Molly Piper

Well, friends, today’s my birthday.

I was woken up by a sweet little two-year-old hand tapping me gently. When my eyes sluggishly opened, there was a burst of song from Abraham, Orison, and Morrow. They came bearing chocolate chip pancakes and orange juice (two of my favorite breakfast items). I was too tired to even eat them, so the boys were happy to do their part to consume them for me.

These are good memories. Sweet family, sweet gestures… but every year I think about a different birthday.

It was 2004. It was coming up on my first birthday as Mrs. Molly Piper. I was already carrying Mr. Piper’s firstborn. He asked me one day, “When’s your birthday? May 25th?”

He was totally serious.

I, of course, was just shocked that he didn’t know my birthday. What in the world could he be thinking???? So he (tried to) explain himself:

“Well, I know it’s one day different from Bob Dylan’s birthday. But I just can’t remember if it’s the day before or after.”

Ohhhhh…rrriiiiiggghhhht. Now it makes complete sense. You can remember Bob Dylan’s birthday….

I didn’t get seriously mad at him or anything. I’m sure we laughed about it then. We still laugh about it now. That’s a mistake you only make once.

So every year we celebrate my birthday and Bob Dylan’s. It just so happens that Mr. Dylan is having a milestone birthday this year. Last night we listened to a documentary about his life in Minnesota and enjoyed it so much.

Happy 70th birthday (tomorrow), Bob Dylan! I like “sharing” a birthday with you.

A couple weeks ago, my husband started a new job. He’s working for a start-up that’s set to launch this summer. I wish I could tell you more about the company, but I’ve gone and signed some legally-binding document and all that…

What I can tell you, though, is that the company’s called Abuyo.

Usually I don’t ask you guys to do a whole lot on this blog, just read and comment if you want. But today I’m asking a favor. They have a short survey you can take to gauge peoples’ interest in what they’re doing.

And maybe you’re not too motivated to click through and do it, but here’s some incentive:

• It took me less than a minute to do.
• I got entered to win an Amazon gift card for $100. (I don’t know if I’m exempt from winning because I’m family of an employee, but hey, I figured I’d go for it.)
• It’s for a good cause. (Not really. Unless you consider helping the Piper clan to be a good cause, in which case my statement stands.)

THANK YOU!!!!

On a more personal note, I’m really proud of Abraham for taking this new job. It’s a really good fit for him, and I think he’s going to be very successful with it. I know he takes his responsibility to care for our family very seriously. He’s dedicated to us, and providing for us financially is something he does that I want to appreciate more and more. I know I wouldn’t want that weight on my shoulders, and I’m so amazed at his desire to serve our family that way. I love that man so much.

THANKS AGAIN!

Orison finished up a unit on weather for school a couple weeks ago. Since then, he’s developed a kind of hyper-focus (obsession?) with tornadoes. And last week’s devastation hasn’t alleviated any of his fears, as you might well suppose, though I don’t think he saw any images from the storms.

To help quell his fears, I informed him about Minneapolis’s tornado siren, and told him that they do a practice every month to make sure it’s working properly. Naturally he wanted to know what day they do the practicing, so I absently told him, “The first Wednesday of the month.”

As he was coming in from school today he could hear the siren of an emergency vehicle nearby. He worriedly asked me, “What’s that? Is that a tornado siren?”

“No,” I told him. “It’s a police car or ambulance or something.”

“But when are they doing the tornado siren?” he asked.

“What?!?!” I thought to myself. “Is it the first Wednesday of the month?” as I tried to remember the current month and day. I realized that, yes indeed, it is the first Wednesday of the month.

“Who told you it’s the first Wednesday of the month?” I asked.

“Well…the month started on Sunday, and there hasn’t been a Wednesday yet since the month started, so this is the first Wednesday of the month.”

Right on.

“Well, they do it at 1pm.”

And lo and behold, at 1pm I had him run outside to listen to what it sounds like. I think he thought it would be louder.

I just found it funny that he’s tracking it so closely and privately. It’s interesting to realize that your children have their own thoughts running through their heads, their own events they’re keeping track of, their own little obsessions.

He also licked his finger today and felt for the wind direction. (It’s not a windy day here whatsoever, but whenever a slight breeze blows, he says it’s too windy.)

The kid cracks me up.

I just have to keep posting pictures, because I love them so much!

We lovingly call this face “Bulldog.” Whenever she does it, we get the biggest kick out of it! I was so excited to catch it on camera!

Me with my blue-eyed-boy! I don’t think I’ve told you all, but while I was in Hawaii, Whit became an all-out crawler. The kid goes everywhere! He’s unstoppable. And he has the softest, most nuzzleable (is that a word? It is now.) head ever to top a baby.

The twins will be 9 months old next week! I can hardly believe it.

Yesterday was the twins’ first Easter! It was much like any of their other days in most ways, except that they got to be held pretty much all day by visitors and friends. Pretty good gig for them.

I haven’t told you all very much about our live-in help, Miss Katie. I’m choosing to respect her privacy and our relationship by keeping most details about her out of my blog. But I will say…I love her to pieces. She’s amazing with my children. Seriously, her coming to live with us is an answer to prayers that I hadn’t even thought to pray, but God said, “Hey Molly, I think you need…” and just gave it. So great.

