Toothless grin

Speaking of Kenner, last night I pulled out her remaining loose front tooth. (Photo to follow shortly, I'm sure....)

Cindy had brought her by work at lunchtime for me to give it a try, but it was still pretty firmly entrenched, so at 10 PM last night she came in to have me give it another tug, and that time it was a success.



At 2 AM (or was it 4 AM??), Kenner came into our room to inform us that the tooth fairy had left $1.50 in quarters in the tooth fairy pillow.

She then walked down the hall and Cindy heard what sounded like Kenner telling Erin.

"She's waking up Erin!" she exclaimed, and leaped out of bed and galloped down the hallway.

Full of concern, I did the only logical thing and went back to sleep.

Singing the Blues

As I ferried Kenner to a friend’s house yesterday, as I am wont to do, I started singing along with a song on the radio.

From the passenger seat I soon heard the well-worn comment, ‘Dad, I hate it when you sing.’(Even Allyson will yell out, 'Stop it!' whenever I start singing.')

Trying to find out what part of my singing didn’t appeal to her, I asked her one of those probing questions that daddies often utilize.

‘And why is that?’

With a big smile and in a conversational tone--as if she were elucidating something for the benefit of someone not quite firing on all cylinders—she replied, ‘Because you sing terrible.’

I tried another parry, ‘Oh, I don’t know. When I sing, I sing just like a pretty bird.’

Pondering this for at least 0.006 seconds, she then retorted, ‘Then birds sing terrible.’

Who can argue with that logic?

Prescient

As stated in the previous blog, we have now officially had a cookout and eatout on the patio.

And as presciently foreseen in an earlier post, on Friday morning Cindy looked out to see a skunk moseying around in the middle of our back yard.

Cameron suggested that I shoot it, and when I mentioned that it would stink up the backyard for weeks, he then suggested that we buy enough tomato sauce to cover the entire backyard, as that would get rid of the smell.

I decided to let the skunk move on and find other uses for our tomato-based food storage....

It's almost backyard cookout time!!

Today was finally the big day.....
After 6 hours digging it out a week ago Saturday, then another 4 hours (from 8:30 to 11:30 PM) last Friday night filling it back in with gravel, this arrived.....



20 minutes later it looked like this....



Our own little angel (Concrete Angel??--click on the song on our playlist at the bottom of this page...if it is working today....) watched amusedly as Daddo played in the big mudpie....



and the final rendition looked like this....



I am really going to enjoy removing the grill and picnic table from the garage! Of course, then I'll have to spend a couple more hours rearranging everything in the garage!

Sigh....

Looting from Erin's Blog....From Mullet to Muted: Allyson's first haircut

Today Allyson got her first haircut. At first i didn't want her to get her hair cut because it was so cute!! Even though i was only like an inch and a half shorter:0. Here is a picture of her before

and after.

Our daughter named who???

The music leader in Primary stopped me after church on Sunday to tell me that during singing time she had said, 'I need one of the girls to volunteer' to do something (I don't remember...(remember, I'm a Dad!))and a sweet little voice called out,
'Camerina is here!'

Cameron (a.k.a. 'Silent Cam') has finally decided to contribute verbally in his class.

We are both pleased and very worried! =)

(Mom update--- This was only muttered under his breath and he was not aware that it could be heard by anyone other than his friend he was trying to get a laugh out of. He is still 'Silent Cam'.)
(Daddo Update: Wouldn't you know it--it certainly did sound out of character...)

Oingo-Boingo

Trying to get into the good graces of my kids (or was it just an attempt to clear out a corner of the basement??), yesterday evening I assembled the trampoline.




I completed it at about 10 PM, and the 3 kids still awake jumped on it for a good 10 minutes before we shoo-ed them to bed.

They spent a lot of quality time on it today too....(that's a neighborhood kid, not Camerino, in the background.)

Allyson loves to be on it, as long as she is being held and her feet don't touch. Tonight, from her lofty perch she would slap me on the shoulder and repeatedly command, "Higher! Higher!)

Let the fights, injuries, and crying begin!

The Artful Dodger

Well, Cindy took my usual laurels away from me, being the only one in the family who never got sick.

Sickening, to say the least!

