Thursday, September 30, 2010
Worker Bee Ben
The novelty of our latest chore system had worn off a bit over the summer. It was still mostly working, but the kids weren’t quite as anxious to help out. Then Ben got the latest Lego catalog. He has read the first four Harry Potter books and was super excited to see the new Harry Potter Lego sets that are coming out in October. He really wants to buy Hagrid’s Hut, so he has been working his tushy off to get $40. He’ll get up and hurry through his morning routine so he can do a few jobs before he leaves for school. After school, he walks in the door asking “Mom, are there any jobs I can do?” It’s been great! He’s earned about $10 each week during the last month (no small feat considering the wages we pay), and has enough money to order Hagrid’s Hut when it is released tomorrow. Now he has his sights set on Hogwarts Castle. It’s $130. He’s pretty sure that Santa will bring it to him. I’m pretty sure that he had better keep working.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Afternoons with Abby
Abby and I get lots of one on one time now that Elise is in kindergarten. I think that she misses having her sisters around to play with her, but we’re doing okay. Some days we’ll run errands or go shopping. I usually have to bribe her to get in the car (she would lots rather just stay home and play), but she does really well once we get to the store. If they have a “car cart” or mini carts for kids, we are golden. *
I volunteer in Elise’s class once a week. We are at the school for an hour and a half and Abby is AMAZING. She just hangs out and watches the kids and finds quiet ways to keep herself entertained. Both Elise’s teacher and the other mom that is there helping have commented every week about how good she is. I hope it lasts!
Lots of days we just hang out at home. I am usually busy trying to get 20 things done before everyone gets home from school. Luckily Abby is really good at self-entertaining. She has a great imagination. I love listening to the conversations she comes up with for her Polly Pockets and Barbies. She reads stories to herself, makes up songs, plays board games with her own one player rules, and says cool things like “my neck hurts because I’ve been walking too much.” She certainly keeps me entertained.
*I know the pictures are lousy. Nate’s cell phone (the one that fell in Willard Bay) recovered, so I decided that I would just use it instead of buying a new one. The camera on that phone kind of stinks. I keep telling myself that it’s all about the memories, not the photo quality.
I volunteer in Elise’s class once a week. We are at the school for an hour and a half and Abby is AMAZING. She just hangs out and watches the kids and finds quiet ways to keep herself entertained. Both Elise’s teacher and the other mom that is there helping have commented every week about how good she is. I hope it lasts!
Lots of days we just hang out at home. I am usually busy trying to get 20 things done before everyone gets home from school. Luckily Abby is really good at self-entertaining. She has a great imagination. I love listening to the conversations she comes up with for her Polly Pockets and Barbies. She reads stories to herself, makes up songs, plays board games with her own one player rules, and says cool things like “my neck hurts because I’ve been walking too much.” She certainly keeps me entertained.
*I know the pictures are lousy. Nate’s cell phone (the one that fell in Willard Bay) recovered, so I decided that I would just use it instead of buying a new one. The camera on that phone kind of stinks. I keep telling myself that it’s all about the memories, not the photo quality.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Fun Weekend
Saturday started like all Saturdays at this house . . . with soccer games. I like weeks when I get to go to all three kids’ games. It hardly ever happens. It seems like the girls have switched soccer personalities this year. Elise was pretty aggressive last year, but this year she’s been kind of laid back. There are a couple of really good players on her team, and I think she is content to kind of hang back and let them go with it. Emily, on the other hand, has stepped it up a bit. She’s getting into the action a little more this season and has scored a goal in each of her last two games.
The big excitement of this week’s games was at Ben’s game. The other team only had four players show up, so Nate had two players from his team wear pennies and play with the other team each quarter to even things up. Ben’s turn was during the third quarter. He was mad about it and said he wasn’t going to play hard for the other team. I gave him a quick pep-talk/lecture and told him that I expected him to play his very best even if it was for the other team. Half way through 3rd quarter, I said to Nate “um, I said very best . . . not better than you’ve ever played before.” He was really working out there. In the fourth quarter, he was back on our team and he scored TWO goals. TWO GOALS! Just for context, that is twice as many as he has scored in the last five years of playing soccer. I was so excited that I’m sure I embarrassed him (and myself) by jumping up and down and screaming. It’s a rare day when all three kids win their games. It was great.
Abby inherited a pair of cleats from a friend, so now she can get decked out from head to toe to go to the games or play soccer in the backyard. She’s a cutie.
I went with my mom and sisters to Relief Society Conference Saturday night. I know I have said it before, but this is really one of my favorite traditions. There is something lovely about hanging out with people with whom you can totally be yourself. Plus, Lesle told me that my hair “looks like a model’s.” It doesn’t . . . but it still made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. We went to Sizzler for dinner. We had a great waitress that brought us extra shrimp. I ate way too much. Then we went to Jody’s stake center for the broadcast. President Monson’s talk was awesome. I loved how straightforward and funny he was. I’m going to listen to his talk once a week until I get better at being charitable.
Our nice neighbor across the street gave us tickets to Weber State’s homecoming football game, so Nate took the kids there while I was at the conference. I met up with them during the fourth quarter. I had missed all the drama of the long walk to the stadium and scraped knees and searching for a first aid station. By the time I got there, everyone was settled and we could just have fun. The weather was perfect and since it was homecoming, they even had fireworks after the game. It was a fun family night.
Sunday was our ward’s Primary program. Nate sat with our class on the stand, so I got to sit in the congregation and just watch. The kids did a great job. All three of them had memorized their parts (Abby even memorized Elise’s so she wouldn’t feel left out) and presented them very well. I really love the songs that they learned this year. There are a couple of them that make me tear up every time I hear them. I worry a lot about my kids with all of the craziness in the world. I’m trying to have faith that if we give them a good foundation, they’ll be okay. Yesterday made me feel like we are at least on the right track.
Jody and Kevin and Grandma Reatha came over for Sunday dinner. The girls were thrilled to take a turn feeding Sarah. She is such a cute chubby baby. Her little fat rolls remind me of Ben's at that age.
The big excitement of this week’s games was at Ben’s game. The other team only had four players show up, so Nate had two players from his team wear pennies and play with the other team each quarter to even things up. Ben’s turn was during the third quarter. He was mad about it and said he wasn’t going to play hard for the other team. I gave him a quick pep-talk/lecture and told him that I expected him to play his very best even if it was for the other team. Half way through 3rd quarter, I said to Nate “um, I said very best . . . not better than you’ve ever played before.” He was really working out there. In the fourth quarter, he was back on our team and he scored TWO goals. TWO GOALS! Just for context, that is twice as many as he has scored in the last five years of playing soccer. I was so excited that I’m sure I embarrassed him (and myself) by jumping up and down and screaming. It’s a rare day when all three kids win their games. It was great.
