tea and roses

my friend sharla asked me to help her plan our friend janean’s baby shower.  it only took two seconds thinking about before i had my heart set on an english tea party in a rose garden.  and then the ball was rolling.

sharla had an amazing and gracious friend who let us use her back yard.  the church lent us tables.  our host had all the linens and chairs.  another friend brought the mass quantities of snack sets.  everything went together lovely.

best of all i could tell the girls were utterly transported.

i think it was something they will always remember.

even judith was stoked.

sharla and i had so much fun planning.  i drove out to her house and we went through her storage shed collection of china.  not everyone keeps tea service for 40.

there she is.  a glutton for punishment that one.  she can hardly stand it.

she arranged the loveliest victorian table settings.  my dear husband even pressed and folded 40 cloth napkins.  he only does that when i’m pushing critical mass.

i re-used both the girls’ buntings on the gazebo.

a tour of teacups.  i had a set of 12 of these.  now i have 5 since the bottom of the box dropped out and sayonara.

the kids had a whole miniature service.

this green one (was) my favorite.

it’s a good thing there were so many flowers.  the girls couldn’t keep their hands off them.  fortunately i don’t think they made a real noticeable dent.

here is janean expecting number four.  (sharla, by the way, had her boy last week.  janenan is still packing.)

i got up that morning and baked a pile of blueberry scones.  sharla made lemon lavender shortbread cookies and fruit salad.  someone else brought cucumber sandwiches.  and best of all, my friend kimberly made clotted cream.  i’m thinking i should go back in time.

some of the prettiest girls in the world.

the children’s table.

judith, like her mommy, is fascinated by betsey johnson.

habbers found (and took) a friend.

pressies.

mischief.

i also made coconut chocolate mousse for dessert.  i came out and took them by surprise.  there was groaning all around.  i made them eat it.

and the perfect baby shower gift for a future tea partier.

we can hardly wait.  who is this mystery lady?

run forest, run!

and there goes jehu.

i have the kids do this race every year.  i like to watch them suffer.  but it’s not every day that you get to run in a mob down the middle of a street and get free ice cream.

the boys were really slow this year.  next year jael is going to beat them.  gideon ran a ten minute mile and jehu a 12.  sociable old ladies would come up the boys and ask enthusiastically, “how’d you do?!”  and they would look at her despondently and say, “mom mother said i was slow.”  like molasses in january, son.

it’s time to run more laps at home.  or read fewer books.

i found this picture on the camera right after i finished some drive by photography on a fine lady in a maxi dress.  i turned to marc and was like, “what on earth were you doing taking pictures of her butt !!??”  he said, “what were you just doing two seconds ago?”  um, making simple fashion observations, not creeping.  ahhem.

the goobers.

chillaxin’ at anthropologie.

everybody’s favorite store.

my dream car.  when i get a passenger van just watch me get a lift kit for the back and a can of pink spray paint.  hubby okayed it as long as he gets a stereo system.  ottos are going to do this right.

and when they see our decorative plates they’ll know we mean it.

see, girls just look nicer in dresses.

yard sale day

we’ve been making some hauls this summer.  but here are some little things that made me happy.  a baby scarf.

habber’s 50 cent outfit.

and better yet, slide phones for all the kids.  the fancy camera ones with keyboards and what have you.  75 cents a pop.  walking back to the car i turned around and all my kids were following behind “texting.”

habbers goes to sleep with hers.  “my pone!  my pone!”  your what?  (she could probably talk better if she hadn’t knocked out all of her teeth.)

grandma’s part deux

grandma is a sadist.  you should have seen all the stuff she loaded in the car to take eight grand-kids on this one day outing.

and that is exactly what grandmas are for.  this weekend the other grandma is taking her nine grand-kids to the sand dunes.  why anyone would want to add sand to that already daunting equation, i have no idea.

judo hanging out with grandad.

grandma hitting the trail.  6 miles.  (mommy waited at the other end, reading “the real downton abbey” in the car.)

grandad proving to be a lackluster babysitter.

trying out uncle rueben’s new canoe.

awe.

boys in search of adventure.

hey, who invited the girls?

the single uncle reuben.  (he’s just wearing that hat so other girls don’t try and steal him before you get the memo.)  oh yes, and that’s his “almost life jacket.”  does that make it a death jacket?  natalie and i were wondering.  because uncle reuben doesn’t exactly know how to swim.  it has something to do with the fact that in his youth, whenever he was within the proximity of water, he took the precaution of locking himself in the car.  i bet his subconscious still suspected that i might at any moment drop the camera and run push him in.

grandad warming up the habbers.

reuben and his doofus dog.

it was at this moment, while grandma was trying to shove everyone in reuben’s canoe, that the safety inspector came by.

arriving at the other dock for rabber’s turn.

she wasn’t entirely convinced.

dock posse.

judith and her omnivore cousin, haddassah.  as reuben is fond of saying, “that baby looks like she ate your baby.”  he’s not impressed with my breeding skills.  oh yeah, let me see what you got, bro.

sarah saying, “oh, this old thing?  i only found it at the thrift store.”  so no, you can’t go buy yourself one.  a puffed sleeve monopoly.  injustice.

s’mores.

the handsome gideon.

the obviously not dead grandad.  who needs more than three red blood cells anyways?

