Cousin Anna turns FIVE!

What a party! With lots of little girls (some big girls, too) and one little boy (my nephew, Aidan, good sport that he is), we partied hard at RVR all afternoon on Sunday, February 17th.

There was a huge Moonslide in the Buffalo Lodge (i.e. gym) to which Evelyn was immediately addicted--only the call of ice cream & cupcakes in the Wagon Wheel Cafe could lure her away. There was an obstacle course that kids ran with their stuffed animals, and even the big cousins got into some competition--check out Kate & Darcy Bisset facing off at dropping clothespins in jars! (While they performed smashingly, I will humbly add that my dad and I eventually tied to win. Ahem, ahem.)














Here is my brother (Uncle Jonnie--or "No no", depending on which of our girls is saying it) wowing the crowds with his skills on the player piano. Eat your heart out, Jerry Lee Lewis!

And finally, a short video clip of Anna and a bunch of her friends on the Moonslide gives you a real taste of the fun that was had!!

A Walk in the Woods

On Saturday, February 16th, the girls and I met Jessica Smith and her three kids (Ryan, Josh, & little Christine) and her sister, Rachel and her two girls, Julie & baby Lily. In spite of temperatures in the 30's, the forest was a wonderland of fun, with tot-sized caves and lots of mud.
Above, Ryan poses for the camera (can you guess who his daddy is?), and below, from left to right are Evelyn, Josh, Amelia, Julie, and Ryan. The little ones stayed on their mommies' backs, and 7-month-old Lily even fell asleep! I think we've started a toddlers' outdoors club!

Valentine's Day Baking

We made cookies in the shapes of E, A, a man, a flower, and a leaf (would you believe I couldn't find the heart shaped cookie cutter?) And we made a glorious, wonderful mess!

Our night to host Hamiltopia--"Look, Ma, NORMAL food!"

Sloppy joes, roasted winter vegetables, and salad fed the lively locals. I didn't even make any substitutions in the recipes!! Unfortunately, not everyone is in the picture, because when folks are comfortably spread everywhere, it's a shame to make them stop and pose.

With five kids four and under, it's always lively (even without the beans--this is a running joke from the "It's a Wonderful Life" blog). Here's Josh making sure Evelyn's "got a heart."


Finally, we've added Andy since we know how much he likes pictures of himself. (He is never inconvenienced by being asked to pose.) If I had the skills, I would have super-imposed him around the table, but this will have to do. His job has him out on the ship again, so we send greetings from Hamiltopia to all Andy's sea-faring buddies! He missed a bean-free meal at the Blackmans'! (That is to say, there was no after-dinner music.)

Tents & towers

Here are a few play time shots--I love the static hair we achieved playing in the tent in the basement, and here's Evelyn with an unusual feat--a block tower that survived long enough to have its picture taken!

We love people, parties, and cake!

Since I'm playing catch-up with this blogging thing (I am finally over the learning curve...there are still some kinks, but I can at least upload pictures and add commentary!), I thought I'd share a few pictures of a few of last fall's celebrations.

Aunt Lisa had a little surprise party at our house, and we were joined by Aunt Shelley, John & Peg Zeigenfuse, and another friend from church, Kassandra.

And Esther turned 23--her roommate, Amanda, and I joined her at a local bookstore/cafe and enjoyed an evening of (more!) cake, kazoos, and stories.

Look how "sufistucated" I am, Mommy.....

In the name of simplicity, I've pared down my closet quite a bit. I only have two pairs of high heels: the pair that my friend, Cari, gave me for my birthday, and the pair in the picture--which are the ones I bought to be in Cari's wedding. So Evelyn calls ALL high heels "Aunt Cari shoes."

Alan has actually had to hide my Aunt Cari shoes because they had become quite a distraction. (Besides, we're not sure how well they really go with the "look" Evelyn insists on, which NEVER includes anything but a diaper from the waist down.)

Shall we dance?

