School's Out

For Memorial Day, we spent the afternoon at a real Texas bar-b-que in our friend's backyard.  It was a picnic with all friends from Awana.  It was about 97° and 97% humidity, so the adults all huddled under a shaded tent in the middle of their backyard with a giant fan blowing on us.  The kids ran around the yard and played on their big water slide/bounce house thing.  It was a really nice time.  It was so nice that I only took 4 pictures total.  It was only when Henry sat still because he cut his foot that we got two of our four pictures.  The kids were worn out by the time we got home.  Although they slept all night, they still woke up tired the next morning.  Not the best start to our last 3 days of school.  It was a bit like pulling teeth to get them going.  They didn't fully commit to the "let's finish our year well" mantra I had going.

But, finish the school year with mediocre interest and attitudes we did.  [Insert HUGE sigh of relief that we are done.]  I made the kids take the obligatory picture by the tree, so  I could compare it to the start of school photo.  Caroline wore one of her "fancy" dresses.  You may not think that neon green pants goes with a black and white polka dotted dress, but what you can't see is that there are small white polka dots on her green leggings.  Polka dots match each other, hence the pairing.

August - the beginning of school:

May - the end of school:

Before that last picture was taken, we took a picture with Caroline's friend that came to visit that same day.  We had to get in one last play time before they moved to North Texas.  We are really sad to see them go.  Caroline was good friends with their little girl and Henry absolutely adored her little brother.  (I thought their mom was pretty awesome, too.)  Henry followed him around everywhere with just a sweet smile on his face.  Caroline said, "We need to have another one [baby]."   

This visit, Josiah played Titanic on the window.  They were talking through their squigg radios and sending out SOS signals.  Josiah is very much into the Titanic right now.  He's read multiple books and watched a few movies on it.  He knows the wireless operators names, the Captain's name, the designer of the ship.  He can tell you all about it.  He clearly has some of Grandpa's blood flowing through his veins.

Aunt Claire came to visit again.  Technically she came for a conference, but we always like to believe that she came just to see us!  She knew she was loved and missed because when she rang our doorbell, there were high-pitched squeals and screams and "Aunt Claire is here!!!!" being shouted from little ones.
We got to take her out for her birthday.  The kids have wanted to take her to Smashburger since her last visit.  They also all wanted to sit next to her, so halfway through dinner Claire rotated positions so she could spend equal amounts of time with each child.  So much love.  We've nicknamed her "Fair Claire" because she spends equal amounts of time with the kids.

Cake was had by all.

Josiah read about 100 Garfield comics to her.  "Hey, listen to this one..."  "Oh, this one's good..."  50 pages later... "This one's really funny..."  "Look at this one..."

Caroline, always forward-thinking, asked Claire if she could have her pretty pill case when Claire died.  Claire said that'd be fine.  So, Caroline tried her luck again and asked her if she could have her phone when she died, too.  Claire said, "yes," to that, too.  If Caroline requests too much, she's going to force Claire to write up a will.  Shy, she is not.

We finished out the week with a birthday party for friends from karate.  The family has seven children.  At the beginning of the party there were three families (including ours) and 14 children!  (I think I was a deer-in-headlights for the first 15 minutes with all the kids running every which way.)  It was a movie themed party, so after hot dogs, chips and guac (it is Texas), and deviled eggs, they started the movie.  All the kids were given chocolate birthday cake and then they passed out popcorn and movie sized candy boxes.

They sat for the movie for about 20 minutes and then slowly, one-by-one, they got up to go play.  At the end there was one lonesome girl left watching it.  The boys were running around outside drenched in sweat.  When we drove home that evening, Josiah thought he was going to get sick in the car.  I can imagine after all that junk food and then running around, I'd feel pretty sick, too.  They had a great time and didn't want to leave.  Caroline let us know she didn't want to leave with a high-pitched scream that she was not going to put her seat belt on. 

For whatever reason the attitudes around here have gotten a bit out of control lately.  Claire got to experience that first hand yesterday.  We've told the kids that it's going to be a really boring summer if they can't talk to us and each other with respect and a kind tone of voice.  They got a taste of it after church today when they spent the afternoon cleaning their rooms/playroom and then quietly reading in separate rooms.  They are so competitive with each other that instead of encouraging their sibling, they just want to take them down in any way they know how - verbally, physically, etc.  We're praying for our trip back east that it it isn't an attitude explosion nightmare.  We're slightly nervous at this point.  However, the kids are excited to see all their grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, and friends again.  We're hoping the excitement lasts all 22 hours of the car ride.