summery violin

When my niece came over to do some pictures for the invitations to her Book 3 recital, she told me she wanted them to be casual and summery. We had so much fun. I really love to do invitations these days.

Birthday Girl

Ivy had her first ever birthday party this year, and she was so excited. She talked about it for weeks. Finally! Her own party with her own friends!

the birthday girl, showing her own Lellow hair before receiving a giant red wig that she would like to wear forever.

I talked her into having a water party, because that sounded easier to plan than a fairy party. But what do I know? At the end of the day, I still felt like I was run over by a train.

some of the attendees. I couldn't manage to get everyone gathered for a picture.

Anyway. After much waffling she decided she wanted a cakepop cake.

it's possible the wind blew out her candles before she started blowing.

And I made Pina Colada Shakes.

Which, alright, yes, that was mostly for me. I love all things pina colada. But they were excellent! And the kids really liked them! Plus, adorable umbrellas!

Her favorite part was opening presents.

Her other favorite part was the PVC sprinkler we (Chris) built.

It was a lovely day.

cousins!

just to make sure Maggie knows Gray had a great time

The End.

A couple of stories about Michael and Easter and also a few pictures of our easter egg hunt

So, do kids really believe in the Easter bunny? Is that actually a thing? Because I was under the impression that it was a fun story but nobody really perpetuated it as truth. And that's why I took my kids with me to buy candy for our easter egg hunt. We were standing in line at Target, our basket full of plastic eggs and treats, other Moms eyeing me discreetly, and Michael asked why I was buying so much chocolate. So I told him, "It's the Easter bunny chocolate."
He looked at my sideways, then shook his head and said, "Mom, the Easter bunny brings his own chocolate."
It took me by suprise, but it was loud and crowded and I decided to let it go.
Then on Sunday morning while I was brushing my hair for church he asked when the Easter Bunny was coming.
"Michael, we did our easter eggs yesterday, remember? With cousins?"
"Yeah, but that was you. When is the Easter bunny coming?"
"I am the Easter bunny. The Easter bunny is just pretend, just for fun. Parents are the Easter bunny. " I glanced out of the bathroom to see Michael and William and Ivy and Christofer all staring at me. "...I thought you knew that."
"Okay," he said.
Christofer stared at me meaningfully.
"Uh, does that make you sad?" I asked. "Is it alright?"
"It's fine." He shrugged. Then he went downstairs to wait for us while William and Ivy and Christofer and I finished getting ready.


Picture interlude! On Saturday I hosted a big Easter egg hunt for the kids and cousins. We hid plastic eggs in the back yard, then the big kids had a treasure hunt inside the house to find the big treats. (I might have gone overboard with the clues, there ended up being around 45.)

On Sunday nights we have Family Home Evening after dinner. We say a prayer, sing some songs, have a little lesson, then usually eat a treat or play a game. While we were cleaning dinner up, Michael got out his notebook and a pencil and told us he was writing a talk for our Family Home Evening lesson. It took him about five minutes. This is the talk he wrote (with some spelling corrections; everything else exactly as he wrote and read it):

I am having a talk about Easter. Easter is very important. We celebrate
Easter because Jesus was resurrected and because he died on the cross.
Easter is not about hiding Easter Eggs. It is not about the Easter bunny. It
is about Jesus. I have a testimony that Jesus died for us. In the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen.

visitor

This is my sister with my nephew (looking good, guys):

They're visiting from Michigan and came to spend yesterday afternoon with us.

It mostly consisted of her patiently helping me deal with children/housework/homework/church stuff/dinner. I am not an easy person to visit. You should know this in advance.

It was still really wonderful. I love my sister.

good times.

IN RELATED NEWS:

well, hello Daniel:

and in other (non-related) news:

These two will not stop bickering and fighting today so let's take a moment and remember they are not all bad OR ARE THEY:

eh, they're pretty cute, I guess. Maybe I'll let them out of timeout after all.

cake

Yesterday was my Grandma's 94th birthday. She has good days and bad days, so my mom wanted to do something low key to celebrate. I made a cake:

(I want you all to know my dad teased me mercilessly for taking pictures of my cake. I was like, Whatever, Dad, that cake is amazing and the internet needs to know.)

(You're welcome.)

My mom brought down cupcakes for the kids so they could blow out individual candles.

