The Hoverman Honeys....

Halloween

2017-10-31T22:45:00.004-07:00

We, per the usual, had a lovely Halloween!

Started this morning with Eli and Roby in costume, headed off to school.

The parade, in two parts this year, kicked off the afternoon. We had 3 super heroes and a bat. Not a batman bat. Just a bat.

Bat costume was inspired by Pinterest and sewed entirely by SJ and Emma. Very impressive.

At home post parade, we made three batches of chili and 8 boxes of mac n' cheese as we prepared for 60 guests for dinner. We got ready to give out candy.

We waited for the sun to go down.

Dave was Captain America, I was Wonder Woman too.

Annual favorite moment.

Corduroy was there too.

Happy Halloween!

Just for fun, some Halloween Pasts

Halloween 2014

Halloween 2012

Halloween 2011

First day of school!

2017-08-29T20:23:00.002-07:00

Successful first day of school today! We started with eggs and toast by dad and new clothes by mom.

Roby has Ms. Roho. We LOVE Ms. Roho and are thrilled to be in her class. She is 100% lovely. Roby made sure his hair was brushed and all in place before school.

Eli also has Ms. Roho. We are thrilled (also.)

Anna has Ms. B. who used to be Ms. D (pre-marriage, when SJ had her for 2nd.) Anna has a tough cohort. We're hoping for a good year this year.

Sarah Jane has Ms. Goyen. Ms. Goyen reportedly gives a lot of homework and is very strict. Fifth grade is for reals.

We got goofy at the end of the photo shoot.

Then we went to Grandma & Zeke's to walk to school

Grandma walked with us.

So did dad.

Zeke and his camera were there too.

We paused for a final picture.

Anna went with Dave to find Ms. B.

Sarah Jane found Ms. Goyen with me.

And more importantly, Emma.

Anna found Isabella.

Grandma & Zeke helped Eli & Roby find Ms. Roho. Roby carefully told her that their mother would pick them up after school and then Eli carefully asked Grandma to inform their mother of said fact.

Everyone ended school with smiles and reports of good moments. After school we gathered up 10 children and walked to Grandmas.

There were some of our regulars and some newbies as well. We looked at the fish pond on the way home, per tradition.

We had cheese and crackers, lemonade, and fresh baked cookies, per tradition.

While the kids enjoyed their snacks, the mothers screwed 400+ light bulbs into the market lights for the upcoming wedding in the backyard. Very efficient! All in all a lovely first day of school.

Eli & Roby turn 6

2017-05-24T18:21:00.004-07:00

The boys turned 6 last Wednesday. We celebrated with pancakes, cupcakes at school, lemon squares at Lemonade Wednesday at Grandma's house, "Brinner" (French Toast for dinner), and finally chocolate cake.

By the time we got to the chocolate cake, both boys declined, opting to excuse themselves and play with their newly acquired toys (legos, more legos, and some more legos.)

On Saturday we had their party. Seven guests (Isley, Toby C., Aarush, Grant, Tadeo, Avery, and very importantly, Mrs. Aki - teacher extraordinaire, first person on Roby's invite list, AND Avery's mom,) were there. Along with several older siblings.

In the calm before the storm, Grandma read.

There were lots of snacks, and pizza too.

We tie dyed shirts for everyone. Anna was the ring master. The shirts were a success. In the background you can see our (broken) jumpy house. The motor died in the heat. Dave "MacGyver"Hoverman put the motor in the freezer and thankfully resurrected it for the last 30 min of the party. Thankfully as I'd gotten off a plane from NY that morning, had been up since 2;30am and was ready to put myself in the freezer if it didn't start working.

Five was a pretty good year. It was the year of lost teeth (three from Roby and three from Eli), the latest captured below:

Five was still loving trains, and definitely loving playing together.

Five was graduating from pre-school and instantly moving on.

Five was Kindergarten at Cragmont and really, really loving Mrs. Aki. Five was learning to read and making new friends.

Five was still morning snuggles, mostly from Roby but sometimes from Eli. Five is songs at night - My Country Tis Of Thee for Roby (we're taking it back from the MAGAers) and Hodie for Eli. They don't just listen, they sing now too.

Five was getting new bikes and not caring that they were pink.

Five was ski team and graduating to poles.

Five is soccer; Eli on offence and Roby on D.

Five is still being really good friends.

Five was Tahoe, NCY, Hamptons, and Florida to visit with GG.

Five is still pretty cute (school pictures below.)

We are excited to see what Six will bring.

Just for fun, here's where they were last year.

Easter 2017

2017-04-17T16:39:00.002-07:00

We kicked off Easter with yet another painful stairway photo pause. As you can see from the pained expressions below, these guys were working hard to cheerfully tolerate anything that stood between them and the loot from the Easter bunny. Even making their beds, showering AND brushing their hair, and fancy clothes.

They finally got the go-ahead to attack the living room (we were inside due to our never ending rain this year.)

After the successful completion of the hunt we had a lovely breakfast.

And time with books and stuffies from the Easter bunny.

We then headed off church and convened at Grandma & Zeke's.

We dyed eggs.

And FaceTimed with Evie.

Post lunch we selected our future egg fight winners.

And then the fierce competition began. Some would say Zeke won this year. Others may say it was Roby. We will have to reconvene next year to determine the true winner.

With the egg fight behind us, we lined up for the second hunt of the day. Also indoors due to weather.

The troops were enthusiastic.

Fast.

