Ben has been begging to do a project with Wade all weekend. The only problem is that he didn’t actually have a project in mind. Wade finally got an idea and sold Ben on it. Ben appeared with the cutest robot and then disappeared to make more. Kaitlyn followed so that she could make one too.
Kaitlyn has been asking to play mini-golf at Apex forever. We have been before as a family, but it’s a little complicated with kids of such varying ages. Tonight seemed like a great night to make Kaitlyn’s plan come to life. We dropped the big boys at church and then went out do dinner.
The final stop was Apex. First we hit the arcade and Kaitlyn was on fire. She won a 1,000 ticket jackpot and got prizes from two claw machines – a stuffed animal and a roll of 150 tickets. Ben loved the fighting games and shooting games. I was rather surprised at how good he was. He outlasted the big boys he was playing Ninja Turtles with by being legitimately good at the game. Then it was on to mini-golf and then back to redeem their tickets. The kiddos had a great night.
Pepper has lots of not so great qualities, but she does play fetch. We all love that. Pepper tends to be a little particular about what she fetches – a Kong frisbee – yes; a nerf ball – yes; a tennis ball – no. Wade came home today with a new fetching toy. I was a little skeptical because we have had similar toys before. However, today, Wade worked with her and got her to fetch the tennis ball the toy throws. Then we turned it over to the kids. The little kids love being able to throw the tennis ball much farther than normal.
It seems that all of my children are craving sweets. They now race to ask if they can “bake” so that they can pick the treat and have a little bit of control. Yesterday Alex made churros. Today Kaitlyn asked to make Chocolate Snowball Cookies. Teague arrived a few minutes too late asking to make brownies. I assured him he could make them tomorrow.
The kids have been begging Wade to put the trampoline up for weeks. Today he agreed to check to see if the ground was hard enough. With the mild winter we have had, the ground was firm enough for a trampoline. Kaitlyn helped bring all the pieces from the barn and the springs. Alex helped with the parts that could be considered a two-man job. Teague helped put up the net. Ben did all of the testing.
Some friends and I planned to take the kids to Purgatory Chasm today for some hiking. Ben and I had been before but the others hadn’t. Ben was so disappointed when we arrived and found signs saying the Chasm was closed due to construction. (I was also very curious what kind of construction closes a hiking trail. It turns out they are building an overlook to make it more accessible.) There was a very nice ranger inside the visitor center and she said the trail should be open within a month or so.
Thankfully there are other trails so we decided to hike Charlie’s Loop and the kids had a blast. They had numerous snack and lunch breaks, played in the stream, and tried to move countless boulders, sticks, and roots. Afterwards they played on the playground until we finally called it a day.
Tonight we tried something new – Apple Chicken Curry. Kaitlyn was happy to help and we all enjoyed the latest Raddish recipe.
Ben was full of energy this morning (just like always), but today he requested to do some workout videos. A while ago we discovered that YouTube has some great kid workout videos and Ben loves them. He kicks, punches, squats, etc at dinosaurs, sharks, and bad guys. Today he even participated in a video game.
Our church hosted a potluck and game night. The kids were in various stages of excitement to attend, but we all got there and I brought their favorite Chimichurri sandwiches. As luck would have it, the games were Bingo and trivia. (We haven’t played Bingo since the last time we were in KY and now we have played twice in three days.) The younger kids were very excited by the prize options – candy, toys, etc. Alex was being a teenager but didn’t put up too much fuss and willingly played the games. Kaitlyn even got to call numbers and tell some of her favorite jokes to the crowd.
I heard Ben crying in the night and found him in the hallway talking about his eye. When I got him into the bathroom with some light, I realized there was some blood. When he was calmed down and cleaned up, he told me that the drawer on his bedside table had been left open. (He keeps legos in it and plays with them right before going to sleep). I knew he had a cut on his eyelid but it didn’t look horrible so I put him back to bed and went back to my room.
The next morning, Ben had scrapes on the side of his head, a large cut, and a black eye. The best part was when anyone asks him what happened to his eye, he responds, “I tried to turn over and thought my bed was bigger.” That seems accurate enough. Poor guy.
