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…

As we have the last several years, we rang in the new year (at a kind friendly time of 8:30) at the amazing bash our neighbors up the hill throw each year.  The place was crawling with super excited kids, a collection of noisemakers, those papery blow horns, and dancing…

My newest nephew, born at an enormous eleven pounds has doubled his weight, which makes him a twenty pound eight week old.  That’s enormous, by the way.  Gigantic.  He has rolls and rolls of adorable chub.  His thighs are monstrous, and there is so much voluptuousness in his cheeks that…

There’s not a lot to say other than that these pictures just make me want to scoop her up through the screen.  KaKa is a gem.