Before I left for Italy with mi padre, some fun stuff happened. As is wont to happen, I'm sure I forgot a ton, which makes me sad. So many laughs and smiles and crazy times just disappear into the ether if I don't take the time to store them here. Probably I have some pictures though, so that's reassuring, though I don't have them on this computer, so fat lot of good they do me. I'm sure that a few of the delicious moments that haven't been forgotten yet can be squeezed in.
April was full of fun things, from a Spring Break spent getting to know our city a little better (visits to the Botanical Gardens and movies and some of the great events at the public library were highlights) to a big old Easter Egg hunt here at our house with some friends. I hope we can make a tradition of the egg hunt, because what could be more fun that letting a bunch of kids loose with baskets to find candy? The weather was perfect, and it was so fun, so fun to watch Emerson, mouth ringed in chocolate as he entertained his good friends Isaac and Jensen and Ethnee, to see Theo palling around with his friend Tyler, and the two of them helping the littlest kids by pointing out eggs and getting excited with them, to see Addy absolutely enamoured with little Audrey, who is 18 months old but looks about half that except that she can toddle around with the best of them, and Sera for whom the egg hunt was basically the pinnacle of her little life. It was a really great time! Our other Easter traditions, including a Passover Dinner the week before easter, and egg-dying with melted crayons and dye were also awesome. The girls' Easter dresses were black, which I wasn't a fan of initially but couldn't find much else, and ultimately, they turned out rather cute. I love Easter! Easter means spring and good things, and I like it far better as a religious holiday than Christmas, which tends to stress me out. We keep our Easter Baskets simple, with a bit of candy and some eggs, and our Easter dinner is usually ham, some fruit, a salad, and some asparagus. The simplicity really allows us to focus on Jesus Christ, and what He taught the world through His example and sacrifice.
Then May. There was Mother's Day--I'm so grateful to be a mother! This has been a year of adjustment for me as a mother. I feel like many people have a certain age of child that they gravitate toward. Lots of moms I know are just amazing with babies. They drink in their babies like water, and grieve a little with each new word, each little step--I mean not really, but they just LOVE those babies, you know? For me it is preschoolers. I love those big eyes looking at me like they're sure I know absolutely everything in the universe, I love the smiles, the hugs from fat arms, the proud acquisition of skipping and twirling skills, the simplicity of parenting with puppets and time-outs--preschool is just a time of wonder!
Well, this year has driven home the fact that I'm on the tail-end of these years, and some of my kids are most definitely, irrevocably beyond them. It's been a hard adjustment for me. I haven't read enough parenting books about these years to be doing this confidently, and I get really rattled by mouthy kids telling me that they don't like the way that I do this or that. Honestly, I'm not doing a super-hot job with my older kids at the moment. But Mother's Day gave me a chance to reflect on all that; to remember that when I gave birth to these little people, it wasn't for a day or a week or a year. It was an eternal commitment to teach and train them, to love and help them, and it's a responsibility that I need to rise to. Luckily, I absolutely know that my kids love me. Theo made me a duct tape wallet, Addy made me some really special, beautiful cards and pictures, Emerson brought me to his school for a Mother's Day Tea that was so lovely and special, and presented me with a hand-made bouquet and placemat and card, and even Sera got in on the action (with some help from Addy) with some sweet pictures of her own. Aaron made me some glorious food--an omelet and blueberry pancakes for breakfast and something else delicious for dinner that I can't remember except that I know that I felt warm and loved when I ate it--that's what a two-month delay in writing up will to do you!
The next weekend we geared up for visitors! My mom and her husband Don were our first family visitors to our new house, and it was fun to set up our extra room for them . . . even if we forgot to mention that there were a couple of fold-down legs on the futon we had just set up in there, and they got a nice scare when it toppled over on them! Sorry guys!! We tried to show them a little hospitality, but frankly they out-hospitalitied us by a mile! We took them to the zoo, they bought us popcorn and took us on rides there, we took them out for dessert, they took us to dinner! It was such a fun time, though it was far too short! Then I was lucky enough to talk them into taking me up to Chicago with them since my flight to Italy left from there the next day. It was great to get them to myself and try to glean a bit of their cumulative wisdom to help me in my scattered life.
