The Last Day of School, Finally

For comparison, here's the picture I took on the first day of school. It's good to see how they've all grown.

Staring Contest

Put a Bird On It

We're nearly at the end of the school year, which means the kids backpacks are ready to be cleaned out. We took a pass at Cooper's this week and I discovered this picture. One day (no idea when, it had been some time since his bag was emptied) during their library period, Cooper's class had a tutorial on drawing a bird. Apparently he was awarded first place. When I asked him about it he seemed a little embarrassed since he'd followed instructions to create the bird rather than come up with an original design. I say well done regardless.

Bow Ties Are Cool

This handsome boy went to church for the first time on Sunday. We have a small congregation and only a few babies. That means that Topher was incredibly popular. As soon as Sacrament Meeting ended people started coming over to see him. Peter brought the entire Deacons Quorum to meet Topher. As they oood and ahhhed over him, the woman sitting in front of us commented that she had seen little girls flock to see a new baby, but she'd never seen a bunch of twelve and thirteen year old boys do it. That's the power of a very proud oldest brother.

Monikers

I realized last week that Sophie doesn't call Topher by his name, she always refers to him as Baby Brother. During our lunch on Friday, I asked her about this.

Me: Sophie, why don't you ever call him by his name?

Sophie: (in a tone of admitting something) I don't remember his name.

Me: It's Christopher, or Topher.

Sophie: (pausing to consider, then in a husky whisper) Hi Bob Anderson.

Party of Five

Big and Little

As I dressed Topher in a particular pair of yellow pajamas, I was reminded of this ten-year-old picture of Cooper and Peter. This is one of my favorite pictures of my two big boys.

I showed the picture to Cooper and he wanted to take an updated version.

Still Trying to Be Clever

In the excitement of welcoming Topher, I failed to acknowledge another important birthday. This blog had its tenth birthday at the beginning of the month. I had no idea when I started writing it in May of 2008 that I'd still be adding to it in 2018.

I'm amazed at how much has changed in our family since then. We've added three children, moved eight times, lived in every time zone in the continental United States, earned another degree, made fantastic friends, and gained a myriad of experiences. This blog has been a wonderful way to record the big and little events in our lives. It has provided intellectual inspiration and a creative outlet. It's kept me from sleep but forced me to examine each day and look for what should be remembered. And because of that, so many little experiences that would have been lost are instead treasured memories.

Here's to ten years of trying to be clever!

Making Faces

The Reading Fashionista

Last week Phoebe's school hosted a career day. The kids were all invited to dress as what they want to be when they grow up. Phoebe was conflicted. She had trouble deciding between a teacher, a mom, and a fashion designer. She went as a teacher last year and finally chose to dress as a fashion designer this year. Bryan advised her to either dress all in black or wear something crazy.

She went for something in the middle.

Maybe she should have gone as a fashion designer/librarian since the only good picture I was able to get of her was while she was reading my Kindle Paperwhite. She's discovered the books of Rick Riordan and has been reading them nearly nonstop ever since.