The Boy - Month 25

Spencer Rylan,

You are determined, independent, boisterous, expressive, confident, assertive, funny, silly, precocious, handsome, and an amazing problem solver.

Last night my heart melted as I saw you run into the kitchen being all independent and grown up. I could see both the cuteness of the boy you are now and I imagined the boy you will become all in that split second.

You had decided that you needed to get more "green pop" (if only this were green pop!) because you drank the last of Mommies. No amount of convincing you otherwise was going to happen. We could see you open the refrigerator and imagined you examining the contents. All we could see was the very tip of your head over the countertop. I could see a can of pop near the front of a shelf just above your head, but clearly you were evaluating additional options. You decided you needed an additional snack and selected a 1/2 a bagel and then grabbed the tub of butter and brought it all to us. As you returned you walked so confidently and the huge grin on your face spoke to how proud you were. Then you returned to the kitchen for a table knife to pull it all together. You were so pleased with yourself! Thankfully we convinced you to spread the butter on the bagel instead of eating it straight off the knife. Not long after you returned to the refrigerator for that can of pop that you had originally went after. Mommy obliged and you enjoyed your bubbles and a few sips of her soda.

This morning I was just commenting on how amazed I am at your level of understanding and comprehension. Your understanding of multi step directions and consequences blows me away.

I would like to point out though that you don't have to talk as if the CAPS LOCK is on when you have something very important to say. And you often have very important things to say. I'll add that the !!! used at the end of every word would be considered overkill by most, but it does add a layer of cuteness (for now). Oh, and all the hand gestures really are hilarious but they totally distract from your message. You most certainly loose the effect of a few of those !!! in the process.

Scratch That

Yeah scratch (accidental pun) the part about Ellie not being sick.

I didn't get a chance to really exam all the spots, but what I got to see appeared to be pretty much what we found Saturday night. But now she's got whopping fever to go with it and she crashed hard and fast after dinner. Is it part of the same virus as the rash? Will we now see more spots? Are we working with two entirely different things? Are the spots even a virus? So many questions, very few answers.

Spencer seems to be recovered, for the moment. He's still catching up and trying to get his body back into our routine. But overall he's doing great for the moment. The height of his fever was last Thursday and Friday with it tapering quickly on Saturday. We've not yet seen any spots on him, but he also completely refused to have anything to do with changing into his jammie shirt tonight. We didn't pick that battle, which also means we didn't get to really check out his torso area.

Abby also seems to be on the mend. I hope tomorrow morning brings us good news with her. Her fever appeared and spiked last night, so if it follows Spencer's pattern tomorrow ought to be good. Still no scratchy spots for Abby.

Yeah, we are just a tad bit perplexed. But what else is new with parenting?

What I do hope is that with the passing of Ellie’s spots maybe Carie and I will feel less itchy!

Souvenir?

As part of our travels we collected some souvenirs. The kids, of course, didn't really know what a souvenir was. To them, they were just getting cool new stuff. So it was fun to talk about vacations and souvenirs. Oddly though it was only the little people who ended up with souvenirs!

We arrived home to discover that Ellie had managed to collect another, unwanted, souvenir along the way. Spots! Many many spots that itch terribly so.

Bug bites? But there are so many of them and they are spreading!

Could it really be chickenpox? But she's had the vaccine and the booster. Though, it was still a possibility. If this is the case, it is possible that she had this in her system before we even left for vacation. Grandma checked them out last night and thought it could just be the chickenpox and she's heard that it is going around.

But then this morning we thought a few of the spots were fading.

Carie talked with the Peds office this morning and they don’t suspect chickenpox, especially with the potentially fading spots.

So we wait and see. Outside of the spots and the urge to itch, you wouldn't know that she was "sick". Spencer and Abby are the one's who've been sporting the high temps!

Whatever this is I hope it is settled down before school starts in just 2 short weeks. ACK – TWO WEEKS!

We Made It!

We've arrived home and all in one piece. I think the consensus is that we all had a great week, but we were also all ready to be home.

We've even managed to unload the van without the house looking like it! Wowza was that a lot of stuff. Let's just say we got some looks when loading and unloading our gear at the hotel. The funny thing is the gear that we loaded just before leaving the hotel was only a % of everything. We had packed up and loaded the bulk of it the night before.

