At the Dog Park

"I like your dog!" I hear the words and smile at the familiar echo. This is my five year old's favorite opener, her pickup line of choice -- at the playground, along the street, and, lately, at the off-leash dog park near our house. 

True to form, her affable intro is followed by, "What's his name? Can I pet him?" -- or perhaps, "Can I pet him? What's his name?" That is, if her sister hasn't beaten her to the punch.

Meanwhile, yards away, weaving his way into the cluster of dog owners standing about in the evening heat, my son is making his own friends. Between the three kids, they have a growing mental Rolodex of all the dog park "regulars."

"Is that your son?" A woman puffs up to me with a grin. When I nod and smile, she bursts into giggles."When I told him my dog's name, he said, 'Oh, Duke! That's a CLASSIC dog name.' What a friendly kid. So socially adept!" I consider telling her he's homeschooled. I bite my tongue.

As  usual, mine are the only children at the park, mingling with new and familiar dogs and owners. We stand about, making small talk, watching Pongo and his playmates race up and down the hill, ignoring their owners' pleas not to jump into the drainage ditch for a swim, and blowing off the steam they've built up all day between air-conditioned walls.

I consider how many times I've driven or jogged past the park entrance unawares ... until we became dog owners. Now, that entrance means freedom for our pup and a minor sense of community for us -- especially for the kids.

Do you ever find yourself building a habit -- consciously or otherwise -- with your family, and then wonder: Does this mark the beginning of a tradition that will last for years? Or is it just a blip in our family tapestry, until circumstances and routines shift and suddenly it's been days, weeks, months since our last visit? Will this become part of my kids' childhoods, or simply a mile marker for Summer 2011?

And now for an even more weighty question. If you had to put up with a blonde pixie dressing you up like this, wouldn't you need to blow off a little steam in the drainage ditch at the end of the day?

The Sprinkles on Top

Who doesn't love a parade? 

We adore our neighborhood parade -- and all the more this year because the dreadful drought our area is experiencing forced cancelation of ALL fireworks. And what is the Fourth of July without fireworks? 

 (Yes, that cute little puppy we bought six months ago is now a 44-lb-and-growing canine wonder.)

Our parade has everything you could want (well, almost -- no marching band.)

Costumed drummers -- check. 

A contest with ample categories for many winners -- check. 

Uniformed scouts carrying flags and leading the Pledge -- check. 

Highly inclusive participation -- check. 

A very short distance to walk in the morning heat -- check. 

We also have little speeches from the major and other city dignitaries, a bit of patriotic singing, recognition of veterans, and free ice cream. 

And, honesty compels me to admit ... my girls, to their great joy and my great shock, actually won first place in the "Bike Group" division. Which proves that sometimes, it really is worth it to run through Target at 8:45 p.m., scooping up any and all pathetic decoration material that's left. 

Sometimes -- like when I'm running through Target and it's my third store of the night to visit and I'm tired from a long plane flight home -- I'd rather just stay home and say "Can we skip it this year, girls? Can we just watch the parade from the sidelines?" 

But we do so much as parents that feels like drudgery. The chores -- just the ones to keep everyone clean and fed -- repeat ad infinitum. The reminders, the teaching and training in good habits, the correction of behavior, the attempts to corral and organize  -- these will always be with us. They're necessary, sure, but they do drain our Family Fun Bank. Not so conducive to the crafting of happy memories. 

So yes, the special breakfasts, the simple decorations, the craft projects, the little extras -- they require a few drops of effort and imagination, often when we least feel the urge. But they need not be elaborate (trust me on this!) to pay big dividends right back into that Bank. 

And don't we all need a little cushion now and then? 

Full Steam Ahead: The Summer Fun List

Howdy, friends!

I was in Branson, Missouri for the past few days doing some travel research (more on that tomorrow). But now it's home sweet home, with floors to mop and sheets to change for a week of guests and freckled noses to kiss.

Here in Texas, we parents have this survival instinct that kicks in around Memorial Day. As the mercury climbs toward triple digits, we start desperately casting about for ways to make it through a looooong, hot summer without slipping our moorings. We can't shoo the kids outside to play when it's a hundred degrees plus humidity, and yes, we can take them swimming, but there are only so many times a week you can round up the towels, swimsuits, googles and flip-flops, make sure everyone has sunscreen, and finally, forty five minutes later, get out that door.

