Suddenly Six!: Pieces of me

There are pieces of me all over the house... Or there are pieces from me missing all over the house…..small objects scattered about, evidence that some curious little people have gotten into my things. They somehow manage to weasel their way into my little nooks and drawers and proudly carry away plunder. There are random parts and objects all over the place. Scattered...hidden...found only when I'm not looking for them.

Yes, I do get frustrated when I finally settle down to paint my finger nails after a long day and find that my favorite color is missing from my cabinet. I know it is in the house somewhere; it will turn up perhaps months from now.
Then there are my red, high heeled shoes that really exist for nothing except for the joy Evie gets in stealing them and wearing them around the house. The most recent thing to go missing was a glass, vintage door knob from a bedroom drawer. After two weeks it turned up under my bed while I was searching for my lost nail polish…

Yes, my house can be characterized as being in pieces, pieces of life scattered all around. Pieces of me.

Speaking of pieces of me, our little Evie is thriving at preschool.

Ready for show and tell with Curious George

The amount of artwork she brings home sometimes is a little overwhelming.

I’ve hung a rope in my family room to display it all (thank you Pintrest) but even then we still sometimes run out of room.

She's really into drawing rainbows and sunshine. She asked me one time the order of colors of a rainbow, and now she draws them constantly.

One day when I picked her up from school the teacher said she’d been working on a special picture. It was a picture of our family. Her attention to detail was remarkable. I had green eyes; John had a beard. She even drew the three brothers in the stroller. And she included herself, dressed up beautifully in a rainbow dress and shoes.

I framed this and hung it on the wall.
The reflection from the glass makes it hard to see, but the brothers are between her and me.

No one taught her how to draw people; she just picked it up. It’s remarkable to see her view of the world; her ability to make sense of everything and put it on to paper seems to evolve naturally and its fascinating to watch. I'm glad her view of the world includes lots of rainbows and sunshine.

I told John it would be funny if she ended up getting into art. There is music talent, athletic talent and brains all mixed up in the Patton-Mrumlinski DNA...art really isn't something on our radar.

I've been trying to expose her to a variety of activities lately. I've taken her to friend's soccer games. We went to a play. I've played classical music and had her attend dance performances. I've tried to cultivate an appreciation for literature.

However, she seems to really like being creative through coloring, creating and drawing. She could teach me a lot. I draw people the same way I drew them in 3rd grade.

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And finally, in other big news, Caleb got his first haircut. It was time…way past time.

His curly red locks seemed to have a mind of their own and they needed desperately to be tamed.
Caleb can get very emotional and the success of an outing or an activity is really based upon his mood. The morning I decided to get his haircut was a morning when he was a bit on the dramatic side. He’s obsessed with Elmo right now, and he delights in wearing his Elmo pajamas. When he has an emotional day, parting from them only escalates things. So, this being one of those days, I allowed him to wear his Elmo pajama pants to the hair place.

Ready to tame the mane.

This place caters to kids; it's definitely a little much, but they get to sit in a car of their choice, watch a movie and hold a special toy. Caleb didn’t really know what to make of the whole experience, but he seemed content to have his locks fall to the ground.