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My people. A whole afternoon with just my five favorite people. (And the animals and other freaks at the zoo.)

The freckles are really coming out on my older kids' faces this summer. They were simply unavoidable. My husband and I are both freckle-faced and -shouldered. We can slather as much sunscreen on as we want - still freckles. I embraced mine early on - and my kids like theirs. I'm glad. I like them too. At the Browne's Market Irish Street Fair, June 2009 And then there's these two. Their freckles will come, I'm sure. Probably not for another year or two. But as much as these little guys make me mad/crazy/tired/crazy/frustrated/anddidImentioncrazy, look at these faces. Sigh. I can't get enough of these faces. At the playground, May 2009

Fight. A case of the hurt feelings. Beg mom to pick me up and console me because the mean twin did mean things. A typical day in the life...fight, whine, whine some more. Is it terrible that I grabbed the camera instead of breaking it up? Nah.

People all over town are bitching about the cooler temps we've had so far this summer. "It's June, I'm tired of the rain, It should be hot, blah, blah, whine, whine, bitch, bitch, blergh." Talk to me in mid-July, jerks. It'll be so fucking hot on the baseball diamond bleachers that the sweat will be running down your back and into your butt crack like Niagara Falls. And then you'll be bitching about the heat and the electric bill and your hair and the humidity. So, bite me. I like this mild weather. It enables us to live outside and enjoy our yard without changing clothes three times a day due to sweat. The little boys love to eat out on the deck. A very nutritious lunch of hot dogs (with ketchup, yum!), pretzel sticks and apple sauce. A stalker in the trees below the deck: Oh hi! It's just Dad, pruning dead branches off the redbud. This is why I like a mild June after a very rainy spring. This is my backyard, people! It's heavenly. Except for the

We have a largely finished basement but there is a portion (it's actually under the garage) that is still unfinished and we call it the dungeon. The dungeon is where all of J's music equipment is - you might remember that he plays in a band from this post or this post . The kids are only allowed back there when one of us is with them - so it's a big treat. All four of them like to play the electronic drums. The bigger ones are showing some interest in learning to play the guitar. Here is a glimpse into some family time in the dungeon: J on the Drums on Vimeo . My 39-year-old playing the drums - and a few other folks. The tricycle that H is riding? Was mine as a toddler. And I didn't realize how anti-paparazzi C is. M was there (you saw her briefly) but I think G was reading a book somewhere. Shortly after this was recorded, we left for Red Lobster . (And if you enjoyed reading about Red Lobster, you might need to check out the Red Lobster Server blog . Oh. My. God.)

Gimme a head with hair Long beautiful hair Shining, gleaming, Streaming, flaxen, waxen Give me down to there hair Shoulder length or longer Here baby, there mama Everywhere daddy daddy Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair Flow it, show it Long as God can grow it My hair Did you know that my older two used to be able to sing the song "Hair" from the Broadway musical of the same name? Way funny. Courtesy of the Broadway Kids CDs. One of my two-year-olds has been perfecting a David Cassidy as Keith Partridge coif lately. I loved it. It was awesome. You can't see the flowy-ness of the back in this picture. Be assured that it was flowy. Today? Not so flowy. The littlest one got his hairs did too. And so did the girl. She's just so stinkin' pretty it makes my heart ache sometimes.

Sometimes I'd like to put them out with the recycling on Friday mornings. And sometimes, I don't. Today was one of the times I didn't want to unload them on the sanitation workers.

Tidbits from two of my sons today: As we drove up to the Starbucks drive-thru at about 9:30am, 2 year old C started yelling, "WAN FWIES?! WAN FWIES?!" - because drive-thrus are supposed to have fries, Goddamnit. He then looked at the obviously gay barista at the pick-up window and yelled, "DADDY!" And then, tonight, I told my 7 year old over and over that eyedrops were not going to hurt (allergies...). His response: "But they will hurt my soul ...."

I can't believe it even took this long. Last night, at a four way stop, I said (to another car/driver), "JESUS! Is anyone going to give me a turn?" C said "Jebus, jebus, jebus . . . jebus . . . jebus, jebus" the entire rest of the way home. I'm just pleased it wasn't "fuck". That's already what they call forks though. ***** In other news, spring break started yesterday. I'm looking forward to and dreading the next 10 days. And I'm exhausted, which tends to slow entries to this blog severely. My writing is going other places - family law websites, criminal law websites, law firm websites, kids' activities websites, kids' clothing websites, criminal law trial summaries. And my energy is going there too - along with the energy I give to my kids. So, I'm tired. I hope that my kids are entertaining enough over break that I have some stories to share! Happy St. Patrick's Day next week to everyone - and this weekend for e

I was sitting at my kitchen table working on a writing project while dinner was in the oven earlier. And I kept feeling a very cold draft at my legs. I looked around. All doors and windows within eyesight were closed. All of my children were in the hearth room, watching TV. And whining about dinner. I got up and walked into the living room and foyer to see if the doors and the chimney flue were closed. They were. A blast of freezing air hit me at the top of the stairs to the basement. I ran down the stairs to find the back door wide open. It's 32 degrees out. And my evil 2 year old monkeys had turned the heat off. (New obsession. They drag the piano stool to the thermostat and mess with it. I'm looking into those clear plastic covers with locks they have at schools.) I'm fairly confident they unlocked the door and it blew open in the weather today. No idea how long it was open. I was immediately searching the basement - tv room, toy room, bar, bedroom, bathroom, unfi

My husband bought me two new lenses for Christmas. One is a long lens for kids' sports and backyard wildlife. The other is a 1.8 for good close-ups. The kind that I so expertly describe to my sister (a professional photographer) as "the ones that get blurry in the background". So, here is a glimpse of my idyllic mornings. Post-school drop off for the big kids. I get to relax and sit at the table with the newspaper and coffee and enjoy the solitude and the silence. Except I don't drink coffee and I've never, ever experienced solitude or silence during the waking hours of these two.

My two year old sons are wrestling each other on my bed as I read through my Google Reader feeds from today. They were getting a bit rowdy and loud so I said, "HEY! Guys! Come on. Would you give me a break?!" C's response: "No way!" (And now they are sitting on the bed, having picked up the remote and turned the TV on, watching some heinous watches on QVC.)

Patiently waiting for cake. C licking cake from the table and making a general mess of things. Quite different from last year . H, having an OCD moment, wouldn't eat anything but insisted on cleaning up any crumb that hit the table. Ridiculously different from last year . H, happy to be on his new bouncy horse. C, pissed that H is on his new bouncy horse. C, ecstatic to be on his new bouncy horse. H, being consoled by grandma because he had to share his new bouncy horse. Ahhh, two...