A much better use for Bull Run

We haven't had a family picture taken since Daisy has had enough hair to be visible at camera distance, so we figured it was about time. Our awesome friend Erika Johnson spent a chilly morning with us last Saturday at the Stone Bridge in the Manassas Battlefield, and we managed to produce this:

I'll post a few of the others on FB, but the uploader on this thing is a bit clunky, and I should be making dinner right now.

It's been another whirlwind month...and Doc and I have just volunteered to run a Cub Scout den in our copious spare time, so it's not going to get any less crazy any time soon. But I'm sure it will continue to be fun. My only real memory of Cub Scouts as a kid was being there on the fringes of my brother's den once when they were making candles in our kitchen and my dad, while trying to clean up the leftover wax, managed to set the kitchen floor on fire. Since we have wood floors, I will be extra careful during any candle-making.

Happy birthday, Dad. Miss you.

Still here

I knew I wasn't going to make it on here much over the summer. I wish I'd managed to do better since school started. Sigh.

But I had a good laugh over this one so thought I'd share...at least it will be written down:

So last night after dinner we read the end of Alma 37 together with the kids, and after reading, reviewed what we'd just read in a little plainer English. Besides helping make the scriptural language a little less confusing, this practice also supplies us with occasional evidence of just how creative our kids can be when they are caught not listening...

Mom: So, Buzz, the Lord gave Lehi and his family the Liahona to guide them in the wilderness. And what did they have to have in order for it to work for them?

Buzz: They had to repent and have faith.

Mom: Good. (Thinks she's tossing Aslan a softball, since the question's already been answered) OK, Aslan, what did Lehi and his family have to have in order to make the Liahona work?

Aslan (caught napping): Um, batteries?

Look out, Spock

At the lunch table today:

Bookworm: What is pizza made of?

Doc: You know, crust--that's made of bread--and sauce, and toppings like cheese and pepperoni.

Bookworm: But where does it come from?

Doc and I (in concert): Pizza trees. (I know, it's worrisome that even one mind works like this; that ours do it together is more than a little scary.)

Bookworm (skeptical): Pizza trees? I've never seen any pizza trees.

Doc (in his element now): Oh, they grow over behind one of the pizza places in Haymarket.

Bookworm (knows she's been had now): That's not true!

(While Doc and I snicker, she proceeds to inform us of our mistake): There are no pizza places in Haymarket.

(Quick, hide the phone book!)

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Wait, is it April already?

Oh yeah...I guess we kinda sped through Spring Break (3400 miles and seven pairs of shoes...more on that later) and the rest of the month has been kind of a blur...I had a great birthday, and Aslan and Buzz are having fun with soccer. I've broken down and joined Facebook, and as I expected, I just don't manage my time well enough to keep up with it. And my photo catalog has crashed (I can still access the photos, just not through PSE) so I'm behind uploading photos. I'll get to it, I promise. Maybe by the time school's out.

Life on other planets

In the car on the way home yesterday, Bookworm was explaining to us that she had learned that Pluto used to be a planet. (Hearing this made me feel my age a little, though perhaps not as badly as the time I told Bookworm she sounded like a broken record, only to have her ask what that is.)

Anyway, Bookworm went on to explain that now we know that Pluto is just a dwarf planet. To which Buzz replied:

"You mean, dwarves live there?"

Eggcellent News

Yesterday, having scored a negative allergy skin test for egg at her recent check up, Aslan underwent what is known as the "graded food challenge." This was an egghausting 2-hour trial in which she sampled a small bite of egg, waited 20 minutes, then got a slightly bigger bite, and so on, all the while being monitored for possible reactions. She's a tough chick; she didn't complain about the wait, just sat and read stories, colored pictures, and dressed and undressed the sticker princesses in the activity book in the waiting room over and over. I was pretty fried by the end, but she kept her reaction in the shell until the doctor finally announced that she was certified grade-A egg allergy free. Then she got a devilish smile on her face and inquired, "Can we get doughnuts now?"

Unfortunately, that celebration got scrambled by the revelation that our favorite doughnuts also contain soy flour. Some other allergen always manages to poach on her fun! So we got bakery muffins instead. That got her sunny side back up.

So, Aslan is now back to eating eggs, regular cupcakes and pancakes, and a number of other treats she has been denied for a year. Her soy sensitivity is still there, but seems to have diminished, and the doc is hopeful we may unload that one in another year or two. Then she really would be full of beans again...but for now, at least her yolk is (over) easy.