More on the week in "Minneapples" (Spencer's variation) another day. For now it is time to focus on the busy weekend.

Vacation

Here we come!

We are so ready. I'm so excited to go I can hardly wait. The kids are quite excited as well. Ellie has decided that they get more new fish when we get home from this vacation. Hmm... I see a trend.

We took Carmen down to Lincoln last night so she could spend the week with Grandpa, Grandma & Jake. She'll have some good company and we won't feel quite as guilty leaving her. Carmen seemed pleased with that option as well!

I think we are feeling pretty on top of things, hopefully that trend will continue. We hope to be loaded up and on the road by mid morning tomorrow. We'll be gone a week, returning home sometime the following Friday only to have a very full weekend of activities and events ahead of us.

I'm sure I'll be ready to come back to work the following Monday!

Adios!

Swim Lesson Success

The kids have been taking swim lessons over the past couple of weeks. We had signed all 5 kids up for lessons with Abby, Ellie, Beth & Ben all being in the same class and Spencer & Carie being in an adult & tot class. Unfortunately Carie & Spencer were the only one's signed up for their class so it was cancelled. While the other 4 were in lessons, Carie & Spencer entertained themselves by playing at the nearby park.

We thought swimming lessons at an outdoor pool sounded fun for the summer. It seemed natural since it is summer & summer equates to heat, who wouldn’t want to be in the pool under the sun? But in reality being indoors at our regular pool would have been much nicer. Throughout the first week we had really nice weather, nice if you aren't swimming that is. The kids were just so darn cold in the pool and it wasn't quite as fun, for them, as we had hoped. Thankfully the second week warmed up significantly for 3 out of the 4 days and they were able to really enjoy themselves.

Today was the last day and we are so incredibly excited to find out that Abby & Ellie passed and get to move on to level 2. This is such awesome news!

Next installment of swimming lessons will be in the fall/winter back at the indoor pool.

Hopefully we can get Spencer into some lessons as well. He had such a great time in the water last night and he’s really been paying attention to what the big kids are doing during their lessons. As soon as he got in the water last night he told us all about bobs and tried doing them.

Sizzling Summer Day

Wow, what a hot week it has been! To help cool off we had a fun family evening at the pool.

The Boy's Phrases

Phrases we can live without...

Heard regularly at nap time and bed time... "I don't want to!"

Said with such a serious voice and intense, in your face, facial expression... "STOP IT!"

Applies to nearly everything... "I do IT!" or "Spencer do IT!"

In regards to his cup when he really doesn't want to go to bed... "Pour it down the sink!"

When we thinks he needs something and he thinks differently... "Take it away!"

When he's really irritated with us... "Grrrrrrr"

Oh, and... "Of course"

Thankfully there are many opportunities to laugh uncontrollably... on the inside.

Lonely

As each day passes I think Carmen is realizing that her buddy isn't coming home. I can tell that she's feeling sad and lonely.

While we all miss Hobbes terribly, I think Carmen is most affected by our loss. They were there for each other in times where we weren't there for them. The kids have done a great job realizing Carmen's sadness and have really stepped up in comforting her. It is truly great to see.

The girls' have done a great job talking about Hobbes, how they miss him, and how he's gone to Heaven. They've truly blown me away throughout this experience.

We feel quite guilty having plans to be gone on vacation next week. Long ago we had arranged for the dogs and fish to be taken care of while we were gone. Those plans are still in place though we are now contemplating taking Carmen to Lincoln to stay with my folks. My mom kinda volunteered that as an option Saturday afternoon after she saw how great they did together. Carmen and Jake got along extremely well; they actually seemed to like each other's company. The girls' are very excited with that option because they think Carmen needs a friend while we are gone.

I guess we'll see how things pan out this week.

Yet Another Fun Filled Weekend

We started our weekend by celebrating Carie's Dad's 60th birthday on Friday evening. We trekked to Lincoln after work and had a lovely dinner, some great outdoor playtime and gardening, and of course dessert. The kids were also treated to Grandpa getting his guitar out and they each took turns sitting with him and playing their own ear piercing song. We were tempted to stay in Lincoln Saturday night but we were also anxious to get home.

