Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Valentine's Day is such a different experience when you have kids. I remember our first Valentine's Day as a couple, when Chris and I made elaborate gifts for each other by hand. (He made me a huge card, complete with glitter and hearts that he had cut out of construction paper. I made him a clay model of Champ, the Loch Ness monster of Vermont, and we both made mix tapes for each other, with detailed descriptions of why each song was chosen...) We opened a bottle of Chardonnay (which neither of us liked) and I think we went out to eat, although I can't actually remember. In those days, dinner out was not the rare, amazing treat it is now.

Here we are now, though, with five little girls giggling profusely around us, and the romance level of this holiday has definitely taken a hit.

It's awesome.

The girls began the day so very sweetly. (That is, if you overlook how Lucy woke up and promptly removed her diaper, then with complete unconcern proceeded to urinate all over herself in the kitchen. I am doing everything in my power to supress that memory, and I think it might be working....)

Katie made Chris and I cards with little poems she had composed herself. Beth is planning some sort of one-man play that will no doubt shock and impress us later this evening. Abbie made us pictures with her signature "Abbie! Amy!" captions. (Those are the only words she can write by memory -- I have no answer for why she taught herself to write "Amy" as Abbie does not know a single person with that name. Some things are destined to remain a mystery.)

Lucy promised to keep her diaper on.

Claire, though, stole the show with her awesome cards. I've included her card to Chris here, because I love it. It's an illustration of "How Daddy kills the bad guys," and she included a pull-away paper sword to use as neccessary. (The sword was too big to scan, so you just see the top of it here.)

Later on today, Chris will make an awesome Thai-inspired mussel dish (and hamburgers for the girls) and we will try out the milk chocolate mousse with port-wine ganache topped with vanilla creme fraiche that I attempted. Then we'll put the kids to bed, and Chris and I will probably watch a movie and then hit the hay, as I need to be up by 3:15 tomorrow.

Not exactly the wine-and-roses days of our youth, but so much better because it is so....real. And funny. Chris will probably (as he has every morning since the big snow) roll out of bed as I'm getting dressed tomorrow to warm the car up for me, and my heart will melt more than I ever thought possible that first Valentine's Day, even though I thought then that I was as deeply in love as it gets.

Back then, we had all the time in the world to devote to romance. But we didn't have Valentine's Day cards illustrated with blood and rotting corpses. And we didn't have bracelets painstakingly made out of blue plastic beads. And we didn't have toddlers gravely promising to "keep the diaper on! Because I love you."

I look at the commercials on the t.v. today, with their flowers and jewelry and fancy clothes and night-on-the-towns, and I wouldn't trade a single second of this day for it.

Man, I love my family.

Snowpocolypse Now

This is the craziest snowstorm I've ever seen. Claire keeps asking, "Are we snowed in yet?" and I eventually realized that what she means is, "Is it physically impossible for us to exit our house yet?"

Close. Really close. The snow in our backyard is level with the deck railing. Chris went out to brush off the air vent, and the snow at some points was over his chest.

The girls had been logging some serious hours outside since the last storm a few days ago, but today it is literally impossible. The wind is so intense that I often can't see outside the windows, and the snow is over the heads of all of the girls. Chris and I spent a good four hours (and Chris spent closer to six) digging out the driveway last Saturday, and now you can't tell that we did it at all. Chris made a foray outside today, but we've decided to wait to shovel until tomorrow when the wind dies down.

So how do you spend a snow day when it's too intense to actually enjoy the snow? If you are us, you watch The Killers DVD for the billionth time (and if you think Chris and I are the ones watching this over and over and over, you don't know our kids.) We read. I Bake. We eat. We eat some more. Copious amounts of hot cocoa are consumed. I knit, Chris tries to play video games, and when the girls start to get to crazy I mobilize them to rearrange multiple rooms in the house.

Chris was thrilled with that last one.

A friend called us yesterday on the spur of the moment and invited us over for lunch, before we were all snowed in again. I am so glad that we accepted the offer as I look out now at the white wasteland around us. It's hard to keep from feeling that the snow will be here forever now, that we will have to dig our way to the pool next summer and that hanging up dripping boots and gloves will become a permanent routine.

