Friends

like, pho real, dude

picture pages, picture pages, come and get your picture pages...

It's been almost a year since I've posted anything here. I still don't have anything to say. I do have pictures, though, so I figure I'll go all pictorial with my blog. That way you guys can see some of the stuff we've been doing but I don't necessarily have to come up with anything witty or coherent to write.

For witty and coherent, read Josh's blog. Damn overachiever.
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Here's the first round:

Give Peace a Chance

Well, the blogging bug has just not bitten me in a while, but I feel as though I'm neglecting this space, so I'm putting some words down even though I really don't have many to throw out.

September 21st is International Peace Day. We used our weekly park gathering today as an opportunity for the folks in our homeschool group to decorate Postcards for Peace which we will be sending to Congress next week. The postcards pictured were created by Poongin, our resident artist. The card in the upper right corner has a pop-up peace symbol globe and the design on the lower right is crafted entirely of yarn, of course. The "Peace Head", as we have titled it, is my favorite.

Thing 2 Turned Four Today

Everyone was tired and grumpy today, recovering from all the excitement of a visit from Gramma. However, we managed to pull ourselves together for a little teatime celebration in honor of Thing 2's birthday. He specifically requested milk, cookies and "the yittle muffins with the byack circles" which we finally realized meant poppy seed muffins.

As has become the tradition for the last couple of years, Daddy took Thing 2 out to run errands while the rest of us blew up balloons and laid out presents. Thing 2 was delighted when he got back home. "Bayoons!" he cried when he got in. I surprised him by putting chocolate milk in the teapot. There were earth-friendly handmade and handed down presents from the girls, Lego vehicles from big brother and an energy expending punching bag from the Mom and Dad; but of course it was the two dollar bop balloon that was the ultimate favorite of the day.

The Best Laid Plans...

Remember how Poongin had so much fun at Horsemanship Day back in April? Well, a new horse was born in June and a couple of weeks ago Camp Tonkawa held a birthday party for the newest resident. We thought it would be fun to go and hang out, ride the horses, have homemade ice cream, maybe swim in the pond. Several friends were planning to be there and we decided to meet some of them for berry picking before heading on to the Horse Party. That was the plan, anyway. But when does it ever go as planned?

The day went something like this:
--"out of bed kids! Time to go berry picking and then to Tonkawa"
--pack lunches, gather supplies
--"out of bed *now*, we're minutes from departure"
--load car, put dog in back yard
--"UP! UP! UP! It's not even early! We're supposed to be at the berry farm in one hour! UP NOW!!"
--children scramble into clothes and car, Thing 2 taken straight from bed to car
--seventeen million trips back into house by Rolthox and Poongin. Poongin moves the entire time as if this is a promenade down the boardwalk
--five minutes into trip, reach for wallet to buy ice for berry cooler
--turn back to house for forgotten purse
--back on road, *no way* we are going to meet friends on time
--complete halt twenty minutes into trip, some sort of wreck has both lanes completely blocked
--police, ambulance, fire trucks further block traffic









--10 minutes go by: oncoming traffic has found a way around
--20 minutes go by: countless people behind us have given up and
turned around, oncoming traffic continues to find a way around. We have nowhere to go and a great book on CD. We wait.
--30 minutes go by: Thing 2 is upset that I won't just make the car go forward. I realize I should let the kids get out and see what's going on. I realize that the bag containing Thing 2's clothes does not contain Thing 2's shoes
--Poongin's voice from the back seat: "You know, Mom, maybe we weren't meant to do this today."
--Kids wander highway, no one can really see anything except for
firemen sweeping the road and cops not trying to divert traffic in any way
--45 minutes later: we are moving again. We have accepted the fact that there will be no berry picking
--stop at Dollar Store for cheap Thing 2 shoes, Thing 1 complains because she's not getting any. Offer to buy small snacks for everyone, Thing 1 complains about these, too.
--Arrive at Camp Tonkawa, spend next three hours there.
--Rolthox is very loud and inappropriate--but surprisingly
cooperative--until exactly 2:00 p.m., the "official" end time of the
party, at which point he announces it is acceptable for him to request that we leave.












--Poongin happily rides horses the entire time.









--Thing 2 asks to be held a lot, climbs up and down the bars on the
corral seven hundred times, is generally happy. Austin of Camp Tonkawa gets a Mommy gold star for putting Thing 2 on a horse and leading him around the pen several times, all the while
talking to him as if he were a completely capable adult not a teeny leetle wee bug way up on a huge animal all by himself.









--Thing 1 spends all but twenty minutes complaining, begging, whining, crying, discovering she did not pack her swimsuit and blaming this on me, pouting furiously, accusing me of purposely steering her into ants as we walk around and even trying to push me off the end of the picnic table bench.









--Mommy endures Rolthox, it's nice he wanted to join us on an outing. Mommy delights in Poongin's quiet enjoyment of horse riding. Mommy thinks Thing 2 is too big to hold for three hours in the shining sun, but thinks he can't possibly be big enough to ride a horse alone! Mommy uses her absolute *last deep breath* on Thing 1, decides to drive the entire van into the lake on the way home, but then miraculously finds the magic sentence to speak to Thing 1 that enables her to be shiny, happy Thingie for the last 20 minutes.
--clouds roll in, lovely cool breezes blow, at almost exactly 2:00
p.m. raindrops fall and we are on our way home

Stay Tuned to This Spot for Further Messages

Life is returning to what resembles normal for our family. We are now in a different domicile and have added a puppy to the mix. I'm sure that the continuing projects of puppy-training and box-unpacking will keep my posts coming erratically. At the moment, unreliable internet is interfering the most. We're scheduled for fiber optic cable hook-up next week, though. Hope that helps. If I am able to reconnect after dinner, I've got a little tale about our Sunday adventures.