A Book Box

I wanted to put up a few pictures really quickly of some things we've been up to lately:

Firstly, for mother's day this year my mom gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble and it was so much fun! I ordered it all online since our Barnes and Noble is pretty far away (and the brick and mortar store is so much more expensive than online!). I told the kids beforehand that I'd ordered each of them a book but that was as specific as I got.

It was really exciting for them to pull out the stack of shiny new books and decide which book was for which kid.

I love Elinor in this picture! She loves her a good map of Austin!

Jacob loved the packing material. He was far more interested in that than any of the books.

Emi settled right in with her new Shel Silverstein (Falling Up).

El was captivated by Uni the Unicorn.

And Jacob did put the puffy air bag thingies down for a moment to claim his book - May I Please Have a Cookie. I was impressed when Caleb voluntarily sat down to read Big Mean Mike in its entirety because it's quite a lot of text and he usually doesn't have the patience for that.

We did also get Sam and Dave Dig a Hole - anything Jon Klassen has a hand in is an automatic favorite around here. Jacob even knows his name! Ooh, but while I'm on the topic, Mac Barnett, the author of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, collaborated with Jon Scieszka to write Battle Bunny and we all think that one is hilarious. Caleb has claimed that one for himself and keeps it at school. If you have a reluctant reader in your home, check it out!

The book I chose for myself was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, which happens to be #1 on the Amazon bestseller list right now (and she's Japanese!) and we got You Are Special by Max Lucado for Joseph. I figured he wouldn't take the time to read a longer book right now and that's one he's wanted our kids to have for a while.

This package was such a fun one to receive!


Jacob helped me plant a flower I got from a Relief Society activity:

He was excited to water it.

Jacob found this atrocity at Savers and dumped it in our shopping cart. Elinor approved.

I texted this picture to Joseph asking if he thought we should buy it. Really, why does this exist?

Jake's new favorite perch in the front yard.

I found the kids like this eating Otter Pops the other day after school. I don't really know what was going on but I took a picture.

Jake decided to take a nap at Elinor's soccer practice and rolled up in the blanket.

A Piano! Finally!

Before Joseph and I had kids, while we were still living in Utah, we bought a beautiful, glossy black upright Yamaha piano. It was tall, really fun to play, and had a great sound. Unfortunately, it was not a great time in our lives to buy a piano because we were moving around a lot and mostly living in apartments. So we had it in our home for maybe two years, but when we made the move to Austin, TX we left it behind. Joseph's brother Nathan and his wife Stephanie have taken great care of it since then, paying to have it moved and tuned and just generally keeping it safe. We've been happy to know that it's been in good hands. And we recently decided to just sell it to them.

While we were separated from our piano Joseph's mom sent a great little Casio keyboard that was perfect for us. The keys were weighted, it had pedals, and the volume control and headphones option were great for all the apartments we lived in. Plus it was like a million times easier to move than a real piano.

Now we are a little more settled so we were finally able to start looking for a new piano! I did love the black Yamaha - you really can't beat that sound - but I wanted something a little less formal for our home. When I saw a listing for a hundred-year-old piano that had been completely rebuilt in 2005, I was curious. It was beautiful, but I had no idea how it would sound. I went to check it out, not knowing what to expect at all, so I was very pleasantly surprised to hear that it sounded great, so we jumped on it. We finally got it moved in last Wednesday and are thrilled. It does sound old, but it's so wonderful to have a real piano in our home again! We love it.

El is (obviously) enjoying it.

She also enjoys being the center of attention.

Alright. We're done.

She sorta makes me think of these guys:

A few other happenings...

Enjoying Otter Pops together outside. The kids always beg to be allowed some time outside after school every day. The weather is really just perfect every single day.

The weather is perfect, but the Bay Area is really overcrowded. This means that Costco is absolutely out of control. I kept these three occupied and subdued while Joseph and Emily waited in line to check out the other day.

Picnic on the front lawn last Saturday. Jake was totally passed out from exhaustion and the other kids had gone the other direction and were bouncing off the walls.

Jake and Elinor have a clothes sharing agreement going on.

Broccoli!

I've mentioned earlier here that we put in our very first garden this year. I've read a few things about gardening, but really looked at this whole thing as an experiment.

That being said, it's been sort of a surprise but also really fun to see the plants grow and thrive and to see new blossoms and vegetables where there weren't any before. We were able to harvest our first broccoli head on Sunday and another yesterday.

That piece of wood is the beginnings of some sort of fence/cage I'm constructing to keep the birds and squirrels out as the tomatoes ripen.

We just steamed the broccoli last night and ate it with a bit of salt and butter. Jake was a fan.

 It's kind of fun to look back at our garden in the beginning.

The day we planted it. Those flowers on the left lasted about three days.

I covered the tomatoes on some of the colder nights. These plants were babied! Jacob always yells, "A bed! The plants are sleeping!" when he sees this picture.

Grown a little more.

A couple of days ago.

Oh! And we were also able to get a great bike for Em.

I have never seen her smile so hard while riding a bike! It's not going to last her long, but it was a great deal and will be good to pass on to Elinor.

And Jake always enjoys a little quality time on his bike.

Friday Staycation

I was going through pictures on my phone and found these, which reminded me of our "staycation" last Friday.