So the kiddos and I have been brainstorming things to put on our calendar this summer (we do a very light school schedule). Things to look forward to. Things that don't cost big bucks. Things that will help us thrive, not just survive. I thought I'd share our ideas, and maybe you'll share some of your own in the comments. A few of them are specific to our city, but most apply broadly, like we're supposed to do with that sunscreen.

Our Summer Fun List: 


1. Make homemade ice cream (Done in Eliza's ice cream ball, multiple times)
2. Find a new sprinkler park
3. Use our Six Flags Reading Program tickets
4. See Mr. Popper's Penguins (the movie)
5. Make a deluxe kid wash, using these instructions
6. Make chocolate pudding pops
7. Participate in our library's summer reading program
8. Do a community service project, such as a book drive for our children's hospital
9. Attend some of the free children's programs at our city libraries
10. Camp out in the backyard -- June 29 is the Great American Backyard Campout
11. Get a Texas Longhorns decal for our car (my kids have become virulent Longhorns)
12. Go see the Zilker Summer Musical in the Park
13. Reorganize our books (yes, I find this fun)
14. Make a "Family Favorites" playlist for our Colorado roadtrip
15. Invite friends over for a giant water gun fight
16. Decorate bikes for the neighborhood Fourth of July parade
17. Work on our scrapbooks
18. Visit a natural swimming hole
19. Perfect the art of iced coffee
20. Buy a used card table and keep a big jigsaw puzzle going
21. Patronize the farmer's market as often as possible
22. Gorge ourselves on fresh peaches
23. Tie dye shirts
24. Drive out of the city one night and watch the stars
25. Paint with rainbow ice cubes

I hope to update this list as we spawn more ideas, and note when each is done. Anyone else making a list?

P.S. Our city has at least one website with ideas for free fun daily, called Free Fun in Austin. Maybe yours does as well!

Ramona Quimby, Age 8. I Mean ...

... make that Eliza Diller. The Age 8 part is right on the money, though!



During the Week of Extreme Busyness and Blog Silence, we celebrated the eighth anniversary of our beautiful girl's arrival in this world. Happy birthday, Eliza!

It was her year for a party (parties on even-numbered years; special outings with a friend on the odds), and she wanted her talented improv teacher to come as Penelope Foolish. We obliged. It was our first year to hire out the entertainment, but let me tell you, it was so worth it. All this tired mama needed to do, aside from purchasing a few supplies, was provide the food.



She requested for her birthday the following: A Bible. And an ice cream making ball. She received both. The Bible kind of speaks for itself (and my mom got it monogrammed!). But the ice cream ball? Is awesome in a totally different way. We've made three batches already in her quart-sized ball, and they. were. scrumdiddlyumptious.

Birthdays are the best, don't you think?

Multitude Monday XVI: Mini-Vacation

Hey friends!

We've been away, briefly. Very briefly. Had to recharge our batteries at the annual Diller Family Resort Retreat. Last year's post here. (Boy, I was on the ball last year.)

My suspicions are confirmed: Children adore tradition. They do anything together twice, it's automatically a family tradition, graven in stone to be reenacted until the end of time. 

Uncle Mike, you're taking us to hunt for golf balls after supper, right? It's a tradition. 

Is Nonnie making her special hot fudge sauce? It's a tradition. 

Ian always makes a giant sand sculpture and wishes the other kids would help him. It's a tradition.

I think it's innate in a child's DNA to hunger for family traditions, as a source of security, stability, and knee-slapping reminiscences with grown cousins. 

Of course, they also hunger for ice cream sundaes and pretty much anything else, as long as it's not their designated mealtime ... but that's another story. 

This year, in addition to the usual hours spent at the pool, we worked in a mini-golf outing. Next year? It's a tradition. 

And on that note, here are a few of the gifts I'm counting today ...

157. A family that enjoys being together, despite our varied personalities and nuclear family cultures. Our common bonds draw us together. The differences are there to teach us that people show they care in different ways ... and that's okay. 

158. Twelve of us playing Cranium Whoonu . (We love this game. It's gone over big with both extended families and has livened up the occasional dinner table as well.)

159. Titus and Stephanie, for keeping our dog all weekend and lavishing him with TLC. 

160. Spring budding everywhere, beguiling us with peeps of color. 

161. Family movie viewing: Secretariat. Love love love. Could write a whole post on the example of Penny Chenery as inspirational mother and mentor to her family.