Abby inherited a pair of cleats from a friend, so now she can get decked out from head to toe to go to the games or play soccer in the backyard. She’s a cutie.
I went with my mom and sisters to Relief Society Conference Saturday night. I know I have said it before, but this is really one of my favorite traditions. There is something lovely about hanging out with people with whom you can totally be yourself. Plus, Lesle told me that my hair “looks like a model’s.” It doesn’t . . . but it still made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. We went to Sizzler for dinner. We had a great waitress that brought us extra shrimp. I ate way too much. Then we went to Jody’s stake center for the broadcast. President Monson’s talk was awesome. I loved how straightforward and funny he was. I’m going to listen to his talk once a week until I get better at being charitable.
Our nice neighbor across the street gave us tickets to Weber State’s homecoming football game, so Nate took the kids there while I was at the conference. I met up with them during the fourth quarter. I had missed all the drama of the long walk to the stadium and scraped knees and searching for a first aid station. By the time I got there, everyone was settled and we could just have fun. The weather was perfect and since it was homecoming, they even had fireworks after the game. It was a fun family night.
Sunday was our ward’s Primary program. Nate sat with our class on the stand, so I got to sit in the congregation and just watch. The kids did a great job. All three of them had memorized their parts (Abby even memorized Elise’s so she wouldn’t feel left out) and presented them very well. I really love the songs that they learned this year. There are a couple of them that make me tear up every time I hear them. I worry a lot about my kids with all of the craziness in the world. I’m trying to have faith that if we give them a good foundation, they’ll be okay. Yesterday made me feel like we are at least on the right track.
Jody and Kevin and Grandma Reatha came over for Sunday dinner. The girls were thrilled to take a turn feeding Sarah. She is such a cute chubby baby. Her little fat rolls remind me of Ben's at that age.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Weekend Visitors
Heidi and Aaron went to New York last week, so we watched their boys over the weekend (Friday morning to Sunday night . . . Heidi’s mom had them the other days). It was fun to get to know their personalities better. None of our kids went through a “why?” stage, so it was a whole new experience to hear “why?” in stereo from Zack and Austin every 3 ½ minutes. In Ben’s words “Zack and Austin are really curious. Abby isn’t curious; she’s just bossy.” =) Gavin was a dove. He was honestly never grumpy and he took quality four hour naps every day. (We’ve never had a kid that did that either.)
My kids were super helpers and kept the boys well entertained. The only times that I really felt the load of having seven kids in the house were things like mealtimes or getting everyone ready for the day or getting everyone into/out of the car. Still, it was amazing how quiet the house seemed when we were back to just four kids again.
My kids were super helpers and kept the boys well entertained. The only times that I really felt the load of having seven kids in the house were things like mealtimes or getting everyone ready for the day or getting everyone into/out of the car. Still, it was amazing how quiet the house seemed when we were back to just four kids again.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Water Fight Wrap-up
The ward water fight has come to an end for the members of this family. Nate was the last to get hit and finished in 9th place. We had lots of fun playing. The three of us took out 14 targets (out of 80 participants). I kind of hope they do it again in five years when all of our girls are old enough to play. We could totally dominate. :) We learned that we lack the ability to practice moderation where competition is involved . . . it is all or nothing at this house. We became a bit hermitlike just to avoid getting hit (our yard certainly paid the price of our not venturing outdoors much). The best part of the game was that Nate and Ben made lots of fun memories together on their little stakeouts and had some quality father/son bonding time planning their attacks. I thought I would type up the details so we can look back and laugh in ten years.
Disclaimer: This is a LONG post and won’t really be interesting to anyone outside of this house. Consider yourself warned.
June 23rd: Assigned first targets.
June 23rd: Ben gets Jared M. Nate and Ben hid out in the bushes next to Jared's house waiting for him to leave for work. Ben was a little slow to make his move when Jared was getting in his car, and Nate thought they had missed their chance. Fortunately, Jared saw that someone was hiding in the bushes. He turned his car around and came back to confront the peeping tom/pedophile/thief that was lurking around his house. (He almost called the cops.) He got out of his car and bravely went to confront the suspected criminal and Ben got up and squirted him. I'm just glad that Jared wasn't packing heat.
June 25th: Nate gets Nicole P. Nate got a tip from our neighbors that Nicole was playing at their house. He actually left work a little early so he wouldn't miss his chance to get her out. He felt kind of bad about taking down a ten-year-old girl, so after he squirted her he handed her a bag of Skittles.
June 26th: Ben gets Mike B. Nate took Ben with him to help with our ward's assignment at the peach orchard. Mike was a sitting duck and it was an easy hit. Nate showed just how dedicated he was to the game when he showed up to work in the orchard wearing a shirt and tie. It won him a special mention in our next ward newsletter and started a new fashion trend of men wearing ties as immunity necklaces.
June 28th: Ben gets Paul C. Brother C was working in his garage and Ben just walked up the driveway and got him. Easy cheesy.
June 29th: Nate gets Crystal S. I was going to the opening night of New Moon with some friends and Crystal was supposed to pick me up. Our plan was for me to go out the front door while Nate went out the door in the garage. My job was to open the passenger door and stall for three seconds so he could squirt her through the open door. This plan fell apart when her husband got home late, so someone else drove and she met us at the theater. Plan B: I texted Nate when Crystal arrived and he drove down to the theater. I made sure to keep her out in the lobby long enough for him to get there and get her out. I'm a good wife . . . but a lousy friend. :)
July 1st: Nate gets Logan M. Nate had to take some stuff to Logan's house for scouts (he is one of our Bears). Logan was sitting right there on the front porch. After checking with Tosha to make sure that Logan had hit at least one target (Nate didn't want to spoil the fun of another Primary kid), he turned and squirted him.
July 6th: Malinda gets Amity M. I had borrowed some marshmallow roasters from Amity for scouts the day before. When I went to her house to return them, she wasn't home, so she said she would come and pick them up (and drop off some paperwork for scouts that I pretended it was urgent to have turned in). She walked right into my trap. I had a loaded water gun in the front closet with the marshmallow roasters. When she came to pick them up, I got her out right there on my front porch.