Saturday morning started off as a lazy morning, a much needed lazy morning. Carie even got to sleep in, a rare treat for her. The kids and I bunkered down in the family room and shared bowls of cereal while watching various shows. That was all good while it lasted but then it was time to kick things into gear to get ready to go as we had another full afternoon ahead of us.

I managed to get the yard work done before the morning heat kicked in and was I ever thankful that I did! The weather has been very kind to us over the past week and Saturday was the beginning of another heat wave. While I was working outside Carie & the kids were working inside and getting our things ready to go for another trip to Lincoln. With some unexpected errands added we made it a bit later than we had hoped. Thankfully Spencer still took an awesome nap at my parent's house. We took Carmen with us and thankfully she and Jake (my parent's dog) got along wonderfully!

That afternoon we headed over to my brother's house to celebrate my niece's 8th birthday. Everyone seemed to have a great time, the kids made necklaces and they had a great time playing together. After a stop at my parent’s house to load up our stuff we were on the road to home. It was very late and the kids very clearly told us that they were more than ready to be home.

We were all longing for Sunday because it was going to be a stay at home day. I had a great interest in going to Church but we really needed to be at home as it was the first stay at home day in a very long time. Even the girls were quite excited about the prospects of staying home. Out of curiosity I looked back at our calendar and it appears that the last "free" weekend day we had was prior to Memorial weekend. Wow! No wonder why we were excited for a free day.

Carie and I were referring to Sunday as a recovery day. Unfortunately it wasn’t the ideal recovery of the mind, body & soul but rather a recover our space day. We had grand plans for all that needed to be done, and we did get a lot done, and what we got done looks awesome, but there is still a lot to do. At least it feels like we are entering the week semi on top of things rather than completely drowning. It feels like we have a chance at getting the pre-vacation list of things done.

Sunday afternoon a friend came over for a play date. Katie is such a sweet girl and they all play together so nicely. They all had a fabulous afternoon of swimming, playing in the play room, enjoying a snack and a show (like in the theatre!), and more playing. I happened to notice the time and realized that Katie had been there for 3 hours and I thought maybe I should call her mom. We had left the pick-up time open with the plans that we'd call. I was about to go get my phone to get her phone number but then I thought maybe Katie would know her number so I asked. She was so cute and said she didn't know it and then quickly told us that she wasn't ready to go home. We laughed at the thought that maybe she didn't know it because she didn't want to go home. About 30 seconds later the phone rings and it is her mom calling to check in. After a bit more playtime her mom came to get her and she was still not ready to go. They were all having so much fun, but it was time for dinner and time to begin the evening routines.

Feelin The Love

We are loaded up and headed home from Lincoln tonight. It is terribly late and very much past the bedtime hour.

Ellie: Mommy, I'll still love you when I grow up!
Carie: Thanks Ellie, that make me very happy.

Pause

Ellie: Momma, when I grow up will you take me to the wedding place?
Me: Yes Ellie, I'd love to.

So... does that mean she'll still love me too?

I Think We've Found Him!

Through miracle of all miracles it appears that we may have found Adam, the Adam that Ellie has been missing terribly so.

It is truly amazing to me how things can come together. I wanted to keep an open mind but was also keeping a foot in reality as we didn't want to fuel her already soaring hopes. Adam is such a common name and Omaha isn't exactly a small city. Narrowing it down to our School District helps, but there are still 25 (and growing) Elementary schools within our district.

Then I was talking to Evan's Mom about Sunday's play date and as we were sharing how each of our kids were missing the other I happened to mention that Ellie had met a new friend at summer school and has also been missing him terribly. I said that we often hear about how much she missed Evan, but now we also hear about how much she misses Adam.

Evan's mom quickly realized that her friend has a boy named Adam and she knows their kids also went to summer school. Could it be? She asked if there were any other Adam's. Honestly, I don't know. There were 3 summer K classes, our girls' were in 2 of those and we didn't ever see a roster.

Then simultaneously we all (Carie also chimed in) said... This Adam is very very blonde with blue eyes. Wow!

I think the odds are in our favor. So now we have a last name, his mom's name, and their phone number. We need to not lose that note!

Add to that, those two families were already planning to get together at a park this morning. Unfortunately is has been a really crazy week leading into a crazy weekend and going somewhere this morning just wasn't in the cards. But we asked Evan's Mom to pass on our info to Adam's Mom.

