Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Holiday vacation time
Christmas Lego set...a novel open on the table...cookie dough smears...yes, it is that time of year.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
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!
Friday, December 12, 2014
Bowling Birthday Party
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Hazel's 4th Birthday
Hazel began the day with a present from Juniper.
Henry skipped preschool and spent the morning at Leapin' Lizards with Hazel.
Chocolate ice cream sundaes--Hazel's requested birthday dessert.
Opening presents...
...a light-up morning star!
Hazel loves weapons. I'm so glad it is our second child who has an interest in weapons, warriors, and warfare. If it had been Juniper, I think I would have fretted about What It Means and worried that her interest may suggest some dark tendency toward violence or aggression. Instead, I've been able to watch other parents deal with those worries and realize what it means is that kids like powerful stuff.
Happy birthday, little warrior.
[At the risk of being overly pedantic, I was checking to see whether it's morning star or morningstar, and I learned that this particular weapon is actually a one-handed flail. The morning star is a club-like weapon with no chain.]
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Thank you, Farmer Joe
Apparently, the best way to get my children to eat carrots is to serve them still attached to their tops. Juniper and Hazel started devouring these carrots the moment we got them. The carrots were gloriously celebrated as the The Most Delicious Carrots Ever. The few carrots that made it home were eventually cut up into carrot sticks, which the girls dismissed as nothing special.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Fern faces
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
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.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Camping!
We recently went on our first camping trip since having kids. We had a fantastic time and are wondering why we waited so long to get the kids into a tent. (Many thanks to Katie for the hand-me-down grown-up tent!)
Our campsite was next to Lake Hartwell. We had a lovely view and a great spot for the kids to play.
We were expecting cold weather, but when the day turned out warm and sunny, the lack of bathing suits didn't stop the kids from enjoying the lake.
Juniper was excited that some of the other parents on the trip fish. No one caught anything, but Juniper enjoyed learning how to cast.
A gaggle of kids, getting ready for s'mores!
Happy family by the campfire.
Eli brought glow bracelets, which delighted the kids and made them easy to spot at night. Juniper was especially proud of following the instructions to make the amazing glow ball all by herself.
Sunrise by the lake...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-PrnGR1v0xkyJBP-fhnpK1QSZXHdlZYXUssH6h5vk0sW1GW-jsB-4C8xAI5ZfKse_qaoVLR854Jj0wsheh-vXxjVF-uOAkezY3Ne7HQKKZcXFahV3V3E4aWcSUhdPh2xK-kymE9O2Ik/s400/DSCF5010.jpg)
...documented by two family photographers.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMmV8tTdznCU04BmqaYy40I6pC-ymTZTJ3VP1DFgEAgtF59otQHgCDskgD9TKbEBHfHjAApt_BAjTfqB-pTiRz9t1009XvYmKd_esRgaW-tCS1u9ZSUkrdynTNwVxP4UyRFv_Yo6fXKBs/s400/DSCF4916.jpg)
Happy, happy girl. We're looking forward to the next camping trip.
More after the jump if you haven't seen enough photos of smiling girls by the lake. (Click Read more at the bottom of the post.)
Our campsite was next to Lake Hartwell. We had a lovely view and a great spot for the kids to play.
We were expecting cold weather, but when the day turned out warm and sunny, the lack of bathing suits didn't stop the kids from enjoying the lake.
Juniper was excited that some of the other parents on the trip fish. No one caught anything, but Juniper enjoyed learning how to cast.
A gaggle of kids, getting ready for s'mores!
Happy family by the campfire.
Eli brought glow bracelets, which delighted the kids and made them easy to spot at night. Juniper was especially proud of following the instructions to make the amazing glow ball all by herself.
Sunrise by the lake...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-PrnGR1v0xkyJBP-fhnpK1QSZXHdlZYXUssH6h5vk0sW1GW-jsB-4C8xAI5ZfKse_qaoVLR854Jj0wsheh-vXxjVF-uOAkezY3Ne7HQKKZcXFahV3V3E4aWcSUhdPh2xK-kymE9O2Ik/s400/DSCF5010.jpg)
...documented by two family photographers.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMmV8tTdznCU04BmqaYy40I6pC-ymTZTJ3VP1DFgEAgtF59otQHgCDskgD9TKbEBHfHjAApt_BAjTfqB-pTiRz9t1009XvYmKd_esRgaW-tCS1u9ZSUkrdynTNwVxP4UyRFv_Yo6fXKBs/s400/DSCF4916.jpg)
Happy, happy girl. We're looking forward to the next camping trip.
More after the jump if you haven't seen enough photos of smiling girls by the lake. (Click Read more at the bottom of the post.)