July 7th: Ben gets Travis M. Travis proved to be a formidable opponent and didn't go down easily. Ben made his first attempt when Travis was dropping Logan off at scouts. Ben's lack of stealth (pumping up the water gun while walking toward the car) blew his cover and Travis easily got away. The next night Nate saw Travis out mowing his lawn, so he and Ben went and hid out on the side of his house. Ben made his move just a few seconds too early and Travis saw him and took off running (losing a shoe in the process). Ben chased him all the way around the block, but came home disappointed again. We did a little research and found out that Travis was going to be taking the 11-year-old scouts on a hike the next day. Nate and Ben hung out inside the church and watched the parking lot. They could tell that the scouts were going to head out in Bishop F's car. There was never a good time to get Travis since he kept looking all around for Ben to sneak up on him. They thought they had missed their chance after he got in the car, but Nate noticed that the driver's side window was down. As Bishop F was walking around to get in the car, Ben ran out of the church and squirted Travis through the window. It was good that Ben had to work for it after having so many easy targets, and he was very proud of himself for finally getting Travis out. It's going to be one of our go-to examples whenever Ben needs a "winners never quit" lecture.
July 7th: Nate gets Maddie S. Nate had to pick up some stuff from Greg S (our Cubmaster). Maddie was hanging out inside by their front door, but she just wouldn't go outside. Finally, Nate gave up and went to the car to leave, and just as he was driving away, Maddie came out of the house. He pulled over and jumped out and said to Greg "I almost forgot to tell you...", which gave him enough time to get close enough to her to squirt her with the water gun he had in his back pocket. She was pretty sad about it and he felt like such a meany (he bought her a treat too).
July 13th: Malinda gets Justin O. I totally lucked out on this one. I was with my sister and our kids at the Treehouse Museum and Elise came up and told me that Kylie O was there. I looked around and found the whole O family. Sweet. I was going to run out to the van and get a squirt gun, but Holly told me I couldn't bring "a weapon" into the museum. So I improvised and found a little plastic teacup, filled it with water, and walked over and threw it on him. I didn't love the guilt associated with taking down a ten-year-old. (I apologized three times and took him his favorite candy bar that night at pack meeting.) He still hadn't found out who his target was supposed to be. I was very happy to find out that he had Nate's name. Phew. I couldn't take the adrenaline or the guilt of the game, so I was happy to be able to sit out and just provide Nate spousal immunity. I did think it was funny that Nate had been walking around paranoid for three weeks when no one was really even after him.
July 24th: Nate gets Becky C. Becky is YW President in our ward and my visiting teacher, so Nate thought she would be a fairly easy target. Wrong. The first time he did a little stakeout at the church, she showed up in a skirt. No good. The next week, he conspired with one of the young women in our ward. They went on an activity in Salt Lake and she was texting Nate to let them know when they would be back at the church so Nate could be there and get Becky out. That plan failed when I took Nate's phone to the store with me and didn't see the final "we're 15 minutes away" text come in. He missed her. Fate finally cut him a break when she came to pick up the flags on Pioneer Day and Nate was outside waxing the boat. He had just enough time to grab a squirt gun out of the car and get her out while she was still in our driveway.
August 26th: Ben gets Jason E. There was a big gap between Target#4 and Target #5 for Ben. We had a little alliance going with our neighbors. Claudy had Ben's name since the second day of the water fight. He would have been a super easy target for her, but she felt bad about getting him out that early in the game. So, without him knowing it, she gave him a little grace period to give him a chance to get some other people out. Ben ended up with Jason's name before the grace period was up so we made a reciprocal deal where Claudy wouldn't get Ben and Ben wouldn't get Jason. We decided that once there were only 20 people left in the game that all bets were off. Ben got Jason out at the pool on the night of the school swim party (after the alliance had been broken). Ben lucked out that Claudy was such a nice neighbor, or his run would have been lots shorter.
September 1st: Malinda is eliminated by Tracey H. Nate came home early from work on my birthday to take me to lunch. We stopped at Walmart on the way to pick up a few things. We saw Tammy H as we went in and said hi. She called Tracey at work and he drove to Walmart to get me out. He got me right as we were getting in line to check out. Nate was all set to sprint to the van when Tracey asked who his next target was, but luckily he never asked.
September 2nd: Ben gets Tracey H. This was another hard fought victory. Tracey was out in his driveway when Nate and Ben were driving home from soccer practice, so Nate pulled around the corner and waited for the perfect moment for Ben to charge. It would have worked except that Tracey's son Kyle ran a little interference for him and blocked Ben's pursuit. They had a little chase, and Tracey got away. Things were complicated since Tracey had Nate's name and was trying to get him while Ben was trying to get Tracey. They went back for a second attempt later that night. They cut through the Ms' house/backyard, jumped a fence, and snuck up on Tracey while he was working in his yard. I was glad that Ben was able to avenge me before he got hit.
September 2nd: Ben is eliminated by Karen R. After Ben got Tracey, he and Nate were standing there talking when Karen R appeared out of nowhere and got Ben wet. It turns out that Tracey's kids went in the house and called to tip her off that Ben was in their yard. As soon as Ben got hit, Nate took off running (since he was now Karen's target). Ben started walking home. Karen offered him a ride, but he was too upset to accept. He was pretty devastated when he got home, but 20 minutes later he was in his room playing with Legos and had totally gotten over it.
September 11th: Tie/skirt loophole is closed. Nate actually campaigned for this change (even though he took advantage of the loophole as much as anyone). It was definitely needful to speed things along.
September 17th: Nate gets Allan B. Allan was a tough target. He not only was a tie wearer, but he was out of town for weeks at a time during the summer. Nate passed his house several times every day to check for any activity. He even went as far as to do a late night stakeout on the night that Allan was getting home from a trip. Nate hung out in his yard until midnight waiting for him to get home (he found out later that Allan had gotten home at 12:30 . . . grr). Our friends that live next door to the Bs said they would call whenever they saw him outside. Nate got a call on Friday afternoon and headed down on his bike. Allan had already gone inside when Nate got there, but his wife saw Nate heading up the street on his bike. The Bs conspired with Karen R to lure Nate back out. Allan went out to mow his lawn, knowing that the Ss would call and assuming that Nate would head back down on his bike. They had Karen R waiting next to our house so she could squirt Nate when he came out of the garage on his bike. Their plan would have worked except that Nate went out the back door and cut through our neighbors' yards. So, Nate got to Allan before Karen could get Nate.
