Animals in the Snow

Here's another photo that Ida took. It documents Miki wearing underwear, for one thing. She's getting good at it--especially at Tumbleweeds. The other day Ella caught a poop in her hand.


Meanwhile, it snowed! Ida says, "you can't eat yellow snow--it's dirty--or snow that someone's walked on."


Miki was a little perplexed by the snow and wanted to get into the moving van. So she sat there for a while until we picked up


the Bradford girlz! Yeah!


To think that not so long ago the same pick up looked like this:


Anyways, that's the kind of action we're seeing around here. All's well. Stay cool, and see ya.

Theft from Tumbleweeds!

Okay, far as I know the security was not breached. Except I did get all these photos from there. And let me tell you, it's been about a month since all four girls were simultaneously able to attend school. Lots of fevers, vomit, diarrhea. Lots of lost work days. And I won't even go into what's going on with Vidamae. Meanwhile, girls!



Check out how sad Theo looks! It's because Arthur and Elsie went to NYC without her.


Elsie, the oldest student at Tumbleweeds, often hits other students with this rake if they disobey her!


Here's Elsie and Ida waylaying the chickens (thanks, TIH, for having urban chickens so we don't have to!); Aaron lets them go in with the chickens, but Melinda isn't into it.


Ida likes to wade in deep water and get her snowmobile boots impossibly wet so they weigh one hundred pounds.


Are any of the other Tumbleweeders in that treacherous puddle?


I don't even know what was happening here, except probably Ida was telling these trucks what to do next. Telling them to be very useful trucks or something while sternly pointing at them with her finger.


Actually, Theo is kind of sad,

but only for moments.

All Hearts

I really recommend the delightful video made by the cousins, but here today we had these two girls.


The one on the left says "I'm Nelson!" The one on the right says, "Happy Balentimes!" I think she believes Balemtimes are the delicious brownies made for us by the extremely limber Maggie. Anyway, Jordy Nelson, apart from being a Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packer, likes to run wildly around our house, very quickly, and has two daughters named Matthew and Hannah:


Yesterday we got to the zoo an hour early and it was very cold, but fortunately there was a train to investigate. And Miki was all dressed up, too.


The tights and diaper look can make Miki look like she's wearing a codpiece, but the sunglasses keep it all cool.

The Cold Bright Days

Okay, so this morning Miki wore underpants to school; I put a diaper underneath her in her car seat, but she arrived at TIH still dry. I've been told by impatient followers that it was time for a new post, but I wanted to update you on that. Speaking of TIH, I'll steal a couple photos. Here's from back when it was kind of snowy:



Miki often thinks she's very cool while she's at school.


This morning it was cold and frosty again, and I had a very difficult time convincing the four girls to walk from the moving van to the door of the school. I mean, they actively left the van, but then wouldn't go inside because they wanted to lick everything with ice on it and to proclaim where they saw frost. "On this leaf over here, too!" "Look! On this plant!" "What? On the stairs?"

In the very RIE environment, the sisters often interact quite openly.


Our good friend Sung-Ji doesn't often have to deal with such excitement, as she lives in Florida, but she can make a very fine hat for those in colder climes. This, which may have been a birthday present for Ella, is ably modeled by Ida here:

And here:

Miki vs. Underpants