Hibachi

We went to a hibachi restaurant to celebrate Liebs's graduation. It was our kids' first hibachi experience, and Juniper's reaction will come as no surprise to anyone who knows her.

2017 Christmas Pageant

Our kids are now among the oldest in the pageant. This year, Juniper graduated from the masses (angels, friendly beasts, and shepherds) to the role of Innkeeper's Daughter, and one of the narrators reading the story.

A not-so-friendly beast.

This is our family's 7th year participating in the UUCA pageant. 

I simultaneously feel sentimental about the kids' participation in the pageant and am really looking forward to when we will be done with it -- so sweet, and so boring at the same time!

Hazel's 7th birthday

Our kids value tradition more than novelty when it comes to birthday parties. Hazel has decided that birthday party = Death Star cake.

A good light saber battle is also part of the birthday tradition.

Star Wars all around! Easy to shop for someone who is so unwavering in her fandom.

In short, heart-smile-exclamation point

Sometimes appreciation comes from children, completely unexpected and unasked for, and it is so very sweet. I think we should all end more of our notes with heart-smile-exclamation points and the summary that, in short, we love all of you.

Christmas pageant

Friendly beasts, angels, and shepherds all illicitly stomping down the pews.

Too old for Baby Jesus, too young for a friendly beast...maybe next year, Fern.

Cutest sheep, ever. Hazel explained to me that the best thing about the pageant is that it lets her know when it's Christmas Eve.

Hazel insisted that the Storm Trooper tattoo on her forehead was fine, because her sheep mask would cover it up.

I guess the angels were more interesting than the action down below. Juniper was among the angels for the first time in this year's pageant. Apparently, she and Violet worked out a deal to rotate between angels and beasts each year, so that they can be together in the pageant. Forever. Juniper seems to think that she and Violet are on track to being the only middle-aged beasts/angels in the show.

Merry Christmas, sisters.

Our favorite kids, in one of our favorite places

Happy memories of a nice spring hike on Arabia Mountain.

Happy birthday!

Only 7 months late on posting photos from Juniper's birthday. Wonder when we'll share photos from Hazel's birthday party (last weekend) or actual birthday (this Friday)?

 For the second year in a row, she wanted a PJ birthday breakfast party with chocolate chip pancakes.

Happy crowd in a full house, with nose picking!

Some people might not realize what an awesome gift a chameleon tape dispenser is, but Juniper has a particular fondness for tape.

 Happy snuggles!

Juniper's friends and family know her well. She was delighted to receive a big pile of books.

Do not enter

Juniper, Hazel, Violet, Henry, and Luke were up to some important, no grown-ups allowed business. You may need to zoom in to see it, but one of those boxes is covered with "No" signs.

The walls came down later that evening. I can't remember why we thought it was a good idea for everyone to get ready for bed at our house, but I believe at one point all five kids were in the bath together. Chaos!

Double trouble

Two girls, each missing two front teeth, are just too cute together. It's nice of them to hit this particularly photographic milestone at the same time.

We're back!

It's been a fun and busy summer. We went swimming in the Clarkston pool (lots) and at Lake Jackson (once), took a Honeycutt family vacation to Chattanooga, celebrated birthdays (Aaron and Sally), slept late, read good books, hung out with friends, got mosquito bites, marveled at lightning bugs, ate cherry tomatoes from our own garden and ice cream from just about every establishment anywhere nearby, played board games, got fed up with one another, built giant block towers, made up and snuggled with one another, ran in the sprinkler, went for hikes, hid in the house because it was too darn hot (or rainy), participated in the library summer reading program, argued about the application of sunscreen (but avoided sunburn), and enjoyed lots of lazy days together.

You'll see photos of some of these things in future blog posts, but much of what made our summer so fun were the low-key days that no one thought to photograph. Hope you enjoyed your summer too.

New Year's Eve

This year, for the first time, Juniper and Violet were allowed to stay up as late as they wanted on New Year's Eve. Both girls made it to midnight--exhausted, but hanging in there.

"But, Dad..."

Summer reflections

Not at all seasonal, but here are some photos of Juniper enjoying summertime activities with her friends.

Happy Birthday, Jason

Early November is a busy birthday season for our family, with Jason on the 2nd, Dan on the 5th, and Hazel on the 6th.

If you look closely, you can see where Hazel served herself some pie ahead of schedule. The poor kid didn't realize she was doing something wrong and was somewhat traumatized when four separate adults simultaneously yelled out for her to stop as soon as we saw her digging into the pie.

 Even dragons like pumpkin pie.

Fun Day at Fernbank (the Sr. edition)

Going to Fernbank with Juniper and Violet is now a really different museum experience than what we've had over the past few years. The girls are now old enough to...

...listen attentively for the full duration of the live animal show.

...read all the signs and enthusiastically try to answer their questions.

...interact with the science exhibits as more than just neat flashy things.

Happy Birthday, Violet

She turned six a couple of months ago, and she just lost her first tooth. What a big girl!

Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend we went to a pumpkin patch with several UUCA families. Of course, there were scads of pumpkins...

 ...and wagons (for pumpkins or kids)

 ...and a fire pit. Moving stones and logs from point A to point B kept the kids mostly occupied...

 ...while we waited...

 ...for a hayride!



We got to feed goats, cows, geese, a pony...

...and catfish!

