Thy Fearful Symmetry

The other children saw Samantha in the feline majesty that Becky created for her and demanded more of the same.

Absence

Well, while Becky and our eldest are zipping across the country on airplanes and minivans, the rest of us are making do.



Lucy and Nora took to the stage while we waiting for the Deanna Rose farm to open. Here, Lucy is giving us her rendition of "Quando, m'en vo," Musetta's aria from Puccini's La Boheme.

Here, she holds a tomato.

Here is a picture I stole from my dad's seldom used blog of our partial reunioin a couple weeks ago. That's our niece/cousin, Annie, who is excellent.

Smitten

Our charming little four-year-old, Lucy has been extra charming as of late. She's shown off her progressing literary skills by saying things like, "I do not like M-O-M."
She's also quite an artist. She presented this jewel to Becky, along with a conversation that went like this:
"Mommy, I drew this for you!"
"Oh, wow, is this lightning?"
"Yep! It's hitting her!"
"Who is the girl?"
"It's you."

Burgundy

We've been fairly blog-lite over the last month or two while we figured out what we wanted to do regarding our internet service. We've figured it out. Everyone can breathe a tremendous sigh of relief. Go ahead.

A majority of the Tolman clan came to KC for a visit over the 4th of July weekend. This is the only picture we managed to take of the entire affair. Nice, eh?

It was 106 degrees without the heat index yesterday. Lucy was trying to look into the camera, but her eyelids melted.

This is Donatello.

Things that occupy my time

You say tomato, I say weeds and aphids.

Tow-truck drivers, in my experience, don't talk about very much besides tow trucks and towing.

This used to be our eastern view in our backyard.

Now it looks like this.

Teeth, Naked Hopscotch, and Rogue....

As you can see, Sam's teeth are finally repaired. She was a lot of fun after her dental work. Versed is a great drug, and she has no memory of the couple hours she spent grasping at the "white stuff" that was apparently floating a few feet in front of her.


Tile floors and recent potty training combine to create magical adventures.


Sam completed kindergarten. She got to play the drums during her class's rendition of "Blood in the Rio Grande," a Navajo death chant they learned for Culture Week.

And I have something to confess. I don't believe the plants I was trying give away were zucchinni. I'm 93% certain they were..... pumpkin. It makes sense, seeing as I dumped the guts of the one big pumpkin we produced last year into the compost. Unfortunately, I gave away about 6-8 plants to an interested coworker. I suppose I'll have to tell her. I am shamed.

Nitrous oxide, Commencement, and Rogue Zucchinni

And life progresses steadily onward for the Tolman clan. Samantha has had 2 of 7 cavities addressed. The first was filled, the second more rotten hole resulted in a quick extraction. That laughing gas is good stuff.




Lucy "graduated" from her first year of preschool. She was voted by her class as cutest and the most likely to be photographed in a cocaine-fueled rage.

This was her a couple days later.

Nora has gone pee in the potty for two days in a row. I believe our current box of diapers is the last we will have ever purchased. Can you feel it? Can you feel that fresh summer breeze? It's a beautiful day.


A red strawberry. This was eaten a couple hours later by one of the aviary creatures with whom we share our land.

Seriously people. Don't you want to be loving parents to one of these orphaned zucchinni plants? Our onions and broccoli insist they need more room. As much as I hate to play favorites... something's got to go. So sad.

Monkeys, Wigs, and Rogue Zucchini

It's very strange to realize that my 5-year-old daughter is a better athlete than I ever was.

Weaves are this year's hot, new fungal vector.

So last year, we started a compost box. We added our vegetable debri to it all winter and when we started our garden a few weeks ago, we mixed it in with the soil. Well, it turns out that if you include seeds in your compost, there's a good chance that some of those seeds will maintain their viability. We have what appear to be zucchini plants popping up all over the garden where they were never intended. They could be butternut squash, or even spaghetti squash. We ate all of those. They're probably zucchini. It seems a shame to weed them out, so if if anyone wants some zucchini seedings, just let us know.

Quality Eggs

Happy Administrative Professional's Day, everybody.

We travelled about 30 minutes north this last weekend to a place with nice, rounded bushes where the girls searched about and found brightly colored, egg-shaped, candy-filled representations of the Lord's Resurrection.

Samantha is wondering if the individual on the left is hiding an egg in his pants.

Lucy expertly navigated the ball-shaped bushes without touching them. She doesn't like balls. GOLF balls, sicko.

Nora is to skin pigment as her father is to hair.

Lucyis shorter than the camera operator by a ways, but she's smarter than 94% of all registered dolphins.


Becky made these lovely easter bags, which the girls can now use to carry distractions to church.


I didn't realize until I saw this picture, but my oldest daughter has some guns. Bam! Hyrum, you better start doing some curls if you don't want to look like a wuss next to your wife.

I wonder if egg hunting is anything like antelope hunting. I bet antelope hunting is easier and harder at the same time. Easier, because antelope are so much easier to see. Harder, because anteope are more difficult to open.

I've heard Independence is the meth capital of the United States.

In case you thought your kids were cute.