Playing together?- Mama.

On an administrative note, we've decided to take the blog in a new direction.  Previously, the blog has been written from the perspective of the kids.  I think from here on out, I'll write it from my perspective.  Maybe I'll even get a guest blogger position out of the kids sometime.  And if you've seen Henry's blog, you know what a prolific storyteller he is.  But I bet June's posts would be hilarious. 

There's been an unusual accord between the girls lately.  They've cooperated and shared and played nicely together.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Georgie is so happy that June lets her play with her toys that she'll do almost anything June tells her.  And June loves telling people what to do.  

June especially likes helping Georgie pick out clothes.  And Georgie always obliges when the next option is bigger and frillier.  These two can go through 3 or 4 outfits a day.   June's recently been into side pigtails that fall over her shoulders. 

 And the benefit of braiding is the bumpy result when the braids come out.  June has been eagerly counting down the days until her 5th birthday and today announced that on her birthday she wants long bumpy hair with different colors (chalk) and maybe beads.

What a stinker.  Now that I think of it, I can pinpoint exactly when the girls will play well and when they will fight.  If June is playing with a toy and invites Georgie in, all is well.  But if Georgie is playing with something and June walks in, Georgie loses it.  Partly because Georgie is terrible at sharing, and partly because June tends not to ask for permission.  

A few weeks back, it actually snowed a quarter of an inch and Henry was driving me crazy, so i dragged him outside and grabbed the first kid I could find and yelled "Play together and don't come back upstairs for 20 minutes."  (Best mom ever.)   As it turns out, the two got along swimmingly breaking ice in mud puddles and conducting various experiments with ice, sticks, and tubs of hot water.  Since then, Henry and Brandon have become inseparable.  Brandon is 9 and lives a floor down from us.  He is also very polite, a little nerdy, and is very patient and attentive to the girls, who adore him.  He also eats everything I cook, so he often comes up to play videos and Legos, then stays with us for supper.  (I think he then rushes back to his house to eat  with his family, who eats supper later than us.) That's the benefit of living 15  feet from your friends' front door.

What's all this?  We were gearing up for a long weekend with visiting friends.  Since I didn't want to spend the whole time cooking, I spent a whole Friday cooking up a weekend's worth of food.  Which included a huge Indian spread and my favorite- African food wrapped and steaming in banana leaves.  June is just happy because she knows when other kids come into town, they usually spend the whole time eating hot dogs and pizza.

Southern Charm in Maryland.

Henry woke up the day after Valentine's Day with a severe stomachache.  I blame it partly on his eating too much candy the day before and partly on the excitement that his friends were coming!  He got a morning off of school, but by 11am, I could tell he was feeling better and I shipped him out with the promise that no one was going to get here before he got home from school.

 And did they ever arrive!  Miss Kerri and Miss Juliet were brave enough to pack 4 boys between the ages of 3 and 6 into a car and make the 10 hour drive up.  Were they ever glad to see each other!  When they called to tell us they were getting close, we ran down to the front steps and waiting for them to come.  I wish I'd had a camera to record the yelling, screaming, and embracing when they pulled up.  If you need a refresher, from the bottom left, there's Christopher, James, Andy, Brandon, Henry, John, June, and JoJo.  The gang is back together.

 The boys wanted a full DC experience.  Too bad it wasn't 50 degrees and sunny like Friday.  We forgot how gentile our southern friends are and I think we almost froze them to death dragging them out on the mall on a mid 30s day.  

 John and James had 5 major sites they had to see.  The Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, White House and Capitol.  We managed to knock them all out.  

 The weather was pretty crummy all weekend, which was too bad, because I really think the kids would have just preferred an open field to run around in.

 That includes the biggest kid in the group- Brandon.

 The big boys were all running ahead so we played a fun game in the World War II Memorial- Find the State.  Here's South Carolina.  I hope it wasn't too disrespectful, but there weren't many people there.  

 The boys wanted to walk right by the reflecting pool.  Which, at this time of year, is a TERRIBLE idea.  I've never seen so many geese in my life.  And with geese come the less savory aspects of their existence- tons of poop.  I never knew how long a walk it was down the pool.  Henry declared that the geese were incredibly disrespectful not only to tourists, but to President Lincoln himself.

 Finally, we made it to the Lincoln Memorial.  The boys charged up while waited down with the stroller.  By the way, Miss Juliet, awesome job on the orange coats.  There's no losing those kids.

 Georgie threw a fit once she spotted the boys because she wanted to be up top with the boys.  But she wouldn't climb the stairs to get to them, so Henry ran down to help her up.  

 What a great big brother.  And what a tantrum-prone little girl.  I'm hoping it's the age and not the fact that we've spoiled her into a complete brat.  We've been trying to put our foot down on her tantrums lately.  But she has learned a thing or two from June and is stubborn and loud.

 And down comes the rest of the crew.  Once we made it to the Lincoln Memorial, the boys declared they had enough of the cold weather and wanted to go inside.  Sorry guys, it's a long walk back to the Smithsonians from the Lincoln Memorial.

