Free babysitting!?

At the invite of some longtime friends down the street, the kids spent 2.5 hours at a local church attending (Nazarene) Vacation Bible School (or 'VBS' as Erin is quick to remind you).

The VBS runs for 5 evenings and is cowboy-themed, and when we went to pick them up, we noticed lots of quaint signs, such as 'Satan, Bite the dust' and 'WANTED by God.'

The kids had a ball--there were games, food, treats, and crafts. On the way home, Erin entertained us by singing bits and pieces from the hip-hoppin' songs of praise, but, not surprisingly, it was Makenna who put it most succinctly, proclaiming from the back seat, 'I like Vacation Bible School better than our church!' The only thing that Makenna had a complaint about was 'They start their prayers too fast--I wasn't even ready!' (Naturally, we understand this, as usually we have to wait for her to get ready every night for family prayer.)

The girls have already invited friends to go with them tomorrow night, and Cameron is thinking hard over who he wants to ask to go with him on Wednesday night. (Does this count as being a member missionary??)

As for Cindy, Allyson, and I, we did the only reasonable thing and went to a new (to us) restaurant to try out their salads, and then did a bit of shopping.

Only 4 more nights to enjoy! I sure hope they don't grow tired of it!

Now I know why....

....I don't do home repair projects when the kids are around.

The kids have rediscovered that my fuse is about as short as frog flatulence when I am working on a project.

The project: Replacing the ugly old disfunctional louver coat closet door with a 6-panel door. Accordingly, there is measuring, remeasuring, shimming the door to fit squarely, re-shimming, adjusting the shimming, removing cracked shimming, etc., etc.

Not to mention quite a bit of painting.
Imagine 3 kids simultaneously painting on a $50 door with white glossy paint.
Also imagine a father wanting to get it done--and done right--so that he can move onto the next item.

I must've had a hole in my head to do this before they leave on vacation.

Anyway, hopefully the paint will have dried enough by Monday to lay this puppy to rest....

Picky Eater

Allyson is finding more and more ways to communicate and to show that she understands.

When we say 'prayer,' she folds her arms (at least for a couple seconds).

And now, when we put something up to her mouth that she doesn't want to eat, she goes 'ppppptttthhhhh!'

Depending on the day, that can be most anything (except for chocolate, marshmallows, ice cream, and pretzels, of course).

Now we HAVE heard them all!

It's bedtime. The kids are all in bed.

Then Cameron comes out and goes into the bathroom.

After awhile, Cindy goes in to investigate.

Cameron's excuse: "My eyelashes are too long, and so I can't go to sleep!"

Cindy told him that he needed to stop trying to cut them--they are needed to keep rain out of your eyes--and get back to bed.

Bullseye!

As a result of Cameron’s BB-gun experiences at camp, I unhid and unlimbered my BB-pistol on Tuesday and Thursday night and all 3 big kids took turns in the back yard. (Actually, Cameron pestered me, and then Erin joined in….)

I must say that Erin’s grip is as steady as a rock and as such she was shooting pretty well, and on the second night she hit inside a 1” bullseye from 20 feet.

She was all twitterpated, and ran inside to tell Cindy the news. (For some strange reason, Cindy refuses to be around while I am teaching the kids to shoot.)

Yeah, it was probably luck, but I guess I will have to start practicing more myself!

UPDATE 1: I took off a bit early from worky-worky and Erin begged me to get the BB-pistol out. I did, she got another bullseye. I would've been perturbed if I hadn't gotten 3 myself....

UPDATE 2: Cameron came home on this last day of day camp with a nifty new bead--he had hit the bullseye with the bow and arrow!

Cub Scout Camp: Cindy in Action Part II

As if killing an innocent spider wasn't enough, Cindy also had the audacity to tell Cameron that what the good preacher was teaching them all at camp on Monday was a bunch of hooey!

You see, part of the daily program is to have a short talk/sermon by a local preacher. Well, on this first day the preacher gave a short talk about unconditional love. At one point he put up a banner with the words "GOD" on it, and then talked about the Prodigal Son.

