Margaret is Five!

When Margaret woke up she was greeted by some presents. Eric was eager to help her with the wrapping paper! She got a house of kittens from Beeba! They have gone everywhere with her since.

She got a sleeping bag - light purple!- from mom and dad. She slept in it last night.

The party didn't go exactly as planned. We had scheduled a party at the gymnastics place so we could bounce on trampolines. They called six hours later to let us know they had had "a severe scheduling mix-up" and that is why they stood us up - offered us a new party, this time for free! We're planning an un-birthday party for the near future, as soon as the parents can handle the thought again :) . So the party moved on, really quite smoothly and happily, to our house. It's snowing outside right now but yesterday it was *perfect* weather and we were all pleased to get to be outside instead anyway.

The pink cupcakes with purple frosting are a big hit with kids and adults won't touch them! I consider this a perfect solution!

Enthusiastic reveler.

A typical birthday scene.

Margaret and her friends handled the change in scene with poise and a grand time was had by all!

Our New Plan

It is often VERY WINDY up here on this mountaintop as spring actually blows in. Sometimes you can't even go outside it is so windy. Sometimes it blows you a foot to the side as you try to pedal your bike like the wicked witch...60 mph gusts are not uncommon. I cut my hair, wanting to be able to walk outside without getting hair sticking like needles in my eyeballs. But turns out I didn't have to cut my hair to deal with the wind. Sean was reading a book last night and he came up with a new plan for us!!! "The Chuckchee, a people indigenous to Siberia, had their own special way of dealing with unruly winds. A Chuckchee man would chant, 'Western Wind, look here! Look down on my buttocks. We are going to give you some fat. Cease blowing!' The nineteenth-century European visitor who reported this ritual described it as follows: 'The man pronouncing the incantation lets his breeches fall down, and bucks leeward, exposing his bare buttocks to the wind. At every word he claps his hands.' " It's supposed to get windy this afternoon and I can't wait!!!

The Flower Girl Dress

Margaret's flower girl dress has arrived and fits perfectly. Karen found this dress - what a fancy and beautiful choice! The excitement at Chez McCrea (of the West) is rising!!!

Hair Products for Men

It was strangely quiet in the house and I found myself cooking dinner in peace. I kept thinking "Better go find out what Eric is doing..." but I kept putting it off. I mean, it was just SO NICE to stand there in the kitchen. Margaret was telling me stories about her day. William was playing basketball in the back yard. But where WAS Eric? I set off to find him -and there he was in the bathroom applying Sean's L'Oreal Paris StudioLine Texturizing Gel-Cream "Messy & Piecey Effects" hair product to his naked po-po. When he saw me he looked up and said "Dada Po-po".

Funnier still is that this picture is a reenactment. Yes, blog readers, I gave the product back to him about an hour later just for the sake of this post which I couldn't image without the picture.

Carnivore or cannibal?

Margaret was playing "chef" in her kitchen this afternoon. She served us many interesting entrees including polar bear on a platter, hedgehoge, crab - a choice of "raw, or cooked?", green rubber duckie, matchbox car, pirate skeleton eraser.... She also took a baby doll, put it in the oven (bad), then put it in the freezer (worse), and was seen later with the baby doll on a platter sawing on it's leg with a knife ( worst of all!). Hmm. think I'll go make dinner.

Eric's Second Birthday Party

We love you , Eric!

DESSERT CHILD

Today is Eric's second birthday! We are so grateful to have this child who completes our family like the best dessert ever after a really good meal. Happy Birthday, Eric! Thanks for being you! Now, stop screaming for Mama at 2am every night - please!- and we'll give you some dessert of your own.

Flower Girl Dress

http://www.flowergirldressforless.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MB_152PUR&Category_Code=100&Store_Code=Flower-Girl&zmam=24991154&zmas=1&zmac=2&zmap=MBK_152PUR

Check out Margaret's flower girl dress that Karen chose! We're going to order it today in ivory.

Actual March Madness in Denver

Oh, Beeba thought she might not get to see much of the games, with the grandkids and all. But was she wrong! She got to go to her first two real-live NCAA games in Denver with Sean! They watched Gorganzola Cheese play BYU and Morehead State play Richmond. Don't ask me about the details, my part in this was to take the kids to Andrea's house and hang out. Apparently, Jimmer Fredette was amazing to watch.

