About two weeks ago Anna turned six, but we were all too exhausted to even sing a proper rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Tom was busy running a 2:55 marathon, and I was exhausted because I had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to get him to the start line. TWO HOURS AND FIFTY-FIVE MINUTES! You
Early one morning, Thomas started his day by pestering all of us to tell him a scary story. He tried me, Tom, and eventually landed on David as the most likely to come up with something good. They were sitting together eating waffles for breakfast and even though Thomas had been told no several times
This week the kids had a day off school in the middle of the week, and I decided to throw them all in the van and haul them to a playground like I used to when they were little. There’s a nearby private school that just revamped their equipment, and I wanted to let the
MOD Pizza, Starbucks, Richmond Lager, Surge Adventure Park. Know what they all have in common? They all have Anna’s letter — the letter A. I know this because Anna shouts enthusiastically whenever she sees her letter. “MOM! GUESS WHAT I SEE!” she shouts from the back seat, straining against her straps to make her point.
For a few weeks Mary has been getting Anna amped for the annual Father-Daughter Dance. I could see a sort of glazed-over look in Anna’s eyes whenever Mary talked about it. Fancy dresses? Cupcakes? And dad will be there? Dancing? What? The problem was that, in her excitement, Mary would start her explanation in the
Around this time of year, it seems from my end of things, kindergarten really picks up. The phonetic spelling kicks into high gear, and these little learn to read books show up in their book bags. The books are simple, repetitive, and short. It’s straightforward enough — sight words are repetition. They’ve got all the
My oldest kid is 10, and recently I’ve found myself in a phase of constantly looking for things that will inspire him to play. He can get a bit bored at playgrounds these days, and I can’t remember the last time he dumped all the bins in our playroom, looking for just the right plastic
Christmas was exactly two weeks ago. Doesn’t it seem so much longer? New Years Eve comes at the exact right time because it marks the psychological distance between December 25 and January 1. It’s like six days but MAN oh MAN does it feel like a year. A lot of our decorations are still up,
After spending an entire year with absolutely zero things on our calendar, our family is jumping into the figurative AND literal deep-end. We signed our kids up for swim team. I know that a lot of people’s kids do swim team, but this is our first time. And I sort of feel like we’re the
Sure, one winter storm was fun, but then we had another, and an hour before I sat down to write this I got a text from my county alerting me that another ice storm is on its way. The text said to have EMERGENCY SUPPLIES READY! What are the odds that that was a prank