Excellent Award

Okay, so I have a confession to make.

My wonderfully supportive fellow blogger, fellow unschooler, fellow Red Sox fan and fabulous red-head to boot, Madeline, gave me an Excellent Blogger award. This meant very very much to me, but at the time, I didn't accept it.

At the time, I didn't feel excellent at all. I felt pretty darn crummy. But, I am trying to move forward to accept whatever comes my way. Not just be ready for it and open to it, but to get to the next level of accepting the gifts that those opportunities and moments represent. I am not so good at that.

So, now in an effort to be open to those gifts which are presented to me, I graciously, if belatedly, accept with humility and gratitude.

And I am passing it on to Strawberry Soda, whose attention to detail astounds me, and to Team Cash, who breaks my heart wide open in order to love even more. To get the award, peeps, you just cut and paste it. Then, if you wish, you too can pass it on.

Thank you.

We saw this rainbow on Ella's birthday. Declan said it was a birthday gift from the Universe. Can you see the double rainbow part on the left? It was amazing.

When I was little, my mom used to sing my brother a song that went, "Luke, Luke, Luke and the rainbow, Luke and the rainbow will follow the sun"

We tried to follow the rainbow to the beach, but it was gone by then.

Freezing Things

Lately, both my kids have been freezing their poor LEGO guys. My freezer is like a little Ice Age wasteland that gets discovered every couple of days.

Yesterday, a friend came over and they flung open the freezer door to show all these plastic cups and containers with little LEGO skeletons, Indiana Jones, Race Car Guy, and Stormtroopers. She was completely perplexed as am I. But they were proud and delighted and love freezing these guys.

Can you see the skeleton below? I guess it does look way cooler than when they were freezing the plastic snakes and lizards.

What? Oh, I didn't mention that this wasn't completely new? :) Oh, yeah, snakes and lizards in my freezer are so last week.

Rest in Peace

Our sweet one-eyed Pirate Pug is gone from our lives. He was much loved, and very loving to us. We will miss him.

One of my favorite questions

We were hanging around by or local pond today. There was a family of three boys near me, and one of whom was a redhead, so I kept inadvertently including them in my visual scan.
They were with their baby sitter, who was great and casual and fun, and one of the boys kept asking my favorite question.

He kept asking, "What will happen?"

For instance, his sitter said, "Don't bring your Popsicle in the water."

And he said, "What will happen?"

To which she gave my favorite answer, "I don't know, let's find out."

Sweet. They were wonderful to be near today.

What a game!

And although I have been obsessed by the Celtics championship, I don't mean that game.

I mean t-ball. How fun is that game? That's the D-dog in the red shorts and white/blue hat.

Declan decided to play this spring again, and he has loved it. He was kind of not really really sorta ready for it last spring. I think the lying down in the outfield was the clue that he was not quite into it.

Fast forward to season 2008! Whadda battah!

He is so into it. Not even the cicadas could distract him. He said that he loved t-ball, but really felt he needed to play to get ready for little league. So sweet. This season his coaches were great and really engaged all the players. They made a team out of the kids, which really didn't happen last season and made for some wicked awesome Saturday mornings this spring!

School Dance

Ella went to her first "school dance" this spring, and lucky me, I got to go as well. Sometimes I am so grateful for my experience teaching in the middle school, because the parents that I saw doing drop off and pick up looked a little shell shocked from loud music, group dances, goofy teachers doing the electric slide, and realizing that your child knows all these crazy new dances. Ella came to rock :)
Peace out, baby.
Sweet girl.

My New Nephew

So I have a new "nephew," isn't he cute? Sadly, a while ago, my brother and his family lost the dog that they had had before they even had children. She was a great dog, and came all the way from New Mexico with them. Finally, after much grief, they decided to get another Chow Chow. He is very tired out from his day at the beach. Doesn't he look just like a little teddy bear?
He already looks like a "manly dog," I think, in these pictures, so the remote will give you some sense of his teensy weensy size. Well, he was the same size as Joy. But he'll grow.

Birthdays

Who are these girls and why do they look so grown up?!?!?!

Not only were they grown up, but they were also *goofy*

Ella is turning 11 next week. This year, as a party, she decided to go to a movie and to lunch in the mall with her two BFFs.

It was a blast.

I had to laugh because when we were going over the schedule, Ella was concerned that there seemed to be some "lag" time, and what would we do in the mall. I said we could ride the carousel there. Her reply? "Mom. We're. Eleven."

Note the pictures of three very happy girls on the carousel.

Phillis Wheatley

This is Ella as Phillis Wheatley *g*.
She wrote about her for a project and was really inspired by her story and liked her poetry as well.

I was Tagged!

1. What were you doing ten years ago? Ten years ago I was living in Arlington, and Ella was turning 1! I was a teacher's aide on summer vacation, and Ian had just left ~ just about exactly 10 years ago.

2. What are five things on my to-do list? Get a job. Clean the basement. Weed. Mediatate. Love.

3. Where have I lived? Syracuse, NY; San Diego, CA; Berkeley, CA; Hyannis, MA; Somerville, MA; Cambridge, MA; So Hadley, MA; Arlington, MA; Seattle, MA; Newton, MA; Centerville, MA

4. What would I do if I were a billionaire?
Aftering paying everything off, and giving away everything, I would travel, travel, travel and follow the sun with what I could carry and the kids. See lots of culture, volunteer wherever I was needed, build stuff all over.
Settle somewhere (even in this fantasy, I know I am a homebody) and have lots of room for guests, animals, foster children, chickens, whatever.
Read a lot.
Write a lot.
Swim in every ocean.

Who to tag? Who to tag? Hmm... off to tag... Strawberry Soda!

Ella and her friend took this picture at the Edgerton Center at MIT through their Outreach program.

"Doc" Edgerton is the man that the Center is named after. He was really amazing, and spent time at Woods Hole, explored the Titanic, went on a search for the Loch Ness monster and was always engaged in learning and discovery.

Here are some other photos of his that may be familiar.

Swimming

"Oh, no, I'm not freezing!"
Here's one who knows how to warm up: mom's lap and a baby bunny (can you see it?).

Even though it is still too cold, my kids are swimming every chance they get.