Birthdays and weddings- June.

Georgie and I just love each other so much.  Sometimes so much that it makes your little sister cry.  

We're all getting very excited for Aunt Jill's wedding in February.  One night Henry decided he needed to pick out clothes for us.  This is what he came up with.  We hope this matched the colors, Aunt Girl.  There are no pictures of Henry because he insists on wearing a full suit.  His black dress shoes still fit.  Here's hoping his feet don't grow in the next few months.

Here's another puzzle we finished.  Puzzles of National Parks?  Love it!

One of my favorite school friends had a birthday party.  Her mom insisted that it was a whole family party, so we all showed up.  Bless her heart.  It was a madhouse.

But not as crazy as the awesome cake Kiyoma's grandma made!  (They even had an accordion player!)

Kiyoma and I are adding the first bit of drama into their class.  Lately there's been a lot of "She won't play with me!"  Mama thinks it might have started after I hurt Kiyoma's feelings by playing with her little sister Jasmine, who by the way, is the cutest little spitfire ever.

Mama was just about ready to cart us all home.  Look at how good everyone else is being and how rowdy we were at the end of the table.

After supper, we all calmed down and headed outside to have some fun.

Georgie sat on the swing all night.  Except for the time she walked right behind the swing, got kicked and flew into a plastic toy and got that awesome bruise on her face.  Poor kid, she inherited the Seibert family trait of walking into the path of moving objects.  

Around- Georgie.

We've had a pretty exciting early fall.  So much that we've all come down with nasty coughs just needed some time off. 

In an effort to continue to get away with sneaking my nukie and "menkie" (or "guankie") out of bed, one day I pulled a pillow into a toy bin and declared I was in bed.  Totally cute, and also a little much because lately mama always lets me have my n&b.  One of the perks of being the spoiled youngest child. 

Henry was hit especially hard by his cold.  He seemed to be doing just fine, but couldn't seem to shake his cough.  After missing 3 days of school (and probably more except we had school off one day), mama and papa took him into the doctor.  The diagnosis came back as cough-variant asthma.  That means that when he gets a cold, his lungs and airways get inflamed and he actually has asthma attacks that present themselves with coughing instead of wheezing.  And this is in line with the past few bouts of colds and coughs he's had.  We're not sure if this is one of those new often-prescribed illnesses that in in vogue (i.e. the upper respiratory infection of college students), but the nebulizer they gave us made a world of difference in getting Henry back to normal and everyone sleeping through the night again.

The attention was focused WAY too much on Henry, so I had to get it back to me again.  Cue some mock potty training.  Maybe I can con mama into giving me candy ever time I "try" on the potty.

June was the next to go down.  She never became horribly ill, but she did fall asleep at naptime two days in a row.  For June, that's one step away from hospital admittance.  While I take respite in long afternoon naps, June will do all she can to keep herself from falling asleep.

Being confined to our house with hacking coughs got old for mama, so she decided to spice it up.  Did you know you can microwave bars of ivory soap and they look like this?  And you can mold them and play with them for about 1 minute before they turn to dust?  Pretty fun stuff, unless you're June, who took one look at this, turned her nose up, declared "I'm not touching that stuff," then went back to looking through the pile of bug books she checked out from the library.

June and I have our moments when we don't get along.  They usually coincide with me touching, looking at, or thinking about a toy.  But from time to time, we really get along.  And June has an uncanny knack for getting me out of a bad mood.  Here's a taste of June's distinct humor and my infectious giggle.  Trust me, you're going to want to watch this one.  It brought down the house.

Fun in Louisville- Mama.

I ditched the kids for a weekend and flew into Lousiville to spend the weekend with the Tallers and our friend, Dan.

First stop, an awesome kitschy restaurant called Lynn's Paradise Cafe.   

They had tons of fun stuff to see before we were seated.

Who's getting this for June for Christmas?

We ordered hot browns all around and Aunt Jenni got a bourbon ball milkshake.  Delicious. 

