two balls and a wall

It's the boys doing boy things like playing with sticks and throwing balls against the wall:

sister showdown

Maybe it was the coordinating Mexican dresses that made the girls seem so adorable during a recent Sunday afternoon soccer scrimmage at Sparky Park. Or maybe it was their red sweaty faces. Or Tillie's new haircut...

under the table and dreaming

The other day the girls were playing "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" in the dining room. Tillie, our true Goldilocks, was playing Goldilocks and snoozing under the table. Meanwhile Baby Bear Scout was out picking flowers--imaginary flowers, you have to really use your imagination on this one--which she carried in a giant basket while circling the table. At some point the baby bear decided it was time to return home. Upon her arrival under the table, she skipped over the porridge and chair portions of the story and went straight to "Whose been sleeping in my bed?" Tillie (er, Goldilocks) immediately awoke from her slumber, scampered out from under the table and ran through the living room like a wild woman running from danger in the woods. It was pretty cute.

team photographer

Due to a scheduling snafu--and possibly some lazy parents, present company included--Scout's entire soccer clan missed its team photo this year. Disappointed at passing up the opportunity to have my child's goofy sporty pose plastered on magnets and/or cheap coffee mugs, I cheered myself up by volunteering as team photographer for today's big match-up.

Scout wore her pink headband and Willie Nelson braids as The White Stripes took to the field at 9:00am. The other team smoked them right out of the gate, but Scout gave her heart and kept the team together (in my not-so-humble opinion, said in a bravado that definitely does not border on annoying helicopter parent). But seriously, she's got grit (and, by the way, check out her serious "going after the ball" face...so Alex:

happy earth day!

Vintage Catcher: apparently he likes looking up to the sky with his mouth hanging open. Be kind to the earth!

bookish

These girls are crazy. It cracks me up when Scout tucks a pile of books that weighs almost as much as she does under her arm to take along on the short car ride to school. Her little shadow follows suit, of course, so at any given time our car is a mobile library with 40 or 50 books riding shotgun. I'm not totally exaggerating on this one either. It started with each girl bringing four or five of your average hard cover picture books on every trip, and the situation escalated from there.

I thought I was outsmarting them one day when I said they could only bring the number of books they could carry themselves--I was tired of being the one lugging the books around ("Can you hold these on the way to the car? while I get in my seat? back into the house?"). But it turns out the teacher became the student because they outsmarted me. The ingenious girls turned the tables once they figured out they could easily carry more paperback early reader books than silly old picture books. So now on every car ride we're accompanied by Frog and Toad, Amelia Bedilia, an array of Disney princesses, a mouse or two and a big chicken, Buzz and Woody, a dog named Peanut, dancing ballerinas, dancing dinosaurs and countless other characters I can't even remember. It's a zoo in there.

sporty saturday

After missing another lacrosse game because of rain on Friday night, the Scotties were back in action for their second game of the season on Saturday afternoon. They snuck it in right before another round of thunderstorms with monstrous hail hit Austin. Catcher, Mr. Scrappy, played his heart out while his sisters ran wild in the adjacent open field. It was a mothering win-win because all three children properly tired themselves out and fell soundly asleep after a post-game celebration dinner from P. Terry's (player's choice).

I know it will take me years to understand the nuances of lacrosse, but in the meantime I have Catcher--the rules-guy-analyst-kid--to explain the different positions and strategies. I still don't get why you're allowed to run behind the goal, but I have picked up a little lingo that's fun to say (or yell): "Check stick!"  It's probably the football equivalent of "make him eat dirt," but it sounds nicer.

days with tillie

She looks pretty cute here, but don't let those big blue eyes and sweet laugh fool you--this one is a handful. I've been known to confess to Alex "none of our other children were like this," while Tillie is in the midst of an epic mega-fit, because I don't think either of the other two experienced the terrible twos (or threes!) like this girl. I get it...I do. She's the youngest and has to have her voice heard. Around here that may be easier said than done (we have a bunch of talkers).

On the flip side, she is as adorable and sweet and good-natured as these photos suggest. She was my best toddler shopping companion, and it was under the influence of her contagious laugh that I decided not to enroll her in preschool this year. Yet her time has come. It looks like I might take on a part-time job next year, so she'll be hitting the books M-F. It's been a good run, and I'll miss our quiet, sophisticated lunches. When I get all nostalgic about our days together, however, I'll remind myself of the time(s) she looked at me and squealed at the top of her lungs because...well...just because.

observation day

Now we know where she gets that swagger. Today was "observation day" at Scout's dance school, so I was able to see first hand where she picked up that little sashay in her step...

I must say, though, watching four year-olds swish around the studio is almost as much fun as watching four year-olds on the soccer field. Scout has her first recital in a month, and I can't wait to see how this goes down. I'm more nervous at the thought of hair and make-up (gasp!) preparation than whatever could possibly go wrong on stage (because is there really anything this age group can do wrong...or right?).