Hopefully soon we can confirm that this is the Adam and get the kids together for a play date.

Ellie hasn’t been brought into this loop of knowledge yet. I just can’t go there until we have a bit more information. Hopefully we can surprise her soon though!

Hobbes 1991 - 2007

Hobbes entered this world in September of 1991 and came into my life that October as a wee puppy very full of spunk and energy.

He's been with me through the many changes in my life. His first challenge was to live with the nice, and the not so nice, college roommates in the little rental house in south Lincoln. His final challenges were to navigate life with many little bodies amidst. There were definite perks of all the small people as there were many great opportunities to enhance his dog food diet. Though he had had enough of the Cheerios! He did so well with the additions of all of our children; he was a great family dog. The girls' are absolutely confident that we had two dogs just for them. To them, it didn't matter that we had two dogs long before they entered the picture. To them Hobbes was Abby's dog and Carmen is Ellie's dog.

Today, Hobbes left our family to move onto his new home. While his spunk and spirit has been gone for a bit now, his body is now in peace.

We'll miss you buddy!

Wedding - Still a Go!

Here I was thinking that we'd escape a day without wedding talk. As usual, there was the usual random "(sigh) I miss Adam".

And then.

Tonight, after lights out, they are collaborating and calling for us to come up to their room. As I approach their door I hear them counting down... 3, 2, 1... MOMMY.

So I enter, and thankfully they didn't protest to me answering their call in place of Mommy.

I first hear about their scuba diving dreams.

Then Ellie tells me how "she wants to marry Adam someday".

Yes - someday you may get married. Someday when you are older.

Then she asks me if I will buy her a wedding dress. Abby trumps it with a request for a wedding dress and a tiara. Ahh yes, Ellie decides a tiara is a must.

Yes - someday! Someday when you are older, much much older.

Abby then comments about how Mommy and I are married. Yes sweetie, Mommy and Momma are married. She then goes on to say that some girls get married to girls and some girls get married to boys. Yes, that is true!

Ellie says: "I want to get married to a boy"

Abby says: "I want to..." then she got interrupted. I don't have a good pulse on what she was really going to say.

But in the end she decided that she and Ellie were going to get married together. I commented that perhaps it isn't a good idea to marry your sister. Then she clarified that they wouldn't marry each other, they would get married at the same time... to Adam!

Garden

We used to (before kids) plant a small garden just on the outside of our backyard fence. Aside from it being on a hill and surrounded by wildflowers, the soil was awesome and always resulted in a wonderful garden.

Then we had kids and well the garden area was quickly invaded by the wild stuff. Each winter, as we near the end of the cold season, we talk about clearing that area out and making room for a garden again. But we have yet to do that. It feels like such a daunting task and somehow we always go from spring to summer before we know it.

This spring the girls' were really interested and excited about planting some plants. So we found an okay place to plant a few plants of their choice.

Yesterday I arrive home from work and the girls greet me with much excitement. During the day they had spotted some red cherry tomatoes on one of their plants. Carie had asked them to wait until I get home to pick them, and they did. When I arrived home they had a basket all ready to go, because "you need a basket to pick tomatoes". They quickly hauled me outside to show me their tomatoes and together we decided which one's were ready for picking, all six of them.

Together they took the six cherry tomatoes inside, washed them, put them in a bowl, and set them on the table for dinner. During dinner they shared the tomatoes between the three of them.

I kept waiting and waiting. The thing is, just like their Mommy, the girls' don't actually like tomatoes! They've been great about trying them in the past, but they have strict orders for "no tomatoes, no cheese, no sour cream" when it comes to their food. Yeah we just don’t point out that melted cheese, or cheese pizza, IS cheese.

They did comment about not really liking tomatoes - but they ate them and I didn't ask them to or make them.

It will be interesting to see what happens once the tomatoes are bountiful and the newness has worn off!

The Wedding Plans

Last night Ellie was full on planning her wedding to Adam.

Ellie has decided that she is moving in with him. Since she (and presumably he) is only 5, I hope she knows that she is getting the in-laws as part of the deal. That is, if we can magically find her Adam who lives somewhere in Omaha.

