The Roses Sing!

On Sunday, Roses #1 and #2 sang in service at church. They are in the Children's Choir. Here's Rose #1 in her brand new white turtleneck:

And Rose #2 smiling so sweet and cute:

Please disregard the girl yawning behind her. I don't know how to crop photos, which is probably as obvious as saying "It's Snowing In Minnesota On The Day Before Thanksgiving" or "Gosh, We Have Eight Loads of Laundry To Fold."

It's Snowin'

No easing into winter this year...it's November 13 and we have a sudden 6" of snow. Just to show that it could, the City of St. Paul declared a snow emergency. Why do I always feel the need to get out and shovel before the snowstorm is over? We don't know why. But we do know that for sure when we wake up tomorrow morning, the plows will have deposited a crusty 12" ridge of snow at the bottom of the driveway.

But I digress. We invited a neighborhood friend for a snowball fight, which ended up being a snowman build. Here's Rose #3 and her friend rolling the bottom of the third snowman:

And Rose #1, with hair down and wet and stringy in her face. We don't care. She's cute anyway. We're going to keep her:
Rose #2 definitely got into snowman building. She wanted her snowman to reflect her true bodily stature, so she had to roll the middle through quite a bit of snow so it would be tall:

Here's the snowman representing Rose #1:

And the finished Rose #2 and #3. I'll bet you can't guess what we used for hair. I'll give you a hint: we won't be reusing the Halloween spiderweb stuff from Target next year.

A good snow day was had by all. The first snow is so wonderful and exciting - I can't help but wish that the sense of wonder and excitement would persist for the next six month...

Argh! Missed Yesterday!

But I do have a very good reason. Aunt Brenna and Uncle Eli took the kids for a sleepover (not just our kids - all the kids - all the cousins except Baby Franny) and H and I promptly took ourselves out for dinner to Tanpopo Noodle Shop. Now I don't know if I am just too Midwestern and I have a particular constitution, or if I ate too much, or what, but H and I both felt super sick when we got home.

It didn't stop us from watching Cloverfield, which if anything made me feel sicker. When I had that feeling like I should be closer to the bathroom than further away, I went to bed (approximately 10 steps from the bathroom).

WITHOUT POSTING. DARN IT.

Oh well, the point of Nablopomo is to post as much as you can and not to tear out your own hair if you miss one lousy day.

On an unrelated note, I had a great time teaching Sunday School today. I was nervous - my first time teaching an age group other than preschool - but it went really well. The kids were good sports about an art lesson that involved a color wheel of emotions and a discussion of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights (this was 3rd and 4th graders - next week I have 1st and 2nd graders!).

Wish I could post twice today to make up for missing yesterday.

When You Get Tired of Posting Pictures of Your Own Kids...

Post one of your niece! Little Miss Franny, sleeping on her Dad's shoulder on Monday night, right before her toast:

By Thursday Night, We're Just Tired.

Once again we're up late and darn tired. One problem is that I insisted that H read Phantom Tollbooth to Rose #2:

I guess Rose #1 isn't too tired...again wearing the pocket knife and a pair of sunglasses found goodness knows where...I love how the camera flash glints off the sunglasses:

Tonight was school conferences for Rose #2. She is doing really well in first grade. She reads at independent reading time, and she's in second grade math. I am really proud of her. It's been a tough year in school, so far, handling a new school, the loss of Guppy, and transitioning to the demands of first grade. She's handling it well. Good job Rose #2!

Temper Tantrum Tonight

Told ya I'd post some pictures of Rose #3 tonight!!

Rocky Evening Experience

Random notes from an evening:

1. I did not buy a pocket knife for my 8-year-old. We had a Halloween party, someone left it, and she picked it up. She is never, ever permitted to bring it to school (as in, would be suspended if she did) and really isn't permitted to actually play with it at home. This reduces her to wearing it around her neck for 5 minutes before bedtime while reading her High School Musical 3 "novel." (We are scraping the bottom of the reading barrel around here. Note to Self: Need to get to library on Saturday morning.)

2. Rose #2 quietly spirited away all the Halloween candy that was left over from trick or treating at our house and incorporated it into her stash. You can see her candy bag on the table in the background. I think she thought I didn't know what she was doing. I remember having similar thoughts - like the grownups just had no idea what I was up to - when I was a kid. But I know, Rose #2. I saw you dump about 50 pieces of Halloween candy into your stash. I'm on to you...

3. There are no pictures of Rose #3 tonight. You just know you are in big trouble when Rose #3 falls asleep at 6:28 on a kitchen chair. Whoo boy. I couldn't rouse her for dinner or anything, and she stayed asleep until about 8:40 when her daddy was bringing her up for bed, at which point she woke up and totally fell apart. Bad news. Somehow I got her into the shower and got her to eat some princess soup (i.e., spaghettios!) before pouring her sad self back into bed. Pictures of her tomorrow!

Finally I Can Post About The Quilt!!!!!!

After waiting and keeping it a secret for MONTHS or maybe even YEARS, tonight we finally got to give the quilt to baby Frannie and her mom and dad. Guppy welcomed every new baby into the family with a toast at MND and a new quilt. Tonight we did the same and even though Guppy wasn't there it was great to welcome Frannie.

I am very proud of our quilt! My cousin Chris is married to a wonderful woman named Jill, who happens to be a fabulous quilter. Not so very long after Guppy died, I cleaned out her fabric stash with a mind to continue the tradition of making a new quilt for each new baby. I found that Guppy had completed a few quilt squares before she died. The green dog in the center of this quilt is one that she had sewn. I sent it and a collection of complementary fabric to Jill, who sent it back in kits for volunteers to prepare squares.

Here's who sewed: me, Aunt Boo, Aunt Brenna, Aunt Missy, Aunt Tonya, Aunt Charity, Ginny, Katie, Aunt Abby, Polly, and Karen Lanegran. And of course Jill! And Cynthia went through Guppy's fabric and put together sets so we could have a coordinated color scheme.


I know it doesn't make up for Guppy being gone, but I hope this blanket wraps Frannie up nice and warm and lets her know how much we all love her. Welcome to the world Francesca! We love you so, so much!