Ziggy is absolutely unintimidated by anyone, and will strike up a friendly conversation with strangers any chance he gets. Here he is having a grand old chat with these motorcycle guys (wearing his fireman costume, naturally). When I consider what might be being said in these conversations…the mind boggles. The other day he came in and said, "I asked a man if he was a member of the church, and he said no, but he still loves Jesus." It doesn't help that I never really know if the people and things he tells me about are real or imaginary.
Then there's the fact that he makes loud (extremely loud) police siren noises as he rides his bike, and two of my neighbors have said something like, "When Ziggy comes by with his sirens every morning, that's my favorite part of the day."
Oh, Ziggy.
If he's looking particularly grown-up, by the way, it's because he had a birthday and now he's SIX!
Picnic dinner for his birthday. Mini chicken-rice casseroles.
And jello in "police colors."
As luck would have it, the birthday picnic was at a playground with a toy fire engine! The kids were SO LOUD making siren noises, and Clementine may have been the loudest of them!
Casual six-year-old pose
Such a good sunset!
And Gus was excited to take a picture of this wemmo-zeen.
Mint brownies for birthday dessert
And a new fireman costume!
More pictures and things about September:
Lots of pretty sunsets
We had our little Back-to-School dinner and I talked about our sort of theme/goal for this year—making our home a place of refuge. I put wildlife refuge signs up to remind us. :)
The girls and I decided to recreate the "afternoon tea" menu we have tried at a couple places now, and I am sorry (for humility's sake) to have to report that ours was vastly superior to both of them. Vastly. We too could charge $35 a person, I believe, and not disappoint. Too bad we aren't at leisure to open up a tea shop at present. We had cucumber sandwiches (with a dill-cream cheese spread), egg salad sandwiches (on sourdough), scones with homemade lemon curd and strawberry jam, chicken salad sandwiches with grilled chicken and homemade mayonnaise, lemon curd and chocolate mousse tarts, cream cheese marbled brownies, and of course, hot chocolate. A real feast. And unlike teas where they bring you one little sandwich per person, we had enough food for everyone to have their fill.*
*Relatively speaking…sometimes I think my kids never "have their fill" but just stop eating because they have to because the food is gone.
So fancy!
Clementine has somehow discovered how to open the door to Nutmeg's cage. Luckily he is a peaceable bunny and doesn't much want to come out and wreak havoc anymore. He quite likes just sitting there and being petted!
In completely unrelated news, Clementine found the craft drawer and had a heyday. Not once—not twice—but three times we found everything dumped out like this!
Luckily my little Cinderellas don't mind separating the peas from the lentils. So much so that they encouraged and abetted the second dumping incident! 😱
They were pretty pleased with the results of their labors.
She looks so innocent!
In this picture she is saying "Rah rah, rah-rah-rah, Goooo Cougars!"
Someone is always making desserts for something or other around here, so it's pretty normal for there to be a bag or container of cookies or brownies sitting on the counter all the time. None of my other kids get into them (except the biggest ones…and we allow it in their cases🤨) but Clementine is an absolute menace! She climbs up on the counter by any means necessary (stools, chairs, stacked pillows…), gets into any sort of container (bags, rubbermaid, pans with lids) to reach the treats, and is completely uncowed by any amount of scolding or consequences! She just gets them again the next chance she gets! She doesn't even eat them all (though she DOES eat them!). She takes them all around the house and leaves them here and there with little nibbles out of them. For a while she was playing some sort of game with them on the stairs, lining them up carefully (a buffet? a parade? a line of soldiers? no ones knows) and putting toys by them.
Nothing is safe!!
You can't tell in the picture, but this is not just one cookie. It's five. She has generously brought them in to my room to share with me.
Is the face of a girl with a clear conscience?
She's so sweet though, in spite of being so monkeyish.
This is one of my favorite little looks of hers, where she peers up into your face to see what you are thinking. I was watching her do this to so many other kids on the playground the other day. She'd come right up next to them and if they were absorbed in their own play, she bend down like this to get into their lines of sight so they'd notice her. She does it to me too, especially if I'm working on the computer or cooking or something. It's so cute!
