Molly Piper

My Dad always loves to buy presents for the kids when they come to town. We all go to Target, and he makes sure everyone has something that they really want. It’s ridiculous and sweet and awesome.

When he was in town last spring, Orison must have been asking him to buy a movie. I have no idea how they arrived at this decision, but somehow it was decided that Papa was going to buy Shrek for the kids. Fine, whatever.

So we go to Target, we’re in the movies, and Dad pulls out this boxed set. I’d seen the original Shrek when it first came out, but somehow missed that there were…wait, what?…three others??? My kids didn’t even know there were four Shrek movies. But now they were the proud owners of all four Shrek movies.

“Well, now they can have all of them…” my overindulgent father happily explained.

Turns out, of all the children, Whit (one of our 2-year-olds) is most enamored with Shrek. He’s been known to approach random trees and holler into them for Fiona (which is from a scene in Shrek 4…AAHHH! How do I know this???). But it’s actually really hilarious when Whit does it.

They’re even getting some music education out of the experience! Now my twins know the song “Funkytown,” (which Whit excitedly calls “Talk About It”) from just the first few bars. And of course you can’t forget the timeless music of… The Baha Men.

So Dad, this is for you. They love this song by the Baha Men. It’s because of Shrek and you.

And at the end of the video you can hear how Cadence says “peanuts” (just wait for it).

I’ve had no space to even ponder the change into another fall and school year. Just stepping forward, trusting the transition. It feels good.

This has been an exhausting, yet really fun, summer. These kids are worth every ounce I can eke out.

In other end-of-summer news, I was cutting up some jalapenos from our garden yesterday (our first garden effort, I might add!), and some of the juice shot up and hit me in the corner of my right eye. It didn’t go quite in, just dangerously close. So I washed my hands (thinking that would take the rest of the juice off my hands) and started washing my eye. Well, as you can guess, things went from bad to worse.

I was hollering to Abraham in the next room to hurry up and Google what I should do as the burnings sensation traveled across both of my eyelids, while totally convinced, “This is it. I’m going blind…I’ll never see anything ever again.” Thought I was gonna die. Gladly, after a few more good rinses and a little more time, things calmed down and I was able to open my eyes again. Hallelujah–was blind but now I see!

You all have certainly heard of yarn bombing, right?

Well in the spirit of the XXX Olympiad…

This actually happened months ago, but I still love it. Whoever did this, you’re amazing. I love you. The amount of time it must’ve taken…

One thing I love about art…and yes, I’m calling knitting art…is the need, the compulsion, to express. What was driving this person/people to do this? Certainly not the money! And they could’ve just said, “Nah…that’s gonna take too much time…” So glad they didn’t!

I love the spirit of the Olympics… competition, hard work, victory, defeat, and the togetherness of the world’s eye’s watching.

Perhaps these were some of the reasons they were driven to create.

At this point in the summer, I have a 7-year-old, a 3-year-old, and two 1-year-olds. Here’s the swimming skills breakdown:

7-year-old: Can dog paddle and keep head above water for short distances. Improving his skills, but not independent.
3-year-old: No swimming skills (but he keeps close to the shore anyway).
1-year-old boy: No swimming skills (and also prefers sand and shore in his nautical pursuits).
1-year-old girl: Thinks she has mad swimming skills, but in reality has none.

I’ve taken them swimming by myself a couple times now, and here are my observations:

Splash Pads

-Easy in and out.
-Don’t have to worry about anyone’s head going under.
-Might have to worry about running and therefore subsequent stitches (thankfully that hasn’t been our story this summer).
-No sand. (NO SAND!!!!)

Pools

-I can really only do them by myself if they’re those 0-depth-entry ones. I don’t have enough arms for 3-year-old and two 1-year-olds in a typical “shallow end.”
-Life jackets, life jackets, life jackets. Life jackets are awesome. Morrow still fits in the infant one (cuz he’s only 32 pounds) with the head pillow thing, and he LOOOVES to lay on his back and just kick around. That’s his version of “swimming.”
*Side note about life jackets: I’ve found great ones at thrift stores. Keep your eyes out for those!
-NO SAND!!!