Beeba is here!

Beeba is here and we are all fighting over who gets to carry her luggage! Margaret wears her princess dress to celebrate the occasion.

Beeba has brought along St. Patrick's Day hats!

Everybody gets their picture taken in a hat!

Margaret rocks this style.

William, O'William.

Let's leave the airport and go on an adventure!

Bucknell at Dave and Buster's

Sean needed to watch the Bucknell game. The rest of the family needed to eat and engage in wild play...so, thank you, Denver - we went to Dave and Buster's motion-sickness-inducing video arcade, restaurant, sport's bar - EVERYTHING we needed!

Turn's out, William's a pretty good driver.

And so is Sean! Bucknell got slapped.

It's a zoo out there.

Nothing like a zoo to make this family feel at home...

It was a beautiful warm sunny day and the main attraction for us was being outside!

We looked at the animals. We played with the wagon.

Every combination of passengers and riders was attempted.

Oh, the sunny warm day in Denver with family was just what this doctor ordered!

Sister-in-law

Hey Karen, is this dress okay? I tried on a different one, but Sean said I looked like a "cake-topper".

Margaret's Philosophy

"I think we should have a dance party before and after breakfast, after lunch, and before dinner."

William and the Unknown

It's 6:30 am and the sun is not yet up. William and Eric and I, the morning people, are sitting by the fireplace watching the beginnings of the sunrise. William says he believes in spirits and he describes the fuzzy particle-like blobs of lights in the corners of the room. This leads us to an all-encompassing discussion of the after-life. What some people think, what other people think. William says the spirits in the corner of the living room are good. He doesn't know what their motivation for being in our living room is - "spirits can't talk, mama!". They are simply there until the sun rises and then they go up to outerspace. We talk about heaven and hell - and a few other layers that he apparently learned about in Catholic Kindergarten in South Germany. William's goal is to get to "second-best" heaven - the rain clouds. "Do you believe in God?", I ask. "Yes. And Jesus. But maybe less now than I used to." "Why?", I ask again, fascinated. "Well, once you learn about the solar system it isn't really what you expect after you've just heard about God and Jesus and stuff. I mean, maybe the planet where everybody goes is so far away we can't see it. I mean, THAT FAR. I mean, maybe there really is a planet Nabu like on Star Wars and we just haven't found it yet." The sun has risen. "Are the spirits gone now, William?" "Yes.", he answers. "Where are they?", I ask. " They're just gone, mom."

How to learn new vocab.

Today, our lightly unsupervised third child opened the refrigerator, took out the egg carton, removed two raw eggs, took a bite out of the top of each one - shell and all- walked over to show Sean and I...and learned the word "YUCK!".

Puppet Show: Wildlife Explorer

In a totally sicko rendition of a nature show, Diego the wildlife explorer sets about to explore the wildlife. Suddenly, a dinosaur team appears. " Oh, I don't *think* so!", they exclaim. You're not going to be exploring THIS wildlife! The tragic story, again, ends in wild attack.

Puppet Show

For this and all the other performances, we had to have a very fancy ticket. We were ushered by clowns to rows A and B (first and second basement steps), to sit in seats A1 and B1, and WITHOUT DELAY. It was, afterall, 7:27 am on a Sunday morning! Get up, already! Then, there was a puppet show! I missed the first part of this one, but it started with the loud and long dinging of a swiss cow bell. Then, the cow and dog argue about where the noise came from. Is the bell around the cow's neck.....or NOT? It ends, like all the performances, in some sort of attack. Poignant. No Hollywood endings here.

Hoops

He shoots, He SCORES!

Battle Scene

Early Morning Performances

Balmy Day on the North Pole

It was a balmy 42 F, so we got out on our bikes! We made a special field trip to Mama's office to fix her computer and decorate the office with large renditions of snow monsters and foreboding signs stating " DO NOT ENTER: MAUNA LOA". Then we stopped by the dinosaur museum on the way to eat lunch at the Turtle Rock Cafe. It was a great morning.

Margaret's New Bathrobe!

