"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."
-Helen Keller

Don't Blink

Here is Elora's latest chalk art, entitled The Angels Have The Phone Box. The Weeping Angel is on the left and that is indeed the 10th doctor on the right. I love this kid. I don't know whether to be amused, impressed, or very, very terrified.

Playin' Around

Just a few random pictures of my family.*sigh* I love these guys!

A Princess Wedding

Last night the girls and I had so. much. fun. We were sleepy, but wouldn't have traded it. How often do you get to watch a REAL princess wedding with your little girls? I woke the girls up at 2 :30 and we had tea and cookies while watching the Royal Family arrive and then watching the ceremony (Yep, Dash was not one to be left out.  He had fun, too!) and then watched the parade as they left Westminster Abbey. I will never forget getting up with my mom in the middle of the night to watch Princess Diana get married, and couldn't pass up the chance to have the same experience with the girls. We all had fun looking at the dresses and I must have heard "check out THAT hat!" at least 20 times. The girls desperately wanted to stay up for the kiss, but seeing as that was over an hour after the ceremony, I told them we'd have to watch the kiss in the morning. (And we did, first thing.) Amarra loved the queen's yellow ensemble and Elora could not get over the fact that Queen Elizabeth is married to Prince Phillip, just like Sleeping Beauty.  Seleia and I sighed over the beautiful gown, tiara and veil as she talked about what she wants at her wedding someday. (I have a feeling that someday will come way too soon!)  Ahh, there's nothing like a real, live fairytale to spark a girl's imagination.

So Big

Dash loooves to play with his sisters! The girls have a lot of fun taking little brother back to their room for "Dashiell Time". (We're working on the fact that Dash only needs a couple of toys to choose from at a time, not 50.)  Seven months old last week!! I can't believe my little preemie is such a big boy! (And yesterday.....teeth!)

Happy Easter To You!

I absolutely love holiday traditions. No, more accurately, I love pretty much any traditions! Coloring eggs may be one of the more nonsensical of the bunch (rating slightly below, say, hanging tree fungus in your house at Christmas so that people can kiss underneath it) but, you throw a tradition and an art project together and we're all over it! No mere dyeing of eggs at this house, nosiree! We dye them, paint them, glitter them, bead them, color on them, add some stickers...I'm actually a little bit sad we have to keep them in the fridge and that tomorrow they'll be deviled eggs. (And egg salad the day after that, and the day after that.....and this relates to Jesus how, exactly?)  All of that aside, we had so much fun decorating eggs with the girls this year.  I love to watch them create. I love to see their own individual style present itself in something so seemingly simple. (I love to watch Joel act like he doesn't want to do it every year and then really get into it, and possibly have more fun than anyone else.) Above all I love to celebrate with my family. Happy Easter!  He Is Risen!!

The Hunt

The kids and I headed out on this gloriously beautiful morning for the community Easter egg hunt held at our church. Close to 100 children turned up with bags and baskets, as both fields held hundreds off candy-filled eggs. This was the first time the girls had been to an Easter egg hunt that was not at our home or that of a friend or family member, and Seleia's observation cracked me up: "I don't see why they call it a hunt, Mom. The eggs are just laying there, all over the grass. You don't even have to look very hard!"  But although the eggs were easy to find, the morning of friends and sunshine was still a lot of fun. I'll just make sure I hide the eggs extra well at home this year!

Bedtime Stories

" It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

Oh how I love to see my children read.