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Happy Halloween
Little Lamb and Pikachu set off on their Halloween adventures.
They join forces with their friend Blue Lightning, in search of fun and treasure.
They find lots of both, especially the treasure.
We've heard lots of strategies and ideas for dealing with all the candy kids get on Halloween, and there are things we don't like about all of them. Clearly the only sane thing is not to allow this much candy into your house. That worked the first few years we went trick-or-treating, but the Halloween candy cat is out of the bag.
This year we gave the girls the option of trading in candy for toys. Hazel couldn't decide whether she wanted a flashlight or weapons, so we were delighted to find this "lightsaber dagger" (it glows red when turned on). She also got a pirate sword and accessories (thank you 50% off Halloween toys).
Juniper's current obsession is Pokemon, a collectible card game targeted at children. We offered to trade Pokemon cards one for one for candy. Juniper initially decided to trade 20 pieces of candy for two packs of Pokemon cards (10/pack). Once she got the cards, she was so excited that she decided to trade in even more candy. By the time she was done, Juniper had 51 new Pokemon cards. Then Hazel became jealous and decided to trade some more of her candy for Pokemon cards. All told, the girls wound up trading well over half of their Halloween candy and feeling absolutely delighted with their decisions.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Birthday Girl
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAnTs7K8wcejXXFogKmaWmjF9JRGszshNFTbaQO0xncxf7Apn6TSWSxpfejCONU8w7927tADN8Ut9H5VBUAMu4JH7y0qswhYkqSocXpl6mR-bNHn1LOBDrh5MvufqAZCPsQGX9WJYPC9E/s1600/DSCF5049.jpg)
Hazel is 4 years old today!
She was excited to visit Leapin' Lizards and to spend the day eating some of her favorite foods (chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, Waffle House lunch, sushi dinner, and ice cream sundaes for dessert).
I think I am most excited about the fact that this birthday's milestone is graduating from a toddler car seat to a booster seat. This means that our family is done with LATCH attachments and 5-point harness seats!
More birthday photos to come soon...and Halloween photos...and pictures from our recent camping trip.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Cousin Laura
We recently had the pleasure of spending a week with my cousin Laura when she came to Atlanta for a course at the Emory School of Nursing. As far as Juniper and Hazel are concerned, Laura is a total rock star. They couldn't get enough of her. (The grown-ups also appreciated the opportunity for some one-on-one time with someone we normally only see at big family reunions.)
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Uncle Mark loves science!
Juniper and Hazel are super lucky to have an uncle who will help out at a school science day. Chemical reactions, inflating balloons, awesome! (Since becoming a parent, I have been amazed by just how much mileage you can get out of baking soda + vinegar.)
This is the last of a bunch of photos I recently downloaded from my phone. I think Aaron may want the record to state that all of the mediocre quality photos are mine. We should soon be returning to our regularly scheduled programming of high quality photos.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Christmas Pageant 2013
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Quotable kids
Looking at a telephone pole
Hazel: Why isn't it cooked?
Sally: What? I don't understand.
Hazel: But you can only get splinters from raw wood.
Juniper: Something is pondering me.
On being old enough to go from nursery care to Sunday School classes
Hazel: I'm thinking that there might be some celebrating in the big church because I'm done with the nursery.
Expressing concern about her very first spelling test
Juniper: And there are two four-letter words!
Aaron: Only two words? That doesn't sound bad.
J: No, there's lots of words, but only two of them have four letters.
A: What's one of the four-letter words?
J: Back.
A: How do you spell back?
J: B-A-C-K
A: See, you can spell four-letter words. What do the other words have, three letters?
J: Yeah, and two letters.
A: This sounds easy.
J (indignantly): Easy for you!! You can probably spell proboscis!!
Hazel (getting into a hot car): It smells like the sun!
Talking about some litter she just saw
Hazel: And one time, with Dad, we saw a bunch of those little papers that steal from poor people.
Sally: Lottery tickets?
Hazel: Yeah, that litter. There was a bunch of them. Those people weren't being very respective of the world.
(I think this one may say more about her parents than it does about Hazel.)
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Sunday, September 7, 2014
From the archives
In our shared narrative about the children, Hazel never fell asleep in the car once she was past her youngest baby days. The evidence from my phone says otherwise.
In fact, we may have more photos of Hazel as a toddler sleeping in her car seat than we do of toddler Juniper asleep in the car. With Juniper, this was such an everyday experience that we saw no reason to document it. With Hazel, it's possible that we have photographic evidence of every single instance of toddler car sleeping.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Sunday, August 31, 2014
The needle went in deep
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)