Hey, watch where you point that thing!

Here's Ellie loading her bow (known as nocking the arrow). She's doing a big no-no, pointing the arrow away from the target and back at us (the leaders).

Ellie's favorite part of camp was the kidwash - an overhead sprinkler the kids could walk through and get all wet under. Combined with all the dust and grime naturally present at a ranch, this made for some really dirty kids at the end of each day.

William Tell

This is Ben at the Archery session. I worked in this area all week. We had to set up all the targets, then direct the boys while they shot the arrows. After each round we had to collect the arrows from the targets and beyond (little kids don't have very good aim). It was super hot, but all the kids seemed to like archery the best.

It's a Wrap

This week we are attending Cub Scout Day Camp. It's held at a local farm & ranch club and all the kids can go. Ben will earn some Cub Scout badges; Maddie will hang out with the Mavericks, Sam with the Ponies and Ellie with the Me-Toos.

This is Sammy after a session in the wading pools. His group got to stay in the only air conditioned area in camp. They did crafts, made walking sticks and played in the water.

Condo Pool

This is the little pool on the patio of our condo. When we got back from Disney MGM on day 2, we made everyone rootbeer floats, then got in the pool. Because it was only March the temperature was pretty cool, but we'd had the heater running on the pool since we arrived. So the water was nice and warm and the air was freezing. Everyone had an excellent time - after baths and brushing teeth they fell alseep immediately.

On To Fantasmic

After the park we headed over to the Fantasmic show. I'd seen this show a bunch of times in California, but I liked it much better in Florida. They have an arena with seats, while at Disneyland, you have to stake out a place on sidewalk, usually with blankets, hours before the show. Because we got special passes with our dinner, we were able to show up less than an hour before the show started and get third row seats. In this picture, the kids are all showing off the light up toys we bought them. Ben has a sword, Ellie got light up mouse antennae, Sammy got a Stitch toy that spins around when you hold the button down, and Maddie's toy flashed LED lights inside a plastic ball. Amazingly, we managed to keep all these toys for the whole trip, so they had stuff to wave around each night after dark.



Fantasmic is a take off on the old Disney movie, Fantasia. Mickey comes out and there is music and a voice over about dreams. A lot of the effects involve big sprays of water with movies projected onto them. The show gets progressively scarier, with different Disney villains making appearances, until Mickey vanquishes the dragon from Snow White. Then all the other characters come by on two big boats, dancing and singing. It's really a neat show and we all enjoyed it.

Last October

This is Maddie with her friends Victoria (popcorn) and Sara (Coke) last halloween. The girls all made their own costumes and they really turned out great. Maddie's already wondering what to do this year, because it will be hard to live up to last year's costumes.

What's my problem?

On a more personal note - why am I up so late? I just noticed the time stamp on my last post. It's after 11 pm and I'm happily out here surfing the night away, with no thought to getting up at 6 am tommorow and trudging off to work. Dave is across the foyer from me, playing his game, while Maddie watches. I think this night owl thing is genetic, and Maddie has gotten a double whammy of it. Ben, on the other hand, seems to have dodged that bullet. He's the most amazing sleeper I've ever seen. When he's tired he heads straight to bed and falls asleep almost instantly. It's really incredible - he'll say "I'm going to bed" and I can walk in his room two minutes later to find him snoring away. He's gonna drive some woman crazy one day - sleeping rather than listening to her deconstruct the day and snoring to boot.

Some more of the Disney chronicle

When I last posted about our Disney trip I think we'd just left the Hollywood & Vine buffet, stuffed to the gills. We weren't really up for any rides and it was pretty hot, so we headed over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. It's a big shady play structure, created out of oversized everyday objects. Here is Sammy sliding down a giant roll of film.



The girls are near a bunch of ant tunnels. You can climb the steps to the top of the ant pile, where there is a giant dog's nose, randomly sniffing and sneezing on people.

