They really love each other.

We had family portraits taken back in February but it took forever to get the picture cd back and then it took forever to upload them. But here is a short sampling. Charlotte was two and a half months old, Madoc is three and a half, and Sadie was five (almost six).

THE Birthday Party

Once Sadie entered Kindergarten, birthday party invites started pouring in. Sadie has been talking about her birthday party for months so I decided to oblige her. This was her first really big party and I think we'll keep them rare.

We went with an art theme since Sadie loves all things crafty and artsy.
The Set Up




The Friends
The Activities
Face PaintingSelf-portraitsWatercolor Still Lifes

The Food

Quote of the Day

The kids have built a boat out of chairs and couch cushions. They've been bugging me all day to put their baby sister in the boat with them. In frustration I told them, "Charlotte is not a toy! I am not putting her in the boat!"

Madoc's reply, "We know Charlotte isn't a toy. We just want to play with her!"

Birthday Wishes

Have you ever seen a more pathetic attempt at blowing out candles?

Someone had a birthday!

That's right! Someone is now six years old (and has been for several weeks now). Since my life is consumed with trying to feed Charlotte, I haven't posted about our birthday festivities.

Sadie and Neil always want cheesecake. And that's fine because cheesecake is delicious but I want cake! We took cupcakes to her class that day so Madoc and I got to enjoy a little birthday cake. We had sausage and bean soup the night before and potato casserole (with pork chops, etc.) for her dinner proper. She always requests such funny things for her birthday dinner.

I think she was quite pleased with all of her gifts. She got everything she had asked for, especially the new watch that she's been asking me to buy for the past two months.

More birthday party to come later!

The Woes of Being Six

This is a girl whose life is in danger. In her words, she's dying from homework. Apparently, one complication of death by homework is that you can simultaneously die from salad. I had no idea six year olds could be so melodramatic - or that lettuce could be so cruel.

When her brother spilled his water and some of it splashed on her she went wicked witch of the west on us and started screaming about her brother making her life horrible. Her pouting and inarticulate growls had us entertained through the first half of dinner.

I don't think she was as amused as we were.

Pillow Fight

Pillow fights have a long and storied tradition in our house. One of Neil's and Sadie's favorite games after she learned to walk was for her to toddle around the living room while he tried to knock her down by throwing pillows at her. It sounds abusive but she loved it. While Sadie never has been very interested in throwing the pillows back, Madoc takes the game seriously, sneaking up on Neil while he's sitting on the couch with a pillow in hand.

This morning after one such attack, Madoc decided to give Neil a chance to fight back. Handing Neil a pillow and keeping one for himself he said:

"Daddy, you count to four and I'll count to one."

Yes, that's much more sporting.

It isn't always greener on the other side...

A few weeks ago my yard started out looking like this:

By day's end it looked like this:

Neil worked long and hard that Friday to get everything finished. I tried to help but I was pretty much useless as the sod was too heavy for me to move. We had already put in the irrigation last year and Neil's been working all winter to drop the grade below the level of the fieldstone so that the grass would be even with it in the end. So that morning he moved more dirt, added sand, peat moss, sulfur, phosphorus, and gypsum, then rototilled the whole yard. After he leveled it off and passed the lawn roller over it a few times, he started laying down the sod. I helped trim and cut pieces around the fieldstone, trees, etc. I became very good at sawing through sod! I also helped water down the 1000 sq ft of sod sitting on our driveway. At the end of the day Neil was exhausted and I think we practically fell into bed. But now our backyard is green!