scenes from advent

Even though Christmas season crept in through the back door while I was unpacking my Thanksgiving luggage, we still managed to wake up December 1st with a full advent tree and expectant hearts.  As I still have another week of work left ,we have kept our family celebrations pretty simple, read scribbling game night on a scrap of paper at 10pm.  Thankfully the kiddos don't know the difference.  And even though it may be a small gesture, it doesn't get better than sitting on the floor at a hot chocolate picnic while holding Ian's hand and singing Silent Night around the tree.  Each moment is a chance to pause and remember what it is were celebrating.  To remember that everything hinges on that chubby baby boy.

Putting up the tree

 Setting out the nativity set and an empty manger

 Decorating with attitude

 Celebrating candy cane day with candy cane cupcakes...love this

 St. Nicolas day and secret santa stations

 Christmas carols and hot chocolate

 All gatherings are clothing optional

 Christmas tea and Ava's first piano performance!

This is always the trickiest of times.  When dressing up, buying gifts and filling the calendar is the order of the day.  When everything competes for space in my heart.  I am desperately trying to weave together the mystery of celebrating while knowing the full weight of my rescue.  Most days its a losing battle but there are glimpses and I'm holding on to them with a tight fist.

sometimes it takes an airplane

We skipped town this week and ended up in sunny freeze your fingers off Texas for some good old fashioned family fun.  I gotta admit I was ancy over the whole affair.  Leaving right smack in the middle of advent preparations.  Not to mention my Christmas shopping list, just shy of thirty people.  But just as it usually does, the sacrifices turned out to be the shiniest gifts in the not yet Christmas tree adorned living room.  This right here is the time to breathe deep with gratitude.  So instead of wading around in lists and sales floors I'll be chattin it up with the quirkiest members on the family tree and u-turning for chips and guacamole at 3 in the afternoon with the fanciest sis in town.  I will resolve to keep my feet on the floor and not sneak a peek at what's coming next.

I managed to get through a whole In Style traveling with these pros

Tia has the best dress up box ever

Not sure about this combo, reindeer rocker?

I did get to have breakfast with spiderdog so that was a treat.

The Perot museum was a huge highlight

And cruising around with Tia is always some wacky fun

But the big milestone was FINALLY (in her words) getting Ava's ears pierced!

In a surprising turn of events it was mama who cried while Ms. A was cool as a cucumber.  Here's to one more step into the realm of big-girldom.  

I hope all my lovies have a few moments built into this week to celebrate the gifts both matte and glossy and to pull the reigns of the fast moving Christmas train.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Rocktober

It's currently six hours past my bedtime but Ben's slipping me New Girl episodes and bad reality television like a corner dealer.  Since the last time we've been out alone together was August we have to take our moments wherever we can find them.  We've got big plans this long weekend that include not leaving the house, a pj's only dress code, lots of baking, lazy reading, after dark reruns, neglecting any activity that falls under the heading of productivity...aaaaand maybe a little blogging.  I'm slowly realizing that this is not going to be a season of reflection but dang it I can at least throw up a couple pictures of the cutest superheroes on the block.

Meet Wonder Woman and Captain America

Ben's awesome freehanded pumpkin creations

Bird and superhero mamas

Last Saturday Ms. A celebrated the big number seven and somehow my dinner with family turned into a sleepover party, trip to Bullwinkles, visit from Chicago grandparents, and a three day present opening fest after which she declared she does not need anything for Christmas.(We'll see how long that lasts.)  

Kitchen dance party

 Banana spilt birthday cake

 Breakfast monkey bread

 Making it to the top of the climbing wall

 The next night was family party night and I made this rainbow cake with a rainbow banner that insisted on saying, HP 7th, IRD, AA!  We rolled with it.

I'm not gonna lie, it was a lot of partying.  But compared to her last birthdays I think I kept my crazy to a minimum.  Once again daddy pulled out a stroke of genius with a pogo stick and Heely's.  She has been a blur this entire week.  I can't believe she's actually seven.  Her current claim to fame includes being a rockstar reader and eating up a chapter book a night.  She is the best big sister to Ian, our resident jewelry designer, an amazing artist, and somehow makes me feel luckier every year.  

So that pretty much sums up the last of October.  Here's a pick of little man loving his alone time with Yeh Yeh and Nai Nai.

One last October gem

Was this as random as it seemed to me?  I'll end with my current mantra where I'm consistently craving less routine and more alone time, but this gang of hooligans tip the scales in my favor and send my exhausted self to bed with a full heart.  

