February 10 with the kiddos

Tuesday:  The last few weeks with the kiddos, I neglected to bring any of my toys from home for them to play with after coming home from school. Today--I remembered! I brought JENGA, some colored dominoes, and the fox & wolf tic-tac-toe game. I also had a supply of Valentine chocolates to share and tiny decorated bundt cakes from Meijer (not pictured). 

Brendan is home about 45 minutes prior to the "littles" bus drop off, so I always get a chance to visit with him for a little while every Tuesday. I am thankful for this because once the other kids get home, it's almost too overwhelming to try to follow Brendan's conversation in any meaningful way. Today's topic was mostly his D&D stuff he got from his birthday. It's probably my least favorite subject (other than Pokemon), but it's important that I listen to him and try to interact ... because this is important to him, and he is important to me! Brendan has such a beautiful soul and I love to see him smile as he talks. Connecting with him is challenging when there are other disruptions going on--but one-on-one is doable if I try hard enough. I love him to pieces.

The other kiddos arrived home about 10 minutes earlier than usual. They told me that their bus was on time for ONCE! I love to play with these children. They are so artistic! And excellent builders! And quite intense! 

And VERY silly!

How would I describe Callaghan? Maybe a better question would be: How COULD I described Callaghan? First of all, he's hilarious. He's cut from the same cloth as Aidan and Erin, as far as stubbornness is concerned; but he far surpasses them in just complete "otherness" ... like he belongs to a different dimension or galaxy. He comes up with the most unique responses. His humor is so keen that he cracks himself up!

The cuteness of Cal ...

It's Cal's turn to come for an overnight this Friday. He enjoys physical activity, so I'm going to have to get my body in shape (!!) in the next few days in order to play basketball, chase him around the house, get him in locked body positions that he cannot escape without the correct password, throw paper airplanes around ... anyway, you get the gist. He sleeps really well here, so I won't have to stay up late (like I do with Erin), but ... remember ... Cal is an EARLY riser--6am is not unusual for him.

February 5 Meet JEFF

Thursday: I nearly ran over this turkey while pulling into Jesse's driveway this afternoon! I had no idea he was a neighborhood "regular" and has been named JEFF (this, according to Kaity-Bug). I noticed JEFF after I had put on my brakes and saw his face looking at me over my front bumper with his eyes rather hostile. Trust me, I had no evil intentions!

Kaity and her friend, Royce, came out the front door as I was getting out of my car and filled me in on the history of Jeff. It seems he hangs out around the "Clark" neighborhood, and according to Jesse, Jeff isn't always nice. He has cautioned Kaity NOT to chase Jeff or aggravate him in any way. 

Jeff was squawking (do turkeys squawk?) up a storm at us as I was trying to coax him a little closer for his premier photo shoot; but he wasn't having anything to do with it whatsoever. I think he is rather cute, don't you? He's larger than he appears in these pictures. I hope he hangs around all winter!

These icicles are hanging in double rows on the side of Jesse's house. Jesse says that's because the insulation and roofing are so poorly constructed on this house. All the heat rises and shoots through the ceiling and roof, melting the snow like crazy.

They are pretty cool looking!

The picture below was taken out my side window. The squirrels have finally successfully dismantled my trusty (!!) squirrel guard, which now lays at the bottom of the feeder station, covered in about 6" of new snow. Now they don't have to make a running leap for the feeders (which they successfully do all the time) ... they just use their little legs to climb the pole like it's as easy as can be. It's a good thing squirrels are CUTE and soft and very fun to watch ... or they would be in big, fat trouble. I'll take squirrels any day to Starlings! Starlings are mean and come 4-6 at a time and scare all the little birds away.

There are about four squirrels who hang out at my feeders, and I can't really tell them apart; otherwise, I would name all of them and try to keep them straight. The blue painter's tape on the red-roofed feeder is because the top pops open sometimes and then snow gets inside the feeder--not good. The tape looks ugly, but it does keep the top closed.

February 3 Brendan's Card

Tuesday:  This is the card I designed for Brendan's 14th birthday! I wasn't sure I would be able to find enough photos of Brendan this year, because I don't want to be in his face all the time with my camera; but I managed to find enough to make this card for him.