And thorough.

Happy Easter!

Christmas 2016

2017-01-23T17:28:00.001-08:00

Christmas seems like a thousand million years ago at this point but I was looking for some love and light and a break from alternative facts today and re-found our pictures, thought I would share.

These guys got all dressed up for the grandparent/grandchild + Uncle Nat & Auntie Danise lunch. Looking sharp!

The whole lunch crew. Or the Von Trapp Family Singers?

On our way to "Chumple" on Christmas Eve. (Church had a fire, Temple Beth El had room at the Inn and welcomed us for Christmas Eve. Church in a temple. Kind of awesome and full of light and love.)

Cheese for dinner. Also full of light and love. We had 31 for heavy apps, chicken/vegan pot pies, and lots of dessert. As usual, we way over did the food but no regrets on the cheese.

Reading the Night Before Christmas with Zeke.

Followed by Zeke's annual lighting of the dessert on fire. It burned for a long time this year.

Waking daddy up on Christmas morning. They brought him his clothes and stuffed him in.

No one was excited here...

Tolerating mom's crazy need to document every second/torture everyone.

Still tolerating. Giving dad time to inject coffee.

Santa came!

Even socks are awesome when Santa brings them.

Underwear too.

And little bags of mystery legos.

And big boxes of legos.

And Calico Critters.

And legos.

Building. (Fancy sweats by Uncle Mike.)

Play Mobil and wear what you get.

Everyone was dressed warmly because this was the second year in a row of our heater breaking Christmas morning. Dave fixed it by stealing a spark plug from our car. #oldmanskills Note: When you do something twice on Christmas it's a tradition. We ended Christmas with dinner and bingo at 690. Lots of light and love to celebrate.

Seventh and Ninth birthday parties - Slumber party for 12!

2016-09-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend we hosted birthday slumber parties for both girls. The big girls had an American Girl doll theme, the littles had a dog theme. Anna's friends slept outside in the tent with Dave, SJ's friends got the playroom.

We got ready for our guests after attending/playing 3 soccer games.

Dave set up the tent in the backyard.

The girls packaged their party favors.

SJ laid out art supplies to entertain guests as they arrived.

SJ's friends all brought their dolls.

Anna's friends made the tent their headquarters.

Odin was there too, staking out his territory as the only guy, in his own tent.

The pizza was supposed to arrive at 5:30. It didn't. We opened presents and played with them. Big hits this year were Play Mobil Horse and Dog, art projects, and Beanie Boos.

SJ got real baby supplies for her lifelike baby doll from Nana and Papa.

At 6:30 the pizza was still not there. We had a freeze-dance dance party and all the vegetables were consumed.

The dance party had an audience. They weren't so sure about the chaos.

At 7 the pizza arrived. I've never been so glad to see pizza. After dinner we had cake. SJ's American Girl doll is Kit Kittredge who lived during the Great Depression and wanted to be a reporter. We struggled a bit with how the cake could reflect that. In the end, we just plopped a toy typewriter on top of the cake and called it good.

We had a bit more fun with Anna's. This one gave us the giggles.

SJ blew her candles out. Anna did too but I missed the moment.

After dinner we split up and watched two movies. The littles watched AirBud, a high-quality film about a dog who plays baseball and wins the World Series. The big girls watched Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which was surprisingly good!

We then tried to go to sleep. Dave was pretty successful in the tent. I pretty much failed inside. The girls were mostly quiet by 11:15 and up and at it by 5:20. We had a rather bleary breakfast of waffles.

Everyone departed by 9. Everyone was happy. Slumber party: Check.

First day of school - 2016

2016-08-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

All four kids started school at Cragmont today. We started the day with Eggs & Toast a la breakfast chef Dave and then embarked on the annual photo shoot. Eli & Roby knew the drill and performed impressively.

Anna, per her usual first day jitters, was not so sure. There was some hesitation over whether to wear her cool new kicks from Aunt Julia or go with her "ratty" shoes, she went with the familiar after some discussion but we had no tears for the first time.

Sarah Jane was fired up and ready to go.

All hands were on deck for the four kid drop off. Dave was there this year. Grandma was there too; not pictured, but totally essential. We missed Aunt Whitney who missed her first, first day of school.

Grandma did the Sarah Jane drop off which was easy as SJ found her crew and jumped right in.

She was, for the fifth year running, at the front of the line, waiting for Ms. Wissman.

Anna was a bit less sure. Dave covered this one and needed to give some heavy encouragement as they waited for Ms. Torres.

I got Eli and Roby into class. They hung up their back packs, lined up their lunches, found their name tags at their tables and then waited patiently for me to go. I had a hard time ripping the band aid off and came back to say goodbye at least 3 times (times two...) Kindergarten rush lasts 3 days this year so we'll know who their teacher is on Friday. We are keeping them in the same class so we do know they will stay together.

After school the boys emerged triumphant with A+ stickers. They reported that NO ONE had to go to the Principal's office. Total success.

Anna was cheerful too and announced that she LOVED Ms. Torres and that learning was fun. Phew.

Sarah Jane too announced that she LOVED her classroom and that it was full of graphic novels. All is well.

We headed down to Grandma and Zeke's for our annual first day of school Lemonade and Cheese & Cracker party. Not pictured Roby, Odin, Chloe, Sophie, their mothers, and Grandma.

Day 1 down. Links to other first years below in case you are curious:

2015 First Day of Cragmont
2014 First day of Cragmont
2013 First day of Cragmont
2012 First day of Cragmont

Eli & Roby are 5!!

