Here’s the eulogy and song.

I’m glad we’re moving through all the things that need to be done, checking each one off. It’s hard, though. I’ve been slowly going through the things in her apartment. We’ll keep some of it, but most of it needs to find a new home.

I sorted through her clothes and shoes and donated them to Womenspace on Friday. She had 42 pairs of shoes — most of which were high heeled sandals. Shame we aren’t the same size. I’m packing up her multitude of books which I think we’ll donate to…oh, it’s name escapes me now…but my mother-in-law-equivalent has that covered. They sell them on ebay and use the funds for the legal services they provide.

I need to post some of the larger items on craigslist: her bedroom furniture, patio furniture, couch, dining room table and chairs. And then have an estate sale, hopefully next weekend.

The kids are doing OK, although are showing signs of regression — like both Duncan and Berry peeing in their beds last night. And Emma woke up with growing pains. There seems to be more frequent breaking down into tears, too. D and B will be going to their Dad’s for two weeks soon, which I think will be a good break for them. They’re looking forward to “Daddy Camp.”

Ballet classes
Duncan and Berry are taking ballet. Choosing their outfits was lots of fun (for them).

Berry wore hers all day.

Berry continues to love ballet and Nanny reports that she smiles widely through the entire class. Duncan…he says he’s getting bored because they do the same thing over and over again. He’s got 8 more weeks of class, though. Last week he seemed to enjoy more, even sporting a few smiles. We’ll see how this week (and the next 7) go. Then he can try soccer or t-ball or something.

He’s got some good dance moves, though, and makes an awfully cute boy ballerina.

Girly ears
The next biggest thing that happened in January is that Berry got her ears pierced. She has a pair of clip on earrings that were just squishing and bruising her ears, yet she insisted on wearing them for the sake of beauty. So I told her when she was ready, she could get her ears pierced and wear real earrings. Within a few weeks, she decided she was ready, so off we went to the mall.

She’s a tough cookie. She said she’d be brave and wouldn’t cry. All she did is blink.

Then we went to the movie theatre, got a giant tub of popcorn and watched Tangled. Both kiddos sat through it perfectly. Within a week, of course, Emma got her ears pierced, too.

I don’t have the rest of January’s photos uploaded yet. They involve Dr. Princess Barbie Berry wrapping me up in bandages, hiking up Spencer’s Butte, doing science with Duncan, dressing up in a bunny suit to tour surgery areas at the hospital, kids hugging each other and watching movies in the basement. You can expect those in another six weeks or so…

In early December, we drove out to Grandma Sue’s abandoned Christmas tree farm. Trees were growing wild! After a trek through the beautiful spooky forest, we picked out a tree. First, we had to check out all the woods had to offer, including this stream.

I love getting the kids out in nature. The trees have such a pull for me, that I want them to develop that same connection.

That said, we did bring Adam and a saw to cut one down and take it home…

After wandering for what probably felt like miles, I chose a tree. The kids watched as Adam cut it down.

I don’t seem to have photos of it, but it was huge. We took the top half, plus some branches to make a wreath for the front door. We tied it to the roof of the mini van, while the kids got warm inside — while rocking out to music from Glee – took it home and propped it up in the corner of the dining room.

You can watch the movie of the event here:

Once it was ready to decorate, I had many willing “helpful” hands. We eventually got all of the ornaments on. By all, I mean ALL, regardless of free tree branches to hang them from. What started out as a lovely, fresh tree cut right from the forest turned into a very well decorated, brightly lit Christmas creation.

You can see part of it behind Princess Berry.

A few days, later, Advent presents from Gramma arrived and Duncan and Berry very much enjoyed opening one each morning when they woke up.

I neglected to take a photo every day, but you get the idea.

The Sunday before Christmas, we went to church. So did Santa. Berry seemed very comfortable in his lap.

She wanted some odd combination of robot toys that all worked together. Duncan, however, just wanted a bell from Santa’s sleigh (we’ve read the Polar Express).

I’m not sure what Emma asked for. And the pic is on Adam’s phone.

I made egg nog, snowball cookies (pictured below) and mini apple pies. All gluten-free and delicious, even if some of the snow balls were more like snow mounds.

Mysterious boxes kept arriving at our door every day. Lots and lots of presents were wrapped from all corners of the globe. On Christmas Eve they made their way down the stairs to the tree. We had to move the table.

And, finally, on Christmas morning, little children work up bright and early to begin unwrapping them. They Skyped with Kevin to unwrap presents from him, Aunt Karen, Uncle Jonny, Gramma and Papa Rog. They Skyped with Uncle Christopher and Arthur to unwrap their presents. They waited for Nanny to arrive so they could unwrap presents with her. And, finally, Emma and Sam arrived home and more presents were unwrapped.

I fell asleep, exhausted, at 2:30 pm while children frolicked and played. Helping Santa is hard.

Last week, Duncan and Berry had their school winter concert. As they go to the same school for part of the time, they both got to be up on stage together.

I was running late from an after-work meeting, so hurried to the school auditorium/cafeteria, dropping my phone with the almost-dead battery on the way. People were still milling about and children were lining up getting ready to get on stage. Just in time!

I’m not sure how to describe the incredible cuteness of your 3-year-old child, standing proudly on stage in her sparkly red dress, singing out loud above everyone else. If you hear a voice standing out above all others in this video — it’s Berry.

Duncan did a great job, too. His dancing and motions are quite animated and somehow he remembered the words do the 3-minute-long song about pigs.

Here it is, for your delight and enjoyment. (Note: my cell phone battery was about out, so I didn’t record the first 2 clips — my mum did. The last 2 are from my phone, which are steadier, but the sound isn’t as good. Sorry.)

Here’s the video:

Duncan and Berry rock out to Taylor Swift:

Berry shows determination in eating with chopsticks at Nanny’s birthday dinner:

Berry dreams about her magical pony on the way to school:

Duncan practices tree climbing in the front yard:

And, from this morning, Duncan brushes his teeth with his new toothbrush, while I sing the teeth brushing song:

I live a blessed life.

But another weekend is upon us. So here’s the recap from last weekend.

On Friday, I was greeted with these two loves looking out for me from the play structure:

We were going to go swimming, but I had a horrible migraine, so we kept it low-key.

Well, other than the new way to climb into the car:

On Saturday, there was jumping in the basement (when isn’t there?)

There was also a lot of fun with with a water slide in the front lawn:

On Sunday, for some reason, we became obsessed with hunting for snails in the garden. We found a lot of them. I seem to have an eagle eye for spotting snails.

The kids were excited (especially when I found two attached snails who were mating). And so was I. Snails = chicken protein source. Duncan didn’t like the idea at all, however, and protested my plan to put them in a container to take home and feed to the chickens. Putting them in a container was fine, though. So we did that part.

Later, we went home, and had dinner on the back porch. There was watermelon eating:

And then there was singing:

I presume they learned the first song — along with alternate lyrics — at school.

It turns out that Duncan was right about feeding the snails to the chickens. Mostly because the chickens ignored them. They munched a couple, but didn’t go after them with the hearty gusto I expected. It was disappointing. I never thought I’d watch a snail escape:

This weekend looks to be a quiet one. I’d like to make it to the library, but everyone is coming down with colds, so it’ll probably involve movie-marathons and lying around moaning (the kids, not me). No promises on when you’ll end up hearing about it, though.

He also has a habit of wandering off with my phone, taking pictures and videos of seemingly random things. I found this video on my phone. It’s a little dizzying, but it’s so Duncan.

The other day at bedtime, Duncan (or Nanny, I’m not sure which) put an eye patch on Dora. She was already wearing a tutu from Berry’s baby’s outfit. I think a Pirate Dora movie is in the works!

And, just to prove how much Duncan adores Dora, here they are together having a nice cuddle at nap time.

From 2010-05 May

Kevin sent the kids a CD of a song he thought they’d like. I honestly don’t know who the artist is. Yes, I’m getting that old any lame.

In any case, the song is a hit with the kids. They love it. They dance to it at home. They decided to dance to it at the church talent show last weekend. And, by magical coincidence, they got to dance to it at Chuck E Cheese a few weeks ago at a friend’s birthday party.

Here are there performances.

Chuck E Cheese:

Church rehearsal:

And a bunch of clips from last weekend, including a bit of their actual church performance:

And, while I may be musically lame, I’m still technologically proficient. Shazam on my Droid tells me the song is I Love You by Michael Franti and Spearhead.

Seriously, life is full. So here’s a quick synopsis in photos and videos.

The weather is warming up nicely and we’ve been enjoying lots of time outdoors. What better place to drink chocolate milk than on a little bench outside?

From 2010-04-April

From 2010-04-April

On Saturday, the kids were delighted to be invited to a school friend’s birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. Me? Not quite as delighted. No-fun-Mummy isn’t really a fan of Chuck-E-Cheese. Apparently, the kids have picked up on this.

When Duncan and I were talking about the upcoming birthday party (he was so excited he was shaking) he asked who was going to take them there.
Me: I’ll take you there, Duncan.
Duncan: But Mummy, you don’t like Chuck-E-Cheese?

I dropped them off, made sure they were settled in and knew to stay with the birthday girl, then ran an errand at Target next door. Then I returned in time to watch them eat cake, do some dancing to one of their favorite songs and generally maul Chuck-E when he came by.

From 2010-05 May

On Sunday afternoon, we had a friend from church over for a play date. This allowed her mom and Nanny to go to a house concert. It allowed me to get a taste of 3 children, ages 3 and 4, for 4 1/2 hours.

After lots of running around the backyard, feeding chickens, playing T-ball and making pretend food, they succumbed to this (it’s Dora, of course):

From 2010-05 May

We all survived intact. And now I’m into another week at work, which is incredibly busy as I’m covering for a coworker who is out sick and I’m on deadline for our donor news magazine. It’s ever interesting, just incredibly packed full of things to accomplish.