Rough night at the monastery

When Dave came home from his 13 hour day he found that the sink was clogged with spaghetti - Mary Lou was trying to clean out some old leftovers from the refrigerator and put too much in the disposal at once. He filled both sides of the sink up with hot water and tried the plungers to no avail.


As an added bonus, the entire day's worth of dishes was sitting on the counter, unwashed. Somehow in her busy day of sleeping and watching Star Trek, Maddie hadn't found time to load the dishwasher. Now she's off the hook until the sink drains.


I showed up and started to finish up dinner (a fresh batch of spaghetti). After I'd put the garlic bread in the oven, I discovered that we only had a tiny bit of spaghetti, maybe enough for two people. While discussing this, and the clogged sink with Dave I forgot all about the garlic bread, so now it's burned. Dave managed to pick off the two best pieces and make himself a plate - the kids are eating PBJs as I type. I think everyone needs to go to bed early tonight.

Postscript:

When it came time for the kids to go down, we hit another snag. The boys have the sort of bunk beds where you can use the top bunk as a sort of loft and put the bottom one elsewhere in the room, or just have them stacked like traditional bunks(like this). For the last year they've been stacked and I've had the extra pieces in the corner, with the intention of breaking out Sammy's bed and turning the area under Ben's into a fort sort of thing. Today I finally moved Sammy's bed - to the opposite side of the room. At bedtime, he completely freaked out, screaming about monsters and his bed being all wrong. When the smaller headboard and footboard are on his mattress, it will not fit directly under the loft part, so we were only able to roll it under in the L position. So his head was in the usual place, but he was facing the wrong direction. It took twenty minutes of me sitting at the end of his bed before he fell asleep - completely exhausted. I hope he takes to the new arrangement a little more tomorrow.

Hungry Boy

Sammy started bugging me for lunch around 10:30 this morning. He always wants a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chocolate milk. I told him that at noon, I would fix this for him. At 11:55 he came to inform me that I needed to make his lunch, and that he'd gotten all the ingredients out for me. As I walked toward the counter, he got a plate, cup, knife and spoon too. We train 'em to be self sufficient at our house.

I'm a cowboy, on a stick horse I ride . . .

Sammy put on his new boots and belt, and grabbed his hat and horses for a little ride.

He also wore these boots to church on Sunday, which turned out to be a mistake. He behaved atrociously, taking them on and off, laughing at all of us, etc. He did look very snazzy with his dress pants, matching tie and the western attire, though.

Oh Do You Know the Birthday Boy?

Sammy turned 4 today. We had a backyard party with a plastic pool, slip-n-slide and water guns. PBJ sandwiches and pizza were served. I kept the guest list a lot more exclusive for this one - I think we had 7 kids total at the party. We gave Sammy a pair of cowboy boots and a western belt, since that's what he's been asking for. We got some very funny video of Sammy pausing before blowing out his candles to inform Ethan (next to him in the blue shirt) "It's NOT YOUR BIRTHDAY!" Ethan was attempting to "accdientally" help blow out the candles on the cake. I'm working on getting the video up on the web - I'll post a link if I accomplish this.

Mr. Clark

This is Ben at the end of school with his teacher, Mr. Clark. Mr. Clark was such a wonderful teacher for Ben. Prior to this year he taught at the Junior High level. He truly seemed to love teaching the kids. I felt like he saw everything good in Ben and was willing to help Ben work on being more organized and focused. He had a bunch of chess boards in the classroom, and the kids were able to play when they were finished with their work.

Pet Snake / Crazy Weekend

Sammy is checking out a pet snake at the Cub Scout Pack meeting yesterday afternoon. We took our dog, Serena and she got to socialize with lots of other dogs that came. One brave guy brought his two cats - they even had leashes on. My cats would go ballistic if I tried to leash them.