September 17th: Nate is eliminated by Karen R. Karen was a fierce competitor. Her first real attempt to get Nate was on Thursday night. She found out from a family in our ward when Nate would be at soccer practice. Her plan was to do a drive-by shooting when he was getting the soccer equipment out of his trunk. She recruited the help of Raelyn B to be her driver and even traded cars with one of the young women in our ward so it wouldn't tip Nate off if he saw her car in the parking lot. Fortunately for Nate, they were in the wrong part of the park when he was getting stuff out of the car. He was setting up the cones for practice when Karen charged down the hill toward him. Luckily her squirt gun sucked and Nate easily outran her. I showed up at the park before practice was over and saw Karen and Raelyn waiting by Nate's car in the parking lot. We thought she would give up after I got there, but she didn't. She snuck into the backseat of our van thinking that Nate would assume they were by his car and head to the van instead. I about peed when I got to the van after practice and saw her sitting inside with her squirt bottle. She was certainly dedicated. We figured she would get Nate out on Saturday at Ben's soccer game, so we set up a plan to get her out first. We called Braylie M (who had Karen as a target) and set up a little sting operation. The plan was for Braylie to hide in our backyard with a squirt gun and for Nate to act as live bait. We set it all up and had Callie P call Karen to tell her that Nate was in the backyard (Karen had already asked Callie to keep an eye out for him and let her know when she saw him outside, so we knew she wouldn't suspect anything). It would have worked brilliantly, but Karen was at Costco when Callie called. Bummer. Karen ended up getting Nate on Friday night. After Nate got Allan, he came home up the street (instead of cutting through backyards again). She was waiting by our garage and got him out. It was kind of funny how relieved we felt after he got out. We both felt like we had "gotten our lives back." No more fear of leaving the house. No more scheming. It was liberating.
September 22nd: The good will cookie tour. Things had gotten a little intense when it got down to the wire, and we wanted to make sure we were still in good standing with our neighbors. So, we cooked up a few batches of cookies to take to our latest targets/assassins as a gesture of good will. (If you didn't get cookies and you think you should have been on our delivery list, just let me know and we'll bring some over.) :)
Disclaimer: This is a LONG post and won’t really be interesting to anyone outside of this house. Consider yourself warned.
June 23rd: Assigned first targets.
June 23rd: Ben gets Jared M. Nate and Ben hid out in the bushes next to Jared's house waiting for him to leave for work. Ben was a little slow to make his move when Jared was getting in his car, and Nate thought they had missed their chance. Fortunately, Jared saw that someone was hiding in the bushes. He turned his car around and came back to confront the peeping tom/pedophile/thief that was lurking around his house. (He almost called the cops.) He got out of his car and bravely went to confront the suspected criminal and Ben got up and squirted him. I'm just glad that Jared wasn't packing heat.
June 25th: Nate gets Nicole P. Nate got a tip from our neighbors that Nicole was playing at their house. He actually left work a little early so he wouldn't miss his chance to get her out. He felt kind of bad about taking down a ten-year-old girl, so after he squirted her he handed her a bag of Skittles.
June 26th: Ben gets Mike B. Nate took Ben with him to help with our ward's assignment at the peach orchard. Mike was a sitting duck and it was an easy hit. Nate showed just how dedicated he was to the game when he showed up to work in the orchard wearing a shirt and tie. It won him a special mention in our next ward newsletter and started a new fashion trend of men wearing ties as immunity necklaces.
June 28th: Ben gets Paul C. Brother C was working in his garage and Ben just walked up the driveway and got him. Easy cheesy.
June 29th: Nate gets Crystal S. I was going to the opening night of New Moon with some friends and Crystal was supposed to pick me up. Our plan was for me to go out the front door while Nate went out the door in the garage. My job was to open the passenger door and stall for three seconds so he could squirt her through the open door. This plan fell apart when her husband got home late, so someone else drove and she met us at the theater. Plan B: I texted Nate when Crystal arrived and he drove down to the theater. I made sure to keep her out in the lobby long enough for him to get there and get her out. I'm a good wife . . . but a lousy friend. :)
July 1st: Nate gets Logan M. Nate had to take some stuff to Logan's house for scouts (he is one of our Bears). Logan was sitting right there on the front porch. After checking with Tosha to make sure that Logan had hit at least one target (Nate didn't want to spoil the fun of another Primary kid), he turned and squirted him.
July 6th: Malinda gets Amity M. I had borrowed some marshmallow roasters from Amity for scouts the day before. When I went to her house to return them, she wasn't home, so she said she would come and pick them up (and drop off some paperwork for scouts that I pretended it was urgent to have turned in). She walked right into my trap. I had a loaded water gun in the front closet with the marshmallow roasters. When she came to pick them up, I got her out right there on my front porch.
July 7th: Ben gets Travis M. Travis proved to be a formidable opponent and didn't go down easily. Ben made his first attempt when Travis was dropping Logan off at scouts. Ben's lack of stealth (pumping up the water gun while walking toward the car) blew his cover and Travis easily got away. The next night Nate saw Travis out mowing his lawn, so he and Ben went and hid out on the side of his house. Ben made his move just a few seconds too early and Travis saw him and took off running (losing a shoe in the process). Ben chased him all the way around the block, but came home disappointed again. We did a little research and found out that Travis was going to be taking the 11-year-old scouts on a hike the next day. Nate and Ben hung out inside the church and watched the parking lot. They could tell that the scouts were going to head out in Bishop F's car. There was never a good time to get Travis since he kept looking all around for Ben to sneak up on him. They thought they had missed their chance after he got in the car, but Nate noticed that the driver's side window was down. As Bishop F was walking around to get in the car, Ben ran out of the church and squirted Travis through the window. It was good that Ben had to work for it after having so many easy targets, and he was very proud of himself for finally getting Travis out. It's going to be one of our go-to examples whenever Ben needs a "winners never quit" lecture.
July 7th: Nate gets Maddie S. Nate had to pick up some stuff from Greg S (our Cubmaster). Maddie was hanging out inside by their front door, but she just wouldn't go outside. Finally, Nate gave up and went to the car to leave, and just as he was driving away, Maddie came out of the house. He pulled over and jumped out and said to Greg "I almost forgot to tell you...", which gave him enough time to get close enough to her to squirt her with the water gun he had in his back pocket. She was pretty sad about it and he felt like such a meany (he bought her a treat too).