And in Minnesota, of course (the land of 10,000 lakes)…

Lakes

-God’s version of 0-depth-entry, so I must give credit where credit is due.
-The downside, of course, is SAND!! Two diaper-wearers in sand is just the worst, especially if you have a dirty diaper situation.
-More options for keeping busy (trying to catch fish, digging in the sand, etc.)

General Observations

-Put sunscreen on everyone before you leave the house. (Mom included, because once I get to the water, taking care of myself no longer exists as a possibility.)
-Mom, don’t expect to relax. This will not be relaxing. I remind myself that while I’m exhausting myself at the beach or pool or splash pad, they’re not at home trashing the house!
-I prefer a smaller, less populated beach for lake swimming. Simpler for head-counting, and less surface area if I have to run after one (or two!)
-I’ve been bringing after-clothes for my 3 youngest (any who can’t dress completely independently when you get back home) and getting them all dressed before we leave for home. It’s a little chaotic in the van, but at least the van is a confined space. Waaaayy preferable to them running every which-way in their swimming stuff when we get in the house.
-Don’t bring a lot of crap. A couple buckets and shovels or cups or balls, but the less you bring, the less you have to remember to bring home!

That’s what I’ve learned so far.

Any other awesome swimming tips?

The other day, I made my kids chocolate pudding. (I promise I wasn’t just trying to use up nearly-expired products from my baking cabinet. Promise.)

But I thought it would be funny to let the babies have a go at it after dinner. I got them started and they were doing really well! Whit especially is very good with a spoon. My girl…she struggles. But whatevs. They were doing pretty well with the pudding and I handed the rest of the time off to Abraham so I could go upstairs for a few minutes.

He yells a few minutes later, “You owe me big time for this one!”
“What do you mean?” I holler back.
“This clean-up! They have pudding everywhere!”

And he wasn’t kidding. It was on the walls. It was on the backs of their necks. It was in their ears. Honestly, it’s been a few days and I’m still finding dried flecks of pudding.

But instead of stopping the insanity, what does Dad do? He takes pictures.

The twins also love to “tell” knock-knock jokes.They hear the big boys telling them all the time, so naturally they try it too!

(P.S. I have no time to video edit, so you get what you get.)

I know it’s been painfully quiet on the blog the past few months. I hope everyone is well out in the world of the internet.

Sometimes I have no idea why I’ve been so quiet. And then other times it’s like, “Oh yeah, you have three small children (2 one-year-olds!!), a rental unit, a school-aged kid, a husband, a house, friends, a yard–in other words, a life–that make blogging impossible at times, and undesirable at others.

Now with summer upon us, I have no idea how often I’ll be here. No.Idea. Right now, I’m hoping to make it through with all 4 at home and not turn into a total monster multiple times a day when my expectations aren’t met or when my kids are driving me up a wall. I will need much grace for that.

The title of the post is just a little tip o’ the hat to one of my favorite movies of all time. Anyone? Anyone? out there going to have a great summer? Anyone?

Here’s a super short video of Whitsun’s reaction to ice cream, taken just the other day.

We’d tried to give him a few bites prior to this, but he kinda opened his mouth for this one, and it just got awesome. And BONUS, you can hear me laughing like a hyena!

I have no idea who this child is. Is he really my son???

Our small group banded together to make this crazy short film! I hope you enjoy it!

This year the line of assigned dialogue was “Woosh, woosh, woosh”, the assigned prop was a snow shovel, and the genre we were assigned was Film Noir. We had two weeks to make the film. It was so much fun!

[photo by Wendy Maybury]

One thing I love about our church (among many) is that the rhythm of our church year includes things like Film Fest.

Remember our entry from last year?

This year our genre is Film Noir. Our assigned prop is a snow shovel. And the line of dialogue every entry must include is “Whoosh…whoosh…whoosh” (taken from an amazing sermon this year by one of our pastors).

Stay tuned! The big Film Fest screening night is March 3rd…fingers crossed the academy picks us to win something!

Abraham captured a cute moment the other night:

Why don’t they ever do that stuff when I have a camera close by?

There’s lots of cute moments around here at 18 months. They can kind of say “I love you” to each other, and it’s a real heart-melter. Capturing that on camera is next on my list! Or maybe I should just have Abraham do it. Apparently they do their cute tricks for him.