Meteor Shower

Here is love. Waking from a dead sleep at the sound of your husband's phone alarm at 2:55 a.m., to grope for a bathrobe and your eyeglasses, limp downstairs, and sit in a stiff patio chair engulfed by nippy air for about twenty minutes. What would induce this madness, you ask? (Er, I mean ... What would induce this kind of love?)  The promise of a meteor shower.

Apparently when I agreed to do this, at the saner hour of 10-something p.m., this little adventure sounded reasonable and maybe even a tad romantic. Sitting with people I love (my husband and daughter, who recently studied astronomy) to gaze at the starry night and see objects that have existed more than a hundred years burn to a crisp in our atmosphere and cause a beautiful display. It was bound to be something we'd talk about in perpetuity, right?

Well, for starters, as I sat there squinting at the heavens, I was subjected to squeals of, "Oh! There! Did you see that?" "Look! That was awesome." And "That was a really bright one over there."  I, of course, saw nothing. I gave up sacred sleep for nothing, but then rectified my complaint quickly to say, "except spending time with you fine people, of course." Cough, cough.

I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to get on You Tube at some other decent daylight hour to finally find out what a meteor looked like.

That's when it happened. Was it an airplane? No, it was too inconsistent to be an airplane. The flashing lights came in quick but sporadic succession. A group of meteors were meeting their fate before my very spectacled eyes. They were burning out of their existence in gloried splendor, and I was right there to enjoy it all, as much as a sleep deprived person can enjoy anything, that is.  

In addition to finally seeing meteors I learned all kinds of stuff from a little girl who just studied astronomy and thinks it's cool, and a man who I have long known is a little nerdy but super cute and I love him despite it, and probably because of it.

It was great. But the rest of the party will have to continue at some better, more decent hour, please. This girl needs her beauty sleep.

Art Museum Gardens in the Spring

We love the Indianapolis Museum of Art grounds in the spring!  Soooooo beautiful.  We hit it right at the peak this year, I think. 

He is Risen!

Easter Sunday ... the kids are at such fun ages and growing up too fast!  

This is the first and last time we will dye eggs with shaving cream.  What a mess!  The swirly colors were fun but the smell got to me.  I'd rather smell vinegar any day than Barbasol.

 We made an egg tree.  Meredith, at age eight, is an amazing egg blower.  She didn't seem to mind and she saved me from having a headache.  Nice!  If you look closely you will see that the eggs cracked. It lasted about 48 hours before a child got to it.  I guess that's pretty good ... 

We made these cute little birds nests to sit by place settings on Easter Sunday.  Super easy and fun!  I will make these again. 

We always do Resurrection Rolls.  The kids never let me forget to do it, as they love it so much. 

Yay!  A family snapshot where everyone is looking at the camera.  We had to get this before church because there was a fat chance everyone would still look good in their outfits after we let them loose!

These are my two guys.  I love them.

Some spritzers and appetizers while the ham was baking.

What a pretty day!

Grandpa with little Cars.

Cutting the carrot cake with the grandmothers.

Carson's first egg hunt.

The hunt was fun but the big purple ball was the BEST.

Happenings II

We are chomping at the bit for summer to arrive.  It’s been a challenging and rewarding school year.  We have all worked hard and now we want carefree days riding bikes and playing at the pool.  We don’t want to have to rush to load up the car and be someplace if we can help it.  Last week I asked the kids if they would like twice-weekly tennis lessons this summer, which would go on for two months.  They unanimously agreed that they just want to play and have lazy days.  Tennis will always be there.  It can be saved for another year.

Meredith somehow wormed her way into getting chicks from the library again.  This chick “foster care” program is supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime deal because it’s such a popular program, but when she volunteered at the library to pour chick food into canisters for the incoming class, the librarian offered her some of the “extra” chicks to keep at home for 10 days. 

I’m glad she was able to get the chicks again because, after I had to remind her the second time to give the chicks water, and then when our kitchen started smelling like death warmed over because she hadn't cleaned out the cage, it really helped bolster my resolve:  I don’t want pets.  Ever.  Thanks for the reminder, library!

But she is cute about it, isn't she?  

Sophia Ballerina had a little "recital" which is a pretty low-key event at her ballet studio, but was a big deal to her.

There's a free indoor playground at the place where she takes ballet and we always go there to hang out for a while after dance.  The ballerina also likes to rock climb. 

To many people, a flat tire would seem like a non-event to chronicle on a blog.  Well, let me tell you, after spending more than TWO HOURS (two hours and ten minutes, to be precise) stuck in a car with two small children waiting for a tow-truck driver to come (he got lost--apparently they don't teach directions at tow-truck driver school; and I can't even believe they asked to find me with GPS using my cell phone and I agreed to that, only to have to wait two hours ... but I digress) ... it was a big ordeal.  After getting my spare tire put on the van, I immediately drove to Starbucks and got a triple espresso drink.  That is what it took for the world to seem right again.  Here is what Carson thought of the whole thing.  Yes, he cried almost the whole time. You should have seen what I looked like!

Basically, here is what the American Dream means: You get to spend many weekends doing things like mulching, washing your windows, and cleaning bird dung off your front porch.  Here are Kevin and the kids living the Dream. (I was doing the porch duty.  Yuck.)

This is what child labor looks like:

And I can't even believe I don't have a picture of it but many, many of our evenings are spent shooting hoops.  The new basketball goal has been a big hit.  Carson cracks us up, as he constantly dribbles the ball (he is AMAZING) and tries to shoot it.  I think that is the epitome of optimism that someone so short really, truly believes that, at any moment, he can make a goal.  He never gives up trying.  He makes us smile.

Happenings I

Apparently my blog can't keep up with my life!

Here's what we've been up to this spring ... 

We shop ... too much for Sophia, apparently, who is always along for the ride. 

Clara spends inordinate amounts of time looking around the house for creepy-crawlies. All of the kids would rather be playing outside than doing anything else, in fact, and all of them love bugs, unlike their mother.  Here she proudly displays a night crawler she found after moving the sandbox.

Poor Sophia, I really do drag this third-born around town a lot. 

But the younger two kids are such good shoppers, and drivers of shopping cart cars.

We have been horsing around the house.  Dad is a favorite playmate always. I don't think his back could handle it if we ever had another kid. (It must be a sign.)

Sophia has made some really sweet little playmates at her ballet class.  It's the highlight of her week.

After a really harsh winter, we have once again begun enjoying the great outdoors!

This is the cutest little animal I've seen in the woods in a long time:

And Sophia has continued her Miss Independent streak.  Several weeks ago she learned how to ride her bike (at barely four years old!!) all by herself, with no training wheels.  In the same week, she also read her first grouping of sentences.  I'm afraid that in another few weeks she will be ready to move out of the house and get her own job or something.  Crazy!