a tie dye birthday

Our internet is giving me all kinds of trouble .... ugh.  It's gotten to the point that I can hardly use it at all in the evenings.  Oh well, these things tend to come and go so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised next week :)  

I started this post 24 hours ago and will see if it lets me finish it now...

We celebrated Julianna's 9th birthday this weekend.  She started the shindig with two friends sleeping over, then after Sunday group and a big lunch together the 11 oldest kids joined us for some tie-dye fun.  

Earlier this fall a friend brought us a tie-dye cake mix and it lit a fire in Julianna that she wanted "a tie-dye party".  We baked the cake Saturday night and after much oohing and aahing the decision was made - no frosting.  The cake was much too beautiful on it's own.  

[I had no idea the color pattern would stay as clear as it did, even after baking.  In retrospect I should have coached the bakers towards using the colors to paint a "9" or a "J" ... we just had a meandering river look going on!]

We tie dyed used colored sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol.  It worked awesome.  Instead of pillowcases or t shirts (vetoed by Julianna, too humdrum) we chose to tie-dye "banners".  I bought a stack of white restaurant napkins and they worked nicely.  

I have pictures but they won't load, hopefully I can come back later and add them.  It really was a fun activity, perfect for my craft loving daughter!  

After the tie dye slowed down we got ready for cake!  A few of the dads had been outside with littler children (no sharpie markers for my John Paul, thankyouverymuch!) and we all gathered to sing and eat.  

These children (and their parents) are among our dearest friends here.  

Such joy to celebrate this daughter of ours together with them.  Julianna's got more celebrating on the horizon too!  We'll do a little something on her actual birthday (the 23rd).  

I'm so thankful for this beautiful little lady, my firstborn.   Happy almost-9th-birthday Julianna!  

stage make up {updated with more photos}

So it's over.  The girls, well all of us, heaved a sigh of relief.  It was a fun adventure, but we are all weary of the endless rehearsing and schedule changes.

The filming is done and now we wait for the show to air (on New Year's Day).

When I picked up the girls yesterday I was a bit taken back by all the make up.  I am not ready for them to look this grown up.  I am not ready for them to BE this grown up!

They had a great day at the TV studio.  Lydia told me they met some "really famous Chinese people".  I asked her who she met and she said "well, I don't know, but I got their autograph".  ha!  When in Rome... Julianna didn't bother to get autographs.  "I didn't even know who they were!", she said.

Of course, neither did Lydia.

Here are a few pictures of the shindig.  I've seen a DVD of the first level competition so I'm pretty familiar with the performance but I didn't ever see it live.  [parent participation is not really a value of the school system here.]

I got these pictures from Lydia's teacher (no idea where she got them from).  I LOVE Lydia's teacher, such a gentle spirit!  And she initiates with me!

I looked at these together with the girls asking them to fill in details.  They mostly loved the dry ice effects.  Also the screen behind them was apparently pretty fancy stuff.

So that's the end of our jaunt into Tang Dynasty poetry (the theme of the competition - I'm dead serious!  It's a pretty incredible culture than has thousands of years of history to celebrate and now I can boast that Luke, thanks to the big sisters,  has memorized a bit of 唐诗! ha!)

Anyways... enough talk of ancient poetry.

Isaac (who spent Tuesday night throwing up - ugh!) seems to be on the mend, no one else is showing any signs of repeating his activities, and the laundry pile is diminishing once again.  Matt gets home late tonight (his last trip until after the holidays!) and we have a birthday party for my almost-9-year-old this weekend.  Good times!

TV day (almost)

Today was dress rehearsal at the TV studio.  For me that meant that we, me and the party of five, were out the door by 7:45 am.  Certainly an invigorating start to the morning!  

I 'traded' a child with my neighbor Ashlei, sending John Paul and receiving her Grady.  With Luke in the stroller we headed for the girls school (drop off by 8am) and then back towards home where we stopped in at the boys' school and got Isaac and Grady to their respective classrooms.  The boys' school doesn't accept students before 8:10 and we were definitely on the early side!  

That sweet yellow glow is streetlight, not sunshine.  Though we had two nice sun-shine-y days last weekend things have taken a solid turn towards typical winter weather... gray with a light drizzle all. day. long.  Pleasant.  [ha!]

The girls were home late this afternoon and tomorrow is the big final day.  I'm ready.  And so are they.

as serious as it gets

This is serious business, waiting for "your day" to do the advent calendar.  With five siblings to share the work it takes a bit of patience :)  Even Luke is quick to claim his turn in the rotation and showed remarkable restraint waiting an extra three minutes until the big moment arrived.

