A few weeks ago a few of Mary’s friends from her class came over for a pool party to celebrate her ninth birthday. Every time I think about whipping up a quick blog post about the party, the headline I write in my head is for her sixth birthday party. Six fits more neatly in my motherhood
Last weekend, the kids and I drove west to my hometown in the mountains. We visited my parents for a few days, then we met my best friendJenny and her family at the farm where she grew up. It was a quick, inhale-exhale sort of trip with old friends to visit old places that we
For the past few months I’ve had a standing social engagement on the calendar. As far as I can remember, it’s one of the only times I’ve done something like this in years. I don’t take the kids, and I don’t arrange for childcare. I just walk out of the house like an actual grownup
When I got home from the 8k, Tom was outside with all the kids. They rushed the car and smothered me with hugs as if I was returning from war. Thomas rifled through my bag and found my post-race food. I had two small bags of pretzels and one bag of trail mix. He held
Mary started the Christmas season feeling overly burdened by the season, what with being a “Mary” and all. As if sharing a name with the Virgin Mother of the Savior wasn’t enough, her name is also a homophone with the salutation of the season: MERRY. She makes it look easy, but believe me, it is not.
A few months before Mary’s birthday, she started planning her party. I generally don’t start making actual plans for her birthday until after Thomas’s birthday, but this year I made an exception. Mary is the youngest in her class, and she has been positively hungry to turn six for a long time. (She’s actually the third youngest.
Lent starts in just a few days, and I still haven’t figured out exactly how I’m going to personally observe the season. As a mom with a lot of little kids, I don’t like to put major restrictions on vices. I give myself a lot of grace when it comes to things like hiding in
Yesterday we threw a surprise birthday party for David, and I’m telling you right now that it was the greatest scheme I’ve ever been a part of. This was such a fun party to plan, and if you think your kid would like being surprised, I HIGHLY recommend it. I’ve thrown a lot of birthday
In the summer, our neighborhood had Popsicle parties every Friday. I posted about it on Instagram and several people asked me about the logistics. It’s this simple: the person in charge of our neighborhood association emailed everyone at the beginning of the summer with a calendar. Anyone who wanted to host signed up for a
Last year at preschool, David’s class sang a song that he called the Octopus Song, even though it’s actually called the Butterfly Song. He specifically loved the line, “If I were an octopus, I’d thank you Lord for my good looks.” And because he loved the song so much, and because he related so much to