dress rehersal, and our first full family photo.

We were going to be the X-men. But matching jumpsuits were going to be too hard to find and most likely beyond our budget. So instead (with a lot of help from Grandpa) we did some creative scrounging and came out as lost boys/vikings/barbarians.

Their leggings are old car seat covers.

I'm particularly proud of Sparky's chest-plate which he designed (drawing me a picture of what he wanted) and I put together.

I'm also super stoked about Iggy's once-feather-duster-now-awesome-CROWN.

Duke made his rad lobster-claw necklace.

How about this hand-made leather vest for little Fitz? That was me! I made that! (Can you tell I'm pretty pleased with myself?)

His hat was from more of the seat-cover scraps.

My dress is a family treasure, made for me by my mom when I was very young. We once frequented Mountain Men Rondezvous (at the urging of my enthusiastic survivalist, little brother, Joey.) Man, I come from the coolest family. Oh, how I love them, especially for their eccentricities.

Grandpa made Dukes hat, and the rest of his costume came from our garage full of collected costumes.

Little miss wore her fall snugly, a gift from Auntie Donna, with a tiny bit of added flair.

This is our special spot. We go here together often. Every time is a lot of work (long walk to and from cars, kids trying to get in the water, kids taking off layers of clothing and handing them to us like we're pack-horses, boys almost hitting each other with giant rocks when their aim is off). Every time. But I like to imagine that some day we'll have gone there so often that they'll run knowingly through the trails to our spot without whining about the distance. They'll know exactly where the best blackberry bushes are and they'll be tall enough to reach the best berries. They'll be able swimmers so we might even let them wade a little. And their aim with skipping stones will have improved.

Of course, they'll likely be getting themselves into all sorts of new and exciting trouble that I haven't even imagined yet. But we'll deal with that when we come to it.

With toddlers along for the ride, even the most peaceful oasis can quickly become stress-central. Even stressful enough to make a couple of usually level-headed parents ask, "Why are we doing all of this?" There is a story that, as I have applied it to my current situation, has taught me much of patience and diligence in doing things with and for our children. Find it here.

We'll take the gold flecks we find in the rocks and build our collection of shining, family joy.


PS- Our costume inspiration.