2016-05-17T22:07:00.002-07:00

Eli and Roby turned five today and what a birthday it was! They have been counting down to this day seriously since mid-March. We started celebrating at 5:10 AM with snuggles and loud whispers in mom and dad's bed.

Post picture, we Facetimed with Papa and Nana and wished Papa a very happy birthday too!
Breakfast was special week-day waffles a la dad.

The first of three synchronized candle extinguishes.

After breakfast we opened presents.

The girls handed them out. There were lots of presents.

We opened cards from Nana and Papa.

And got some help reading them.

This birthday was the Play Mobile birthday (and this doesn't even show the pirate ship from Broken Back Nat and Dangerous Danise!)

We headed off to school, the boys sported their new kindergarten big boy backpacks.

At lunch we celebrated with hats, wish books, and cupcakes.

The boys passed out the cupcakes (green for Roby, Blue for Eli)

The boys signed the book we gave to the school (Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, a big hit with the 5 and under crew.)

At dinner time Grandma, Zeke and Dad played with the new toys.

Anna, Eli and Roby put together some of the Play Mobile. Sarah Jane was at soccer.

We had hot dogs, mac n'cheese, veggies and TWO cupcakes each! (The Eli & Roby designed birthday dinner.) After dinner we opened MORE presents and read books from GG, but first we face timed with Uncle Matt & Aunt Lauri, Uncle Nat & Danise, and were serenaded (via Facetime) by Cousin Evie. When reading the books from GG, Eli announced that "GG" was just two G's. Dad said, "Deep thoughts by Eli." Eli said, "Dad always says that."

We finished with more synchronized candle blowing.

All in all, a great birthday. Thank you to all who called, sent presents, and showed up to celebrate. These kids are so lucky. Saturday we celebrate with 20 kids at Pump It Up. The anticipation continues!

P.S. Heehee.

Welcome Baby Smoer!

2016-01-03T22:41:00.003-08:00

We have a new cousin! Nathaniel Zeke joined us December 29th at 2:07am. Our crew is pretty smitten. We had our first official viewing today. Nathaniel was very well behaved and slept through the entire visit.

Big sister Hanora, a pro, made the intros.

Everyone got a turn.

Roby was interested but declined his turn as he preferred not to have to feed the little guy. Feeding appeared to be a rather involved thing and Roby preferred to be less "hands on."

I was there too, as were parents-on-deck Uncle Eric and Aunt Ellie. I somehow missed a picture of the actual parents. Total fail to be made up shortly.

This little guy has a pretty excited team.

Beach trip with the Tripps

2016-01-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

We followed Christmas with our usual hike to Kehoe beach. This year we went with our Tripp cousins Sachi, Brian, Norah, Harvey, Clyde and Gus as well as Heiko and Hanora.

Dave and Eric played catch...

while the cousins cast spells on each other in a giant Harry Potter inspired dune chase

Eli hiked out with the big backpack, carrying his stomp rockets and the soccer ball.

Sarah Jane took some pictures

Roby took over backpack duties

Christmas

2015-12-31T20:28:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely, if totally overwhelming, Christmas. We kicked off the formal festivities with the traditional grandparent lunch.

After the kids spent Christmas Eve at the jelly bean factory, we got them dressed and ready for church. In the interim we swapped out our refrigerator and dishwasher while getting ready to host 33 for dinner. I going to go on record as not recommending doing those two things on the same day.

We started dinner with our traditional Cheese Course D'Eric.

We had bourbon marinated pork tenderloin and managed to squeeze all 33 in our back room.

After dinner we had the usual reading of the Night After Christmas though Eric did the honors this year not Zeke. We also added a new tradition - "Ding Dong and Dash" - a game played by our guests and one of my daughters (ehhem - ANNA) while the adults were busy totally neglecting them.

Christmas morning we woke up to a very cold house. Turns out our heater was broken - the case of the cracked Nest has yet to be solved. The girls woke up early. The boys slept in until 7:30. The girls nearly lost it but let their brothers get their beauty rest.

Santa had been there.

He brought each kid a scooter...

and some other stuff.

Most importantly, he brought them a teepee. Big hit.

As were the scooters.

Conveniently we had a full scooter race track courtesy of the party the night before.

Sarah Jane was pretty excited about her new clothes - some boots, jeans and a vest (from Nana and Papa) - we might be entering a new era.

Anna on stage and other December updates

2015-12-18T21:19:00.001-08:00

We've had a lovely December. We started with a baby shower for Aunt Whitney. The girls made cucumber sandwiches with cookie cutters. I think this counts as my Christmas cookie making this year.

We are very excited to welcome Baby Boer. And not just because it gave me an excuse to get sucked into Pinterest depths that I had never visited before.

That evening we celebrated Hanukkah at the Ganes' for the 33rd year in a row. The candles were lit, the songs were sung. Miraculously no one threw up in the middle of dinner.

El Nino has made its appearance. We had a magnificent 7 min storm and woke up to find the road full of hail from the night before. Fingers crossed this translates into lots and lots of snow!

We got our tree in our usual totally incognito style. Absolutely no one notices when you ride down the street with four kids and a tree in a bike...

We decorated.

Anna's class performed at the holiday assembly. This kiddo likes being on stage.

Nana and Papa were there too.

Merry almost Christmas!

