Summertime!

I took my little Alaina out for a girl-outing on Sat. It was so fun to actually spend some time with just the two of us. As we were driving around I started talking about the different types of restaurants that we could go to for lunch. There was a Mexican restaurant, a deli, Chinese food, Italian food. For some reason Alaina got stuck on the Chinese restaurant. I didn't know if that was really what she'd like best so I kept pushing the other choices. "There's Italian...that's spaghetti and pizza and noodles..." "No! Chinese!" "Well, the deli has sandwiches and salads..." "No! Chinese!" "Hmmm....well, there are other things too...like the Mexican restaurant. They have tacos and burritos." "No. Chinese! Chinese! Chinese!" she gleefully shouted. Ok, so the girl knows what she wants. We pulled into the restaurant, parked and went up to the door. As we walked in she said, "What's Chinese?" What a pill.

Yesterday at dinner time, Alaina needed some help going potty. When they came back Robert was trying to look mad while he covered his smile with his hand. When he got control of himself he turned to the boys and asked, "Ok...which one of you decided to go pee in the trash can?" That's right. Pee in the garbage can. After some serious interrogation we finally figured out that it was a joint effort. I couldn't figure out what made them decide to go there when they had a perfectly good toilet one inch away. Robert informed me that they did it just because it was there. No ulterior motive needed. I don't get boys.

All the kids (but mostly the twinnies) use the phrase "last year" instead of 'yesterday,' or 'last week' or 'last month.' The say, "I gave you a hug last year." It really makes figuring out time-lines a challenge.

Austinisms. (not Autism-isms...that's what it looked like to me when I reread it.)

Nice & Warm. All the kids have picked up on this little phrase that I first used to get them into the bath. "Is it too hot?" they'd ask. "Is it freezing?" "No." I'd invariably reply, "It's nice and warm." Before I knew it, our little phrase moved over to dinner time. "The spi-scetti is niiiiccce & waaarrrm." Over this last year, all sorts of things have earned this little title. Blankets. Coats. hats. But today Austin put a new little spin on it. Robert was getting ready to go to the store but wasn't sure he wanted to tackle it with all three of the kids. I had decided to bum around the house and asked Austin if he wanted 'to go with DADDY' (said in happy voice) 'or stay home with mamma.' (boring voice.) Austin jumped into my arms and said, "I want to stay with MAMA because she is NICE & WARM!" Funny thing is, I did feel nice....and warm when he said that. Sweetie. Robert couldn't stop himself and he asked Austin, "What about me? Aren't I nice & warm too?" "No. You are HOT. " Hot and sweaty, that is. Rob has been working outside a lot lately. But he liked his description as much as I liked mine.

At the swimming pool Austin was looking through the iron fence to the big swimming pool and lost balance. He slipped and hurt his cheek pretty bad. He came crying over to me, holding his cheek and sobbed, "My cheek is dead! It's dead." No matter what I said I couldn't get him off that phrase. So dramatic.

On Sunday Austin decided to sit with some friends at church. He tried to tell me who he wanted to sit with but couldn't remember their names, so he thought he'd try to describe them. "It's them. Her is black here..." he said pointing at his cheek, "just like ME!"

It's a little late for Father's day but I've had the funniest little memory rolling around in my mind. I can't really remember who all was there. Lora? I'm pretty sure. The little boys? Maybe. Scotty? Yeah...I think he was behind the fashion choice. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
It all started, as all stories must, with a pair of green running shorts. Dad had been taking morning jogs in these short green beauties for as long as I could remember. They were 'far out' during the 70's and now that I have some life perspective, they were pretty much a standard classic as far as running shorts go. But then the 80's had to come and confuse us all with it's blinding neon, pegged pants and multi-layered matching shirts & socks. Living in the haze of pastel brights, you can't really blame us for what happened next.
Now, if Scotty wasn't a part of our short-lived reign of terror, he was certainly the inspiration for it. There he was, every day, demonstrating his superior fashion sense with his rainbow collection of Ocean Pacific shirts and fuzzy mullet.
We had collectively decided to help dear old dad stumble out of the 70's into the totally rad 80's by buying him new, way cool, neon orange (or was it pink?) bermuda running shorts. We knew that Dad was so, like, yesterday, that he'd refuse to wear them and so we hatch our evil plan to insure the switch was made. Hee hee hee. We (whoever 'we' all were) stood in a semi-circle and unceremoniously brought out the offending green shorts and cut them to shreds. We then handed over the green shorts confetti and shockingly ugly, all-the-rage orange shorts to a speechless father.
Now, Dad has always had great taste in clothes. Looking back at a few decades of pictures, he has always been quite dashing and in-style in his attire. Most of my pictures show him in suits & ties: fat ties, flowery ties, skinny ties, plaid suits, brown suits, grey suits. He represented each era with flair. So, I imagine when he saw the orange shorts monstrosity, his fashion sensibilities were truly shaken.
So much so that I don't think I really ever saw Dad running after that fateful day. He just knew what the rest of us couldn't understand. The 80's, when it came to fashion, was a huge mistake. Plastic bracelets, aerosol hairspray and crop shirts were never going to be looked back on as the good ol' days. A chorus of "What were we thinking?" was bound to follow a breath behind every "Remember the 80's?" (In fact, it's only saving grace was the music. )
Yeah, Daddio knew all this. Which makes the loss of his green running shorts even more tragic. I just saw a pair online yesterday which were hauntingly similar to ones we demolished. Thank goodness Dad was way ahead of his time.