 But they were troopers and held out.  We stuffed the little ones in strollers with their blankies (really the only way to travel with Jo).  Finally, we made it to the Post Office Tower for lunch and stuffed the kids full of pizza, peanut butter and granola bars.  The best part was that we were cleaning up our tables, a family approached us and asked if they could have them when we were done.  We looked up and it was the boys' friend Anna S. from preschool!  She was up in DC for the weekend with her family!  Small world.  

 After lunch and a short side trip where I made the older boys climb all the stairs up to the top of the Post Office Tower, we all met up at the Natural History Museum, where I made a promise to myself.  I will never visit the Natural History Museum on a Saturday again.  What a mad house.  We split up into groups of no larger than 4 and tried to see a few things.  June insisted on seeing the Ocean exhibits.

They only had a few fish tanks, but it makes me think it June would be at a fun age to go to a real aquarium.  (Put it on your list, Grandma and Grandpa.)

 If you weren't in a small group exploring the museum, you were at the meeting point guarding strollers and various sleeping children.  

Or being goofy and demanding that your picture be taken.

We sent papa off after the van, so we wouldn't have to walk all the way back and the older boys hatched a plan to take the metro home.  I volunteered and we made our way slowly across the mall to the metro stop.  

 Henry took really pride on his local knowledge.  I'm sure he's reassuring John and saying something like "Just stay by me.  I'm a metro pro.  I know just how to get us home."   

 We stopped to gawk at the carousel, but thankfully I didn't have any cash and could be talked into buying the $4 tickets.

 When we got on the train, James instantly forgot his previous woes and declared that this was the best trip ever.

 Even better- we had to make a transfer, then rode the bus home from the metro station.  The boys were pumped.  

On Sunday, we visited the big Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum.  I forgot my camera, but just know the kids favorite part was the open corner where they just ran around like crazy people.  Like I said, all we really needed was a field.  

  The moms took a night out without kids (thanks papa) and the kids had been systematically denied ice cream at a Ben and Jerry's and McDonald's, so we stopped and picked up some cones for them.

 Christopher is 3 now and is no longer afraid of Brandon or his beard.  We realized that Jo and Christopher will be in kindergarten together in a few years.  Hopefully by the time they're 5, it won't seem like such a big age gap, but at 2, 9 months is a world apart.

It was pretty chaotic (and we weren't even the ones who had to spend 20 hours in a car), but I think all the kids were happy to see each other.  Only 5 more month til we're back in Clemson!

National Pancake Night!- Henry.

Mama said that February 5th was National Pancake Day, though now we think maybe it was only that as declared by IHOP.  Regardless, we threw our supper plans to the winds and decided to join the celebrations.  

I decided I wanted to be in charge of the meal, so mama stepped back and I took over.  I chopped, mixed, and even cooked everything on my own.  (I did have a little help flipping the pancakes.)  And the recipe was all my own.

 My pancakes we filled with brown sugar, coconut, and flax seed.  Mama tried to ruin everything by also adding pureed cauliflower because apparently the girls haven't eaten any vegetables in a month.  I served the pancakes with a dip of vanilla yogurt, honey, coconut and crushed graham crackers and peanuts.  I even peeled oranges for everyone.

 Mama had a skirt from Miss Elizabeth sitting in her fabric pile.  She decided it would make the perfect dress for June.  And it already had the zippers and lining, so it was an easy project.  June loves it.  (But she didn't want to smile for this picture.  What she's really smiling about is the spoonful of ice cream mama just bribed her with.)

I got a nasty cold that resulted in more asthmatic coughing.  Good thing we have our handy nebulizer and inhaled steroids.  They are the best.  We managed to avoid any middle of the night hours-long coughing fits.

We haven't gotten a good picture of June's new darker hair.  We prefers to have it up in braids.  But you can tell in this shot that it's a little darker.  She's all dressed up for dance class next to the fort she made in the living room so she could have a sleepover with her stuffed animals and dolls.  Mark this- for the first time in her life, June is really into dolls.  Could she get any girlier?

Into February- JoJo.

The weather has been pretty rainy and there's really not much going on in January.  That means we haven't taken may pictures and actually stand a chance at catching up on this blog!  Let's go!

 Mama has taken to dyeing her hair ever since a hairdresser in South Carolina told her her natural hair color was the color "Squirrel."  And since she's only got 2 inches of hair, she dyes it herself rather than paying $60.  But every the cheap one, it did bug her that she'd pay $8 and only use 1/5th of a bottle of dye.  So she recruited volunteers.  We very nearly had Henry convinced to dye his hair too, but he backed out.  

Before you get too worried, it's ammonia-free, non-permanent dye, so it should fade out (though if it has to wash out, it could be there forever.  June hates to have her hair washed.)  June liked having her hair dyed until she realized you had to stand in the shower to rinse it out.  She was not pleased.  

You guys must be crazy if you think I'm going to let mama do something silly like that to my hair!  It's only fountains and little blonde wisps of hair for this miniature mama look-alike.

Mama started cooking on Saturday for her annual Super Bowl party.  This year's theme meals came from San Francisco and Baltimore.  She made homemade fortune cookies. (Did you know they originated in San Francisco?)