HarryPotterFrozenPalooza

2015-09-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

We capped off our girls' birthdays with a Harry Potter Frozen extravaganza on Saturday. We started birthdays the first week in August with an East Coast Hoverman family celebration, peaked at birthday WEEK in Tahoe for Smuesby/Smoer/Smiener/Smitherman celebrations and then capped it off with the friend party on Saturday. I'm so done with birthday. Except of course for Dave's which is right around the corner...

At four o'clock on Saturday we welcomed the first guests. We had 26 kids - 14 for SJ, 10 for Anna (though some defected to the other party) and Eli and Roby. Anna had picked Frozen as her theme (again) and SJ went with Harry Potter.

Frozen cake was two cakes, one plopped on top of the other!

SJ made Quidditch goal posts out of chop sticks

In "Arendale" (the small TV room) we had snowflakes and dress up clothes, in "Gryffendor Tower" (the big TV room) we had stars.

Anna's kids made crowns.

Anna with her best school buds in the motliest collection of Elsa dresses in Berkeley

SJ's kids painted wands which I'd made the night before out of large chopsticks, 50 glue gun sticks and several large blisters on my hands. The wands were passed out by Mr. and Mrs. Olivander (Zeke and Grandma) aided by SJ's careful labeling of each wand as containing either Unicorn Tale, Phoenix Feather, Hippogriff Teeth or Shooting Star Dust.

Waiting for their wands at Olivander's Wand Shop

Mr. Olivander

Just as I realized that providing 26 kids with long pointy things with which to run pell-mell around the house was probably not the brightest idea I'd ever had, we started the movies and experienced a blessed moment of calm.

And then we realized that we were roughly 40 minutes into a four hour party and I started to panic.

Dave headed out and returned with 6 double cut pizzas. We paused the movies and they ate. That took about 7 minutes. It was 6:10. We restarted the movies and the Frozen room, already restless, appeared near combustion. As soon as Frozen was over, we whipped those kids out, sang, blew out the candles and ate cake.

Singing for Anna

The boys, as attendees of both birthdays, got double cake

It was 6:35. Thankfully Harry Potter was still going. We opened Anna's presents and then the Frozen kids either braved the end of Harry or communed with our chickens. Thank goodness for the chickens.

At 7:30 Harry ended, the big kids filed out and we had our second singing, candles and first bite of cake.

Picture below is better but I love Eli's face in this one

At that point, chaos was in full swing but thankfully the parents started to show up and we siphoned them off one by one as Sarah Jane opened her presents.

Everyone was happy and also totally exhausted. Next year two parties, two separate weekends...

And, in case you were curious, last year's birthday party here, and 6 and 4 is here

LAST Berkeley Hills First Day

2015-09-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

The boys headed off to the Blue Room today, our last ever first day of school at Berkeley Hills. They woke up very excited, jumped into the new outfits we'd laid out last night (a Batman shirt for Eli and a Superman shirt for Roby) and their new kicks (Pumas of course, these guys ONLY wear Pumas.)

They raced downstairs, gobbled breakfast, grabbed their lunches out of the fridge and then patiently sat outside (on their own volition) to wait for me to take their pictures. These guys KNOW the first day drill.

The girls were a bit less amazing as they adjusted to sharing the back-to-school spotlight; sharing the spotlight, not their forte. But everyone pulled it together and convened outside for the second annual photograph. Hard to believe that next year we will just have one day and everyone will have their own sign!

The boys and I popped into the car and headed up the hill (the girls immediately reversed back into distress and had to be hauled into the house.) There was one moment of trepidation when we arrived and some tightly held hands but then we found Teacher Kris and some blocks and all was well.

On our way to school, admiring their shoes

Blocks with Teacher Kris

At pick up the boys reported on their day. They ate all their lunch, they had fun "play, play, playing", they didn't like sitting quietly for circle time and Teacher Lisa did NOT dress up like a penguin. They have been talking about Teacher Lisa dressing up like a penguin all summer so that was a bit of a disappointment but Roby reasoned that she wouldn't do it every day and Eli concurred with a very grownup "Yah."

Roby, home from school, still admiring his shoes

First day of school - 3rd and 1st

2015-09-02T21:11:00.001-07:00

First day of school today, oh the emotions. The class assignments were posted Tuesday evening and within seconds, I'd been texted a photo of the class lists. We got Ms. Tigloa for 3rd and Ms. Adria for 1st, BOTH first choices. Phew and happiness. SJ has Chloe and Lily in class, Anna has Sienna and Clementine, all is well. SJ did not get Sophie, Sirine or Emma (all three best friends) so that was a bit disappointing but she rolled with it. She also insisted, despite having a picture of the lists, that she needed to see the list IN PERSON and ON TUESDAY. So Grandma and Aunt Ellie drove down at 8pm to ferry SJ up to Cragmont so she could examine the lists herself by flashlight. Thank you Grandma and Aunt Ellie.

Wednesday morning was fairly smooth, at least as smooth as it gets at our house. For the record, the boys were really easy, very cooperative and helpful. On the other end of things we had some drama Anna struggled with hair, shoes, pants, dress and breakfast. While that was happening, SJ was sunny. As soon as Sarah Jane realized we were walking from Grandma and Zeke's, her storm started and Anna's magically cleared up. Very convenient that they switch off.

