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Category Archives: Madeleine

a game

If you’re the grown-up, you sit behind the couch and watch for “the show,” which consists every time of two small pairs of wiggling feet sticking above the couch, and nothing else.  It’s called “two kids upside down!”  <insert hysterious giggling here>

first movie in the theater

These photos are from a couple of weeks ago, when I took Ben and Maddie to see their first movie in the theater, the live-action version of Charlotte’s Web. Ben dressed up for the occasion. Maddie needed a booster seat to keep the chair bottom from flipping back up while she was sitting in it. [...]

mud

I was sick on the couch most of last weekend, and Nathan completely rocked solo parenting while I rested.  He did what any good daddy knows to do under the circumstances: help the kids make mud in the backyard and then become beyond recognition filthy.  When they came inside, I emptied nearly half the bottle [...]

July 4

at Kidz n Play

Sometimes it’s too hot to play outside. Today we met friends at an indoor inflated playground.  It was Ben and Maddie’s first time to try this kind of play, and I was impressed by how fearless they were about climbing even the highest structures and slides, and by how much exercise they got.  They had [...]

building

Ben and Maddie built a tower this morning, using nearly every megablock that we own: I got them to sit still next to it like that by asking them to say, “Monkey boogers,” or something inappropriate like that. Ben’s interest in Legos has been growing lately, something that Nathan and I are both very excited [...]

Summer beach trip

At the end of last month we drove to Port Aransas for a beach getaway with friends for the second year in a row.  8 adults and 7 children under the age of 4 shared a house there for 4 days, and we had a great time.  There were those two tire blowouts on the [...]

Spring Fair

Today we went to our preschool co-op’s annual Spring Fair. The 4s and 5s classroom hosted a cakewalk, which Maddie “won.” Some of the morning was spent simply enjoying the co-op grounds, gardens, and new playground. The Telephone Company (think nerd rock for kids) opened for Staci Gray. Ben said the barrel train was his [...]

in the garden

A new statue near the kitchen garden gate.  I want to make a gazing pool in front of her.  Which I expect will then become another dog water bowl. Ben and Maddie are keeping a raised garden bed planted with strawberry plants and flowers.  We’re not likely to see any berries, though, since M keeps [...]

spring

My last photos were of snow, and now we’re consistently having temps of more than 80 in the afternoons.  Yesterday after nap Ben and Maddie played dress up and then ate ice cream sandwiches on the front porch. It’s definitely Spring in Austin.  The redbud and mountain laurel trees are blooming; even the bluebonnets are [...]