Five Brown Kids

The day after Christmas the kids and I drove up to Pennsylvania to hang out with the Ricks.  We stayed at a condo nearby. The boys went snow boarding with Matt, Tobias and Andrew each day and the girls and I hung out with Courtney walking the dogs, shopping, and a day in New York City. 

Another pleasant Christmas in the books.  We made treats Christmas Eve afternoon and then all went out for supper together. Taye can eat! 

I asked Taye if he could drop Scotia off at swim. And maybe run past Costco on the way home? Sure.  And then he thought maybe he’d take Blythe with to Costco because she’d think that was fun. 

Jaxon and Blythe turned 9 and 19 over the weekend. 

A meeting 47 years in the making finally happened.  I felt like he liked me and I felt loved and that is top tier for anything I dared hope for on this visit. I asked questions about his life.  I heard stories about his mom and trying out for sports teams and playing music, singing in choirs, being in the navy. We looked at some pictures.  I sat on the couch next to him and we chatted about the news he was watching. Nothing earth shattering, just really pleasant. When I was telling him how surprisingly fabulous Montreal was I said that the city's walkability was amazing.  And he disagreed with my word choice, "That's not a word I've heard before. Maybe walkable..."  And of course I looked at him and said, "Are you disagreeing with me?  You don't believe me?  Want to look it up?" And he looked at me and smiled, I think recognizing a little bit of him in me.  (I’ve heard he was pretty opinionated and that explains a lot about me.)  Let the rec...

Carrie and I went to Montreal for the weekend so I could meet my biological father and his extended family.  It was my first time in Montreal and I was absolutely blown away.  It's like a mini Paris super close to home. The architecture, the food, the museums, the shopping!  And all of it totally walkable - park your car, put on some comfortable shoes and walk all day.  Our first stop was  St. Viateur Bagels , an old school bagel shop in the Plateau neighborhood. The sesame bagels we ate came straight out of a wood fire oven as we watched and were so delicious they are on my list for a trip back.  The neighborhood was full of Hasidic Jews and I loved watching little boys with payos speeding down the sidewalks on scooters and so many moms pushing strollers - all dressed in black.  We stopped at a cafe for lunch that had live music.  Really dreamy.  After we headed to a campus tour of McGill.  In the heart of Montreal, a car free campus wi...

I've been reading stories to kids at bedtime for 21 years now.  If I count a bare minimum of 15 mins a night that amounts to 80 days (probably double that or more honestly) of my adult life reading children's books.  With the older kids, by the time they could read by themselves I was always still reading to smaller kids so big kids read by themselves.  Until Blythe.... About two months ago she started reading chapter books all by herself, so now we climb into her bed at the end of the day and she reads her book and I read my book.  I made it.  Also note the multiplication cards next to the bed. Last time for everything!

Blythe joined the drama club at school- they practiced once a week after school for a few months and then performed after school for parents and twice in school for all the students! She was so cute and definitely wants to do it again. 

The local high school theatre class put on a little mini production of Anne of Green Gables last fall. I bought tickets for Blythe and me thinking it would be a great way to introduce her to my favorite story of all time.