The Calm after the Bug

It is ridiculously late to start writing this post, but I have finally got my house to a point where I am not filled with self-loathing to sit down at the computer. The Cotten kids (and their chauffeur, Bethaney) were down Sunday through Tuesday night, and the seven kids played in grand style. Meaning, every toy and book we own were spread hither and yon. Augmented by the fact that Bethaney and I made a serious dent in the library's bag booksale on Monday, there was a LOT of stuff laying around the house. (I didn't let the little detail that every bookcase we have is already overflowing hinder my avaricious nature whilst book-shopping.) Then, Bethaney left with her kids Tuesday evening, and I got violently ill. And did I mention Evan is out of town for four days? Yeah, the house was a little interesting by this afternoon.

But in pictures, it is back to Sunday evening, where all was peaceful, calm and still.  Well, not really, there were seven kids running around the backyard while Evan juggled, but it was pretty weather.  (I wish this picture showed Evan whistling at me, but I'm pretty sure that didn't happen.  Not sure exactly WHAT he was doing with his mouth, but it was probably integral to juggling.)

There is lots of smoke getting in the way of these pictures, since we were grilling this delicious chicken.  

Funny faces really do seem to be part of the juggling process.

Lincoln isn't sure about tickly grass on his bare legs, so he spent lots of time crawling up and down the deck stairs.

The big sisters.

Monday morning, Cheyenne and Orianna wore matching outfits.  I'm not sure where Cheyenne saw this pose, but she thought it would be a great idea to lay on the floor and have her and Orianna pose like this.  Lincoln doesn't understand the concept of glamour shots, so he just W-sat and grinned.

They ARE glamorous!

These are the skirts I made for them.  Breanna has a matching one, I think these girls would have been ecstatic if she could have been here, matching them!

Lily and Rilla were matching, too.

Rilla's rubber boots are the ones that are on the wrong feet, of course.

Sweet little girls.

Lincoln, falling asleep on our bed for his morning nap.  I don't often get a picture of him sleeping, since he falls asleep by himself in the crib pretty good these days, so I wanted to make sure I captures this sweetness while I had the opportunity.  Though mostly, I'm currently fixated on the fact his overalls look ridiculously short.

A blue princess dashing through the backyard.

And a pink one, who looks like she is ice-skating past next year's garden.

This one looks more like the tavern wench.

Mr. Gilbert, wanting to give me a high-five.  Bethaney put up a beautiful essay about Gilbert on her blog yesterday.  It made me cry, and look forward to hugging him again soon.

Elliott isn't really fitting into the mix with his blue jeans.  Later, he did don the top half of a giraffe costume, which was highly appropriate for the occasion.  He inherited his daddy's fastidious dress sense.

Some could think this picture looks like Cheyenne is ordering people around, but since that is impossible, I don't know what's happening here.

The princesses, getting their swing on.

This moth (moth? butterfly?  I read an interesting, easy way to differentiate them the other day, which I totally forget.).  Anyway, this winged creature landed on Bethaney's hand.

I guess it was feeling princess-y and wanted to join the party.

Trying to get it to step onto Cheyenne's hand.

This was as far as it got.

Orianna and Cheyenne adding some perspective to this picture, to show how much our catalpa/catawba tree has grown.  (Wikipedia, fount of all knowledge, says both names are acceptable.)

Tuesday was flag day, so this is what the kids like before they walked Cheyenne to school.

Lincoln feels the need to clap patriotically.

Gilbert thinks clapping is interesting.

Lily  is taking her job of keeping Gilbert on the wall very seriously.  

Yes, this is a fifth picture of basically the exact same thing.  I find it hard to reject pictures with seven cute kids in them.

As I picked up the aforementioned seventy bazillion toys today, I quickly saw the charm in letting a lot of toys retire prematurely.  I asked Elliott if there were cars he didn't want anymore.  He quickly pulled out about 15, telling me why he didn't want each of them.  "The wheels don't turn on this one, the window is broke here, this part broke off..."  He wasn't examining each one and then deciding, he just had a mental catalog of each and every car!  I knew he played with them a lot, but I hadn't realized the depth of his knowledge!  He's a smart little cookie.  He'll randomly ask me the strangest things lately, but if I pause for a minute and think through all the books I've seen him with, I can usually think of which book prompted that thought or question.  He reads constantly!  He makes life interesting-- like during Rilla and Lincoln's nap today, when he turned every object in the house into a percussion instrument.

My other little boy is walking!  He's been taking steps quite a bit, but today I saw him walk from the sofa over to a toy, crouch down to pick it up, pivot, and walk back to the sofa.  That's officially walking!  He's missing his daddy almost as much as I am-- it took him a long time to go to sleep tonight without Daddy's arms.  There was a lot I needed to be doing, but I sure enjoyed rocking him in my arms in the darkened bedroom until he fell asleep.

Evan is coming home tomorrow, and we're planning on heading north to Vaughan's.  We haven't been up since the end of sugaring, the first week in April.  Quite a bit to do in the interim, so I really SHOULD go to bed!  There's always so much more I would like to write, and then I didn't check Facebook today at all, or anyone's blogs...  I love staying in touch with people through the computer, but it sure can suck up two hours pretty quickly!