Hippo Gnu Year!

It's 2010 and I'm still catching up on 2009.

Gilad is now officially 5 years old (the cake is evidence that it's all official and everything):

Adele just keeps getting cuter and goofier:

Jeffrey just keeps getting more wonderful:

And I keep getting crazier, as evidenced by the fact that I'm proposing to do two OWLs for this new Term over in the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup game, for the glory of team Hufflepuff:

The one above is actually 4 different projects representing 4 different magical creatures: 2 pairs of socks (blast-ended scroots and kappas); a lace shawl (dragons); and a hat and mitts (bowtruckles).

This one is a Fair Isle steeked vest, to be knit in some of my hand spun (natural colored or natural dyed) yarns as shown above.

Wake up and smell the pumpkin seeds

You can hide.

You can try to pretend you have other things to do.

You can be inordinately cute

But your pumpkin guts belong to us!

Addie and Gilad's preschool went to the farm this last week (and Addie's 2 year old class used it as an excuse to teach the children all the standard nursery rhymes and songs, so all week we heard her singing "Old MacDonald" and "Baa, baa, Black Sheep" and so on). They came home with popcorn and pumpkins. So we've hacked the tops of their heads off and scooped out the brains and guts and are soon to eat fresh roasted seeds.

They're back from VA

Jeffrey had taken the 5 older kids down to his parents overnight Sunday-Monday during chol hamoed.  They came back last night around dinner time, and they had a great time.  Here are some photos of the boys and Jeffrey at the Mariners' Museum and the USS Wisconsin; photos of the girls to come soon when we download them from Kayla's camera.

Are we cute yet?

Hello?  Anyone there have a clue?

Apparently not.

Meanwhile in as close to the real world as we come, Jeffrey and I just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary with a dinner for 2, leaving the kids at home.  We had a lovely time and the house was still standing when we returned.

Rainy days and Sundays

After several rainy days, we woke up this morning to find...it was pouring still.  So I put some cinnamon buns in the toaster oven ('cause I need to keep the big oven from being milchig), put in a load of the little kids' laundry, got an apple and streusel cake in the oven, and am figuring out what else needs to be cooked when.

Gone, though, are the plans to spend the day at Shepherd's Purse Alpaca Farm (it's National Alpaca Farm day, you know) and their neighbor, Rock Hill Orchard.  Even Kayla was excited about crias and apples in close proximity.  It's just not worth going in drenching rain and days' worth of mud.  We'll just have to buy our apples the new-fangled way, at the supermarket.

So instead Gilad will spend the day whining about Scooby Doo and Blues Clues (cue Addie flashing the pawprints sign), and we'll cook.

Jeffrey and the boys spent the weekend up in PA at a boy scout camp out, but they're coming home a little earlier than originally planned; they're expected back around lunch time, rather than dinner time as previously expected.  This makes us happy here!

Of course, as usual their return from a rainy boy scout weekend means the mud content in the house will increase by several pounds.  

They're outa here!

Feivel is at boy scout camp; Sachy and Jeffrey are at cub scout camp; and I drove Kayla up to girl scout camp. The men all left yesterday morning at 6:30; I drove Kayla up to Leesburg in the early afternoon. So now it's just me at home with Tirtze, Gilad and Addie.

Gilad took scraps of paper last night and told me he was writing postcards. He scribbled on each of them, then "read" them to me. They say:

Dear Tatty/Feivel/Sachy/Kayla,
I miss you.
Please come home tomorrow.
Love, Gilad

Unfortunately, yesterday I also engaged in acts of plumbing. With Grandpa's help, I replaced the insides of our toilet, which had some pipe leak that make the whole house knock when you flushed. When we re-connected everything, though, it turned out that now the connecting pipe between the water valve and the toilet had sprung a leak. Oma took the original so she could run to the hardware store for me today to get an identical one, but I figured I would go to the store myself and find the right thing and get it done last night. Needless to say, the one I got was the wrong size at one connector end, so the toilet is still not usable. Sigh.

However our big new is:
Gilad is now wearing big boy underpants.

Into the 41st year

Today was Jeffrey's 40th birthday.  We made giant birthday cookies since he doesn't like cake:

For his birthday, we're getting him a new tallis and a new tikkun, both of which he badly needs.  He also needs a new raincoat, which I want him to get, but that didn't seem as birthday-ish to be getting, so that's just separate.

Harry Potty-mouth and Diego Goes

Jeffrey and Sachy were exchanging Harry Potter-eque spells the other day. When Jeffrey pointed at Sachy and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Sachy countered with what is apparently a 4th grade favorite curse, "Smelly Armpits!"

Gilad got a new "Go, Diego, Go!" potty, which to my mind gives a whole new meaning to "Diego, Go!"

quiet, but everyone's sick

Everyone's kind of virusy--Jeffrey is feeling lousy, Gilad's still getting over his virus, Sachy says he doesn't feel well, Kayla's tired and I'm fighting a cold; even little Addie has a runny nose. Other than that, though, there's not much going on at home so I will bring you this little news tid bit from NYC yesterday:

A Moslem man helped a group of Jews on the subway who were attacked by Xians for saying, "Happy Hanukkah."

Anyone else want to get in the story?