Happy Spring!

Happy Spring! Happy Easter! Happy EVERYTHING!

Cute pic, cute kids...

I shot this when the four girls were in the back of Big Daddy's truck, hanging out before we left Danville.

Go Shorty. It's my Birthday.

Actually, my birthday was the 9th. I turned 35.

I'm still filled with a feeling of wonder, that I can be so loved. Just a few of my goodies: Target gift cards, Starbucks gift cards, a new outfit, lots of beautiful cards and notes, dinners out, the first season of 30 Rock, ALSO Across the Universe.

What a gushy, love-y birthday...what more can a girl ask for?



Kewlest gift? A video Shelby made for me...see below. Pay special attention, Dan...also, anyone who knows Loryn, keep an eye out for her cameo.

Books, Plants, Hair, and other BS

Shelby had a sleepover at her BFF's house Friday night. When I was leaving our house (Saturday evening, after Dave got home from work) to pick her up, I got a call on my cell. Apparently, the girls had decided to do a "double" sleepover. *sigh* After the assurance from BFF's Mom that, yes, in fact, that was Okey-Dokey with her (and her family), I decided to drive by Lowe's, to check out the garden stuff, before hitting Quizno's for dinner. (Quizno's was a no-brainer, for me, anyway...Dave had insisted that I play some WoW with him. And since I was forced to play WoW for a good coupla hours, there was no way I could possibly be expected to cook a real dinner)! ;-)


Anyhoo, I'll meet Shel and BFF Sunday at the Green Valley Book Fair. I've blogged about this place before, BTW...it's a book mecca! (That's what the lady with the big-dog Southern accent says on the commercials, anyway).


Oh, at Lowe's, I bought a red Peony (not Peyote, as Dave heard...did I mention that I think Big D has a hearing impairment?), and I might go back for a couple more...I'd like to find some pink ones to plant along one side of our fence.
















I also bought a Summer Nights Delphinium and a Blue Fortune Agastache. I hope we can get those planted tomorrow (or actually, later today). I tend to favor deep blues and purples in my garden. Yellow, too, and some dark reds and fuschia. But blue and purple make me very happy. I have an aunt who despises the color blue. She says it makes her nauseous. Weird, random factoid about my family...I've got a hundred of 'em.


























Let's see...what else?


I dyed my hair (again). Red (again)! I'm digging the new color, but I still want to cut my hair. I was hoping the new color would satisfy my hair wanderlust, but that ain't happening. My hair is just too long for my liking.

Scratch that...my hair is too heavy, not "too long". Anyone who knows me IRL knows that my hair is pretty short. I will probably never, ever grow my hair long (sorry, hon). I just don't have the patience for it. I despise the "growing-out phase", where I hafta wear barrettes or headbands to keep my bangs out of my eyes and off my forehead.



Maybe I'll try a pixie cut:






My guess is that Shelby will hate it, she'll think I'm copying her hairstyle. As the oldest of four girls, she's very aware of others who try to steal her ideas. :-)

Hmmm...anything else?

Dave is (finally) on vacation! Yippee! Poor thing...he's worked so hard, and has really needed a break for a while now. Hopefully, after this week, he can go back to work refreshed, and work will be steady througout the summer. Dave is a finance and insurance manager for a car dealership...I don't know if I've ever mentioned exactly what he does before.

I should be packing for our mini-vacation, but I'm the Queen of procrastination. I'll post more about our plans later.

Let's see...cute stuff:

Ashlyn told me tonight that she'd like to make homemade chocolate chip cookies tomorrow, and that we could all do it "togever". Is that sweet, or what?

Tori is almost a level 30 on Maple Story. We just bought her (and Shel) Nexon cash cards ($25, each) so that her character and Shelby's character can get married (Tori has a boy character, Shelby has a girl character). The girls are pretty cute together, discussing Tori's tux and the ring she bought for Shelby. Tori said it was a small ring, but Shelby "really liked it". (Hell, they've got it more together than Dave and I did...we got married in a local councilman's office...I was pregnant and we did it on my lunch break, and Shelby carried dandelions from outside the office complex).

Saturday, June 30th was my parents' 18th wedding anniversary. My mom married Kenny 18 years ago...seems like forever. They're a good match. It feels weird, though, to think that this November, Dave and I will have been married 10 years. Me, 10...my MOM, 18? I told her today that I just married young, and she married when she was an ol' lady! She was in a good mood, though...she laughed.

More rambling nonsense later...