With 24 days to complete, running youngest to oldest , we get through the family exactly 4.8 times.  Sweet Julianna.  Being oldest has major perks, and a few drawbacks.

This year we hung our calendar on the big glass door - it separates our home from the entry porch and during the winter we try to keep it closed as much as we can, helps the house stay a smidge warmer.

Either way, open or closed, it's a great spot to hang our favorite Advent tradition.

your best books?

What are your favorite Christmas books for children?  Actually, feel free to throw in your best Advent/Christmas reading suggestions for adults too :)  

I'm trying to beef up our collection and do a little Christmas shopping at the same time!  

this afternoon

The girls are back at it - more rehearsals.  As it turns out they did well, really really well, in the competition.  Now they are performing again, this time on television!  ha!  I have zero details at this point, my guess is it'll be on the provincial station?  

My first reaction to this news (more rehearsals, I mean) was a deep sigh.  I was about done with all the drama (pun intended!)  The biggest complaint I have is that I never know when they will finish for the day.... I wait til I get a phone call and then head up to school.  Now school is close, but it's still a trip with the boys and the whole late afternoon/need to cook dinner thing is kind of a big deal.  OH well, surely it'll be done soon.  And I really am excited for them!  Af first they weren't too fired up about more rehearsing but with the "you'll be on tv" news they've perked up a bit!  

So our afternoons feel long and lazy with no 4pm walk to school.  Today the boys colored and cut up some older Christmas themed coloring books and we created manger scenes.  My John Paul is really growing up!  He'll be FOUR on New Year's Day.  And his smile is pretty incredible :)  

Isaac majors on attention to detail, precision, thoughtfulness.

Luke was in my lap (he's a bit of a marker fanatic these days) and the two bigger boys were working hard on their artwork for a solid chunk of the afternoon.  Such a fun way to spend time with my boys (even if I am missing my girls!)

Then came the phone call, and a scramble to get out the door while gluesticks and scissors and crayons scattered :)  Got our big sisters and hurried home to start dinner.... then lights on the tree and finished the ornaments too.  The last four hours were full, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

starting Christmas

We jumped head first into Christmas today.

And not a moment too soon for my kids - they've been stockpiling Christmas presents for weeks!  I ruined many a moment by refusing to get out the Christmas wrapping paper before Thanksgiving.  Oh well, they forgive quick :)

It's been two years since we celebrated in our own home - last year we weren't even together until December 21st!  So this year feels extra special, our first Christmas in this apartment.  

We got the tree up, but lights only cover the bottom chunk... I remembered (getting out the boxes this morning) that two years ago we had to ditch some of our lights and needed to buy new.  We should have them in the next few days and in the meantime we enjoyed decorating the rest of the house and ornament-ing the bottom branches :)  

Flexibility, that's what it's about.  

In this picture the tree looks perfectly normal :)  But the top 80% is dark :)  Thanks to the big kids the pile of presents is already growing.  Julianna leads out strong with a serious love of gift-giving and the others follow big sister.  It's pretty awesome. 

Big bummer that no one around here has any personality, huh?  

I'm so excited to do Advent with this crew.  

turkey day survivors

For a variety of reasons Thanksgiving weekend is a solid mix of crazy for our family.  We go hard all weekend long.  This year I was well prepared for the insanity... and really able to enjoy it all.  I'm so thankful (some years weren't quite as pretty, ahem).

So many highlights and I still haven't downloaded pics from the good camera so this one will be missing a few.  

We loaded up and headed out of town late Wednesday afternoon.  It felt wonderfully holiday-ish to load the car with sleeping bags, children, and food and hit the highway.  I spent many a holiday visiting family and I'm glad to do it with my children.  

This little man is dropping his nap.  It seems plenty early (he's not even 3!!) but it's also no surprise since Luke has always been the child who could survive on remarkably little sleep.  The good news is that his nights are getting longer now that he's not sleeping in the afternoon.  He's also good positive peer pressure for John Paul (who is a big fan of the day time snooze).  Regardless, both of them are car nappers these days.  This pic reminds me of the many HOURS of his life Luke spent screaming in the car seat.  We've come a long way baby :)  

We loved our time Thanksgiving day (pics coming) and headed back late that evening so we could be ready bright and early Friday morning :) 

Saturday had plenty of highlights too.  Matt played in yet another Turkey Bowl football game.  The crowd isn't getting younger but these men play hard and well.  Such fun to do these things with good good friends.  