On the flip side, she didn't get to spend a day lounging in bed, then the bathroom, then the bed, then the bathroom, then the bed, then the bathroom.....either.

Anyway, we are all in good spirits and looking forward to the 4th.

Nope, not the last.

Cameron has been up doing both toilet tricks.

Then Kenner woke up saying her 'hair itches.' Cindy checked it out, and I didn't hear any gnashing of teeth, so hopefully things are OK.

Cindy commented that she was looking forward tomorrow to getting what everyone else has had--something about liking to spend all day in bed!

A final one for tonight! (?)

Erin got hold of the digital camera and took a lot of pictures of her and the other 2 girls.

I can only assume that this was a 'tough' photo she was planning to put on her blog.



It might be more aptly named, her 'stubborn look.'

Caned

Our good neighbor (our BEST neighbor) from our old house and daughter came over on Saturday to see the new house, and though it took awhile, Allyson finally warmed up and had a great old time with his cane.

Frogs, mice, spiders and bugs....

Cindy noted below the episode of the spade-bludgeoned mice and the gassed mouse, but that is not all the kids have been playing with.

Cameron and a fried found an old pile of side and were able to somehow catch a wolf spider--it was about as big as my thumb! It was quickly gassed.

The kids have also found a ton of little 1" frogs. Then on Friday when Steve and Ammon came over, they found a big toad, and great fun was had by all. (Except perhaps for the toad, though he was eventually released on his own cognizance a couple hours later.





What's next? A skunk? (And who will be gassing whom?)

You may ask, why is Louis (usually a zombie by 10 PM) still awake?

Answer: In the late afternoon I came down with the same case of Diabolical Dib-Dabs and Pharoah's Revenge that had kept Erin home from church today, so in between exciting episodes (and reruns....ooh, unfortunate turn of a phrase, that...) I fitfully napped. So now I am wide awake (but not, as you might think from reading these posts, hopped up on anything) and sick of being in bed.

UPDATE:
12:59 AM.
I am at the computer.
I hear a commotion upstairs.
I hear the sound of running feet.
I hear Cindy telling Cameron to RUN to the bathroom.
I hear strangely wet sounds.
I try running up the stairs, but I get dizzy.
I saunter (stagger?) instead.
I find a trail of brown throwup down the hallway.
And a big clump right by his door.
It continued into the bathroom and around the toilet.
Wow, that kid has a spew range, bless his heart!
I had to sit down, and commenced cleaning up in the bathroom.
Cindy worked on the carpet.
I then joined her.
I find that they had chocolate muffins with (for?) dinner.
Upset stomachs--the gift that keeps on giving!
Cindy is now spraying every door handle in the house down with Lysol.
Cindy's parting comment: "Now I know why pioneers had wooden floors! And why people are going back to them!"
My advice to Cameron:
1) Remember the trash can in your room!
2) If you feel the urge to fluff (i.e., emit flatulence), DON'T!! Go sit on the toilet first!!

Erin is also suffering from too much sleep, and is now watching a movie.

Kids say the darndest things....

Kenner at the beginning of church today, without any preamble:

"I wish you would have named Cameron 'Jesus,' then he would have been born good!'

Postnote: He was an angel in sacrament meeting today! Kenner? Not so much....but not too bad either.

Green....make that ORANGE....Eyes

As you may have noticed, when you come to our blogsite now, there is an auto-playlist of music that I like (Cindy will be adding to it shortly, I would assume...)

Coldplay's first big album (Rush of Blood to the Head) had the song 'Green Eyes,' and it is perhaps my favorite one on the entire album. (Okay, okay, after 4 kids, I must admit that the song 'Fix You' on their second big album (X&Y) has also had its charm....)

But I digress....

Cindy, as you know and as she'll never admit, has orange tiger eyes, and every time I listen to this song at work, I substitute the word 'orange' for 'green' in my mind and smile quietly to myself as I softly sing along, nodding my head in total disagreement.

The lyrics can be read right here.

BandAids? We don't need no stinkin' BandAids!