It's gorgeous, though. And, despite the frantic level of noise as the girls go a leetle bit stir-crazy, it's so nice and cozy to have us all holed up together, drinking our hot cocoa under warm blankets as the snow continues to swirl outside with no sign of slowing down. So we'll fire up the DVD again, and I'll say a small prayer of thanks that we all (Lucy included, no joke) can enjoy The Killers together.

foreign lands

We discussed possibly getting "The Rosetta Stone" language tapes yesterday. The girls all weighed in on what language they'd like to learn.

"French," said I (sneakily, as I spent 6 years learning french but can only remember about four words.)

"Spanish," said Katie, practical as usual.

"Latin," said Beth, who likes to mix things up.

"I'd like to learn Texas," said Claire.

Fuel for the midnight oil

This weekend, I made a skateboard out of cake for a friend's son's birthday party. However, due to upheavals and various other drama in the bakery, I am working more hours (and the worst hours) this week than ever before and I am tired. Tie-red. Tahred. Taaahed.

So, naturally, I stayed up until midnight making the skateboard the night before working a 4am shift at the bakery. Around 10pm things were getting worrisome, as I was dragging and despairing as the fondant I was trying to color red remained a stubborn dark pink. Katie and Beth were still up, watching as I kneaded the ball of fondant over and over, adding more and more red dye (and drops of blue...and drops of black).

They had been quiet for a while, and I was wondering if the girls were beginning to despair - as I certainly was - that I would ever get it right. Just then, though, Beth leaned over and said, " I sometimes think that you are just about the best cook in the whole world, and I guess I'm pretty lucky that you are my mother."

!!!!

Should one be in need of motivation a statement like that does the trick, to put it simply .

I guess I'm pretty lucky to have daughters like this.


* I'll post of picture of the cake - which turned out pretty well (It wasn't perfect, but I was mostly pleased) if my laptop ever lets me upload the pictures.

My little girl

I was in the older girls' bedroom last night, chatting for a few minutes before kissing them goodnight, when Katie cornered me and said in a furtive whisper, " Something bad happened in school today."

I could tell that she was trying to keep Beth from hearing, so I also lowered my voice and asked her to explain.

She told me that someone in her class wrote "I want to have sex with -----" on a bathroom wall.

I stood for a moment in shock, looking at my sweet little ten year old daughter, and wondering what this world has come to. I took the moment to compose myself so that I could ascertain, as delicately as possible, how much innocence she had been robbed of that day.

I lowered my voice even more, and whispered to her, "Do you know what that means?"

Her eyes opened wide, and she said confidently, "Yes, I do."

I took another moment to compose myself. "What does it mean?" I whispered.

"It means," Katie said, her brows lowering in dissaproval, "That she defaced school property!"

I told her that she was absolutely right and then I kissed my little girl goodnight. I am glad to know that, a year ago, she decided on her own to avoid the group that the vandal runs with, because she didn't like how "shallow" (her words) they were getting.

That being said, the time for a certain talk is no longer approaching: it is here. *Sigh*

Cool stuff

I've had this blog for over four years now, believe it or not, so I'm going to go ahead and make the usual blogger plunge: bare my soul for all the internet to see.

Would you like a peep into my psyche? Then watch the video below. It fills me with joy just to know that I am living in a world in which people create things like this.

Growing geeks

Meeting the X-Men (and Spiderman....and Captain America!)
Originally uploaded by moleshollow

Chris was playing Ultimate Alliance on his Xbox as the girls (as they always do) watched and (as they always do, to my glee) commented on his playing. At some point, Claire asked Chris to switch characters, and play as the Hulk. He did so, and Claire then asked if he could switch to Batman.

Beth scornfully turned to her and said, "What are you thinking? Hulk is Marvel, Batman is DC!"

We couldn't be more proud.

It's good to be 5!

Abbie turns 5 today! I will post pictures someday, when my laptop allows me to upload them from my camera. Hopefully it will be in the mood sooner rather than later.

Abbie had a good day, I think. This birthday feels like a real milestone, to us, for some reason. Chris and I are both just finding ourselves...extra grateful, I guess, to have this kid around.

