Christmas in August

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thanks so much for buying me this new thing with all the colors. It's got all these other colorful things hanging off it, which are totally cool. Have you tried putting them in your mouth? It's kind of hard, but totally worth the effort. Seriously, this colorful thing rocks. You must have dropped a couple grand on this, right? Thanks for this awesome colorful thing with all the things hanging off it!

Love,

Louisa

We need to get back to REI

We haven't been back to REI for several weeks. I think it's about time we returned.

Ansel quote

Ansel has a pair of fleece-lined boots that he loves to wear, even though they make his feet smellier than most human beings can bear. Here's an exchange from this past weekend when Greg saw him putting on those boots...

GREG: Ansel, you can't wear those boots.

ANSEL: Why?

GREG: Because it's hot outside. And they'll make you stink to high heaven.

(Pause.)

ANSEL: And then I will see Jesus?

First Day of School

Henry and Elsa begin school today. Getting them off this morning went off without a hitch. Probably because they weren't concerned about having to speak French this year.

This will be the first full day of school for both of them. In Switzerland, they would go to class from 8am to 11:30, then home for lunch (and sometime the Wii) for two hours, then back to school from 1:30 to 4:30. Fingers crossed that they don't start jonesing for the Wii in the middle of the afternoon.

The Xeriscaping Chronicles, Part 1

We really love our backyard.

But we learned about a month too late that our sprinkler system (which is set to go on at 4:00 am) doesn't extend to the terraced level. And now all of the grass is dead. Totally, burnt-to-a-Kentucky-Fried-Crisp dead.

Part of the terraced level was already xeriscaped. So last week we thought Why not xeriscape the entire area? We'd save on watering, mowing, and it would look a lot prettier.

We always thought that people who made rock gardens out of their yard were a little extreme - unless you live in the middle of the Mojave and only want gila monsters crawling through the yard. We didn't want to shovel a bunch of porous lava rocks around some cacti.

But we looked at some xeriscaped yards and realized they could be very colorful. So we're starting Project Xeriscape. We're trying to figure out which plants work best in North Central Texas, which drink the least amount of water, and which are the most colorful.

Stay tuned.

Russian Art

Greg's mom Chris came a week ago to visit and to help us hang all the art in our house.

She also sent us two of her Russian paintings by Nikolai Terpsikhorov, which we absolutely love.

They're hard to see, but the one below has two goats in it. (White one to the left. Black one to the right.) Chris has two goats of her own, which she named Minnie and Myrtie Belle, after her grandmothers. I'm not sure how you say either of those names in Russian. Or in goat.

Terpsikhorov lived in Moscow in the early 1900's. He painted a lot of portraits in Russia and Uzbekistan, but we really love his landscapes.

High Antiquing

Yesterday, a family in the neighborhood had a garage sale. I picked up a secretary desk for Henry's room, and this stackable bookshelf with glass doors.

I think the guy who sold it to me was high. Not totally stoned, but he was very mellow, and when strung together, not all the words coming out of his mouth made sense. And after I paid $20 for this bookcase and found similar items on eBay and craigslist going for $500 and $600, I've decided to be more pro-active in seeking out more cannabis-sponsored antique garage sales.

I'm baaaaack!

Flies and Spiders

We have these blue bottle flies that get stuck in our pool fence and die.

I don't know if they don't see the fence and get caught mid-flight, or if they're crawling around and decide to climb through the openings. But every day, we've got to flick four or five of these stupid flies out.

Dear spiders, come to our backyard and eat these flies. This fence is basically a pre-spun web. Then you can quit spinning your dumb invisible webs across my jogging path.

Last Day of Summer Vacation

Henry and Elsa start school on Monday. Henry's making sure he spends his last morning of summer vacation appropriately.

More iElsa

Elsa grabbed Greg's iPhone in the car. We're in talks with Disney Channel and Nick Jr. for her to have her own show.

Elsa and the iPhone

I'm not going to bother documenting these kids' childhoods anymore. I'm just going to make sure they have access to my iPhone and let them do their thing.

Cocorico!

Henry got a new do, and he loves it. This is the shortest he's ever had his hair. He says it's a lot cooler. And he says he's really excited to jump on a trampoline without his hair whipping him in the face.

He also said he wanted us to take this picture of him so someday he could show his own kids that he once had a faux hawk.

Ansel on a Wall

Last weekend we stopped by R.E.I. Turned out the climbing wall was open and Greg and the three oldest Banshees put on harnesses to scale the it. Here's the Booch in his element:

Banshees with iPhones

Ever since we got iPhones, the kids think they have iPhones. And to tell the truth, they're probably more adept at using them. Ansel discovered the YouTube button long before we noticed it, and now he and Elsa can quote the Charlie Bit Me video word for word.

Occasionally we'll see that we have 200 photos on our phones and discover that 190 of them are impressionist blurs of floors and walls taken by the kids. Cleaning our my phone's photo album, I came across this video that Henry made of himself on his way home from his baptism. (His comment about everything turning out great refers to his decision that morning to not be baptized but wait "17 years." We're glad he changed his mind.)

Cliffs Notes on the last few weeks

Hi. This is Greg posting for Suzy, who's taking a nap. She hasn't been blogging as much, but having a baby, moving across the ocean, buying and house and a car while caring for three other kids while your husband just goes to work and watches YouTube and browses the iTunes stores takes a lot our of a girl. So here are some highlights:

Henry got baptized last week.

Louisa was blessed the following Sunday.

Suzy's parents, plus my dad, stepmom and their kids came out to visit us.

Elsa pulled her own loose tooth right out of her head.

Love the pool.

Elsa set these books up in her room.

That's a book of quotations from Chairman Mao on the right.

Hairstyles

The Booch Loves His Juice

Nothing gets in the way of Ansel and his juice.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a nice Valentine's Day today. Each of the kids got a Flik Flak watch, and I got a chocolate fondue pot. I love it, but it's hard to match the Banshees' enthusiasm for it...

Balloon Festival at Chateau d'Oex

Want to know why Ansel's crying? Click here to see Greg's entry for Father of the Year.