"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

~Robert Frost







Sunday, May 15, 2011

On tiny princesses and tiny tea parties

I am the mother of three little princesses, the most beautiful little girls I have ever known. And I love how much they love to be princesses! I love it when they twirl in their summer dresses, and when they play soft songs on the piano and sing along with their music, and when they pick spring flowers until their arms are overflowing with them and they run through the sunshine to bring them to me, and when they dance every.single.time. that their daddy plays music for them. And I love it when they have tea parties.




The girls' friend Alena passed on this sweet little tea set to them. Almost every day they ask for permission to bring it out in its little wicker basket, painstakingly spread out the pink and white checked tablecloth, and then pass around teacups and saucers and napkins and dainty white silverware, losing themselves in the happy games that little princesses have always played.


My heart smiles when they gather around their little tablecloth on the livingroom floor, assume a gentle grace far beyond their years, and treat each other daintily like the little ladies that they are. And although yes, they do their share of running and yelling and playing in the dirt and mud, I am so grateful that my girls know that they are princesses!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

In which my husband has a birthday and thinks he is ancient!



Can I just say that I am married to the hottest 27 year old I've ever met?! Of course, yesterday he was the hottest 26 year old I'd ever met, but today he upgraded. :-)


Lamont's birthday today went absolutely nothing like we had planned it. I was planning a huge barbecue bash (do 'barbecue' and 'bash' really go together? no? oh well...) for him with 30 or so of our family and friends -- about half of whom were coming from Spokane, which was awesome of them. I was making endless food, and 2 or 3 friends plus both of our moms were bringing food as well. It was kind of a big deal.


Then we get sick. Oh, how we got sick. There is a vicious viral cold/tummy bug going around; if you've had it (this means you, Holly!), I am so very sorry. I now feel your pain! The girls have been sick for a full week now, and I just kept thinking that *surely* they would be improved enough by today that we could still have the barbecue. I figured we'd have the doors and windows open to minimize germs, and people would spend lots of time outside anyway, and besides, *surely* they would be better by then! But it seemed like they just kept getting worse, and then yesterday I went down as well. With little kids, often you just can't tell quite how sick they are...they don't know how to verbalize it very well yet, and they frequently seem to be improving for a day or so and then relapse, so you find yourself guessing at symptoms and severity. Once I had it, though, I realized that they needed to see the doctor. So off we went to the doctor yesterday afternoon, to find out that all three of them have raging ear infections -- and I am officially the worst mother ever for waiting as long as I did to take them to the doctor. (Yay, happy mother's day to me!)


Lamont and I felt awful talking about postponing the barbecue because SO many people were planning to come, but there just was no way we could do it. On top of all the sickness, the weather forecast said 80% chance of rain all day today, so there went my sunny picture (pun intended!) of everyone hanging out outside. So...postpone we did. *sigh* We spent nearly an hour calling and texting and apologizing, but everyone was so understanding (an extra huge 'thank you' to those of you who had already made the dishes you were bringing, and still didn't bite my head off when I let you know we were postponing!), and when we were done it was a huge sigh of relief to know we could just lay low for the weekend and work on recovering.


All that to say, today was a pretty low key birthday for my man. The girls made him special cards with their handprints on them, and we still had presents and birthday cake (and managed to sing a croaking version of 'happy birthday'!), so Ashley grudgingly allowed that it was an acceptable birthday despite the lack of a party. Lamont's mom came down for a few hours anyway (she is already sick with the same virus we have, so she figured she didn't have to miss his birthday because of that, and we were glad!), and that made the day seem festive. And now he's been chatting away for an hour to his sister in Chicago, whom we miss very much, so that is the cherry on top of a happy, quiet birthday. :-)


And yes, he does think he's old, even though he just turned 27 today! (I can't blame him, I kinda think he's old too...)


Happy birthday, sweetheart! You make 27 look fantastic!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

In which Bethany does not approve...

This is Bethany with pig-tails!




This is Bethany's opinion of pig-tails...



And this is Bethany after the pig-tails actually didn't kill her, and so she decided to kiss and make up.




Happy Thursday! The end.