It wasn't a very long party. It gets too noisy and worrisome for my Grandma. She feels more secure at home. I'm grateful for every opportunity my kids have to be with her. They won't know the amazing person I knew, but that they love her at all means something to me.

Happy Birthday, Grandma.

felicitations

I don't, as a general rule, take my camera to wedding receptions. For one, my hands are full of kids. For two, isn't that what the wedding photographer is for? The exception to this rule is when someone calls and asks me to bring my camera to their wedding reception and also they are my cousin. Because I love my cousin.

Perhaps my cousin should have considered this more carefully. I do my worst work at wedding receptions. It's not on purpose. Maybe it's the pressure?

Anyway. It was a really lovely reception. Look at those beautiful non-amputee cousins of mine! And now (segue!) look at these beautiful cousins:

Awwww.
Sometimes I forget to take pictures of Charles when we're out because while I'm watching the action he's sitting on my lap or in his carseat. Sorry, Charles! But here is proof that you were at the reception, and you were totally adorable:

(That is my brother Daniel between Charles and William. People tell me all the time that William looks like Daniel. What do you think?)

(Congratulations to Carol and Jeff! I only have a few cousins, so I'm grateful the ones I have are entirely wonderful.)

The Ella and Ivy Show

There was even a section with Maracas.

road trip!

Two weeks ago I became very tired of the endless non-spring around here and decided to pack up the kids and go visit their cousins in Arizona, where everyone wears shorts and sunscreen and 90 degrees is still not considered warm enough for swimming. We left on Monday, had a fantastic three days, then drove back Friday.
(Pretend there's a graceful segue here.)
So nine years ago I spent a semester studying in London, and at the end of the term I was sitting around with some other students and our travel writing professor discussing an essay assignment on what we had learned as students abroad; and there was this one girl in the group, a really nice, smart girl, who was 19 and had gotten engaged the night before we left, and she started talking about how she never wanted to be without her fiance again. Wherever she went, she wanted them to go together. She got a little teary. That's what she had learned.

Guys, I'm not going to lie, I rolled my eyes SO HARD. Because, seriously? lame.

Anyway, I was thinking about that conversation last week on the drive back from Arizona, because the truth is that even though we had a marvelous time, I missed Christofer. He's my best friend; everything is just more fun when he's there. I think that whenever I go somewhere without him, now.

and I was going to tell him this when I got home, I really was ( am very romantic, you know), but I walked in the door and he ruined it. He had cleaned the entire house, dusted even. Bought us curry for dinner. Written love letters for all of us telling how much he missed us.

so later, instead of saying, Christofer, next time I will wait until you can come with us!, I was all, Chris, while it is true that I would have even more fun traveling with you, I think I'll just continue having a little less fun on my own, because it turns out leaving you here is TOTALLY WORTH IT.

baby Gray

(I took these back in December, and just barely finished going through them.) (I am great, and not at all delinquent.)

orchard

My cousin-in-law called* yesterday to say the orchards by her house were in bloom, and did I want to come shoot with her?
As a matter of fact, I did.

*texted. I know.

crazy

every time someone asks me to take pictures for them I'm like, "yes! of course! it'll be fantastic!" and then I go home and think about it and start feeling sick because what if I mess up? what if they hate the pictures? what if this was their only chance at immortalizing THAT SPECIAL SPECIAL MOMENT, oh, man, I just know no one will be happy, I will be a failure, everyone will hate me, I will be alone and friendless and miserable and probably destitute, too.
anyway. whatever. even if they don't, I like these.

crushing my writer's block with an iron fist, OH YES

I've been trying to think of something to post about for two days, and have come to the AMAZING and TOTALLY ORIGINAL conclusion that it is easier to write when life is stupid than when life is super awesome. and the last two weeks of November were really super awesome, so what did that leave me to write about? NOTHING.

lucky for you, Ivy spiked a temperature yesterday, I woke up this morning feeling decidedly less-awesome-than-before, and my kids have already heard me swear twice today. so. yay! we can now return to our previously scheduled complaining posting.

my camera and I are in a fight. We have been in a fight for about a month now, and everytime I mention it to someone they ask me who's winning, only it's not that kind of fight. It's the kind of preteen-girl-hissy-fight that has no winners, only an endless supply of pain and evil. This is why I took no pictures of our Thanksgiving. I did, however, take pictures of some of my relatives who were around, and while only half of them turned out the way they should (YOU ARE STUPID, CAMERA) look how pretty some of them are: