Deep Creek 2009--alas, abbreviated

The girls & I headed out Saturday morning, had a grand welcome and enjoyed the great food, hiking, games, and fellowship that is Deep Creek (someday our list will include the famous fishing, too, but not just yet.) Check out Jon--pretty good for a 40 year old guy, eh? Good thing he came along to throw the rocks off the trail for us.

The videos capture the roaring river on our Swallow Falls hike--we'd never seen it like this before. The video of Amelia makes me shudder wondering if I actually kept a hand on her while she did that silly dance on that slippery rock.

And leave it to my mom to find something in her travel case that would make more bubbles than I've ever seen except in the movies!! The tub's jets helped, of course, and the kids had a BLAST.

I wish I had more pictures of everyone! One of my favorite memories is cousin Caleb's dramatization of "The Three Bears" in a game of telephone charades, which HE interpreted as a woman eating three bowls of spicy food and then having to empty herself into three latrines. Thank you, Darcy, for introducing that game, and Aunt Joan for revealing that the reason Deep Creek is so much fun is mostly thanks to the in-laws. This was discovered when we tried to make the teams Bissets by Birth vs. Bissets by Marriage, but it would have been 3 against 10 because no other "Birth Bissets" besides Jon, Caleb, and me wanted to play. Good thing we all married such fun people.

The girls and I even went to the traditional Sunday buffet and you should have seen Evelyn's face when I told her she could take a plate and pick whatever she wanted. She picked mashed potatoes and a blueberry cobbler. Then I made her eat a salad. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for stopping with us on the way home to go on that hike at that overlook! While we were doing all that Alan was searching the countryside for a place that would drain oil out of the Corrolla (I'd been overzealous in filling it on the way out) and managed to get it done for FREE. Love it.

And he COOKS, too!

I came home from work Monday and Evelyn ran up saying, "Daddy made TORTILLAS!" I walked into the kitchen and he was sauteing a bunch of vegetables to go with the filet strips he'd already cooked for our fajita dinner. Crazy thing was, I doubted for a second that he'd made homemade tortillas because the kitchen was so CLEAN. But out of respect for all the scrubbing I'd done on Friday, he'd already done away with his mess. What a guy! The dinner was fabulous.

And speaking of the clean house, walking back into that clutter-free, sparkling place upon returning from Deep Creek, it honestly looked like one of us had moved out. We have our countertops back! :) Not that it will stay that way, but it's nice to have those moments, and nice to have a husband that helps with it and cooks such great dinners!

Deep Creek pictures to come...

Holy Pickerel!

Jon sent these from Deep Creek, where the Bissets are enjoying the traditional weekend in the woods. As I understand it Alan has caught the biggest fish thus far--woohoo--and my nephew Aidan is the CUTEST fisherman.

I'm home w/the girls who are emerging from some cold or flu, and before you feel sorry for me I have LOVED this day. We played dollhouse forever (inspired by 2 bags of hand-me-down dollhouse toys from Diana, Liv, and Maddie), and I have CLEANED this house almost from top to bottom. My wrist is sore from scrubbing floors and I wore an actual hole in one knee of my pants. The place smells like vinegar and Murphy's oil soap. It is wonderful. Tomorrow if the girls are still fever-free we'll head out to Deep Creek. If they've got fevers again, Alan will drive, too, and meet us in the middle. Then he'll drive home w/the girls and I'll finish out the weekend playing games, eating fresh fish, and playing kazoos with a really great group of people.

Books on Tape

We don't have a CD player in either car, so we joyfully receive lots of hand-me-down tapes. The current favorite is the Johanna Spyri classic, "Heidi," read very pleasantly by a London actress. Once Evelyn was walking around in a filmy lingerie top from her dress-up bin and I told her she had to put on something warmer. She balked and I insisted and then the screaming ensued, "But I want to be a FIGGER!! A white FIGGER!!!"

"You want to be a what?" I ask, much confused.

"A FIGGER!!! Like in Heidi when there is a white FIGGER on the stairs," referring to the scene where Heidi sleepwalks in her nightgown & Clara's household thinks it is a ghost. On our tape, the narrator says it in her perfect British accent: "And there appeared a white FIGURE on the stairs."

Then there's listening to the "Annie" soundtrack. We've discussed the appropriate & inappropriate times to talk about butts and bottoms and and various bodily functions. It never fails that when Annie sings "The sun'll come out, tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar..." both girls yell, in their best nanny-nanny-boo-boo tones, "She said BOTTOM! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Annie said BOTTOM!!" Thus begin the lessons on multiple definitions and context.

Hear ye, hear ye!

Princess Evelyn turned 5 on October 16th with her first-ever friend party. Five little princesses (+ Maddie!) decorated paper bags, did a few activities culled from my music lessons (bad weather scrapped the outdoor plans), decorated cupcakes, sang, ate cupcakes, then played "ghost" w/ Maddie, who floated stealthily around upstairs wearing a blanket off our bed. I'm pretty sure Evelyn had a blast.

My parents were in attendance, as were the Walshes (sans Alex), Esther, one of the girl's grandmothers, and Mark & Denise, whom Mom and I met while going to birthing classes at St. Joe's Hospital FIVE years ago. (Those classes w/Mom are a great memory!) Their daughter, Emma, was one of the princesses. Liv even helped clean up, crawling under the table picking up cupcake debris before it became permanently embedded in the rug.

While I've joked that I'm not the "30 kids and a moonbounce" kind of party parent, it was really, really fun planning this for Evelyn. She chose the princess theme and the cupcake decorating, made the invitation list and wrote her thank you notes. It really is true that we just long to give our children gifts. And now WE the parents have this gift--a five year old that is, as one of Alan's musician friends said, "a vibrant creature!"

Hamiltopia Delivers!

Recently the girls had colds and a note came home from their school about a student in Amelia's class having the swine flu. While I'm not a worrier, I still didn't want to be the parent spreading it irresponsibly if my kids DID have it, so we opted to remain home on a Hamiltopia night.

The Smiths were hosting, and when I called Jess to say we were bowing out, she insisted that Andy would still bring us dinner. (See why I love these people?) And then, when he came to the door dressed like THIS, I just fell over laughing. I made him stand out there (and it was rather warm that day) while I ran for the camera. (Note the "quirky" references in the "About Me" section.)

We did NOT have the swine flu, but we did get a lot of laughs (and dinner delivered) thanks to our Hamiltopia friends. If you click on their link, you'll see a picture of the Singapore Crab Soup I lapped up that night.

Woods, Water, and Harvest Festival

Last Saturday the girls & I hiked at Oregon Ridge. It was warm enough to wade in the little lake, & I wish we'd had more time. They could spend hours playing in the water, with the bugs, and making art out of fungi and leaves.

There was a festival, too, and we watched wool being spun into yarn and we--of course--had to stop and exhibit our amazing blue grass dance moves. The band had a big sign that said, "Absolutely NO children on stage." They must have known we were coming. Check out the picture of the band. I didn't realize until later that Evelyn's head had flown into the picture, too.

Just one day, please....

...of no spills.
...of no whining.
...of no bickering.

ONE day of any ONE of the above would greatly improve my sanity.

Thankfully, other things that improve my sanity happen every day. Like this afternoon, when I gave the girls ice cream for dessert. Amelia suddenly got a brain freeze and started crying and holding her head. I picked her up and held her, and as she was still sobbing, she pointed to her bowl, with ice cream still in her mouth and said, "One more bite, Mommy. One more bite." Poor girl. She's inherited Daddy's sensitive teeth AND Mommy's insatiable appetite for ice cream that doesn't even have respect for PAIN.

These are a few of my favorite things...

(Title sung, of course, in my spot-on Julie Andrews imitation.)

It's been a week of whining, deja vu disciplining, losing my temper, and feeling like I am definitely missing something here (my MIND, perhaps?)

Thankfully I have that song, "Give Me Jesus," in my head right now. I can't remember who sings it, but I'm SO GLAD for it.

Pre-School Essays

So, this past summer, Evelyn went to San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. She traveled on airplanes & trains, slept for a whole week in a tent at the Ranch, attended TWO weeks of day camp, spent three days in O.C., and rode every accessible ride at the State Fair.

Then why do we have an "essay" on our frig that finishes the sentence: "This summer I..." with Evelyn's phrase "saw a mouse??" It even has her artistic rendering of the rodent, up to which she recently walked and said, "Look at my rat."

I stopped what I was doing and asked, "So when your teacher asked you what you did this summer, what did you say?" She replied, "I saw a rat."

"Is that a picture of the rat?" I ask.

"Yes."

We guessed that the teacher, knowing Evelyn can't read, wrote "mouse" instead of "rat" to either abate her own disgust or shield us from embarrassment. (No, the rat was not inside our house.)

And here's another entitled "My First Days of Pre-Kindergarten:"

My favorite thing was..............playing with Barbies.
I did not like..............................sharing.
Tomorrow I will........................try to draw something funny. (What's funnier than a rat, the most impressive summer experience of 2009? Oh, she means funny "ha ha.")

Finally, Amelia's class starts Show and Tell this month. Amelia's wise, experienced teacher put her as the very, very, last student to have a turn. Will she be talking in school by then? Perhaps I could learn from my youngest that "a prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly." (Prov. 12:23) Goodness knows I've had my share of blurting.

And a video of each of them--Amelia singing (or rather, her PONY singing), which is pretty much the soundtrack of life around here (but not at school, remember), and Evelyn spinning out of her drawers at a playground where we spent Labor Day evening.

Hamiltopia and Harvest

Today Evelyn took a basket of our own garden harvest to school as "Show and Tell." She said it was exciting for all the kids to touch the watermelon. It was exciting for US to GROW four of them! Maddie and Liv picked two at the last Hamitopia at our house and we enjoyed them for dessert. Maddie and Liv generously left the other two in the garden for Amelia and Evelyn (who'd gone to bed), so that they could get the thrill the next day.

Check out the second shift of the Hamiltopia crowd a few weeks ago. This new school schedule has meant we and the Smiths--with our young children--have to eat and run and get kids in bed when Hamiltopia's not at our own homes. We're glad the Walshes, Sung Ko, and (did you notice her??) AMY, keep the fellowship lingering. (Sigh. She's already back in Portland. But I'm sure glad we got to see her. As the girls said, "The REAL Aunt Amy was here!")

Faces

So far so good after a month of school. Evelyn's teacher's notes are mostly positive ("Evelyn was a good moderator today"), but one alerted us to her tendencies to not respond when first asked and to be a "little mother" to her classmates. (She'll see a child out of line and will get out of line herself to usher him to his place.) Evelyn says she has her name written on the board a lot for not doing what she's told and for reading books when and where she's not supposed to.

The paintings in the picture come home daily. At first I thought she had really repetitive art lessons, but it turns out she LOVES the "art center" during "independent center time" and chooses to create these--I have about 12 more of these girls since taking this picture. Part of me wants to frame them as a collage--they just make me smile.

Amelia makes up songs & stories all the time and is LOUD and NON-STOP at home, making up for the fact that she is stone silent at school. She told us one day, "I was at school and I said something. When I did, Mrs. M. said, 'Oh look! She talks!'" I asked, "You don't talk at school?" She shrugged & replied flatly, "No, I don't talk at school." She loves going, makes up songs and stories about it, and her teacher says she does everything she's asked, so we figure it's fine.

Speaking of songs, the other day Evelyn was making up a song to the tune of "Maybe" from "Annie." Most of the words were nonsense, but the line that sticks in my head is "And his face looked a lot like his bottom." Hopefully she doesn't sing it at school.