The morning started off very sweetly. The two older girls (on their own, with their own money, and without my prior knowledge) bought birthday gifts for Abbie at the Holiday Shop they have in school. So they begged me to allow Abbie to open them before school. Claire, who doesn't yet have her own money, decided a few days ago to make Abbie a bracelet and she went first, shyly apologizing to Abbie for the homemade gift (which was also way too small) but Abbie gave her a big hug and said, "Oh, I love it, Claire! It's okay that I can't wear it, I'll just like to look at it."

Beth gave Abbie a Christmas-tree shaped etch-a-sketch, which was cool and well appreciated but soon eclipsed by Katie's gift, a talking bear that records your own messages. As the girls were all exclaiming excitedly over Katie's gift, Beth sat by herself and fiddled with the etch-a-sketch. Katie (who had very carefully picked out Abbie's gift, and who I know was secretly hoping to be the giver of the day's best present) saw Beth's face and then started loudly talking about how cool the etch-a-sketch was, drawing everyone's attention back to it.

I was so proud. So proud of all of them.

We ate our cinnamon rolls, and later Chris and I took Abbie and Lucy to Abbie's favorite library (which has a kid-sized town to explore, complete with grocery store, post office and fishing pond). We fired up Abbie's dinner of choice (Spaghetti-O's, Lord help me) and then the Grandparents and returning college hero, Uncle Andy, came over for some (terribly ugly - wait until you see the picture!) cake. Tomorrow we will all go to the aquarium, and Grandma Niccoli will come over to finish off our celebration. Abbie is having a great birthday.

That morning in the kitchen, though, is what I will remember forever. Five girls coming together so happily, so sweetly, so lovingly. We have plenty of mornings full of bickering and spilt milk and nasty attitudes, but it was good to see everyone pull together like that and just enjoy making their sister happy. That is one of Abbie's talents - she draws people to her, and draws out the best in them.

I thank God for the privilege of being her mother. I thank Him for giving us this time with her. I thank Him for the dynamic she brings to this family.

Happy Birthday, Bejabbers. We love you.

Bumps in the Night

I got home from work tonight around 8:30. By the time I had run upstairs to help Katie and Beth pick out outfits for "70s Day" tomorrow, made lunches and thrown some dishes in the dishwasher, it was 9:30. The girls were all asleep, Chris was playing videogames in the basement and the rest of the house was still and quiet.

I was on my laptop, looking at pictures of my Sister and Brother-in-Law's new house (congrats, guys!) when an eerie feeling came over me. I began to feel goose-prickly, like someone was watching me. Gradually I became aware, out of the corner of my eye, of a figure, all in white approaching with its arms reaching toward me. It was moving slowly, in absolute silence.

I did what was only natural, of course. I jumped and cried out. Abbie's eyes grew wide as she continue to stalk towards me with her arms held out.

"I just wanted a kiss from you," she said.

She got the kiss, and probably a good 5 years off my lifespan as well.

Sorry for the long silence around here. I have pictures of my sister's wedding, some awesome videos of the girls, and some other stuff to share.....but I have been working crazy hours (40 hrs/week is crazy when you are only supposed to be part-time and have an entire other life full of laundry and boo-boos and bubble baths to tend to) and I just haven't had the five minutes to spare. Soon, though. I promise.

Short Rib Sundays

I was about to comment on a favorite blog of mine, when I realized that what I was going to say is really better said here, where all of you (meaning: mom and mom-in-law) can appreciate it.

Working in the bakery has been going really well. I like what I'm doing (decorating cakes, mostly, with some proofing and baking thrown in. It's the hauling boxes in and out of freezers that I can do without.) My manager has been great about trying to accommodate me, scheduling me to only work three days out of the week so that I can be at home as much as possible. The only downside is that usually means I get the Sunday doughnut shift - starting at 4am (and soon to be 3am). I actually like doing the doughnuts, but the hours are a killer for a dyed-in-the-wool nightowl like myself.

Here's the thing, though, that makes it all just dandy. Chris has, for one, been bringing the girls in to see me around my lunch break (which, when you begin work at 4, ends up being around 10am.) I set aside doughnuts for them - which means they get to have as many of the coveted strawberry-frosted as they want (a rare thing, as finding 5 strawberry doughnuts at once is much harder than you would think.)

