Ben has had this dream to blacksmith for months. His grand master plan is to build a blacksmith shop under the barn. Wade has created a baby step by procuring some lead and promising to “blacksmith” some items with a sand mold. Wade used an old cauldron and a propane stove to heat up the lead. Then they poured it into the sand mold (they tried a lego build, a circle, heart, square, and the letter B) and then cooled it off with the water hose. Ben loved every second of it!
hollyburch
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Sunday lineup.
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Another successful trip to Chuck E. Cheese. They came home with a stuffed llama, cotton candy, and a few random balls.
While Kaitlyn was at camp, one of her favorite board games popped up on our local Facebook free site. I put my name in and my name was picked. I made sure to pick it up and have it waiting for her when she got home. Kaitlyn loves to play Life every time we are at Granny and Pop’s but we have never owned the game. She couldn’t wait to play.
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These two finished the paint booth!
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The showers are getting cleaned, but very slowly.
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We are so glad to have this girl home!
Today the big boys wanted to go back to Chuck E Cheese. Ben wasn’t sold on the idea. I didn’t care either way, but I was adamant that homework had to be done first. Teague decided to try and help Ben with his homework, which was adorable. He was really good about truly helping and not just telling him the answers. We got there and the big boys played through their play points pretty quickly. Teague was only too happy to help Ben quickly spend the rest of his play points. Then we made the last minute decision to take home pizza for dinner. Everybody wins.
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Kaitlyn camp selfie!
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Not only did we go back to Chuck E Cheese, we got take out for dinner. The kids were so excited.
Ben has loved adventure camp. (I had a sneaking suspicion that he would.) He talks about the fort building, canoeing, fishing, but his favorite the last two days has been the water wars. Today he was so excited because the little kids won. Here’s a before camp picture and an after camp picture. Today he specifically asked me to pack him a towel and extra socks in his backpack.
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Alex’s current paid job – painting the back stairs.
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A little family movie time.
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Airbands! (I’m still not sure what song they danced to, but I love their faces!)
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A second day of water waters at adventure camp to try and beat this heat.
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Back to Chuck E. Cheese.
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Back to Chuck E Cheese.
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Selfie by Kaitlyn.
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Ben has been in adventure camp this week and today was water war! (He came home sopping wet.)
Ben loves to color and draw. He recently drew all kinds of pictures and wanted to give one to our mail person. He even wrote a note, put it in an envelope, and left it in the mailbox. He checked the mailbox the next day or two to see if there was a response and then moved on. Today when I checked the mail, there was an envelope addressed to “The Artist at 12 Oak St.” Our mail lady had written the sweetest note to Ben and told him that his drawing was hanging up at the Post Office in the back so that everyone could enjoy it. He smiled the rest of the day!
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Alex has been having a lot of fun with his new 3D printer – an ice cream gear shifter for Wade’s mini truck and a tiny tug boat.
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Teague’s current paid job – deep clean the showers.
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I love to see a big smile on her face.
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Ben has been begging to cook breakfast and we finally had enough time this morning. Double chocolate muffins coming up!
Alex helps Ben use his credits when he still has tons and everyone else is done. Ben gets the tickets and doesn’t even really realize or care that 30 credits are gone in 5 minutes. For this particular game. I actually put in the credit and wanted to play (it turns out it was the last credit). Alex spun the wheel before I could. I stood back and said, “Let’s see what measly amount of tickets you win.” That lucky son of a gun won the jackpot – 100 tickets.
We’ve been “encouraging” the big boys to spend more time outside. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when they both agreed to play with Ben on the trampoline when he asked today – separately of course. I’m pretty sure Alex regretted his decision as soon as he got on the trampoline. His workout class has made him incredibly sore and jumping was pretty much out of the question.
Today is my single day of having two children. Kaitlyn is at camp. Teague is in Memphis. For the next four days, Ben has a class in the morning (Art Party) and Alex has a class (weight lifting) in the afternoon. They did convince me to make another trip to Chuck E Cheese. I think they were excited to split the 250 credits between just two people this time.
(Note how the two lefties are almost in synch as they play.)