Grandma Robbie came bearing a freezer full of meat on Saturday afternoon and spent the night before driving back to North Dakota the next morning.  The kidlets put on a dramatized version of the Wizard of Oz for her entertainment, and we all played outside almost all of the afternoon…

When I was in the eleventh grade, my good friend Tiffany gave me an orange as a present one day.  I stuffed it in the side pocket of my backpack to eat later, and then never did eat it, because it was so nice of her to have given it…

Let’s just say that YaYa’s patience with Mr. TOF continues to amaze me every day.  No one else in the house, including myself, would be brave enough to let him loose with a hairbrush.  He was SO happy.

The Banana was finishing up a homework packet during spring break, and because he has to do everything those big sisters do, he wanted to join in with the marker fun.

Snow!  We had three major snowstorms/blizzards within the time span of one week.  The first lasted two days and gave us 14 inches of wet, heavy snow.  The second was a fast and furious deal that left us 6-8 inches overnight.  The third was a more drawn out affair that…

April is National Poetry month and it holds a special place in the heart of this former English teacher.  When I was in the classroom, I had so much fun coming up with seven thousand ways to integrate poetry into everything that was happening in my classroom during the month…

  Last week the big kidlets were home all week from school for spring break.  Since most of my piano students were not traveling, I maintained a mostly normal teaching schedule, and several of those students come to their lessons during “nap,’  when Mr. TOF is napping and the big…

In an effort to make spring break interesting and exciting, on Tuesday morning I suggested that we go to the Maritime museum and then the grocery store.  The free Maritime Museum down by the ship canal is a great little museum, and even though I’ve been there many times now,…

He’s her biggest fan, and his adoration for her oboe runs deep.  He waits all day for YaYa to practice oboe in the evening.  He’s always been enamored of the wonderful sounds from that black and silver pipe, but she really sent him over the moon when she learned to…