“patience, young padawan.”

eyeballs.

and reuben demonstrating yet other child safety techniques.

with so many spectacular relatives i am relieved to know that i am under no obligation to be cool or exciting.  huzzah.

the greats

my grandparents are staying with us a few days.  on friday we went to every yard sale in town.  almost.  grandma bought habbers this new dress.

i bought grandma a gel manicure.  she let me pick the color.  (but that was before she found out it doesn’t come off.)

and grandpa bought jale a $15 sewing machine.  real enough to work.  cheap enough to break.  the first thing she did was sit down and sew herself a pillow case.

in her princess dress, pearls, and fairy wings.  of course.

she makes a nice straight stitch too.

i gave her some material and she sat down and ran through a whole bobbin.  she can work the presser foot and drive, neat as a whistle.

of course, grandpa still has to thread the needle.  what are grandpa’s for?

and judith likes having even more people around who love her.  that or she just likes to be carried.  particularly by people with handles.

spooooooooiled.

grandma doesn’t believe that babies should ever cry.

baby agrees.

riding herd

i babysat for a friend last week.  a friend with girls.  and not just any girls, red headed girls.  at one point i clocked the women folk at 10.  the boys were sadly outnumbered with only 3.

it was a riot.  i believe i woke up sore the next day.

but children love riots.

especially when you add sticky and fire.  then everyone is happy.

isn’t daddy a saint?

rahab and her somewhat leery friend.  maybe if habbers didn’t trash talk her guests after windmilling them she’d get farther when it comes to winning friends and influencing people.

and if you must know, i’m rather infamous for my backyard.  it is, and always has been, an absolute pile.  literally.  and the kids love it.  i just thank the lord i have a privacy fence and then don’t go back there.

my number one son.  on his way to practice that evening he was soliciting the girls to see if any of them knew how to tie shoes.  which was making me bust up.  i’ll be teasing him about that well into his twenties.

“she seems like a nice girl, son.  but can she tie shoes?”

for the mas

i just realized what’s wrong with this photo (other than it being fuzzy).  no one’s smiling.  the self-timer must put the fear of god in people.  3 seconds to detonation….

ottos gone wild

it was first thursday last week.  we loaded the kids up on suckers and iced coffees and took them to the idaho historical museum and boise art museum for free admission.

yee-haw!

that day the kids had even got their art anthology in the mail.  so they were super stoked to go to the art museum for the first time and see the real stuff.  unfortunately, the current exhibits seemed to be primitive basket weaving, picketing signs, old lady glass vases with chipmunks, and a herd of life-size, white elephants inflated by electric fans.

i thought it was funny that the elephants had a plaque that said they represented our unsustainable culture and how it’s a “white elephant” that no one talks about.  while it occurred to me, that for once, the white elephant in the middle of the room that no one talks about, might just be…a white elephant in the middle of the room that no one talks about.  except for gideon.  who walked through the door and blurted out indignantly, “hey, this isn’t art!”  kids.  the constant plague of emperors.

moral of the story, don’t let your children browse an entire volume of art history before taking them to see the “real stuff.”  they might be sadly disappointed.  jehu suggested that maybe they had run out of good things to paint.  although he did find one (the only) painting in the whole museum he liked.  it reminded him of “the garden of earthly delights” by bosch.  a painting, which probably has no business reminding him of anything.

now watch mommy censor the art book with painters tape.  i’m sooo fascist.

just ask anyone.

rascally rabbers

in the kitchen with anastasia and druzilla

you just can’t shake them.  they see me walk in the kitchen and they run in behind me grabbing chairs, dragging them across the floor, slamming them into the cabinets, trying to climb over each other to the top, while screaming, “mine, mine, mine!”  those are the conditions i have to work in.  then they fight over who dumps the baking soda, who stirs, who get’s the eggs.  tufts of hair start flying.  someone ends up getting bit.  crying ensues.

fortunately for jael, rahab (a.k.a. druzilla) was napping.  she was able to give in to her inner baking goddess in peace.  everything is lovely when you get your own way.

see?

we made cinnamon rolls with a caramel glaze.  they were good, but not enough butter by half.

rabbers woke up just in time for the after party.  i like to throw my leftovers to the wolves.  and then run.

jael observing rahab’s substandard technique.

showing her how it’s done.

cutest girls ever.  can’t wait until we get cinderella in there too, then we will have all three.  so much fun.

but i’d start warning your sons now.

you know those talks about strangers and candy?  there should also be one about pretty girls and baked goods.