The last two days at our house have been nuts. Thursday night Dave and I decided to check out the new Star Wars movie at 9:45. We bought our tickets online and there was a long line inside the theater for seats. The movie was good, although pretty violent. It was also long, so we didn't get to bed until around 1 am. We both got up early the next day and headed to work. Usually I only work until noon on Fridays, but I was pretty involved in something, so I stayed until about 3 pm. When I got home Maddie had to be driven to a sleepover, then I picked up Sammy from daycare and went to the bank. Back home, I drove Ben to his friend's house to play, then dropped Maddie's bathing suit off at her friend's house. Back home again I got Ellie ready for soccer practice and sent her off with Dave (and Sammy).

Then I started thinking about the pack meeting, trying to remember what we were doing. I did remember that Ben's scout shirt was still at his friend Matthew's house. I called Matthew's house a few times, but the line was busy. So I tried his dad's cell phone. I got hold of Jason (Matthew's dad) - he was stuck in traffic and had just dropped Annette (Matthew's mom) off at the airport. So, I offered to pick up Matthew and our shirt and take them to the meeting. Then Jason mentioned they were taking their two cats and told me they'd be in kennels. I suggested that he bring the cats later, when I started thinking about 2 kids, 2 cats and dog in my car.

At this point I realized I'd better pick up Ben, so I ran to get him. Back at home he got dressed in all of his uniform but the shirt. We were headed to the car, but I couldn't find Serena's leash. After a 15 minute search, I decided to buy another leash at the drugstore. On the way to the store I called Matthew's house to let him know I was on the way. Jason answered - he'd gotten home, so he would meet us there with the shirt. We stopped, bought a leash, and headed to church. Once we were there, I called Dave and told him to come over with the little kids after practice, so they could see all the animals.

Now that I've typed all this out, I realize how crazy it sounds. The scary part is that the day was far from done. A few weeks ago, Dave and I signed up for a shift at the Houston cannery - the peanut butter factory. Our ward's shift was from 9 pm to 2 am. So after the pack meeting we got the kids settled and headed to north Houston to make peanut butter. Dave and I mostly worked at the peanut hopper, where we used an electric pulley to hoist giant bags of raw peanuts into a bin that fed them to the roaster. I also spent a little while sorting the roasted peanuts ( you check for burned ones on a conveyer belt as they go by), twisting the lids onto jars, and checking every tenth jar for a good seal. At 2 am the next shift arrived. We stopped at I-HOP, where I made myself sick with a milkshake and roast beef sandwich, then fell into bed at home.

Ellie had an 8 am soccer game this morning, and Dave was nice enough to take her to it. I dragged myself out of bed at 11 am to pick up Maddie. Back at the house I showered, dressed and got the little kids ready for Ellie's soccer team party. We met the team at CiCi's pizza, then went to someone's house for a swimming party. Summer has arrived in full force here - it was in the high 90's by noon, so the pool felt great. Dave and the big kids went to see Star Wars (again, for Dave). At 3 pm I came home, showered and dressed again, and now I'm here posting. Dave and I are headed to the store to buy ingredients for gumbo, that we want to make tonight. Thank goodness tomorrow is Sunday - a supposed day of rest.

Zoo Friends

We got a table at the Zoo Friends family party this year, courtesy of my employer. This is my four kids with my boss's four kids. It's kind of scary to see them all together and realize what a crowd we have. The party was lots of fun - free t-shirts, games, moonbounces and yummy food. We forced all the kids to sit down and eat, then they were off, for the next two hours roaming free. At one point I saw Ellie with no shoes on (the new shoes I bought two days earlier) and asked her where they were. "I don't know!" I spend about 30 minutes sifting through the piles of shoes by the moonbounces (I wasn't the only parent looking for shoes either). Then I tracked Ellie down and made her show me the last place she'd had them. She marched me right over to the back of the moonbounce - duh mom.

Sammy is completely in love with the gift bag he got at the party. He carries it around the house every evening. Today he wore his island hat (like the one Ellie's wearing in the picture) and a lei to school. He also brushed his teeth with his "island toothbrush" (a plain child's toothbrush that came in the bag).