We have made a conscious effort to do as much together as a family as possible. This is not always convenient, but it is well worth it. This afternoon I went to a class for our Farmer Training Program on Record Keeping. I brought Mavis with me and Two and Avril stayed with Proeun at home. When we returned home little Mavis at 19 months was so excited to see her siblings. Avril apparently was excited to see Mavis as well. Proeun had called me to warn me the Avril was in a bad mood and asking for me. When I walked in the door with Mavis Mavis immediately went up to Avril with arms wide open. Avril stopped fussing for a while and gave Mavis a big hug.  I have seen this time and again. They are all so used to being together that if any member of the family is missing for even a brief time that person is sorely missed. Being apart is not a common thing in this house.

One sort of down side is that the children often come along to events they would rather miss. I tell myself being together as a family makes it worth it for them (as in the case of the Midwest Organic Conference). But I am not kidding myself that it does ask a lot of a 5 year old, soon to be 4 year old and 1 1/2 year old. So whenever possible we try to treat the children. This lets them know they are appreciated and loved and that we understand we are asking a lot of them.

This weekend “How to Train Your Dragon” came out. We had been watching and waiting for this movie and I knew Two in particular was really excited about the movie–and it was in 3D! So at the spur of the moment we decided to take the children to a movie

complete with popcorn and pop. The movie did set us back a bit financially (by about a tank of gas) but it was worth it to see how excited the children were at this new outing that includes fashionable eyewear.

Unfortunately the interest in the 3D feature wore off about half way through the movie for Avril and a little longer for Two. It was fun to see a movie in  3D but I think next time we may have to opt for a regular presentation just so the children don’t have to stare at a blurry screen if they want to take their glasses off.

Mavis was a little harder to keep occupied, but one good thing about doing things together–even if one person doesn’t care for the activity at least we were together.