July 2011

It is summer vacation and the kids are bored.  (Mom, all you do is sleep all day!)
The girls wanted to make stuffed toys.  We found patterns and fabric.  Look how they turned out.

Emily's dog was made out of a scrap of fake fur.  Miriam's cat is from an old bath towel.  The girls stuffed them with leftover pieces of batting from quilt projects, and found eyes and noses at the craft store.

When you have what seems like 100 pieces of chalk, it is easy to run out of room quickly.

Adam is so proud of his design!

Thanks to rain, we had to postpone lighting 4th of July fireworks for two days.

For my kids, the best part of fireworks is sparklers,

and the best part of sparklers,

is watching my 3-year old wave her sparkler frantically while saying, "Mom!  I freak out!"  Oh the phrases they learn from older sisters!

These three sure love each other!

This month our family was introduced to a new insult.  Joshua has coined the phrase, "you're a pancake."  He uses it to insult people who offend him.  It's a lot better than "idiot," or "stupid-head."  (use of those phrases earns you a piece of paper and a pencil with which you are required to write as many nice things about the person you called "idiot" as you are years old.)  We have to try really hard not to laugh when Joshua calls us pancakes because it only offends him more, and results in him chanting, "you're a pancake,  you're a pancake, you're a pancake."

and I can't forget to include this gem!  One Sunday I was making breakfast when two bad guys ran through the kitchen dressed in eye patches and carrying swords.

they were being chased by their little sister swinging a plastic frying pan...
Her favorite movie is Tangled, but a close second is Star Wars.  Olivia can sing the Darth Vader theme - in a high soprano register - while she dances around the house.

Joshua has been practicing.  He found a blue ball that someone ripped in half.  Inside, he put his sister's huge dress-up ring.  Around the house he goes, asking every female the same question, "Can you marry me?"
(Olivia has been practicing too - she says yes!)

It's Michael's birthday!  Yes, one candle equals thirty-eight because thirty-eight candles in a small raspberry cheesecake is too destructive.  Yes, this is the best smile I can get.

And the pie theme for birthdays continues because this pregnant mom is so very tired and queasy all the time.  Good thing the family prefers pie.  By the way, here I am 4 months pregnant.