Sometimes there's nothing like the dress-up bin and the desire to dance!

Daddy plays the Kennedy Center!

Just when we thought our days of me accompanying Alan to his gigs are over, he gets a 6 p.m. gig at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage with a local Manhattan Tranfer-style vocal group, and we load up the girls and head to D.C. for a family outing!

The girls and I had some time to kill during the rehearsal and sound check, so we wandered the enormous halls (to the constant refrain of, "Ma'am, please don't let the children run." I think they were bored and had had very few serious infractions or incidents with which to deal lately. You can see for yourself how crowded it was and what a danger they must have presented. Can you imagine being 2 or 3 and NOT wanting to run in those cavernous hallways?) and visited the lovely fountains outside.

Even though I've been to the Kennedy Center on a number of occasions, it was a total coincidence that the girls' dresses matched the decor.

Cousin Casey & the Snow!

On Jan. 19th, Alan's twin sister, Becky, drove up from Reston, VA, with their son Casey--he's three weeks younger than Evelyn--to play in the snow in our backyard. Time always flies when we are together.

Over and over I've marveled at how--without planning or even talking about it together--Becky and I ended up having babies three weeks apart. I still think it must be a "twin thing," and that she and Alan just have this unique connection. Whatever it is, it has been so great having kids together!

Soybean pie, anyone?

Here might be a good spot to define "Hamiltopia." For nearly 2 years, friends of ours who all live in Baltimore's Hamilton neighborhood have gathered weekly for a community meal. The host family prepares a simple dish, maybe with an accompanying vegetable or salad, and folks show up any time after 5:30 to partake. No table is set, people help themselves, sit anywhere, and enjoy the important part--fellowship and conversation.

We've had great discussions over these 2 years--how to encourage one another, parenting, living joyfully and contentedly through the inevitable struggles of life, our society's pressure to have more & buy more (promoting a lot of sharing of our resources), Scriptural discussions, and political discourses. We've simplified the way we eat and have experimented with foods from other parts of the world.

A month or so ago, my friend Di had a "lentil week." She thoughtfully prepared various lentil dishes, and her family did very well until the lentil version of meatloaf was served. Her husband, Tim, while scooping some onto 13-year-old Alex's plate, wryly said, "Some dog food, Alex?" They had a good laugh--Di included--but I will say I tried the lentil-loaf and it tasted great. (Tim was, however, spot-on in describing its appearance.)

Not long after this, I tried a recipe for soybean pie. Soybeans are an excellent, cheap source of protein that lots of people in other countries eat as a staple. (I say things like this a lot.)

In spite of its healthy benefits, the soybean pie was hard to eat, even with lots of ketchup. The only way Evelyn could swallow it was to close her eyes and flap her arms wildly while chewing. The girls had large bowls of ice cream for dessert, and Alan & I spent the rest of the week empathizing with much of the third world. He really does eat pretty much everything I cook--amazing guy.

I thought I'd make it up to him, though, with a recipe called "Beer Cheese Soup" (he likes beer...he likes cheese...sounded like a winner)--and though he tried valiantly, he could not finish one serving (he'd even bought Heineken in cans just for the recipe. It's uncertain he'll ever be able to drink a Heineken again.) Di suggested I might enjoy it as a fondue, and in the Hamiltopian ideal of not wasting anything, I dutifully ate it for lunch for week over "toast points."

The final comment here is that now, whenever Di's kids are prone to complaining about what's on the healthy menu at their house, Di now says, "Do you want me to call Tina and Alan and see what THEY'RE eating? Maybe you can have dinner with THEM."

