Iveyrock

We spent the day at Eeyore’s Birthday Party, a local fundraiser that combines all of my favorite things about living in this area. Live music, good food, interesting people, and beautiful weather.

We were outside reading library books, and the kids chose The Grouchy Ladybug, by Eric Carle. (A childhood favorite of mine…)

Which reminded us to go check on the ladybug pupa that we discovered on Wednesday.

It’s still sealed up tight. Back to reading, and a ladybug larva crawled across our book. The kids were a little worried that he would try to turn into a pupa and attach to the library book. But he just crawled off.

In the middle of a less-than-stellar parenting day, Ian made this Valentine for me. (He wanted to make me a heart, but he couldn’t get it to come out the way he wanted it… )

I wish that I had as much grace for my children as they freely give to me.

We started the morning with glitter in the back yard – good times, good times. It looked a little like Mardi Gras.

And, because the kids opened a bag of feathers, it looked a little like a neon chicken exploded back there.

One of my favorite things right now is listening to Ian sing. He makes up his own songs, which are an excellent glimpse into the way his mind works. This morning he spent some time on the swing set, singing about what a great day it was. How we were having a glitter party, and later going to the park… eventually it evolved into a song about monkeys in the jungle. And glitter.

Micah is all about work. The other kids play hard, but my little guy works on everything he does. He spent some serious time in the sandbox, and worked hard lugging this board around.

(resting with mommy. And the board.)

We went to the park this afternoon, and had a great time. I was too busy chatting to take pictures, which is a shame, because it was a beautiful day. We spent some time with friends, and wore ourselves out.

Came home, threw dinner together, and ate in the backyard. I love that we can do that now, and I am hoping to spend time out in the evenings as much as possible. Soon it will be too hot to eat out, unless we wait until dusk. At which point the bugs come out. And it’s hard to see your food.

It was a very colorful day. I’ll end with Ian’s words of wisdom, from his monkey song…

“It’s a party… and everywhere you go is a party… the party comes with you…. you take it with you when you go… and it’s always a party… ….. ….. ….. when something dies, something else is born… that’s the way it is, in the jungle… you always have something else… when something dies… there is always something different… in the jungle….. “

My post from yesterday is late, because I had a lovely (late) evening at a friend’s house, instead of sitting in front of my computer. But we did spend some time outside yesterday, in between in putting up dressers and rebuilding closets.

We had two ripe strawberries that the bunnies haven’t found yet. That’s twice as many as our entire season, last year! The older kids got a strawberry each.

Micah found one that wasn’t so ripe yet. It didn’t seem to bother him as much as you’d think.

And some bonus pictures of Chava – because I am secretly thrilled by the way her dress matches the playdough.

We spent most of the day running around looking for dressers for the kids’ new room, but we did manage to make it outside for a little bit in the afternoon. We go out front most days, but I very rarely bring my camera out there.

I got some cute pictures of my little girl, but I keep coming back to these pictures of my oldest. It’s hard to get pictures of him these days, and I don’t have many that do him justice. But here he is, and he is so proud of himself for mastering his “big kid” scooter.

Micah thinks he’s a big kid, too.

Today did not start off well. I started the day feeling stuck and frantic. I don’t want to casually write like I just decided to turn things around, and everything became beautiful. I didn’t want to change the mood. I felt trapped, and I didn’t see a way through to ‘untrapped’. I wanted someone else here to be the adult. I wanted to hole up, or better yet, get all of the things that are weighing on my mind done. Dishes, laundry… raising the perfect children who are perfectly safe and perfectly behaved.

I was sure it was going to rain, but I was also sure that staying in the house was a bad move for everybody. So I loaded us all up and drove to the park, with our new sand toys from IKEA. The park has a great big volleyball court, where my sensory-seeking kiddos can get messy from head to toe. And their mama can feel the wind blowing around her, and remember how much she loves stormy weather. And start to feel a little less trapped.