Practicing for the big day

Eleri will be dancing at the Raleigh Irish Festival for St. Patrick's day. The little guys are SO CUTE. I can barely stand it. I nearly burst every week.






and more cuteness

SNOW!

It's still coming down out there, but the kids are in for lunch. This is a pretty ideal snow as far as things go. Big flakes are sticking to the grass and roof, but the road is just wet.
Pics of Rowan and Eleri. Niall was not out there long enough. The child who has no problem walking out there barefoot to make a print in the snow doesn't actually like to STAY out there when properly clothed.

Dancing Queen

This morning, Eleri had her very first ever dancing class. We found a small dance company in Raleigh that does Irish dancing for fun only. No competitions or trophies or a bazillion costumes and fees. Fun and culture = just what we were looking for.
She LOVED it. She loved it so much, she cried when it was time to leave. She wanted to stay all day!
I only had my iPod with me for pictures. This was our trial class so I didn't want to show up with the huge camera and all. It took her about half the class to figure out that she wasn't supposed to run around skipping everywhere, and after that she was super good at following along and doing what her teacher was doing. Her teacher said that she did great - especially for someone who had never set foot in a class before today.
I was in raptures over the cuteness. Here it is hours later and I'm still grinning.
Coming soon: an Etsy store to fund Eleri's dancing class. The company takes paypal!
For now (grainy ipod) pictures of the cute

Big Day: Bridging Over

Today was the Blue and Gold ceremony for the Cub Scouts. Rowan received his Arrow of Light, and then crossed the bridge to become an official Boy Scout.

 

Flaming arrow

 

 

 

Rowan gets his arrow

 

Checking it out

 

Getting the badge that goes with the arrow

 Saluting his den leader goodbye

 

On the bridge

 

 

Getting his new neckerchief

It struck me how Rowan is standing on the step, and is still so much smaller than that Boy Scout.

 

Welcome to Troop 152

 

 Newly minted Boy Scouts

Eleri Style

We have GOT to get this child into a dance class.

Dancing

Oh to be a fly on the wall

Niall had his first confession today. His says his penance was one Hail Mary. He won't say what he told Father, though. It's much too embarrassing.

 

Proud boy

Shiny!

It's always an adventure when school calls you and tells you that your child has a head injury and you need to come right over.

 

Rowan was playing capture the flag in PE, and he and Peter went after the same flag at the same time. Rowan's eye met Peter's forehead in a big way.

I went on over there, not expecting anything too terrible, but it was a little unnerving to find my child with a few paramedics standing around him, suggesting we take him in to be seen.

I opted for our pediatrician instead of the ER docs and ambulance ride. Rowan was a little disappointed but then agreed with me when I told him how my way meant that he'd get to eat lunch at lunchtime.

 

Dr. Artman checked him over and he's fine. There's no weirdness going on with his eye, but the swelling and bruising promises to be SPECTACULAR. I believe it. His eye is already bigger than it was when I took these pictures.

We're to keep using ice for 20 mins at a time, give him ibuprofen, and call back if he starts hurling or showing other signs of bad things. I told Rowan that the next time he wants an afternoon off school, he should just SAY so.

If you'd like to watch Rowan's eye as it blooms, we now have a set on flickr just for the shiner.

WEBELOS

Rowan got his Webelos badge last night - the highest badge you can get as a cub scout. He has also earned his Arrow of Light, which is the ultimate goal, but he won't get that until the blue and gold banquet where he'll officially graduate and be a Boy Scout.
He's quite proud of himself.

 

Part of the ceremony involves face painting

 

officially Webelos

 

 

Yipe!

It's short!

For Mamaw

Does she wear her dancing outfits? Yes. Yes she does. She also loves her "come cuter."

 

 

 

 

Endocrine visit was today. They measure height in centimeters there. :)

They took lots of blood and X-rayed her hand. Results will come in about two weeks. 

Flashy!

Ruben got me a new flash for Christmas, and I have no idea what I'm doing yet. But last night, I stuck it on my camera and snapped a few anyway. All of these were taken at night, and within a couple of minutes of each other. It's wild the lighting that little flash can do!

 

This one is with the flash pointed at the ceiling.

 

This one had the flash pointed at the windows.

 And this one had the flash pointed out into the open kitchen.

I can't tell you how excited I am that I am finally starting to get the pictures that I've been trying to get for YEARS.  Yes, the brunt of photography is knowing how to use your camera, but having good equipment makes such a difference! I need to learn how to use this flash for real, and then watch out!

Christmas pictures are up

Christmas pictures set on Flickr

Christmas is officially over, now. So I made it a point to process and upload the rest of them. Enjoy!

knitting plans 2013

To make this year, for me:

Celtic Icon - in purple from knitpicks yarn (already in stash)

TARDIS shawl - in blue from knitpicks yarn (already in stash)

Wrap Sweater - in "Niall" from TIG (just ordered)

Avalon hat - from my one ball of Spiffy Knits

and I'm sure I'll think of more...

Santa Baby

It's a bit too large, but she loves this dress. Here, she is saying, "I can't hold still, Mommy! I gotta dance!"

Santa visit 2012

There was another one where they were all looking, but this one was too sweet to pass up. Santa and the Pixie are deep in discussion.

Niall's birthday

I think Niall had a pretty good birthday. We still haven't done his cake yet (he hasn't figured out what kind he wants!) so we're stretching it out a bit. His party was yesterday, but instead of a party, he decided he wanted to take some friends to the movies instead. So that's what he did. Unfortunately, Eleri was still napping when it was time to go, and movies don't really lend themselves well to pictures, so I don't have any of that.
I'll go to his class tomorrow and take his treat in. I'm thinking it will be brownies. or maybe cookies. He'll make that call in the morning.
He conned me into giving him one present a day early. It was a book about the body - one of his favorite subjects. He loves reading and looking at pictures of how we work.

 

Other than that, he only got one present, because it was a big one. If you give just one thing to an 8 year old boy...

 

It should come in a box that's too big to wrap

 

And should get the response, "WOW! Cool! ... What is it?"

John had a green machine when he was a kid, and he assured us that it was the ultimate in cool fun riding yah awesomeness. So after lunch, he had some help putting it together.

 

And after that...

 

 

 Oh yeah.

 

 

Awesome.

Niall is 8

Tonight, at 12:01, Niall will officially be 8 years old. What a ride it's been.

 

The 9lb bundle 

 

The Michelin Man (age 6months, wearing a 24months shirt)

agent of chaos

He's always had his own style

loves music

 

 can be sweet as pie

or not. :)

I'll have to get a good birthday picture of him in the morning. 

Christmas time is making time!

I finally took the time to put together and decorate the Advent calendar that Fran got for us last year. It was tedious, and time consuming, but I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I know I will be even happier when I only have to unpack it every year after this.

 

 

First, I had to sand and glue the pieces of the calendar and then use wood glue to put all of that together. The picture is just printed with our regular printer, and then I used mod podge to stick it on. Then black acrylic around the rest of the back, and eggplant purple for the rest. The little drawers are made of cardboard that I had to tape together, and the blue stars is embossed scrapbooking paper from Joann. I had to cut each of those out and glue them on, and then color the numbers with a sharpie and glue them on as well. I used a silver paint pen to write the verse. I'm really happy with how it came out. I still have to write out a verse for each drawer, but that will be easy after everything else.

Now I have to make Eleri's dolly. I've been collecting the materials for a while now, so now I'm hoping I can pull it off.

 

And of course, the rest of the Christmas knitting. You know... with all my free time. I shouldn't be sitting here typing this. I have work to do!