July 13th: Malinda gets Justin O. I totally lucked out on this one. I was with my sister and our kids at the Treehouse Museum and Elise came up and told me that Kylie O was there. I looked around and found the whole O family. Sweet. I was going to run out to the van and get a squirt gun, but Holly told me I couldn't bring "a weapon" into the museum. So I improvised and found a little plastic teacup, filled it with water, and walked over and threw it on him. I didn't love the guilt associated with taking down a ten-year-old. (I apologized three times and took him his favorite candy bar that night at pack meeting.) He still hadn't found out who his target was supposed to be. I was very happy to find out that he had Nate's name. Phew. I couldn't take the adrenaline or the guilt of the game, so I was happy to be able to sit out and just provide Nate spousal immunity. I did think it was funny that Nate had been walking around paranoid for three weeks when no one was really even after him.
July 24th: Nate gets Becky C. Becky is YW President in our ward and my visiting teacher, so Nate thought she would be a fairly easy target. Wrong. The first time he did a little stakeout at the church, she showed up in a skirt. No good. The next week, he conspired with one of the young women in our ward. They went on an activity in Salt Lake and she was texting Nate to let them know when they would be back at the church so Nate could be there and get Becky out. That plan failed when I took Nate's phone to the store with me and didn't see the final "we're 15 minutes away" text come in. He missed her. Fate finally cut him a break when she came to pick up the flags on Pioneer Day and Nate was outside waxing the boat. He had just enough time to grab a squirt gun out of the car and get her out while she was still in our driveway.
August 26th: Ben gets Jason E. There was a big gap between Target#4 and Target #5 for Ben. We had a little alliance going with our neighbors. Claudy had Ben's name since the second day of the water fight. He would have been a super easy target for her, but she felt bad about getting him out that early in the game. So, without him knowing it, she gave him a little grace period to give him a chance to get some other people out. Ben ended up with Jason's name before the grace period was up so we made a reciprocal deal where Claudy wouldn't get Ben and Ben wouldn't get Jason. We decided that once there were only 20 people left in the game that all bets were off. Ben got Jason out at the pool on the night of the school swim party (after the alliance had been broken). Ben lucked out that Claudy was such a nice neighbor, or his run would have been lots shorter.
September 1st: Malinda is eliminated by Tracey H. Nate came home early from work on my birthday to take me to lunch. We stopped at Walmart on the way to pick up a few things. We saw Tammy H as we went in and said hi. She called Tracey at work and he drove to Walmart to get me out. He got me right as we were getting in line to check out. Nate was all set to sprint to the van when Tracey asked who his next target was, but luckily he never asked.
September 2nd: Ben gets Tracey H. This was another hard fought victory. Tracey was out in his driveway when Nate and Ben were driving home from soccer practice, so Nate pulled around the corner and waited for the perfect moment for Ben to charge. It would have worked except that Tracey's son Kyle ran a little interference for him and blocked Ben's pursuit. They had a little chase, and Tracey got away. Things were complicated since Tracey had Nate's name and was trying to get him while Ben was trying to get Tracey. They went back for a second attempt later that night. They cut through the Ms' house/backyard, jumped a fence, and snuck up on Tracey while he was working in his yard. I was glad that Ben was able to avenge me before he got hit.
September 2nd: Ben is eliminated by Karen R. After Ben got Tracey, he and Nate were standing there talking when Karen R appeared out of nowhere and got Ben wet. It turns out that Tracey's kids went in the house and called to tip her off that Ben was in their yard. As soon as Ben got hit, Nate took off running (since he was now Karen's target). Ben started walking home. Karen offered him a ride, but he was too upset to accept. He was pretty devastated when he got home, but 20 minutes later he was in his room playing with Legos and had totally gotten over it.
September 11th: Tie/skirt loophole is closed. Nate actually campaigned for this change (even though he took advantage of the loophole as much as anyone). It was definitely needful to speed things along.
September 17th: Nate gets Allan B. Allan was a tough target. He not only was a tie wearer, but he was out of town for weeks at a time during the summer. Nate passed his house several times every day to check for any activity. He even went as far as to do a late night stakeout on the night that Allan was getting home from a trip. Nate hung out in his yard until midnight waiting for him to get home (he found out later that Allan had gotten home at 12:30 . . . grr). Our friends that live next door to the Bs said they would call whenever they saw him outside. Nate got a call on Friday afternoon and headed down on his bike. Allan had already gone inside when Nate got there, but his wife saw Nate heading up the street on his bike. The Bs conspired with Karen R to lure Nate back out. Allan went out to mow his lawn, knowing that the Ss would call and assuming that Nate would head back down on his bike. They had Karen R waiting next to our house so she could squirt Nate when he came out of the garage on his bike. Their plan would have worked except that Nate went out the back door and cut through our neighbors' yards. So, Nate got to Allan before Karen could get Nate.
September 17th: Nate is eliminated by Karen R. Karen was a fierce competitor. Her first real attempt to get Nate was on Thursday night. She found out from a family in our ward when Nate would be at soccer practice. Her plan was to do a drive-by shooting when he was getting the soccer equipment out of his trunk. She recruited the help of Raelyn B to be her driver and even traded cars with one of the young women in our ward so it wouldn't tip Nate off if he saw her car in the parking lot. Fortunately for Nate, they were in the wrong part of the park when he was getting stuff out of the car. He was setting up the cones for practice when Karen charged down the hill toward him. Luckily her squirt gun sucked and Nate easily outran her. I showed up at the park before practice was over and saw Karen and Raelyn waiting by Nate's car in the parking lot. We thought she would give up after I got there, but she didn't. She snuck into the backseat of our van thinking that Nate would assume they were by his car and head to the van instead. I about peed when I got to the van after practice and saw her sitting inside with her squirt bottle. She was certainly dedicated. We figured she would get Nate out on Saturday at Ben's soccer game, so we set up a plan to get her out first. We called Braylie M (who had Karen as a target) and set up a little sting operation. The plan was for Braylie to hide in our backyard with a squirt gun and for Nate to act as live bait. We set it all up and had Callie P call Karen to tell her that Nate was in the backyard (Karen had already asked Callie to keep an eye out for him and let her know when she saw him outside, so we knew she wouldn't suspect anything). It would have worked brilliantly, but Karen was at Costco when Callie called. Bummer. Karen ended up getting Nate on Friday night. After Nate got Allan, he came home up the street (instead of cutting through backyards again). She was waiting by our garage and got him out. It was kind of funny how relieved we felt after he got out. We both felt like we had "gotten our lives back." No more fear of leaving the house. No more scheming. It was liberating.