She was talking about wedding dresses and wanted to know where she would go to get one. We explained that there were many options and talked about bridal shops as an option. She then learned that you can get things like shoes, tights, and jewelry from bridal shops and she was over the moon excited. I mean, who wouldn't be excited over tights and jewelry!?!?

I can't wait for the next wedding discussion. I never dreamed it would have started this early!

Thank goodness we had a play date in the works for Sunday, with friends that we can actually locate. We've confirmed that Katie is available. I sure hope Evan will be able to join them!

Dreamy Eye's

It all seemingly started last October at Aunt Betsie's wedding.

I had all great intentions of writing about that event and never did. My latest plan was to write about it on their anniversary. But now seems to be an appropriate time to, at least, touch on it. For their special occasion they had asked Abby & Ellie to be flower girls. So flower girls they were. They were beyond thrilled and of course did an awesome job walking down the aisle doing their thing.

However, the most exciting part of the evening (for Abby & Ellie) was meeting "the boys". Betsie's boss happens to have twin boys who were 7, a solid 2-3 years older than Abby & Ellie. Those boys couldn't wait for the wedding day to arrive so they could personally meet Abby & Ellie. Once they arrived to the Church they made a beeline to the girls, made proper introductions, and were inseparable thereafter. At the reception the four of them, amongst several other kids, danced together and had a great time.

And then... one of the boys kissed Ellie!

Seriously? She wasn't quite 4 1/2 years old!

At the end of the evening the all said their goodbyes and the boys doled out their phone number and talked about how they'd be waiting for their call the next day. They were all rather cute, actually. Bad parents that we are didn't follow through. Again, our girls' weren't yet 4 1/2 years old. Not to mention the fact that we don't even live in the same town.

At the time the girls' were also getting settled into their new preschool setting and making all sorts of new friends. As time goes on we quickly learn that Ellie and a couple of classmates have become great friends. While she likes both Katie and Evan a lot, there is most definitely a different connection with each of them. Ellie's got great googly eyes over Evan and we are told that Evan has that same dreamy look when he stares endlessly at the picture he has of the gang. This was again apparent at the girls' birthday party. On occasion we'll hear Ellie say "(heavy sigh) I sure do miss Evan". We are in the midst of arranging a play date!

Oh and let's also not forget the boy from the park a couple weeks ago.

The current deal though is Adam from summer school. During summer school she didn't talk about Adam very much because she saw him daily. Sure, she mentioned his name here and there, along with names of other friends she was making. Interestingly though, according to her teacher, she and Adam didn't even sit next to each other during school. Ellie's version is a bit different!

But once school was out we've heard about how much she misses Adam, non-stop. Unfortunately we have no idea who Adam is! We don't have a last name. We don't even know what school he'll go to in the fall. Schools are closed for the remainder of the summer and even if they weren't I'm not sure they could provide us with his contact info. There is virtually no way for us to locate this 5ish year old boy named Adam who lives somewhere in our large district.

Yesterday she mentioned Adam, again, and I try to be empathetic with her. I do feel bad that she wants to contact her friend and we can't. So yesterday she offered a new solution to her existing dilemma.

Ellie: "(sigh) I sure do miss Adam"
Us: I'm sorry sweetie; I wish we could contact him for you but we don't know how.
Ellie: "look him up on the line"

If only we could simply search for "Adam" and magically find him.

Today's twist...

Ellie: "Mommy, I love you!"

Ellie: "I'm going to miss you when I grow up and move away..."

Pause

Ellie: "... and get married to Adam"

Another Fun Filled Weekend

We've had another fun and event filled weekend.

Friday afternoon Grandpa & Yia Yia came to visit and have dinner with us. The kids were beyond excited to see them and spend time with them. We ended up choosing a Mexican restaurant for dinner where Spencer announced that the refried beans were poop. Thankfully it was a bit on the noisy side in the restaurant, but I know everyone at our table heard him!

Saturday was a day at the lake. We wanted to go up over the weekend since we had chosen not to go up during the week over the holiday days due to the expected fireworks and noise levels. But also we were celebrating Alex's 11th birthday at the lake.