Annalise was not so pleased that none of the grown-ups shared the milkshake.

What a fun place.

Next up, the Louisville Slugger Museum. That's Jay Bruce's bat!

And mama with Ken Griffey Jr!

We all got mini bats to take home too!  Except that mine wasn't allowed on the airplane back. Nuts.

The showcase of the weekend was India Day, or Vinda-Lou.  so much fun that we forgot to take pictures!

After we sent Uncle Jim and the girls back to the hotel. we decided to hit up a few stops on the Urban Bourbon trail.  We encountered one ghost at a hotel that knocked over our drink (or so the waitress said).  But the best ghost we met was Colonel Sanders himself!

Two stops on the Urban Bourbon trail and who knows what might happen?

The next day, Dan and I explored the Falls of the Ohio and enjoyed a Ale-8-One (Kentucky's finest) whilst overlooking lovely downtown Louisville.

And we even got to see the graves of Kentucky's finest- obviously including the Colonel.  

About Junie- Mama.

Here's a post for you all about June.  She remains the sassiest and most defiant of the kids.  But generally, that also means she's the funniest.

One day, June decided she need a magic wand.  So she marched up to me and asks me to get on the Princess Facebook to order her one.  When I explained to her that there was no Princess Facebook, she simply demanded "Then go to Princess.com."

I hope this doesn't mean she intends to be a princess for Halloween.  Originally, she decided she wanted to dress up like a veterinarian (which is what she wants to be when she grows up- a veterinarian for horses, unicorns, and dragon).  I bought a set up scrubs at the thrift store and cut them down to her size, though she's never put them on.  Now she seems content to go as a pirate.  Luckily, we already have that costume.


On September 24th, we headed into downtown Rockville to celebrate F. Scott Fitzgerald's birthday.  The town hosted a party and mama had just finished reading "The Great Gatsby."  We even visited F. Scott's grave.  I wish June wasn't blocking the empty bottles of champagne.  The best part of the afternoon for June was when we visited the fancy toy store and both of us fell in love with the Playmobil dollhouses.

June's been having a great time at school.  Her teacher said she is prone to talking alot, but doesn't seem to take offense when she has to be told to be quiet.  She has her own little group of friends, but all of the kids inthe class seem to get along and we haven't seen any of the cattiness we've heard can go along with 4-year-old girls in large groups.  She has one buddy named Gabe with whom she is especially silly and the two of them have conjured up a certain brand of potty humor.  It mostly consists of calling each other "garbage" or "poopie."  Henry does not understand how that could be funny, but June likes it.

June doesn't nornally fall asleep in the afternoon, but she is forced to spend a half hour of quiet time in the bedroom when Henry gets home from school.  She always asks how long she has to lay down.  Once I told her "until you're rested."  She closed her eyes for a moment and declared "I'm already rested.  Can I get up now?"

June's favorite toy remains her stuffed unicorn "Snowy."  She also goes by the name "Unicorny" and most recently "Stacey."  I made the mistake of sewing Stacey a nightgown.  June has sinced asked for a ballerina costume, a skirt, and a dresser in which to put all of her clothes.


June remains strong in her love for music.  Her new favorite is "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire.
Here's the rest of the kids' Spotify playlist:
Dolly Parton – Coat Of Many Colors
The Cars – You Might Think
The Killers – Spaceman
Dolly Parton – Applejack
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – 40 Day Dream
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home
Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)
Feist – 1234
Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way
Simon & Garfunkel – Cecilia

Apple farm- June.

Our school took a trip to an apple farm outside of town.  

 First we got to see and feed some animals.  That's me clinging to my teacher and refusing to get anywhere near an animal.

 Georgie, on the other hand, was at the front of the line demanding pea pods and beans to feed to all the animals.

 She also thought this scarecrow was hilarious.  I added it to the list of things I'm afraid of.  It's too close to mascots.

