Lifelines

I was really excited to see this gorgeous “fish tank” that Rhyse made in art class today! He takes art with a long-time (long-time being since Chas was in Kindy) friend of mine…and we’ve always been really happy with her guidance of our kids in the art department. And, my gang loves her, with Chas even going as far as to count her amongst his friends. :)

And she’s unknowingly helped me decorate my schooling room because nothing graces these walls unless it has been crafted, painted, modeled, colored or otherwise decorated by one of our kids. I’m firm on this policy. This is their room and I want it to feel that way for them. (I’m actually really behind on all posts not concerning soccer or apples. Will try to catch up a bit.)

So, I ooh’ed and ahh’ed over his masterpiece in the car and then my eyes just started watering, filling with tears.

Because at the bottom of this piece he clearly worked so hard on, I read what has now become a familiar phrase to me. I’ve seen it scribbled on many of his creations beginning when he first learned to write:

“Rhyse for Chas”.

Chas means everything to his little brother. There is nothing, no one, more important.

I am so very thankful that they have each other.

Are you wondering how many Days Of Apples I am going to be posting? I did mention that we stripped trees damn near bare, didn’t I?

We’re almost out of our favorite baking apples (Jonathan), down to only three, so we may pop by another orchard this weekend and see if we can scrounge up some others.

At Greer’s fabulous little preschool, each student takes a turn bringing in the snack for the entire class. And tomorrow, it’s finally her turn! She’s been waiting for this day since the snack-bringer also is the class “Star”. I’m not really sure what that entails but she definitely pays attention because it’s one of the Things Always Mentioned when she gives me her preschool re-cap.

Soooo…we broke out a recipe for yummy apple muffins and whipped up a dozen or so for her friends and teachers for tomorrow! She’s positively glowing with excitement to haul these babies into class and tell them that not only did she pick the apples, but she baked them into muffins to share, too!

My kids are getting really used to the old “late-night” freshly baked snack routine. And, truth be told, it’s really quite a nice way to end our crazy days with them. When we sit down for these snacks, everyone is bathed and relaxed and happy to share just a few more minutes together before turning in for bed.

Well worth my pretending like I know what I’m doing handling a muffin tin and a whisk! :)

I don’t know what was going on with my Creux-Monster today. But, like a bull in a china shop, he up-ended every first floor room in the house, blazing a trail of destruction as he toddled along. Played in the toilet a bit too for good measure.

You’re looking at 195 previously (properly) contained colored pencils.

Sigh.

Wall Of Desk needs Critter Control Cabinets.

HONEY??? :)

The Littles are revolting. Somebody please help me!

The Ringleader and Her Pudgy Sidekick:

“If you think that’s bad, what till you see what I do to this book!”

On seeing Mommy crumple into a heap of exhaustion due to thought of 25 minute argument needed to convince Greer to clean up mound of scattered blocks (why do those 250 piece packs seem like such a great gift at the time of purchase?):
“I’m sorry, Mommy! It was all her idea! Hers!!”

“You will never have free time, NEVER! Ah,ha,ha,ha!” (Evil cackling sounds.)

***When 25-minute clean-up pitch ensued, I gently coaxed her to pick up her mess.
“Why?” she said. “I think it looks much better this way.”

Terrific. Have birthed Martha Stewart’s evil alter-ego.

When the opportunity presents itself, Rhyse will capitalize on an available lap.

He’s so heart-breakingly sweet.

Out of all my children, he has driven me to the very brink of my sanity and for whatever reason…that has endeared this boy to me all the more.

Motherhood is weird like that.

This snuggle last night did not go unappreciated by me. It’s really not often that he slows down and “asks” for this…”asks” by climbing right up into my self and folding up into my body.

Times goes so fast.

Seems like just yesterday that he was the boy I spent the hours of my day shagging. The one who once split his head open during a tantrum, the one from whose mouth I dislodged the tip of a hand-held American flag (they say, “Don’t run with sharp objects” FOR A REASON!), the one who ate foot lotion, and who once climbed our Christmas tree, knocking it to the ground, and shattering the precious ornaments we’d collected from our family travels.

His eyes are mine.

He’s funny and charming and devilish, all equal parts.

I wouldn’t trade him for the world.

We made some time for fun this afternoon! Normally on Mondays, I pick Greer up from her wonderful, wonderful preschool at 1:00 and then we’re on the fast track home for naps. I do not dilly-dally. :)

But today was a break from that norm in two ways. First, Greer had a small field trip today! Her class spent the day at Heritage Park up near the rec center and due to this, her afternoon was shortened. Charlie dropped her off a half hour later than usual and I picked her up there a half hour earlier than I typically do. So we had some built-in extra time on our hands.

Time that we ended up filling with a playground date with my friend Tammy and her kids!

We’d been trying to get together for awhile but previous commitments (darn homeschoolers and their We Are Never Actually Home schedules!) and a few cases of The Icks kept us apart.

Ah, but the stars aligned for us today! I can’t think of a better way to spend a gorgeous fall afternoon than with good friends, some slides, and a crap-load of mulch for Creux to snack on! The world is his pantry!! :)

There will be no time for play tomorrow…Greer has dance, Chas has math class, Rhyse has his three-hour romp at WAHA, followed by both boys having soccer games in the evening so this will have to tide us over for a bit.

It was good fun, today, it was! Good, good fun. (And doesn’t Greer just LOOK like she’s had “A Day”?? So mussed! Positively sweaty and grimy! So unlike her usual “Where’s my lip gloss?” self! I loved it all…except for the blackened feet. Could have done without those at naptime. And Creux, God love him. He’s just happy to wander around and munch on his wood chips until I come to dig them out.)