We were all packed and ready to go the night before but it still seemed to take a bit too actually get out of the house Saturday morning. Then on our way out of town I had a brilliant idea to stop and get some "bird bread" for Great Grandma. They've frequently gotten "bird bread" in Lincoln (when they lived there) and she's talked about how she can't get it in Fremont. So I thought we'd see if we could score some in Omaha. Sure enough, we did! The kids were so excited to tell Great Grandma that we had a surprise for her when we arrived. She was thrilled! We had at least a dozen large bags stuffed with bread. Sure enough, later that afternoon Great Grandma and the girls' went out on their adventure and had a lot of fun.

The rest of the day was filled with water play and relaxing. As we were packing the night before the girls' had their own checklist of all the things they wanted us to take. The list included the usual stuff - their life jackets, kickboards, etc... The most important of all, their new fishing poles that Great Grandma & Grandpa gave them for their birthday. We cracked them open when we got there but unfortunately one of them didn't work. They all did a great job of sharing the working fishing pole and they had a great time.

By dinner time all the kids were thoroughly exhausted from all the swimming. Poor Haleigh (niece) was nearly falling asleep while eating her dinner. Not long after we were headed out and on our way home. We made a stop at Zesto's for a treat, as promised. Though, Carie and I really thought that they all might have been asleep before we even made it to Zesto's. That wasn't the case so we stopped and all had a treat. Not long after Ellie fell asleep, but Abby & Spencer hung in there and were still awake when we got home. Suddenly Abby wasn't tired anymore!

This afternoon we were off to a family reunion for my Grandmother's family. One of my Dad's cousins hosted the event at their home on their acreage in a town very nearby. I'm curious to know how many people were there, our guess is easily 100 but I'm not very good at judging these things. We easily counted 50 between a few families (Grandma, one sister & brother) that we know fairly well and there are several more that we aren't quite as acquainted with.

I'm glad we went since it has been a long time since I've seen so many of these people. My memories of the family reunions are from many years ago when I was still a kid and the reunions were held at the lake. Everyone has changed so much and the kids that I remembered are now parents much like I am. It was a great, albeit very hot, afternoon. The highlight of the afternoon was watching the older kids have a blast on their huge (200') waterslide. We took swimsuits for the girls' and gave them the option. They chose to watch and I was quite happy with their choice. Spencer could have gone in his clothes as I was not up for wrangling him to get his swimsuit on. Dry clothes were on hand in case! The older boys were having quite a lot of fun and it appeared to be a bit rough for the younger crowd.

This evening's theme is relaxation. We are staying in (out of the heat!) and having a "pizza party" in the family room. Fingers crossed for a smooth bedtime and a continued relaxing evening!

BIG

Spencer is obsessed with all things BIG lately. If there is a big and little option, big it must be.

This morning he found a bowl and a spoon and declared to us that he was stirring and making a pie.

Spencer, I asked, what kind of pie are you making?

Spencer: BIG

But of course, I shouldn't have needed to ask!

D.O.R.A. Replacement?

Recently our DVR box was replaced (another one of those something’s) necessitating us to reset our timers. While it was a bummer and a PITA task, it isn't entirely a bad thing. We've needed to get rid of a few timers and evaluate a few more. Now is the perfect time!

In our evaluation we've started recording some new (to us) shows. I'm happy to say that I think we may have found something to replace that daily D.O.R.A. fix. While it is still a top selection, the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is quickly becoming a priority.

I am so excited!

I don't think I have to explain, to any parent whose child(ren) is/are fixated with that cute little Spanish girl, my excitement in this discovery.

The music if fun, upbeat, and pleasant to listen to. The characters are fun. And best of all, I love watching Spencer engage in the show. I love hearing him shout "Ohhhh Tooodle".

I'm sure I will tire of this soon enough. Like D.O.R.A. I'm sure I'll know what each and every episode is just by looking at the title. But then I'm hopeful that we'll discover something new of equal or greater excitement.

Independence Day Celebrations

As usual, our Holiday celebrations were fun filled and exhausting.

Though, Carie repeatedly proclaimed (under her breath) how much she dislikes this holiday. Her dislike for the holiday has nothing to do with the intended reason to celebrate, though that is often forgotten amongst all of the traditional hoopla. The dislike revolves around the extremely late nights, all the commotion and noise - omg the noise, and resulting kid exhaustion. Our kids thrive on their routines and sleep, especially sleep, and those seemingly go out the window during the multi-day celebration of this holiday.

