Addie & Eliot & Brownies

The other day we were making brownies and I remembered to take a video of Addie and Eliot interacting. This is something you remember all the time when your first and second kid are sharing brownie batter, but my experience has shown me that it is not something that you always remember with your third and fourth. So here is the video for memory sake:

Float Trip 2013

After 8 years out of the country and 12 years out of Missouri, we have re-instituted the Annual Family Float Trip. This year we were thankful to have my sister and her family (minus her daughter and husband) with us as well as the Tuckwells who were visiting from England.

We have decided to make a family rule that you must be 5 to take part in the float trip so Addie and Eliot stayed back with Grandmother. Addie thought that was great fun - to get special alone time (I guess Eliot doesn't count since he doesn't compete as much with her as her older brothers)!  Theo was very happy with the rule since he had turned 5 the day before!

As always, the float trip proved to be a great time. Many of the boys on the trip said it was their favorite part of the holiday (counting the time the Tuckwells were with us). We only had a few mishaps and no canoe went over this year which unfortunately is noteworthy. I think Ruth was really skeptical about the whole trip, but I think she even kind of enjoyed it (at least when we were back safely in our cars!).

Here are some pictures to record this fun day:

Fishing Trip with The Vorises

One of the fun parts about this summer, and probably more accurately, living in a place for a year, is that we were able to start to building deeper friendships.One such friendship started with Theo.

Early in our time at The Crossing, Theo came home from church talking about a kid named Nolan (and Andrew but more about him later). In a church the size of The Crossing it is often hard to place who goes with whom. So I was on the hunt to figure out who Nolan's mom was.

Early in January after moving to Columbia I joined Jazzercise for a month. One morning I was there and this lady/girl came up to me and introduced herself as Melody and told me she went to The Crossing. We had a nice visit and enjoyed sweating next to each other. I then came home and changed and headed to do a couple of errands. When I arrived at Target, Melody was there. I finished up my errands and went across the street to Hobby Lobby and you guessed it - Melody was there too!  She was stalking me (ha ha) - although if you ask her - she would tell you I was stalking her. She joked with me that she was heading to Hy-Vee next if I wanted to follow her there too. I didn't I went home, but I quickly came to like this Melody girl and came to find out that Melody was Nolan's mom. So my hunt was successful - I found her, or she found me!

Since meeting them as a family, we have grown fond of them. We have had a lot of fun times already (and have hopefully many planned in the future) with the pinnacle being them hosting us to a fishing trip out at their pond. We headed out there to their place late one afternoon and fished, and bbq'd, roasted marshmallows and enjoyed good friends. For a minute it even felt like we had never left. [And if it isn't obvious from these pictures, Addie LOVED fishing]

Addie and Her Clothes

Addie loves to get herself dressed in the morning. I had been warned about this from other mothers with little girls, and I have definitely found it to be true. She is nothing like the boys with getting dressed. It is the highlight of her morning and can take a long time. For now I am choosing to enjoy it. I am sure we will have enough battles later on this subject.

Parenting is all about picking your battles, right? You may want to wait to see the video before responding in agreement....

Just a bit of speculation...

Yesterday while in the car (notice a theme here), Jack was asking me lots of questions regarding how baseball players get their jerseys retired. He asked me whether Jackie Robinson had his jersey retired. I said Yes. He asked about George Brett. I said Yes. He then asked me whether Mike Trout would be good enough to get his jersey retired. I have no idea who this person is. So I deferred and told Jack that he would have to ask Dad that question.

Without missing a beat, Jack said, ‘Yeah, but Dad doesn’t like to speculate.’

Too funny. How many times have I heard Charles end ‘what if’ conversations with the boys by telling them that he doesn’t like speculation. Well they were listening!  Their mother on the other hand loves speculation! One of the big differences between Mom and Dad! J

Lazy Tooth Fairy

So a few weeks back we were out the dentist and Jack had a really wobbly tooth. The dentist said that it would be really helpful if that tooth came on out as the other tooth was really competing for space. Jack agreed and told the dentist that she could 'help' the tooth out. So a few minutes later Jack had one tooth less in his mouth and was the proud owner of a little blue tooth carrying case.

Well, that night the tooth fairy forgot. The next night, after a few reminders, the tooth fairy forgot again. And so on for a few weeks. Jack wasn't really that upset about it as he knows that it is just 'mom and dad' giving him a dollar. (Editor Note: I think after he swallowed the pound coin after receiving it for his first lost tooth that everything from here on out will be anti-climatic with teeth-loosing for Jack, God-willing!).

Well, Theo lost his FIRST tooth this week! From the perspective of the tooth fairy this was note-worthy - much more exciting than the ninth lost tooth as was the case with Jack!  Theo was really pumped about the tooth fairy came. And I am happy to report that the tooth fairy visited not only Theo but Jack too!  We all agreed that we had a very efficient tooth fairy (or lazy!) and he or she just wanted to make it worth their time before making the visit!

It was priceless to hear the boys in the morning. You could hear Theo's little voice saying, 'Jack, I got one. I got a dollar! Jack, did you?' And then a few seconds later, Jack answering yes.

The boys have their eyes set on getting a catcher's mask from the local sporting goods store. We looked at it when we were in there recently and it cost $50. They have already factored in that they are only $48 short now. At this rate they are going to need Addie and Eliot to join the tooth-losing party.

Although it is worth noting that they have already started bargaining with Mom and Dad asking them to chip in 50% if they got to $25. They are serious about this: Jack has even signed up to complete a survey at the University that will earn him $15 for the hour of his time!  So fun!

My Little Dominator

Recently, Theo has been really intent on praying specifically for what things we will be doing the next day. So tonight during family prayer time, he asked what tomorrow held. We told him it would be a normal school day, as opposed to days where he goes to Heritage Enrichment or our 'Fridays with The Fretwells'.

Well today was Theo's first day doing a true Mathematics textbook. His lesson contained two pages with a number listed and then he was instructed to circle the same amount of random item x as the listed number. He really  enjoyed it and in fairness he did quite well on it. So when it was his time during the prayer without missing a beat, he prayed 'Dear God, Please help me keep dominating my math. Amen'

This kid has never lacked self-confidence!  :)