She's Home!

Our Family is whole again. She and Dad got into Logan around 2 yesterday afternoon and Phil was there waiting for them. After they got home Glady buzzed around like and excited bee for about an hour and then collapsed into bed around 5, to sleep for twelve hours. She was up at 5 am and Phil brought her up to be our little Welsh cuddlecakes and talk our ear off in bed for a hour! LOL - she's been talking non-stop since she got up. I talked to Nana this morning and she says Glady was like that over there, too. Johann and Pippa (Juliet went to school already) have been clinging happily to her.

She will head back into school and normal routine tomorrow, but we thought we'd keep her home a day and let her acclimate again. Phil's off to a daycare show in Goffstown, so it's just the four of us at home right now. Not exactly peaceful, but good to have everyone where I know where they are.

Looking Back

Two little girls who aren't so little anymore... This was taken in Winter 2001, not too long before Pippa was born. It's hard to believe Pip is going to be 6 in a month! One thing hasn't changed - they all still love to dance whenever I put music on. Even Johann, although his style consists mostly of hopping up and down rapidly and flapping his arms.

Got some pictures of Glady

She was invited on a field trip with a welsh calssroom and here are a couple of pictures of her at the farm they visited!

We miss Glady!

A week to go until she comes home. We've been busy around here, as usual!

A Snowy Saga pt 1

It all started this last Saturday - well, really it started before that.... I was hired for a facepainting gig - a four hour stretch at Gunsotck ski area. I was to be apainting the young racers and their families at the Bill Koch Youth Ski Festival, which is an event of the NENSA (New England Nordic Ski Assoc.). He told me I would be in a tent attached to the big tent where people were hanging out and getting warm. Okay, I can manage that.

It dawned on me later that I would be standing on snow, so I dug out my Bunny Boots (military issue arctic gear, good to about 70 below zero - I know, I've tested them at almost that cold!) and relaced them with cool lime-green laces. Voila! clown boots. I figured the rest of my wordrobe would work just fine. I'm good to go...

Friday; Phil looks at the weather and sees a big storm headed in for that night and Saturday morning. He calls me on his way up to a gig out past Gunstock and tells me we should get a room at the Gunstock Inn if at all possible so we will be on site and not risk missing the gig. So I do - they have only one room left, but it will work. So when Phil got home from the Diner at 9pm, we got him changed, I had already packed, and we were ready to go. Oh, yeah. and I'd spent most of the day without water as the bathtub faucet sprang a leak... fortunately Dad fixed it easily when he showed up around 8pm.

We get checked in and gear unloaded at the hotel at almost 11pm. At this point Phil tells me he hasn't eaten since lunch - and he tends to get grumpy when he's hungry! There was no way we were going to get a delivery up there at that time of night, but there was a chinese place open in Alton... and if I'd had any idea how far that was going to be we would have just gone to sleep! By the time we drove into the snowy night, which started just as we left and was quite heavy by the time we got back, and returned with food it was midnight. Yikes!

They are on their way...

She's ecited - he doesn't look too sure about this!Dad and Glady are traveling to the land of daffodils... quite a change from our snowbanks!

Dad and Glady left this afternoon to spend some time in Wales with Nana and BoPop and Aunt Pam. They will be home on the 19th, so I will be without my little girl for more than two weeks... She has been sooooo excited the last couple of days she could hardly sit still. Poor Phil has been worrying about this trip since we first started planning it with the grandparents. She has a camera and a journal and some homework along, so in addition to all the traveling they plan to do she will be too busy to be homesick. I believe they plan to take her to Strafford-On-Avon, where Shakespeare lived; and Stonehenge, amongst others!

So far her sisters and brother seem not to have noticed - besides a lot of hugging and kissing goodbye this morning. It felt strange to make dinner for only three little people to me, though.

Thursday thoughts

Here is one of the lovely headshots our friend Christie did for Phil and I last month. We are wearing our Naswa costume - which we refer to as the "Island Phil" look. I still wear glasses - they just make a lot of glare in photos.
Pippa is singing in the kitchen... "Three little cuppies, all in a row, one fell down and now there's two... chocolate milky yummy in your tummy, and it's good for you too!" to the tune of Five Little Monkeys. She has definitely inherited Phil's knack for making up songs on the spur of the moment.

They finally got their room clean... it is vacation week so they have been in it a lot more, with brief forays out into the winter wonderland we live in. More snow predicted for tonight! And now I plan to reward the girls with a Barbie movie.

Our friend Mo the Clown (also known as Mo Fun) came over to play yesterday. We had a good Jam. We played with making faces out of a blossom - Phil made a great one that looked like a muppet. Mo taught us his motorcycle - it is an improvement on the one Phil knew already. Since Phil will be playing at the Naz Bar during Bike Week, he needed a good one. We are still working out costuming for that event. And a better name for the character than "Biker Phil". So much to do - so little time!

