overheard

seimi asking a distracted daddy who was trying to focus on work at the kitchen table, "daddy, do sheep lay eggs or do cows lay eggs?"

"sheep do lay eggs but cows don't," was the surprising answer.

seimi was heard muttering as he ran up to the table shortly thereafter, "pigs don't have eyebrows."

Decorations!

Leading off the decorations are the oldest ones of all, from the Mayor's first Christmas.  These little guys have seen better days, but in the land of blind puffball acorn skiers, the one-eyed puffball acorn skier is king!

Seimi hanging a car ornament very close to a green light since green is for Seimi.

Boookie inquiring about what kind of World War 2 plane one ornament is.  He decided it was most like an ME 262.

Ela making a very long, deliberate choice which ornament to hang up for her turn.

The Bunker got some camo netting and white lights, along with a little Christmas tree with Lego presents.  There's even a remote control to turn the lights on and off.

The Bower got pink lights and another little Christmas tree, also with a remote control.  The fun continued to grow when the hobbitlings discovered they can control each others' lights with the remote controls.

overheard

"i've noticed something - the better the food, the badder the breath."
boookie, age 9

Annual Traditions

We're all looking forward to Christmas, but probably none more than Seimi.  He was very insistent that we need to have a Christmas tree that was "at least as tall as when I was three."  He was very satisfied at the sheared Douglas Fir we selected from our traditional source, Chubby & Tubby's, particularly when decorated with our the traditional Christmas lights from the Hobbit Wife's growing-up years.

Admiring the lights after dinner, Seimi suddenly blurted out, "Wait!  I forget - how do you turn these lights off?  Do you blink at them?"

sing it like you mean it

at the risk of offending any of our dear readers, i confess...

i've never been a big fan of joe cocker's ballad, "you are so beautiful."

it's those two little qualifying words unnecessarily tacked onto the end of what might have been a fabulous compliment: "you are so beautiful... to me."

i'm sure i'm in the minority here, and perhaps i'm just a really grumpy person.  but i've always imagined the lyrics look something like this:

you are so beautiful!!!*

*to me.  everyone else politely tries to focus on your great personality. 

anyway.  i've never had occasion to share these thoughts with my seven year-old daughter.

so when she came into the kitchen this morning, dressed-up in so many layers of princess garb and plastic jewelry that she looked like madame bonbon from the nutcracker, i laughed and burst into song:

"you are so beautiful... to me!"  (it was true!)

to my absolute joy and maternal pride, she furrowed her little eyebrows at me and retorted with conviction,

"now that is just insulting."

that's my girl!

New in the Kitchen

After a long and much-needed hiatus from house projects, the Mayor and the Hobbit Wife have been enjoying a renewed/new sense of purpose as they have been exploring what Michael Delving is about.  The house seems to have a growing sense of identity, and all kinds of house projects small and large are springing to joyful life.

 

Last Saturday over coffee in the morning, the Mayor commented that he'd like to replace the kitchen floor.  It ended up taking longer than he expected because SOMEONE (the picture gives a clue as to that person's identity) had done a bang-up job with prepping and gluing the previous kitchen floor tiles, necessitating much chiseling and prying (aka bang-up job #2) to remove the old floor.

Here's some of the new kitchen floor mid-installation.  It took much longer than expected but turned out wonderfully.

While the floor was going on upstairs, downstairs in the Mayor's shop, the new kitchen table (begun long ago in the summer of 2012) was drying under the last coat of polyurethane.  The table had been on hold for this long because it needed to wait until the Mayor and the Hobbit Wife knew what sort of family gathering place was needed.  Once the Father passed that on, the rest was a piece of cake.  The Mayor worked up a quick model in Sketchup to work out the exact dimensions.

And it was only two weekends from there to the finished table, which turned out to be everything that was hoped for.

 The finished table and new floor.  We look forward to hosting you soon!

overheard

boookie was seated at the home computer, making explosion noises aplenty as he gleefully recreated the allies' defeat of the axis powers in italy.

[ela]  what are you doing, brother?
[boookie, with great gusto]   i'm blowing up sicily!
[ela, incensed]   why on earth are you doing that to poor cecily?!

Barbecue for ever!

This weekend, we gave the 'ol black spot to our grill of many seasons, which snuffed it one too many times, leaving undercooked food to be finished in the oven.  Ela crafted a beautiful "FREE" sign, we put it on our front lawn, and it disappeared within the hour, as is the way with such things here in magical MLT.

