It has been three months since we’ve posted and Stuff has happened. Great stuff (Emmett’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s, Tessa’s birthday); good stuff (Itty Bitty getting to know our family); and stuff-stuff (strange days with COVID-19). Let’s dig in…

Christmas was great. We’re sure you’ve seen the pictures. Toys, toys, and more toys. Laser Tag, Legos (lots of Legos), books, and a mushroom growing kit. (Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.) We spent a bunch of time together as a family, going to museums, seeing some great movies, getting hooked on a new show (The Mandelorian, Asher’s new favorite), and then we spent New Year’s Eve celebrating without parents at a Zoo overnight. Yes, yes, yes! No parents. All night long. At the Zoo. SO MUCH FUN!

*Note: We are going to gloss over the Thursday Night Massacre. One fox. Nine beheaded chickens. Bodies strewn across the chicken yard. This was a bad scene that we will never speak of again. Ever.

Then we were back to school, seeing all of our friends after a long winter break, and before we knew it, it was Tessa’s birthday. She planned the whole thing, and then nothing happened as planned. There were over 20 kids that came to celebrate Tessa. 20 makes it hard to do a sewing project. But 20 is the exact number you want to run around and create general mayhem. The party was a hit! A kitty themed cake, playing outside in gorgeous 60-degree weather, and chickens, cats, and our fantastic Isaac dog. (Riley wants to make sure that the Hammock Incidents are mentioned. There was flipping. Children were rolled. The hammock was taken down. The End.)

We are now reminded that Emmett’s Birthday Movie Night might not have been detailed in a previous blog. His was a great evening of friends, pizza, popcorn, and Anime. We watched Spirited Away and everyone who was anyone loved it. Those who did not, were not invited back. Another great party spent with friends and our family. Yay!

You might have also seen a picture of Emmett getting ready to view a performance. He, being the cultured man he is, had tickets to the Peter Pan Ballet. It was by far the most fun ballet he’s been to. There were blinking lights handed out to each ballet patron to wave when it looked like Tinkerbell might not make it. (Spoiler Alert: Tinkerbell did, in fact, make it.) Maybe it had to do with all the kids waving blinking lights repeating, “I do believe in fairies,” but, regardless, we prefer when our main characters survive, so we are on board with it.

We are happy to report that our Itty Bitty is Miss Wonderful. She’s all kittened-up these days, attacking anything that moves (read: toes wiggling in the middle of the night, hair falling into your face, eyelashes blinking–anything). But she’s SO CUTE! She’s still a little purring machine, and she’s learned to hold her own with Professor Striped Pants. She’s actually a bit of a bully with Isaac, but we’re hoping that she backs off when she gets bigger. Cross your fingers. In the meantime, Isaac slowly backs out of the room when he sees her there. No harm, no foul.

Which brings us (at lightning speed) to today and strange days of COVID-19. We’re scheduled for nothing. We’ve no theater, no guitar, no school (although that coincided with Spring Break, but we’ll see if that gets extended). We’ve no where to go and not much organized play to attend to. The zoo is closed, the museum is closed, the Botanic Gardens are closed. We’re largely on our own. As for everyone else learning to do school-at-home?Well, they’ve just wandered into our ‘hood. We’re still plugging along with our curriculum, maintaining a semblance of normalcy, hoping as we always do to keep it interesting while doing the work that needs to get done.

We’ve all started playing this game outside that we call school. We based it on a set of books (We LOVE to read!): Pencil of Doom, Mascot Madness, and Treasure Fever. We take turns being the teacher while teaching art, gym, study of bananas, science, math, history, and gardening. Mom’s not 100% sure of what’s going on outside, but she’s happy we are engaged in something not screen-related and not yelling or hitting each other. Riley would like you to know that the teachers they pretend to be are called Mr. Grunt, Mrs. Rainbow, Mr. Shush, Mr. Spade, Mrs. Cross, Mr. Brain-fright, and Mrs. Robot. Good times. At least playing outside with our siblings isn’t being banned. Yet.

