betrayal of the worst kind...

The time: Easter Eve
The place: Nana's and Poppa's in San Antonio

Nana was making deviled eggs for our Easter feast the next day while a certain boy named Tank wandered in...

"Nana?" the small boy inquired.

Nana, while intent on filling the little egg boats just right, always had time for her beloved grandchildren, "Yes, Tank?"

"Are you making Devil's Eggs for us?"

With a smile, "Yes, honey. I am."

Tank's eyes widened with anticipation. "For dinner tonight?"

Nana turned to her littlest grandson, "No, they're for Easter tomorrow."

The jubilant face turned dark and his eyes narrowed, "TRICKERY!" In one movement he turned on his heel and ran up the stairs to sit with Poppa, the non-betrayer.

Nana and a quietly observing Mommy, watched him leave, turned to each other and laughing, repeated, "Trickery?"

Who even taught him that word?

the 8th of Princess Cutie Pops

Our Princess Cutie Pops turned eight. She chose red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and poinsettia decorations. We had fun putting them together and the entire house smelled of cinnamon gum.

The hoard.

We got her ears pierced for our present and knowing this in advance, Nana and Papa got her five pairs of earrings! Now she just has to wait six weeks before she can wear them.

As usual, a great present from our friends.

Her siblings got her a pair of "real crocs" in her favorite color.

san antonio zoo time

a pocket full of rye and then some

We have a gigantic map on our dining room wall. It is the topic of many dinner conversations, tonight included. After answering many "Is this a country or a state?" questions, the kids noticed that Russia was rather large. This got us discussing how a country's size doesn't always match how powerful and rich it is.

"Mom, does the United States of America have a lot of money?"

"Yes, we're considered a rich country and that's one of the main reasons we're so powerful."

"Is England rich?"

"Yes, England is considered one of the rich countries."

"...and portable!"

"What? Portable?"

"Yeah, it is so small you could just drop it in your pocket."


Kids...Where do they come up with this stuff?

oh, the possibilities...

My kids are in the back of the Sienna one-upping each other on "What God could do if He wanted to."

"You could grow to be as tall as a tree if God wanted you to."

"You could shoot fireballs out your hands if God wanted you to."

My youngest son, Tank, not to be outdone, pipes in, "You could live to be a million but still be a baby and learn to say "hello" if God wanted you to, and grow a beard."

Silence.
Then eruptions of laughter.
Hmmmm, methinks we've got a winner.

A new addition!

It's spring and we've got new life sprouting in the Shnozberry Patch! This update is horribly late, but anyone with a newborn can understand how superfluous things like blogs and showers are pushed aside and the necessities like food and clean underwear take up the spare moments that aren't in demand by a wee bairn weighing less than a gallon of milk.

So without further ado, let me present my sweet darling, the e.m.p.:

She was born 4 April, 2009, coming in at the perfect weight of 7lbs 2 oz. She took four hours once she decided it was her time to arrive. And we have fallen irrevocably in love.

It's the Zoo at San Antone!

Now that Nana and Poppa live so close, we get to visit them almost every time Dug goes away on a business trip. Nana and Poppa got a year pass to the zoo in which they put their grandkids on for free. (And me for a little bit extra.) Yippee! The San Antonio Zoo is now one of our go-to destinations!

Here, Tank is carefully plotting our course. He wanted the map and was very upset if anyone tried to take it from him.


For a short while PCPops got to lead the way. She studied the map very carefully and in the end, walked wherever we led.


My philosophy at the zoo (especially when we can come back whenever we want) is to let the kids set the pace and stop whenever they find something they're interested in. These parrots were Tank's favorite exhibit. When we were leaving (Well, to be honest, we were shooed out because the zoo had closed.) the parrots were no longer in their exhibit. Tank was very concerned and thought someone had stole them or they had escaped. "Where are the parrots? They're gone! What happened to them? They're gone!" We had to have a zoo official reassure him that they had just been put in their cages to sleep for the night.

We only had a few quarters but there seemed to be those "Feed The Animals" vending machines everywhere. The kids got quite adept at looking around the base of the machine for the nuggets that had been dropped. Scoochy is feeding some fish with one of the few non-scavenged handfuls we managed to provide.

One moment earlier, Tank had found the hidden frog.



This red-ruffed lemur had the most piercing eyes. Just had to let you see him.

Have statue. Will climb.
I think it is one of the stupidest things ever when people/organizations/etc put a very climb-able metal statue at kids level, leave out the fence and then post a little sign (so it won't interfere with the view of the artwork) that says, "Please don't climb on the statue." Luckily for us, the San Antonio Zoo is not stupid.

Last but not least, I managed to get a shot off of the very elusive Poppatus Vidcamerus. He seemed to follow us everywhere we went and only with very quick, highly trained movements was I able to catch him at his own game.

Turning 4!

Tank turned four in the middle of October. It was a full month for birthdays. Dug had to travel so much that he missed my, Dodge's and Tank's birthday. Luckily Nana and Poppa live only 3.5 hours away now and we got to spend my and Tank's with them.


Here's the birthday boy. He asked for a rainbow cake. I was so thankful. Not much to look at, but the little guy was happy and that is all that counts.


To make his birthday exciting (and to try to hide the fact that we didn't wrap anything) we hid all his presents around the house. Brother Dodge began the hunt with hiding his Phlat Ball present in the couch. Very quickly we realized that Tank didn't understand how to play "Hot, Cold." Dodge patiently taught him as best he could.


PCPops hid her gumball machine in the pantry. She was so excited for him to find it so Tank could "see how it worked and maybe share." When this pic was snapped, he still hadn't quite figured out what it was. Once big sis explained it, though, it was "super cool."

Scoochy and Tank are astride her present, a rather large T-Rex. When she asked if she could get it for him, I looked at what I thought was the price and said, "Sure, $9.99 is under your $10 limit." I don't know what I was looking at. When we finally had everyone's present picked out and we were running late to meet up with Poppa, I was hurrying through the check-out hoping Tank wouldn't escape Nana's "distraction techniques." The checker rang up said dinosaur and up popped $19.99!! In normal circumstances there is no way I would fork out $20 bucks for a big dino, but I was hurried, a little tired and feeling a bit pushover-y. Tank was so thankful for my fragile state. He loved his new "Bigfoot."


(Sorry mom and dad for having to post this goofy picture of you.) Tank's favorite present by far was his new bike from Nana and Poppa. How could he not love that thing? This present, above all others, pushed him from babydom to Big Boy-hood.


When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, Tank's first answer was "a horse," in which we had to explain the difficulties and expense of such a large animal. When we realized he meant a stick horse, it all became possible. As soon as he saw his horse, he was galloping away. (Helps that a button on his ear makes a galloping noise.)

And here are the crazy four, happy. Which makes mommy happy. :-) In case you're wondering, we had cake and presents on two separate days, which would account for their wardrobe changes. Presents, of course, were on the actual birthday. Cake was suspended a day.

Bolhas, Gelado e Divertimento

(hopefully the title is portuguese for bubbles, ice cream and fun)

I know I'm so delinquent on this blog. You'll forgive me, I know.

This post should have been written the last week in July. Now that I should be showing pictures of leaves falling and pumpkin patches, you're getting an eyeful of ice cream and sunshine. Also, we're in Houston and these are in Oregon. Oh well.

At the end of July my beloved college roommate Heidi and her beautiful family came up from Brazil to visit the States. She went to Brazil for a college thing, met a handsome pastor, married the chap and now lives in the Amazon changing lives. While they were here, the kids got to play with their two children for the afternoon. We had fun goofing around and even learning a little Portuguese.

Here is Sarah. The kids were so excited when they figured out that if they were wet they could actually hold the bubbles.

Tim tries to stretch the bubble to its limits. Major difference between boys and girls. The boys were all putting the bubbles to the test. The girls were decorating themselves with them.

Scoochy and Sarah with their bubble buddies. Unfortunately, right before I snapped the picture, Sarah's buddy popped.

Concurrently with the bubble machine we had the sprinklers on. It wasn't quite warm enough for the Brazilians, but to the Oregonians, if the sun is out, it's warm enough.

Ice cream time! Tim enjoyed a cone while patiently answering the kids'questions. For instance:

Scoochy: How do you say green?
Tim: In Portuguese? (he always asked that, it made me laugh)
Scoochy: Yeah.
Tim: Verch. (yeah, I know that's not how it's spelled, I'm doing it phonetically, k?)
Scoochy: Verch?
Tim: Yeah.

Princess Cutie Pops enjoying her cone. Man, just look at that hair. It is such a pretty color.

The whole group drying out from the sprinklers, enjoying some ice cream and some warming rays in the only bit of grass that isn't wet.

Okay, I included this one because I am amazed at how handsome and old this boy is getting. Sorry, total mom-bragging but I couldn't help it. It is one of those "Wow!" pictures that you take every once in a while and they actually turn out.

Jamison Square + Friends= Fun!

On the way home from Texas we spent the afternoon at Jamison Square with our buddies.

Here's three of the girls, in height order: Mercedes, Princess Cutie Pops and Scoochy.

Uh oh! Here comes trouble.
Samab, Princess Cutie Pops and Tank, all in formation.

Can you say "Hot Mama!"?

Deadpool and Dodge trying to break the law...of gravity, that is!
Guffaw! Guffaw! (I know, pretty bad.)

And last, but certainly not least, Lil Red.
Can you get cuter than that?