We are ready to throw in the towel on our annual search for a "real" Christmas tree.  After more than a decade of scavenging tree markets for something green and conical and able to hold ornaments we are ready for a new challenge.  This year we decided to give it one last shot. 

We found plenty of fun, but no appropriate tree, so we are jumping ship.  It's fake trees for us from now on.  (sigh)  

[Please note John Paul's pants in the above picture and be appropriately concerned for my laundry situation.]

And this last one is too fun to not share.  Isaac is living in his UND hockey jersey for the second year in a row.  Lucky him, no one cares if he wears the same thing nearly every day.  And honestly, most of us should probably spend more of life in our favorite shirt.  

I spotted these three from behind and rushed around to snap their picture before the moment passed.  They just happen to perfectly mirror their fathers' football picture from earlier in the day.  

We are slowing down now that it's Sunday afternoon,  Matt will have the day off tomorrow and it'll be Christmas decorating galore :)  

wild and wooly with a window

Finished!  Like I needed any more chaos this morning :)

I decided to toss in a trip to pick up the mattresses.  I have pie in the oven, piles of half-packed bags, and we hit the road as soon as the girls get out of school.

[Side note: I normally don't think Julianna and Lydia look too much alike, but this shot with their upside down faces did give me with a 'they are definitely sisters' moment.  And iPhoto face recognition sometimes mistakes one for the other, so maybe they look more alike than I realize?!?]

growing boys, bigger beds

When I was pregnant with Luke (we didn't know he was a boy until he was born) Matt would say "well, if it's a boy we'll build some triple bunks and put extra padding under the carpet and call it good."

And it was a boy.  And now he is almost three.  But we've shelved the triple bunk plan for now.  So yesterday we bought a used set of bunks and brought them home.

Late afternoon I started calling Matt "the bunk bed hero".  Like his boys needed any more reasons to adore this Daddy of theirs :)

I spotted our van enter the complex and head down into the parking garage.  Quick as a flash the kids were in their shoes and thundering down to the garage to meet the new beds.

Matt and Graham had ALL the help they needed.  (Graham bought a set for his boys too; the dads tag-teamed assembly at both houses.)

[In the above picture you can see my version of a closet :)  The simple plywood shelves above the door in the boys' room hold our Christmas decorations (gonna be needing those! woohoo!) and suitcases stuffed with out-of-season clothing plus a few other odds and ends.  The big black duffel in the middle is filled with heavier winter gear that I'm needing to get down this week or next.  It doesn't make for the prettiest picture but it's super handy storage and it is tucked above the doorway so most people don't even know it's there!]

And here's the end result!  Luke will move from his toddler cot onto the smaller bed at left.  Isaac on the top bunk and John Paul on bottom.  We have mattresses ordered but won't get them til Wednesday so for now it's kind of a hodge lodge sleeping arrangement with the old small mattresses tucked in the bunks and Luke still on his old bed, but give us a few more days and we will - finally - have all three boys together!

The girls will miss the little bro when Luke moves out.  They love to pull his bed over next to theirs and Julianna falls asleep with her head just inches from Luke's ... so precious!  But they will also enjoy being a "girls only" domain again!  And Luke? He is oh-so-READY to join the boys' club!!

We are going out of town (just one night) for Thanksgiving so it's looking like post-turkey will be our  first night with everyone settled in their new beds!

my first glimpse

The girls 'trial run' performance was yesterday morning.  One of their teachers posted this photo.  

It was an exhausting day for the girls - 9 hours of mostly performing and rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing!  The big competition (a city-wide event, which is no joke when you are talking about a city of 10plus million people) is next Tuesday morning.  

More rehearsals today :)  

As far as I can tell they are still really enjoying it.  "Better than grammar class", says Julianna!  ha!  Too bad we don't send her to school to learn drama, right?  All joking aside I'm thrilled they've had this experience.  So grateful for the school and these teachers and my brave little girls.

I'm still waiting on word as to whether or not I can go to the Tuesday competition.  We shall see.....

two (too?) random

The girls have been staying late at school for rehearsals... long story but they are in this performance and have been practicing like crazy.... of course we only found out about the performance on Saturday and the first show is tomorrow and the big competition (city-wide) is next Tuesday, so they have some ground to cover in a small amount of time!  {yes, this is a GREAT glimpse into the way this culture works, and the way it tends to grate my last nerve! oh advance planning, we laugh in your little face around here; it's last minute or bust for us.}

[The performance is a pretty big deal, and I don't just say that cause they are my daughters, but when the school asked us about inviting the girls to participate we didn't realize just how big of a deal it was... but it's becoming more clear.  Anyways, they are loving it, except today's rehearsal kept them super late at school and they were tired and starving when I picked them up!  more on this tangent later....]