Currents

There must be something about the 27th.  Maybe this will be the one day a month I carve out twenty minutes to hit the pause button and actually gather a few thoughts together.  I've missed my thoughts these past two months.  For all I know they could have been doing something really amazing like solving the world's financial problems or at least remembering where all the lids to the tupperware have gone.  But alas I have discover that balance is a mystical notion and leaving the house showered with a lunch in everyone's hand is the real victory.  I also realize that balance is a first world problem.  Most women in the world are truly just surviving and don't have the option of working or stepping out each day into work that is meaningful.  So in this season of shifted priorities I'm still waking up feeling like the luckiest gal in town.  (Ok, maybe not right when the alarm hits at zero dark thirty and I use up my only 45 minutes of alone time to take a jog through the neighborhood with feral cats, but pretty soon after.)
 I mean how couldn't I when I get to take this guy with me to work each day.

Little man is loving every minute of school, which shouldn't have surprised me given his all- things- structure- and -routine personality.  I love how intentional his teachers are about planning out the day and how I can peek at him through the door separating our classrooms and give him hugs on the playground.  It has been a perfect match for both of us.  

Miss A has lost her two bottom teeth and now only smiles like a slightly crazy person.  Ben wouldn't let me get retakes when her school picture came home looking like she's trying not to poop her pants.  He says I will find it endearing some day.  He's probably right. 

She had her last soccer game yesterday and has been schooling the boys on the field.  I secretly love it. That's right he faceplanted trying to stop her fourth goal.  I mean, "good job honey!"

Doesn't she look like she's fourteen here?  Sigh...

Not helping in the growing up too fast department, she's started getting phone calls from friends at school.  Thankfully no boys yet.  Ben's practicing his best gun toting dad voice for the occasion.

This week we've got a full plate with her birthday, Halloween and B's family flying in for the weekend.  I'm working very hard to show some restraint in all things crafty/birthday cuteness/hospitality mayhem and so far so good.  Although I couldn't resist a little photo shoot with the last of the fall leaves on the way home from church.  

So here's to another week of thirty minute meals, catching up over dinner, paint stained bitty fingers tugging at my skirt, rainy fall weather and pulling up the beauty out of the mundane.  

put a bird on it

As I uploaded all dozen photos over the course of three weeks I can't help but reflect on how drastically our family landscape has changed in such a short amount of time.  Sometimes I feel like we're all learning how to waterski.  It's pretty wobbly at first and then you're up and surprised by the sheer terror that has overcome all of your senses.  But you realize you're actually doing it and it's kind of fun, you notice that you're smiling and take one hand off the rope to wave to your family at the dock.  "Look at me!  I'm doing it!"  And then you hit a wave and spectacularly crash on your face causing all kinds of discomfort and embarrassment.  But you are proud of yourself anyway and...you decide to try again because it was a rush of excitement and... you were kind of getting the hang of it and... hopefully it will get easier and... the next wipeout will be less traumatic.  Some days the sun shines bright and the waters are glassy smooth and some days you are just holding on.
 I'm not sure if that makes any sense but it is exactly how this process of going back to work has felt.  On one hand I would love to have the time to enjoy a quiet rainy afternoon on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea.  On the other, I'm strangely filled up by the ridiculous, hilarious, rowdy messiness that has become my life.  There's new fuel in the fire and new little people who need my songs and hugs.  Its always tricky when you add to your fold, especially when you feel like it's a fresh set of hearts in your hands.
 But even though I was snot spit on (this is a technique one of my students pioneered where you push your snot out of your nose and then spit it out your mouth) and had to wrestle one love away from the deathly grips of another on more than one occasion, I've gained their trust quicker than I thought.  They are mesmerized by the zany combination of firm boundaries and body art. And now I've got them right where I want them...

In other news I'm pretty sure nothing says "fall sellout" quite like buying squirrel cookie cutters.

And apple tastings...

 and fall farmers markets

But our newest fall tradition brought us to Chapman school to visit the Swifts and cement our place as Portlandians.   Every September these crazy birds stop through to nest in the chimney of this elementary school.

It draws quite the crowd

The real show starts when a larger bird (falcon?) swoops in and tries to (eat? / mate?) the swifts.  Then they go crazy and chase the big bird away.  Everyone claps and cheers them on.  It only lasts about an hour and eventually the swarms of birds get smaller and smaller until the last little guy makes it into the chimney.

The kids were all a little confused about why we met a gang of friends on an elementary school lawn to eat fried chicken and stare at birds but they might as well learn earlier than later, this is the least of the crazy they'll see in this town.

Yes, that is a man dressed as a court jester playing the mandolin and singing about birds behind Ian, why do you ask?