Ballet Performance

I forgot to post these pictures of my Ballet Performance in May because I got the pictures later and then it's been hard to get them to download on this computer.  This year we did "The Magic Toy Shop" and all of the dancers were toys. (Pictures by Brooke Romriell of http://romriellphotography.blogspot.com )  This is the third year I've run the program here.

Wild Animals:

Bouncy Balls:

Jack-in-the-Boxes:

Ballerina Dolls:

Toy Soldiers:

My Girls:

Performance Night:

Friend Visit

Our good friends the Cenas who moved us in when we came to Iowa, tended our children, loaned Justin Wii games, brought me home from dance, and then moved away (how dare they!) came in town to visit.  The kids had a great time at the museum and park with them.  We wish we could see them more!

Tennis

This summer the girls are in a tennis class together.  They are all in different ages for soccer, so we went for a sport where we could hit two birds with one stone.  Besides, tennis is fun, right?  At least, that's what my roommates in college always told me - I walked around the court in gym because my hand/eye coordination was so "special."  So far, the girls have loved it, and Ellie - true to form - has memorized all the names of the lines.  Meg - true to form - mastered tying her shoes.  (A skill that Ellie and I traumatized and cried over, and that Meg did on her own while I got dressed.)  They are fun to watch together.

The boys had fun playing on the sidelines.  They are easier to take pictures of because they aren't across the court, so there are more pictures of them.

Going on a Hike

Last summer we swam a lot.  This summer I want to hike a lot.  Since last week was our first week off, we got started by going on a small hike with the Iowa Gnat Society.  (Boy were they awful.)  We got a carrier for Spencer, which he did great in, and off we went.  The hike was great because while it was short (a plus with short legged children and a mother whose torso is too short for the carrier - really?!?) it also had fun things to see like some structures the art dept. had built, a lake, and a flooded trail from this crazy rainy season.

Where they get to have each other.

This is the reason, I want to say.  This right here:

Two girls, in a tennis lesson.  Nervous, because it's the first time.  Awful at smacking the ball, because their mother's never shown them how, because their mother doesn't know herself.  Awkward and unable, but not alone.

Two boys, stuck behind the fences while they wait the hour out.  Rattling the chains, climbing up two leg lengths before falling down again.  Throwing rocks into the flowers.  Playing in the water fountain until both their shirts are wet.

Oh, they fight.  Eighty percent of the time, they fight.  They yell words like "hate" and "mean" and "stupid."  They hit each other, and steal toys - to make the other cry, not to get the toy.  And there are times I want to send them to the four furthest corners of the house and leave them there in lonely isolation until their father comes home with a grain more of sense than I have.  In hopes that he can end the screams.

But these times.  These times right here:

A call for partners, and they already have one.

Mind-boggling boredom, that they navigate together.

When I was small, my brothers and sisters were grown.  I came behind them by ten years, the last car on a train that left the station long ago.  Of course, they dragged me about.  They fed me and watered me.  They yanked me along on hikes, let me try on their wedding veils, brought me books to disappear inside, and picked me up from car crashes where I'd smashed some man's blue truck.  They loved me, and I loved them.  But I wasn't part of the screaming and the fights.  And I wasn't a part of this.

People stop me in the grocery store.  They deliver smart comments, and count the children up and down my cart.  They mark their ages, and they mark mine.  And they pass judgment on my seeming inability to know that 1+1=yet another 1 more.

Well, this is the reason, I want to say.  This right here.

This part where they get to have each other.

The Sillies

Spencer watches the kids play outside.  This year, they're old enough I let them go out alone (we do not have a fenced backyard and there is quite the drop-off) but Spencer is not allowed to go with the crowd.  It makes him pretty wishful when I'm making dinner and he's stuck indoors.

Spencer usually doesn't enjoy having his picture taken:

Sticking stickers all over themselves: