Beautiful Easter

In Progress.  More to come...

A Roller Skating Party

Montgomery was invited to her first roller skating party this past weekend. She was verrry excited at the thought of skating and eagerly looked forward to the afternoon. She'd never been on skates before, beyond a couple of years ago on the sidewalk on the little plastic adjustable kind you place over your own shoes. We spent a considerable amount of time prior to arriving at the party "managing expectations" (a term I have never liked -- I personally tend to think expectations should always be high! yet, in this situation, well...) and discussing off and on that skating is tricky and often takes several visits to the skating rink to get the hang of it. She seemed to understand. We both agreed that there would be no "I can't skate" crying.

And to her credit, there was none. I think it probably helped that nearly every child there seemed to be at the same highly novice level of roller skating ability. Many times I almost felt that we were watching a live version of America's Funniest Home Videos. It was really too funny! Most of the parents were (and this was a birthday party where I think every parent stayed -- sometimes two parents -- I think the adults outnumbered the kids!), I believe, remembering our many, many skating nights in the '80s, when roller skating was very much a norm. What happened since then? Ahhh...that's right...video games.  But, I'll stand on my soap box another time.

When we first laced on our skates (yes, you heard me right, I did say "we" and "our"), I suggested Gommy spend some time getting her "sea" legs on the carpet by rolling back and forth clinging to the skate rental counter. When she stood up after I'd tied her skates, she also quickly realized that would be a good idea.

While I laced my skates, and that took some time, she counter clung skated back and forth.  Before we could actually get on the rink though (we were, uh, slightly late), they called over the loudspeaker for party guests to come to the snack bar.  Getting from the carpet onto the slick commercial linoleum snack bar floor, carrying our shoes and coats, and gripping onto Gommy for dear life so she wouldn't have the initial horror of a really hard fall on a really hard floor in front of a really large group of people, and gripping every snack bar table on the way to ours (of course Gommy wanted to sit at the very last table at the very end of the snack bar) so I wouldn't have the initial horror of a really hard fall on a really hard floor in front of a really large group of people, took SOME doing!

So, after some pizza...

...and some singing over birthday cake...

...we headed out to the roller rink floor.  (My camera skills from this point on are notably, understandably :-) less than stable...)

Thankfully there was that nice high wall around the whole rink...

  

I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking...



After a couple of times around (the wall), Gommy really wanted to try the main area of the rink floor...so we did...

There were indeed some moments on her feet...

 ...and her Mom's arm was always nearby.  I have to say that once I was on that wooden floor, the rollerskating muscle memory from my adolescence started to come back, and I really would have liked to have zipped around the floor a few times...but I was not leaving the Gommy Girl. Somehow, however, I don't remember gripping a parental arm when I first learned to skate, but then again, I learned in our driveway before I even got to a roller skating rink, from day after day on those little plastic (maybe metal?) adjustable kind you place over your own shoes, because...well...there were no video games.

So, Gommy was true to her word and did not cry because she could not skate well yet.  However, she did cry (at the very end) because she could not skate with her neighbor-friend Mara, the birthday girl, who had clearly been to a skating rink before, and was happily oblivious to her neighbor-friend Gommy trying desperately to catch up to her at least once to skate with her on her birthday. My poor baby. There were a lot of kids there, and probably only three who could actually be called skaters, and the birthday girl was one of them.  It hadn't occurred to me to "manage" that expectation.

Nevertheless, after that final heartbreak, and a bit of recovery with a huge slab of birthday cake in the car, Gommy told me on the way home that she'd like for just me and her to come back to the skating rink more times, not at a party, so she could learn how to skate really good for the next roller skating party. I told her it was like she was actually reading my mind.

Much love. Take care. 



Bowling

We went bowling today as a "Plan B" activity for a ski/snow-tubing day that got inclement-weathered-out. We don't often visit a bowling alley, even though the kids seem to like it just fine, so this was a fun alternative to the originally scheduled activity -- and for me personally, just maybe a better one as I'm not all that partial to snow and hours out in the cold.

We went with other families who also had been planning to be on PA slopes and we all had a really nice time. Josie bowled a lane over from ours with the teenagers, and apparently won his first two games, and then tanked the last :-) 

I think he's practicing his Rico Suave pose in this photo...

Craig and I bowled with another couple while their children and Johngideon and Montgomery shared the lane adjoining ours. (I will not elaborate on the fact that Montgomery's first trip to the line ended up with her ball bouncing down a lane next to the one on which she was bowling.)

The scoreboard further above shows the amazing final score for Craig, who has not bowled in at least two years, and then probably not for at least two years prior to that, and then the same pattern for at least a decade back. Five strikes and two spares!?! What?

Here's the final outcome of that game.  I am the score at the top :~/ ...

I told Craig afterwards that I'm going to have to choose to sit out competitive games when we're going simply for the social joy of fellowshipping with other families...I'm just too competitive in my heart. I'd much rather simply enjoy chatting and getting to know everyone better, but competitive games really bring out the tiger in me (even if I possess the self control to beat it back from public view).  Craig was not really surprised, as he's always the slightly embarrassed spouse when we've gone to our kids' (well, middle school ages and over) sporting events.  I'm that yelling cheering parent -- loudly proclaiming "encouragement" to hang in there and fight to the end! (But, in my defense, I am never the crazy referee-threatening-obscenity-yelling-parent...I am not THAT guy.) Anyway, I don't like that competitive tiger that rises up on the inside when we're supposedly just having fun, so I think in the future I'll just sit out participation in games played in settings like that.

One of the reasons Craig was so excited about his score was that my mother is an 81-year-old senior citizen bowling aficionado, who has always beaten Craig in every game we've bowled in the nearly two decades we've been married. And even though it's not been that many games, I think it still bruises his pride a little (smile). And it doesn't help that she has, on rare occasion, been known to mail him the paper scorecard from her best games in her senior league (big smile). So, needless to say, he's really looking forward to making sure she sees the scoreboard above sometime in the near future!

I forgot to get a photo before the other teenagers left, so Josie joined in this one for me.

Here's another family we were bowling next to -- I love how these outings let all ages enjoy hanging out together.

We all ate way too much bowling alley fried and greasy foods (french fried, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, pizza, hamburgers...) and spent way too many quarters on the junky toy and trinket vending machines (of which there were many), but we all had a good time and left looking forward to the next time at the lanes.  My mother's heart just hopes the college kids are in town for that one.

Much love. Take care.

...and so I did return...

I've been away for far too long.  Not away from the living the life, just away from the taking the time to record and savor the journey.  Finding my way back on the grid...and why not with a sweet shot of sisterly love...

Maia's been home from college (more on her college choice to come) several times this year, to enjoy the Ravens' (Caw! Caww!) incredible playoff season here in the incredible Super Bowl winning town of Baltimore. Here, she was heading back to school, and swung by the couch to kiss Gommy goodbye.  Gommy loves this photo because when she woke up, she was disappointed she'd been too tired to see Maia off, but loved knowing Maia took the time to "say" goodbye to her.

Back soon.

Much Love. Take Care.

Welcoming 2012...

...with a little shot of performance joy. 

It's been awhile since I've spent time here, and as is always the case when that's my reality, I have missed my little blogging sphere, much like an old friend.  These days there is little creative room in my daily schedule, and the right side of my brain is beginning to feel the pinch.  I am hoping to make the necessary adjustments in 2012 to gain a better sense of "brain-balance."

Meanwhile, it's been (and still is) great having our whole brood home for the holidays and having a few days off from work.  This holiday season our entire family (with the exception of Job, whose semester ended too late in December) participated in the Nutcracker performances of Maia and Montgomery's dance school.  Although there are parent roles every year, and Maia has danced with this dance studio for about eight years or so, Craig and I have always held back because of the rehearsal schedules and the fact that there has usually been a very small child in our arms.  We had promised Maia, however, that we would participate at least one year before she graduated high school.  Well...she's a senior this year...sooooo...this was the comeuppance year.

Surprisingly for the two of us, other than the stress of timing and family schedules with the rehearsals and other holiday season activities, we all had a really good time.  We just might do it all again next year too.  I'll post more on our Nutcracker experience in future posts.  The photo above is just a small slice of those festive days: Montgomery, of course, costumed out as a "small peppermint from the Land of the Sweets," enjoying some giggle time with her fellow mint-lets...and loving wearing the required stage makeup!  You'll notice that she's lost her first tooth since my last post in October.  That was a funny story, one I'll try to be sure to tell in days to come.

