The Apple Dumpling Gang

It's been a little crazy around here for awhile, so I've been woefully bad at keeping up with the blog.

Last weekend, F-- and I headed home to hear stories about Mom and dad's trip to Australia and New Zealand. We didn't hear all 60 hours of Dad's new stories, but we got a good start on it.

G-- survived the two days without us. He's totally swamped with work as TAX SEASON is now here. As F-- says, "Poor daddy."

This weekend, I introduced F-- to the movie "The Apple Dumpling Gang" (an old Disney movie with Don Knotts and Tim Conway). I remembered really liking this movie when I was a kid, so I picked it up from the library. At first she thought it was pretty boring. Then she asked to watch it again. :)

Today, we watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. At the point where they were talking about the summer Olympics in China, F-- smirked and said, "Mommy, they said a bad word on TV."

"What?" I asked.

"They said China!" she replied.

It took me a second to clue in. "No, they said China...that's a country. You're thinking of va-gina."

What a kid! :)

Jesus and easter eggs

Faith's latest thought: "If Jesus died at Easter, he didn't get any Easter eggs."

Mmmmmm.

A whirlwind holiday season

OK...we survived the holidays!

The big news for our holiday was the big trip to Florida to see G's parents with P and K, and the kids. Yes, we survived with 4 adults and 3 kids on a 29 hour road trip. Lots of DVDs, coloring, books, and frequent pit stops helped!

Florida itself was great. Mom stuffed us full of food (but we didn't gain 7 lbs this time, unlike our last trip!). Dad showed off his ability to blow up balloons using his air compressor. The girls also extracted a promise from him to bring up the RV in the summer to go camping again. They cornered him while he was trying to take a nap.

It was definitely strange having Christmas in Florida...no snow on the 25th, and walking around in shorts. And of course, swimming on Christmas Day. Strange but definitely nice.

The girls had a fun time playing with each other...there was much squealing and playing with dolls.

The kids even left out hay and carrots for the reindeer on Christmas Eve (thanks Dad!), and cookies for Santa. They got a huge kick out of this. Santa liked the cookies, and was good to everyone and showered the kids, as usual, with presents (as did mom and dad).

We had a great time and enjoyed the break from the normal cold, snowy Christmas.

A holiday weekend....literally pigging out!

This past weekend was a whirlwind that pretty much involved non-stop visiting coupled with non-stop eating (with a little drinking thrown in for good measure).

On Friday night we held our annual Tree Trimming party. This year, we added a little twist. C-- had a pig, we had a party, so we combined them and turned it into a Tree Trimming / Pig Roast party. We had about 36 adults and 15 kids in our house, along with a 70 lb pig, baked beans, amazing potato salad, scrumptious coleslaw, and desserts and snacks brought by our guests. The pig was amazing...and took up almost the entire length of my island. Oh yeah...and we had two kegs in the garage.

The kids did their usual excellent job of decorating the tree...at least the bottom 3 feet. They did so with great concentration...it was my favorite part of the evening as they plucked decorations from the containers and placed them very deliberately on the tree. And it was great fun having people from so many different areas of our lives finally meet each other (like F--'s old babysitter and my parents).

We had a full house to sleep over as well, which made the next morning fun. It was Mom and Dad, Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin. We all slept in, at least as much as possible with the kids up early...even though they didn't get to bed until almost 11:00.

Saturday, we took F-- and A-- to see Max and Ruby. Although the kids enjoyed it, I could only think that there was probably some sort of tell-all movie possible about this production. Guys running around in big bunny suits obviously have some issues. And, it came through in their "performance" or lack of it. Oh well...live and learn.

Saturday night, D-- stayed over, and we had family trivia (after transporting the kegs over to K-- and R--'s for a party they were having.

Sunday was our last party day. Because the parents are headed to Australia for 9 weeks, we had early Christmas with my side. Gramma and Grampa and Aunt M-- came and we at a huge brunch together...with lots of pork products strangely enough.

Then, Santa rang the front door bell and brought in a whole bunch of presents! F-- ran to the door when she heard the bell and was shocked to see Santa. She immediately ran over to stand with Aunt M--. She wasn't really sure what to make of this but once the presents started, she quite enjoyed the whole situation...although she never sat on his knee. When Santa left through the upstairs fireplace, she was concerned the fireplace might be on.

The, Sunday night was the Grey Cup, so R-- and K-- came over with the kids, and we ate leftover desserts, and drank beer (well, the boys drank the beer, we had tea).

And, that was our crazy, but fun, weekend. Merry Christmas!

How sick is sick?

After 3 trips to the doctor in 5 days, I think we finally have F--'s various illnesses under control. After a 1:00 am ear ache last night and fever we hit the doctor on call for Sunday and got some zythromax. The best part is that it's only 1 dose a day. After having to give eye drops every 2 hours for 48 hours, this was a welcome relief. (Did I mention that getting drops into a screaming kid's eyes is like entering the seventh level of hell?) When the doctor asked her to lay down on the exam table today to check her throat, she automatically put her hands over her eyes to ward off the next attack.

So, we missed W--'s baptism due to illness (mine and F--'s). G-- was the family representative today and apparently he did a good job. :) F-- was pretty upset that she missed the event, but was placated when I mentioned that A-- was coming for a sleepover this weekend. (Her cousins and Uncle and Aunt sent back some lovely ornaments, including a wall-hanging with her name on it! Very nice.)

The best part about today was a surprise visit from F--'s teacher. Mrs. S-- had called last night to check on F-- because she missed three days of school. (Did I mention the seventh level of hell?) Today Mrs. S-- dropped off a care package at our house! Can you believe it? She had a get well card, some movies for loan, a book for Faith, a package to make a necklace, a funky light up ball, and her homework (of course). Mrs. S-- is amazing! It made F--'s day (and mine too).

Can you say pink eye?

Yes, we entered the wonderful world of pink eye today. F has a lovely cold and the eye infection came along as part of a package deal. So, this meant I was off work for the day to take her to the doctor for eye drops.

Of course buying the eye drops was much easier than actually getting them into her eyes. For some reason, little kids don't like having someone come at them with a tube of stuff to stick in their eyes. Go figure. The best part is we get to do this twice a day for 10 days. Happy times!

What the ?!*$

School was a half day today, which meant F got to ride the bus with all the older kids. She thought this was the most exciting thing ever.

We were sitting at the table when she said, "Guess what? We got to ride the bus with the big kids today! And I was thinking 'What the crap was that all about?'"

Well, I tried to hide my laughter, but G didn't even bother. He was guffawing in the kitchen and F was sitting grinning at the table.

I'm sure we'll hear this phrase again, likely in church.