Also, Chris has been stepping up to the plate for Sunday dinners, making braised short ribs almost every weekend. Braised short ribs, if you don't know, is similar to a roast only.........well, much better. It is truly fall off the fork tender -that's not just an expression, you know! It is an actual phenomena that can be achieved if you have a way with meat. And Chris does. It is comforting, and warm, and aromatic, and delicious. It's the perfect fall/winter meal, and the perfect way to end a day that began elbow-deep in frosting hours before the birds are even thinking of waking up.

I see the effort he is making to help me out where he can. Sundays used to be his sacred, football-watching, lounging-around day, and I know it is a sacrifice to him to give that up. And I'm so grateful that he is willing to; it keeps me from becoming just a tired wife; instead I'm a happy wife, grateful for the chance to be a part of this amazing family.

Short ribs: soul-food in every sense of the term.

Better late than never

Here are some pictures from Halloween! Sorry for the long delay, but this laptop is such a lemon that it will sometimes not let me upload pictures. I finally have them, though, so here you go!
Katie was Hermione, Beth was a vampire, Claire was an Indian princess, Abbie was Red Riding Hood, and Lucy was.....a psychedelic princess/fairy hybrid. Most costumes courtesy of my amazing mother-in-law!
I would like to point out, specifically, the red lining on Beth's vampire cape. Super cool!

As we usually do, we went trick-or-treating with the Lobers in their neighborhood. The kids form a gang of candy-crazed trick or treaters, Vanessa mixes up some of her awesome spiced (and spiked) cider, and fun is had by all!

I learned my lesson, and for Claire's Fall party made cupcakes with less frosting. The kids got a kick out of them, (and actually ate them!) and I got to feel superior for a few minutes as the mother who brought the best treat. :-)

pictures for ya

First of all, Katie's first sleepover. It went well: I only had to tell them to quiet down twice, and I was able to fall asleep around 1:30 so....much better than any sleepover I had as a kid! (Sorry again, Mom.)

A phenomena I've observed was highlighted during this party - the almost mythical dimensions "the sisters" have reached. We had carefully coached the younger girls to stay out of the way of the party, but both Katie and her friends wanted to include them at every turn. One of the crafts we did was to decorate and sign pillowcases, and the other girls all insisted on having not only the girls from the party, but Katie's little sisters sign them as well. The younger girls were treated like celebrities. It made me proud to realize just how much Katie talks up her sisters to her friends, and it also made me proud to see what a force these five girls make when they band together. The other kids all clearly viewed them as something special that they wanted to be a part of, and it did my heart so much good to have it confirmed: it's not just my mother's eyes that see it, these girls really are something special.

They even insisted on including the sisters in the group photo:

Here's Katie blowing out the candles on her cupcake. (It's become a bday party staple here to have decorate-your-own cupcakes. Makes it easier on me!)

Here's Katie's actual birthday cake. I wasn't completely happy with it, but I learned a valuable lesson: never use dark colored glittery sprinkles with light colored frosting!

And here are cupcakes that I pretty proud of. Funny thing, though - Katie's teacher (very sweetly) emailed me to say that she grew up in New York City, but thought my cupcakes were the best she's ever had. (Yeah, okay, I'm bragging, but wait for the rest of the story...) The thing is, the kids in school didn't like them at all. Chris thinks it's because they aren't used to frosting that isn't from a can, but who knows? Obviously, the cupcakes were pretty frosting-heavy. Katie was happy with them, though, so that's really the only thing that matters. As always, my goal is only to impress my kids. If that's accomplished, who cares what anyone else thinks!

They were cute, though, weren't they?

It's been a while since I've updated this! Sorry! This whole working thing is cramping my internet habits these days.

I have pictures from Katie's birthday party (our first sleepover - which went well, considering the bad karma I should have coming my way from my own childhood sleepovers...), the visit from my family (which ended in the swine flu - three of my cousins immediately went home and became very ill - so chalk up another miracle for us that we don't seem to have caught it) and the super cute cupcakes I made for Katie's classroom, and of which I am very proud. The laptop is being wonky, though, and that's where all the pictures are, so it'll need to wait.

