All the extra pictures in the world ...

Thanks to Mother's Day (and son Jesse), I am now in possession of coupons allowing me to have: an egg fried, a spider removed from the house without being harmed, a mystery solved, something created on a tft screen (I'm not sure what a tft screen is, but I'm sure I want something made on one!), and last, but surely not least, a trap set. (What will I try and have trapped? What?)

And here we all are Mother's-Day evening at a lovely, quiet, little park I only recently learned of.

And, while I'm here ... let's just see what other photos I have sitting about -- unseen and lonely.

Ah. There are these. (Speaking of motherhood.)

And this. Dear girl. She refuses all shoes but one pair full of holes that barely fits. And she utterly opposes anything being done to her hair. I can scarcely brush it. And any type of tiny clip or bow is ripped out at once. I wrangled her into these ponytails recently -- thinking that once we got past the process, she'd forget about them and have her hair done for a day. But she did not forget. She sobbed and yanked and pulled until I took them out. Ah well. She will occasionally wear a large orange hunting cap. That's something. 

Penny took these while experimenting with my camera one day. Jesse's face. I know. I know. But I find it a bit funny that a Tigger was caught flying past in the background. There should be things like that in the background of all our pictures. It would be true to life.

And here Jesse is making brownies. Anders likes brownie duty (pumpkin muffins are Jesse's specialty), but Anders was busying about with something or other for too long and so Jesse had to take brownie matters into his own hands. (But, speaking of pumpkin muffins: I don't know how this came to be, nevertheless it is a fact, that we nearly always have pumpkin muffins with tacos. They've become as paired as potatoes and gravy. It's a strange thing, when I stop to consider it, but pumpkin muffins and tacos usually go hand-in-hand around here.)

A little Hans playing Legos.

Some girls being silly on my phone.

Some girls being silly in our van.

And in my living room.

And in a highchair. (Many of these photos I don't even take. I just find them on my phone.)

Here we have a bit more of Daisy at home. Daisy all done up to look professional for a job interview. Daisy doing something with her computer. Daisy reading to her siblings. And Daisy taking her siblings to the temple! They are still booked up for months, but when Daisy looked on the website the other day she saw an 8:00 p.m. opening just sitting there asking to be filled. I don't know if someone had cancelled or what, but she snatched it right up. (Sadly Goldie had to work.)

Look at how I found Summer thoughtfully eating an apple the other day. Can you imagine just perching on the edge of the sink and eating like that? Little monkey child. Also, new swimsuits. 

Anders and Jesse went to the Academic Olympiad. Each of them competed in Experimental Design. Anders and his two partners got first place for the third grade out of all the schools there. And Jesse and his partner got 3rd place in the 6th grade. (Naturally we are certain that if Jesse had been practicing like the third grade had Anders' team doing for several weeks before, he would've had first as well. But third place for going in blind is pretty darn good!) (Anders teacher texted me pictures so we have several from his group.)

Goldie and one of her good friends made senior class office. She takes great pleasure in planning and carrying out and being involved in, so this will be a lot of fun for her.

Sometimes Penny (who turns 14 tomorrow!) looks very old to me (as in when she played Hope Harcourt from Anything Goes). But other times she still looks like my little kid. (As in channeling Newsies here.) I don't think these glimpses of little-kid Penny will last long. So I'll take them when I see them!

Speaking of Hope Harcourt. I mentioned how smitten with the whole production Summer has been. She's memorized half of the songs, drawn the set, and seems enchanted with the idea of Hope and Billy. She asked if we could do her hair like Penny's was for the play recently. It was a Sunday morning with little time, but we managed a quick replica. I love Mike's expression in the background. 

The park across the street from us has a big water retention area that fills up whenever it rains. It's always so fun/funny to see people floating on tubes and paddling about in the area typically used for games like lacrosse and soccer. 

And, with that, I think we are, quite suddenly, all pictured out. Whew.