Juniper was inspired by the prices written on the pumpkins. When we got home she covered our pumpkins with equations and proclaimed, "They're math pumpkins!" The nerd is strong with this one.

Quotable Kids

[After Juniper explained that it's more fun to hang out with just Leo, or just Thomas, but not both at the same time]
Sally: Why?
Juniper: Because there's less chaos. When there's all the kids, sometimes there's just too much chaos. All three is the most chaos, and just Leo is less chaos or just Thomas is less chaos. And just me is no chaos.
S: I don't know, Juniper. You can get up to some chaos even when it's just you.
J: Yeah, but I like my chaos. And Leo likes just his chaos. And Thomas likes just his chaos. [pause] You know, there is one thing. We do all like to play superheroes.


Henry: Can I have the scissors when you're done?
Hazel: You don't have to keep asking because I'm gonna be done soon.


Juniper: Are you going to say any more bad words? Like idiot?


Hazel [spotting a convertible]: Look! It's a car with no lid!!


Violet: I'm going to spy on you!
Juniper: Then I'm going to stay close to my mom all day.
Violet: That will make it easier for me to spy on you!


Violet: I've got some lettuce because we got to pick lettuce and bring it home!
Sally: Did you also pick some lettuce Juniper?
Juniper: Yes, but I think my lettuce and Violet's got mixed up.
V: No, you just accidentally lost yours.
J: Ooo-oh, right!!!


Juniper: [petulantly] Well then I won't be happy for the rest of the day!!!
Violet: I don't think that's true?


[After Juniper passed some hand-me-down shoes on to Violet.]
Sally: You and Juniper have kind of different styles of clothes that you like to wear.
Violet: I like kind of fashion clothes.
Juniper: And I like superhero clothes!


[While trying to get Juniper to clean up the living room]
J: There's so much fun stuff to do, I just feel like I should do it now, instead of later.
[Half an hour later, the time spent reading a dinosaur book}
J: There's a lot to do when you can't concentrate, or don't want to.


Juniper: Vocabulary is a place to store the words you like.


Sally: Can you tell me about that picture you were drawing with the crayons?
Hazel: No.
S: Ms. Lonnette said that you and Henry both had something to say about your pictures, and I already heard Henry tell me about his picture. I'm very interested in your picture.
H: It's not interesting. It's boring.


Juniper: Well, then, let's play library where you read and read and read.

I Spy...

6 different items from the dress-up bin,

3 blankets pulled off the girls' bed and into the playroom,

1 red plastic potty,

1 cardboard box that is thankfully stronger than I would have expected,

2 reckless girls,

2 adoring younger siblings, and

1 green balloon.

Summer vacation

We just finished a terrific vacation week! Our vacation started with a visit from Aaron's sister Rebecca. She came down for a long weekend, and the girls were delighted to spend time with their beloved Aunt Becca. (The grown-ups also enjoyed her visit!)

 

We went up to Chattanooga, where the girls had a great time at the Ross's Landing Park. The highlight of the park is a long staircase with water running down into a large wading pool at the bottom. The entire water feature overlooks and is fed by the Tennessee River.

 The girls also enjoyed getting to play in the hotel room. We had adjoining rooms, and they were endlessly delighted by the ability to open up the interior door and go back and forth between our room and Janet and Rebecca's room.

We rode the Incline Railway, described as the world's steepest passenger railway, up to the top of Lookout Mountain.
 

After our day in Chattanooga, Janet returned to Clarkston, Rebecca went home to Chicago, and our family met the Delaneys for a few days in the aptly named Cloudland Canyon State Park. Our cabin was just a few minutes' walk from this amazing view of the canyon.

The kids loved having so much time to play and have fun together. We spent a lot of time around the cabin listening to the happy din (and occasional shrieking arguments) of kids running around being kids. One of their favorite activities was playing train with camp chair seats, frisbee steering wheels, and sticks for tickets.

Roasting marshmallows for s'mores was also a big hit! Violet patiently held her marshmallows not-too-close to the fire and waited for perfection on each and every one; even the mildest suggestion of char, ash, or other imperfection relegated the blemished marshmallow to the fire. Juniper enthusiastically and impatiently waved her stick around, burning some marshmallows, nearly hitting people in the face with others, and enjoying the whole process. (Note where the girls' sticks are pointing in this photo.) Hazel slowly and deliberately ate her s'mores with a gourmet's intense relish of a rare and amazing delicacy. Henry enjoyed the evening's activities indiscriminately, with apparently equal glee in the s'mores, plain marshmallows, camp chairs, frisbees, and sticks.

The kids observed mushrooms, frogs, flowers, slugs, lizards, moss, lichen, leaves, and bugs of all sorts.

For the most part, they were really good sports on our longest hike. The most popular part of our hike was probably this area with giant boulders where we stopped for lunch.

But they are still pretty young and small. We set off on a 2.5 mile loop, well stocked with snacks, lunch, and plenty of water. About 1 mile in, we came to an intersection and realized that we should take the easy half mile of road back to our cabin, not the 1.5 miles of trail that we had originally intended. I suppose one mile of trail plus a half mile of paved road isn't bad for two year olds!

All in all, a very fun trip! The girls told me this morning that they would like to go back to Chattanooga and stay in a cabin tonight, or maybe tomorrow. I told them we'd go back sometime, but not today or tomorrow. They agreed that later this week would also be acceptable.

For more photos from the trip, check out this gallery on Aaron's website.