For a couple weeks Erin, and then Kenner, and now even Ally(!!) have taking to singing a recent song that they like. I didn't listen to the lyrics too closely at first, and assumed they were singing 'Keep feelin', keep keep feeling love...' but then I heard it on the radio and was surprised to find out that the real lyrics to the chorus were:

'Keep bleedin', keep keep bleedin' love...
Keep bleedin', keep keep bleedin' love...
Keep bleedin', keep keep bleedin' love...'

Filled with my usual empathy, I confirmed with Erin that my old ears were hearing right, and then made the comment (to no one in particular), 'This is Kenner's theme song!

I have chronicled in these pages the bumps, bruises, scratches of Kenner that lead to the effusion of blood (or at least something that may possibly, perhaps leave a slightly reddened tinge) on her legs, knees, elbows, back, face, and most everywhere else.

It's not that she's a klutz, per se....

Well, actually, it IS because she is such a klutz, bless her heart.*

Here is the song. (You will have to hit the stop button on our main songlist at the bottom of this page and then click on the POP-OUT PLAYER button to start it. The chorus starts somewhere after the first verse or two. (Yes, yes, I always try to provide helpful info to our dear readers...)

Speaking of BandAids, we go through about a gross of them every week. Even Ally now asks for them when she gets a boo-boo. And thus, in recent weeks the kids have learned more about my childhood than they have ever wanted--how I probably was given one or two BandAids my entire childhood career and I turned out just fine. (That's usually the point where they surreptitiously exchange looks and lightly clear their throats.

*POSTNOTE: About 6 years ago we were out in Jackson Hole at the BarS Ranch(or something like that) cowboy dinner show, and the bass player had a couple hilarious comedy routines. The one I remember best is how down South you can say anything disparaging, such as "Billy Joe Jim-Bob is a stealin' murderin' bank robber" or "Cletus is jest a useless good-fer-nothin'," but if you add a folksy '..., bless his heart' at the end it is perfectly fine in polite company.

Rub a Dub Dub

Cameron had been playing outside with his friends Friday night and this is what was left in my bathtub.

Letterboxing

We have been trying our hand at "letterboxing" this summer. Friday was our second time and the kids just love it. For those that don't know...letterboxing is when you find a hidden cache using the clues you can find here.
Some of the clues are more difficult and require hiking, compass reading, etc....We have not done any of those yet but I am interested in some compass reading after being at cub scout camp and learning a little about how to read and use them. Anyway, this photo is of where we found one of our "treasures". We went to a cemetery in Troy, OH and followed the "clues" to get to this huge tree. We had to pull out some huge mushrooms that were disguising the big hole in the base of the tree and inside was the box. None of us wanted to put our hand inside to pull out the box so we used sticks to get the box out.





(Daddo: It looks like they had ham for lunch!?)
Usually there is a stamp inside (rubber type) from the family that hid it. You make the stamp in your book and then put your family stamp in their book. WE don't have a stamp yet but that is a project for another day.

Of Mice and Men? (Boys)

Yesterday Cameron had a friend over and while they were also playing with Bryce, the neighbor boy, they discovered 3 mice in our egress window well. It is not the first time we have found a mouse in the well (Louis used the shovel to let it climb out that time). The boys thought they could do the same.

Fast forward 15-20 minutes later....

I am sitting with my visiting teachers in the family room and look outside to see them put something in the Cool Whip container that had been laying around from the bug collection they were working on the day before. (Whew...long sentence.) Cameron throws a couple of doused cotton balls in and the lid was clamped down. Suspiciously I inquired about what was in the container.

"We caught a mouse!" they said. "It's alive!"
I asked, "Where are the other ones?"
"Oh, they died. They are still in the window well. One of them got a bloody nose and we don't know what happened to the other one."


HMMMMMM..... I thought. More like bludgeoned nose and I can tell exactly what happened to the other one. As for the one that was caught "alive"....that condition doesn't last for long when you are confined in an airtight container with fingernail polish remover-doused cotton balls to breathe.

Hobo's aren't all that bad!

Tonight Cameron wanted to have a fire. Actually it is more like this afternoon Cameron wanted to have a fire. It started around 3:00 when Cameron came inside and informed me that he and his friend had prepared the fire pit with kindling and wood. It was now ready to go. I then informed him that it would have to wait.
Eventually we got around to it and this time Cameron wanted Hobo dinners (I am sure that is so not politically correct but.....oh well!) I tried to talk him out of it because all of my Hobo dinner memories are of charcoal cooked in foil and going to bed hungry! He was insistent.




