Please don't let me be a mean old lady...

 I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago and Beau and Marianne were happily chasing each other around the produce section. I visit the produce area last, and by that time they are usually done with being in the cart and I am done with them playing with my newly acquired food items. And honestly I think they are both super cute and fun, so I allow them to run free while I quickly grab the last few things that I need. While they were merrily running around, they found themselves in the path of an elderly woman and her cart once or twice...and I apologized and smiled. But only a few minutes later I saw the same grumpy old lady whisper and roll her eyes with another old lady...about my children. It really made me grumpy. And self concious. And I couldn't help but pray, please help me not be a mean old lady someday! Please don't let me forget that children are loud and careless and slightly wreckless, but that's just because they are bright, happy little souls who haven't had to learn to quiet themselves because of mean old people. Please let me be one of those sweet, doting old ladies who tells young mothers that their children are so beautiful and so precious!
Anyway, there's my rant. On to more important things, like Jacob losing his tooth. It was epic. Rus tied a piece of floss to his tooth and then to the back door, and then Jacob slammed the door shut...and experienced a little yank, but the tooth hadn't budged. So he opened the door again, stepped back again, and with help from dad, slammed the door shut again. And before it even slammed, the tooth was out and Jacob was suddenly scouring the floor, saying, "Where'd my tooth go?" Then he grabbed it and ran to the bathroom to see the gory mess his victory had caused him. He was so proud. Rus and I were so proud. We recorded the whole event on the ipad and I had to watch it a half dozen times that night. I still had little chuckles escaping my mouth when my head hit the pillow that night.
He's such a handsome boy!

It just so happens that Beau and Marianne are becoming great friends. I have enjoyed capturing their little moments together the past few weeks. Marianne adores Beau, but if anything in her world goes wrong, she'll exclaim "Beau!" in a chastening tone. She's really got the intonation down on that one.

Beau is great at reading to her...if I were able to photoshop the boogers off his nose, I don't know that I would. Those boogers are an accurate representation of four months out of our year...Marianne loves hats and shoes. She is constantly pulling on hats and kickinf off shoes. She prefers Beau's boots (which incidentally are light up - how cool is that), to her own mini-tennis shoes. If you can't find your shoes in our house, you're not crazy - Marianne has relocated them for you.

 A few weeks ago Bekah had to dress up as a person from an autobiography. She picked Laura Ingalls Wilder - her favorite person, pioneer, and author. She wore an old Laura Ashley dress of mine from England that is missing half the buttons in the back, and we sewed her a bonnet. We knew Marianne would need a bonnet of her own.

 

 We also made a corn husk doll to mimic Laura Ingalls Wilder's doll Charlotte. Bekah wanted the doll...the boys wanted hawks and jaguars. I am now convinced that corn husks are not the proper medium for making hawks and jaguars.

 Marianne will be really grateful when she is older that she has a super stylish aunt who can't resist buying her clothes. That is how this beautiful dress came to be Marianne's. DeAnn bought it for her at Target. I am so in love with it. I want one in my size, please and thank you. I'm also in love with the adorable little spitfire in pigtails. She totally ROCKS that dress.

 As you saw in previous posts, our backyard is a work in progress. This past weekend it progressed a little further, thanks to Rus and his mad muscles. While I cut bricks on the tile saw and shuttled kids to and from birthday parties, Rus laid the bricks. He paid the kids a dollar each to carry the bricks from the pallets they were on to a location nearer to Rus. It was comical seeing Jacob book it from one spot to the other, running as fast as he could because the brick was so heavy.

But by the early afternoon, our work was done! Here are our gorgeous raised beds, with chair and bucket decor provided by the kids. Our fountain is half up in this picture...the top of it is on the ground to the left.

 Next up: Dirt! We need to order dirt to fill those lovely boxes. And between now and the time we actually plant something, we need to come up with a plan to deter the deer and rabbits from eating whatever we plant.