Ben
The kids had a half day today. Alex went up to the Common with some friends right after school. (They later appeared back at our house for snacks and an impromptu snowball fight.) I picked up Kaitlyn and her friend from school so they could start their play date with lunch. They made pigs in a blanket for lunch and a big cookie cake for dessert. Teague and Ben showed up right on time and enjoyed having the rest of the day at home. Teague made a cheesecake and Ben enjoyed everyone else’s cooking.
Knowing it was supposed to rain/sleet/snow all day, we decided to stay home from church. For the most part everyone was lazy. Kaitlyn took the day to try out three new recipes so she spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen.
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When Ben and Kaitlyn were playing scientist this evening, they both kept refilling the water from the kitchen sink. Kaitlyn can reach the faucet. Ben always does a hop up onto the countertop so he can reach the faucet. I watched him do that. Then I watched him fall down to the ground. I didn’t see him hit anything but he started to cry. (Ben rarely cries and has a high pain tolerance.) It took me a few seconds to find where Ben was hurt. Then I saw a huge gaping wound on his chin. I’m still not sure how or on what he hit it, but we cleaned it, iced it, and put some butterfly bandages on it. Poor kiddo.
Alex has decided to modify a computer case. He has asked for all kinds of supplies to do this for his birthday. Today this means he is working to learn the ins and outs of our 3D printer. That also meant we were all hanging out in the basement. Ben used that time to race the cars he built with his dad and make a new video.
Wade is experimenting with other possible food options for his Sunday School class using easy to store and easy to cook methods. Wade’s current appliance of choice is the toaster oven. Tonight he tested out s’mores on the kiddos. They were all big fans.
Tuesdays are always a crazy day for us. Kaitlyn gets off the bus and rushes to get ready for ski lessons. We pack a snack for her and Ben, and drive to pick Ben up from school. Then we drive straight to Ski Ward for the kids’ ski lessons. Ben got to try the t-bar for the first time and Kaitlyn has officially graduated to the chair lift.
Then we rush home for dinner before everybody runs out the door. The bigs and Wade have handbell practice at church. The littles have swim lessons (which is 30 minutes away).
While the kids were swimming, I spent some time at the front desk trying to arrange some makeup lessons. Then I returned to my seat to watch and realized Ben was being given a swim evaluation to move up to the next level (he passed). As I was walking in to get the kids, I was told Kaitlyn had also passed an evaluation and moved up a level. I was proud of my kids! They have never both moved up a level in the same day, but that also means all my work scheduling makeup lessons had to be redone because they were now in new levels. (Kaitlyn actually graduated from lessons and is joining the swim team. We are going to try it out next week to see if she wants to commit.)
I was walking by the bathroom when I did a double take. Ben was standing on the stool, holding a comb, and working on his hair. He informed me he could do it better. Then I noticed his shirt and told him it was on backwards (which he does sometimes). Ben told me it was on purpose. He wanted to be able to put the hood over his face and be a ninja. I laughed and agreed to let him wear it.
Today we had all kinds of extra kids in the house! Kaitlyn had a friend over. Ben had a friend over. Then Alex had two friends over to spend the night.
We made cookies. Played games. Built forts. Danced. Jumped on the trampoline. Cleaned up. And then Alex’s friends arrived right after we finished dinner. I got the little kids in bed and then took Alex and his friends out to load up on snacks before they stayed up all night playing games.
After the littles’ playdate but before dinner, I laid down on the couch to take a quick nap. When I woke up, I had sleeping kids beside me and Wade was watching TV. He later sent me this video and it cracked me up.
Ben told me he had a new game he wanted the family to play. We put him off a day or two, but he was very insistent. We tried to sell him on just Wade and I playing, but he really wanted the entire family to play. We finally convinced Alex and Teague to show some interest and excitement and we all set down to play “Left, Right, Oink.”
Ben had found my bag of random die. There was a die with “Left”, “Right”, and a “pig face” on the various sides. With Ben’s game, you roll and then either hop to the left, right, or say “oink.” When we asked if there was a winner, he just grinned. We finally agreed that the first person to reach four “oinks” would be declared winner. (Spoiler – Wade wins)
We had our first snow day of the year! We waited all weekend for the snow to come last night. We woke up to white! The prediction was 9 inches. We are guessing more like 6, but we’ll take it. It continued snowing most of the day but the kids got out and played in the yard before coming in for hot chocolate and some electronics time.
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Then we convinced almost everyone to join us for sledding.
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