New Year's Eve 2007

What could be better on New Year's Eve than a hike in the woods? (Actually, hikes top our list of the best thing to do on ANY day!) As is the typical mode of operation in our home, I spontaneously contacted my Aunt Joan and Uncle Steve (my dad's kid brother), who live about 40 minutes towards D.C. from us, and asked if they had a hiking trail near their house. They did, and wouldn't you know, Aunt Joan was up for a hike, too! We drove down there, and enjoyed opening our Christmas gifts from cousin Josh and his wife, Laura, who made the girls adorable knitted hats (check out Evelyn!) and me a very hip and cool scarf (which now goes with the new, hip, cool, sophisticated, urban-intellectual hair cut I now have--scroll down to "Who is this?"). What a pleasure it is to enjoy the company of others in the great out-of-doors!

Upon returning from our hike, we headed to a Baltimore traditional must-see: the lights on 34th Street in Hampden. This is not too far from us, and it is a wonderland of lights and sound that is all done by the neighbors on this one street. I don't know how long it's gone on or whether or not prospective buyers of homes on this little street have to sign some sort of commitment to gaudy decorations and outrageous electric bills in December, but it is certainly the perfect entertainment for toddlers!

In spite of all the glitz and glory, Amelia's favorite part was this cement retaining wall draped with blue lights. She kept running back to it yelling, "Booooo! Booooo!"

So keep in mind that if any of you decides to visit us during the holidays, we will definitely take you to see this Baltimore kitsch-spectacular (this year there was a huge Christmas tree made out of old tires--perfectly acceptable form of recycling, if you ask me!)

Recollections of Christmas!

When we returned from our wonderful visit in Virginia Beach with the Blackmans, we hosted an impromtu gathering of my mom's family. My Aunt Betty (my mom's sister) and Uncle Steve were visiting my folks, and Cousin Annie from D.C. came up, too. We enjoyed a smorgasbord of Christmas leftovers and played a rousing round of "The Name Game" where Uncle Steve proved that teaching at an elite private boarding school can give you an edge on obscure Chinese history. Fortunately for our team, Annie is well traveled, well read, and her memory retrieval system works much better than does those belonging to mothers of small children. Perhaps when you get your M.D. in pathology, you study a lot of Chinese dead people.
So here is Evelyn with some favorite things from Christmas--the doll house and fixin's from Anna, Aidan, Uncle Johnny ("No-no") & Aunt Courtney ("Coo-coo"--aren't they great to let stick the names their 20-month old niece gave them?) and even more doll house accessories from Grandma & Grandpa Blackman. Loads of fun, especially for Mommy, who has found (to Daddy's delight) that rearranging the doll house furniture satisfies some of the rearranging urges that she has, and the house we all actually live in stays the way it is for longer periods of time!

Check out our 2007 Christmas tree! Yes, those are the Disney princesses adorning it--Grandma Blackman happened to wrap Evelyn's birthday presents in princess wrapping paper, and Alan and I meticulously saved it, smoothed it out, and cut all the princesses out of it. I mounted them all on construction paper and voila!

Even though I had some feelings of disappointment when we agreed that the "big, real trees" were too much hassle, I must say that it was really, really nice to have get all the Christmas decorations out and the tree decorated in about two hours flat this year. We have been simplifying our lives these past few years (well, let's qualify that--since we've complicated our lives recently by having kids, we simplified other areas to make up for it) and Christmas with fewer frills was sweet. We were able to really focus on the best parts of the holidays--spending time with our families, which was a delight!

The fun of Thanksgiving 2007!

It's been a few months, but these were worth sharing! Thanksgiving was so fun--a hike on the wooded trail behind Jon and Courtney's house (where we also ended the evening watching a movie), and dinner at Grandma & Opah's house. These pictures are of THE favorite song of the cousins, "Dill Pickles," which is the song Jon and I used to dance to when we were little! Every time we are at Grandma & Opah's, it isn't long before there are cries of "Pickles!!"

Who is this?

So last week I donated my hair to Locks of Love. I've done it before, but had never gotten a cut this short before. I took this lovely picture of Kiera to the salon with me, but as you can see I'm not sure the stylist gave it (or me) his complete attention. Well, he was in my price range and was very entertaining. And speaking of entertaining, it's been fun to see how many people really don't know who I am--my own mother included!