Dear Brownie:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it,

is to make me forget how challenging this week was.

Warning: this mission may be all-consuming.....

A preview of teenagerism...

This morning we had to get up early. Audrey doesn't do mornings.

She's asleep.

The light is on.

Glowbug is next to her face, singing.

Genny and I have had at-Genny-volume conversations.

I have patted her back.

She has not moved a single muscle.

And yes, of course she's breathing.

She's just ignoring me.

Finally she did this:

Turned glow bug back on.

And after patting her and talking to her and generally being a pest, I got this. (love the hair)

Teenage years are going to be a challenge.

Genny goes to gymnastics

Here's Genny at gymnastics with her beloved teacher Miss Brandi....

And her sister cheering her on!

Signs, signs, everywhere signs...

I put this sign on the door since we have had a fair amount of inspectors tromping through the house. Genny asked what it meant, and I could tell she was thinking hard about it. You see, when anyone shows up at the door, my dog goes berserk. And so ringing the doorbell is the least of the problems, really.

So later she drew this picture and told Robert what to write on it. She was quite certain that this was going to be much more effective than the sign I created:

It says "Daisy: Don't Bark When Audrey is Asleep!"

Audrey teaches you how to make stuff disappear

How to Make Things Disappear (By Audrey Kate):

Distract everyone with how cute you are.

Meanwhile, find a door.

Little tiny ones by the floor are easiest to reach.

Put stuff out the door.

Preferably sister's stuff.

It's like magic!

If anyone notices you, claim you were just checking the weather or looking for the dog.

Actually, the dog seems to be the only one who knows about these teeny doors near the floor.

Weird.

Continue until all the stuff has fully disappeared out the door.

This may take several tries.

Then, act like nothing happened.

No one will suspect you of anything!

a poling convention

Seriously, I've never seen so many polings in one place.

This weekend in Texline we went to a family gathering for all of the children of Robert's great grandfather. Here's the generation of Rob's dad's age people.

Genny was all snazzied up for the party. And ready to roll.

She watched everyone else get their picture made on the stairs. And then asked me (quite desperately) "MOMMY! When do I get to have my picture made on the stairs too?" So Stan and Bobbie were nice enough to pose with her for her stair picture.

Audrey behaved herself quite well.

We brought her car, and so most of the time she drove around bonking people on the leg and eating cheerios happily. It was great. She made quite a few friends that way.

Sweet Genny and her daddy!

Audrey really liked Linda. And her necklace.

Genny with Papa Stan and Bobbie.