Memorial Weekend: only 3 more visits to the farm until my parents move

I am not talking about my parents moving from their farm, where I grew up, hell, where my dad grew up.  I am not talking about how I will never see it again or how my kids won't grow up playing in the woods, splashing in the stream, running barefoot in the soft grass.  Not yet.

Just enjoy the pics.

Imma gonna have to find a new favorite
background for family pictures!

Girl after my own heart LOVED playing in the water, flipping
over rocks looking for creatures and getting muddy

bench in the woods by the stream

All things are good in moderation, including rain

The weatherperson on the news said that this is our 5th straight weekend with rain and, on this 21st day of the month, we are having our 18th day of rain this month.  The high today, in the last third of May in Virginia, is 55 degrees.  It feels like the school year is never going to end, perhaps because we don't finish until June 16th, but also, perhaps, because it feels like early March and I am still teaching in sweaters and closed shoes, not cute tops and sandals.

We push the kids outside to play in-between rainy times, but often all they can do is ride bikes on the driveway because the yard is a muddy mess.

I love rain.  I could appreciate and be happy with rain 1 or 2 times per week.  It means that I have to drag out the hose and water the gardens less.  It means soft green grass.  It means puddles that kids can jump into and cuddly times inside doing inside things together.  I am worried that once this rainy season finally ends, we won't see rain the rest of the summer as our grass turns brown and crunchy and I am hosing down the plants every other day.

Moderation.

Anyhow, enough complaints about the weather.  I promise I won't complain when it is too hot.

The picture below was taken yesterday, on one of our 3 dry days.
Can you find the bookworm?

Hint:  the bookworm is not the little guy on the right

There she is:

Juney B Jones wasn't around when I was
this age, but I know I did read in trees a lot.
I love this girl!!

Easter and Spring Break

For Easter, the Grandparents came.  Then, as a special treat, they watched the kids for 3 days while Lar and I took our first child-free trip (longer than 3 hours) since Abigail was 2.5.  They missed us and cried when we called, so we stopped calling and enjoyed our vacation!

Cherry blossoms came VERY EARLY this year.
Then they were killed in a frost and it has been freezing cold very since.

Little man is SO excited to find plastic eggs

Egg-dyeing fun, which actually happened about
2 weeks after Easter.  Better late than never, right?

Very excited about Easter baskets

Mama and Baba enjoying some time on vacay.

April Update

April in pictures:

Our Little Book Worm, reading after
lights out

We took the kids to Lantern Asia at Norfolk Botanical
Gardens.  Due to Friday afternoon traffic and a few accidents,
it took over 4 HOURS to get there, but the kids watched a few
DVDs in our new van, had Chick fil a, and were super happy

It may look pretty, but it was SO freezing cold.
We packed pjs in the car so that we could change the kids for
the drive home and carry their sleeping selves into the
house.  It turns out, we are so glad we had the extra layers to put
under their other clothes and help keep them warm!

The family Ox: honest, hardworking, independent
and courageous.

Loyal and opinionated, the family horse

They say dragons are extremely adaptable, conquer evil, and leave
the world in peace.  Our littlest dragon seems to leave the
world in chaos, but he is extremely adaptable.  Our big dragon has
another trait:  high aspirations for ones self.

Boy and Mama

It was a very beautiful night.

Fujisan 

I told the kids that they have too many stuffies.
They said no.
I gathered all that I could find (and I know some were
missing) and the total was 69.  

Joseph started swimming lessons
and Abigail picked up with
her skills where she left off last summer.

We Have a New Hiker in the Family

We took Abigail on her first real hike. The weather was a great teaser of spring and we had the day off. Abigail has been on some small trails and had an okay time, but today she got to really experience some great hiking.  I found a trail that was not quite an hour away and it had everything:  cool views, bouldering, waterfalls, streams.  Abigail, who delighted in the fact that we began to call her our little Billie Goat as she hopped, sprinted, and skipped around the trail for 2 hours, is such a joyful kid.  It was amazing to spend all day with her and we know she loved having both parents all to herself.  She is an incredible person!

Year of the Fire Monkey

Gōngxǐ fācái

(That's said "gong sshee faa-tseye")

From my two little monkeys.  (Technically, their Chinese zodiac animals are NOT monkeys, but they certainly are my little monkeys.)  

The Bah-Humbug of Valentine's Day

My husband and I have never believed in Valentine's Day.  Not even a little bit. It is a big marketing ploy and (before we had kids) we frequently went on dates without any commercial holiday telling us when to do so. (I understand that exchanging Valentines is not a modern invention either, as it dates back several hundred years, but even within my lifetime, it has warped into absolute craziness.)

But now that I have kids, my soapbox is a little taller and my bullhorn a little louder.
I completely abhor Valentine's Day. 



This is because Valentine's Day is the new Halloween.  Kids have to exchange Valentines under the pretense that it helps them practice their handwriting. (This is what their teachers tell us.) We Gen-Xers did that too, 30 years ago, but we exchanged stupid paper things that we threw away when we got home. The modern child, however, exchanges Valentines made of candy, attached to candy, wrapped around candy, or just affixed to gruesome red treat bags full of candy.

I understand that I am not the only person who doesn't want their kid all hopped up on sugar, but my reason goes far deeper than that.

My kids' baby teeth formed and began to erupt through their gums while they were in orphanages. While their peers in families were slurping down milk, formula, and breast milk, both of my children were given warm sugar water in bottles. They received formula too, but it was cut; it was maybe half-strength. While their peers in families were exploring new foods like steamed spinach, small bites of chicken and mashed banana, by kiddos were eating watery rice and still more warm sugar water. This means that we have a huge struggle to keep our children from developing cavities. Between them, they are already up to 7. And we brush. And we floss. But we are not working with the strongest enamel so when someone thinks it is appropriate to give Starburst to 2 and 3 year olds, I want to go a little nuts.

This means that I'm the bad guy. I'm the one who goes through their bags when they get home, tossing the Starburst, Skittles and Fun Dip in the trash. I am the mean mama who has to tell my kids that they can't eat the 3 pounds of sticky sugar they just brought home for a holiday that has uncontrollably morphed from martyred Christians to hand-written letters between lovers to mass-produced chintz. So out went the last of the Halloween candy, Christmas candy, and today's cache because, don't look now, but Easter is going to be here before you know it and we have 2 more cavities to get filled before then.