Brothers

Enjoying the sunshine

Given that we're still baby-free (that sounds like it's the state I was hoping for which is not the case but we're making the best of it), we headed downtown today to see the Maparium. We talked yesterday about world and european geography and thought it went well with our discussion. The map is circa 1935 and it was a quite a testament to This Day in History that the boys knew about the USSR, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and Germany being split then reunited. We spent quite a while enjoying the beautiful weather and then had a lovely lunch at Wagamama before heading home.

As nice as it was, tomorrow we hope to be snuggling a baby!

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Nature at work

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Still a novice

I should have known it was much too quiet but he was sitting reading quietly in his room and so I thought I'd throw a load a laundry in while the older kids were occupied with choreographing a music video. And then I did put a few dishes in the dishwasher after working out a few arguments about the creative process. Only then did I think that it was a bit too quiet. I found Mr. 2 soaking wet with his arm in the fishtank. He had thrown rocks into the filter (and one of the snails), pulled out all the plants, and knocked over the castle. Somehow the snail survived and I managed to get the rocks out of the filter and clean up all the water. I feel like by the time you are having your 4th child (and 4th boy no less) that I should have some sort of intuition that these things are going on but sadly I need those few quiet moments or we may never have clean clothes or clean dishes.

On a bright note, Mr. 6 and Mr. 8 with their friend Ms. S made a great music video with costumes and choreography. They're not quite ready for Hollywood but maybe Youtube. The new OK GO video has been quite inspiring - and did you know they used HTML to make it?

Our park

Not just a playground - also a ninja hide-out, frisbee field, baseball field, building site, and anything else you can imagine. Definitely on our list of blessings.

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Summer reading

Even a late night couldn't keep Mr. 8 from being up early with his recently borrowed programming books.

On the train home last week, Mr. 8 was reading a book on Scala (a programming language but that's all I can tell you - you'll have to ask him for more details). The man sitting next to him kept glancing over at it - likely trying to decide if it truly was what he thought and if Mr. 8 was actually reading it. Finally the man asked Mr. 8 if that was a programming book and which one. Mr. 8 told him it was and the man threw out a few questions to make sure Mr. 8 actually knew what he was talking about. I think he must have passed the quiz because the man mentioned he was a programmer as well expecting his first child. I'm sure he has visions of what his 8 year old will be reading in a few years. Meanwhile, Mr. 6 happily joined the conversation and told him all about our family with as much detail as possible. They do keep train rides interesting!

Enjoying time with friends

The frisbee crowd gathered for some pizza and beer here last night. Altogether that included 12 kids and 14 adults in our little house - a bit cozy with the humidity but a great time was had by all. Especially the kids who entertained themselves quite well with minimal injury (even with all the sword fighting). The older girls adopted Mr. 2 and read him quite a few stories while the rest of the crowd created an entire Lego world.