Tuesday evening (the 3rd) we went to Lincoln so the kids could celebrate a bit with their cousin and watch my brother set off his fireworks.
He had some day-time fireworks that the kids enjoyed (mostly) and then he brought out his stuff (I call it the boy stuff) that sent Ellie inside quite fast.

Throughout the night our kids alternated between being inside and watching them through the window and being outside to watch them.

I had suggested, requested, pleaded that he start with his tame stuff, and I guess his missile launcher was tame for him. Spencer exclaimed that it was too loud!

Near the end of his show we got all the kids jammied up and ready to go. They, and we, were quite tired and ready for bed. Thankfully they all fell asleep on the way home and they all transferred easily once home. Thankfully the next day was a day off!

Wednesday started off a bit slow. Thankfully all the kids slept in! Once we got going we headed downtown for a picnic lunch at Gene Leahy Mall. The area is an "urban playground" running through the downtown area. We setup our picnic under a nice big tree next to the water, ate lunch and fed the swans, ducks, and fish.

Then we enjoyed the "big big slides" for a bit before heading home for nap time.








While Spencer was napping I took Alex and Ellie shopping for Alex's birthday present. We scored on some great deals and Alex ended up with some nice stuff. We then headed over to the mall for a bit. We like to go to the mall, but I struggled with understanding the draw the mall has to an almost 11yo. I was happy to take her to the mall but I never figured out what she really wanted to do at the mall.

Then it was time to head home and figure out our evening plans. We wanted to go to Lincoln (again) as we were invited to Carie's sisters house to celebrate with them. But, given the next day was a work day and given how out of routine we knew our kids were and how out of routine we expected B&B to be, we also wanted to be home for bedtime with high hopes that it wouldn't be a late night for our 4. The next day wasn't looking so good for Carie! I was lucky and got to go to work while she navigated the day with 6 over-tired kids.

With Spencer not waking from his nap until 5:00ish and with our desire to be home before bedtime, it didn't seem possible to make the trip to Lincoln. So we stayed home and still managed to stay up extremely late. The kids had nothing to do with going to bed with all the excitement and noise going on outside. I was quite impressed with how well our kids tolerated the noise. It seems that each night was an improvement over the previous night. As usual, there were quite a lot of fireworks going of throughout the neighborhood. A couple of our neighbors had quite a stash and lit them off well into the night. And of course, our kids had no interest in calling it a night until they were completely done!

Overall I'm glad the nights filled with noise are behind us and we are in recovery mode. I'm also quite thankful that we and the people we know had a fun and safe holiday.

Daily Event

I can't put my finger on it, but it feels like everyday there is something. Not everything is a "crisis" necessarily. But lately it feels like there is always something.

Today's event happened to be the deck stairs falling apart, as they were being walked on. Thankfully no one was hurt!

Yeah, imagine hearing that over the phone. Carie wasn't able to really explain what happened, I just needed to see it in person. I was already on my way home as we were getting ready to leave town for the evening, the very late evening.

Yep, sure enough, the deck stairs had fallen apart.

Now, it isn’t like this deck is old, in dire need of attention, and falling apart. That was our old deck! This deck, the new deck, it isn't that old and apparently it is falling apart.

And yes, we were moments away from loading up the van and leaving town for the evening - “were” being the operative word here. We now needed to do something about the stairs so the dogs could do their thing - outside rather than inside.

We fixed it, or at least enough to make it passable for the dogs and maybe a kid or two. Actually, looking at it you wouldn’t know that anything happened. We'll be talking to our neighbor "Billt" (what Spencer calls him) to see if we can get his advice and hopefully a hand. He's a really nice guy and clearly knows how to build things - hence "Billt" instead of simply Bill. I want to make sure the stairs are properly repaired so they are safe to use. You know, like they were. Or so we thought.

Dinner was now definitely take-out on our way out of town instead of our planned home cooked meal. Excuses, excuses, I know we’ve always got them. But the deck was recovered, everyone was fed, and we made it to our destination on-time (for us).

What Happened?

I was looking forward to today, Monday, being a down day.

Work was a bit crazy and I finally returned home just in time to throw dinner on the grill. All the kids were hands on with the dinner prep. So many bodies in the kitchen! Dinner was delicious and everyone cleaned their plate. Well, wouldn't you if it meant s'mores!?!?!?