Not only does he: change diapers, cook dinner, participate in tea parties, coach soccer, iron (!), build fabulous Wall Of Desks, deal with me (ahem), talk to princesses on play phones, carpool, AND run a friggin’ company BUT, my Charlie, he also bakes!

Bakes apple pies, specifically.

And that is what I found him doing this afternoon at home.

Using our somewhat freshly picked apples, he sliced and diced and then proceeded to make a mean pastry crust to hold it all together.

It was gorgeous! And tasty!

Rhyse enjoyed it the most, cleaning off everyone’s measly leftover apple bits from their plates. He and Charlie embarked in a Fork War over a few slivers for Creux…slivers that Rhyse was unwilling to yield to his baby brother. Luckily, Chas was there to help out. :) (That’s what the crazy business in the photos is all about, a damn smidge of pie for poor Creux!)

We’re not tired of apples yet! We still have a few yummy treats that we’d like to make together.

In the Family Taste Test, his apple pie beats my apple smush. Although, one look at the mess the pastry dough made and I was looking lovingly at my slow cooker. Charlie has patience that I do not possess. And it pays off for him because I could NEVER make anything as pretty!

We spent the day at home, a whole afternoon and evening just for us! It was a terrific way to unwind from yesterday’s go, go, go-ness.

Charlie always finds a way to keep things interesting around here though. This horrible stunt had me cringing and wanting to dive forward and spot Creux in case something went haywire.

Charlie has long had a fascination with holding Creux up by his legs alone, allowing Creux to balance himself in the air. It is agonizing from my Mommy Perspective but Creux just goes bananas over it. Charlie upped the ante today by balancing him and then tipping him backwards so he dangles like a man caught by the foot in one of those booby-traps set up in a jungle somewhere. As soon as Charlie righted him, Creux leaned back into again, and again, and again, and again.

After the first seven times, I relaxed enough to document the drama.

Creux goes up….

Creux goes down…

If he joins the circus one day, Charlie, you and I are going to have issues.

We had a date day!

We have become the lucky yearly recipients of FREE OSU game tickets, compliments of Charlie’s brother, Greg, who gets them from the University and kindly passes off the games he doesn’t fly in to attend to his siblings and friends. (Greg and Susan live in Atlanta but make it a point to come back for the Big Games.)

Charlie took Chas last year to his very first OSU football game and this year, well, this year, he asked ME!

The tickets he had were for yesterday’s game against Minnesota and due to our own sons’ soccer commitments, we were VERY late in getting there.

My mom held down this crazy fort while Charlie and I made the trek down to the Horseshoe. (Thanks, Ma!)

And it was so fun! Our seats were great, up on B Deck, amongst the civilized Buckeye fans (I feared we would be in the midst of the student section–fun, but so not my style). We sat down an hour and a half after the game had begun, the Buckeyes already having a nice lead on Minnesota.

Charlie and I are Buckeye fans but not fanatics. We aren’t found cheering on the Bucks on Saturdays (there’s WAY too much to be done around here for every Saturday to be a lie-in with the tv), we typically only watch the Big Ones. Even as a student there, I usually sold my ticket for shopping money. :)

But I must admit, it is so very easy to catch Buckeye Fever down in that Horseshoe! I barely watched the game because I was so enthralled with the crowd–two student sections constantly going wild, the rehearsed and professional cheering of the however many thousands and thousands of fans filling the stands, the absolutely over-whelming sea of scarlet and gray, the sound–a roar of unbelievable volume, all those voices raised up together…OH-IO!!

Those Buckeyes, they are loved!

And we sat there together–just sat and watched and absorbed the energy and shared in the moment.

Charlie, thanks for taking me! It was so much fun, I’m so glad we went, and I had a wonderful time with you. XO

I’m playing this song for the Buckeyes and for my own personal smile-making reminder of our time at the game since this is what they played in the stadium as those big boys on the field prepared to kick some Gopher tail. :)

And, (you knew I was going to say it…)

GO BUCKS!!!

Our soccer season is just about over! And it figures because our teams are really coming together and everyone seems to finally be getting used to the game.

That’s how it goes, right?

I planned on attending Chas’s 9:00 game this morning, followed by Rhyse’s at 11:00 but Creux rose a bit too early and was ready for a nap by 8:45. SO, in the interest of not having a completely miserable day with a miserably tired infant, I called the coach :) and told him we’d be staying home.

It ended being a good modification because Creux slept until they returned at 10:15 and he was ready to roll by the time we needed to leave for Rhyse’s game twenty minutes later.

Rhyse, however, had been bouncing off the walls while at home with me and I could not wait to get him out on the field so he could burn off a little energy. Charlie mentioned to me on the way over that he was planning to start Rhyse out in the goalie box. I suggested (strongly) that he quickly revamp his lineup to include Rhyse in the forward position because our boy, he needed to run, and I knew he would harness that energy into something good for his team.

And did he ever! Goal after goal after goal…Rhyse led the “Silver Bullets” to another win, cranking out three of the five victory goals!

While Rhyse sat on the sideline for a break, I put my camera to good use on the playground, cranking out my own winning photos. :) Creux made his first trip down the slide ALONE today. He’s big now. Almost one!

As crazy as this schedule is to keep, I’ll be sad when it’s over. We do enjoy getting out as a family and cheering our boys/brothers on, and the Littles never complain about playground time!

GOAL!!!

So proud!
Me too, Rhysie, me too…