She takes needless risks...

We had a couple of beautiful walks to the beach the first days of our Scituate trip.

The sun was shining, the kids were running around, climbing on the rocks and exploring. We were all chatting and catching up and relaxing.

The first day, I was fully expecting Audrey to be unable to restrain herself from splashing into the waves and getting wet. I had an image in my mind of a trip we had taken to California in chilly weather and watching Luke walk up the street from the beach holding a completely soaked Audrey by the hand, who trudged along shivering cheerfully under an extra 15lbs or so of sodden sweater and jeans.

 

So I was pretty proud of her when she didn't even get a sneaker wet on the first day. 

What can I say? I let my guard down. Look at me on the second day: relaxed and smiling like a fool.

You know who never lets her guard down where Audrey is concerned? Lili. She came up to me as the kids climbed around and I  chatted away and said in a low but urgent voice. "You might want to stay close to Audrey...she takes needless risks."

Hindsight is 20/20 and all that...I'm sorry to say I brushed off her concern and we all started to walk home.

Five minutes later Audrey caught up to us, Papa's handkerchief pressed to her chin and blood splattered all over her hoodie. Audrey's main concern: (not a needle full of lidocaine or hours wasted in the ER) how she would look at the wedding. That's my Audrey!

I shouldn't have been surprised...it's not a real vacation without a trip to the ER, but a few hours and five stitches later all was well again.

The rest of our trip was a blast, and Lili had the grace and decency not to tell me "I told you so."

I'm sure she was thinking it.

Scituate! In the Spring!

Last week, the whole entire Bird fam congregated in Scituate for Bowker's wedding. We hadn't all been together for two years, so it was amazing! It seems like there was too much packed into just a few short days to compose a coherent blog post, so here is a smattering of photos...

  I haven't been back to Scituate in the spring in over a decade. It seemed a little chilly after the triple digit heat we were leaving behind, but it was so beautiful. We got to enjoy my mom's garden with a whole new cast of characters than we usually see: gorgeous tulips and daffodils and lilies of the valley.  Here's the view from the hammock on the porch. Not too shabby.

The cherry tree dropped some extra lovely blossoms on the grass one day...

Kateri spent a lot of time on the "wope swing" she's been talking about since last summer.

 

The real treat, of course, was seeing all of the cousins getting to spend some quality time together. These two were inseperarable. I kept trying to steal cozy Evie away, but she perferred Lili.

Kateri was in heaven with so many playmates.

The wedding itself was so beautiful. The groom has always held such a special place in our hearts, and it looks like he hit the jackpot where spouses are concerned. It just warms the heart to see how happy these two are.

It went by too fast! I have a whole slew of beach photos, but I think I'll save them for another post.

Basketball, spring break, and other ramblings...

The kids just started school again after spring break. The break itself went by all too fast, as usual. Audrey seems to be having a little trouble getting back into the swing of things. Yesterday she sat down at the kitchen table to do her spelling. 30 seconds later she came and found me:

"Mom, I'm not going to do my homework tonight."

"What? Why?"

"I'm just not going to do it."

Lucky for me, Hermione Lili overheard this conversation and bounded into the room to deliver a lecture on work ethic to her little sister. It was hard not to giggle as she warned Audrey about how laziness now would affect her "later in life," but honestly, sometimes it is nice to have someone else do the lecturing for a while.

Speaking of my dear firstborn, her first season of basketball just ended. It was such a great experience for her to be introduced to the game with such a great group of girls from school. One of her classmate's dads and a VDM alum volunteered to do the coaching, and they really did a fantastic job.

Uncle Cole even made it out to watch the last game, which was actually against some pretty intense rivals. Our girls made it out with only a knocked out dental bracket and a broken pair of glasses, so I guess we should consider ourselves lucky.

The other sibling were riveted spectators, of course.

A nice blurry team shot....they won their last game, which was a great way to end!

An even blurrier shot of our post game Frozen Yogurt outing.

Lili's growing up way too fast...I took her shoe shopping for new spring sandals and she is now a woman's size seven (sob)

But she still spontaneously holds my hand in the mall (double sob)

Hopefully we have a little bit of time left together before everything I do or say humiliates her.

Easter 2012

Just a few shots of our Easter Sunday this year. It was a pretty relaxing day...up at 6:30 assembling Legos left by the Easter Bunny, Mass, a nice brunch with Steve and Cindy and an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard with Abby in the lovely Phoenix sunshine.

Sense and Sensibility and Easter Eggs

The girls and I dyed Easter Eggs today, which always makes me wish my mom was here, because no one loves making a colorful mess with kids more than Nanny.
But actually, we didn't really make a mess today. Maybe it is because Kateri is three and a half and I didn't need to be constantly worrying about someone knocking over everything or drinking the dye, but the whole episode was very calm. So calm, in fact, that I was able to sit back and observe yet again the contrast of Lili and Audrey's personalities. I should have named them Elinor and Marianne.

Every kid gets a limited number of eggs to dye, so Lili sits back, takes inventory of her eggs, compares and contrasts the respective merits of each dye bath, form a plan of attack, and then slowly and methodically carries out that plan.

Audrey just starts throwing eggs in whatever cup is closest, pulling them out again just as quickly, experimenting with different techniques, inadvertently mixing colors, laughing at her stained fingers, and generally stressing Lili out with her recklessness.

After 15 minutes, all of Audrey's eggs are done and drying. Lili only has two finished. She continues to stretch out and savor the experience for an hour or so, after which time she carefully makes a nest of tissue paper and arranges her eggs inside it. They look very nice, stashed prudently in the fridge.

Audrey's eggs are still in their soggy, stained carton outside. Most of them are a total mess...

...but a few happy mistakes are gorgeous.

Maybe there is a method to her madness.
And Kateri?

Kateri was just thrilled to be along for the ride.

Just Taking Advantage

of the beautiful weather...

...and cheap child labor.

Ponyo

I have been a terrible terrible blogger lately. I'm going to chalk it up to first trimester ennui. All I want to do is curl up and gestate.
I saw this image recently and related with it so completely:

Anyway, we are very excited to have a new addition in the fall. Some of us are more excited than others...I detect a little ambivalence in little Kateri, who I think is excited to be a big sister, but senses that she is going to be kicked out of the baby spot. There is no ambivalence, however, in her preference for baby names. She is 100% convinced that the baby is a girl and will be named Ponyo, from the Hayao Miyazaki film:
I guess it fits with the image created in her little brain by my inept and probably confusing attempts to explain the baby at this stage of development.

Audrey is going for full-blown Catholic names. Her favorite at the moment is Philomena: (they had a priest from St. Philomena's shrine in Italy come speak to them this year at school, so she has been on Audrey's radar ever since.

Hopefully she won't start campaigning for St. Ergnand or St. Sexburga (they are real...look them up!)

For now, we are calling the baby Ponyo (mostly due to Kateri's very vocal protestation when anyone dares to suggest something different.)

Luckily we have until September to figure it out.

We're open to suggestions.