The Things They Say, The Things They Do

The following is an excerpt from a conversation we overheard this afternoon.

Ayla: (Spoken in a super snotty tone) Micah, you're not the boss. Jesus is.

Micah: No, God is the boss. Jesus is more like back-up. An assistant.

Ayla: God is the biggest person there ever was.

Micah: How would you know that? We can't even see God. He's probably really small. I bet he's smaller than a germ.

Hmmmm, maybe us parents have some explaining to do.


******************************************************

And here's what the baby has been up to.

If we lose something & it's not in the garbage or the fridge, we may want to check the dishwasher.

How To Have A Birthday Party For An 8 Year Old Boy

1. Don't invite more than 2 or 3 boys. Unless of course you have nerves of steel.

2. Make sure it's a nice day so you can send them outside to expend energy.

3. If the boys you've invited are in the same class & you also decide to let them ride the same bus home? Realize that they've had all day together to work themselves into an insane frenzy.

4. That said, be ready to relax your standards on what is considered appropriate talk. Be prepared to hear words like; pee, poop, fart & puke. A lot.

5. But don't hesitate to request no burping in public. (Other people were starting to stare.)

6. Give them all gum. That way they can blow bubbles & pop them in each others faces repeatedly. What? It kept them fairly quiet & contained until the pizza came.

7. Take lots of photos. I was too unnerved by all the loud, crazy testosterone to do that & I'm kicking myself now.

Micah & Jacob.

Micah & Jens.

Oh & Amy? Wow. You have four boys. Like every day. I see the need for at least one Mom's weekend per year for you. At least by the time you hit the teenage years. In five years. Is it a date?

This And That

I don't seem to have time for creative blogging these days. But there are things happening that I want to keep track of. Here's a recent sampling.

Sara, Justin & kiddos paid us a visit last weekend. Here's Ayla forcing Sara to read to her. She likes to do that to anyone who visits. Don't say I never warned you.

Do you know what book I've been reading to the kids? Could you tell at an immediate glance? Oh, this book brings back many happy memories. My mom read it to me. It was the first chapter book I ever read to Micah. Ayla is our long suffering middle child. I don't read to her enough. Hence the reason she forces company to read to her. I've decided to start reading my favorites to the kids again. Micah reads very well on his own now, but I like reading out loud. Plus, some of the stuff he brings home from the school library is a bit dumbed down. I want to continue to influence his reading. There's a lot of junk out there & it's in their classrooms. I guess educators just want kids to read & that's good, but why not read something worthwhile?

Call me weird, but I love this photo that Kaia took. I love her chunky little foot in her cute yellow shoe. I love that you can see the bottom of my shoe as I'm sitting in front of the computer. And I love the fact that much later in the day I found my camera in the office garbage. You never know what you'll find in there these days!

This is what the bedroom/bathroom looked like on Saturday when Justin was helping Craig.

Here's what it looks like right now. That's Aaron N. helping out tonight. For the record, he called & asked if he could come help. I don't know how we're getting so lucky, but we're not going to complain!

We're Making Progress

The view from our bedroom at the very start of the bathroom mold cleanup/re-modeling project.

The view one week later. I wish I would have taken more photos. I should have done a before photo to show how tiny & very outdated our bathroom was. Some close-ups of the rotten, mold filled boards & sheet rock might have been good also. I guess I was a bit too grossed out.

Here's what Kaia looks like when she's doing her "chap stick laugh". It's this evil/excited little laugh she always does when she manages to get into Ayla's chap stick. I guess it's just as exciting to play on Ayla's laptop when she's at school.

This is my favorite photo from Ayla's birthday. What you see is three unbearably excited girls. The first sleep-over is a pretty big deal for all kids involved!