Keeping our promise to Anna probably had a few people suspicious of us crazy Americans. We didn’t have them take Anna’s place setting away (even though she wasn’t there) and so they continued to serve the phantom guest food. Each time a course was served, Andy and I took turns slinking out of the room with the plate and walking it back to the top floor of the farmhouse for Anna to consume. We would then bring back the dirty dish from the previous course. Luckily the wait staff was varied so I don’t know that they caught on. For some reason the exercise conjured up images of taking food to someone in a dungeon. Anna was happy though and we were very grateful to have her there to watch the girls.

Belén’s best friend, Gracyn, turns three today! We celebrated yesterday in true, three-year-old, Dora birthday party fashion: pinatas, ice cream cake, cupcakes, dolls and all around fun.

Jan was an amazing woman and was always there to listen and offer advice. She was a domestic goddess and a very organized working mom who worked as a lactation nurse. One of my favorite Jan stories was one time when we were running she was talking about her long day the day before and how she was so exhausted and wanted to do nothing more than just put her feet up and relax. She continued by saying, “but, we were out of orange juice so I had to go the grocery store.” I must have given her a look like, “Are you crazy woman? You were exhausted and went to the grocery store for orange juice?!?!” I don’t know why of all of the memories, this story is most memorable…probably because to me, it defined Jan.

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I have had three good friends give birth in the past week. There are few things better than when an email sharing the good fortune of a vibrant, healthy baby arrives

I love this picture as it captures the innocence of the children as well as the chaos of four kids together in one room…the bouncy dog, the Curious George jack-in-the-box, a shopping cart, a baby stroller and the favorite “toy” of both Belén and Crew, the flashlight, all entertained with children.

Sage and my attempt at adult conversation was fragmented leaving us to conclude we never aspire to have four children under five. I guess in that situation you just have to embrace the chaos.

We hope you had a wonderful 4th of July!

Ours was a perfect long weekend of camping, build-your-own pizza making and then finally a few pre-dusk, young child-friendly fireworks.

Today one of my best friends Sage came to visit with her two kids. We hung out for awhile and then I went and picked up Belén from school early so she could play with Sage’s daughter, Maite. Soon after another friend, Sarah, stopped by and we packed up all four kids to walk to Sarah’s child care provider to pick up her son. Once we had returned to our house we had five children under the age of five, walking, toddling, crawling, swinging (Eloise) and playing.

Our attempts at conversation were incredibly disjoint and interrupted. It was truly a juggling match where each of the moms attempted to appease their own children as well as any other child near them in need of something.

With three highly ambitious girls turned women turned moms corralling active young children, toddlers and babies, it didn’t take long to find the humor and amazement in the current scene.

“Would you ever have believed ten years ago that we would be sitting here with all of these children running around?”

The answer, a collective NO.

Saturday morning we were walking through the Capital City Farmer’s Market when I found myself next to a woman from my Hypnobirthing class and her baby born just three days before Eloise. After some initial pleasantries we immediately began asking each other how our birth experiences went.

I started by saying I flunked hypnobirthing and she said she did too but then proceeded to tell me how she survived 21 hours of labor, including three hours of pushing, without an epidural.

Um, chick, you didn’t flunk.

When I told her that my contractions were immediately so strong and so close together I asked for the epidural minutes after arriving at the hospital, she kind of said, “Ooooh really?” in a nice way that oozed with “Wow, you suck!” beneath the surface. Or maybe I was reading too much into her response but I agree it is a little lame that I spent five weeks taking Hypnobirthing classes and then so quickly gave into to the allure of pain-free birth.

Camping photos of Gracyn and Belén from Ponderosa State Park, Idaho.

Is this not the cutest Save the Date card you have ever seen?