We celebrated at The Fantasy House when everyone was together, and then we had a cake once we were settled back in at home. Decorating cakes for the children’s birthdays has always been a bit of a schizoid event for me. I have very high hopes, and I want to give them as much choice as possible…doesn’t always work out as planned.
This year, we all worked on decorating it together. I don’t think there was a design plan in mind, hence:
And some other pictures of the mini-celebration:
The teeth continue to fall out of the Buster’s mouth. He lost another one while we are Massadoah last week. That brings the total of 5, I think. His seem to go from loose to falling out really quickly, for which I’m grateful.
We celebrated the end of the Girl Scouting year last weekend. Monkey finished up her 4th year as a Girl Scout, and what a treat it has been. She has met two of her bestest buddies through GS, and so many other girls that she loves to spend time with. In addition, I like all the moms a great deal. Groovy Mona and I volunteered to organize the ceremony, and each of the leaders presented the awards to their troops.
That’s another aspect I love about our Girl Scout troop: Since it is a homeschooling troop, all the ages meet together in the same building, at the same time. Next year we’ll have Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, and Cadettes all meeting at the same time. The girls share an opening circle at the start of meetings, in addition to sharing several fun festivities throughout the year, so they get to spend time across groups pretty frequently.
Yessa is thinking about being a Daisy next year. She wants to be reassured that I will be in the room with her for at least the first couple meetings. She knows Ms. Jennifer and Ms. Louisa who are the Daisy leaders, and she loves playing with several of the girls who are or will be Daisies. (Anna Banana is her very bestest friend, and will start Girl Scouts next year, too.) We’ll see how she feels at the start of the year. I’m hopeful that she will decide to do it, mainly because I think she’ll adore it, but also because then she, Zoe, and I can go to Camp Winona together next year.
Here are some assorted pictures from the ceremony:
Zoe waiting for the Brownies’ turn to be presented their awards.
Monkey reading the various awards to be presented.
Receiving her awards from the Beloved Ms. April.
Standing with Best Bud, Alex, waiting for awards.
Girl Scouts is another way we mark how Zoe has grown during the year. She learns new things, not the least of which is planning and organizing and reaching consensus with a group of friends.
She’ll be a Brownie one more year, and then on to Juniors. She and I are headed back to Camp Winona this summer, with even more friends going along for the fun this year! It’s one of my favorite times of the year.
Just realized the other day that the natural rhythm of our days blesses us with alone time with each child every day.
The Buster is always the first one up, so he gets time with Buds and me before we each leave for CrossFit.
The Monkey is always the last one to sleep, so we get time with her before bed.
Yessa always prefers to have a parent with her, so whenever I have an errand to run, she’s my buddy, and since we both are teaching her RE class this year, she always has one of us with her at church on Saturday night. And if one of us isn’t teaching, she chooses to be in the sanctuary with us and all the other adults, so we get that time with her, too.
I love that each day holds a little individual visit with each child.
The sheer thrill of walking into our eldest daughter’s room to have her look up with excitement from the book she was immersed in. And the settled knowledge of realizing that allowing her the time she needed to grow into reading was very much the right choice…
The memories of our childhoods as we hear her say to her siblings, “Shhhh, I’m reading!”
Watching her meander in from the “5,” or realizing she isn’t meandering in from the “5” because she is so engrossed in her book she cannot put it down…
Realizing that everything I write or that is written by anyone, anywhere, she can now read…
Realizing “The Economist,” though a great magazine, might have to be hidden between the mattresses of our bed, the thinking family’s porn…
Then realizing she will read this blog post and know where I’ve hidden “The Economist,” so I can’t actually hide it between the mattresses…
Breathlessly waiting for the day she says to me, “Mom, you have to read this book. You are going to love it.” And I do, and she’s right, and we discuss the book for hours…
A lifelong love has been born.
In the faith Buds and I have chosen to raise the children, Unitarian Universalism, a flaming chalice is the symbol we use to represent the light of truth through flame, as well as a drinking vessel which has connections to Christ’s last supper, as well as a shared community.
With a goal of creating more family rituals, we helped each of the children create their own mini-chalice using a votive candle and small clay flower pots. (Okay, the Buster just has a plain clay pot with a votive and a marble rolling around in it, but he seems happy with it.) Then, thanks to a wonderful mosaic class I won through the church auction, I created a base on which to set the three mini-chalices. Every night, after Buddie returns home from work, before bed, we gather at the dining room table and each person tells one or more things s/he is thankful for from that day.
I’m still learning my favorite parts of this newly-created tradition. We’ve been sharing it for a couple weeks now, and it has brought such a sense of connection and peace to our evenings. The children love blowing out the candles, and they still often say the same things over and over about what they are thankful for. In fact, The Buster has yet to say he is thankful for anything besides me, but Buddie and I truly try to think of something special from our day to share, and just learning to sit and listen…truly listen…to each other has been a good lesson for all of us.
I’d like to see us continue to add rituals and traditions into our daily life together. I don’t know that we’ll be a “sit down around the table and eat meals” type family any time soon, but this is one moment where we create those family ties that hold us together.
Having two children who aren’t yet able to say the “sh” sound can prove hilariously entertaining.
The Buster purchased a new webkinz for himself this week. The sweet little guy is a black hamster, holding a jack-o-lantern.
When you enter a new pet into webkinz world, you give it a name.
We were all up in our bedroom, and Zachary asked me to type in the new name for his hamster.
“Name him Black Ass, Mom.”
Buds and I both started laughing and said, “Name him what, Buster?”
“Black Ass.”
By now we are both rolling with laughter, as is Zachary although he doesn’t really know what’s funny.
“What name again?” says Dad.
“Black Ass. You know, the stuff that gets left after a fire.”
Ahhh, verbal humor. Gotta love it.
The Life and Times of Monkey, Buster, and Yessa 