Moments

May was full of a plethora of activities: end of school celebrations, school parties, travel, and everything else that fills up the transition from one season to another. But amidst all the hubbub there were moments that more fully define this time in our family's life. Quiet moments on rainy days, gleeful moments playing together and laughing, and sweet moments that can be too easily forgotten in the daily turmoil of raising a family.

I will be writing a post soon of all the craziness, but right now I wanted to tell you about some of those little things that are worth remembering.

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Elora is my flower girl. She is always scooping together handfuls of dandelions, plucking up clover, and scoping out any other colorful weed she can pick and present to me after playing outside. I always tell her I'd rather she leave them in the ground so we can all enjoy them together, but she generally ignores this suggestion. Sometimes the boys bring me blossoms too, but it is always at the direction of their older sister.

 

Except one day, when Elora was still at school, Josh and Jonah picked me some flowers on their own! Even though I usually discourage any flower scavenging, I was touched that my cute boys had been so thoughtful to bring me some pretty flowers...so I had to take a picture. Or two.

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On an evening not too long ago, Joseph decided to get out a big bubble wand he'd found at school, and take it outside for the kids. As the stream of bubbles flowed wildly across the windy grasslands, all the kids  gleefully ran through the soapy display. The kids go outside to blow bubbles often enough on their own, but this day seemed special because daddy was there too..and he had a freakin' huge bubble-wand to produce those giant bubbles!

 

 

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Last year around this time, it was a very rainy, wet season. Puddles decorated the ground around our house and everywhere else we went; mud and rain were the bane of my existence. This year we prepared early and bought rain boots for all the kids, but alas, the scant snow this winter combined with the non-existent rain of the spring has rendered those boots all but pointless.

But toward the very end of May we finally had a few drizzly days. While I hated having the kids going nuts trapped in the house, I still loved the subdued atmosphere that a rainy day will bring. And I was in love with the unfocused, rain spattered view from my bedroom window. I have no idea how to even start, but I would love to have a painting of a rainy window like this, with everything so deliciously out of focus:

On one of the most recent bouts of cloudy afternoons, we all ventured outside for a few minutes after dinner.

We were watching the cloud formations on the horizon, where you could see the lazy sheet of rain stretching to the ground as if it were static and still in the distance.

I brought my camera out and walked a bit away from the houses so I could have an unobstructed view, and of course everyone followed me. We saw some beautiful scenes like these, though of course you could also see the grass in the foreground that my camera couldn't capture at the same time (isn't the human eye amazing?)

 

they weren't really this dark at the top, but if I did this lighter you couldn't see all the cool stuff below!

At this point, Josh decided he was going to run over to the pow wow grounds, even though we were about to all go inside. Joseph was about to go catch him and make him go home, but I suggested we all go walk out there for a few minutes, and Joseph could bring the car in case we needed to hurry home from the impending rain.

While we were there, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds, at the same time as a light rain began to fall. It was so pretty!

Of course I took a few pictures of myself for some "human interest" tee hee.

Joseph pulled up with the car and piled all the kids inside, but I insisted he come out with me for an impromptu photo shoot (after all, we haven't taken any pictures of the two of us since I was pregnant!) We took a bunch, but these two turned out the best:

 

 Then silly Joseph decided he would pose for a few shots on his own. Seriously, I don't know why GQ doesn't just call him up right now!

thoughtful

excited

surprised

 Before I jumped in the car (I wasn't ready to go, but everyone else was) I saw a pretty double rainbow back by the houses. What a great evening!