 

We acquired a replacement grill and were debating about names.  A line the Mayor read last night from "Treasure Island" jumped simultaneously to several lips:

"Silver!" they cried  "Barbecue for ever!  Barbecue for cap'n!"

And so "Cap'n Silver" was duly appointed as our new grill.

Famous!

The Mayor was captured by the Bing car while walking to work several months ago.

The Mayor has his backpack off because he's just putting his phone away after calling the Hobbit Wife to tell her that he was photographed by the Bing car.

Dinner Time

We have been doing a little bit of rearranging to accommodate another hobbitling at the kitchen table, now that Mr. Eejee is getting started on solids.

First time that all four hobbitlings are at the table together.

The proud six-month-old showing off 50% of his tooth collection.

Halloween!

Leading off the 2014 Halloween costume parade is Indiana Jones.

Next up is a soldier/tank commander/meerkat

Indy and his soldier buddy

The Hobbit Wife spent many hours making a lion-mane hat for Eejee's costume.

Eejee and the Mayor loaded up and ready to go out under cover of the Mayor's capacious umbrella.

Last but not least is Princess Jasmine.

Princess Jasmine thinking princess thoughts.

Sugar crazies celebrating their haul - 11 pounds of candy in a short night's work.

Pumpkin Season

Our wonderful next-door-neighbors grew a pumpkin for the hobbitlings that weighed in at just over 100 pounds.  [Grammatical clarification: the pumpkin weighed 100 pounds and was not intended only for heavy children.]  The Mayor set about to carve the pumpkin to match the hobbitling costumes this year.

Mr. Eejee

Mr. Seimi

Miss Ela

 Mr. Boookie

 The carved monster pumpkin on display

Fall Evening Haiku

The Mayor reads until:

Ela wants to stop
Boookie wants to keep going
Seimi is passed out

We just finished "The Saturdays" and are nearing the end of "Treasure Island."  It has been a delightful way to welcome the long evenings of the Northwest fall and winter.

Dire Warnings

Ela was working on a Lego project and left this sign as a warning to any and all who might think about messing up her creation.

Adventure in the Southern Kingdom, Part the Mayor

I've been talking with the Father about my desire for a family vacation to the Southern Kingdom since before Eejee was born this year.  I wanted an extra helping of summer, having worked through most of our short Seattle summer.  I received the unexpected windfall as a resounding, "Yes!" to my desire for my family.  We got packed and arrived safely, but I didn't know what gift I should ask for.



The two days at Disneyland were definitely the highlight of the trip.  It was my first time at Disneyland and I brought a lot of baggage and unfilled desires.  Frontierland was chock full of boyhood dreams of adventure, but I wasn't quite sure what to do there.  I thought maybe I was supposed to finally get the Davy Crockett coonskin cap I wanted since I was about 3, but no hats were available in adult sizes. 

My kids got guns, lots of guns and they were the envy of all the other kids on Tom Sawyer Island.  I thought about buying a rifle for myself, the kind of rifle I always wanted as a kid.  Maybe someday I'll build my own black powder rifle, but that wasn't going something for this trip.

It's hard to explain, but I had an epiphany while waiting in line for Big Thunder Mountain.  I was offered and I received the gift of time from the Father.  Waiting in lines with these delightful children of mine was what I wanted.  Just wasting time together, being together.  And it was wonderful.

The magic of Disneyland happens when you spend time engaging the dreams of the small ones next to you, in a place that tells you those dreams are essential, that you need to recover your own lost dreams and guard theirs.

I didn't find my heart at Disneyland, just confirmation I'm on the right track to bring back the parts of my heart I've sent far away, finding restoration in Life Himself.  The Adventure continues at Michael Delving.

Adventure in the Southern Kingdom, Part the Boookie

(Dictated by Boookie, typed by a faithful and long-suffering secretary.)

 

After Daddy finished a 1,000 page report at work, the meerkat-hobbit family decided to take some time off and go on vacation to California and stay there for a week.  The first part was interesting.  We went to Seatac Airport and got on a Southwest aircraft.  We were going to fly to Ontario airport, then go to Huntington Beach to stay there.  (Once we stopped in Oakland but didn't get off the plane.)  When we got to Ontario, we rented a very high tech minivan and went to Huntington Beach.  It was an hour drive so it was quite hilarious once everyone had fallen asleep except Mommy, Daddy and me.  We rented a room at the Regency Inn. 