September 22nd: The good will cookie tour. Things had gotten a little intense when it got down to the wire, and we wanted to make sure we were still in good standing with our neighbors. So, we cooked up a few batches of cookies to take to our latest targets/assassins as a gesture of good will. (If you didn't get cookies and you think you should have been on our delivery list, just let me know and we'll bring some over.) :)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
September Stuff
We are settling into a routine at this house. I was sad to see the summer end, but it is probably good for us to get back on a schedule. Probably. Here a few of the things that have been keeping us busy:
Friday was Dinner and a Movie Night at the kids’ school. The PTA sold pizzas and treats and we watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid on an inflatable screen on the baseball field. Nate mocked me when I told him that we should take a ton of blankets, but he was glad he listened to his wise wife. We all wore long pants and jackets, but ten blankets were barely enough to keep us warm. We still had a good time. Our kids thought we were the best parents in the world because we bought them cotton candy (one bag for the four of them to share). I’m a big believer that keeping expectations low makes for happy kids.
Soccer season is back in full swing. Nate is coaching Ben’s team this year. It has been a good learning experience and he has a really good group of boys (good as in friendly, not good as in athletic). They got slaughtered at their game on Saturday. As luck would have it, Nate’s very young and very inexperienced team played against an older/bigger/highly-skilled team (“coincidentally” coached by the regional commissioner’s son). It was painful to watch. Apparently AYSO’s philosophy of balanced teams has gone to the wayside in our region. If I sound a little bugged, it’s because I am. We’re hoping to come up against some more evenly matched teams during the rest of the season and hopefully get in a win (or at least a goal).
These pictures are from their first game of the season (not against the all-star team). I think it is hilarious that it looks like that kid is about to punch Ben.
Emily and Elise are also playing again this year. They both got lavender uniforms and are both #4. They think that is pretty cool. It’s been fun to watch their skills improve. Emily learned some fancy footwork tricks from her coach last year and it was awesome to see her use her little back-kick in a game this season. I have to admit that Elise’s games are still the most fun to watch. I love the six minute quarters and it always cracks me up when one of the girls gets frustrated and just picks up the ball and moves it out of the fray so she can kick it.
Sunday was stake conference. Having young kids (and other extenuating circumstances) has caused our stake conference attendance to be sketchy at best over the last few years. We had a little debate on Sunday morning over whether or not we wanted to be “stake conference Mormons” or not. We decided we did. The kids weren’t too thrilled about going until we got there and let them sit in the balcony. All of the sudden stake conference was cool. The older brother of one of Ben’s good friends was a youth speaker, so that helped too. The real treat was that both Ben and Emily saw their school teachers; it was the highlight of their day.
Abby started dance this week. It was so fun to watch her. She hasn’t grasped the concept that she should follow what her teacher does yet. She mostly just did what the girl next to her did (which was rarely what she was supposed to be doing). She did look dang cute in her dance clothes. And, she got a sucker and a sticker. I guess that’s what 3-year-old dance class is all about.
Friday was Dinner and a Movie Night at the kids’ school. The PTA sold pizzas and treats and we watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid on an inflatable screen on the baseball field. Nate mocked me when I told him that we should take a ton of blankets, but he was glad he listened to his wise wife. We all wore long pants and jackets, but ten blankets were barely enough to keep us warm. We still had a good time. Our kids thought we were the best parents in the world because we bought them cotton candy (one bag for the four of them to share). I’m a big believer that keeping expectations low makes for happy kids.
Soccer season is back in full swing. Nate is coaching Ben’s team this year. It has been a good learning experience and he has a really good group of boys (good as in friendly, not good as in athletic). They got slaughtered at their game on Saturday. As luck would have it, Nate’s very young and very inexperienced team played against an older/bigger/highly-skilled team (“coincidentally” coached by the regional commissioner’s son). It was painful to watch. Apparently AYSO’s philosophy of balanced teams has gone to the wayside in our region. If I sound a little bugged, it’s because I am. We’re hoping to come up against some more evenly matched teams during the rest of the season and hopefully get in a win (or at least a goal).
These pictures are from their first game of the season (not against the all-star team). I think it is hilarious that it looks like that kid is about to punch Ben.
Emily and Elise are also playing again this year. They both got lavender uniforms and are both #4. They think that is pretty cool. It’s been fun to watch their skills improve. Emily learned some fancy footwork tricks from her coach last year and it was awesome to see her use her little back-kick in a game this season. I have to admit that Elise’s games are still the most fun to watch. I love the six minute quarters and it always cracks me up when one of the girls gets frustrated and just picks up the ball and moves it out of the fray so she can kick it.
Sunday was stake conference. Having young kids (and other extenuating circumstances) has caused our stake conference attendance to be sketchy at best over the last few years. We had a little debate on Sunday morning over whether or not we wanted to be “stake conference Mormons” or not. We decided we did. The kids weren’t too thrilled about going until we got there and let them sit in the balcony. All of the sudden stake conference was cool. The older brother of one of Ben’s good friends was a youth speaker, so that helped too. The real treat was that both Ben and Emily saw their school teachers; it was the highlight of their day.
Abby started dance this week. It was so fun to watch her. She hasn’t grasped the concept that she should follow what her teacher does yet. She mostly just did what the girl next to her did (which was rarely what she was supposed to be doing). She did look dang cute in her dance clothes. And, she got a sucker and a sticker. I guess that’s what 3-year-old dance class is all about.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Art Party
Now that things have settled down a bit at our house, I thought I would write up the party plan from Emily’s birthday party. Since both Elise and Abby insist that they are going to have an art party, it will be a good resource for me to look back on . . . and hopefully it will be helpful to some other blogging mom.
Invitation: I thought it would be cute to have the a-r-t in party be artsy, so I manipulated an old scrapbook sticker that said “our little artist”. It took all of my Photoshop skills to make it work, but I was really happy with how it turned out.
We had the invitations printed at Walgreens (4 x 6 prints). For the envelopes I printed an envelope template on one side of a piece of colored paper and printed the girl’s name (on a clipart crayon) on the other side. Emily cut them out, folded the flaps, and glued them together. She loved making them.
Set-up: We planned the party in stations. We found four different art projects for the girls to do and just moved from one to the other. We turned our playroom into a mini art studio. We got long tables from our church and covered them in paper. We set up two work areas, each with two tables. We set out all of the materials for the first two projects before the girls got here and put an old t-shirt out for each girl to wear during the painting activity so their clothes wouldn’t get ruined.
Activities:
Birdhouses: We found these cute little wooden birdhouses at JoAnn’s for a dollar. We bought some self-adhesive scrapbook borders for the girls to use as trim after they had painted their houses. We had them paint their birdhouses first and set them aside to dry while we did the other activities. They used acrylic paints and foam brushes. If I was going to do it over again, I would make sure that each girl had two brushes. We washed them out for them between colors, but it would have gone smoother and been less of a hassle if they each had a spare. They added the stickers at the end of the party when the paint had dried. This project was a favorite for several of the girls.
