The aging process, through the eyes of a four year-old

Ari's deep thought of the day:

"Connor will turn into a boy when Xander and I are grown-ups!"

Anniversary celebrations

We were married June 4, 2004.  Last year was our 10th anniversary.  But we had a new baby, and didn't do much.

This year our anniversary falls the week we move cross-country, and we knew ahead of time that we wouldn't celebrate it properly.

So we decided to observe it a month early, on May 4th.  We... wait for it... hired a babysitter, went out to lunch, and saw the new Avengers movie.  But unbeknownst to the other, both of us decided to go big on the gifts.  We both happened to get the other custom art pieces!

Jonathan commissioned this amazing piece, below, delineating love in all our fandoms, in their fabulously correct fonts.  He found the artist online.  It's acrylic paint on wood with a silver frame:

In order, they are:

Star Wars

Firefly

Battlestar Galactica

X-Files

Princess Bride

Dr. Who

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Spiderman

Iron Man

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Lion King

Addams Family

I think he got them all save Lord of the Rings, and that's because he knew I'm not a big Aragorn/Arwen shipper, and the alternate pairings aren't nearly as well-known.  It's already hanging in my office, I put it up myself.

I commissioned a mixed media piece by someone I met quite randomly.  On the way back from Florida in February, I sat next to a woman who sells things on stampinup.net, a scrapbooking/artsy site.  She told me all about her teacher, Bonnie, who I then contacted after the plane landed.  Bonnie and I designed the below piece as a funky family portrait:

The lions are us, of course, and surrounding it are a heart, raised letters, the Hebrew phrase ani l'dodi v'dodi li, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine" from Song of Songs 6:3,  the words "discover, journey, explore," icons of travel in French and English, a nautical symbol, nature imagery and leaves, a star of David in a Celtic knot, and more.

My silly presentation.

Opening the gift.  You can really see the texture.

Up on our mantle.  (The 3rd baby book is on its way!)

Morning routine

Connor was up at 6am.  We kept him confined to our room so as not to wake the others.

Ari walked in at 6:30.  We played with him on the bed so as not to wake up Xander.

At 7am Xander still wasn't up, so we asked Ari if he wanted to crawl up to Xander's top bunk and tell him that it was morning time.

"Okay," he said, starting for the door, "but he's going to kick me and tell me to go away."  He explained it with no rancor, just very matter-of-factly.

Jonathan and I both cracked up.  We had no idea that's happened before, but didn't doubt it.  Brotherly love at its finest!

Connor's 0-6 month book is complete!

He's only 17 months...

Ball tent fun

We brought out the ball tent for some variety in play.  Xander took a big cardboard box I'd brought home from temple and created an obstacle course for everyone.  Here he is posing in karate mode.

Potato sack tunnel.

Click here to see a YouTube video of the kids all playing together.  Xander took a square tube, used a pencil to outline its dimensions onto the large box, cut out along his outline, and fitted the two boxes together.  Voila!  Ball-box glory.

Simcha's new digs

Mom did an amazing thing, and built a cat enclosure so that Simcha could go "outside" and not bug any neighbors.  What he wants is to see and smell the world.

He just discovered he can go up the levels!

 According to Mom, he loves it.  What cat wouldn't?!

Fancy fingers

Jonathan and I truly don't know how he came up with this idea, but Ari really wanted nail polish.  (Maybe one of his girl friends at school was wearing it, and he thought it was cool?)

Regardless of origin, he asked us to paint his nails red.

He asked us every day.

For a week.

Okay, sure, we finally said, if you really mean it.  So last weekend he and Jonathan went to get polish.  And family nail polishing commenced!

Ari went first.  Look at his smile.

Analyzing the toe polishing process.

Just sayin' hi, Mom, this happens everyday...

Excitedly showing off his toes AND fingers, red as red can be!

Xander opted for alternating black background with colored sparkles, and transparent lacquer with silver sparkles.

The older boys wanted Connor to get in on the fun, too.

Connor is not quite sure what I'm doing to his toes.

But he was a good sport, and in the end an excellent foot model.

Jonathan, by the way, is sporting black nail polish on his toes, and nothing on his fingers.  I'm the only one who doesn't have anything, I was handling the camera.  But this weekend I think I'm gonna go with red, too!