Abe got his Eagle Scout award this year, and since he has a great horror of being singled out and talked about, he was happy to hear that there were no requirements about what, exactly, constitutes a Court of Honor. Our ward has so many youth that each family is in charge of their own Court of Honor. So we told Abe he could choose what kind of celebration he wanted. What he wanted was Cafe Rio catering at our house, with grandparents and just a few friends to eat it with us. He made his own program detailing the evening's festivities (make sure you click the picture to enlarge it so you can read it!). It was perfect! We did make him play the piano for us (we didn't have our new grand piano yet, but he played on the upright) and he did that with good grace, as he does most everything. What a great boy he is! One of the best. I love him so. He is becoming a fine pianist, too, and I love to hear him practice!
Ziggy is eating everything now, hungrily. He's getting chubby, and growing a little hair just on the very top of his head, so it looks slightly triangular. He sleeps in the crib, giggles, eats his feet, says "Bwa!", scoots around and gets himself stuck under things, and is generally doted on by all.
Ziggy is still rather skinny for most high chairs, but if we drape one of his arms over the side, he usually manages to stay upright. • Queen Juniper, wearing her juniper crown. • It snowed one day in April and covered the poor tulips for a morning, but since then the weather has been mostly lovely! It seems like we often get a rogue snowstorm even in May, but not this year.
Sometimes I feel like with so many people around, there is just so much…of…everything!! The amount of food we eat would have been staggering to me ten years ago. Now I am mostly used to it. It is easier when there are so many sous-chefs around, too! The kids made this massive batch of Kiss Cookies one Sunday, and I hardly had to lift a finger! It was great. • My mom's Relief Society group had made a bunch of fleece bears that needed stuffing, so we helped with that. There were so many bears! Bears everywhere! • Pizza night…and some of the pizzas we ate. I've been using the no-knead bread dough for pizza lately too, and we love it!
Daisy found a napkin-folding book and spent an afternoon absorbed in it. • Goldie is getting good at sounding out words, but usually likes to "read" to Teddy from memory. • Sebby built this "throne" for Teddy in their room—you can't really see, but it's a foam pad set up on top of a folding table and chairs, so it was quite a lofty perch! Teddy liked to sit there and watch Seb do his schoolwork.
Goldie turned five, and it feels like she is suddenly so grown-up! Sebby (all of his own accord) taught her to ride a bike, and she's been pedaling around proudly for a few weeks now. • On her birthday she got to go to brunch with Sam and me. She wore her bunny ears, naturally. • Here she is snuggled up with Abe during Family Home Evening. She is such a loving little snuggler!
We got a grand piano! It was the most exciting thing. First we got to go around shopping for it for several months, and I loved that! I think I played every piano in Salt Lake and Utah Valley. It was fun to listen to the different sounds and compare and deliberate. And we finally found the most beautiful one of all! It was so cool to watch the movers bring it in and set it up (and it definitely fills our living room!). We were hoping we could keep our beloved upright piano too, which Sam bought for me when I was pregnant with Abe. But it was impossible to move it downstairs because of a weird corner we have in our stairs. So we sadly said goodbye to it and they took it to sell at the piano store. Someone else has bought it now, and I hope they are loving it! But I am so happy to have the grand. It looks so beautiful and sounds so lovely (and powerful!). I want to play it all the time! Even just scales sound good on it. :)
Your boy's program is hilarious! I love that. The new announcements about scouting mean that I will never have a scout. That's weird after mentally preparing for it times four! I so hope the new program will be just as meaningful as scouting has been for so, so, so many young men.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new piano! What an amazing blessing. I wish you much joy in it!
And your darling family is just as sweet as can be.