lately

Lately I've been a terrible blogger, so here's what we've been up to. We celebrated Uncle Steve's birthday with what looks like a blowtorch instead of candles. Luke has become successful at bypassing Abby's fear of him by bribing her with his iPhone. She even will snuggle up with him on the couch in order to play with it...

...but it only lasts so long.

Luke's fanaticism about his winter lawn has reached new heights this year. He trained a hawk to patrol the back yard and keep the pigeons and sparrows from eating his preciou rye seed. Just kidding, this guy just happened to show up on the lawn, but at least he kept the birds away for a little while.

We are busy making costumes for Halloween and the kids' All Saints Day presentations. For Halloween, we are carrying on our movie theme tradition with the Burch fam. This year it's How to Train Your Dragon, so all of the kids are going to be Vikings. Nanny even sent a big box of fun fabric for this purpose, which included my grandmother's old mink stole. I am not usually squeamish about things like this, but it grosses me out big time. There is something about its beady little eyes and dangling paws that makes me shudder. Kateri loves it as long as you don't try to drape it around her chubby little shoulders. Then she freaks out, as well she should.

She calls it "The Wolf."

Fall sports are in full swing. Kateri and Audrey are "playing" soccer. Kateri much prefers the cooler evening practices to the hot Saturday morning games, where she burns out after about ten minutes and wanders the field aimlessly; pink cheeked and dejected-looking. Her coach told us, "yeah, Kateri practices a bit better than she plays." It's true.

Lili started playing volleyball this year. There are actually enough girls for VDM to have its own team, which is wonderful. The girls were so adorably surprised that they had their first win last Saturday.

We went out to dinner to celebrate the girls' good report cards and reminded ourselves why we never let our kids drink soda. Seriously, look at Audrey's face. That's what root beer does to kids...

Kateri didn't have the soda excuse...she was just being a goofball.

Be careful

when you're sneaking up on a little witch doing her homework.

They startle easily. (Or at least they pretend to)

You should probably skip this post if you're not Nanny.

It's just another video of Kateri singing a song.
She picked this one up from Audrey, who learned it in religion class and sang it over and over again for about two and a half weeks. When she stopped, Kateri started...




"Matthew, Judas, Philip, Bartholomew, Andrew, Thomas, Simon, Jude
James and John and James and Peter the Rock, these are the Apostle's names.
Jesus called the Twelve Apostles and He calls us just the same
When we hear the voice of Jesus, the Lord, then we listen for our name. "


With this on repeat in one way or another all month, I think it's safe to say that none of us will ever forget one of the Apostles names again.

Just me and you

School started two weeks earlier than usual this year. The big girls are already well into their routine, and now that Audrey is at school full-day, it's just me and Kateri. All day long. Although we miss her big sisters, it has actually been quite lovely having some one-on-one time with my just-turned three year old. It's nice to lavish some extra attention on her, especially since, (in an example of the characteristic neglect endured by third-born children,) I forgot to charge my camera battery and so we have no pictures of her birthday.

For now, she's my little helper around the house, and we get to read books in bed and play dozens of rounds of hide-and-go-seek. Every time I tell her it's time to go run an errand she asks with a big smile, "Me and you?"

I'm so grateful for this time with my happy little Kateri. Just me and you.

Of course, we are still pretty excited when 3:45 rolls around and these two show up...

Our Scituate Summer: Audrey

On to my water baby:

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Audrey is still completely enamoured with the ocean. She is still the first one in the water and the last one out. Her m.o. was to inch farther and farther out until she was "accidentally" well over her head and I called her back in.

The only time she would voluntarily take a break was seconds before hypothermia set in and she was forced to lay like a lizard on the rocks and recharge.

This summer her boogie boarding skills really took off, and her fearlessness was a mixed blessing...watch out Kateri! Her enthusiasm and confidence rubbed off on her older sister, though, and they both became much more proficient. We had some great waves at the end of our stay from a storm offshore and she was pummelled and smashed to her heart's content.

I'm thinking of sending her to Fiji to live with Uncle Cole, who I am sure could introduce her to some real waves.

Oh my Audrey, God has certainly blessed her with an abundance of, how should I put it? Spunk? Verve? Moxie?

And boy did we see it this summer. It is growing more and more apparent to me that my challenge as her mother is going to lie in harnessing it for the power of good.

Pray for me.

Please.

As you can see from the above picture, she needs no coaching to strike a sassy pose, yet somehow manages to ruin many of our group shots with crazy faces:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Anyway, when we wrung the saltwater out of her, she enjoyed many of our favorite summertime traditions...Pony rides at the Farmers' Market...

...the carousel...

...and breakfast at the lighthouse.

There is never a dull moment when Audrey is around. I think Nanny put it best when I turned to her in exasperation after a display of particularly baffling intense emotion:

"She's just got a fire in her belly..."

So, like I said, pray for me. And if you can spare a prayer for her First Grade teacher while you're at it, that would be great.

Our Scituate Summer: Lili

I'm faced with a rather daunting number of photos from our vacation this year, so I decided to break up the memories by child...

... I'll start with my eldest...see that lone figure up on the jetty? That's Lili, and it's kind of the enduring image I have of her from this trip. My mom made this astute observation partway through the trip: "Lili is desperate for a little independence. And you need to give it to her." To which my immediate, knee-jerk response was "WHAT? No I don't! I need to keep her safe in arms-reach beside me always for the rest of her life." But, as my mom is a very wise woman, and as the fictional character I relate the most to is Marlin from "Finding Nemo," I took a deep breath and handed her the keys to my parents mailbox two houses down.

But seriously, Scituate is the perfect place to assert a little independence as a child; the beach offers a feeling of freedom you just can't get anywhere else in the world, and my parents' safe, idyllic little neighborhood makes you feel as though you've stepped back in time. Watching kids Lili and Audrey's ages biking to their morning lessons with their life preservers and tennis rackets slung over the handlebars drives home how lucky we are to live there for a few weeks out of the year.

So yes, my beautiful Lili is growing up right in front of our eyes.

It was so nice to have this time with her before school takes her back.With Kateri being old enough for longer stints at the beach, the two older girls spent hours and hours in the water.

Mostly boogie boarding...
On the morning of her birthday (her NINTH birthday...how did this happen?!?!) Luke and I took her to breakfast down at the harbor, just the three of us, which was a treat.

Her birthday gift from my parents was a week of sailing lessons. It was quite the adventure (for me as much as for her) and culminated with her taking Audrey and Nanny for an evening sail around the harbor to show off her new skills.

After reading a couple of biographies of Abigail Adams, she asked to go the John Adams National Park for her birthday. I think Nanny and I enjoyed it just as much as she did, if not more. The roses Abigail brought home from England are still in the garden at Peacefield.
We had some great cousin time with the Dallas Birds, and Lili is just as much a baby-stealer as ever... sweet little Evie was especially tempting.

Thankfully, she is not too grown up to ride the carousel in Hull. The day that she opts out of that particular tradition will truly be a dark one.

My hydrangea girl is pretty happy here

Her favorite flowers are bursting all over the place.

Nanny refuses to trip back the ones that flank the walk to the front porch, and Audrey loves wading through them.

I think the blue ones are my favorite, too.

They are pretty spectacular.