Superman: I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way. 
Lois Lane: You're going to end up fighting every elected official in this country!  

I think the officials are safe. For tonight, anyway.

EDEN . . .

If someone says to you, "Boy, Edee, you sure look different with your haircut. I really LIKE that," the correct response is NOT to point to her head and say, "YOUR hair is sticking up. It looks funny."

Especially not when it's a nice lady from church.

Because you never know when a Nap may strike YOUR head.

I have learned that this word, Thaw, serves as an adequate synonym for that most evasive of words here, Spring.

This is what Spring looks like on the boots:

And under the nose:

And, just because Ethan's mother has a picture almost identical to this, except the boy is wearing a hat and darker hair is peeking out from under its rim (but the boot-and-nose-dirt is present):

(And, just as a side note, the glass door behind that child is filthy! Doesn't he have a MOTHER?)

But, most advantageously for us, three above-60-degree days in a row spurred us on to Missoula, where we dabbled in the water

and made a boat

and set it to sail down the river

and threw sticks, small

and large

and just generally watched the happy goings-on

and relaxed. Oh, and discovered the wonders of chewing gum:

Even the drive home was a treat for the eyes:

Goodnight, Missoula. And goodnight, moon.

Our time is improving. It used to take both Ethan and me 45 minutes to get the kids ready to play in the snow, and yesterday it took just me 25 minutes. I know this because I put the macaroni and cheese in the oven, set the timer for 25 minutes, and it went off just after I had pulled the velcro tight on the last set of mittens.

Thursday night it snowed. The children were thrilled. We have had quite a few days of warm (at least 45 degrees), pleasant, enjoyable weather; but there were those bright red sleds, looking lonely and unloved. So when we woke up Friday to see snow falling softly on a freshly white world, they were elated.

And I was resigned.

I pulled out the recipe for my kids' favorite comfort food (homemade macaroni and cheese), threw the ingredients together and in the oven, and steeled myself for the trials to come -- trials in the deceptive shapes of mittens, gloves, hats, snowsuits, coats, and boots. Oh, and extra pairs of socks.

We headed out. Ethan must have heard the children from his off-the-garage study, because when I got out there, he was making a new sled trail. The one the kids had started using was dangerously close to the van (as you can see from this picture that the camera took when I threw my body -- with Jonathan almost toppling off of my back -- into the path of the girls' sled).

Ethan is a real show-off of a sledder. My sled rides average 3 seconds. His average about a minute. It's ridiculous. He sticks his arms out and sways with the sled, maneuvering around trees and rocks and vehicles. He decided to give Benjamin a lesson in Sled Steering 101.

Benjamin braced himself for the absurdly long ride that was to follow:

Not everyone was thrilled to wait her turn:

But there's not much a ride on a sled and then Papa's shoulders can't cure, or at least soothe from an all-out wail to a gentle sniff-sniffle.

Jonathan and I kept the girls busy collecting a large bowl of snow (no dirt, no footprints, nothing yellow).

After an appropriate 25 minutes (YES! We were outside for as long as it took us to get ready!), we headed indoors for lunch and dessert: Sn'ice Cream*. It was such a hit that the kids asked if we could please make this again and again, and Abraham declared he was going to make "Snow Noodles for beakfast formoddow [translation: breakfast tomorrow]." Thankfully, he forgot this part of his plan this morning.

After naps, we headed out for our weekly Buy-One-Get-One-Free coffee and steamers, and then at Walmart Ethan spotted some snow cone sleeves and flavorings.

Come on, snow. We're ready.

*Sn'ice Cream:

2 cups milk

1 cup sugar

1 T. vanilla

Mix until sugar is mostly dissolved. Add to large bowl of clean snow. Stir; serve immediately. And brace your teeth!

Yesterday, after giving Ben (7) and Abe (3) haircuts and marveling at the quietness of our new clippers, we put Jonathan (7 mos.) to bed for a nap and the rest of us bundled up to head outside.

This bundling required the usual: snowsuits for the littles, snowpants for the olders, an old pair of jeans pulled over regular pants for me, and coats, snow boots, hats, and extra mittens for all. And it was still cold.

We trudged up the side hill with our newly-found sleds. These sleds are very valuable to us . . . after weeks of visiting every store that could possibly carry sleds, the children had been sledding on cardboard boxes covered in trash bags. We periodically checked the stores, only to be told, “We’ve been sold out… not sure if we’re getting more” over and over. It wasn’t until we ducked into a CVS (of all places!) for some eye drops that Ethan spotted some bright red plastic sleds for sale by the counter.