He then asked a question that raised Cindy's eyebrows. 'What creature did God send to this earth to show us unconditional love.' Cindy's eyebrows almost went into orbit when he turned the banner around to show the answer.

It was 'DOG'!! (Get it!? 'GOD' backwards!)

He then waxed eloquent about how dogs show us unconditional love. He even brought his own dog up as an example, where the dog promptly started growling at the boys. The preacher (I use the term loosely) quickly apologized, stating--somewhat contradictorily to his sermon--that his dog didn't like strangers much.

At this point Cindy looked down at Cameron, and asked, 'Cameron, who did God really send who shows us unconditional love?' He gave the correct answer (that would be 'Jesus') and then Cindy reinforced it, continuing, 'That's right Cameron, Jesus shows us unconditional love, not some dumb mutt!'

I guess the preacher didn't catch this exchange, as Cindy came home dog-tired but not dog-bit!

Cub Scout Camp: Cindy in Action Part I

Cindy was one of the adult leaders on Monday, and in retrospect we see that it was probably not such a good idea. And it had nothing to do with the 95-degree weather or the humidity.

No, sadly, her blatant speciest ideas got her into a lot of trouble.

As Sister Nature (i.e., the sister of Mo' Nature) was giving a presentation to the masses of Cubdom, one of the boys in the back where Cindy was standing was playing with a rather large daddy long-legs, and after his leader told him to drop it, it began crawling towards the other boys who were listening to S/N give her spiel. As it got closer, the boys began parting like the Red Sea to avoid it. Trying to be helpful, Cindy nonchalantly took a couple steps forward, unobtrusively (yet daintily) ground the spider under her toe, then sauntered back. I'm sure we was smiling from a job well done! She did notice, however, that Spider-boy had a frozen rictus of horror on his face.

A few seconds later, S/N for some reason decided to talk about the happy denizens of nature and asked the boys which of their fauna friends they were allowed to kill while at camp. She went on to explain that while it was perfectly fine to kill mosquitoes, other insects--such as spiders--should be spared.

At this point, Spider-boy pointed accusingly at Cindy and yelled, 'She just killed a spider!!!'

S/N replied, 'What kind was it? A daddy long-legs?' Getting an affirmative, she went on, 'They don't hurt anyone, and shouldn't be harmed.'

It's a good thing that Cindy had already sated her bloodlust, otherwise S/N and Spider-boy might have also gone home that day with sensible shoe treadmarks. As it was, she muttered to den leader, 'It was just a dumb spider, and the kids were getting freaked out!'

A boy's paradise.....

Cameron has been going to Cub Scout day camp every day this week, and is he having a ball!

Every day they get to shoot BB rifles, shoot a bow, play lots of games, learn Cub skills (knots, decoding, compasses) do crafts, get sprayed by a fire truck (in a pouring rain!) and--Cameron's favorite--shooting slingshots. On Day 2 he scored a direct hit at the slingshot target and got a special bead to string on his leather bead-holder thingy.



He had heard that they get to whittle a piece of soap on Thursday, so on Monday night he practiced, taking a bar of hotel soap and whittling it into a million little pieces.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday it was announced that the younger boys (Cameron's age) would not be using knives to whittle. Instead, they would be getting a popsicle stick to whittle with. He's rather disappointed, but we got a good laugh out of it!

Ain't it a great mental picture! He could even dig out one end of the soap, insert the stick, and pretend he has an ice cream bar! And knowing Cameron, he would probably get some kids to lick it!

Super Size Us!

Since the kids were with friends and at parties much of yesterday, while Ally napped we watched part of a movie--the movie that McDonalds doesn't want you to see: Super Size Me.

It's not a movie for the faint of heart or stomach, and there is quite a bit of language.

Anyway, it really grosses you out as this guy decides to eat only McD's food for 30 days and how his body basically starts shutting down on him.

So anyway, an hour later Cameron came home and we decided to go out for a quick dinner.

Yep, we ate at McDonalds.

I guess it didn't take!? (Though Cindy did get a copy of the nutritional chart!)

Princess? Yes, yes....Regal? Yes, yes....