Yeah, the mail arrived today. I can finally post the last quilt I made.

Here is the quilt I just finished for Oliver Scribner. I couldn't take anymore of Stephanie's questions about where Oliver's quilt was, so I decided I would just hurry up and make it. The poor boy can hardly even be considered a baby anymore, he's so humongous. But hopefully he'll still be able to carry this one around a little. Seriously, though, this was a fun one to make.

I tried to match the colors in the kid's room...but all I had was a couple pictures from Steph's blog. The silly things were in a photo slide-show which made it hard to get a good look at the colors. Fortunately she just told me that the colors were a good match. Yea for me! :)

This one is actually a little hard to part with. I really liked how the colors and pattern turned out. It took some careful sewing to match the edges but turned out nicely. I'd hold on to it, but what would I do with a quilt with a giant 'O' on it?

These turtles were a work in progress. I slowly got the hang of how I wanted them to look by the last one.

This tag was fun to do. I figured out how to do the back-stitching on the writing about halfway through the second name. I had to rip out the first name because I had done such a shoddy job of it (I had used a front stitch like I did the hearts....this made the lettering look all spotty and hard to read.)
Now, this binding was the bane of my existence. Seriously, not a great idea. I started it out thinking that it would look really fun and add a little class to the binding. Well, after the first 6 inches, I saw that I was right. It did look pretty cool. So I went on my merry way without taking a second look until about a foot down the side. When I looked I realized I had been pulling the binding tighter and tighter which made that crazy stitch go all loopy down the side of the quilt. What a nightmare. It took me almost 2 hours of seam ripping to get all that double-stitched/back-stitched disaster out. At that point I was pretty committed to using the stitch no matter what and finished it off. But it went a little crazy every time I when over a seam or around a turn. Sometimes it just went crazy for the fun of it. I also used 2 1/2 spools of thread on just that stitch. It ended up ok, but not my favorite. I'll definitely blind stitch it from now on. Maybe... Below is a small section of the stitching...the best part, naturally. (I sure didn't want to record the crazy stuff!)

Happy Father's Day...a few days back. The kiddies brought in breakfast-in-bed for rob and sang "I'm so glad when daddy comes home." Very cute. They dressed up in his in Rob's shirts and ties for the big event.

Alaina and Austin wore their new twinnies clothes that Sara got them for their birthday...so sweet. For some reason I thought Alaina looked especially grown up.

We had gotten all the kids ready and were on our way to church, on time, if you can believe it. Halfway there we heard a little sound from the back and then the boys started yelling. Alaina, poor thing, had thrown up all over herself. Because we were over halfway to church and she didn't feel sick anymore, we cleaned up the girl with baby wipes at kept going. By the time we got there she had aired out enough not to smell too bad, poor thing. But she never seemed to notice. The rest of Father's Day turned out just fine. We had a great lunch and fancy dinner (angel food cake w/ raspberries & blueberries...yum) By bedtime we all were bushed.

A change in plans...professional career plans, of course. I can't believe how wishy-washy my kids are with their future. It seems just last week that they had decided which way they were going. But yesterday they all pulled a 180.

Ethan. "Mama, I don't want to be a soldier anymore. I want to be a Daddy...just like daddy."
Alaina started her reply without a thought, "I want to be a butter..." And with one look at her idol Ethan, she could tell that the rules of the game were changed. It wasn't just what she wanted to be, anymore, it was the pressure of keeping up with Ethan. With just a second pause she redirected her sentence and finished with a distinctly resigned, monotonous conclusion, "...uh, I mean, I want to be like mama." I cringed just hearing how unenthusiastic she sounded. Austin, oblivious to the status race going on around him, pipped up with a cheerful, "I want to be a Chucky Cheeses when I grow up!" (not a worker there...the actual mouse.) He is one ambitious toddler.

Chad and Danielle came to Charlotte for Chad's work last week. We had a chance to share them with our mutual friends, Chris & Laurel. We spent some time at the pool, Monkey Joe's, Laurel's house and our house. It was fun let the little cousins play together and to let the big cousins reconnect. Here are some pictures of their visit.

Danielle & the kiddies playing duck duck goose.
Here is Andrew, checking out the fish. Look at that sweet smile. :)
Chad, looking as dashing as ever.
Danielle, Laurel & Ryan at Monkey Joe's
Sweet Ryan.
Austin....
Just a little story about Austin. The other day Robert asked Austin for a 'HUGE hug!' Austin leaned forward and agreed to give him a 'small hug.' Robert grabbed his arms and gave him a big ol' hug anyways. Austin ran over to me crying and said, in a very dramatic voice, "Dada hurt my feelings! He gave me a HUGE hug." Then looking over to Rob he said, "Dada, you BROKE my heart!" The drama.

And here is a little pink-madness. This has become her favorite outfit. She'd wear it everyday if she could...and really, who am I to stop her?

Here are a few pictures of Jennifer & Jonathan's triplets on their quilt. Aren't those little things so cute? Doesn't it make you feel so tired just thinking about all that work? Plus little Devin, of course. But from what Mom tells us, they are doing just wonderful with them all. We are very excited to finally meet them this summer.