Where was I? Oh, yes, trudging up the hill. The children were excited. I was tired, exhausted from trying to locate everyone’s gloves and pull snow boots on and resolve issues of hats that weren’t aesthetically pleasing to their wearers. The children made it outside and down the hill once before I got out there. Ethan watched from his study and called to tell me it was a picture moment, everyone smiling broadly as they swished down together. I mumbled something about not having batteries in the camera, he said something like “all right, crabby cakes,” and I located my old jeans and wondered how much longer I had before Jon woke up and how many other things I could be doing instead.

But I went. One foot went in front of the other, and I was at the top of the hill with the children. I first took Miriam (3) and Eden (2) down and was amazed at the amount of dexterity it takes to sled. Not only do you have to avoid all boulders and trees, there’s also Papa’s study at the bottom of the hill and a sharp drop-off down to the road on the left. Ben and Lily (5) navigated this with ease, even with a sibling on each sled, but it took my entire attention to turn the sled and dig my heels in at the appropriate time. Then, when the twins decided they wanted to go down by themselves, I had to position myself in a likely spot and throw my body at them to stop them.

Sledding is not for amateurs. Or, perhaps more accurately, sledding is only for amateurs.

Anyway, no one complained about having to walk back up the hill. The children trickled back inside, one by one, as the cold eventually got to them. Abraham was the last, and he only went in because his hand was firmly grasped in mine and it was time for lunch.

Ethan fixed lunch (!!!) and the children napped hard and long.

Success.

Today our little Edee, with hair down to her waist, turned two. It didn't seem like she should be turning two. Three, maybe. But two? You mean last year she was only one, and the year before she barely was?

This little girl, who proudly puts on her own boots and coat (upside down, admittedly), celebrated her birthday with the proper amount of indignation at her siblings' secretive behavior as they wrapped her gifts behind closed doors. We had taken them to Goodwill so everyone could have a chance to pick presents. I was pleasantly surprised that only one toy was chosen...a Baby Annabell doll that she had heard crying and instantly wanted to mother. Other gifts included a set of sparkly necklaces, a felt purse with hearts on it (how handy to have Valentines' so close by!), and a green hooded towel with the eyes and feet of a frog.

Ben (7) made her a card that said, "To my loveable sister Eden: You are now two years old, and what a pretty one too." We think he enjoyed the homonymnal "one, two" of it.

Dinner was baked salmon (I do the foil tent method, 15 minutes at 425 -- comes out perfectly every time) with mashed yams. To keep them from prematurely scarfing everything down before the cake was ready, the children were given pretzel sticks to dip into their spinach dip and then catch goldfish crackers -- a snack I MUST remember for those times I need snacktime to take a little longer in the consuming than it does in the preparing.

Cake was a family tradition...german chocolate upside down cake. I tried to be a maverick and find some sort of cute cupcakey thing I could make with the ingredients we had at hand...but the ... ahem ... children (yes, only the children, never the adults no huh-uh) were so disappointed I gave up and we ran out to get the proper ingredients. And I must say, if you're going to have a cake every birthday, this is the cake to have.

After we finished supper, Edee opened her presents with barely controlled delight. I don't know that she was any more excited than any of her siblings, though. It was a pretty hyper event..

And so our little Eden Quinn Mable Allison turned two. The things I want to remember about her at this stage: her "What are you makin'?" said with a Germanic harshness, the way she shrugs when she is being shy or unsure, her extremely pudgy dimpled knees, her "I Yuv You"s, so constant at the grocery store, her answer "Yep!" to almost every question, her munchkin nose scrunching up when you ask to see her teeth, the way her cheeks succumb to gravity when she sleeps in her carseat.

I love you, little one. May our God draw you closer to Himself this year. You are a blessing indeed.

I love this one. One of my friends taught my kids this, and I unashamedly show this off whenever I can.

When you have to bundle 6 kids, you LOVE it when they can do it themselves. Come to think of it, I don't know of any parents of only children (parents of only CHILDREN? Something's wonky with that sentence...) that beg their child to please stop dressing himself so Mommy can do it.

So here's the Montessori way to put on your own coat when your arms are too short to do it the conventional way:

1) Lay the coat on the floor. The back of the coat should be on the floor, with the opening facing up.

2) Stand by the hood. (The coat will look upside-down to you.)

3) Stick your arms in the arm holes (yes, even though it looks upside-down).

4) Now swing your arms up and FLIP! it over your head!

At the beginning, you will have to throw the coat down for them and remind them where to stand (by the hood!). But eventually, they can throw their own coats on the floor. All by themselves.

For more ideas, see Mother Hen's website.