 

The first morning was a "down day" after the long trip to Huntington Beach.  The breakfast was amazing because they had almost the opposite of the healthy breakfast we usually have; everything from cold cereal to pancakes that came out of a completely complicated pancake machine.  The "down days" throughout the rest of the vacation were quite exciting because we always managed to get some time in the pool.

 

The next day was at Disneyland.  Below is a picture of General Boookie next to his cavalry cannon!  (I said to Daddy, "Go ahead and put the pictures in the order that they were taken."  And, as you know, this is not at the very beginning of Disneyland, but it is the earliest picture we have of me in Disneyland.  P.S. I'm not really like Ela or Seimi - I don't really include pictures of the others unless I have to get the good parts out of it.)

And here is the first part from we went to Frontierland.  It's quite 19th century, from wooden ships to Indiana Jones.  Here is a picture of me at the Frontierland shooting range.  I think it's pretty cool that they're like Sharps rifles.

 

Here is me enjoying my new bolt action rifle and my new Indiana Jones hat.  Though, before, on the first day of Disneyland - (which, I forgot to mention, we went two times) - I had gotten my first gun, a Colt Navy revolver with holster.  By the time we got back from vacation, pretty much all I did was play Indiana Jones with my Legos and decide to be him for Halloween.

Here is me and the other two bolt-action-sniping on fake moose on the island.

Here is me and the other two with our discovered treasure.  We are not really pirates, we are just treasure hunters.

This picture and the one above are both on an island in Frontierland.  Here is me climbing on what happens to be the inside of a cannibal cage.

Anchors Aweigh!  Here is a picture of me on the Frontierland ship "Columbia." The ship was amazing because later my mom mentioned that it actually runs on tracks in the water.  Another reason why it was so awesome is because it had cannons, and you could go below deck.

Here is a picture of me and Ela on the helm of the "Columbia."

 Here is the second time that we went to the Frontierland shooting range.

Here is me getting ready for the Autopia driver's test through which I earned my Autopia driver's license.

Here is me at the wheel with Ela on what was hoped to be our camouflage, jeep-like Autopia car.

And here is the fourth and youngest child in the family, who is nicknamed Eejee the Monkey/Meerkat little baby.  He is enjoying the fun by one of his most hypnotizing stares - it's so cute it will hypnotize you!

Here the last big part in Disneyland for the rest of our vacation.  Here is the Iron Man mansion and all his suits.

Here's me as the first-born next to the Mark I suit.

Here is another one of the suits, which we have clearly forgotten which Mark it is. 

 Here is me next to one of the Iron Man suits with my Iron Man laser gloves pointed at the camera.

Here was one of the most exciting parts of Disneyland - going to get a picture with Captain America!  Here is the suit from his first mission.

 And here are the four of us who got a picture with Captain America, the Steve Rogers!

We have skipped ahead to the last big visit of our vacation, going to Legoland.  Here are me and Ela on what happens to be some safari jeep cruise in our giraffe-spotted jeep.

This is what happens to be me being eaten by a confounded lion-ish African beast.

Here is me on the ride that I went on when I was six, last time I went to either Legoland or California.

Here is me, Indiana Jones-ishly relaxing in California sun, with my Indiana Jones hat pulled down over my eyes, sipping root beer at the pizza and pasta restaurant in Legoland.

Here is us on the Lego Hydronaut speedboat ride.

Here is the last part of the last visit, at the Legoland water playground.

Here are me and Daddy, soaked after I went down a wet waterslide.

Here are some views of the water cannons at the water playground.

And here is Boookie, soaked and exhausted at the water playground. 

Here is me shaking hands with Han Solo, whose character also plays Indiana Jones.

Here, you can have your hat back!

As we were exiting Miniland, we happened to come upon what happened to be a remote-controlled Lego R2-D2.

Here is the last Lego shot in Legoland, with us and Darth Vader.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are coming to the end of our tour of me in California (maybe with some of my family).  Here is a picture of all the guns that we bought: 2 bolt-action rifles, 2 black powder pistols, and 1 Colt Navy revolver with holster.  As well as our TSA inspection card.

The End.