Sunday lineup.
Teague
Today’s couch plumping chore ended in a dog pile. (Note Kaitlyn’s legs.)
Wade has spent the entire week traveling for work. He left very, very early Monday morning for Belgium and he got home this afternoon. I wash shocked he didn’t immediately crash, but he had dinner with us and then provided dessert with a variety of treats he brought home with him. We all took a sample of everything and everyone had a different favorite.
Dad’s home and he brought snacks back from Belgium!
It’s pi day. Of course, Teague made pie.
After dinner cookies coming up!
As of this weekend, all of the kids have their own Fortnite accounts. I love the usernames they have picked for themselves. Teague’s username is wearyhandle. (They all have random numbers after the names as most usernames do these days.)
An early dinner before swim lessons. (Teague decided to show off of the picture. He doesn’t normally finish his chili this way.)
Sunday lineup.
Saturday means chore day and a clean house. A lot of times that means I say no to afternoon cooking, but today I agreed to some cookies.
After everyone was in bed, I walked through the living room and found a drawing left by Teague.
Pasta and Bingo Night!
Tonight we had a dinner and game night at the elementary school to raise money for the 6th graders trip to Nature’s Classroom. I went to the school early afternoon to help set up and work the cashbox behind the bake sale. Wade showed up with all the kids (after Alex plainly told me he would not attend earlier in the week) for the second seating and I did take a short break to sit with them. The littles immediately checked out the prize table and couldn’t wait for Bingo to start. Ben seemed to have the worst luck and couldn’t fill a single square in on his card. Amazingly, Alex got a Bingo and immediately gave it to Ben. Before too long Kaitlyn won and got her desired prize (which one of the principals had hidden behind the table to keep safe.) The kids had a great night and it was fun to see some friends and raise some money for the sixth graders!
The littles were determined to cover Teague with blankets. He wasn’t quite as amused as they were.
I have to make cookies for a school function and Teague offered to make them for me!
Brothers.
Sunday lineup.
I love winter Saturday mornings. We rarely have anywhere to be and have very slow mornings. Alex sleeps late. The littles get up first and start the morning with a cartoon each. Teague appears at some point during these and usually chooses to watch a cartoon too. Then at least one child usually wants to cook something for breakfast – waffles pancakes, muffins, crepes, etc. After breakfast, we finally get around to starting our weekly chores. I am not looking forward to spring sports and the hectic mornings that go with them.
Dinner making shenanigans. The kids are cooking while Wade and I get ready to go out on a date.
As long as I have known Wade, I have known about his fascination with rolling ball sculptures. He loves to find them in random malls, hospitals, and sometimes restaurants. Visiting Boston Children’s Hospital has always been a treat because of the huge sculptures they have (until the last year when they took it out)!
Today a box arrived at the house addressed to Wade. He looked a little confused and then got the most excited look on his face. Evidently he paid into a Kickstarter campaign three years ago and they finally delivered – a desktop rolling ball sculpture.
Wade got a new toy and the kids loved playing with it all evening.
Video games for all the kiddos.
These three were pretty cute tonight all cuddled up in the big chair:
Teague and his new best friend. It’s kind of cute – for now.
Teague got a phone for his birthday so now we see a lot of this…
Dishwasher – the chore that never ends.
Ben absolutely loves the sword Kaitlyn brought him from Disney. It has been played with by every person in this house. Tonight I decided to introduce him to the movie behind “Jack Sparrow.” Kaitlyn assured me that she wouldn’t be bothered by the graphics (I did warn her about the skeletons). The littles loved the movie. They watched, danced, and fought swords. It was adorable.
Sunday lineup.
Tenzi – one of the few games everyone will play together.
The littles were awake and sitting in the living room just waiting when I came downstairs at 7 am. They quickly decided to build a fort and bring their stuffed animals to visit.
We continued with a lazy morning until lunchtime. Then I got everyone out the door and to the post office in time for our passport appointment. We finally decided to bite the bullet in terms of paperwork and get the kids their passports. For the most part everyone was pretty well behaved and things moved pretty quickly. Alex is the one that held us up. His picture had to be taken over and over and over to meet the requirements. Poor Alex and his issues with low light and flashes. They finally got a good one!
Then we headed back to the house for some time with Granny and Pop.
Games. Games. More games.
Teague was so excited to get a plane ticket for a visit to Memphis this summer.
I can’t believe we now have two teenagers in the house! Teague turns 13 today. It’s probably the first child birthday where I barely saw the birthday child. Teague had his friends spend the night last night and those boys didn’t stop until almost 6 am this morning. (I know this because they were also very loud.) Traditionally, sleepovers happen on our third floor. Then the rest of the family lives on the other two floors. I woke up this morning, a little grumpy with little sleep, stumbled downstairs and found two boys asleep on my living room couches. I managed to keep everyone quiet until they woke up around 10, but it was not fun.
The boys left around 1 pm. I took Ben, Teague, and Alex out for a sushi lunch. Then Teague got home and went back to bed. I didn’t see him again till we woke him up for dinner, cake, and presents. I don’t think I have ever taken so few pictures on a birthday before!
We have another teenager in the house!
Teague wanted to celebrate his birthday with a sleepover. The plan was to spend a few hours at Apex in the arcade, have dinner, stop at the Dollar Tree for snacks, and then video games.
Deep discussions about Minecraft and toys while I fix dinner.
Ben recently read the book, “Treasure Planet” and was so excited to find out there is a movie too. Teague walked through the room and got hooked too.
Teague has this grand plan for this styrofoam to become a shield. Today is the painting phase.
Ben’s new I Spy book was fun for everyone tonight.
Teague finally got the ice cream I owed him for his doctor’s appointment yesterday.
Teague and I spent three hours in the eye doctor’s office today learning about contacts, specifically scleral lenses.
School was cancelled last night when they were still predicting 14″ of snow. We woke up to the beginning of a snow but a new forecast of 4-6.” The kids were up early and cooked breakfast. Ben and Kaitlyn were out playing in the snow pretty quickly. We all had an early lunch and then a neighbor came to play with Kaitlyn. Other than completely forgetting to check if gymnastics was cancelled (it wasn’t) we had a wonderful day at home.
Goofballs.
Putting dishes away – everyone’s favorite.
Today was SONSHINE Sunday at church.
Alex woke up as a 15 year old!! Unfortunately for Alex, his birthday fell on a Sunday – a Sunday where both boys had bell concerts. That meant we had to get to church even earlier than normal, but it also meant we were all up and ready to go really early. That worked out well for Alex because we had extra time for donuts and he could open all his gifts before church.
The upside is that we celebrate SONSHINE Sunday today. Everyone wears bright clothes or Hawaiian shirts. The three boys got new shirts and Wade borrowed one of Alex’s.
(The picture of Ben above shows him doing his new favorite job at church – handing out bulletins. The guys say he does a great job and loves greeting everyone.)
Our church has community events every month or two. Tonight they had a hoe down. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but it sounded like fun so we dressed almost everyone up, took a few pictures, and headed to the church. (Note in the first picture Ben is wearing a gun and holster. He found it in the barn earlier today in B’s old toys. We agreed to let him wear the holster to the Hoe Down but he left the gun at home.) We ended up having a great time and did quite a bit of dancing – Ben and Kaitlyn loved it and danced with everybody!
(Note Ben’s belt – that is a hand-me-down from Alex’s second Halloween costume. See here)
Dressed and ready for the Hoe Down.
We had a family movie night and I was once again amused by how my kids watch movies. Teague sits still but fidgets with something. Tonight it was Magnetdotz.
Ben loves to get some help on his current game (Zelda) from Teague.