After I got back, the end of the year came on like wildfire. Luckily we didn't have too much going on this year, so it was mostly the typical stuff. Amazingly Theo's school musical was delayed (it was supposed to happen while I was gone, which almost made me rethink going--I care about these things that much!), so we were all able to attend after all! He did a great job as a Native American, and showed off not only his most excellent singing skills, but also the fabulous recorder skills he's developed this year. I sort of wish it was violin or something he was learning, but they don't start that at this age at his school, and he's gone to town on the recorder. His teacher complimented his skills and had him play in a little quartet during the program. Honestly, he has amazing ears.
After that came his birthday and a birthday party. And I have to say, we did okay for so little planning time! With some persuasion, he accepted a theme for the party (for some reason he has resisted having a theme the last two years, but neither he nor I have been successful figuring out how to plan a party without one. Okay, maybe that's mostly me, but I have a hard time just handing him the reins and saying sure, invite twelve kids over to eat popsicles and play kickball, which is what he comes up with as a "plan." Oh great, now I sound all helicopter. Which I possibly am). This year we went with Harry Potter! Yeah, maybe I had some influence there. Anyway, he ended up pretty happy with the result. And he really did help plan after all! It was a sleepover that was attended by every single one of the ten boys he invited--I did not see that coming! We geared up for a wild night--making wands from pretzel rods dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, a few rounds of "dementor tag" and "basilisk stare," some Bertie Bott jelly-bean tasting (I thought the kids would be unimpressed with my counterfit Jelly Bellies, since they now sell actual Bertie Bott beans, but it turned out it was a first exposure to Jelly Bellies for many of them and they couldn't believe how many flavors there were), some pizza, butterbeer, iced pumpkin juice, and plenty of watching Harry Potter movies and making fart noises. Oh boys. They were adequately impressed with my Hogwarts cake attempt, and honestly, we were a little sad to say goodbye the next morning after pancakes, eggs, and orange juice. Theo was extremely pleased with his gifts, which included legos, moolah, and a video camera of his own from us. We told him we expect him to win a directing Oscar within the next year or two to make it up to us.
Of course, the kids got out of school, which made me a little sad. Emerson especially knows how much I'm going to miss his "kindergarten hugs," which I've grown so fond of. I'm sure his first-grade hugs will be special too, but it's the end of an era. We finished off my first piano class here with a little recital that was nothing fancy, but was hopefully the start of something good for many years into the future. It's always great to see how much little minds can learn in a few short months! In the fall it will be fun to continue that, and to start a wonderful year of Joy School with Sera who is so eagerly anticipating it.
But before that we have an entire (okay, not so entire anymore) summer stretching out before us, every day of which Sera gets to "have all [her] friends to play with!" We have lists of summer goals up on the fridge, plenty of chalk and playthings out in the garage, and rather than dashing off to somewhere new and exciting this year, we're going to give the whole "staycation" a try. After all, this city is still pretty new to us! We have library events and zoo events and festivals and park-dates penciled in on our calendar, and warm sunny days, a pond full of frogs, night air thick with fireflies, and a freezer full of popsicles all awaiting our attention. What that means for finishing the up-catching on this blog, I don't know. But I hope I do okay! The memories made on warm nights around fires can't be allowed to fade--they're entirely too beautiful! Also, there will hopefully be pictures around these parts one of these days. I'm hoping.
There was a concert on the beach where we went camping--fun night! Wait, what am I saying "fun night?" My actual exact thought that night was "if I had to pick just one day of my life to relive over and over and over again, this would be the day." It was an absolutely perfect night. We hauled our chairs and blankets down onto this hillside that sloped down to a lake and listened to patriotic music played by the Fort Wayne Phil (we were about an hour out of town). A whole bunch of boats pulled up to the shore and the music was piped out to them as well. One thing I noticed and loved was that nobody seemed to have brought any alcohol with them! It was just one of those nights that was so good that nobody was even interested in that. Anyway, the final strains of music seemed to call the fireflies to life, and as everyone packed up to leave, they were everywhere, thousands of them! The kids were chasing them and catching them and letting them crawl up and down their arms with their little bums flashing green and yellow, and I don't think I said very many words, but my heart swelled until it just about popped listening to the sweet conversations of love between the kids and their dad and random people we just started chatting with as we hiked back up to our campsite. So yeah. That was the day I want to relive.