It's 2:30 am. Do you know where your kids are?

Overheard earlier this evening, from Ashlyn: Mama, guess what? When Loryn gets older, I'm gonna tell her all about how evil she was in her babyhood. And in her 5 years, and 4 years, and 3 years, and 2 years, and 1 years. And in her 0 years.



And in a conversation between Shelby and Tori (much hollering between the 2 girls, while playing Maple Story. Tori was upstairs and Shelby, downstairs):



Tori: I've only got 4 bubbles, so don't expect much.

Shelby (from downstairs): I've got 10!

Tori: Cool!



And later:



Tori: Shelby, are you AFK?*

Shelby: NO!

Tori: OK!





And later still:



Shelby (typing to Tori, still on Maple Story): Are bubbles safe to eat?

Tori (typing her response): I don't know.

Shelby: Wanna try?

Tori: Sure!


************************************************************************************

Right now, at 2:30 am, my 13 year old and my 9 year old are happily playing a very cool MMORPG together. My 8 year old is downstairs with my 13 year old, watching The Whitest Kids U' Know, on Fuse. My 5 year old is brushing her teeth and playing with her Bob the Builder toys (not concurrently, though...she goes back and forth).









Right now, at 2:30 am, there are many, many kids who are in bed but unable to go to sleep. Maybe they wanted to stay up later and play a game, or post a blog entry, or read a book, or watch a Netflix movie. I mean, it's Summer Time! There are so many cool things for kids to do, when they don't have to get up early for school the next day.



I should go to bed, because Dave is off tomorrow and we have some things we want to get done (mainly working in our yard, mulching and planting and such, but we also want some World of Warcraft time, and I have a couple of Netflix movies that I'd like to watch with him), but I wanted to take a moment to share. I wanted to focus, for just a minute, on our quiet happiness that's occurring right here, in our own home...at 2:30 am.

*AFK is chat/game-speak for "Away from keyboard" (for all you noobs).

We Got a Wii!

Dave and I managed to find a Wii just in time for Ashlyn's Birthday.

And No, we don't normally splurge this big for one kid's birthday, but we had been trying to find a Wii since they first came out, with no luck.

Ashlyn hadn't been very helpful, either, as far as telling us what she wanted for her birthday...except that she'd like a Wii. *sheesh*

So fate stepped in, and I found one when I went grocery shopping one night. I called Dave to tell him, and he had just two words for me:

"DO IT!"

Ashlyn's 8th Birthday, June 16

From left to right: Shelby, Ashlyn, Loryn (standing), Dave, and Tori.

Shelby, Tori, and Ashlyn Feeding Catfish

Taken at my Aunt Brenda's and Uncle Wayne's farm, in Alberta, Virginia.

Dave and Shelby

Dave and Shelby, horsing around outside while visiting my Dad, and my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Wayne. Taken in Alberta, Virginia.

My Dad, my Girls, and Me

This is probably the first pic I've taken with my Dad in over 10 years. It's the only pic I have of he and I together with my girls.

I hope now that he's in Virginia, we can have a better relationship. That at least, we can talk, and he can get to know my family a little better.

Lolo turns 5!

Loryn (or Lolo, as she's affectionately known around here) turned 5 on Sunday, May 20. And what a great day she had! It was all about Bob the Builder, Thomas the Train, and Veggie Tales for her. In the pics below, she looks a little...well...underwhelmed. I think it was the opposite: she was just overwhelmed with all the toys, everyone chattering back and forth, trying to get her to smile, and all that. She had a lot of fun, even though the party was just a family affair: just us and Dave's Dad, Wade.

I do hope to one day give her a big birthday party, but at this point I don't think she'd be as happy. She's comfortable, and happier, here at home, with people who love and know her best.

Yeah, my kid did this...

and I'm in bewildered awe! At 13, I was still lip-synching in front of my mirror to Duran Duran. She's creating cool video slideshows of her friends and family.

What a neat kid I have.

Recent happenings, and interests

Lately I keep screwing around with the template here at A Beautiful Child. I like the look of s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d-out pages, but there are so few color choices that I keep putting other standard-sized themes back in. Hopefully, I'll stay here (with this theme) for a bit. When the blog loads and everything is all squished together, it just gives me a headache.

So, here's a quick summary of various interests around here:

Loryn: Way into Bob the Builder lately. Thank God for Sprout TV (and DVR)!

Loryn has had a good couple of days, though we're not making much progress with the potty training. Poop issues are getting better, though, and I'm thinking our healthier diet is helping that along. I've been researching a couple of very strict diets (Specific Carbohydrate Diet and GFCF), but am undecided as of yet which one to go with, or whether to go with one at all. There is just too much info available online. Each diet/therapy/specialist claims to be the be-all, end-all...the "answer to your prayers"!

*snort* Like I pray!


OK...back to the other kids.

Ashlyn: Is busy memorizing multiplication facts, and Chinese characters. She likes to write several lines on a little notepad, then read them off, over and over. No rhyme or reason...she'll just write 11 x 3 = 33, 7 x 8 = 56, etc. The Chinese characters she's picked up from a Chinese calendar we have, and some old Manga books. She's also been playing some PS2 games, especially Smackdown VS Raw 2007, and loves a DS game we got for Easter called Cooking Mama.


Tori: Reading lots of books (The Dark Hills Divide series, also Eva Ibbotson's Witch books). Shelby has banned Tori from reading anymore Harry Potter until she reads some other books first. Tori does tend to read the HP series all the way through, then start right back from the beginning of the series. ;-) This bothers Shelby, for some reason, hence the "NO Harry" rule for a while. Tori is also playing lots of Rune Scape and Maple Story. Lots of discussion about money here lately, as Tori has been blowing through Nexon cash cards left and right, buying "accessories" for her Maple Story character (and pet).



Shelby: Still into Manga (all things Japanese, really), reading, knitting, teas, and music. We've been playing around with shooting our own videos lately, you've probably seen some here already. Shelby wants to start getting up early to run, but hasn't managed to get up "early enough" yet. (She's shooting for 6:30...I have no idea why). We did just join the local YMCA, and Shelby and I are both looking forward to Yoga classes, exercise equipment, swimming, etc. Her taste in music is impressive (even to ME, self-proclaimed music junkie that I am!) and we've been watching some pretty neat things on Netflix (like The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and the DVR (I recorded Janis, a documentary about Janis Joplin, also Awesome! I F'in Shot That!
a live performance shot by audience members at a 2004 Beastie Boys concert at Madison Square Garden). I've got concerts by The Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded, and I've saved future episodes of the Storytellers sessions (Dave Matthews Band, Green Day, and The Dixie Chicks).

I love that we're all able to delve so deeply into what we're passionate about. We learn so much by following our passions and interests, and that is truly what Unschooling is all about.

Chicken Wars!

My unschooled 13 year old (Shelby) and her friend Erin, wrote (?) and acted (??) in this little video.

No, they weren't on any medication. ;-)

It's hard to tell, but the things they're hitting each other with are inflatable chicken legs from KFC.

I don't know where they got the idea, or WHY they got this idea, but here it is, for all to see.

Maybe the girls will write an ongoing series, much like the Lolo dancing vids I've been posting as of late.

Overheard in our home today...

"Um, Mom? Clinton and Stacy (from TLC's What Not to Wear) say that you should leave something to the imagination".

This, from my 13 year old, Shelby...because I'm wearing this:

And here I thought I was raising such open-minded kids. *sheesh*

Lovely Spring-like weather!

Tori and Loryn in our backyard. What a beautiful day! What beautiful kids! ;-)

More pics of Mika

Our First Snow, in our New Home

Tori, outside in the snow.


Shelby, looking cute in the snow.

Poor Loryn...she slept thru most of the snow when it was falling. She was happy enough to put on her hat and Shelby's (new, from Hot Topic) gloves and make pretend snow angels on the...kitchen floor. sigh

Seriously though...how cute is this kid?

Loryn did eventually play outside for a bit, but the batteries were dead in my camera. She probably had as much fun in the kitchen, bugging me when I was cooking. ;-)

Snow Day!

Tori and Ashlyn in a *fierce* snow fight...even though they couldn't form actual snowballs.

Grandma Elsie

Dave's Mother, Elsie, passed away July 4, 2006. She left us her house/property in Nelson County, Virginia, and we were there today to pack up some of her things.

We have decided to sell the property, which is a little sad for all of us. It's a beautiful piece of land, but the house needs more work than we can put into it at this time. We just bought our "dream home" in Staunton, and we've never been happier, but we're really gonna miss

Grandma's house.

So strange to be wearing a tank top and light-weight sweater on January 14! The high today was 69...absolutely gorgeous weather...which just made us miss Elsie more. She had quite a green thumb, and beautiful days like today remind me of her. I could just see her outside with us, puttering around in the garden and watching the girls run and play.