Aunt Whitney arrived, as she does annually, to help with pictures and the drop off. Note: Anna is NOT wearing shoes and ONLY smiling because I told her not to,

We then loaded into the car and after picking up Grandma and Aunt Ellie, the girls and their 6 person entourage made our way to Cragmont in time for the first bell. Anna was tense until she spotted Ms. Adria (Rosen) and then all was fine.

Here she is, marching off to class.

SJ remained worried but things seemed more ok after we noticed that she and Lily were wearing the same outfit. Thankfully that is still funny and not yet tragic.

When it came time to go, she planted herself at the front of her line, Here she is, a bit pensive.

Ms. Tigloa allowed us to take a picture and then stated quite firmly that the children should wave goodbye to their parents and follow her, without their parents. The firmness was for the parents, not the kids. We dutifully waved goodbye and they marched away without a backwards glance.

After school, all was well. SJ reported that she had a GREAT day and that they are starting music tomorrow (recorder.) She also wants to do Math Club (news to me) and she's excited that I have homework tonight. Anna had a bit of a harder end of her day but after a good chat with Ms. Adria who is a pro we seem to be in good shape to go back tomorrow.

We headed down the hill for cheese and crackers, lemonade and cookies at Grandma and Zeke's with Odin, Chloe and Sophie.

Then the boys and Camila arrived too. Much hilarity, only a few tears and a lot of cookies later we headed out. First day success. Next up, the boys.

Eli and Roby are turning 4!

2015-05-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

Eli and Roby have been asking for at least the last two months if tomorrow was their birthday. I'm very relieved to finally answer yes. These boys are so ready to be four.

At four Eli is gentle and very sweet. He loves holding the chicks; I find him out their nearly every morning after breakfast with a chicken on his lap or sitting next to him.

He is a notice-er, absorbing what's going on around him. He loves trains though not as much as he used to. He loves blue but is particular about the shade. He does not love sweets and usually turns down offers of ice cream. Occasionally Eli can get a bit stubborn and unresponsive. This is a relatively new development and I'm sensing that four may bring some bumps.

Roby continues to twinkle. He hops on one leg in a peculiar greeting which he and Eli both find hilarious. For the record Eli hops too. Roby finds most things hilarious.

Roby loves running, jumping off things, playing with trucks and trains (though not as much as he used to), Legos and reading books. He's branched out from just red but is still sticking to the neighborhood. He categorically refuses to eat fruit. He mysteriously has developed a love for kale. He will also munch on raw onion if given the opportunity. He is less naughty than he used to be and no longer does the catatonic blank stare when you catch him doing something bad.

Both of the boys are full of love for the people around them. I get an unprompted "I love you mama"at least four times a day; straight into the joy bank. We are so lucky to have them in our lives.

Below is an Eli/Roby interview:

Who did you play with at school today?
Eli - "Kylie, Leo and Daniel" or "Madeline, Leo and Kylie"
Roby - I played with everyone

What's your favorite song?
Eli - Let's go fly a kite (from Mary Poppins)
Roby - Boom Crash (aka Boom Clap) or Supercalifragilistic

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Eli - a BART train driver who will drive mommy to work
Roby - a train engineer on a steam train that has bunk beds and bathrooms and an elevator so you can brush your teeth

What do you want for your birthday?
Eli - a blue pedal bike
Roby - an orange pedal bike

What are your favorite clothes?
Eli - my bird shirt. I wear it every day. And my blue Pumas (that are two sizes too big.)
Roby - red shirt and red pants

What is your favorite color?
Eli - Light blue, dark blue, pink and purple
Roby - every color in the whole wide world

Here's a day in the life of Eli & Roby: note, this is for posterity and not very entertaining...
One or the other usually comes into our room at around 3am, snuggles for a brief moment and then gets in his sleeping bag which is always laid out next to my side of the bed. They alternate "being the peanut butter" aka the sleeping bag between mommy and the brother. The peanut butter is the popular spot. As soon as I have just started to drift back to sleep, the other one comes in and we repeat. Lately we've been getting a few nights a week of "champion sleepers"; champion sleepers have to wake up in their own beds. This is a big improvement. Regardless of the night time movement, they crawl into bed with me in the morning for a morning snuggle. This is my favorite moment of the day.

Post morning snuggle they are up and at it, picking out their own clothes, racing daddy to get dressed, playing school with their sisters and helping to make breakfast. One gets to break the eggs and one gets to put the toast in.

We head off the work and they like to push me out the door. Sometimes several times as it's good to have the last word. We also blow and catch lots of kisses.

Then they are off to school, usually with Elizabeth, though once a week I deliver them. There is never a moments hesitation on the steps, they dive right though if I catch them in time, they will give me a big hug. Their teachers report they play separately at school but they are always aware when the other is in need. Big games this year have usually involved being a baby dragon and/or playing dress up.

They are picked up at 1 by Elizabeth and then get Anna at Cragmont at 2:15 and Sarah Jane at 3:05. In the beginning of the year they had naps, we are no longer doing naps. There is a lot of playing in the playground.

They have actively resisted any after school activities; we tried gymnastics but it was a dismal failure and they refuse any other suggestions. As a result, they spend the afternoon split between ferrying the girls to their activities and ripping it up at the park. On Fridays they have a play date with Vicky and usually their friend Isley, a favorite from the Teacher Bari days.

At six it's dinner time. They are either just piling in the door or having wild fun through the secret door in the fence at Ava and Nico's. I don't know what they do there but it sounds really fun. For dinner, they occasionally eat food. But usually not. Eli will eat some vegetables. Roby will eat a bit of everything on his plate if you prompt him. They will sit for about 5 minutes. Then they ask very nicely to be excused, clear their plates and hurdle themselves back outside and through the fence.

