All Saints Day Dress Rehearsal: Audrey

The Book of Genesis

The kids had a half day yesterday. For some reason, Audrey decide to use some of her extra time making a booklet retelling the story of Adam and Eve:

I love these early attempts at spelling:

Wons a pon time = Once upon a time

And I'm sorry, but the strategically placed bird just makes me laugh. Why go for a boring old fig leaf? Also, God made him out of sand?

I skipped to the last page...there was a lot more about the "rool" breaking, but you get the idea. I also made the mistake of asking her why the cherubim with the flaming sword had no face. She gave me a pitying look and said, "Mom, don't you know angels don't have bodies?" Touche, Audrey.

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.