We did write and pull together a really great Easter Magic Show together. That was fun. He's off at a daycare this morning doing it - and Leap Magic, too.

Oh, and in my last post, I didn't identify the large snowy lump... That is our 8 passenger van in the driveway! Completely covered! It isn't running right now, so all it has done is collect snow all winter.

Will-I Nill-I

Well, as I feared, the Nor-Easter brought with it a foot of snow to grace the mounds we already have on the ground here. It was perfect snow-ball snow - just moist enough to pack without being too wet. Good thing the kids are on vacation to enjoy it this week!

I'm not too upset about the amount of snow this winter - we've had a very lucrative season working with ski-areas. It is inconvenient nights like tonight, when Phil had to turn back from his gig at Steele Hill because he got to the worst part of the hill and started to spin - no show tonight! Fortunately, he didn't get stuck, either. He's safely on his way home. Oh - and this is because we get another inch or so tonite! HA-HA!

Snow More!

Somebody loves his "Key-Key".My big helper girl... they all love helping with the goodie boxes, actually.
And washing dishes is a fun novelty (at least for now).
They all love to help with cooking. Alton Brown is a hero in our house!

No more snow! Oh, well, it's not like we have a choice... Looks like a Nor'Easter is on it's way for tomorrow, and it is already one of the snowiest winters in recent memory. The weather had been grand for the last couple of days, and the kids love it, of course, but we're getting more. The kids are on vacation this week, which means that at least school won't be canceled for them, but Phil has a busy schedule, which complicates life.

And yes, for those of you who talk to my chatty kids, I was in the hospital for a day and a half. I'm home for good - weak as a kitten, but but better. All I can say is - don't skip your flu shot and drink lots of liquids even if they won't stay down!

It's been too long...

The last couple of months have simply flown by - October was a whirl of over 35 shows, November I spent sick, and December is slipping by quickly. I am not ready for Christmas, but at least the house is mostly clean. And we had a dinner party Saturday. That was so nice. I love to do things like that. Good times, good food, good friends.

This is the winteriest winter we have had in recent years. Lots of snow, and more predicted tonight and tomorrow. The kids love it - I don't mind, although I miss having the time to go out and play in it! I don't even own snowpants anymore.

Pippa and Johann are both on their tummies in their room, feet kicked up in the air, making a train layout with the wooden tracks. Johann is getting so big. He is our silliest kid yet, with a great sense of humor and a great big temper. He cracked Phil up the other night by interrupting a telling of SkippyJon Jones and when Phil looked at him he just shrugged with this look of "what?" Pippa loves Kindergarten. I'm not sure she really learns anything, but she is the social butterfly of her class, always checking on her classmates to see how they are and ready to help when she sees one struggling. Juliet's teacher commented on this smae trait in her class.

Juliet is having a rough year. She feels like she has no friends, but we talked to her teacher, and we all agreed it is in Julie's head. She is following in Glady's footprints, and that doesn't help. Glady has been officially labeled gifted, which was no surprise to us. Juliet is as smart, just not as passionate about perfection as our drama queen is. So Phil and I have been subtly trying to give her a little boost of confidence, which makes her blossom.

Glady is currently devouring the Harry Potter series, having just finished off the Narnia series... the last Potter book she read in threee days, leaving Phil to look at me and say "She's YOUR daughter!" She's just ended a Math Club afterschool program which she loved, getting to stay after and play games with 4th and 5th grades. She has been put into 5th grade spelling and vocabulary. So she is happy in school, and at home is struggling with having sisters - she'd rather be an only child right now, most of the time!

I must go and do some laundry - Johann has developed an art form we call Poo-casso (three guesses, and the first two don't count!). Hopefully I will get back to updating this blog every week - hey, It's almost a New Year's Resolution! Hah!

It's almost October..

Busy little guy - that's his sister's Picture!Glady doing homework - she's reading Raold Dahl's autobiography.
Pippa and Johann... She's ready to head off to school!
Gosh, isn't she cute

It's beginning to feel like Fall

The view from our Gig Saturday!Ribfest cooking going on!
I don't want to know what's going on out here!
Big boy britches!
And this was back on the first day of school!

We haven't yet had a good frost, but Dad slept out in his tent the other night and came up in the morning saying there had been a patchy frost. The asters are in full fling - I have a few in the garden I have been encouraging gently. They are wild, and I am never sure whether they will stay where I want them! The trees are beginning to show a little color in places.

We had Ribfest on Labor Day, as is our tradition, and it was a success. We split the time between hanging outside near the grill and ate indoors, away from the bugs. The ribs were perfect, the company was good, and we had a long and rich day. The perfect capper to a very busy summer.