Around 7 they do baths, we read books on the couch, they drink milk (warm for Roby and cold for Eli), brush their teeth upstairs and then snuggle into their beds where they read a few books to themselves and then, usually without being asked, turn out their light and pass out. This is a HUGE improvement on bedtimes of days past.

And here is a flash back to four years ago!

Yes they are identical and How we are telling them apart and other updates

And here they are at three in case you are curious...

Eli & Roby's fourth birthday party

2015-05-16T23:23:00.002-07:00

We celebrated Eli & Roby's birthday a day early. We kicked off the morning by moving the chickens to their permanent home which we knew would be prime entertainment for the four and under crew. Here we are with our bucket o' chicks, all 12!

Vicky created two incredible cupcake trains.

We had a face painter...

and a balloon man.

The kids thought the cakes were pretty neat.

The boys timed their candle extinguish perfectly.

We brought the jumpy house out. It got pretty nutty.

There were friends, lots of presents...

...and thank you notes (Roby working hard on his "R").

All done!

Famous... for a brief moment

2015-04-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

I've neglected the blog for too long, Instagram has made me lazy. Can't pass up posting this though!

Never ever imagined we'd show up in the NYT. Style section no less. Who would have ever thought.

Good thing the picture's not a close up, not sure there has ever been so much dirty hair, snotty faces and mismatched hole filled clothes ever to grace those hallowed pages...

Happy Halloween!

2014-10-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

Halloween was, as usual, totally great. We kicked it off in the hay maze at the pumpkin patch.

Everyone picked out their own pumpkins.

The Cragmont parade was a bit of a bust this year as it got rained out and the kids just walked up and down the hall way. The adults felt a little claustrophobic, the kids still seemed to think it was great. Our kids had quite a fan club - Mom, Dad, Eli, Roby, Nana, Papa, Grandma, Zeke, Aunt Ellie, Elizabeth and Vicky. It's good to be loved.

Anna's class was feeling the excitement. Halloween + Rainy Day + Sub = Trouble. I did not get a picture of the insanity but I did get them when they were finally calm post parade. The power of putting in a video...

There were a lot of helpers making the celebration happen.

Eli and Roby examined Kindergarten. They weren't totally convinced.

I got my annual favorite picture of the year.

The conductor, the engineer and their passenger.

Our tennis pro giving out some of the 500 pieces of candy that we went through.

Post trick or treating.

Dave and Roby examining Roby's loot.

Happy me. Good night!

Birthday party

2014-09-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

We had the girls' birthday party two weeks ago. This one was a Frozen themed movie watching popcorn/pizza/cupcake decorating extravaganza. We started out decorating pop corn bags with Olaf faces. The kids liked this a lot. I was less enthused with the cutting this required...

Then we had some bouncing.

Group picture before the pizza!

The big kids watched Because of Winn Dixie...

..while the littles got Frozen on the big screen. Grandma finally watched all of Frozen and now gets what all the talk is about.

Post movies we had cupcake decorating (which was my solution to not wanting to decorate the cupcakes myself. Definitely a win-win.)

Happy birthday girls.

For the record, we have now celebrated Anna's fifth birthday FIVE times: In May at pre-school (summer birthdays go in May), in South Carolina with Nana, Papa and the Hoverman Aunts and Uncles and cousins, in Tahoe for Birthday week with the Smuseby family, at the birthday party above AND THEN last Friday in Kindergarten (summer birthdays go in the Fall.) Lots of birthday, I think she could get used to this...

First day for the boys (two weeks ago)

2014-09-22T11:37:00.001-07:00

The boys started at the Red Room two weeks ago. I neglected to post a picture because it was such a non-event for them. They walked up the steps, found their cubbies, removed their lunches, took off their shoes and commenced playing. No big whoop.

The only concern seems to be when they will get to go to the blue room. They would prefer that the Blue room happens "tomorrow" and that Kindergarten happens the day after that. These guys are ready to go.

Smiles from the big sisters who were enjoying their brothers' big day.

Update (post rush)

2014-09-03T13:46:00.001-07:00

We got the news last night that Anna got Ms. Kellie (SCORE!!!!!) There was a fair amount of lobbying from good friend Jacqueline as well as Elizabeth and Ms. Kellie assured everyone that she was going to fight for Anna and she did. Phew. We are thrilled. Anna is in class with Odin (SJ's friend Chloe's little brother) and I know she is going to shine. Ms. Kellie means business and those kids learn.

In other news... Roby bit through his tongue this morning. He fell and hit his chin on a chair with his tongue between his teeth. The Hoverman thinking pose is apparently hazardous. Turns out that you can bite all the way through your tongue creating a 3/4 in gash from the top and the bottom and NOT need stitches. His tongue literally hinged open from the middle. We visited the doctor, the dentist and got teeth x-rays just to be sure as his upper two front teeth were also bloody but he is ok. Roby was incredibly brave in both the doctor's office and the dentist's office, answered all their questions while spewing blood out of his mouth and collected not one but THREE dinosaurs as prizes which he carefully shared with his brother when he was released.

Holding one of his dinosaurs, clutching the bloody rag, sitting in the dentist chair and sporting Anna's dress (also covered in blood.) Tough guy.

