Pink. With Sprinkles on Top

We're all jumbled again, telling you about our last week while enjoying this one. All part of a mixed up summer schedule, right?!

Our summer schedule - or lack of one - means that today, Big Sister drowsily emerged from her room more than an hour after we would have left the flat on a school morning. And don't get me started on bedtimes. The Olympic excitement makes it too hard. At least the Mister and I've stopped waiting up for John McEnroe's antics on the BBC's end of day show - ripe for a SNL skit. 

Anyhow. We drew "bake" one morning last week and our assignment languished a bit while we bounced on Stonehenge, checked in at the library, went to a birthday party, and took advantage of other adventures. Then a cool morning presented itself and baking popped back up on our itinerary. Also that the kids were chanting "when are we going to BAKE?!" whenever there were two quiet moments strung together. I do love that they enjoy something I like so much. It also justifies my bringing 4 boxes of cookie cutters abroad. One day we'll bake more and more complex things again. I find myself into quick and easy baking of late. 

Quick, easy, delicious and these smiley faces in the kitchen?!  What could be better?

It became sort of a team event. The girls made pink lemonade cookies (thank you, Kappa Prep!) and the boys whipped up iced brownies. Big Brother apparently feeling like Isaac Washington in the kitchen.

Baking always makes for a great maths lesson and usually results in a some conversions, too.

The desserts were just as pretty as they were delicious. The Mister was asked to judge. I believe he declared a tie. He is a diplomat, our guy.

I never did get to take a picture of the platter. We gobbled up the goodies all too soon.  

Yesterday we watched the Triathlon in Hyde Park, had lunch at Kensington Palace, and toured the new exhibits in the reopened palace, too. We should someday be experts on royal lineage. My camera battery died just as we followed this big crowd to watch the swimming. Biggest Brother helped me take palace pictures on my phone and hopefully he can also advise me how to download them, too. 

How super is it that a pair of brothers was on the medal stand at the triathlon?  How sweet it is, this summer!

And another thing, since we are talking pink sweetness. Apologies for discussing both the medical and the edible, but I have to confess that still reigning over our summer is my bothersome eyes. I will not go into the extreme yuck of it all, but will say that I am beginning my own campaign against the darling sounding "pink eye" (what's next? Polka dot mumps? Glittered gangrene?) when what I've been slogging through is bright red, zombie movie, swollen, teary peepers. That are now sensitive to light. I may be the only one who was squinting in the shadowed darkness of Kensington Palace. Don't get me started on having missed an already overdue hair appointment and going 3 weeks in glasses and no makeup because of my eyes. Vanity was my first symptom. 

So thus far, our summer: very sweet, but definitely not pretty. Now, who saved me a brownie?!

Dumpster Diving Decor

Remember when I told you Big Brother was part of a tree planting ceremony? Well, as promised, here is the link to the lovely ceremony where Big Brother and Our Sweet School's Green Team helped BBC's John Simpson plant a tree in Marylebone. Don't feel bad if you don't spot Big Brother easily. He looks a bit like a muppet in a navy blazer with his long hairdo! Still, he can be so proud of taking part in such a nice event. And how lovely are the comments John Simpson makes about the day?

Doing my part for the earth, I found this treasure in a florist shop trash bin over the weekend. It is a brightly colored, sturdy box emblazoned with the Union Jack. I spied it en route to pick up Biggest Brother from a birthday party.  There it perched, on the tippy top of a trash heap, calling out to me.

I waited until Biggest Brother was with me to get it. His interest in why I'd want something out of someone's trash gave me the courage to ask the proprietor if I just might take it home. The shop is where we bought our Christmas tree, so I sort of felt like a customer -- even though I wanted a freebie out of their trash.

Walking away, I laughed, saying, "one man's trash is another's treasure!"

Biggest Brother had never heard this expression and thought it was so funny. He adopted a pirate accent and detailed lots of possible examples. As in, "Argh. Me hearties! I've found this old banana peel in a bin! SUCH a treasure! ARRRGGGH!" The banana peel reference isn't too far from how the Mister perceived my find when we got home.

