Yep, Emma's birthday.  No one gets more excited, plans more extensively or farther ahead, or enjoys a day more than this girl does her birthday.  Really.  And although it was a busy day,  and she did have to share it with the pinewood derby, I think she really enjoyed herself.  (She is also stretching it…

Zach got this jersey for his 6th birthday.  It has been worn about a thousand times since.  (That is probably not even an exaggeration – for the first year he owned it he wore it to school at least twice a week.  I think his teachers wondered if he had any other clothes…)  It has…

Emma and I have been playing a lot of hopscotch.  It has been super fun.  But I can definitely tell that it has been a long time since I have jumped that much.  

I know there are tons of pictures of Meg on the blog lately, but I think if I didn't do this, I wouldn't actually believe she was a year old.  It wasn't this hard with my other kids to believe they'd grown up… but I still look at baby pictures of her and think, how'd…

When Nate saw this picture of Zach making cookies by himself for a scout project, he said, "Wow, Zach really looks like you in this picture.  Maybe it's just because he's standing over the cookie bowl…"

Since Meg doesn't even have a baby book to get written in (not that I would actually do it), here are a few things for memory's sake: Every time she sees anyone wash their hands or get hand sanitizer, she rubs her little hands together.  (she's started to imitate hair washing too.) She loves playing…

We were lucky enough to have some old and wonderful ex-rochester friends come into town, and to spend Sunday evening with them talking, eating (although I enjoyed talking so much I forgot to serve dessert!), playing outside in the abnormally mild rochester spring, creating "Angry Sticks" on the swing (a mildly dangerous and hilarious stick…

What kind of parent lets their 11 month old eat candy hearts?  The one who gave their baby the box and didn't realize she chewed through the lid and helped herself.  Although you can tell that I have relaxed a little at baby #4 because I only removed 3 from her mouth and let her…

We had gone to the baseball park to enjoy a spring-ish day, and I had sent two kids up to the car on separate occasions to retrieve things that they had left behind (the car in this case was up an ENORMOUS hill and I was monitoring Meg and her newfound skill of riding one…

There is nothing quite like holding a sleeping baby.