Well, one of the specific things I love about Katie is that she’s a photographer. And she really loves to take pictures of my kids! Double yay for us! She just got a new lens for her camera the other day, so all of us were treated to fun pictures of yesterday’s Easter festivities while she played with her new toy!

She grabbed these ones of the twins:

What I love about the second one is how it really captures who they are right now. Whit is always playing this game when he’s in his highchair, where he lays his head down just like that, and then someone (or everyone) copies him, and then he does it again. It’s so cute!

And Cadence, she pretty much always has her mouth open that wide, smiling or making these funny growling noises. And her arms are always out to the sides like that. Always.

And here’s my big boy on Easter:

And my other big boy:

A couple funny things about this one: 1. it was 60 degrees out and he needed neither the coat or the hat, but had almost no concept for a warm day. That’s the kind of spring it’s been around here. 2. He’s attempting a jail break under the front gate. And he even has a sneaky look on his face!

I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday.

There are still icy snow patches left in the yard, the temperatures haven’t reached 60 degrees, and our grass is more like a mud-wrestling pit than a yard, but I guess that’s spring in Minneapolis!

We had such horrible cabin fever this weekend, that we decided to just hit the front porch and let the big kids play in the yard, mud and all.

Cadence wasn’t feeling particularly photogenic, but Whit was pretty happy with the arrangement!

I thought he looked like a dock worker in his little pea coat and rolled-brim hat. I captured this little gem that really needs a caption:

By the way, the twins turned 8 months old this weekend! Can’t even believe it!

A couple weeks ago, Orison was doing a unit at school on the Presidents of the United States. Since it’s Kindergarten, they just focused on the four presidents of Mount Rushmore. They learned a few facts about each one, and Orison just loved it!

One morning he was getting ready for school, and he started “testing” Morrow. And much to our surprise, Morrow knew the answers!

The funny part is, Morrow doesn’t even know his colors reliably, but he can name the presidents on Mount Rushmore. I guess it’s all about exposure!

Another funny story about Orison and the presidents: one morning Abraham and Orison were talking about the subject of war. Abraham was telling him that wars happen, but they’re really terrible, and they should be avoided if possible, etc., etc. Orison looks up at him and says, “War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.”

Abraham looks at him with mental-jaw dropped and asked, “Where’d you learn that? At school?”

Orison says, “No, I learned it in my presidents book.”

I’d gotten him a book of all the presidents from the library just so he could see the names and pictures of the other presidents, to satisfy his curiosity a bit. Little did I know he was reading their famous quotes (and memorizing them?). He couldn’t remember which president had said that particular quote, but he looked it up for us a little later and announced, “William McKinley said that!”

Ahhh…learning rocks.

Got any funny stories to share about your older kids teaching your younger kids things that seem advanced for their age? Other funny learning stories?

Last week our church had a little Film Fest. What’s a Film Fest you ask? Well, let me tell you!

• We signed up in teams to make a 3-6 minute film.
• We had two weeks to do it.

These were our parameters:

• We were assigned a genre (the possibilities were action/adventure, comedy, music video, sci-fi, and mockumentary).
• All the teams had to use the same specified prop (this year it was a hula hoop).
• All the teams had to use the same specific line of dialogue somewhere in the film (“It’s like taking a drink from a fire hose.”).

Then, after the deadline, an “academy” of people watches them and decides on winners for awards. There’s an awards ceremony at the church where they show all of the films on the big screen in the sanctuary, with popcorn & pop. People dress in their old prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, suits, and even their wacky costumes.

Everyone walks the red carpet and gets interviewed by the Hoperazzi (our in-house version of paparazzi). It’s a total blast!

We had so much fun doing this, we might be hooked. Though it took a lot of time, it was a really fun thing to do as a family and group of friends!

Working very diligently for two weeks, this is the action/adventure movie our group came up with! (*NOTE: At 2:09 the audio cuts out for a couple seconds and I can’t figure out why.*)

Our team won for “Best Editing” thanks to the amazing Abraham, and for “Most Dramatic Moment.” Can you guess which one?

Hope you enjoyed watching it! We were pretty proud of how it turned out!

I think this one is so funny, because it looks like she’s striking a pose.

And here’s one of them hanging out together yesterday:

I can’t believe they’re 7+ months old already. Life is fun and VERY busy.

So I’m realizing that having a bigger family means that sickness seems to last FOREVER!

It started a few weeks ago when Orison had the runny eyes and nose and a slight fever. Then it developed into a cough. But before he could get over it, Morrow & Whit joined the party and decided to not be outdone by their brother.

And picking up the rear, me and Cadence are on the mend.

We haven’t been to church as a family in three weeks. Which means we really haven’t gone anywhere, because it’s too difficult to take all the kids out anyway. And if they’re miserable and moody with colds…forget about it.

So this week, I’ve been nursing a yucky cold and have thus been silent in the blogging world. I love you all, but I need to take care of me and mah brood first.

So, here’s hoping we’ve seen the last of it (for now) and I’ll be posting more next week. Have a lovely weekend, all!

And to you Minnesotans, enjoy the warm-up (upper 30s, yee-HAW!)!