My New Band!

Hi all. Yes, it's true--our first album is out!!! As many of you know, in 2008 some musician friends and I started a new punk band called Druridge Bay curlew. Well, after MUCH hard work, our first album has been released. Here is a photo of our album cover.

What do you think?

I think you're gullible. :)

Actually, this is simply a fun Facebook thing I did recently.

You can try it even if you don't have Facebook:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit "random... Read More... Read More" or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:RandomThe first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. (alternatively, if the first article you hit is short, hit Random Article two more times.)
2 - Go to "Random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 - Go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7daysThird picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. Search for fonts on the web, or check out a site like http://www.dafont.com/

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Graffiti, Endless Graffiti

In the previous post you'll notice the scribbling on the kitchen cupboard. This is the 2-days-later version of the same scribbling. To elaborate, this cupboard is where we keep all our art supplies. Even though it has a cupboard lock, Lorelai has figured out she can slide her hand in the crack and grab markers, crayons, and glue. And she is a GRAFFITI ADDICT. For the past 2-3 months I have found Lorelai's artwork on this cupboard and elsewhere. I have moved the markers away from the opening, but the older kids always forget to put them away properly. I stocked up on Mr. Clean Magic Erasers for a while, erasing everything she colored each day. While I will continue my warfare and clean all other graffiti in the house, I've given up cleaning this cupboard where the majority of artwork has been occurring. I'm going to update this picture in a couple of weeks so you can see the progression of the artwork. Imagine how nice it could look in a year?

Azael: Top Chef

H and I both enjoy baking or cooking. (Interesting side note: while in Switzerland, 13-year-old H was planning to become a baker. His mom ended that plan by sending him to school in the U.S.). Often the kids help or watch us cook, but I have not encouraged them to cook on their own yet. Twice this week, to my surprise, I went in the kitchen and found Azael creating his next meal.

Episode 1. Azael, holding a LARGE knife: "Mom, I'm going to have fruit salad for lunch. I'm putting in apples, oranges, bananas, and lemon juice." Here's a photo:

The delicious result:

Episode 2: Azael: "Mom, we're making tortilla pizzas. First you put the tortilla on the plate, then put on spaghetti sauce, then add cheese" (they chose cheddar cheese). Here are Azael and Ephraim with their microwaved mini pizzas:

They all thought the pizzas were fantastic. Moral of the story: Kids enjoy their food more if they make it themselves. And Mom doesn't have to cook. Yay!

Lorelai is a BIG GIRL!

The night we arrived home from our trip, H put Lorelai in her crib and, to our surprise, within 10 seconds she was almost dangling over the railing. Apparently she learned something while we were gone. So, although we were exhausted, we decided to take the crib down and set up the toddler bed. Here are photos of Lorelai trying out her bed for the first time. (OK, this bed was in Silas' room just a month ago, so at that point she obviously tried it out, but it wasn't HERS yet).

Phantastic Phun in Philadelphia

More about Philadelphia... We stayed at MM's grandma's house, affectionately called Overbrook. It was built in approximately 1910 and is a huge stone 8 bedroom beauty. Grandma Dot, MM's Mom's mother, always remembers the "Glory Days" of Overbrook, when the house was filled with people. MM and several of his siblings even lived there for several years. So, there could be no greater birthday gift than to go stay in the house. We stayed in one of the bedrooms on the 3rd floor. Our children stayed up until 10+ p.m. several nights (as did MM and myself) so we were all too exhausted to notice all the breathing/snoring/etc going on in the room.

MM's 4 brothers (Ossian, Gesualdo, Thorfinn/Thurston, Tycho Cosimo) and his sister (Glum.) were all there. Also some cousins (Tristan, Bronwyn, Wayra, Indra). MM's cousins Shannon (and her son Connor) and Lindsay and his Aunt were also there. They planned a GREAT party. And we had a GREAT time chatting, laughing, pontificating, playing Nintendo DS, eating, etc. It truly was a fun fun time.

Now some photos.

MM's siblings and nieces/nephews, and our kids.

LtoR:Ossian, Gesualdo, Glum., Tycho Cosimo, MM, Thorfinn/Thurston





Our family posing across the river from Philadelphia. Not a bad city. Grandma Dot would tell you it's the absolute BEST city.

At the Camden, NJ aquarium. These are the hippos. Fascinating!

Ephraim and Lorelai enjoy the slide in the front hall at Overbrook.

MM's cousin Shannon and her son, Connor, along with Glum.'s daughter, Indra.

MM's cousin, Lindsay, testing the punch before the birthday party.

Great-Grandma Dot on her 90th birthday.

Blowing out the 90 candles.

Our boys enjoy a bath in the pink bathroom.

The 6 siblings (& Lorelai) enjoying dinner in the dining room. (notice the nativity on the table. We had Christmas in February).

The cousins watching a DVD on my computer up in the 3rd floor bedroom where we slept. Ephraim slept on that little blue couch. The 3 front kids are on the mattress where MM, Azael, & Silas slept. The wood to the left is the bed I slept in, and Lorelai was on the floor next to my bed. We literally covered every inch of floor space.

Mystery Man-what a hottie!

Azael and Ephraim playing with Tristan's Nintendo DS. Poor deprived children don't have their own. What mean parents we are!

Photos of Grandma Dot and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren taken at her church.

Home at Last

I will post pictures soon, but thought I'd update a little. Things I did in the past 10 days:
1. drove 1400 miles with my family
2. lived (essentially) without internet
3. slept in a medium-sized bedroom with my WHOLE family (I pretended we were in a tent. we even blew up an air mattress).
4. selfishly took the only real bed in the "tent" mentioned in #3. I figure, "if mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."
5. went to my first aquarium (Camden NJ) and I LOVED it. I truly was inspired by all those little (and big) sea creatures. Sharks, hippos, etc.
7. cooked a meal for 24 people
8. celebrated MM's grandma's 90th bday
9. let my kids watch a LOT of TV
10. stayed up past midnight at least 5 of those nights
11. listened to a real record (the round black thing) called "The Sensational Sixties." We couldnt get the record speed right, so we had 2 options: chipmunk-speed or ssssllllooooowwww. It was a riot!
13. forgot about Friday the 13th. It was a happy, normal day. And, anyway, I'm not superstitious.

Double Rainbow Jam

We drove from Wisconsin to Ohio today. It only took 8 hours and wasn't too bad at all. Many of you know of Lorelai's insistence on having "her" favorite songs. The last 2 hours we kept Lorelai happy by alternating between 3-4 fast tempo songs from the Twilight Soundtrack and some bluegrass song by Doc Watson. If we shut them off she would shriek, wiggle and scream. If we played them, she was dancing in her carseat (continuously... for the last 2 hours). So we had a jammin' time in the van.

In Indiana we saw double rainbows for about half an hour as we drove. Here's a photo of Lorelai checking them out (she IS buckled in but she had wriggled her arms out of the straps at this point).

Another view.

Tomorrow, on to Philadelphia.