This past week Ally found that she preferred to have dinner hand-served to her while she was standing rather than just sitting in her boring old highchair!




Keep up the good work, Grandma!

Sorry, Cameron

Well, last night Cameron and I went fishing at the pond at work from 7:30~9:25, and in less than 3 minutes he managed to catch a nice-sized bass about 2 feet offshore (it surged in to get the hotdog dangling on the hook).



Over the course of the evening he pulled in 10 or more baby bluegills, but no more bass. He must've hooked 5 or more right next to the eye, thus requiring me to extract the hook more than usual. He even caught a fish with a blind/shriveled eye--now ol' One Eye is going to have a couple new friends at its Cyclops Anonymous therapy sessions!
As for me, I used lures and caught a small bass, and then I switched to a motor-oil jig and hooked an even nicer-sized bass than his!



Finally!

Cameron must've remembered that Father's Day was coming up!?

I'm not the only interpreter in the family.....

Today all 3 older kids went with another family to a water park in Tipp City. Cameron also had a b-day party to go to (more swimming), so we went to the park to pick him up after a couple hours.
The mother commented to me that Cameron was as quiet as a sucking dove, and that Erin served as the interpreter whenever the mother needed to get a response from Cameron.
I guess we can only dream that her services would also be required at home....

Caleb's HS Graduation Fandango

We had a mini Floyd reunion on Friday night at Caleb's (a nephew) party. Uncle Bradso and his son Carlton, Mom, Den-Den, and me.
And nope, none of us are on tippy-toes!
We haven't seen Carlton in years, and his first words to me were, 'I thought you were bigger!' (I would hazard to guess that Erin thought the same thing about Uncle Brad!)
He's a smart kid--before the night was out he was casually mentioning driving down from law school for Sunday dinners when he and the fam move here in August.
As everyone knows, the door is always open! We even farm out kids!



Can you spot Cameron?

Be Very Afraid, Part MDCIX

Cameron got a bag of water-balloons for his birthday (no, I don't believe in arming our children), and this week they got a chance to use them.

Fortunately I was at work....

Better late then never....

Thanks to the ministrations of Grandma Bowcut (and an assist by Gma Floyd), last week Allyson learned how to go down stairs the right way (i.e., not falling down head over heels...)

Here she is taking a well-deserved break.....with Kenner....which is really no break at all.....

An Assist....

I was working in the kitchen on Saturday when I heard Allyson on the baby monitor. She was awake.

Cameron was in watching TV, and he offered to go get her.

A couple minutes later he was still watching TV.

Makenna was at the table, so I sang out, "Cameron, if you won't get Allyson, I'll have Makenna get her!"

Makenna replied brightly, "I'll get her Daddy!"

The next sound was Cameron zooming for the stairs.

Makenna raced as far as the stairs, and then sauntered back to the table.

As she sat back down, full of self-satisfaction she said to herself, "Well, that takes care of that!"

Obviously she had never had any intention of getting Allyson--she just went towards the stairs to get Cameron moving!

Sweet Misery

Upon being reminded that today was Fast Sunday, Erin got a bit moody at first, but within 5 seconds she was asking, 'Where's Cameron? Where's Cameron?'

She found him in the frontroom and I was able to hear her taking great pleasure in telling him, 'Today is Fast Sunday Cameron. Now that you have been baptized you have to fast! No breakfast for you!'

Seldom have I seen such joy on Erin's face on a Sunday morning!

The Musings of Makenna

Our sweet Makenna pulls no punches....

To a lady up the street: "Your shirt isn't very modest."

A week or so ago, when it was mentioned that Cameron would be 'perfect' right after he got baptized: "Well, that sure won't last very long!"

Yesterday--the day Grandma Floyd was arriving: "Ohhhh! Grandma Floyd will make us all be slaves!"

Offhand remark made to Aunt Den-Den during Cameron's baptism service when one of the missionaries was giving a short talk and urging Cameron and the other boy to try to be as good as they could: "He won't....He never has." When asked if she would do her best to be good after she was baptized, she gushed, "Oh yes! Of course!"