Sand Art: We ordered sand art pens and keychains from Oriental Trading. We also got an assortment of colored sand and funnels. I found some fun little flashlight keychains on Meritline for super cheap, so we put one of those on each dolphin as well. We made two cups of each color of sand so there would be plenty to go around and set out a bunch of plastic spoons for the girls to use to pour sand into their funnels. They needed a little help to get the sand right to the top of the containers, but other than that they were able to work on their own. It was the first time most of them had done sand art and they seemed to love it.
Win, Lose, or Draw: We thought that we should have at least one game. We divided the girls into two teams and had a stack of cards with easy to draw words. Each girl had a turn (one minute) to draw for her team and they got a point for each one they guessed correctly. It didn’t go as well as we thought it would. The girls were a little too spastic for a sit down game. They quickly lost interest and wandered around when it wasn’t their team’s turn (and sometimes even when it was their team’s turn). This is the one part of the party that we would skip if we had to do it over again.
Sugar Cookie Suckers: We used Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mixes to make the cookies. We rolled the dough pretty thick (about ¼ inch), cut out four inch circles, and inserted a Wilton cookie stick before we baked them. For decorating we had 7 different colors of frosting. We filled two bags with each color and used a round tip on one and a star tip on the other. We also had bowls of candy (Mike and Ikes, Skittles, and Nerds) for the girls to use for decorating. The girls loved this activity. All of them made really cute cookies, but some of them didn’t know when to stop and ended up with an indiscernible mass of frosting and candy. I’m glad we got to send them home before the sugar high kicked in.
ID Bracelets: We bought some stretchy string, a package of alphabet beads (7mm), and two sizes of colored wooden beads (5mm and 8mm) for the girls to make ID bracelets. We sorted through the alphabet beads ahead of time to make sure we had all of the right letters. It was good that we did since there were only six E’s in a package of 500 beads. Crazy. Nate and I helped tie the knots when they were done and put some clear fingernail polish on the knot to seal it. Our technique was apparently not so great since two out of our three girls’ bracelets came undone the next day. Better luck next time. :)
Cake: I wanted to make Emily a paint palette cake, but I had already made one for her 7th birthday. I decided to use the same basic design and just shake things up a bit. To make it special, I made a rainbow cake. I used two white cake mixes (prepared just like it says on the box) and separated them into six equal parts. I used food coloring gel to color the batter every color of the rainbow. I carefully poured the cake mix in layers in a 9x13 pan. I thought that it would result in a layered rainbow cake, but that’s not exactly how it worked. The batter bubbled up as it was cooking making for a more of a colorful tie-dyed look. I loved it, and the girls all thought it was very cool when we cut into it. It was a big hit.
Piñata: The piñata was my favorite thing from the party. It was easy to make and turned out really cute. I started with a rectangular box from the post office and spray painted it yellow. I used two different shades of green paper to make the triangles up the side. Then I scanned in a crayon box and printed off the parts I wanted to use on white cardstock and cut them out. I used double stick tape to attach both the green paper and the parts I printed from crayon box. Nate reinforced the top of the box using a PVC pipe and zip ties inside the box so the rope wouldn’t just rip through the cardboard at the first whack. We filled it with candy and Silly Bandz. The girls loved it! (Who doesn’t love a piñata?)
Party Favor: We found these cute little “color your own” pencil bags at Michael’s. We had originally planned on using them for one of the four projects during the party, but decided that they would take too long to finish. So, we sent them home as a party favor instead.
Overall, it turned out to be a really fun party. Emily couldn’t have been more pleased.
Invitation: I thought it would be cute to have the a-r-t in party be artsy, so I manipulated an old scrapbook sticker that said “our little artist”. It took all of my Photoshop skills to make it work, but I was really happy with how it turned out.
We had the invitations printed at Walgreens (4 x 6 prints). For the envelopes I printed an envelope template on one side of a piece of colored paper and printed the girl’s name (on a clipart crayon) on the other side. Emily cut them out, folded the flaps, and glued them together. She loved making them.
Set-up: We planned the party in stations. We found four different art projects for the girls to do and just moved from one to the other. We turned our playroom into a mini art studio. We got long tables from our church and covered them in paper. We set up two work areas, each with two tables. We set out all of the materials for the first two projects before the girls got here and put an old t-shirt out for each girl to wear during the painting activity so their clothes wouldn’t get ruined.
Activities:
Birdhouses: We found these cute little wooden birdhouses at JoAnn’s for a dollar. We bought some self-adhesive scrapbook borders for the girls to use as trim after they had painted their houses. We had them paint their birdhouses first and set them aside to dry while we did the other activities. They used acrylic paints and foam brushes. If I was going to do it over again, I would make sure that each girl had two brushes. We washed them out for them between colors, but it would have gone smoother and been less of a hassle if they each had a spare. They added the stickers at the end of the party when the paint had dried. This project was a favorite for several of the girls.
Sand Art: We ordered sand art pens and keychains from Oriental Trading. We also got an assortment of colored sand and funnels. I found some fun little flashlight keychains on Meritline for super cheap, so we put one of those on each dolphin as well. We made two cups of each color of sand so there would be plenty to go around and set out a bunch of plastic spoons for the girls to use to pour sand into their funnels. They needed a little help to get the sand right to the top of the containers, but other than that they were able to work on their own. It was the first time most of them had done sand art and they seemed to love it.
Win, Lose, or Draw: We thought that we should have at least one game. We divided the girls into two teams and had a stack of cards with easy to draw words. Each girl had a turn (one minute) to draw for her team and they got a point for each one they guessed correctly. It didn’t go as well as we thought it would. The girls were a little too spastic for a sit down game. They quickly lost interest and wandered around when it wasn’t their team’s turn (and sometimes even when it was their team’s turn). This is the one part of the party that we would skip if we had to do it over again.
Sugar Cookie Suckers: We used Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mixes to make the cookies. We rolled the dough pretty thick (about ¼ inch), cut out four inch circles, and inserted a Wilton cookie stick before we baked them. For decorating we had 7 different colors of frosting. We filled two bags with each color and used a round tip on one and a star tip on the other. We also had bowls of candy (Mike and Ikes, Skittles, and Nerds) for the girls to use for decorating. The girls loved this activity. All of them made really cute cookies, but some of them didn’t know when to stop and ended up with an indiscernible mass of frosting and candy. I’m glad we got to send them home before the sugar high kicked in.
