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  (I’ve got to get the module for my external flash, it makes the pictures so much better.)  In an ideal world, my kids would have all natural toys, made from wood and organic cotton and wool.  However, that doesn’t seem to be realistic, and they definitely have their share of plastic and synthetic fibers.  One of my favorite big-name brand of toys is Lamaze.  I’m not sure why, I guess I love the super bright colors they use for their toys and how many different things each toy does.

  E3 loves to dress up in many different ways.

  I went into the kitchen to clean up after the kids were all in bed, and just had to laugh.  I thought this was a perfect representation of never knowing what I’ll find after a day with four kids.

 It was a trip-to-OMSI day.  When we got there we discovered all of the upstairs exhibit halls were closed to get ready for the BodyWorlds 3 exhibit.  Fortunately, the kids’ absolute favorite exhibit is downstairs in the Turbine Hall- it’s the one where they fill a 2-liter bottle with mixtures of air and water to create enough pressure to launch it up to the ceiling.  They could spend hours there seeing how many times they can hit the bottle on the top of the guide track.

Since the exhibits we usually go to after we drag the kids away from the Turbine Hall were closed, we did ones that we hadn’t spent much time with in previous visits. We did experiments in the chemistry lab, went to the Circus Science demonstration, and went to a show in the Planetarium.  I think the Planetarium could be a new favorite for all of us.

Well, after 142 days or so, I missed one.  I fell asleep nursing E4 before bed, and just drowzily went to bed when I woke up.  I had a picture planned with the cherries K had bought at the store, so it was especially frustrating to realize later I had completely skipped the day.

So I will continue on and hopefully not miss very many more.  There was a very short moment when I thought, well that’s it, I didn’t complete the challenge. I think that’s why it became difficult the last couple of weeks to post the pictures I had taken up to this point.  But I am reminding myself- something that took me a long time to learn- there is a difference between not succeeding with something, and failing at it. The value is not in reaching the goal, but in the struggle. Sometimes the goal and success are redefined in the journey.  Quitting is failure.

This blog has been good for me- I’ve had quite a bit of self-discovery so far.  Tonight I discovered I get preachy (or more so) when I’m tired.

  I love watermelon. I get excited when it first shows up in the stores- then end up buying it too early in the season and find it doesn’t have a lot of flavor.  This year I bought one of the mini watermelons, and it actually tasted pretty good.

  E3 has been asking over and over to learn how to knit.  Since it requires more fine motor skills than a three year old possesses, I hadn’t figured out to honor that request without her and me getting incredibly frustrated.  For some reason I had forgotten about the round loom set we had bought when E2 had also been too young to join in on the knitting family time.

So I pulled out a loom and a skein of soft acrylic yarn (pink, of course) and showed her how to wrap and then lift the loops over.  She picked up on it right away, and she actually got in a couple of rounds before it lost her attention and she ran off to play something else.

  I’m so far behind posting my pictures that the comments I intended to make pretty much no longer make sense.  So, to keep it brief I’ll just say I love looking at this set on my shelf, because it was a present for my very first Mother’s Day.

  We all had a fun time out at K’s folks’ house.  The kids got out the slot car track and took turns seeing how fast the cars could go on the smallest possible track configuration before they would go flying off.  I got a few pictures, but I thought it was great that in every picture I took of my niece M2, she had her head upside down.  I guess that’s the best way to play with slot cars.

 OTN is On The Needles, for those who don’t read knitting forums and blogs.