows and overcast sky. So, I used my butterfly blanket (thanks Cyndi) as a backdrop and tried to get some pics of the kids. Mainly Nev because she's one, and that's pretty cool. Zurich's, I had to edit the background, since purple is pretty uncool for a boy.

This is what I have to show for Seven years of Marriage:

I did one thing wrong (IMO) I forgot to set my camera on the higher pixels. So maybe next time. But these will do I think for now.

and ya, for half a second I thought about putting the three of them together... it turned out like this:

On wind, being a child and being a parent

Last night while laying in bed listening to the wind smack my windows and rattle the stove vent I recalled being a child, while my own children were sleeping soundly through it. I loved lightening storms and thunder, but wind scared me. This is probably due in part to the fact that when I was about 7 or 8 I was actually picked up off the ground by wind. That is a very helpless feeling. It might also be because of the movie The Wizard of Oz.

In any case I had all sorts of childish fears going through my head. The windows smashing in, our house being picked up, our house being torn apart and the babies being in the part that was ripped from our room and so on. And it brought to mind when I'd have nightmares as a child and going to my parent's room, being to afraid to wake them or the door would be locked. I would lay on the floor in front of their door, sometimes falling asleep, sometimes quietly whimpering or I was too cold and would eventually go back to bed. But It made me wonder if my parents ever tripped over me in the morning. None of my other siblings were ever at their door when I was, so I assume this was mine and mine alone. At this rate of imagination I was never going to be calm enough to sleep.

So when Zurich comes in our room and Gary groggily pulls him into bed with us I am still alert enough to notice that the little guy has a fever. I take him to his bed and grope for tylenol in the dark.

When this boy gets a fever, he gets it bad and he pukes. No fail. So shortly after administering Tylenol and trying to get him to eat a cracker he vomits. Then again after I had cast aside the affected sheets and pillows. Gary heard it and replaced bedding while I gave more Tylenol, changed jammies and soothed my little guy. Then I sat with him and waited in the dark, again listening to the torrential winds as I waited for his fever to go down. Finally at 2:45 I headed back to my bed to sleep.

How much will my children remember? Already how much do they remember? Gary often asks Olea things like if she remembers when she first visited Zurich, or the first time she went skiing or if she remembers the other places we used to live. For the most part she already doesn't.