I must say....I am a pretty good Hobo dinner cooker. These were the best I have ever had. The kids loved them (Erin and Cameron anyway....Makenna is not a meat eater and was eating at a friends house and Allyson was saving room for the S'mores.)

Erins blog

Some of you may be interested to know that Erin now has a blog of her own. She is quite excited about it and it looks like she will be posting often....If you want to check it out click here.

Ready? Aim! Fire!!

After attending his second year of Cub Scout camp Cameron has once again gotten the hankerin' for some shootin'. He earned his patch for bb shooting at the camp by getting enough hits on the target to add up to 35. He was pretty excited. I am excited too that this year it is easier to let him shoot when it is an empty field behind out house.

Things to do on a nice day

This is what Louis spent his day Saturday doing. We have a great friend who works with concrete and is helping us out with a patio. The weather was great for digging which was nice since he had to dig it down about 6 inches. Can you say "sore back"?

I of course helped out as much as I could. I took the kids swimming at the pool. It was a nice day for that too. :) Aren't I thoughtful?

To know me is to love me....??

Allyson has been suffering (since shortly after birth?) with a bad case of 'Daddy's Girl.'

For example, I have been going to work early and getting off early for a couple years now (my own choice--it's amazing how much work I can get done when there are few interruptions!), and so the weekends are Ally's favorite because when she gets up her fave Daddo is home.

According to Cindy, every morning when they go in to get her, her first words--accompanied by an expectant air of great anticipation--are, 'Daddy home? Daddy home?'

If the answer is yes, she beams. If the answer is no, her smile disappears, replaced with an air of dogged resignation.

I should add that 3-day weekends really mess with her mind!

Firebugs

As Cindy was running helter-skelter trying to get ready for her book club soirée, (see the previous post) Cameron was looking yearningly off into the distant waiting for his dear old daddo to come home from work.

The simple reason being that he wanted to make a fire out back while his friend was there and Cindy, being too busy to supervise it, had told him to wait.

When I did arrive home, Cameron informed me that they had already wadded up a bunch of paper and gathered some firewood.

They got such a good fire in the end, that we all cooked hotdogs and then made s'mores. This also helped Cindy out, as the mess was kept to a minimum both inside and out.





(I was waiting for the egg rolls and Chinese cabbage salad leftovers from the party, so I restrained my urge to chomp down on a dog.)

Cameron's friend won the eating contest easily--5 hotdogs on 2 hamburger buns and at least 2 (maybe 3?) s'mores. Allyson also ate 2 hotdogs--uncooked, with ketchup squirts on every bite!

Wives say the darndest things....

Cindy called me at work yesterday and her first utterance was, “So, have you ever seen a chicken running around after its head has been cut off?”

Assuming that one of our more curious-minded kids had asked her about this phenomenon, I replied in the affirmative, that yes, I had seen a headless chicken run down the alley when we butchered some behind our house in Walla Walla as a kid.

“Good.” she replied. “Now keep that mental image and think of me, for I am that chicken.”

Yes, on this day she had friends over for each of the 3 older kids, spent 3 hours in the van doing errands, cleaned the house, and then in the evening she hosted a book club meeting that required quite a bit of prep time in the kitchen. And I am sure that she did many other things as well, which, if you were to ask her, could be related to you in minute detail.

Multitasking beauty, thy name is Cindy.

We always wondered what made Kenner tick!

WARNING: THIS BLOG ENTRY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR THOSE WHO ARE EASILY PRONE TO NAUSEA, VOMITING, OR MENTAL IMAGES BEING SEARED INTO THEIR MINDS LIKE A HOT BRANDING IRON ON RAW LIVER.

ANY FURTHER VIEWING OF THIS BLOG ENTRY IS TAKEN UNDER YOUR OWN RECOGNITION OF THE RISKS INVOLVED, AND THE OWNERS OF THIS BLOG BEAR NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INJURY, MENTAL OR PHYSICAL (E.G., AS YOU TRY TO RUN TO THE NEAREST BARF BAG).