 

 Here's the dessert spread- Berger cookies (Baltimore), fortune cookies, maple bacon cupcakes (which originated from our friend, Miss Holly's kitchen, but she's from SF, so we'll allow it), and Ghirardelli chocolates (SF).  

 And the main spread!  Mama started fermenting a sourdough starter a week in advance so she could make fresh sourdough bread to serve with chicken tetrazzini (both made popular in SF).  On the Baltimore side, we had homemade crab cakes, which were a big hit, with homemade tartar sauce and Uyz Crab chips.

Per mama and papa's marriage agreement, mama cannot have a theme Super Bowl meal without always including a crock pot full of Rotel-Velveeta cheese dip.  Liquid gold in papa's book.  

Despite the 40 minute delay when the lights went out at the game, we got to stay up all the way until the end of the game.  It helped that we were all playing together very quietly away from the grown-ups and that our friend Maddie also stayed until the end of the game.  Best Super Bowl ever!

International Night- June.

Henry's school hosted an International Night. It had crafts and a potluck dinner full of wonderful food.  

 Of course, I refused to eat everything, except half of a slice of bread I found next to a lasagna.  Henry stuck to the ham and cheese tortilla rolls.  Georgie again made us look bad and ate a bunch of red beans and rice and Indian food.

 Henry ate with us, then ran off with his friends.  We were all very surprised at how popular Henry is.  Every time we turned around, some kid would run up to him to say hi.  Once, we asked him who a boy he was talking to way, and he said "I'm not sure, he'd not even in the second grade."  

 After the food was gone, everyone headed to the gym for the program.  It was a packed house!  We sat on the floor and I got a front row seat.  Some of the older classes performed dances from China and Mexico. 

Georgie sat with mama and papa and for the first time in her life, she sat (relatively) still and quiet for the performances.  Maybe she's getting older.  Or maybe the whole crowd was so loud and moving that she didn't realize it was a show that should would normally cry the whole way through.

Finally, it was Henry's turn.  He's in the back row, second from the right (next to his friend Unna).  Yes, he's the one who is still wearing his heavy coat after two hours of being inside.  The second grade sang the song "Shake the Papayas Down."

Here are the lyrics:

Mama says no play;
This is a work day.
Up with the bright sun;
Get all the work done.
If you will help me,
Climb up the tall tree,
Shake the papaya down.

Space Rocket!- JoJo.

Phew.  Now that mama's crisis over ways politicians can disappoint you is over, let's get back to some fun stuff. 

First, on an administrative note, Blogger has been incredibly buggy when it comes to embedding videos.  So there have been a couple we thought we posted, but didn't go up.  We just we caught most of them quickly, but we know there's one that didn't post right away.  It's fixed now, and if you're a fan of videos where I talk, you're going to want to see this.

Go back and see a great video of me talking here.  Scroll down to the bottom of the post, mama has the new video labeled.

 Now that that's taken care of- back to the post.

 For a few days after the inauguration, it got really cold!  Never above 10 degrees cold!  We had to bundle up!  And that meant any exposed skin got instantly chapped.  But I think my red cheeks lend well to my chubby Cabbage Patch Doll look.

Being all bundled up also lends itself to uncontrollable drowsiness in the car.  

We got a little snow and we did attempt to play outside in it once. Supposedly a big storm was coming, so they let the schools out early.  June and I walked with mama to get Henry from school.  I was excited because Henry held my hand and I got to walk all the way home from school and watch all the kids throw snowballs at each other.  June did not care for the cold and cried the whole walk home.  (And in the end, we only got an inch of snow.)

 

What a string bean!  I know, I'm old enough that I probably shouldn't haven't a nuk anymore.  But when you've got three blabber-mouths in the house, it's nice to have a plug for at least one of us.  Plus, I'm technically only allowed to have it at bedtime.   

 While trolling on Pinterest, mama found an interesting recipe for homemade butterfingers.  According to the recipe, the bright orange filling is just a mix of melted peanut butter and candy corn.  Since we had both in the house, mama decided to try it.  It wasn't bad, though the thought of melted candy corm has temporarily cooled mama's taste for butterfingers.  Mama's taken this approach to many recipes lately; if we have the ingredients on hand, she'll try it.  She made whiskey-sriracha candies last week.  Sweet and spicy.  And a little weird.

 Miss Sara surprised us with a cardboard rocket for Christmas.  (Let's hope she never has kids and continues to spoil us!)  We set it up in our room and have held a series of  slumber parties inside.)

It's fun to sleep inside, but it doesn't lend well to our normal wake-up schedule.  Henry is always the first one up in the house.  But he's pretty quiet and can sneak out of the room at 7am without waking June and I up.  We don't wake up until about 8.  But when we're all in the rocket together, we're all up before 7.  

 On the first night, I wasn't allowed to sleep in the rocket.  (I've since claimed some of the 4 square feet inside.)  But I'm used to sleeping in a cramped space.  I've got my bed so full of stuffed animals and books, there's hardly room for me.