 We took a tractor ride out to the orchard.  (Georgie was mad she had to sit down and threw a fit the whole time.  That's so JoJo.)

 But we did have a lot of fun picking apples off the tree. 

And picking out pumpkins in the parking lot.

 We drove Georgie's classmate, Yohansh, and his mom with us.  After we got back, she invited us back to their house and made us an awesome Indian lunch.  Well, at least mama said it was awesome.  We jsut ate snacks.  (Have we mentioned how much mama loves our school?)

Despite the fact we all ate our weight in apples on the tractor ride, we got snacks when we got back to the farm. 

Guess who LOVES goldfish?

Walking to school- Henry.

We've had the very good fortune of good weather so far this school year.  On September 18th, we had our first forecast of afternoon rain.  And, without fail, at 3pm, the biggest, windiest storm came through.  Our school tried to dismiss us a few minutes early in the hopes that we'd make it home before the rain started.  Since it wasn't raining when I started out, I didn't bother to put on my raincoat.  

This is what I looked like when I got home.  Soaked to the bone.

Even my boats were filled with a good 3 inches of water.  

We've had one rainy morning since.  Mama drove me to school, but we had to wait in the drop-off line for 30 minutes.  Mama says there's going to have to be another monsoon before she does that again.  

Antietam- Henry.

We wanted to stay at the campground all day, but mama caught wind that the Appalachian Trail was just a mile away.  And if there's one more sure thing about mama, it's that she will always make us stop and hike the Appalachian trail, even if it's only for a hundred yards.  So we headed up the road only to find this sitting in the middle of the road ahead of us:

Of course, there's a memorial to Civil War Correspondents tucked away in the middle of nowhere. 

Gathland State Park  turned out to be a fun diversion.  George Alfred Townsend, a Civil War journalist actually built the arch and a huge estate up here over a hundred years ago.

But, of course, he squandered his fortune and died penniless and his estate went to ruin. But it did make for a fun place to explore.  June decided she wasn't into it and went to sit in the car.  She's totally going to be the one who yells "Can't we just take a vacation that's not educational for once?" 

Soon JoJo got fussy and banished to the car too.  That left mama and I free to do a little hiking of our own.  We found a really cool trail, but couldn't hike too far on it, lest we lose sight of the grumps back in the van.

We were worried we might have to scratch the rest of our plans for the days, but a long drive around the Maryland countryside provided a short nap.  Then, further fortified by vitamin peanut butter, we resumed our afternoon's activities.

And those were to celebrate the anniversary of the bloodiest day on American soil- the Battle of Antietam.  You've got to hand it to the National Parks Service.  They know how to put on a 3 year long sesquicentennial event.  Here they had a whole festival set up, including tons of informational tents, reenactors and kids' activities.  We especially liked building a miniature Burnside's Bridge and setting up troop formations. 

If dirty faces are an indication of a good time, then it was a great day.

Why can't we ever just look at the camera at the same time?

Mama BEGGED us to get an old-timey photo taken.  Only Jo and I obliged.  Papa begrudgingly put on a uniform and then turned out this awesome pose.  You know he wanted to do it all along.  

After Georgie took off the green dress, she insisted on donning the yellow dress too.  That is one cute kid.

Someday, June is going to regret she didn't take part.

After a trip through the Gettysburg Traveling Museum trailer (you just always have to show everyone up, don't you, Gettysburg?), the kids were dead set on following a path through a soybean field.

And mama waxed all nostalgic about how could anyone hold a war in such a beautiful place.  Western Maryland, you have won us over.

Papa picked us up in the van and took us around the driving tour.  We made papa stop so we could climb the tower by Bloody Lane.  Mama wanted to prove she could climb to the top without panicking like she did the last time she came with papa.

It turns out that chasing two kids up old metal stairs is enough distract you from being too scared of heights.

On the drive home, June said she wouldn't take a nap.

Until she did.  That is one tired girl.

JoJo did her normal one-eye-open napping.  She's been doing that since she was born.