We send out good vibes and supportive thoughts to all who are affected by this virus. Be safe and be well. This too shall pass…

You might have noticed a new furry creature in our family pics recently. We’d like to introduce you to our new family member. Shuri, meet our Pig Friendly Community; PFC, meet Shuri. Shuri found us. As in, she came to our back door, and asked if we had an extra couch for her to crash on for awhile. We are happy to say there was ZERO hesitation. Mom screamed, “There’s a kitten in the backyard!” We swooped outside, grabbed the small, fuzzy body, and spirited her straight upstairs to Apollo’s food and water.

She was a raggedy Itty-Bitty (which is, coincidently, her spy name–Miss Itty-Bitty, just like Apollo is Professor Striped Pants), and she was mostly bones. When we put her in front of the food, she proceeded to eat and didn’t stop for more than 15 minutes. Riley tried to lure her to the water and put a drop of water on his finger and made the questionable decision to put that watery finger between the kitten and her new food. Not surprisingly, the kitten bit his finger thinking it was food. The teeny, tiny wonder, however, purred like a steam engine the ENTIRE time. She was so loud, you could hear her in the hallway.

That evening we took her to the vet. She weighed less than 1 1/2 pounds, she had an upper respiratory infection, and she had something suspicious going on with her eyes. Since she was feral, no one knew her history, we were advised to quarantine her for 10 days in case she had rabies. At this point in the vet exam, Riley blanched noticeably (see above reference to his kitten bite), and while his eyes turned watery, Mom had to assure him that the Universe would not send us a kitten with rabies.

We left the vet an hour later, laden with meds and kitten food and a kitten with a new name: Shuri. You might have noticed that Asher’s favorite movie, and Marvel character, is Black Panther. After the vet assured us that our new kitten was indeed feral and not lost, we claimed her as ours and Asher named her after T’Challa’s super smart and sassy little sister. Well done, Asher, as Shuri is now Apollo’s super smart and sassy little sister.

Fast forward two weeks. Shuri is out of quarantine (sans rabies, naturally), she’s moved into Tessa’s room (after Apollo made it clear he wasn’t interested in his little sis moving into Asher and Riley’s room–don’t ask), and she’s doing wonderfully. So, please, PFC, help us welcome Miss Itty-Bitty to the home of Four Fantastic Pigs, and stay tuned to see how the little girl does when she’s introduced to the world. (Slowly but surely.)

Time flies. So fast. So much stuff happening. All the time. Argh! Pushing forward, trying to keep up with the blogging. Feels like moving through pudding…

We’ve moved through the wonderful world of Halloween, with a trip to the pumpkin patch and Glow at the Gardens (the Denver Botanic Gardens), the Bigfoot Festival at the Zoo and a friend’s house to trick-or-treat. Asher was Black Panther, Tessa was Captain Marvel, Riley was a Spartan Warrior, and Emmett was Peter Pan (naturally). Mom and Dad were going to be Medusa and a satyr, respectively, but it was so, so cold outside and the night did not lend itself to grecian style dress. It did, however, lend itself to furry goat legs. So Dad was a satyr and Mom was, well, Mom.

Just before Halloween, Riley turned 10. Yes, 10. He’s so old, as he likes to tell us often, that he’s almost a teen ager. He had a birthday party at Boondocks where he and his friends played laser tag, bowled, and played in the arcade. The day was a hit.

Before that we had more of the greatness that is our lives: some camping, art and theater classes, guitar and uke lessons, swimming and jiujiusu. We’ve had a ton of snow already this year and there’s been lots of snow castle and snowman building and snowball throwing. Things have been good. We are enjoying the little stuff. It’s good to enjoy the little stuff.

Sorry for the truncated update. Read the post about our new fur baby. Keep checking back, we’ll post more soon.

Pigs Out

Some things Overheard Recently:

“Let’s put a pin in this.”

–Asher, in response to Emmett talking about all of the things he is going to be able to do when he is a teenager, in a little more than two years.

“Or, who they choose to be.”

–Tessa, adding to a discussion about how it’s important we embrace everyone for who they are, no matter their gender, their color, or who they choose to love

It’s already school time again! Wow! The summer just flew by. Flew. Like with real wings. Nevertheless, we’ve got great things to report: We LOVE our classes at Denver Options. We are taking everything from Writing and Graphic Novels to Quilting to PE to Geography. So fantastic. Plus, we get to see our school friends again and hang out with them. We’ve even made some new friends, since each year there are new faces in our crowd. Asher’s First Grade class is mostly returning friends from last year, but the class is small and his best friend is there, so it’s perfect. Overall, returning to school’s been Two Thumbs Up!