She has a rather alarming fake smile
But a sweet little real one!
Clementine buried Junie in a stack of pillows. Can you see a foot dangling out in the left picture?
"Airplane" with Daisy
BYU football players
My dear dear friend and midwife had a little "retirement" party (though she says a midwife never truly retires!). It was so fun to visit with her and some of her other clients. Seven of my babies are Cathy's babies! (That is the most of all her families, I believe…which is probably why we are her favorites!😁)
Gus liked these balloons in "Caw colors"
Our cousins visited a little while ago and it was fun to see these two together again. They are three weeks apart in age but so very far apart in size! And always have been. :) I think this picture looks like they're in one of those optical illusion rooms like this:
Here's Daisy in her cross-country warmups heading off to ballet with her ballet bag. She's very busy these days! She is going to be Clara in the Nutcracker, so she has lots of extra rehearsals on top of the usual, too!
A fort made by Junie and Goldie. And speaking of wonderful creations, behold the following:
More with the guillotine! This picture by Ziggy is terrifying. The policeman on the side is there making sure the criminal doesn't escape!
This drawing is by Gus—several different "Burj Khalifas." Seb went through a period of fascination with the Burj Khalifa too. Note the tiny people next to the buildings, for scale, and the mountain ranges behind.
This is why we go through 3 billion reams of paper every year.
On the positive side, we end up with a lot of masterpieces like this one (note the boots lined up ready for the firemen to jump into them when the alarm rings).
And this one, of the Police modr sicl.
And this one, complete with sound effects and a matter-of-fact policeman stating what needs to be done.
And this simple one.
So many caws for "Gus thu Gd" (by Ziggy)
Cutest picture of a Caw Family by Gus
Meticulously-detailed portrait of Gus and Ziggy playing with police legos:
these very Legos! A police station, a fire station, and an ambulance station.
The robber in the back of this police car (still wearing his mask!) is saying "100" because he stole $100. The police dog is saying "Woof," and what the policeman is saying is, unfortunately, lost to us.
More art: this was a picture Sam drew for the boys during church. As you can see, it incorporated elements dear to both of them. Ziggy added the directional exclamation "Caw!" (it's proceeding that way out of his mouth; makes sense to me) afterwards.
I usually draw smiley faces on hard-boiled eggs to distinguish them from regular eggs. Sam takes this practice to…new heights?
Another milestone: we've lived here in this new place for three years! We celebrated with dinner out on the porch, and some decorations by the kids, of course!
Surprisingly bright cloud in the dark
Matching
A fun new playground at the regional park by our house
The "roller slide" was a big hit
Some sort of dance recital happening on the utility box
Pink clouds, pink mountains
Raspberry picking—but really watching the train go by
Hand holders.
Roses in the prettiest colors
Teaching award for Sam. I didn't go see him receive it at the University Conference, as he was just going to "stand and be recognized" and I already recognize him.😁 I'm not surprised about the award, either. He's the best teacher and all his students love him!
Seb threatening to eat a whole row of brownie. Tsk tsk.
Seb's hair got long enough to French braid! He got it cut after this, though. He also had a short-lived moustache!
SLCC runners
Beautiful Fall! It's a pleasure to go to races in September.
Two grins
Why?
Sleepy girl with half-eaten brownie
Sick and sleepy
Smoky sunrise
The errand of angels is given to women
Teddy helping me with the second cart on my semi-annual food storage replenishment shopping trip. Abe used to do this for me and Teddy reminds me so much of him!
"Y" hiker
Twins in all but name (and height)
Policemen and a horner-in
One of Abe's mission companions finished his mission and came to BYU. We had him over for dinner and it was so fun to talk to him and hear his stories! The kids were enthralled.
Watching a truck
And that's the end! For now…
I wish that little Zig was my neighbor and I could hear him sirening down the street!
ReplyDeleteAnd do you HAVE roses growing in your yard?
Drawing faces on boiled eggs is genius!
And THREE years?! I almost don’t believe it!
And there were lots of other things I thought as I read that have gotten jumbled and lost. But! You have some amazingly cute and fun parks down your way! And you do the most amazing and fun things with your kids! (The tea party!!)