Maybe it is the renewed talk about where and when we'll land next that has me collecting again. I'm not above looking far and wide.

Big Sister was a good help holding it on her lap on the bus. Not sure where it will end up. Maybe it will get a new life as a magazine rack or holder of extra throws in the living room. But for now, it has joined my British collection adding color to the kitchen.

Repurpose. Plant. Recycle. Repeat. Sounds like the Green Team mantra and that of people who move around, too.

How Did You Get Here?

"Did you ever wonder how you got here?"

Biggest Brother asked me that today under Marble Arch. We were having a Pret picnic. So glad to be out on a perfect spring day, we were watching the girls chase. Big Brother happily munching his sannie next to us, Biggest Brother and I sat side by side quietly like old pals.

All of the smalls are currently felled by a bug or two so I called an audible. A do over of sorts. Short of having a do over of a weekend, we got a beautiful Monday together to recover. To nurse everyone back to health, rest, disinfect. Finish homework. Begin celebrating Science Week with a science show in our pajamas on the couch.

I always tell the kids when it comes to fighting off illness, that I'd much rather it be me. But being down and out together is bonding. A siege mentality sets in. Us Versus Them. The smalls know I'll rise to be their Nursemaid Extraordinaire and they seem to be genuinely appreciative.

We've had plenty of together time to ruminate. About important things like the marital status of "the Professionals" (single) and how "Phineas and Ferb" got Perry (animal shelter). We've finished reading a mystery together, shared a few dramatic readings of favorite lines from new books, and had fits of giggles just because.

His question came out of nowhere. I wasn't expecting to have an existential conversation with a 9 year old over a salad and BLT today in the middle of London.

Biggest Brother went on to say that sometimes he looks out his bedroom window and sees black cabs and double decker buses and wonders "how did I get here?" Kind of a "why us? why me? what's next?" sort of thinking.

Probably not entirely comforting, but true - I told him I feel that way lots. He knows this so I didn't go into these details, but sometimes I catch them and feel like I must have missed a few years because they've changed before my eyes. Big Sister has long, thin legs where gushy ones were mere minutes ago. Her body is that of a little girls'. Baby Sister plays baby because we all know she's not one anymore. She is older now than her siblings were when they became someone's big brother or sister. There is no leaning or crouching down anymore when Biggest Brother and I talk. Despite his penchant for striking muscle man poses, Big Brother is comically skinny where his delicious belly was just protruding.

How indeed, Biggest Brother.  How did we all get here? (And as always, back to me...) How did I get so blessed?  How are you all mine? How is it that we're on this adventure together? Where will it lead?

It is hard to say, My Lovey. Impossible, really. I hope though, that you'll always tell me your questions, I hope that you'll always whisper secrets and giggle with Big Brother at night, I hope that you'll always play absently with Big Sister's hair, and I hope that you'll always gladly hoist Baby Sister (as you did so often this weekend!) whenever she announces she wants to "hold you!" One day she won't call it your "wap" but she'll likely always want to sit on yours. I hope so.

Yours is a great question shared by so many. I do know this: Life is a mystery. Daddy and I seem to think lots of it makes sense in retrospect, but often seems a bit fuzzy in the present. I think that's where faith comes in. I wanted to listen to you more than talk today, but someday I'll tell you about how all of us were so lovingly knit together. Over generations of family and friends.

You are such a special part of this world, Biggest Brother. You've been the king of our castle since you arrived and you are gracious about that. You are loving, kind, gentle, funny, talented, sweet. You are greatly loved. I'm thrilled we're going places together.

You arrived into our family because we were just that blessed. That you see the exciting world around you, and at 9, wonder which part of it is yours is very dear to me. And I've been your biggest fan since I started writing to you in 2001. Here's another love letter.

PS: I'm not just writing this because Daddy was away and we quite literally would have never made it out of the house to get to the park (which we needed so desperately) this weekend if it hadn't been for you. You tied small shoes and zippered little jackets, then had your siblings line up on one side, their vehicles on another while you directed one lane into the lift and another down the stairs! You crack me up!

You can be a little man in so many ways. But you'll always be my little boy. No matter how you got here. Or where you're headed next.