In addition to our Denver Options classes, Tessa started a weekly drawing class where she’s learning a ton (she’s already started to use shading in her own drawings) and Emmett is taking a weekly musical theater class that culminates in a performance of Aladdin, the Musical. He can be heard regularly practicing singing songs at home, most recently ‘You Ain’t Never had a Friend Like Me.’ Yay, Emmett! We can’t wait to see you perform!

When Tessa and Emmett are in class, Riley, Asher and Mom head to the Botanic Gardens and explore. The first time there, Asher pretended he was Smolder Bravestone from Jumanji, tromping through the jungle and fighting bad guys. So cute! After that, we spent more time in both the Children’s garden and in the far back of the York Street gardens, by the Cheeseman Gate. All the flowers are blooming so spectacularly and the weather’s not too hot. It’s gorgeous!

We’ve also hit up Wings Over the Rockies and the Museum of Nature and Science recently, for Apollo-palloza. We loved seeing everything space as well as seeing how hard everyone worked to put a person on the moon. It made us think that it is okay to fail because sometimes out of failure comes real, lasting success. On top of that, we’ve been to the Children’s Museum, where we did the new ropes course; we checked out the sculptures at the Chatfield Botanic Gardens; and we even did a tour of a local handmade candy factory. Check out all the pics Mom’s posted.

Jammed in between all of those museum trips and school, we went camping again. This time we went to an old mining town down South, St. Elmo, and we saw that there are still people who live in those buildings. It was both creepy and interesting. Plus, the hotel has an entire colony of chipmunks populating its front step! It rained off and on that entire camping trip, but when the stars did finally come out, they were so bright and clear, and there were so many of them that Riley called them a blanket covering the night sky.

Finally, we’ve been steadily moving through the Avengers cannon, culminating with Endgame just this past weekend. (There were mixed reviews for the penultimate Avengers movie in this crowd, mostly because we Pigs prefer to see our heroes all surviving the war.) But overall, we love family movie nights, and we love seeing our favorite heroes triumphing over evil. We love dancing to the fantastic Marvel music while the end credits roll, too. We’ve loved these movies so much, most of us are planning on being one Avenger or another for Halloween. (Tessa called dibs on Captain Marvel, which was a close thing since both she and Emmett got the Captain Marvel pajamas.)

Anyway you cut it, we are doing great. Riley’s back to doing everything–even live JiuJitsu, Asher’s becoming a reading whiz, Emmett’s doing what he’s always been destined to do–perform in musical theater, and Tessa’s digging into her artwork. Yay, Pigs!

Check back next month when we regale you with tales of Riley’s Birthday, all of the fall festivals we go to, and Halloween!

Pigs Out.

Just a quick note to relate some good things that have happened to our crew lately. First, Emmett took a Peter Pan theater camp and he was cast as the lead! Aside from a short Roald Dahl theater camp where he played Willy Wonka in a 15 minute production, this was his first real acting experience, and it was a big one. The production was about an hour long, and Emmett had a TON of lines. Emmett rose fantastically to the challenge. He memorized his lines without much help from Mom or Dad, he learned his marks, and he performed amazingly. We were all so proud of him, and he was proud of himself! Yay, Emmett!

That same weekend, Asher has his sixth birthday party. Asher’s six! Can you believe it? It seems like just last week that Mom and Dad brought Asher home from the Kansas City NICU, a teeny tiny 4 1/2 pounds. He was like a perfect little doll. Well, he’s still perfect, but now he’s BIG. And he’s six! At his party, he had an Avengers cake, and ran around with his friends playing with Legos and dressing up. He got some amazing presents from his friends and from Mom and Dad too! More Legos, Spiderman Walkie-Talkies, and cool building kits. It was great! Yay, Asher!

A few weeks after that, Riley got his casts off! At first, he was scared. It felt so different to be without the extra support of the casts that Riley didn’t want to use his hands or wrists at all. The doctor gave Riley some wrist braces and advised he wear them regularly for two weeks and taper down after that. But a day or two later, Riley was already feeling more back-to-normal, taking the braces off when he was reading and sleeping and doing quiet things. He still can’t do everything (he has to wait another 5 weeks until he can weight bear or do live JiuJistu), but he’s doing wonderfully and moving on. Yay, Riley!