After dinner we were treated to s'mores. Carie picked up the fixings at the store recently thinking it would be a fun treat to make while the coals on the grill were still hot. It was a great idea and the kids had a blast. I think Carie, I & Alex actually enjoyed them the most. Spencer was confused by the mess and just wanted the chocolate; he is all about the chocolate. As we went to assemble his s'more he shouted "stop it". Clearly we were about to harm his chocolate! Abby tried, liked it, but had a fair amount left. Her reasoning was that it was too sticky. Ellie pretty much devoured hers along with us older people.

We then headed out to get some fireworks. We thought we'd try out some at home tonight to test out Ellie's comfort level with her earmuffs. We are trying to decide what we are going to do over the next few days and having a better pulse on how she might react to the fireworks will be great help as we firm things up. We ended up doing fun daylight stuff; multi-colored smoke balls, snakes, poppers, ground bloom flowers, and a jumbo parachute thing that spit out tons of parachutes onto the neighbors house. We called Beth & Ben to come enjoy the parachutes with us and all six kids had fun.

Overall Ellie did remarkably well, far better than she's done in the past. Granted, everything we did was pretty calm. But, she stayed outside with us from beginning to end without any signs of needing to go inside. That is a huge huge step for her.

I think the earmuffs help in more ways than one. I’m positive that they do reduce the noise for her, but I also think they give her pieces of mind and some control. She was even giving Beth tips on what noise it would/would not make and how it would be okay.

This continues to look promising.

Thank Goodness Tomorrow Is Monday

Another full day has come to an end. I'm exhausted, in more ways than one, and am fully ready to hit my desk job tomorrow!

This morning we really wanted to make it to Church as this was the first day for our new pastor, but we didn't quite make it. We needed to be at the zoo early in the afternoon for another zoo class for the girls. The transition time between Church and zoo just wasn't enough. So instead, we made it to the store to get some much needed items.

After an early lunch the girls' and I were off to the zoo while Carie and Spencer were (again) headed home for the afternoon nap. Carie has had enough of the zoo this past week that I automatically drew that straw. Today's trip was the 4th trip in the past week, with 3 of the 4 being to our/this zoo.

On the way to the zoo we all talked about what we wanted to see and each girl prioritized their top 2 exhibits. Wow did that work out wonderfully!

We arrived at the zoo a bit earlier than needed and managed to get Abby's #1, the Jungle, (which was the same as Ellie's #2 choice) crossed off the list before heading down to the education area. We got the girls settled into their butterfly class and then Alex and I ventured out to see the things she wanted to see (Orangutan Forest, Gorilla Valley, Bear Canyon, Cat Complex, Aviary, Nursery, and Wild Kingdom Pavilion) while the girls were in their class. A couple hours later we returned to pick up the girls from their class. They have so much fun!

Then we were all off to check out the remaining exhibits on our list, and nearby exhibits, together. We visited the Giraffe Complex and then picked up a snack before hopping on the tram that provided the quick route out to the Sea Lion Pavilion, Monkey Island, and the Garden of the Senses. Then we hopped back on the tram, managed to not (yay!) need to get off at Dairy World (carousel, goats, loads of kid stuff), and continued on to the last/first tram stop near the entrance of the zoo. We then headed to our last stop of the day, the Desert Dome. Abby had been looking forward to a visit to the desert for quite a while and she especially enjoyed it. She was definitely our tour guide!

Five hours later - we are leaving the zoo and heading home. Well, home was the plan until I crashed and burned and decided there was no way I was making supper. It was quickly approaching 6:00 and going out definitely won without hesitation.

Carie and Spencer had a busy day as well. Carie enjoyed the quietness of the house while Spencer was napping. She was incredibly busy at taking care of that icky house stuff that just needs to be done. It was so nice that she got so much done for our family. After Spencer's nap they headed to another grocery store to get the last of our shopping list wrapped up. They were finishing about the same time we were and met us for supper.

We arrived home and the kids played more. Where do they get all this energy?

Pictures of our crew

Yeah... I see you picking at your food!












Yes, I am serious!












I mean it! LOL
I am positive that I looked like this by the end of the day.











Though I did keep my hands to myself.












This was 4ish hours into our trip.
I think they still look pretty happy.