The kids and I visited the zoo with Bryan's cousin, Amanda, and her two kids. They live about ten minutes from this year's membership (Toledo, since we've pretty much run the course with Fort Wayne) and will probably join us for most of our excursions.
I had a dream of playing real quartet music (read: not wedding gigs). After several months of hemming and hawing, I finally contacted the librarian of the Lima Symphony, who also happens to be a localish violinist that I am friends with. She had a quartet together within a day. Of course, being composed of members with busy lives and small children, our newly formed quartet had to wait two months before we could coordinate our schedules. We finally did it, though, and got together to play some Borodin and Brahms. It was lovely. Three of us are willing to meet monthly just for fun, but unfortunately, our cellist needs some paying gigs in his life. He also made the point that it's easier if we're working towards a performance of some sort. We are looking into finding some locations that would allow us to play whatever we want, and ideally pay us to do so.
And speaking of playing, Steph and I have been able to pull out instruments to play duets the past two times we've gotten together. And Elesha is able to play piano again now that she's no longer pregnant, so we've dug out music from several years ago (not that she was pregnant that whole time, mind you, but we were busy and unmotivated) and begun playing that as well. So much casual viola in my life!
The whole family visited Pittsburgh for Annemarie's baptism. Since school is done and the Bossards have plenty of space, we were able to visit for most of a week. Opa overlapped with us for several days, long enough for Matthias to warm up to him and develop a fondness for his presence. Bryan worked during the day, but the rest of us visited a park with some friends from Justine's church (there's a family with three girls the same ages as ours), attended the baptism (which Gretchen decided she missed, because she couldn't see anything due to the angles of the participants), and read lots of books. The big kids did some school work, and everyone played outside as often as they were allowed.
Gretchen's lack of athletic prowess was prominently displayed when she tried to throw a basketball to Edward. She tossed it straight up in the air, covered her head with her hands, and ran away. Edward scampered over and caught it on a bounce. Kaitlyn is not lacking in athletic prowess, at least compared to her sisters, but she was running to play basketball and wiped out rather spectacularly. She has scrapes on her knees and palms and a pair of scabbed over fat lips. It's pretty cute.
Matthias is a better athlete than all of his sisters put together, and Bryan claims that Matthias throws better than I do. I maintain that aim matters, so I think I've still got him. Matthias gleefully joins in any game involving a ball and demands to have a turn. He throws small balls, kicks large ones, and tries to dribble a basketball before asking to be picked up so that he can dunk it.
Gretchen and Kaitlyn had checkups. Gretchen is 43 pounds and 46 inches tall. Kaitlyn is 38 pounds and 40 inches tall. Kaitlyn also had to get her kindergarten shots, even though she's only preschool age. Apparently they give them any time between four and six years old, so these were her five year old shots. I told the doctor that it was fine that she get them, but that I didn't think the consolation of not having to receive them next year would help much with the disappointment of this year's visit.
I walked into the living room one day to find Gretchen poking at Matthias's face. I told her to cut it out and she said, "But he's yellow." I looked more closely, and he was indeed yellow. There was a large yellow stripe running from a third of the way into his hair straight down to the tip of his nose. At this point I noticed that a paintbrush that had been sitting in the middle of the counter in a puddle of mostly dried yellow paint was missing. As was Kaitlyn. I yelled for Kaitlyn, and she came sheepishly around the corner from her bedroom. She had a yellow streak down her nose as well, and also stripes around her eyes. I asked if she had painted anything besides herself and her brother. "Just the wall." Luckily for everyone involved, the wall in question was the tile around the bathtub. A damp towel took care of the wall, and I ran warm water into the bathtub and made Kaitlyn and Matthias stick their yellow heads underneath the faucet.
Pictures:
A trip to the zoo with second cousins (Dawson and Kinsley):
Dinosaur hair. An attempt to keep Kaitlyn's self-trimmed long bangs out of her face:
The cousins (minus Julian) with Opa:
A cousin line-up (again, minus Julian):
Me, roasting marshmallows for indoor s'mores:
Breakfast at the madhouse:
Baseball with Opa:
Teamwork:
Fias and Dotti:
Rag curls:
Matthias's selfie game is not strong:
Kaitlyn's self stylings:
Olivia and Gretchen take turns holding the newest Wey baby:
Matthias dresses himself for the (hot) outdoors:
Someone found all the winter hats:
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