Deus Benedicat

Claire made her First Communion today!

God bless you, my sweet and silly girl, today and always.

Picture update

Lucy had a birthday! 

She did not want her picture taken, but I was very proud of the cake.

I did capture her when she wasn't looking, but on reflection I think this is more a picture of my nephew.  Not only because he looks so adorable here, but because of  his role as the masculine center in a sea of women.  I wonder how many more pictures he will take in his life where he is surrounded by girls. ( I tend to think quite a few. )

Easter was wonderful!  The girls had very little patience for pictures, because they were anxious to converge on Grandma and Grandpa Mlinek's house and eat everything in sight.

Between the adorable baby, the fun morning searching for baskets, the sweet and funny girls, the afternoon spent hanging out with family - it was pretty easy to count our blessings this Easter!

Winning, no tiger blood necessary

I have some pictures to put up from Lu's birthday, but right now I need to brag, just a little.

Report cards came home last week, and there was nothing but one letter in sight for every single girl.

Yeah, that's right:  all of my kids got all A's.  Every single one.  My kids, you say?  I know.  Who'da thunk it?

(Although you know, they are Chris' kids too, which explains a lot here.)

Seriously, though, I am very proud of them.  These girls take their schoolwork seriously, and they all work very hard every day.  The fact that they are all brilliant in addition to being gorgeous, gracious and grounded is just icing on the cake.

An Open Letter to the Tooth Fairy

Okay, look.  It's time for you fairies to get it together.

You need a standard, and you need to stick to it.  If a dollar a tooth is the going rate, you need to understand that when you decide to make your particular children feel "special" by giving them ten dollars or a gift bag full of spa lotions or whatever...you are doing so at the expense of every other kid your child encounters, all of whom now feel like shit.

Yes, I just cursed.  I'm pretty ticked off, Tooth Fairy.  Seriously.  You might have an inferiority complex that is assuaged by showering your tiny charges with extravagant gifts, but it doesn't make you cool.  It makes you obnoxious. 

Plus, is that really how you want your own child to feel "special?"  Because they have more bling than the next kid?  Have you really thought this through, Tooth Fairy?  Because those simpering, talentless dolts on My Super Sweet Sixteen got their start somewhere.  Is this really where you want to go?

Yes, I'm a little bit bitter because my kids have a harried, overworked Tooth Fairy who has more than one set of teeth to cover, and can't pay out $10/tooth because she hopes to one day send her kids to college.  All of her kids need braces, too, and ironically the Tooth Fairy Union doesn't carry dental insurance.

You know what, though, I've had my say and I'm not going to sweat it any further.  We all know our Tooth Fairy loves our kids, even though it sometimes takes a day or two for her to get around to putting that measly dollar under the pillow.  Luckily, I haven't raised kids who need a lot of swag to know they are special.

A snippet from a particularly impressive show

The girls put on quite a few shows, but I rarely post them because the videos are always too long to upload.  However, I've just realized that putting them on YouTube bypasses the blog's limitations, so get ready!  There will be more home-show awesomeness in this blog's future!

This one came about because 1- Adele, a favorite around here, just came out with a new CD and Katie is obsessed with it, and 2- Grandma and Grandpa Mlinek were watching the girls while Chris and I went to see a talk by Scott Hahn, thus providing a bigger audience than usual.  They did routines to quite a few songs, but this one was my favorite:

Moment in time

Ruth just turned 6 months old, and here a few things about her now:

*She sticks her tongue out all the time.  Her tongue does not just stick out, she curls it up on one side of her lip, like she's concentrating on something.  She probably spends a good half of her day like that.

*She has learned how to cluck her tongue, and it makes her very proud if you cluck back at her.  I think she's under the impression that this is actual communicating.

*She is still not rolling from back to front, or really making any moves towards mobility.  She seems pretty content to just lie around and let all of us suckers entertain her.  The one thing she loves, though, is kicking her legs.  When I put her in her bouncy seat, she will kick her legs with all she's got, making the seat bounce up and down violently.

Here's a cute video of Miss Ruth, showing off both her total lack of understanding about moving around and her favorite tongue position: