It's been awhile since a post ... well, since a NEW post anyways. We've had a lot going on.
VBS - July 13-17
VBS went great! I am way too tired to write about all the things that I could write about ... but I will say that we had over 300 kids, 100 volunteers, we had a great time, the kids had a great time, everyone had a great time at the Friday Family Night, we are so appreciative of all the wonderful people who helped ... and we're tired! :-) This was Caleb's first year in VBS and I loved watching him throughout the week. He was SO excited when he received a "Kindness Coin" for being kind. And I was so touched at his excitement. What was just a whim of an idea weeks ago turned into something personal. But now the Kindness Coins are gone because he keeps sucking on them.
On Monday, we relaxed and our family went to Sesame Place - our very first experience there! We exchanged vouchers for tickets so did not have to pay the ticket price ... but made up for it in parking fees, locker fees ($15!), and spending 1/2 our weekly grocery bill on lunch. But it was worth it. We spent 9 hours there and we had a marvelous time! We put all our stuff in an expensive locker, and walked out into the water park ... all 4 holding hands, with nothing but our swimsuits and shorts and watershoes. No phone. No wallet. No camera. Just us. And it was a great feeling! Freedom! We loved the Lazy River and water slides and Ellie went on her first water slide alone (it was pretty tame) and in the evening we changed into clothes and went on the "dry" rides ... and Caleb went on his first roller coaster (it was actually fun! I liked it!) and Ellie wanted to but she has to wait until she's 3. It was a really fun day.
On Tuesday night I drove out and spent the night with my parents. Wednesday morning, mom and I drove dad into Phoenixville Hospital for his surgery ... with a 6am check in time. We waited in the waiting room until noonish when the doctor informed us the surgery was done and everything was ok. Then we waited another 3 hours so we could see him in his room ... he was a BIT sluggish. :-) Then I drove back home and had church that evening.
Friday after lunch we all drove out to see Grandpa Marvin in the hospital. The kids didn't push any buttons or pull out any IV's ... YES! No, they were actually very well behaved. Dad looked pretty perky for just having surgery. And he has about 6 coloring pages from Caleb and Ellie hanging in his room. Saturday morning mom and I went to see dad, and looks like he'll be released tomorrow! We had lunch with Dick and Darlene and headed back home ... where ...
... we made dinner for Pastor Shawn and Kristal (youth pastors at CLC). And their dog Riley. They haven't yet sold their house in Lancaster so cannot look for a house here ... and needed a place for their chocolate lab (Shawn's brother had been keeping the dog but it wasn't working out with his kids). So now we are the foster parents of an 80 lb. chocolate lab until ... whenever they can buy a house here. Whew! (Riley just barked at Muffin ... Aaron is calming him downstairs ... let the fun begin!) Riley is really a good dog - he's trained to ring the bell to be let outside, doesn't jump on furniture, doesn't really bark (except for getting aquainted with our cats), is very gentle with the kids (who have already tested him) and is good with other animals ... after he satisfies his curiosity ... which our cats are not letting him do as of yet. I agreed to the arrangment on 1 condition ... Aaron takes care of all poop/pee of the dog and takes him on walks if I don't want to. So we are both satisfied. We'll see how this venture goes! The kids are pretty excited!
Funny moment ... during dinner, we were talking with Shawn and Kristal, and Caleb is really excited at having new people over so he's being very silly. And he looks at me, smiles and giggles and says, "Screw you!" Then he says it again, with an adorably silly look on his face. We all stop, try not to laugh ... and Aaron and I ponder how to address this. I don't know if he heard it from somewhere or if he just made it up, as he frequently does with other words ... but we calmly informed him that wasn't a polite thing to say. "Ok" he replied. And Shawn and Kristal just laughed, muttering "Pastor's kids ...".
Next week I'll be at Kids Camp. It will be fun and totally worth it, but I'm really looking forward to some down time soon!
Anyways, off to bed!
~JG
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
A Glimpse of the Past
This was an email Jen sent to me on January 22 of this year. You may have also received this email...even if you did, it's a great read the second time around. ~AG
====================================
My Afternoon ...
Our family eats a nice, normal lunch.
After Aaron returns to work, Caleb, Ellie and I play a game of Candyland. It is 1:30pm. Ellie drops out of the game early. She starts collecting discarded cards and boing-ing the red figure all around the game board. Caleb whips me soundly. Twice. I didn’t even let him cheat.
We start getting ready for naps (or “quiet time”) … but …
While sitting on the toilet, Caleb accidentally pees everywhere. He didn’t point down in time. This is rather unusual. Pee is in his hair, face, clothes, mouth, on the bathroom floor … we both concur that it is time for a bath.
I get the kids naked for the bath. Caleb gets in. I need to run some more cool water. Ellie pees on the floor. Ellie gets in. I clean up the pee. From both children. Did I mention the toilet is[n't] flushing completely?
The kids are finally clean and covered in bubbles. They whine and bicker while in the bath. Ellie is very tired and Caleb is pushing her buttons.
Ellie dumps a toy full of water out of the tub. So I get her out. She has hit her wall. She cries “bubbo baff!” over and over hysterically, stamping her dripping wet feet.
I take Ellie to her room and dry her off. Her injured nose (from her slip yesterday - but that’s another story) starts to spontaneously bleed again. I find Kleenex and attempt to stop the blood but she cries all the more hysterically. She would much rather bleed all over her carpet.
I get her nosebleed slowed, and settle her into her rocking chair with some books, dressed in a diaper and pants only. I go get Caleb out of the bath. I wrap him in a towel and tell him to play with some trains while I get Ellie settled. He happily complies.
Ellie and I sit in the rocking chair with the Kleenex box. I sing her the “3-2-1 Penguins” theme song. She yells “NO NO NO mommy! No sing song!” and then she giggles. And asks me to sing it again. I will never understand the mind of an almost 2 year old. I sing the song about 28 times until I’m convinced her nose really has stopped bleeding. I put a shirt on her, finally, and settle her in her bed with a bunch of books. I leave to get stuff to clean up the blood on her carpet.
On my way back, I check on Caleb. He is in his room, naked, covered in green, yellow and orange marker … on his hands, belly, legs, arms … I think, “Ahhhh, that was the crash I heard. The marker and crayon bin.” I confiscate the markers. I will be back.
I go and clean the blood off Ellie’s floor. She lays in her bed, watching me with her binkie and blankie. She reminds me to turn off the light on my way out. She is ready to sleep!
I go back to Caleb and explain, again, why we have the rule of “only get colors out with mommy and daddy”. We go into the bathroom and I scrub him, leaving a hint of color tint throughout his little body. We get dressed in clean, non-peed on clothes, he climbs in my lap and whispers “I wuv you mommy”, gives me a kiss and crawls into his bed. It’s amazing how that little kiss makes up for a multitude of pee and marker! I start his music and leave.
I walk to the bathroom. There I see … water on the floor, towels with either pee or nosebleed strewn about, washclothes with either pee or marker tint hanging over the sink, toys with bubbles in the tub and bubbles all over the sink (I don’t remember how those got there …), kids dirty clothes … and I walk away.
It is only 2:50pm.
And I thank God that this was a totally and completely abnormal afternoon.
Hope yours is going better!
Love ya! :-)
Jenny
====================================
My Afternoon ...
Our family eats a nice, normal lunch.
After Aaron returns to work, Caleb, Ellie and I play a game of Candyland. It is 1:30pm. Ellie drops out of the game early. She starts collecting discarded cards and boing-ing the red figure all around the game board. Caleb whips me soundly. Twice. I didn’t even let him cheat.
We start getting ready for naps (or “quiet time”) … but …
While sitting on the toilet, Caleb accidentally pees everywhere. He didn’t point down in time. This is rather unusual. Pee is in his hair, face, clothes, mouth, on the bathroom floor … we both concur that it is time for a bath.
I get the kids naked for the bath. Caleb gets in. I need to run some more cool water. Ellie pees on the floor. Ellie gets in. I clean up the pee. From both children. Did I mention the toilet is[n't] flushing completely?
The kids are finally clean and covered in bubbles. They whine and bicker while in the bath. Ellie is very tired and Caleb is pushing her buttons.
Ellie dumps a toy full of water out of the tub. So I get her out. She has hit her wall. She cries “bubbo baff!” over and over hysterically, stamping her dripping wet feet.
I take Ellie to her room and dry her off. Her injured nose (from her slip yesterday - but that’s another story) starts to spontaneously bleed again. I find Kleenex and attempt to stop the blood but she cries all the more hysterically. She would much rather bleed all over her carpet.
I get her nosebleed slowed, and settle her into her rocking chair with some books, dressed in a diaper and pants only. I go get Caleb out of the bath. I wrap him in a towel and tell him to play with some trains while I get Ellie settled. He happily complies.
Ellie and I sit in the rocking chair with the Kleenex box. I sing her the “3-2-1 Penguins” theme song. She yells “NO NO NO mommy! No sing song!” and then she giggles. And asks me to sing it again. I will never understand the mind of an almost 2 year old. I sing the song about 28 times until I’m convinced her nose really has stopped bleeding. I put a shirt on her, finally, and settle her in her bed with a bunch of books. I leave to get stuff to clean up the blood on her carpet.
On my way back, I check on Caleb. He is in his room, naked, covered in green, yellow and orange marker … on his hands, belly, legs, arms … I think, “Ahhhh, that was the crash I heard. The marker and crayon bin.” I confiscate the markers. I will be back.
I go and clean the blood off Ellie’s floor. She lays in her bed, watching me with her binkie and blankie. She reminds me to turn off the light on my way out. She is ready to sleep!
I go back to Caleb and explain, again, why we have the rule of “only get colors out with mommy and daddy”. We go into the bathroom and I scrub him, leaving a hint of color tint throughout his little body. We get dressed in clean, non-peed on clothes, he climbs in my lap and whispers “I wuv you mommy”, gives me a kiss and crawls into his bed. It’s amazing how that little kiss makes up for a multitude of pee and marker! I start his music and leave.
I walk to the bathroom. There I see … water on the floor, towels with either pee or nosebleed strewn about, washclothes with either pee or marker tint hanging over the sink, toys with bubbles in the tub and bubbles all over the sink (I don’t remember how those got there …), kids dirty clothes … and I walk away.
It is only 2:50pm.
And I thank God that this was a totally and completely abnormal afternoon.
Hope yours is going better!
Love ya! :-)
Jenny
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Our Family Tea Party
Well, we finally had our very first family Tea Party. But we are not the ordinary family, and it was not an ordinary Tea Party. It first started when Caleb (always immediately mimic-ed by Ellie) announced we needed some groceries. So Aaron made a grocery list for Caleb to remember - apples, bananas, something starting with a "c", donuts and eggs - and told him how to remember each item because they all started with the alphabet. And Caleb took his money (which somehow materialized out of thin air ... ahhhh, that I could have that power!), took Aaron's keys, hopped in the car and took off to the grocery store (which interestingly resembled our bedroom). And he came back with all the groceries! He remembered the entire list. What a smart boy! HA!
Anyways, the kids eventually figured we needed to buy some tea. So they took me to the grocery store ... (I didn't know the grocery store had laundry baskets with clean laundry ready to be put away in it!) ... and we finally found the tea on what looked to be a computer desk. Caleb was about to walk out of the grocery store without paying (gasp!), but I insisted we stop by the nearest laundry basket to pay for our tea. Phew! Then we returned to Ellie's room (and her little house filled with tea cups and such), and Caleb and Ellie made us tea. Over and over again. And then they swiped our tea and ran squealing off into the sunset (which looked like the hallway) ... only to return to offer us more tea. And I learned that Caleb likes his tea with 30 lumps of sugar. A little tea with his sugar, eh? Aaron became a tea taster as he made a "tea smelling apparatus" for his nose made of out legos. The kids didn't even notice it was there. I think Caleb tried to fool us by offering us tea out of a Little People toilet chair instead of a cup ... but we didn't fall for that! HA - we weren't born yesterday!
Well, the kids are in bed ... both simultaneously yelling for us. And we have our new date TV show (now that The Office is on summer break) ... "Royal Pains". Very good show!
Happy 4th!
~JG
Anyways, the kids eventually figured we needed to buy some tea. So they took me to the grocery store ... (I didn't know the grocery store had laundry baskets with clean laundry ready to be put away in it!) ... and we finally found the tea on what looked to be a computer desk. Caleb was about to walk out of the grocery store without paying (gasp!), but I insisted we stop by the nearest laundry basket to pay for our tea. Phew! Then we returned to Ellie's room (and her little house filled with tea cups and such), and Caleb and Ellie made us tea. Over and over again. And then they swiped our tea and ran squealing off into the sunset (which looked like the hallway) ... only to return to offer us more tea. And I learned that Caleb likes his tea with 30 lumps of sugar. A little tea with his sugar, eh? Aaron became a tea taster as he made a "tea smelling apparatus" for his nose made of out legos. The kids didn't even notice it was there. I think Caleb tried to fool us by offering us tea out of a Little People toilet chair instead of a cup ... but we didn't fall for that! HA - we weren't born yesterday!
Well, the kids are in bed ... both simultaneously yelling for us. And we have our new date TV show (now that The Office is on summer break) ... "Royal Pains". Very good show!
Happy 4th!
~JG
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)