So anyway, as I was downstairs I heard Cindy yelling out for me from the upstairs. I could tell from the thinly veiled frantic tone that it was a 'I found a big spider' or 'I found a big moth' notification.

I trotted up the stairs and found her in the kids' bathroom, where she had been brushing Kenner's hair.

Her lips frozen in a rictus of terror, she pointed to the top of Kenner's head, and said, 'LOOKATTHAT!!!'

What I saw was this....



....a tick who had obviously been having a good feast. (This is the little rascal after removal. It is about 1/2" long (wide??). Though a hungry tick is small and as hard as flint, a well-fed tick is soft and rubbery and looks like it has swallowed an inflatable raft and then pulled the inflation cord.)

I got onto the Internet to find the best way to remove it, then found the tweezers and did the dirty deed. (As soon as I started, Cindy dashed out of the room....At the time I wondered if it was just envy that was making her so green....)

Kenner was a champ as I carefully extracted it along with a nice little chunk of her scalp, and only began crying when we applied some antiseptic.

We are keeping it in a bag ("PUT IT OUT IN THE GARAGE WHERE I CAN’T SEE IT!!" Cindy said...) just in case Kenner comes down with a rash or fever, etc.

On the bright side, at least it wasn't lice!
(Then again, Makenna is now saying that her scalp is itchy....)

The finished product

This is the pillow Cameron made for his teacher for her end-of-the-year gift. He did all the embroidery and I helped with the sewing. He would not tell me what she said about it when he gave it to her, but I am sure she loved it.

DADDO Comment: Could this non-divulged conversation between Cameron and his teacher be considered a variant form of 'pillow-talk'?

Way to go Erin!

About 1 week ago we got a "secret letter" in the mail from Erin's 5th grade teachers.
She was one of 26 students in all of the 5th grade selected to receive a Presidential Academic award. We were there yesterday when it was presented. We are super proud of her. She does not always like school and can become discouraged easily when she is "not getting it." She worked very hard this year and studied hard to get her good grades. She definitely deserved this award. Way to go Erin!

Maybe I need my eyes checked?

I picked up the kids from their last day of school yesterday and after we had been home for only about 5 minutes it was really, really quiet....and this is what I saw....




Ahhhhhhh..........I keep hoping it was not a mirage. If this is a sign of things to come we will have a great summer!

DADDO Comment: Of course, it didn't hurt that it was 90 stinkin' degrees outside with super-high humidity, and thus there was no one who wanted to step outside! That and the fact that they all want to rack up hours in the Summer Reading Program so that they can get the usual prizes.

Connor Prairie

About 1 month ago Cameron's SOAR (gifted program) class took a family trip to IN. We also went on the visit to Connor Prairie. It consists of a number of recreated communities from the early and late 1800s. We had a great time visiting the Indian village, the school house, the pottery shop, blacksmiths, etc., etc. Cameron and Erin both did the tomahawk throw, but neither got it to stick in the log (though Erin hit it smack in the middle).
What made it more unique than other places we have visited like this were the "characters." Everybody who 'worked' in the villages were dressed up in period clothing and also acted a part. They spoke as if they lived in the 1800s and had real lives in the community.
The best part was that we all got along!!! The kids were lots of fun and we enjoyed being together.
DADDO Comment: It goes without saying that the kids loved staying in a hotel with a swimming pool and a large variety of foods in the free breakfast buffet.

Milestones Galore

Wednesday was certainly a day of milestones for the kids in our family.

1. Cameron reached the big 9, and most of his presents were no surprises--not even the undies!



The bike was no surprise either, though he didn't know the exact type of bike he would be getting (then again, neither did Cindy until she found it at Target that day!)....



...and Cam-bone decided to give his old bike to his friend in our old neighborhood who had had his own bike stolen over a year ago. His friend was, well, thrilled (or whatever that word would be in Spanish--'muchos twitterpatamundo?').


2. Cameron graduated to the Bear scout den . In a world of perfect justice, Cindy would've gotten the badge instead.... (Cindy here...I did get a pin!)




3.Erin attended the city-wide Safety Patrol pizza party to celeberate her entire year of service as a crossing guard. She was somewhat disappointed that she didn't win one of the bikes (along with approx. 120 other disappointed kids), but she got over it soon enough.
(Pictures to follow later??)