Work is going pretty well. I like playing with frosting, I like baked goods, I like giving cookies to little kids, so it's lucky for me that I work in a bakery. I had assumed that I would be given extensive training and time to get up to speed, but nope! My first day, I made at least 20 cakes to put out on the floor. Let me tell you, your frosting skills really made leaps and bounds when you are spending 6 hours every day doing it. I made one cake with balloons that I was not proud of - they looked very deflated. And while I can now pipe ghosts in my sleep, my very first one looked....well, obscene is what it looked like. I kept looking at it and thinking of Cake Wrecks - a blog I really love (and am not going to link to, because I don't want her to know I exist, but google it! You'll be glad you did, it's really funny!) and thinking how terrible it would be to find a picture of something I had done on there. My ghost could have made it - it was that bad. I even tried to chuck it, but we had a Halloween cake sale going on, and they needed every cake we could get out there. Oh, well.

So....I'll put up some pictures soon. Till then, amuse yourself with some of the posts over at Cake Wrecks, and pray that I may never again deserve to end up there. :)

My zombies are the coolest!

I wrote an article about zombies for my Examiner column, (you can see it here ) but I couldn't find any relevant pictures through Examiner's AP feed. In the end, we did an impromptu makeup session and zombie photo shoot in the front yard, and some of the pictures are just too good to keep to myself! I could only include three in the actual article, so here are the best of the rest. The girls were really, really into it.

This last one is my absolute favorite. Look at that commitment! Abbie is a natural!

Jellybeans and little girls

Do you see this jellybean cannister? Imagine five girls standing around it, salivating. Coveting. Sort of like this:

I bought the jellybeans for Chris. Anything that qualifies as a treat around here has a tendency to....disappear. Quickly. The girls are a lot like locusts when it comes to sugar. So, because I bought the jellybeans for my hardworking husband and wanted him to be able to eat a few, I put a strict prohibition on the jellybeans. They are only for BOYS.

The girls can't take it. They are dying of desire. They have not, however, touched the jellybeans. They gather around the jar, look longingly at its contents, repeatedly wonder aloud how the various colors might taste...but they don't touch them. They respect the Daddy's right to his own treat.

But let's talk about Lucy. She is a wonder and a worry to me, in that order. I marvel at how self-assured she is, how little she cares what others are doing or thinking, how confident she is in her place in the world. I can't believe this little firebrand shares genes with me. I can't believe that I had a hand in bringing this force of nature into existence. While the other girls were tip-toeing around the jellybeans, Lucy studied them long and hard. Then, a few days after their arrival, she came to a decision.

Chris and I were in the basement when she came halfway down the stairs and stopped to confront us. "I am share Daddy's beans, " she announced, looking expectantly at Chris.

Her gaze was unflinching and steely.

He stood up and went to get her some beans.


How could he not? "I am share Daddy's beans," she said, and she meant it. It wasn't a question, it wasn't a request, it was a statement. Concise and unconquerable. Just like Lucy.

Watch out, world, because your jellybeans are next.

Adding to the resume....

Two things:

1- I was just hired to work in the bakery of our local grocery store part-time! I am excited, nervous, worried, curious and about a million other feelings all at once. My first day is Monday, and I'll let you know how it goes. With a little luck, I'm hoping to work the schedule so that I am away from the girls as little as possible.

2- I've begun writing a freelance-ish column for a local website. The link is on my blogroll to the left. I'm enjoying this quite a bit, although it's not exactly lucrative work.

Life is a funny thing, and can take you all sorts of places you never expected to go. One thing you can always count on, though is this: it's always interesting!

Zombie Groundhog

We had a wild time in the fake country tonight.

I am warning you now: the stuff below is not for the squeamish.

Chris and I were cooking dinner in the kitchen, and the girls were all playing outside with the neighbor kids. Suddenly, Beth came shrieking up the hill from the playset, and barreled into the kitchen yelling, "Groundhog! Groundhog!"

"Where?" Chris asked, looking out the window. Beth explained that they had been playing on the slide, when somebody noticed a large, furry animal sitting at the bottom.

"What did it do when you saw it?" Chris asked.
"Uh, not really anything," said Beth. "It just sort of sat there and looked at us, like this." With that, she did a pretty spot-on groundhog imitation, with her paws held up to her face.

So Chris got his shotgun (a.k.a. the child-sized critter-killin' machine from WalMart) and sped off down the hill where the kids were all gathered together, watching the groundhog who was indeed crouched beside the slide.

Chris could tell immediately that something was wrong with the animal, so he did what needed to be done. When it was over, we all crowded around the dead groundhog. One of the neighbor kids asked if Chris could turn it over, because she thought that it might have only one arm, so Chris turned it over and...

