Excuse me?

On the drive home from preschool today, Ronan asks "Mom, how do grownups create babies?" . I gave him the short answer. Thank goodness we don't live that far. After the discussion of finding someone to marry first before one has babies--we were home and he was more concerned about playing with Patrick. (whew!) He thought you'd have to marry someone new for each baby.

Ronan's Family Tree

Liz and family spent Easter and Easter week with us. We all had a blast having them here. If we didn't need sleep, I think the kids would have done away with it. Ronan was especially teary when they left. The afternoon after their departure, Ronan came home from school with a homework assignment--to create a family tree. He asked me if I could print pictures of Ethan, Evan, and Ellysa. I thought --oh wow, he must really miss them. And then he asked me to also print out a picture of Elijah (our friend from Ocean Springs). I said--sure you want me to put it in a photo album? He said " No mom!! we have to cut the pictures and then put them on my family tree with Patrick, Gabriel, Dada, you, Lola and Papa".
Sweet Ronan reminded me that our family tree is so much larger than the "blood-relation family tree"--. It's more like the banyan tree filled with relatives and dear dear friends who keep us grounded and strong. I hope he and his brothers will always remember that.

Status Update

For reals? Was that really January when I said that I'd resuscitate the blog? An earthquake ago, and now there's another earthquake in China? So new approach to update blog. I'll just treat it as an extended FB status update. I update FB regularly that it's become a habit now I'm just going to treat my blog the same way. Yeah..that's it! Take that lazy blogger!

Facebook killed my blog

Okay, I'm on a major rescuscitation project...blog makeover coming soon. Blog neglect must be resolved! Message about donating to Red Cross can occupy my FB status update until they erase it.

Halloween at Chez Ray!

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Monster Mash

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Ronan's 5th Birthday Party

It's official! Ronan is 5 ! We celebrated his birthday 2 weeks after his birthday. After much debating where to have the party, he finally decided to have it at Pump It Up! He wanted sprinkled cupcakes with gummy bears on it for his cake.
Jim and Gabriel checking out the slide. He loved it!
I can't believe that my little clingy-attached-to my hip-baby is now a very independent, social five year old.
I love how they love each other.
A fun party! A great bunch of kids!

Berry Picking

We finally got around to going berry picking and we could not have picked a better day than today. Overcast and in the mid 60s temp , and a not too crowded farm with lots of varieties of berries to pick--it was perfect. And it was only 25 minutes away from our doorstep!
Marionberries.....yum! yum!


Eileen, Sean, Evie and Penny met us there. Sweet little girls!! Penny was fascinated with baby Gabriel. And as they were leaving, Christine and her kids, Alexis and her son arrived and that's when I lost my berry pickers.

Isaac, Thomas, Alex, Ronan and Patrick outnumbered little Luna but boy she kept up with them!

Christine, my human GPS, village builder, cool mom, partner in crime, co-stay at home but never at home mommy friend. And if I ever need an Arab linguist, I just need to phone her.
There were chickens and goats to feed and the boys did that more than pick berries
Penny and Gabriel..so sweet!
After berry picking, we headed across the street for a fantastic lunch. I think the restaurant clients were a little shocked to be joined by 6 boys 1 girl and 3 mommies. I'm sure they were relieved when we decided to eat outside.

Sprout Academy Grad

 

Ronan's class had a little end of the year program today at school. He had so much fun at Sprout Academy this spring. When he received his memory book/diploma, Teacher Heidi described him as the "peaceful one".

 

Teacher Andrew's "other" job is a pilot. He flies for Horizon Airlines when they need him otherwise he teaches at Sprout and also in charge of a lot of the youth programs at the community center. He gave all the parents a CD of pics he took of the class during the quarter. Such a sweet kid or I should say young man.

 

Teacher Heidi is the wonderful lead teacher at Sprout. She used to be a neurology nurse then switched to teaching 13 years ago. She really loves teaching and it showed each day! We are so lucky to have had her as Ronan's teacher.

 

My little proud sprout!! You are growing indeed and I love you!

We got a CRAWLER!!

If they could only make microfiber playsuits so when he crawls on the floor he's also cleaning it. He loves crawling all over the kitchen and family room and really enjoying his newfound "freedom".

Mad Scientists

Spring break day 1, our neighbor's son Patrick came over to play. We decided to make some flubber.Lots of glue+water+food coloring+a little borax+ and a little hocus pocus.
Et voila!! some gooey ooey yucky slimy stuff!
That when stuffed and kneaded in a small container--produces the most hilarious fart sounds. Listen closely, I think I caught some on video

Happy climbers

Patrick & Ronan in their first rock climbing class at our local rec center. So glad they offer this class in their age group. Ronan was complaining that the trees in our yard are too hard to climb and that he misses the trees in our front yard in Ocean Springs. I kinda miss seeing them climb those crepe myrtles in the winter too!
This week we had a couple of SUNNY afternoons and we headed to the park by our house. We love this new playground!!

Six Months Old

Oh yeah..that's right--I'm six months old. Where does the time go?" my mom always says. I'm thinking "aw, c'mon i'm ready to crawl and wrestle with my big brothers". We're getting settled here in our new home. There's lots of stuff for my mom to do still--lots of unpacking, uncluttering and putting stuff away to give to Goodwill. But at this time, I kinda want her to myself so she spends a lot of time playing with me, feeding me, changing my diapers, tickling me and cuddling with me. She's always wanting to put me to sleep though and I'm like "lady..I only want to nap two times a day!". Anyway, it's nice to be a little older. I'm eating lots of green peas, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes that my mom makes in her mini food processor. Love that stuff!! I also love stealing the spoon from her when she feeds me. I'm pretty "sturdy" now too--so when my brothers carry me and pass me around, my parents are not so freaked out. Big brother Ronan likes to carry me a lot. He's pretty good at watching me and keeping stuff that I'm not supposed to be chewing on. My brother Patrick is in school most of the day but when he comes home he likes to play with me. I love it when they're both on the floor just hanging out with me. I make them laugh when I make my farting sounds. My mom and I have been taking itsy bitsy yoga classes. It's pretty fun to see other babies in there--Daniel and I are the oldest ones and we manage to stay awake during class. Some of the babies fall asleep in the middle of class. When it gets a little warmer, my mom and I will take a baby and me swim class but for now we'll stick with yoga. I'm pretty good at "downward facing dog" asana. My cousin, Sean will be coming to visit us next month so I've been working on my crawl. He's close to my size so I can wrestle with him easily. My dad is very busy at work but he usually makes it home before I fall asleep at night. I like hanging out with him. He's a pretty good singer y'know. I'm still lucky to get to sleep and snuggle with my mom and dad. They have this thing called "the crib" that I'm supposed to be in but I prefer to be in their bed and frankly I think they like it. The crib however is a pretty good place to keep my toys and blankets. I almost forgot to mention that I think I've got teeth coming out soon. Yeah, they're irritating me so much so that sometimes I accidentally bite my mom while I'm eating. I know because she screams pretty loud when it happens. I'm sure my gums will be better once they're out. Hmm...something smells suspicious, I'm off to get my diaper changed. "Till next time! Hugs, and smooches Gabriel

Check out my precrawling skills and some yoga moves!

My dada helping me with my bath.

My mom's favorite time of the day.

Pine Wood Derby Race I

After creating "Speed King" with his dad, Patrick entered his first cubscout pine derby race. His car came 11th overall out of 48 cars..not bad for his first race. Jim missed the race as he was reporting in Travis for AF reserve assignment. It was a very exciting afternoon. The most creative car (I thought) was the one shaped like a Converse shoe.

The elusive smile

The one who used to be a ham in front of a camera is no longer a fan of the paparazzi. ... he must be in first grade, or maybe it was too early in the morning. I wanted to get a photo of him wearing his uniform and this is what I got.

A Valentine's Day card from Mrs. Grenz

Patrick's 1st grade teacher sent this cute Valentine card to all the kids and parents. The whole class' portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. Pretty cool!

Love to all !!

You know you have boys when

After dinner entertainment includes watching a captain underpants wrestling match

Habitat for Humanity--I mean the Dolans

On MLK weekend, June and Kiara flew up from SF for a quick visit and to dig me out of these boxes. It's been over 3 years since we've seen them and it was so nice to get together again as if no time has passed between us. Didn't think we'd get much unpacking done but June had a mission...to unpack the boys' stuff (hallelujah!)
I cannot believe how much TOYS we've accumulated over the years! TOOO much! To Goodwill a lot of them will go! Glad they're coming to pick up next week!
The cats were not the only one enamored with Kiara. Little Ronan was quite taken by her. He kept forgetting how to pronounce her name so he called her "the girl with the green shoes". The boys loved having her around especially because she's so great at playing with legos.
I wonder what Ronan was thinking in this photo. Patrick--classic 7 yr old mischief. Love it!


My parents came up also to help take care of Gabriel while we get settled. They've been so incredibly helpful! Keeping me sane amidst all the moving chaos.Gabriel is SOOO LOVING hanging out with them.

Thanks to our first guests on Lancelot Lane--our house is much warmer and feels like home...messy but warm!

Move-In day

Snow is beautiful but not during move-in day! The truck got stuck twice on the hill to get to the house. It took 11 hours for 3 hardworking guys to move everything from the truck to the house. Why they only had 3 people working to unload the stuff is beyond me. I have a lot of respect for the hard work movers do. And I wonder why I have too much stuff that should have been given to Goodwill long long time ago. I pause from unpacking tonight and enjoy watching the snow from the comfort and warmth of my kitchen--which has a built in desk perfect for my MacBook and me.