Margaret had ALWAYS wanted a bathrobe and she had never had one, for her ENTIRE life. We NEVER gave her one. So, she earned one herself - by accumulating a whole week's worth of smiley faces for not whining. Good job, Margaret! The robe came in the mail today. We are pleased. We plan to sleep in it tonight.

Tuxedo Measurements

Oh boy! All the men in the family got measured for their tuxedos today in preparation for Mike and Karen's wedding in May. They are going to look sharp, at least for a few minutes!

Comments from the Peanut Gallery

William: Mama! I have a joke! "What's the matter? Get it? Get it? What's the MATTER?" ( Turns out the kid has been studying matter in science class and has thought of this pun.)
William: Do you think it's funny?
DrHF: Yes, William, very funny. Hilarious, in fact. But maybe you shouldn't take my opinion on what's funny !
William: Why not?
Sean: You'll see...

Margaret: Mama, you're not a *real* doctor. You're a mama. A real doctor is a doctor who isn't a mama.
DrHF: I am SO a real doctor!
Margaret: No you aren't, then why do you take me to the doctor?
DrHF: Decides to give up on this one for the day. Goes back to cooking.

Eric: Mama! Num num! ( Mama, I want more food!)

Eric's Breakfast

I decided to ignore the nosies. It was before 6am after all...so when I finally got up to find out why the refrigerator door kept opening and slamming itself shut, I discovered that Eric had prepared himself breakfast! A sandwich with mustard on top ( of the box), a plate of mustard, some mozzarella, a strawberry, some chocolate sauce, a yogurt drink that had been in the fridge, and one knife. He even put the mustard back! I was grumpy about getting up until I saw this and laughed out loud despite myself and the hour of day!

The Splits?

The New Chef

Tonight William made most of the dinner. When Sean arrived, William greeted him by serving him a glass of wine. Thank you, William!

Gymnastics class

Darth Vader Fairy Princess

Listening to Elders

Eric amuses dinner guests.

How was dinner?

Tonight I made dinner for the family and then went to a Zumba class. When I got home, I attempted to communicate with my spouse. What I got was a brief summary of what dinner can be like after children. Lots of joy, but not the most relaxing or filling experience!

K: How was dinner?

S: Chaotic! You should see the videos I took.

K: No, I mean how did it *taste*?

S: Can't remember.

WELCOME, OSCAR!!!

A heartfelt welcome to Oscar Gleeson Van Leeuwen, born February 18, 2011 ! The violet is your birth flower, a symbol of spring! You have only been here a few hours and you have already brought so much joy! Can' t wait to meet you. Now, let your parents get some rest!!!

Piano!

We now have a digital piano! Everybody has been enjoying it. They even let me play sometimes!

Fiddle-i-fee

William is getting more and more confident about his reading! One of my favorite things is when he reads to his siblings.

Warmer Days

Last week we were dressing like this for our commute to work. It hit a low of -39F! This is Sean, in case you can't tell!

So as soon as it warmed up a little bit we headed 1,000 feet down in elevation to Fort Collins where it is a lot warmer...and there's more to do! It was 55F which felt BALMY. We went to a farm so we could review our farm animals. This is a picture of Eric calling the pig a "MOO". Clearly, we have our work cut out for us today!

This is the gobble-gobble. Eric was scared of it so William protected him. Very funny, because William was scared of turkey too! It kept hissing at us. Never said "gobble gobble".

After a short break for lunch we were back outside. We played at City Park and then toured around this small lake , the kids were on bicycles.

The kids were on bicycles but sometimes had to dismount to climb on one of the four gigantic frogs on the side of the lake. This picture goes out to our frog-loving friends in Bloomington and Lansdale!

Thanks for a nice day, family!

6:34 pm and Tangerines

Katy - Cleans up dinner , wipes off countertops. Fills fruit bowl with tangerines.

Sean- Juggles three tangerines to the Alvin and the Chipmunk's Pandora station. Wows children.

William - Ignores everybody and does his homework concentratedly at the kitchen table.

Margaret - Dances frantically,integrates new moves from dance class, tries to chase flying tangerines.

Eric - Runs off with tangerine, peels it, eats some and squishes the rest.

Names and Poetry

Poetic: Eric has started to call Margaret "Mimi".

Not as poetic: Eric has started to call William "WeeWee"