Tessa has nothing specific to report, but she has been working really hard on her drawing. She takes graphic novels she likes and copies the drawings in the books, and we are searching for a good drawing class to start this fall. Mom and Dad think that it’s great that she’s taken it upon herself to work hard and practice her drawing. We’re sure there’ll be great drawings that we’ll post pictures of very, very soon. Yay, Tessa!

Great Job, Pigs! Yay, Pigs!

Mid-Morning on July 4th Riley reached up to grab the hot handle of a jungle gym zip line and he jumped. He expected to slide along a roughly seven foot expanse and, when the line came to an end, drop lightly to the wood chips below, flushed with excitement and ready for another go. Instead, about a foot into his ride, his sunscreened hands began to slip. And then they slipped some more. But he was already moving and moving at a speed too fast to control. When his hands slid free from the handles, he fell. Face first. Into the wood chips.

“Mom!” Emmett ran. “Mom! Dad! Riley fell! He fell and I think he broke his wrist!”

Mom and Dad were about twenty feet away from Riley watching Nugget (aka Asher) making some pretend lemonade at the sand table. It was customary for them to hang with the Little Man while the rest of us ran freely at the park. Why, after all, would they have to watch us older kids so closely? We were ten, nine, and eight. No need for eagle eyes on this bunch anymore. Turns out, maybe they were wrong.

Dad got up first and started to walk over to the area of the park that Emmett had just come from.

“Is that Riley screaming?” Mom asked.

They looked at each other for the briefest moment, and then they both ran.

They came upon Riley, face already streaked with tears, sprawled out in the wood chips underneath a tall, but not too-tall, jungle gym. Dad arrived first. As soon as Mom, who was only five or six steps behind him stepped off the paved path, she saw Dad mouth, “It’s broken.” Mom looked down and knew why he was so certain. Riley’s right forearm, once straight as an arrow, now bulged outward as if his bone had been replaced by rubber and someone had given it a good yank.

By this point, others began to gather around Riley too. Given the odd angle of Riley’s wrist, as well as the swelling starting to show in the still seemingly straight one, Mom, her Wilderness First Responder training kicking in, started searching the wood chips for a solid piece of wood for a splint. Meanwhile, Dad was attempting to use his phone for the same purpose. Later Mom and Dad would find out that the neighborhood professionals were out in force at the park that holiday and the individuals offering up their help were trauma surgeons and pediatricians. This was a good thing, as Dad’s phone was too small to brace Riley’s wrist effectively and the only piece of wood Mom could find was the size of a well-worn pencil. The trauma surgeon offered up her collapsible umbrella, which worked much better than anything Mom and Dad brought to the table.

While Dad continued to work with the medical professionals, Mom corralled Nugget and Emmett and headed back to the car, where Tessa was engrossed in her third reading of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Immediately, as Mom maneuvered into the parking place closest to the scene of the accident, talk turned to Tessa’s clavicle break almost exactly a year earlier.

“Oh, no,” Tessa said. “Mom do you think Riley will have to miss Zoo Camp next week?”

“I don’t know Tessa, I’m hoping it’s just dislocated.”

“Both wrists?” Tessa asked.

Mom nodded.

“If they’re not though, and if they are both broken, I will skip Zombie camp at the end of the month. I don’t want Riley to be upset that I’m doing it without him.”

Zombie Camp had been highly anticipated for months. Shooting arrows, building shelters, learning how to fend off Zombies in the almost guaranteed forthcoming Zombie Apocalypse. Riley had talked of no other Summer Camps. All Spring, he had only imagined how amazing Zombie Camp would be.

“That’s nice of you, Tessa,” Mom said.

“Well, I did miss YMCA camp last year and even though it was Riley that pushed me off the the Pirate Blaster and broke my clavicle, I still want to be nice to him if he has to skip Zombie Camp.” Then she paused reconsidering. “But maybe–“

Mom cut her off. “Hold that thought, Tessa. Let’s just get Riley to the hospital and see what’s up. Okay?”

Tessa nodded.

