There They Go

Our volleyball team placed third at the district finals.

Way to go, girls!

You are awesome!

And You Thought You Were Having A Bad Day . . .

Parenting Failure Of The Week

On Saturday we went out to David’s parent's house on the lake. As we pulled up David told the kids that his aunt and uncle were visiting from Colorado.

He gave a short synopsis of how they were related to both him and their granddad.

Cole asked, “Does that mean we have to be nice to them?”

A little surprized at my sweet son’s question, I replied, “Yes Cole! We are nice to everyone!”

Cole: “Oh yeah, I forgot.”

Home Again, Home Again

David and I (along with Cole and Nicholas) just got back last night from a week in Minneapolis. We had the most amazing time hanging out with good friends, visiting some great churches, interacting with students on the North campus and meeting new people. What a whirlwind this week has been! Even though I googled to get the weather, somehow I was off about 20 degrees . . . so we were rather chilly most of the time.

Yesterday, after packing up to return home, we arrived a bit early at the airport. After waiting two hours to board our plane we were told our flight was being delayed two hours. After waiting two more hours we were told it was being delayed another 30 minutes.

Everyone has dealt with flight delays . . . it wouldn't have been so bad had we not had Nicholas with us. Poor little guy. He was so tired and cranky (me too, I just couldn't express myself in quite the same way.)

At 5:00 when we finally were all seated on our completely full flight (meaning the lap child really was a lap child), Nicholas was crying quite loudly. We were trying everything we could think of, but nothing would console.

One of the flight attendants came up and asked Nicholas, "What's the matter, Little Buddy?" Breaking all the tension in the air David replied, "He wanted to be on the 2:30 flight." All the passengers around us chimed in with, "Me too!"

Laughter all around. I've learned over the years this is a gift of David's and he never ceases to amaze me with his ability to turn the tide in tense situations.

Nicholas' crying soon turned into sleep . . . and his parents turned into very grateful passengers.

Bummer!

No one likes bedtime around here (except for Nicholas) and our four year old does everything he can think of to try and avoid it.

A couple of nights ago, about 30 minutes after we put him to bed, Cole shuffled out to the living room with his little Buzz Lightyear (which he takes absolutely everywhere these days). He announced to me that Buzz was sooooo excited because he heard Dad turn on the playoffs . . . and Cole had promised Buzz he could watch the playoffs if Dad did.

Cole then proceeded to plop himself down on the sofa next to his dad to watch the game . . . as if this were the norm. Of course, we had to break it to him that though Buzz was certainly welcome to stay and watch the game, he, Cole, would actually have to go back to bed since it was a school night.

Poor Buzz . . . he ended up just going back to bed with Cole.

The Winning Team

Seldom do I lose to David in Scrabble. Okay, “seldom” might not actually be the correct adverb . . . but I certainly do my best to skunk him.

But last night he pulled out his secret weapon—his nine year old son, Jonathan (and sidekick, Cole).

Jonathan is quite the little squirt. He studies the Scrabble dictionary in his free time and can phonically spell correctly just about any word you throw at him.

Just when David was getting ready to pass his turn because he honestly didn’t think he had a play, Jonathan informed him that indeed he did—“t-i-d-i-n-g-s.” If you’re a Scrabble player you know all seven letters means you get an extra 50 points. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he played it on the Triple Word Score! That extra 86 points kind of did me in.

Of course, my little son makes me very proud. The only one who might be prouder would be his Aunt Debbie . . . whose day will surely one day come. I don’t think she has actually ever lost a game of Scrabble, but Jonathan is preparing for the take-down! Note to Aunt Debbie from Jonathan: Be afraid! Be very afraid!!

Are You Smarter Than A Sixth Grader?

Maybe it’s because I went to a government school . . . or maybe it’s just because I didn’t pay attention much, but lately when I look over Ashley’s school work, I realize I my little sixth grader is WAY smarter than me.

These questions are just a sampling of some recent ones I found in Ashley’s backpack. I DOUBLE DOG DARE you to take my little test . . . and post your results. Just for the record, I missed them all.

1. What is the diameter of the earth?

2. What is the circumference of the earth?

3. What people gave the alphabet to the world?

4. What is the fastest land animal on earth?

5. What is the only mammal that can fly?

6. The Persian Empire was conquered by what people?

Jot down your answers before you click on the comment button because I’ll have the answers posted there.

P.S. It is totally not fair to google and get your answers.