We were all totally exhausted from the week's activities, so decided to stay in instead of going camping. (It really would have done me in! We'd been going non-stop!) Joseph was wonderful in planning everything and making the kids feel special and loved. One of his activities was a "hike" to Safeway for marshmallows and hotdogs to roast over a fire in our living room fireplace. Of course, the hike called for hats, and of course, if we're wearing hats we're going to wear the best ones we can find!

I think everyone was grateful to take a couple of days to relax at home and spend time as a family. It was a really nice day.

Two Thoughts and a Bike

I'm sorta loving all this talk about putting a woman on the $20. It makes a lot of sense, especially considering how Jackson isn't really someone I feel that we need to be commemorating quite so thoroughly.

Also, quick book recommendation - I just finished the Penderwicks in Spring and really liked it! I love the Penderwicks and always feel like it's such a treat to read the new books when they're released!

Finally, we we were supposed to pick up two bikes from Craigslist people yesterday. We got Caleb's and he loves it. Really, he's so delighted with it.

He was cruising around on it yesterday while Jake was out on his balance bike and a collision occurred. I was sitting on the lawn, so I saw the whole thing. I saw a white stripe and then a gash opening up on Jacob's face even before he fell, so I was up on my feet and sweeping him up before I think he'd even realized the severity of his injury. It was kind of cool how clearly I was thinking at this point. I took him inside, had Caleb bring a wet washcloth and sent Emily for the Steri-strips. Then I had Caleb drag a chair to the fridge to get the scissors down for me and I patched Jake's face up. Emi announced that she couldn't handle looking at it so she went back outside. Elinor came into the room looking upset and told me she had thrown up (this was at the height of the commotion, while Jacob was still screaming and I was cursing the steri-strips for not sticking and the blood for coming too fast to allow them to stick). Even amid all of this, I felt in control and calm. It was a gaping cut across his cheek, just under his eye, and would not stop bleeding until it was all taped together. But we got it taped together, I called the doctor, and we headed out to get it looked at. I was worried that my fix hadn't been clean enough, since this cut is in the middle of his face, but when the doctor pulled the steri-strips off, it turned out that I'd done a pretty good job and we probably didn't need to take him in after all. But she glued the cut together and topped it off with more steri-strips and we called it good.

Yesterday, before bed.

This morning, taking out the compost. It's pretty puffy and colorful today.

And now we have had three instances of head gashing, all among the boys, and all the fault of Caleb.
Anyway, that is why we ended up not getting Emily's bike from the Craigslist seller. I'll have to keep looking.

Bean Hollow

I checked the forecast before spring break started, and Thursday was foretold to be the warmest day. So, beach day was the first thing added to our schedule, and the day was Thursday.

We have gone to a couple of beaches since we've moved here, but not enough to have a definite favorite yet. This means that we're still scouting out new places and figuring out what we like. This time around we decided to check out Bean Hollow, which is about an hour south of where we live. This is a cool beach because instead of sand it has tons and tons of colorful little bean-sized pebbles, all tumbled to a smooth finish. It was kind of amazing to sit down anywhere on the beach and find so many really extraordinary little treasures.

So, without further ado, here come the pictures:

We came down this rocky ledge to get to the beach. Jake has thrown a handful of rocks in this picture, and Caleb has spotted the ocean.

The rocks were really spectacular. I loved seeing the waves crash off this outcropping.

A tentative first approach to the water.

It was super cold!

Jake preferred to stay warm and dry on the shore. The rocks provided a lot of entertainment.

Sticks were good too.

He did eventually brave the water and loved it! (I love his tongue in this picture!)

Ellie spent some time relaxing in the sun.

All of the kids enjoyed playing with the rocks, which was nice. I was worried they'd be upset about not being able to build sand castles! Another great thing about this beach - lunch was so sand-free! This was kind of a huge deal for me. I was very happy about this unexpected perk!

Lots of time enjoying the pebbles...
But also lots of time enjoying the (very cold) water!

And then it was time to go.

Doesn't Emi look like a giant in these pictures?!

What a great day at the beach!

Oakland Temple

After leaving Fairyland, it made sense for us to visit the temple, since we were already in Oakland. It was just a short detour, and a really nice ending to our day of fun.

We started in the visitors' center where the sweet sister missionaries talked to us for a while, gave the kids stickers, and turned on a great movie about families for us. It was a moving show, where each time the setting changed we moved down a row of seats around a curved hall to see the next portion on a different screen, which was set up in a room to match the scene. It kept the kids engaged and had a good message.

After that we headed outside to see the temple and wander the grounds. Really, that time ended up mostly consisting of the kids playing in the water. It was still pretty fun though.

This was the first picture we took. There's a John Deere digger in the background, right up against the temple that I kept trying (unsuccessfully) to strategically cover or crop out of the pictures.

The grounds were beautiful and the day was perfect. The kids really appreciated the fountains and waterway running the length of the field.

It was all I could do to keep Elinor from removing her shoes and wading in!

Looks like she's standing in the water - she's really not. There's a little ledge on the inside of the rim. I still made her get out. I have to work hard to make sure my kids aren't the rambunctious, unruly lot that everyone whispers about. :)

She's kind of a clown.

This temple has big sculpted panels on both the north side and the south side. We were on the north side, so this one shows Jesus teaching in the Holy Land. Reading up on it just now, it looks like the south side has Jesus appearing to the Nephites and can be seen up close from a garden on the main floor roof. We'll have to do that next time.

The view was amazing from all sides. We drove up some pretty steep hills to get there!

Getting ready to leave.

One last hurrah in the water before heading home.