That’s when Dad and Riley crested the hill, Riley clutching both wrists to his chest and Dad clutching Riley. Five long minutes later, Tessa now in the way way back–Riley and Nugget’s domain–and Riley belted into Tessa’s seat, everyone tried to remain calm for the ride to the hospital.

Ah, Children’s Hospital of Denver. We know you so well. You were amazing when Tessa fell (read: was pushed) from high heights and broke her clavicle. You were great with Nugget when he ran head on into that wall, not even bothering to look up when the corner tore open his temple and blood streamed onto the still stained floor. Now that we were rushing Riley to Children’s, who was crying a low throaty cry that reminded Mom of his infant days, only Emmett would be unfamiliar with the Children’s ER, an absence felt keenly by the Big Man who wanted to know what it was like to get all the attention that accompanied such a sudden injury.

We will spare you the fight that broke out in the car at that moment: Emmett declaring how unfair it was that he’d never been to the ER, Tessa hotly retorting that no one likes breaking bones, and Asher wailing that he felt bad for Riley who was still sobbing in pain. We won’t detail the division of Pigs that occurred after Mom dropped Dad and Riley at the ER and drove Emmett to our favorite neighbor’s house to calm down. We will just fast forward eight hours later to Riley being released from the hospital wearing an I Was Sedated! sticker on his dirt smeared t-shirt sporting one bright blue and one bright green cast (yes, both wrists were broken).

We skipped fireworks that night. (No, no, really it was okay. We lit them the next night and watched all the colors of the rainbow whirring around the cul-de-sac while cheering, “Happy Fifth of July!”) When he got home and Riley, who was unable to do anything on his own for a few days, was eased down on the couch, Mom helped him eat his favorite pizza. (Later, Riley told Mom that the worst part of the entire experience was when she made helicopter noises when feeding him.) But the good news, what we’re sure you were super concerned about, is that Riley still gets to do Zombie Camp. He got the full go-ahead from the orthopedic surgeon who gave him a check up about a week after the Fall. Which means now, just like with Tessa’s clavicle break, Riley’s injury has already become the stuff of legend. And he hasn’t even gotten his casts off yet. (Just don’t say anything to Emmett about it.)

“It’s payback time!”

–Asher, watching The Day After Tomorrow, talking about Earth fighting back when climate change results in the flooding of New York City

“Mom, the only thing that would make Captain Marvel better is if she were a black woman!”

–Tessa, after being told that the most powerful Avenger in the Marvel Universe is a woman

“It’s not time to be a gentleman, Emmett. Fight me!”

–Tessa, telling Emmett to try to push her down in the bounce house

“He he he he he.”

–Emmett, laughing a conspiratorial laugh while staring at the iPod he just purchased for himself

“Teamwork makes the dream work.”

–Tessa, while working with all the Pigs, shoveling dirt into Dad’s new vegetable and flower planters

“I’m going to picture myself.”

–Emmett, while taking a selfie with his new iPod

“I was hit by a hard plastic eye in the back.”

–Tessa, after Asher threw a stuffed shark at her in the bounce house and the shark’s eye hit her

“Mommy, why are boys so weird?”

–Tessa, talking about her brothers

“We need bananas, cookie dough, milk, and worms to make white fish bait.”

–Asher, totally out-of-nowhere, in a monologue about catching fish

“That’s perfect.”

–Asher, lining up stuffed animals around the edge of his bed while setting himself up to sleep without Riley for the first time (Riley moved to the top bunk)

“Yes, I’m almost a teenager. I’ll be 13, four years from now.”

–Riley, arguing with Tessa

“Uh, really?”

–Asher, when watching a demonstration on how he needs to clean up after himself

“Do I look fancy?”

–Emmett, putting on a flat-brimmed baseball hat to go jogging with Dad

“Did you like how I threw those punches, Mom? I think I made them look good.”

–Riley, after showing Mom his Improv Class Video where he played a good ninja, who, nonetheless, had to hit some bad guys

“Mom, is it next year yet?”

