Sibling Love

Helping Clark apply to college and putting together his transcript was our project earlier this week.  The applying part was easy, the transcript was a little more time consuming.   Fortunately, I'd kept pretty good track of all his classes and activities, so it was just a matter of formatting the transcript.

Faith is my puzzling companion.  Other kids will help a bit here and there, but Faith is usually with me for the long haul.  It is such a decadent treat for me to take time to do a puzzle.

The "cats" in their "cat beds".  One of my absolute favorite things about parenting is watching the creative games the kids come up with, especially when they are denied access to electronics.

The other morning the little kids set up a Magformer/Goobie magnet battle.  Ideally, they would have started on their jobs and school work, but I'm a sucker for siblings making up games and playing together.  And it was a holiday week, so it was hard to find motivation anyway.

It started with the little kids, but it wasn't long before the bigger kids joined in.  Scenes like this make my mama heart happy.

The many uses of spray whipped cream.

There are no words.

When I teach piano in the afternoons, I wrap Greta up and bounce her in her bouncy chair and she almost immediately falls asleep.  It doesn't matter how loud the kids play, it soothes her right to sleep.

Faith had a goal this week to mark 1000 back handsprings to turn in at her class on Tuesday.  From last Wednesday to the following Tuesday she did 1,120!  If you look closely you can see lots of drops of sweat on her mats.

And she's got the guns to prove it!

Wow.

Just wow.

Elinor is not just slightly taller than me, she's passed me up by about 1 1/2 inches!  I honestly did not think any of my girls would get taller than me.  

I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I'm finding it quite shocking.

Elinor has been spending a lot of time working on programming the robot for FLL.   She's always had a knack for the techie stuff.

Bethany had a fun experience the last couple of weeks playing in the pit orchestra for the high school's production of "Music Man".

I gave all the boys haircuts this week.  I always give myself a little pat on the back when I consider that I saved about $60 by cutting their hair myself instead of taking them to a professional.  But there is a price to be paid and this time it came in the form of a really crummy haircut for Peter.  What was I doing? 

In my defense, he was screaming and wiggling and trying to escape during the haircut.

Umm... I don't really know what to say about this picture.

I will just say that he is a source of constant entertainment to me.

My children's favorite past time is quoting obscure comedy sketches from YouTube.  But perhaps their second favorite past time is teasing one another about whom they like.  This pencil topper is courtesy of Faith, given to Cannon.  This cutout came from an advertisement mailer for the dance studio where Cannon takes dance.  This little girl is the daughter of the owner and she happens to be a favorite of Cannon's.   Aren't siblings wonderful?

And speaking of siblings, these four are LOUD, LOUD, LOUD!  These days there is much of wrestling, screaming, growling, jumping, and all manner of disturbing noises.  I don't recall the older kids being so loud, but I attribute that to a higher female to male ratio back then. 

And Peter.  I attribute a lot of noise to Peter.

Frankly, I'm not sure how much I should just roll with it and how much I should attempt to curtail the mayhem.  Aren't little boys like little lion cubs that need to play-wrestle to learn how to be big lions someday?  This is healthy, right?

It does, at times, end in tears.  That is sad.  But know that within 1 minute he was right back in the fray.

Never a dull moment.  

But I think I might enjoy a dull moment.  Maybe that's why I do jigsaw puzzles with Faith.