I've shared some photos and stories with family and friends via email and facebook, but the family blog has languished as we've worked through what is one of the busiest times of the year. We have some catching up to do.
Today we were cleaning up the house, as we try to do every weekend, and also shifting things around upstairs, moving the office to the playroom so that Oliver will soon have his own bedroom. That big change is coming next weekend. What we find, as we attempt to straighten out any area at the end of the week, is that there are toys and drawings
everywhere. The toys, the large dinosaurs and dolls, the many tiny odds and ends: legos, game pieces, wheels, minutes plastic fashion accessories are, I suppose as easy to pick up as they are to spread throughout the house. Some just make a momentary rattle in the vacuum and then are forgottten. But the kid's drawings are different. You can't just toss a drawing. It has to be evaluated, weighed, and if you want to keep it, which I often do, you try to jot the artist's name and date in the corner. And then that precious artwork goes into a plastic bin that you intend to curate for the rest of your life.
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| Zaeda worked on this one off and on for days |
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| Oliver's exploration of light and dark |
I grumble when I have to sift through this stuff. Where does it all come from? Is this the back of the electric bill? Some papers from my desk? Why is this picture cut into a hundred pieces.
But that frustration fades when I consider how lucky I am to have to sort through messy by-products of my kids' imaginations. What would I trade for that?
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| Excited for DisneyWorld at the end of the year |
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| Jenny surprised us with some family bowling on Father's Day |
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| The Good Humor truck visited our house on sunny lat June evening. The kids ordered Dora the Explorer and Sonic ice-cream snacks. Horrifying. |
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| Oliver at work on his otter presentation. |
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| Sunny evening out at the zoo. |
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| Casual posing at the zoo. |
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| At the Columbia Gorge Vista House on Jenny's birthday |
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| Multnomah Falls Lodge with Mike, Karri, and Evan |
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| Multnomah Falls |
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| Reading together before bed. |
Looking through our photos, I see so many times that Oliver and Zaeda are together in some happy hug or activity. And that's true, though it's easy to recall how often they are fighting with each other.