162. Good advice from my mother-in-law when I needed it.

163. Staying up late to chat and pray together.

164. A book that made my sunglasses slide down my face, I was such a blubbering wreck at the end. Kleenex, please! 

165. The fact that we have a house to come home to. (Can you tell this was my response to my own whiny, "But I do'wanna come home! Wanna still be on vacation!")

166. Remembering that my children's less comely behavior is simply a learning opportunity for both of us. 

167. Helping my son build his crocodile in the sand ... because it's the connection that matters, and he's almost too big to need my help. More Kleenex, please!

3.14 Reasons to Celebrate

Monday was Pi Day.
Get it?

(Image from pauladamsmith)

March 14 = 3.14

As good upstanding nerdarific homeschoolers, we had to celebrate with a treat for the brain:
Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi (A Math Adventure)
(If, like me, you don't plan ahead for these things, you may find yourself saved by Barnes and Noble's reserve-online-for-store-pickup service.)

And as good upstanding appreciators of a fine pun and a fine dessert, we had to celebrate with a treat for the tummy: Pie!

Pssst: It wasn't homemade. Turns out Whole Foods sells small deep-dish pies for less than an arm and a leg, and that includes some gluten-free apple pie that will make your eyes roll back in your head, maybe permanently. (So don't buy it. Leave it all for me.)

Here's something I love about having kids: So many occasions to celebrate! So many seemingly trivial reasons to pull out the stops and have pie, or wear green, or buy flowers, or put on some music and dance around. Why hold back?

Which reminds me ... Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Now go do something silly and festive to celebrate. Remember, the years are short.


P.S. My friend Johanna sent me this -- a musical rendition of the digits of Pi. Jesse English, o ye of the thousand-digit-pi-recitation, are you reading this? This video will surpass your wildest dreams. If it doesn't, I'll bake you a pie. Or maybe the nice folks at Whole Foods will do it for me?

Proofs of Love

Hey friends!

I was just reminiscing about my kids' cool 3D valentines from last year.  Thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone's looking for ideas.

Meanwhile, we may do these this year (from Mer Mag via DesignMom.) Or maybe these, from recycled books.  Or something else that's handmade ... and simple. Always, always simple.

The Professor and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day really (although he's welcome to surprise me!) not because we're so contrarian but because we like to be different! And clever! And celebrate the anniversary of our first date two weeks later. So in our house, the day is really about giving proofs of love of all kinds, familial, platonic and divine. Love for neighbors. Love for siblings. Love for parents and children. Love for sugar. Heh.

And this year Caroline has decided that she really must throw a party. And you all know how I feel about planning parties. But because I love my daughter, and I want to teach both of my daughters the skill of being a good hostess (just one step ahead of you, girls!), I'm breathing into a paper bag and sending out a few invites.

We'll probably fill a jar with candy conversation hearts and see who can guess the closest total.

We may do a lollipop hunt in the backyard.

We'll decorate mailboxes for the kids to fill for each other.

Maybe we'll tell the story of St. (Brother) Valentine.

And we'll send them home with these sweet, healthy, and adorable treats. (While I collapse on the couch with a large bar of dark chocolate.)

Other than that, I'm open to ideas. Must ... make ... written ... list  ... or nothing will happen.

Snow ...

In the bleak mid-winter 

  Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, 

  Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, 

  Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

  Long ago.

- Christina Rosetti

May your noses be rosy, your fireplaces crackling, and your chocolate hot! 

Embellish the Day

Y'all may laugh. I may seem extravagant. I know Vanessa thought so when I consulted with her ... but she came over to my way of thinking pretty fast. My logic is like that. It wins people over sooner or later.

So Caroline wanted a princess party for her 5th, but I must have used up all my party-planning oomph back in August, and I tend to break out in hives when faced with the prospect of organizing the Perfect Birthday Party. So here's what we did instead. We had the cake and presents with the family on The Actual Day. Then, a few days later, I took her, along with her sister and three neighbor girls, to Embellish Salon to get their nails done.

Why was Embellish the perfect place for such feminine tomfoolery? Reason One: The walls are pink. Reason Two: Glittery stuff everywhere. Reason Three: Heated, scented neck wraps. Reason Four: They played Eloise: The Movie in the background. Reason Five: Mom gets to sit in an comfy chair and read the holiday issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Dear future husbands of these five girls: I'm sorry. Very, very sorry.

