Ready for action! I think this is the cutest thing I've ever seen. It's Asa singing his "Silly Colored Monster" song. Johnny Appleseed Day

Happy birthday to our sweet Leah! She turned six in May. Her birthday was on a Monday, so she went to ballet and school and Bryn's softball game! A busy day, but we managed to squeeze in plenty of celebration time. She had afternoon kindergarten this year, so she and Asa and I got to go to lunch on her birthday. She picked to go to Wendy's. Leah helped get the cake popped in the oven before ballet. Some ballet class fun on her birthday. Leah is a delight, as long as she has a full tummy! If she gets hungry, watch out! She loves to read, play the piano, play with her siblings, draw, and play school and house. She's really into rocks.  Totally thrilled that Bryn lent Leah her baseball socks for sports day at school. At the library, she likes to check out her regular chapter books, but is always bringing home all sorts of nonficton books from "toilet paper tube crafts" to "big cats." She is interested in so many things. She has...

Look at these adorable children! I can't believe they're ours. And I can't believe that they are in 4th grade, 3rd grade, and kindergarten! Time has started to fly. For some reason, kindergarteners don't actually start until a week after the older kids. That week nearly killed Leah off. The anticipation was just too much for her. So we were all relieved when her official first day finally happened.

We interrupt this blissful walk down memory lane to whine and complain about how I am stretched totally beyond capacity and ready to run away to Tahiti. That's right, we're potty training. And Bryn started kindergarten this week. And I'm still nursing. And the bus stop, which I visit three times a day with littles in tow seems like 45 miles from my front door when it's really only a block. And my house looks like an explosion went off in it. Yesterday afternoon I was, you guessed it, in the bathroom. We'd been there on and off for two hours straight. Yep, two. Leah was poised for success on her frog potty and I was sitting across from her on the grown up potty cheering her on by reading books, reminding her that she could earn a smartie and a video, singing, coaching her on body awareness, challenging her to fill her little frog to capacity, you name it. (I myself was not going to the pot, thank you. There's just not a lot of seating options in the bathroom.) ...