–Emmett, asking if we’ve already ended this school year and moved onto the next

So we added a new post after Christmas, but it looks like it never got posted or maybe the site hiccuped and it’s gone now? We aren’t sure. We are a bit miffed, as these posts are usually fairly comprehensive when we do manage to write these days, it takes some time to compose. Further, we like to keep those of you out there who are reading informed about All Things Pig, so we are sorry that whatever happened, happened and you didn’t get the January post. Regardless, here’s the quick gist of December and Beyond:

Emmett’s Birthday Party was a success. He asked for a Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter mash-up and he was not disappointed. Mom created a mystery play that we all acted out, complete with characters, costumes, and lines. Fantastic! And now Emmett is ten. Ten! Double digits! We can’t believe he’s getting so, so…old! But there you have it. We are told that this is what to expect, aging and whatnot. Anyway…

Christmas was great too (as it always is). Everyone got (mostly) what they’d asked Santa for: Tessa got an ipod to listen to Audible, Asher got Lego sets, Emmett got a robot, and Riley got dart gun stuff–those were the main highlights, but everyone got full stockings too. New Year’s Eve was great–we stayed up late and set off firecrackers. It was frigid, so not much playing outside, but we did manage to get out into the sun on New Year’s Day for our annual Silly String War…

Then came Tessa’s Birthday. She had a Harry Potter themed party, and Mom put together a scavenger hunt for all of the party goers. We got candy from a Sorting Hat pinata and sucked on Quidditch Broom Lollipops. Yay! Tessa was very clear that she wanted some time during her party for “Free Play” so all the Potterheads ran around the yard pretending to be on brooms, flying between Hogsmede and the castle. Wonderful.

Then we had Valentine’s Day, Mom and Dad’s Anniversary, and Dad’s birthday. All great. All necessitating cake and celebrating… Meanwhile, we’ve all been working hard at school. Asher took some time during the fall to center himself and prepare for the challenge of learning to read, but now he’s tackling that task and he’s doing great. Stay tuned, we’re sure he’ll be onto Cat in the Hat in no time. While Asher’s reading, the Big Pigs are science-ing (complete with a Leonardo Da Vinci camp at the Museum), writing, and math-ing. That last one only Riley really likes, but to each their own, right?

We’ve been building Legos, dancing, acting, art-ing, and generally being great. Everyone’s growing up so fast (it’s not just Emmett, it really is all of us), and everyday we seek out new challenges and explore new things… This keeps us very, very busy. Add into that life (a spate of colds, extra work piling up for Mom and Dad with Dad’s practice, a blizzard here, a few more d-e-a-d chickens) and there you have it. The gist. Sorry again for the glitch. Mom’s going to back up these posts from now on so that should it happen again, it’s no biggie.

But check back in soon. We’ve got Spring Break coming up, warmer weather, Fencing camp, and the march towards summer and all things Fun in the Sun.

Be well,

The Pigs

Soooo. This is awkward. It’s been months since we’ve last chatted. Maybe you’ve called, and we didn’t answer the phone. Or you’ve texted and we ignored the text. We’re sorry. But…well, life. Not that that’s an excuse. (It is an excuse.) And we should have been updating you more frequently. (We’re updating you now.) *cough, cough* Well, now that’s over with, let’s get down to business.

This fall’s been busy, as we are assuming every single blog going forward will at least hint at–we are a family of six, after all–and we’re an out-and-about family. Let’s start with most recent and work backwards.

10) Bunk with the Beasts

We spent the night at the Zoo. At the Zoo! We got a preview of Zoo Lights, when the entire Zoo is wrapped in festive, seasonal blinking and softly strobing lights. We got two behind the scenes tours, met and touches Zoo animals, and camped out with sleeping bags inside where it was moderately warm and only sort of smelled like Zoo animals. We made s’mores and got spray paint tattoos. It was amazing. (Mom would like to add that Emmett talks in his sleep and Tessa sleep-walks, which both made for some embarrassing middle of the night incidents.)

9) Museum Tours

We did THREE tours of the History Colorado museum. We did one by ourself inside, one guided tour inside, and one guided tour of Five Points, a historically diverse area of Denver. Turns out we love our state as much as she loves us. The Native Americans, the wagon trains, the gold rush… so much interesting stuff happened here. And continues to happen here. It is great. It is home.

8) Riley’s Dart Mania Birthday Party

Twenty kids with dart guns taking aim at each other for two straight hours. It was great. Mom and Dad played too! We were at a place with two different rooms of obstacles, including glow in the dark trees! Riley proclaimed it an amazing day, and Emmett had so much fun that he considered having his birthday party there too. (He’s since changed his mind.)