So earlier this week I had one long afternoon with no school pick up!  I must say this was a welcome change.  Just me and the three boys and nothing to do!!!  Isaac asked that we get a 'new' toy out of the wooden trunk in his room.  We keep some toys out and some toys put away, to maintain sanity (mine) and to maintain excitement (theirs).  

Pulling out a 'new' toy is a recipe for a fun.  This time we chose the barn/farm set and it was a huge hit.  Thank goodness we have three tractors/trailers. whew.  

[I put away the mini-kitchen and all the associated plastic pieces.  It'll show up again, another day, And in the meantime, I'll enjoy plastic fences and tractors, instead of plastic cakes and corn cobs.]

And to round out this random assortment of family news?  The street scene in front of our complex gates.  These concrete spheres (effectively) prevent cars from parking on the sidewalk at the entrance.  They're much cuter when decorated with children :)  

The stretch across the street is mostly restaurants, tea houses, and a few yet-to-be-determined-currently-under-renovation shops.   Behind them are another set of apartment high rises (you can glimpse one at the far right of the photo).  The driveway behind Lydia leads to our underground parking garage.  I was standing in the gate when I took the photo.  

wandering past bears

One final dinner with just the six of us... at least for this week :)  We have a growing tradition of going to a certain restaurant together on the last night of Matt's trips.  The staff at that restaurant probably think I don't have a husband!  But it's a fun way for us to celebrate and a nice break for me (no cooking or clean up).

The restaurant is in a mall and we like to wander for a while before heading home.  Our wander took us past this sign.

Too bad no one around here has any personality, huh?

We got in later than I planned and scrambled everyone into bed and before I knew it Matt was home :)  yay for being all together again!

sitting on the carpet

Some nights the best thing I can do is just sit down on the carpet.  At least for our family, that simple act can lower the intensity level in the house.  I'm not busy, I'm not "somewhere", I'm sitting.  Right in the middle of the living room.

Tonight I was feeling the exhaustion of a long stretch of Matt on the road (he'll be back late tomorrow - yay!)  and I really *needed* a smooth evening transition.  So I sat down.  And they all gathered, and created a car city with Jenga blocks and a deck of playing cards.

Things started to expand and Lydia nominated herself the car salesman.  She also sold gas (dispensed underneath the foot stool).  Her cars were inexpensive but she was charging a lot for fuel :)

My favorite moment was probably when Luke pulled out the binoculars.  Wonder what he saw.  

I did buy a car, which quickly got sent to the shop (Julianna's domain) for tire repair.  But other than that I mostly just sat.  And watched.  And took a few pictures!

I'm almost positive that if I had chosen to finish dinner clean up (I still haven't swept the floor) or ready the house for night or any other such thing that the play would't have gone so well or so long.

There's something about Mommy sitting quietly on the carpet nearby that calms the whole house.  It's good for me to remember, because I'm not much of a sitter :)  But I'm working on it!

a bus ride to dinner

Today we met the girls at school pick up and headed for the bus stop.  My kids think bus riding is a treat, a luxury, a valid entertainment option.  So we rode to dinner at Ikea.

It's only a mile from our house and we walk it no problem.  The bus was to ante up the just-for-fun factor.  [yes, living hear Ikea is pretty awesome in some ways, but mostly we love it for the ice cream.  this isn't really my decade for having a hip-euro-style-decorated home.]

I'm also a big big big fan of the Ikea kids play land.  Only Isaac and John Paul currently fall within the fairly stringent height restrictions (between 1 and 1.2 meters tall), but still, it's a solid win for our family.  Luke and the girls and I walked the showroom and then took a nice long break in the children's area before going to get the two boys and heading to the cafeteria for dinner.

We're old fans of snack bar hotdogs but they were advertising a new kids meal so we thought we'd try it out.  Zero rave reviews but no one left hungry... though I'm not sure we'll order it again.

Julianna is getting so good at doing her own hair!  She did these braided pigtails at school today (hopefully during a class break... but maybe during class?!?  oh well.)

The ride home was especially exciting since we got an articulated bus.  These bad boys are LOOOOONG!  I was a few rows from the back (Julianna and Isaac behind me, Luke on my back).  It was mostly empty this time of night and everyone was disappointed when we had to get off.  ha!

We left to get the girls a little after 4 (dismissal bell rings at 4:20) and got home about 7.  Pretty sweet way to spend an evening.