4. Makenna lost her first tooth, and what a noticeable tooth it was!



It's a good thing, too, as for a couple days she had often bitten down on hard things and bled a lot--or at least cried and moaned a lot!
However, yesterday we found that she was also somewhat of an Indian-giver. She put one of the 2 dollar bills from the tooth fairy back into the special 'tooth pillow' and slid that and an explanatory letter under her pillow in hopes that the tooth fairy would return her tooth to her as a keepsake. (I don't think it worked....)

5. Allyson just got cuter and cuter! She is talking like crazy, and usually making sense. For example, last night we were out running errands, and after Cindy dropped something off she talked with the lady for quite awhile. As she was talking Allyson hollered out from her carseat, 'Hurry up Mommy!'
What's not to love?!

Memorial Weekend

Well, it has been a productive Memorial Day weekend.

On Saturday I put in 4 venetian blinds, one decorative light fixture, and painted 2 of the 3 stairway walls.

On Sunday night I puttered around in the basement, emptying about 8 boxes and neatly rearranging and stacking all the remaining boxes, and ended up with about 3 times the open space than had been there before.

And today I gave myself a haircut, moved the shed onto our property (it had been sitting on a adjoining lot waiting for the sod to get rooted), put the new lawnmower together, did some weed-eating, decluttered the garage, put out a ton of trash, and shop-vac'ed the grill.

Good night!

Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two....

With her 'top-knot' (or as Ally likes to say, 'Oooh--awesome!':



And with the rubber band removed ('It's hideous!'):

Working Girl!

Our neighbor was going away for a couple days this weekend, and they asked if Erin would feed their dog and goldfish for them.

The neighbor dog, Gus.....



...was very good-natured and fun to be around. She and Cameron and Makenna took him on at least three walks around the neighborhood, and they also kept him busy chasing balls, and now she kinda wants a dog.

I thought that sending her out with the pooper-scooper would cure her of that, but such was not the case--as she scooped up her third pile she said 'I don't really mind doing it.'

Rats! Foiled again!

So I have had to resort to the 'Yeah, that'll be the day' snort-laugh.

Has she been reading Tom Sawyer recently?

Kenner had a neighbor friend over on Saturday, and Erin joined in when they went to the basement. After a couple minutes I heard the girls begging Erin to let them play in her room.

'Hey, I know!' Erin gaily suggested, 'Why don't we go up to my room and clean it!'

The younger girls were ecstatic, and about 10 minutes later I heard Erin telling them, 'Doesn't my room look a lot cleaner now!?'

Sizzlin'!!

Cindy was taking Erin to a birthday sleepover with a friend (by way of Target for a present), and, despite it being less than 60 degrees out and overcast, Erin turned on the air full-blast and set it to the coldest setting.

Cindy leaned over and turned it back down, and said 'Erin! What are you doing!?"

"Mom," she replied, "I am sooo HOT!!! In two different ways!"

Spawning Carp

It's past that time of the year, but since it is now OK to walk on the grass, I went ahead and strung the carp up to swim in the breeze.



The kids love it, and Ally is mesmerized--not only is it fun for her to watch, it is also made up of "silky" material!

Daddy's Little Helpers....

Cameron mowed the front lawn at the old house for the very last time last Tuesday, and then he did the same at the new house on Monday of this week.



Erin was also excited to try out the mower at the new house, and she did about half of the back yard.

I am so happy!

Did I mention I was ecstatic!?

However, this lawnmower was included in the deal for the old house, so I will have to buy another one that is also self-propelled so that Cameron, et. al., can continue to make their daddy giddy with glee!

Hmmm... maybe it is finally time to purchase that hammock....

Forget about Pisces, Capricorn, or Sagittarius....

This is definitely our favorite sign...



Here is a picture of our old house 10 years ago when we bought it.


And here it is when we sold it.



As you might expect, there were even MORE changes to the inside!

Father and Son golfing

Cameron, in his winsome way, has been yammering for weeks about going golfing, so today we hit the nearby par-3 course.

As we went along, I tried to teach him golf etiquette (the last kind of etiquette he has not yet learned to flout with impunity).

For example, after I had made a big divot, he asked why I was putting the sod back in place and stamping on it.