7) Halloween

From a ghost tour of the Botanic Gardens, to Enchanted Hallows at the Zoo, to the Corn Maze, to trick-or-treating with friends, to Dia de los Muertos–Halloween 2018 was a resounding success (and lasted for about six weeks). Okay, full disclosure, the Corn Maze could have gone better–Tessa and Asher kept dashing around corners and running through the corn until the entire family was completely turned around the lost in the corn for almost a full hour. By the time we got out of that maze, tempers were high and more than one tear had been shed. We might skip that one next year.

6) Ballet

Emmett and Tessa and Mom went to the Sleeping Beauty ballet. Traffic and parking we awful and we got there fifteen minutes late, which meant we had to wait with a ton of other people to enter near the end of the first Act, but Emmett loved it. Tessa, well, Tessa didn’t want to go to begin with. She’d asked to go last year when we bought the tickets and forgot and was really upset when she was made to go. But she didn’t throw a fit so we all count that as a win! Plus, there was a part in the ballet where two castle cats danced and she laughed. So if she says that she didn’t like the whole thing, she’s lying.

5) School

We only go to school one day a week, but we love it. We’ve made new friends, and still see the old school friends who’ve moved onto other schools, and we’re doing well with our homework at home too. We dressed up for Bright Colors Day, and Mom even came and did lunch duty when it was Riley’s birthday. Tessa’s loving science and keyboarding; Riley’s loving math and PE; Emmett’s loving Young Ameritowne and science; and Asher’s loving everything about kindergarten. Asher’s also working hard on learning to read and count, but not too hard as it’s still just kindergarten.

4) Pets and All Things Animals

This summer was a rough patch for the chickens. We lost three (RIP chickens), one was mauled but lived (Mediama the Brave), and the others were spooked. But they’re doing better now. (Dad put up a trap camera to see if we could get picks of whatever was going after our flock, but no luck so far.) Our spring chicken hatched from an egg turned out to be rooster, she went from Cressida to Cressidude, and now we’re trying to muffle her early-morning crows so no one asks us to give her away. Our kitten Apollo has grown into such a fantastic ball of fluff that we all fight over him, which makes for good times in the Larson household. And Isaac has had some health issues that we’re keeping an eye on and crossing our fingers that our wise old man has many years left in him.

3) Late Summer in the Mountains

We took some trips to the mountains in August and September. We saw the leaves change and felt the first cool breezes of fall coming off the mountainside. We ran around at a mountainside concert and ate good food while breathing in the mountain air. (Wow, can we use the word mountain just one more time in this paragraph?) The mountains rock! (Look, we did it!)

2) Concerts with Friends

Mom and Dad went to a few concerts at Red Rocks this summer. It was nice for them to get back to doing grown up things with grown up (ish) friends. Being outside was wonderful too.

1) Team Pig

Team Pig has done great these past few months. We’ve gotten into watching the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit films, which everyone has loved–including Mom and Dad. It’s been nice to have a regular family movie night, where we watch slightly more grown up movies, eat popcorn, and snuggle on the couch. (However, Asher loves telling people how the bad orcs like killing the good guys, or talking like Gollum, and it’s a bit off-putting.) Dad’s been busy building stuff with us in the garage–he’s working on getting some toboggans built just now for the upcoming sledding season (although we’ve already been to the sledding hill twice this year already.) Also, we’re all super deep into Lego building–Asher especially.

Hope that’s a comprehensive round up! All is well with Team Pig…

Ah, summer. Long days, fun in the sun, and mayhem. What kind of mayhem, you ask? Although you might be imagining something innocuous, like a camp prank, you’d be wrong. This is the Summer of Bad Mojo. Broken bones, broken windows, and feathers scattered throughout the chicken yard. Something is most definitely amiss.

A Fact-Based Presentation for Bad Mojo in Castle Larson

Clue #1: One day before YMCA camp was set to begin for the big kids, Tessa plunged a harrowing six feet to the ground, breaking her clavicle clean in two. (See posted pic.) Riley admitted to wrestling with his sister on the slide of our inflatable pool and inadvertently pushing her off into the choppy, and hardly filled, waters below. Tessa spent the night (and most of the next few days) tossing and turning and yelling in pain, while issuing a moratorium on all discussion of missed YMCA activities. But Tessa wasn’t the only one missing out on something. Mommy had looked forward to that week, knowing that the days that the big kids were at YMCA and Asher was at Adventure School would be kid-less at home. Blissfully kid-less. Alas, thanks to Bad Mojo, it was not to be.