First day of school - Kindergarten and 2nd grade

2014-08-27T23:14:00.002-07:00

We kicked off the school year this year with a big day for both Sarah Jane and Anna. We've been approaching the first day of school with some trepidation from both girls. Sarah Jane was worried about not being in Sophie's class, I was anxious about who their teachers would be and Anna was just plan anxious.

We drove to Cragmont Tuesday night to get our class assignments. Sarah Jane has Ms. Dutton (I'm happy!) but is not in class with best friend Sophie. I was really worried SJ would be crushed and she was, for about 10 seconds, and then she moved on. Wonders never cease.

Kindergarten at Cragmont kicks off with a four day sorority-esque Rush. The kids are assigned to a group (Anna is green) and then rotate through the four kindergartens switching teachers each day. The teachers then put their heads together and distribute the classes and next Tuesday we'll get the big news for Anna. The girls are no longer anxious; my anxiety continues.

Anna had a hard morning. There was some fussing and a lot of hand holding and the annual picture torture was a bit tough.

Sarah Jane managed her anxiety until we hit the playground. But then she found good friend Sirine (in her class this year) and all was well.

Once we found Sirine, I left SJ with Aunt Whitney (who thank goodness was there!) and I headed over to the Kindergarten area with Anna who immediately perked up when she found friend Sienna from pre-school. Here they are peaking in to Ms. Johnson's room before the bell rang.

We filed in and found her name tag on her desk. More nerves...

But then I got a smile!

At pick up, Anna immediately announced that "Mom, school is FUN!" followed by "AND I didn't get sent to the principal's office!!!" Nothing like a low bar for success.

We ended the day with a walk to Grandma's, hanging out with Sophie and Chloe and Odin, cheese and crackers and lots of giggles. All is well.

These guys are up next!

Sarah Jane is 7

2014-08-26T21:41:00.002-07:00

Self Portrait

I cannot get my head around having a seven year old. For the record, I LOVED six. Six was sweet and kind and good to her siblings, rational, happy with friends and school, helpful AND still held my hand. I'm pretty sure the hand holding is going away this year and I'm looking for the pause button. I'm going to miss six. BUT, onto 7!

We celebrated SJ's birthday at Tahoe. She was very particular about her food orders, not just for her but also thinking through what the grownups would eat. For breakfast she wanted croissants and her favorite cheese (Dubliner from CostCo.) Grownups could have eggs if they wished. For lunch, she requested that we layout a sandwich spread and everyone could make their own sandwich. She wanted salami and butter on English muffin. Her birthday was on a Friday so for dinner she wanted pizza since we always have pizza on Friday's. We made the pizzas from scratch. She requested chocolate cake which heretofore has been verboten as Chocolate:MyKids as Cocaine:EveryoneElse. Feeling up to the challenge we went with the Chocolate (thanks Aunt Whitney!) and the kids handled it with aplomb. We might be lifting the chocolate at dinner restriction going forward (still to be decided.)

At seven, Sarah Jane is calm, rationale and kind. She is an excellent conflict moderator and an loving big sister. She is an observer and more often than not, waits for the world to come to her as opposed to going out to the world. It takes a bit to warm her up but once you are in the circle of trust she is can be silly and goofy and fun. She has plenty of authority on the home front and doesn't seem to need to push things with her friends. She can get mad at her siblings (well, one sibling) but after an initial burst of pique, she more often than not takes the highroad and shares whatever precious toy is under dispute. Sarah Jane is 100% sure about what she likes and what what she doesn't like, and she is NOT influenced by what others (her mother in particular) thinks she SHOULD like. She does not appreciate others making up her mind for her but given the opportunity to decide for herself she can occasionally be open to new experiences.

At seven, Sarah Jane loves:

Water sports: This year she figured out swimming quickly moving up two levels in lessons and making it into the deep pool. She also LOVES paddle boarding and spent most of the summer ferrying her father up and down the beach at Tahoe. She's brave and confident on the water and pretty fast too!

French toast, pancakes and cheese: Sarah Jane is essentially a camel, filling up on french toast and pancakes on the weekend (man-sized portions) and melted cheese on crackers at Grandma's house on Wednesdays after school. Other than that she subsists on air and water.

Directing "shows": Sarah Jane likes to direct shows for the other kids to perform in. Everybody gets dressed up in elaborate costumes. Then Roby says "LADIEEEEES AND GENELMEN!!!!" and we all clap and then Sarah Jane whispers instructions and Anna and Eli do something and then we call clap again. Hours of entertainment.

Calendar & Whiteboarding: Ms. Rosen who was SJ's amazing first grade teacher did a great deal of math using the calendar. If, for instance, it was the 22nd day of the month, the class did a lot of math problems to figure out different ways to get to 22. They did this every day at the start of the class and a lucky kid would put the day card into the calendar and use Ms. Rosen's wooden spoon to point. Sarah Jane LOVES the calendar, loves writing on the whiteboard and she loves math. I LOVE that she loves math. On this we are 100% aligned.

Books: SJ is our early riser and most mornings after 6 find her cozy in bed with a pile of books. Reading aloud to her siblings is her preference rather than reading to herself. Favorite books are Geronimo Stilten (graphic novels about a mouse) and Berenstein Bears.

Music: Sarah Jane got a cd player for her birthday last year and it might be the best present I've ever gifted outside of the kegerator. SJ DJs every morning and we have a never ending happy dance party. We're still mainly on kid music but she's slowly starting to be interested in pop. Her younger siblings are way ahead of her on that front as they seem to know all the lyrics on the Top 100 radio they listen to with Elizabeth but Sarah Jane has preferred to hold on to her youth.