Johann has started to go on the potty chair - he walked in last Saturday, took off his diaper and sat down and went! All very casual, like he had been doing it forever. We still have a few more months of diapers, I think, but then he will officially be a Big Boy.

Phil ad I were the entertainment yesterday at a wedding reception - it was a lovely day, on an island out on Lake Winnepesaukee. He did balloons, and I painted - I knew it was going to be a good gig when the father of the groom, who was ferrying us across to the island, told me he wanted me to paint him first! It was a day of firsts - for him, at 70, having his face painted for the first time, and for Phil and I, going to a gig on a boat!

Summer's end

Glady as the Moon Princess
Glady Facepainting for the very first time.
Pippa eating a donut the hard way - we went with Papa to the Wilmot Old Home Day and played games while he performed.
Johann and Juliet swordfight with Papa - Johann shouts "Ching! Ching!" as they clash blades.

A busy week!

Let's see - long and busy week, not too much to share because it's all been business or housecleaning! I have a picture of Glady to add - she made dessert for all one night. Fruit, chocolate fondue and koolaide cake - she was so proud. She loves to cook and gets very disappointed when she can't.

Phil, Johann, and I all went to one of Phil's shows in Manchester last night. Johann and I had a blast - He was dancing with the other kids before the show, and even Phil got in on the act.

Juliet's Seven now!

My apologies for the upside down pictures - I scanned these in and didn't take the time to check orientation! I'll try to fix and replace them later - In the mean time...

Juliet, weighing in at 8lbs even on the fish scale! In Labor on the porch - I did make it indoors to have her.
A Very new Juliet with her wonderful midwife, Sherry.
Seven Years later... Juliet on her birthday with sister!

It's hard to believe it's been that long since that warm August day when I went into labor with her. She was born around 6pm if I recall correctly - Phil and I had been walking around the block in Hillsboro to get the labor moving again after it stalled out, and I went into transition on the deck before I got back inside. The midwife brought the birthing stool outside - everyone thought Juliet would be born out there! Years later we met the people who had been our neighbors and they remembered seeing me -they told us they thought I had had the baby out there! We did eventually get me inside, though. Juliet came out pink and cranky shortly after. She started to nurse before we even had a chance to cut the umbilical, and she stayed latched on for a year! Well, I exaggerate a little, but only a little. She's my big girl. She had to be weighted with a fish scale, because the digital scale the midwife brought along broke. Somewhere I have a cute picture of a little bundle in a receiving blanket hanging from a scale.

Storyland!

The kids are ready for some Fried Dough! (and a little tired. This was taken about half-way through our time at the park)Cedar and Glady take a spin in the teacups. Glady loved it, but Johann, riding with sisters and Papa, was not happy. He was clinging to Phil saying, "No, Papa! No! Out!"
On the other hand, Johann loved the train. He did get to ride it - here he is just happily watching it go by.
Juliet got to drive! Glady's riding behind her. (pouting a little that she didn't get to drive)
And Pippa drove Grandpa! (If you are wondering - Phil, Johann ad I sat this ride out.)
Gee-Up, Burro! Muchos Nachos!
Mwaaa-Ha-Ha-Ha! I have them all in Jail, off to do something on my own!
Princess Pippa in her Pumpkin Coach.
Phil and Dad have a... contest... with the water cannons.
Three generations on the carousel. That's Pippa with the hair over her face - she was getting into riding her horsie!

The girls first visit to an amusement park - We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day - Dad went along - the last time I was there, I must have been almost 8. The only thing I remember from that trip is riding the teacups with Grandma! Glady and I rode in one, Phil and the rest of the kids in another, to make all new memories for the next generation!

Oh, and I took about a hundred pictures! I'm putting up a few, and there will be more in a week or so when I develop film. The long lens on my film camera was perfect for taking pictures of the girls on the roller coaster, for instance!

A New Car!

We got a PT Cruiser last week! It's used, of course, but low mileage for being an '03. It will be so nice to have a much more fuel-efficient vehicle. It won't hold the whole family, of course, but it is mostly going to be for the business, and running errands. The day after Phil brought it home Pippa was at Nana's so we were able to all jump in the car and take it out for a spin. We decided to get breakfast out and ended up at Heritage Farm. Phil works up there every year at the Scarecrow festival, but we'd never been to the Pancake House. We had a yummy meal, more food than we could shake a stick at, and finished off with the kids going into the petting farm and playground. A very full and satisfying morning.

Yes, He's man enough for it to be Pink!

I'm so excited! We got Ukeleles! Mine is a soprano and his is a tenor. It's pink because it was on clearance - and you know me, I'm cheap!

He's tuning it now and it sounds really good.