(By the way, Maia begged me not to post this particular photo because she thought Montgomery's make-up left quite a lot to be desired that day, and then she insisted on applying Gommy's makeup herself from then on...so her baby sister wouldn't look -- in her words -- "jacked-up."  Teenagers!)

Take care.  Much love.  Happy New Year!

Baby Sheepy

Montgomery has a beloved stuffed animal affectionately named "Baby Sheepy." Baby Sheepy was "born" a couple of years ago in an Easter basket (along with her "sibling" Baby Ducky). Baby Sheepy has been very special for Montgomery, and is often found looking very sweetly girly in a lavender floral dress...or snugly swaddled in a pink floral receiving blanket, nestled by her mama Montgomery.

Baby Sheepy got "lost" recently and spent several weeks months in Craig's trunk. Upon discovery one recent evening, Baby Sheepy needed to be lovingly hand scrubbed by her "grandmother" and allowed to "get warm" in the dryer, before re-finding her rightful place in Gommy's bed.

The next day, however, Baby Sheepy went to school, in her finest lavender floral dress of course, and after school picked the strangest place to "nap."

Let me provide a bit more perspective....

Yes, as much as Mama Montgomery loves -- and I do mean loves -- her stuffed brood, they sometimes find themselves the victims of wild play, such as seeing just how high they can go in the air when shriekedly flung with joyous abandon.

Baby Sheepy spent several anxious moments on the window ledge, and was eventually helped down by Mara's mother, who tracked down a long stick.

Mara caught Baby Sheepy...

...and Gommy rejoiced by...

...uhh...

...throwing her in the air a few times.

Much Love. Take Care.

 

Cold Snap

We had a cold snap this week, and Montgomery found herself chilly when she wanted to go help Johngideon take out the recycling after church. I haven't yet pulled out all of the winter necessities, so finding hats, gloves, scarves and the like in our home is nearly impossible this time of year, for a 5-year-old...

...needless to say, Montgomery made do.

I think Johngideon found her rather amusing...or is that incredulous?

...but he was happy for the help so he mostly kept his opinions to himself.

Gommy didn't seem to care either way...she was busily oblivious...and warm.

Take Care. Much Love.

 

Birthday Love

My Love had a birthday, and we decided to ended up stretching it out over the whole weekend, to accommodate all of the other weekend scheduling fullness a large family like ours typically encounters. Celebrating became a very nice, prolonged, yet relaxing affair, including, among other delights, breakfast at our favorite Cafe Hon's, dinner and a great movie, a special trip a week ago, a cheery video message from Job, and a couple of specifically requested practical presents. The lingering celebration was greatly enjoyed by all involved...we might just make this a new tradition.

Craig's birthday came to a fun head on Sunday evening, just as the Ravens (bay-beeeee!) game was getting started, hence all the purple attire above...well...

...except for the Gommy Girl, who generally believes princess attire is entirely appropriate for all situations.

I'd baked brownie cake layers on Friday and Maia and Gommy had done a wonderful job of frosting, stacking and decorating them on Saturday, and we actually candled, sang and ate it all a la mode on Sunday.

Yummm....

Gommy busied herself making a card for Craig, a task she relishes on any and all occasions.

Love, joy and blessings, My Love...and here's to at least 45 (or is that 54?) more wonder-filled years!

Much Love. Take Care.

 

"Joysiah"

Wouldn't a face this cheerful getting into your car every afternoon

brighten even the gloomiest day?

I love how Josiah just radiates joy.

I've heard that 8th graders can be moody and sullen sometimes...

...somebody forgot to tell Josie!

Take Care. Much Love.

  

Thinking It Through

The day we left to take Job to college, he spent some time alone at the top of the treehouse (well...treehouse in progress). I couldn't tell if he was praying or just thinking, but I could feel the poignancy of the moment. He seemed to be saying goodbye...

To what exactly?

...childhood?

...our home?

...us?

I imagine only he really knows...and that's fine by me.

Much Love. Take Care.