Rhianna in the headphones

Checking her email: Sarah Jane loves borrowing my phone and checking her gmail account. While she's there she peruses the weather (reporting every city that has thunderstorms) and instagram (another favorite.) For those of you who have corresponded with SJ, you know that writing back isn't her priority (you get something like: a;lkjdsfasdkjfwer hahaha) but reading her emails has helped a lot with her reading this year.

More favorites... Ms. Rosen (first grade teacher) and Chris and Kris (Uncle Eric's sister and to-be-brother-in-law)

Ms. Rosen for first grade

Chris and Kris

Sarah Jane dislikes:

Unknown Media: Sarah Jane will agree to watch Berenstein Bears, Caillou, Dinosaour Train and Dora on TV. She also enjoys Football and Baseball. She categorically refuses to watch anything else although we've broken her into Frozen and now that's on the accepted list too. Un-vetted movies are NOT ok.

Meat: Outside of salami, we have an emerging vegetarian. I'm not sure she knows salami is meat. I'm ok with that.

Homework: Sarah Jane is NOT a fan of homework. Kindergarten was brutal. I decided that for 1st grade, completing homework would be up to her and that was a better approach. It still required a great deal of attention from me which SJ's siblings did not either appreciate nor enable. Hopefully 2nd grade will be more self-sufficient!

Thunderstorms: We had a lot of these this summer and SJ is NOT a fan. I think she might choose a bear over lightening.

Huddling with Zeke during a thunderstorm

And flashback to 7 years ago...

Anna turns 5

2014-08-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

Anna turned five on Tuesday. I realize I've been neglecting the blog in favor of documenting our every move on Instagram, but just in case I missed anything (and at the risk of repeating myself) here's Anna at 5...

First, we celebrated Anna's birthday at Tahoe. She kicked off birthday week with GREEN pancakes from dad, a huge pile of presents and a full day of party hat wearing. She made a vanilla cake with Aunt Whitney and we all enjoyed steak and rainbow sorbet (see favorite foods below.) She received lots of clothes, shoes (Aunt Whitney), a backpack (Grandma), lunchbox, purse from Thailand with five dollars (Aunt Ellie and Uncle Eric) a Berenstein Bear game (SJ) and paints and a coloring book (Eli & Roby.)

Anna is still ALL CAPS and FULL of personality. She goes head first into everything, whether it's being lovely and fun or driving her parents and her siblings crazy.

Here is what Anna loves:

Frozen: Anna is a HUGE fan of the movie Frozen and despite only being allowed to watch it on airplanes, in the car on the way to Tahoe or on very special occasions when Mom and Dad are at the end of their ropes, she has managed to memorize every word. Apparently we know the end of our ropes well. She attended Frozen Camp this summer and was cast as a Fairy and the Bishop (who performs the wedding ceremony.)

Weddings: This goes for all the kids, they were inspired by their role in the Flower Fleet for Aunt Ellie & Uncle Eric's wedding. The new favorite game is to play wedding. Sarah Jane usually gets to be the bride and Anna cheerfully agrees to play the groom. The boys are either the parents or the flower kids.

Dessert and meat: Anna is our only child who eats with gusto. Her favorite food seems to be ice cream and meat. (I don't have a picture of her eating with gusto so here she is sliding with gusto.)

Reading: Anna is learning to read! She is (in my totally unbiased opinion) absolutely amazing in this department. She reads Biscuit and Mittens and other "just right" books with minimal help from me. She sight reads worlds like "Biscuit" and "Mittens" and "meow" and "woof-woof" and uses the pictures, sound clues and her memory to figure out the rest. She skipped learning letters and sounds and went straight to words. Will be interesting to see how that goes over in K.

Her siblings: Despite some hiccups (see below), Anna is generally a lovely big and little sister. The best times are in the morning, playing elaborate "Flort" (forts on the floor) games, snuggling in bed with all four kids and a pile of books or running around in the backyard.

Here's what Anna does NOT like:

Clothes that do not fit: We seem to be coming out of this phase but there was a good three months where NOTHING FELT RIGHT. And I mean nothing. From shoes to underwear, it was ALL wrong. And then meant it was whipped off as soon as it was put on along with hysterical, end of the world-esque wailing. See: "End of rope"

Not getting undivided attention: Again, another phase (we hope) but Anna would prefer to have all the attention of her parents and is quite ingenious at securing said attention. When attention is threatened, she uses her feet, knees, fists and elbows (and occasionally a head butt) to express her displeasure, displeasure that is generally directed at whichever little brother is closest. We're working on this...

Thinking about Kindergarten: Anna is quite nervous about starting school and does not like to discuss it. My guess is that some of the issues above stem from the impending doom of Cragmont. At least I hope they do as that would indicate a light at the end of the tunnel.

Highlights of this summer* included:
Graduating from pre-school, dinner at a fire station, a staring role in the Flower Fleet, a self-haircut by friend Eliza followed by the most expensive haircut I've ever paid for to fix the self-haircut, a first go at tennis (a week of tennis camp), nearly mastering swimming, learning to kayak AND paddle board.

Preschool graduation

Drivers seat of the fire engine

Haircut...

Kayaking

*Please note that I tried to write "highlights of this year" but my brain is too fried to remember anything earlier than June.
Amazing that just five years ago we were here...