Dear future wife of the boy who had to tag along until he was rescued by my neighbor Jesse, who had done the Thanksgiving shopping for both of us: You're welcome. Very, very welcome.

I think they had a good time!

But lest you think I spoiled these girls irrevocably, that they're now proceeding precipitously down the slippery slope of Legally Blonde-hood ... here's what happened when we got home.

1. They whacked a homemade pinata to pieces.
2. We went to the park, and they rolled down mounds of dirt.
3. They set up their own spa in my kitchen, complete with mixing bowls full of bubble bath and magazines for the "customers" to read, and gave each other pedicures. I even rated a foot massage. With lotion.

I couldn't help thinking about the Betsy-Tacy books I still love so much, partly because Betsy and Tacy have the childhood that I wish every kid could have. In Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, the girls celebrate their tenth birthdays, and their lives are fraught with the tension between their desire to feel and be grown up, and the fact that they so clearly -- and endearingly -- are still children. So much of that freedom to explore, to spend hours picnicking in the hills and playing in the streets, is a bygone dream for my daughters' generation. Now they have chaperoned park outings and a more constant adult presence. Yet that same force of imagination endures, making life at the same time simpler and more exhilarating.

Of course, it's not their nails or even their imaginations that make these girls so lovely. They care for each other -- there's no meanness in their play. I may even be so bold as to say they love each other. Which makes them, with or without embellishments, truly beautiful.

A Salute to Fall

Dear October:

Why yes, you certainly may cut in on my long, slow dance with Summer. I had grown tired of its company about three songs ago and your face, the promise of your delightful presence, are most welcome indeed.

Sincerely.
xoxoxo

So, here in Texas, we celebrate when the mercury falls consistently below ninety. I know fall technically means apple-picking, clear, crisp days, light sweaters, and crunching through haphazard piles of golden leaves, but some of us just have to make do.

Some of us just decide to out-and-out REBEL against the fact that we're still being devoured by mosquitoes and wearing T-shirts, and we decorate for fall anyway.

Here's my To-Do list for October, my most favoritest month of the year:


1. Take the children to pick out pumpkins, probably at our usual picking spot.

2. Learn to make a great deep-dish apple pie.

3. Pull out our favorite fall-themed picture books, like The Biggest Leaf Pile and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.

4. Hang up our leaf garlands and other fall decor.

5. Go camping, before the nights get cold.

6. Finally, finally, finally, re-paint our kitchen. Harvest gold-themed wallpaper, we bid you adieu.

7. Bob for apples.

8. Have the neighbors over for dinner (or maybe dessert -- see #2)).

9. Throw a Book Character costume party for my kids and their friends, since we don't do the Halloweeny thang.

10. Get outside in the sunshine as much as possible and enjoy being alive.

Summer in Review

Today marked the end of summer for most of our fair city, as all the schoolchildren headed back to the classroom, despite the fact that summer is definitely hanging on here. It's still weird for me, after all these years, that school reconvenes while it still feels like summer. Growing up in New England, I associate the advent of school with a September nip in the air and new, long-sleeved clothes. What do you buy for back-to-school clothes around here? New tank tops, just because?

Anyway, even though today was no different for us -- in fact, my kids all slept in until 8:30 a.m. -- it seems like a fitting occasion to review the highlights of the summer. Sandwiched between times of trauma and of travel, most of these moments never made it onto this blog, but they wove the fabric of a season in our family.

Summertime was ...

Picnic dinners at Zilker Hillside Theater, to see evening performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Annie:

Playing in the creek with friends:

Making mudpies in the yard:

A (mostly free) trip to Six Flags:

Swimming at Barton Springs, an Austin landmark:

A Saturday night at the ballpark:

Running the go-cart around the driveway: 

Succumbing to insanity by joining the crowds at the Lego store's Grand Opening:

Playing excessive amounts of Toontown with the neighbors (at least they collaborated!):

Sending the boy and his buddy off to sweat it out at McKinney Roughs Day Camp:

And visits from beloved friends from far away:

It wasn't my favorite summer ... not a ride I'd like to take again. Mostly, it didn't begin so well. But scrolling through the photos tells a better story.

"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, 

But to be young was very heaven!" 

                -- William Wordsworth