ID Bracelets: We bought some stretchy string, a package of alphabet beads (7mm), and two sizes of colored wooden beads (5mm and 8mm) for the girls to make ID bracelets. We sorted through the alphabet beads ahead of time to make sure we had all of the right letters. It was good that we did since there were only six E’s in a package of 500 beads. Crazy. Nate and I helped tie the knots when they were done and put some clear fingernail polish on the knot to seal it. Our technique was apparently not so great since two out of our three girls’ bracelets came undone the next day. Better luck next time. :)
Cake: I wanted to make Emily a paint palette cake, but I had already made one for her 7th birthday. I decided to use the same basic design and just shake things up a bit. To make it special, I made a rainbow cake. I used two white cake mixes (prepared just like it says on the box) and separated them into six equal parts. I used food coloring gel to color the batter every color of the rainbow. I carefully poured the cake mix in layers in a 9x13 pan. I thought that it would result in a layered rainbow cake, but that’s not exactly how it worked. The batter bubbled up as it was cooking making for a more of a colorful tie-dyed look. I loved it, and the girls all thought it was very cool when we cut into it. It was a big hit.
Piñata: The piñata was my favorite thing from the party. It was easy to make and turned out really cute. I started with a rectangular box from the post office and spray painted it yellow. I used two different shades of green paper to make the triangles up the side. Then I scanned in a crayon box and printed off the parts I wanted to use on white cardstock and cut them out. I used double stick tape to attach both the green paper and the parts I printed from crayon box. Nate reinforced the top of the box using a PVC pipe and zip ties inside the box so the rope wouldn’t just rip through the cardboard at the first whack. We filled it with candy and Silly Bandz. The girls loved it! (Who doesn’t love a piñata?)
Party Favor: We found these cute little “color your own” pencil bags at Michael’s. We had originally planned on using them for one of the four projects during the party, but decided that they would take too long to finish. So, we sent them home as a party favor instead.
Overall, it turned out to be a really fun party. Emily couldn’t have been more pleased.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Six Years Old
Elise turned six on Monday. It was nice that it was on Labor Day so we could spend the whole day together. She opened her presents first thing in the morning. Watching Elise open presents is always entertaining. She gets genuinely excited about each one and has the most hilarious facial expressions. She didn’t disappoint this year.
After presents and breakfast we headed out to help Jody and Kevin move into their new house. Mostly Nate helped, the kids played, and I turned a simple shelf-assembly project into a time-warp. When we were done there, we headed to Classic Fun Center for Elise’s birthday activity. We had kicked around some other ideas, but I’m glad we ended up going there. Nate loved that I had coupons to get us in for half price; I loved that they had free Wi-Fi; and the kids loved everything about it. They had loads of fun. They spent a couple of hours playing in the Pirate’s Cove and bouncing on the giant inflatables. Abby was super brave about climbing to the top of the huge slides. It kind of freaked me out to watch her climb way up there. Nate and the three older kids played a game of laser tag, and then we spent some time at the skating rink. Emily and Elise took their new scooters and we borrowed one from Holly for Ben and Abby. Ben certainly liked it more than the girls. Emily was not a fan . . . she had a little wipeout that hurt her knee and kept complaining that the lights made her dizzy. Nate rented roller skates. Some of his moves were reminiscent of Hal's from Malcolm in the Middle. Awesome! We finished up with some arcade time. We blew through 130 tokens in no time flat and got enough tickets for each of the kids to get a few little prizes from the prize counter. Everyone was happy with their new treasures.
Disclaimer: I know that Emily’s shorts are too short. When they were getting dressed, Abby wanted Emily to match her and the only striped shorts we had were a size 5. I let her wear them without thinking through the fact that we would be spending four hours in a public place and taking 100 pictures.
Elise opted to have a birthday shake instead of a birthday cake, so Nate made a yummy grasshopper cookie shake when we got home and we just put her candles right in the top of it.
It was a full, fun day and Elise gave it two thumbs up. She did have a bit of a mid-life crisis the next day when I asked her how it felt to be six. She started crying and said that she really wanted to be five. Then she really started crying and said that she just wanted to be a baby again. At first, I thought she was just putting on a show, but she was truly upset (sobbing so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath). We had to make a list of all the things that are great about being six that she couldn’t do when she was a baby just to get her to settle down. I don’t know where that little bit of psychosis came from, but hopefully it won’t be a recurring event.
After presents and breakfast we headed out to help Jody and Kevin move into their new house. Mostly Nate helped, the kids played, and I turned a simple shelf-assembly project into a time-warp. When we were done there, we headed to Classic Fun Center for Elise’s birthday activity. We had kicked around some other ideas, but I’m glad we ended up going there. Nate loved that I had coupons to get us in for half price; I loved that they had free Wi-Fi; and the kids loved everything about it. They had loads of fun. They spent a couple of hours playing in the Pirate’s Cove and bouncing on the giant inflatables. Abby was super brave about climbing to the top of the huge slides. It kind of freaked me out to watch her climb way up there. Nate and the three older kids played a game of laser tag, and then we spent some time at the skating rink. Emily and Elise took their new scooters and we borrowed one from Holly for Ben and Abby. Ben certainly liked it more than the girls. Emily was not a fan . . . she had a little wipeout that hurt her knee and kept complaining that the lights made her dizzy. Nate rented roller skates. Some of his moves were reminiscent of Hal's from Malcolm in the Middle. Awesome! We finished up with some arcade time. We blew through 130 tokens in no time flat and got enough tickets for each of the kids to get a few little prizes from the prize counter. Everyone was happy with their new treasures.
Disclaimer: I know that Emily’s shorts are too short. When they were getting dressed, Abby wanted Emily to match her and the only striped shorts we had were a size 5. I let her wear them without thinking through the fact that we would be spending four hours in a public place and taking 100 pictures.
Elise opted to have a birthday shake instead of a birthday cake, so Nate made a yummy grasshopper cookie shake when we got home and we just put her candles right in the top of it.
It was a full, fun day and Elise gave it two thumbs up. She did have a bit of a mid-life crisis the next day when I asked her how it felt to be six. She started crying and said that she really wanted to be five. Then she really started crying and said that she just wanted to be a baby again. At first, I thought she was just putting on a show, but she was truly upset (sobbing so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath). We had to make a list of all the things that are great about being six that she couldn’t do when she was a baby just to get her to settle down. I don’t know where that little bit of psychosis came from, but hopefully it won’t be a recurring event.
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