'You see, Cameron,' I gently taught, 'A good golfer tries to leave the course as he found it.'

Puzzled, he queried, 'But you're not a good golfer!'

Obviously he doesn't realize that the word 'good' has many different nuances.

Later on, I waxed philosophic, explaining the yin and yang of golf, commenting on how if I made a bad shot something good could still come of it, then I added, 'I usually don't make very good shots.'

'Yeah,' he chimed in, 'You usually suck!'

Edward Scissorhands?

Last night was the Father and Son campout, and, as usual, Cameron played with fire most of the evening and all the next morning.

His face was pale gray with the smoke (he had no idea), and when we got home I tried to get a picture taken of him, but as soon as he walked in the door, Erin exclaimed, "Cameron! What happened to your face?"

He promptly went into a bathroom and cleaned it up.

Or so he thought....

He now looked like he had applied a heavy layer of black mascara around his eyes.

It was kinda creepy!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a picture of this either.

So this reasonable facsimile thereof will have to do....



Of course, we did learn some things:
1) Dutch oven pear cobbler is heavenly, but blueberry stinks (fortunately we did half-and-half!)
2) Sleeping in the back of a van is MUCH quieter and MUCH warmer than in a tent.
3) Little boys sleep much warmer in the middle of the night when they actually get INTO a sleeping bag rather than just heaping it on top of them! (I traded him my toasty warm one for his cold one at 5:30 AM.

Does not compute! Does not compute!

So this week, Cindy is having the family do kind things for each other in secret, and then leave behind a little laminated picture of a teddy bear.

On Tuesday night as the kids were getting ready for bed, Erin got Makenna to help her clean up the sink area in the the kids' bathroom.

As they were busily putting things away, putting things in order, and wiping the sinks down, Erin excitedly commented, 'This will be our special gift for Mom!' She then propped up the teddy bear on the back of the sinktop.

I kept quiet, but in my mind I was thinking, 'This is you kids' bathroom sink. Why is cleaning up your own messes a present for Mom?'

When I mentioned this to Cindy that night, she snorted and said, 'I know exactly what she meant!'

Love the mud!

This is what happens when you try to ride your bikes through a muddy field.
Your shoes get stuck in the mud and come off....the wheels won't turn anymore and your brother has to come "unstick" your bike after he has gotten his out. Then you get to hose them all down....and no you can't put your bathing suits onl....it is only 54 degrees outside!

Up close and personal with nature

This was the view from our morning room this morning. Cameron was eating his breakfast and started hollering that there was a deer. It had walked across the top of the hill in the back yard and then mosied down, grazing all along the way. Beautiful!


Last night the kids found a bird in our window well. They were playing in the basement and saw it struggling to fly out. We have a robin's nest in the backyard and assume this was one of the babies from there. We assume that because momma and pappa robin were extremely distressed watching baby robin be "stuck" in our window well. They were flitting all around and when the kids went outside to peer down the well they got an earful from momma and poppa. Louis eventually helped the baby get out and hopefully the little bird family found a safe place to stay the night.

Shakespearean it was not....

Erin had a friend over after school yesterday, and a couple hours later they cajoled me into going to the basement to watch a play they had come up with.

The play consisted of play-acting an argument between Erin and her friend.

As I expected, there wasn't a discernable difference between this play-acting and the real thing!

I guess you could say they have 'practiced' quite a bit over the years!

Parental Units--That's all we are!

Being Sunday, I declined Cameron's suggestion to rev up the chainsaw to cut up more 'firewood' for their firepits (see below).

Cameron then scornfully exclaimed, 'I'm hungry! Since you won't get out the chainsaw, why don't you make yourself useful and cut up an apple for me!'

That kid had better watch out, or he'll find himself at the Emergency Room again!

Cliquishness

The 3 older kids are down the basement having their usual fun and fighting, and then it reaches a new level, so I go down to investigate.

I see that Cameron and Makenna have barricaded themselves in under the basement stairs to have their own club.

Then Erin begins complaining to me, 'They won't let me in there because I don't have any stitches!' (Makenna had some stitches on her lip 3 1/2 years ago.)

I just hope they don't start up a 'Non-Daffy Club,' as there would be no members!