Clue #2: Not one week after the Broken Clavicle Incident, Riley and Tessa were outside throwing a bouncy ball onto the roof and catching it as it rolled off. Safe? Perhaps. Victim-less? Events were about to prove otherwise. When said bouncy ball lodged itself between two shingles on the roof, Tessa had the idea to throw a rock at it to free it. Riley agreed the idea was a shining example of clear-headedness. Bad Mojo strikes again. Riley threw the rock, lost control of its trajectory, and instead of the projectile landing on the roof, it went threw the front window.

Clue #3: A day or two before the Rock Through the Window Incident, one of our spring chickens went missing. Ash, may she rest in peace, disappeared without a trace. One moment she was trailing through the yard with her spring chicken sisters, and the next–poof. Gone without a trace. There was much talk about the circle of life and the ravenous appetite of local house cats and a neighborhood search was conducted, but all to no avail. Riley cried real tears, as he loves those chickens, and this was the first pet he’d lost to the cruel hand of fate.

Clue #4: In a summer of fantastic camp experiences (science, zoo, art, YMCA, and Steve and Kate’s), great celebrations (Forth of July in the mountains, Asher turning five, both Riley and Emmett getting their first stripe in jiu jitsu), and general fun (ghost hunting downtown and Asher learning to ride a two-wheeler), Asher has been a ball of GIVE ME MY WAY! frustration. Asher starts the day yelling to get his way (I SAID PANCAKES!), the middle of his day is yelling (I WANT THE KITTEN AND RILEY WON’T LET ME HAVE HIM!), and he ends his day with yelling (I DON’T WANT TO WATCH THAT SHOW!). He is a party-of-one in Crazytown and working hard to entice new transplants. Emmett and Asher fight like cats and dogs, over our cat and dog. Riley and Asher smack and wrestle each other over bedtime activities in their shared room. It’s mayhem. A typical case of five-year-old high jinx? Maybe. Chronic tiredness? Perhaps. But you force that little man to lay down and nap… It’s too much yelling for us.

Clue #5: We were spending the day outside in the yard on a picnic blanket, catching up on math and paragraph writing, when it happened. One moment, all was well. The next: Emmett noticed that Splashy, a winter silky, was missing and the chicken yard was dotted with blue and white silky feathers. Another neighborhood search was immediately conducted, and again, no sign of the missing chicken was found. But Splashy was almost as large as the area cats, you say. And you are not wrong. To wrestle that fantastic little feather-ball over the fence for sure took size and strength. We’ve seen the area cats carrying off baby bunnies and voles. Maybe they’ve been training for this? Maybe they were ready to up their game to a full-sized bantam chicken? But to ambush her and carry her off in a silent attack? That was no housecat, we decided. We’d just experienced the return of the City Coyote. And tears, again, were shed.

General Clues: Add to the above detailed incidents, a small car accident in the Honda that shook all four pigs and Daddy, countless nights of house-wide insomnia, lots of phantom aches and pains from all inhabitants of Castle Larson (bad aches and pains, bad enough for the big kids to learn that they are old enough to take Children’s Advil), and we’re looking at a Summer of Bad Mojo.

What’s the cure? you ask. Well, we still aren’t sure. We’ve planted vinca minor (a plant known to ward off the evil eye) and salted all the thresholds in the house. We’ve burned incense and sage. We even burned pine needles in the garage while speaking an un-binding spell, returning to sender all Bad Mojo. Did it work? Only time will tell. (Daddy did, however, take a more hands-on approach to protecting the silkies. He built an enclosure for the little chickens to ensure that nothing can sneak in over the fence and grab them. Two lost birds is enough.)

Until we’ve some sign that All Is Well, we cross our fingers, hold our breath, and wait for the end of the Summer of Bad Mojo,
The Pigs

ps We Craigslisted the inflatable pool, but so far have had no takers. Another sign of Bad Mojo?