Oh, wow. Are you ready for this?
It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life. Half of the groundhog's belly was covered in maggots. Maggots. You can see them in the picture above. The groundhog was literally being eaten alive before Chris put an end to it.

So we buried the dead, and we were all relieved to have it out of sight.

Out of mind is another matter, though.

The fake country can be a pretty brutal place.

I love Lucy

Yesterday was "Family Fun Night" at the girls' school, so we reluctantly (we hate mingling) packed up and headed on over to have some pizza and awkward conversation.

I am so glad that we did.

They were playing music in the gym, and Claire almost immediately took up residence on the dance floor with her best friend. Not long after, Lucy joined her and it was one of those sights that I will remember for the rest of my life. Claire and Lucy danced. And danced. And danced. While other kids came and went, joined in and wandered away, the two of them stuck together and boogied like there was no tomorrow. Every other kid out there was easily twice the size of Lucy, but she couldn't have cared less. She did the funky chicken, she shook her hips and she hopped around without a care in the world. At one point, she decided to wriggle around on the floor, and I watched as Claire positioned herself over her crazy baby sister to keep the other kids from stepping on her. Lucy, however, was just lost in her own world. When a conga-line formed Abbie, who had joined in with Katie, was stiff and awkward, whispering (loudly) to Chris, "I don't want to touch that boy" (in front of her.) She was nervous around all those big kids. Not Lucy. Claire and Lucy joined up, and Lucy funky-chickened her way around the gym without a care in the world.

Later, when we went out to gather the older girls from the playground, Lucy began to pester me to let her go down the playground slide.

"I don't know," I told her, eying the chaos in the dark, "There are a lot of big kids there, Lucy, and they're being pretty crazy."

Lucy patted my shoulder, "Don't worry, " she said. "I strong, Momu."

(Momu is her new nickname for me. I can't get her to stop using it. It rhymes with "Shamu.")

There's nothing more to say about this kid, really. "I strong" she says. And she should know: nobody is more confident in their place in the world than my little Lu.

Weekend Getaway

Chris and I just came back from a long weekend away.
It was beautiful.
And peaceful.
And fun!

We took long walks on the beach, played in the waves like a couple of teenagers, stayed up late every night and slept in as long as we wanted to.

It was a perfect weekend. Perfect. I'll remember this forever (and not just because we barely escaped a shark attack. It's true. I think. But that's a story for another day.)

We are home now, and it was so wonderful to see the girls tumbling out of the house to see us! I missed them so much! But, wow! They are noisy.

It is great to be back home, but it was great to get away.

Jasper

Jasper.

I love this dog. Despite the fact that about half of what I've ever said about him has been in complaint, still....I love him. He is a sweet, sweet, sweetheart of a dog. He loved the kids. He loved them, even though he was constantly, accidentally, knocking them over.


He was especially good with Abbie. I ultimately have no explanation for why, but among Jasper's virtues, gentleness was not one of them. He was gentle with Abbie, though, laying beside her all the time, barely moving, his eyes on her and his tail happily thumping.

It was time to admit defeat, though.
We failed.
There's no way to whitewash it.
Jasper needed space to run in, but he couldn't do it here. Here, he could jump over the fence at will and run off chasing cars. We couldn't take him outside unless he was on leash, which meant that he couldn't run at all.

There are other things, too: there were too many toys, and he couldn't learn to leave them alone. He destroyed everything he touched, and so as time went on he spent more and more time in the kitchen, because that was the only way we could keep him from breaking the toys.

The truth is, he just wasn't a good fit for us right now. We tried to make it work, because we did love him, but nobody was happy.

So yesterday, Chris drove Jasper back to the farm he was born on and the breeder assured us that she has a family already waiting to take him. They've always had two dogs, and last year both of their dogs (both Chessies) died. They have a puppy now, but wanted an older dog as well, one who was already house-trained. They have three kids. The kids are all older, their youngest is the same age as our oldest.

I am so glad they have kids. Jasper really loves kids.




So here we are. We had our cry out yesterday, and now the house feels weird and quiet.

We love you, Jasper. I'm so glad we were able to find a good situation for you, but I am so, so sorry that it wasn't here.