On Saturday I was with my three biggest kidlets, across town at a church to do some volunteer work.  I have more to write about that experience in the very near future, but I’m going to skip those details right now because I have a lot to say about it,…

My wise friend Siri gave me the idea of celebrating half birthdays long ago when we were talking about how YaYa and Mr. SP  both have birthdays that kind of get swallowed up in the festivities of major holidays (Christmas and Thanksgiving).  For years we’ve been marking half birthdays with…

Our neighbor halfway down the street texted Dr. Peds last Saturday and mentioned that he was taking his girls on a forced march through Hartley.  When I stopped laughing hysterically, I told Dr. Peds to text back that we’d join him.  Saturday afternoon was spent tromping and traipsing through the…

After weeks and weeks of mostly very cold weather, we made a point to be outside as much as possible when the thermometer hit 25 degrees this weekend.  I always like it when 25 feels positively balmy.  As soon as YaYa got home from school Friday afternoon we headed for…

I had already packed the school lunches, and I was working on making breakfast last Friday morning.  My little helper was already down in the kitchen watching me, while the middles were busy getting ready for school.  Actually, they were not busy getting ready for school, but they SHOULD have…

Mr. TOF wasted no time telling his older siblings goodbye this morning as they boarded the bus for school (it was a few degrees warmer than the previous 2 days . . . the thermometer read -20, and the windchill was only -37 when the middles left for the bus…

He’s figured out how to dress himself!  It’s great!  Because it’s developmentally appropriate for preschoolers to practice new skills ad nauseum, this means that he changes his clothes and pajamas approximately every five minutes.  All day long.  There is clothing scattered constantly from one end of the house to the…

Although without the wind  it wasn’t all that much colder than it has frequently been the past few weeks, we spent today,  the first of our “cold day” vacation from school doing fun tricks, like throwing the water we used to boil noodles for lunch out the door to watch…

The Legos have been getting a good workout over Christmas vacation and now our extended “cold vacation” . . .  an extemporaneous three day weekend that came about when the governor of Minnesota declared all schools closed tomorrow because of cold weather.  These creations are the brainchild of YaYa, but…

  I’m ridiculously slow about posting YaYa’s birthday celebration, but here it is one week later. YaYa’s first request regarding her twelfth birthday was that she would be allowed to sleep in as long as possible.  Her second request was sunny side eggs for breakfast.  Dr. Peds is usually the…