This is the front of his card from our visit to Deer Tracks Junction in the summer. We had such a fun day there.

Brendan brought a compass along with us to Schwallier's corn maze to ensure we didn't get lost somewhere out in the vast corn fields ... 

Their road sign boasted about "go-karts" ... only to find out that they were pedal-powered. Brendan got his moving a lot farther than I got mine. The apple shooter was VERY fun. Brendan shot 10 apples at targets out in the field. He did a good job with his aim!

We spent a few hours at the Grand Rapids Public Museum with all of the kiddos.

Back again at Deer Tracks (these pictures didn't load properly. I only took Brendan (and each of the kids individually) for ONE visit to Deer Tracks. I love it here so much. Each one of the grands have a great time here. One-on-one works best because there is so much to see and enjoy.

We took a few trips down to Mill Creek last summer with our fishing nets. Brendan and Cal attended cousin Chris's football game against Calvin University. Brendan and Kaity played at Altitude back in the fall too.

Below are just a few photos of Brendan's time at my house. I'm so thankful he still wants to come over! 

These pictures are from the downtown museum, which had such great interactive play stations for children of all ages. Look how amazing Brendan is with using these sticks to build. He is SO patient!

More pictures of our day at Deer Tracks ...

One more picture down at Mill Creek! It's so much fun to watch kiddos barefoot in a creek. SO healthy and homey, isn't it?

 These were all separate pages in Brendan's card that I stapled together to make a mini-book. I'm pretty sure he liked it.

February 3 Brendan's Birthday

Tuesday: Well--he's done it again--Brendan completely and absolutely ignored my mandate that he was NOT allowed to get a year older. I even threatened to remove February 3 from my calendar--ERASE IT! He knew I was only kidding ... but seriously ... it felt like yesterday he was turning FOUR not FOURTEEN.

I brought gifts over for Brendan today--his birthday fell on my usual cleaning day of Tuesday; and since it had been three weeks since I had actually shown up on a Tuesday over at their house, it had been three weeks since I had done any cleaning whatsoever. I arrived a little bit early today, unloaded my car of cleaning supplies, and walked around the main floor assessing what needed the most cleaning attention. I made some headway in the kitchen, but then I left and met my friend, Jen, for lunch from 11:30 - 12:30. 

I finished up the rest of my intended cleaning just about the time Brendan came home from school at 3:20. We visited for quite awhile. He was showing me a "preview" of a Nintendo game that is due out some time in April. He wanted me to see this very much, so I settled down on the couch with him and watched it for almost 30 minutes. That was a LONG preview!

The little kiddos came home at their usual time and we did our typical cinnamon toast snack with all four of them talking to me at once about their day. I tried to keep track of all of it, but I'm afraid I was more concerned about burning the toast in their toaster oven than keeping straight everyone's stories. 

I told Brendan we would open the gifts I brought for him once his parents came home from work. However, when Dylan got home from work it was just to change out of his work clothes and then have the kiddos and him pick Kelly up from work and go out for a birthday dinner for Brendan. They invited me to come to dinner with them, but I was a bit torn between just wanting to come home--my back has been bothering me the last few days, as well as my knees (yikes--I'm sounder older by the minute); so I asked Dylan if Brendan could open the gifts I brought over before they left for dinner.

Everyone tried to get in on the opening of Brendan's gifts ... but he handled it very nicely (as always).

It's difficult to see what is actually in these packages, so I'll just have to spell it out. The little square package has a cool blue magnetic shape maker (that is very difficult to describe in words). I should have taken a picture of it!

Here, Brendan is reading the 8-page birthday card I made for him that necessitated purchasing a special stapler so that I could put it all together for him.

It's very sweet how these guys enjoy my homemade cards.

Dylan, taking a closer look at the card. 

Here are two of the three Snoopy books I got for Brendan. I was hoping they didn't already have these three at the house--it turns out that they DID have one of the titles--but now it is Brendan's own personal copies. All of the kids really enjoy these books--I do too! I also got Brendan some knee, elbow and wrist pads for learning to use his skateboard (his folks got him one for Christmas!).

The grandchildren convinced me to join them for dinner, which I am very glad I did. We went to a restaurant I have never been to before, with excellent Chinese food. I was treated to my favorite--chicken fried rice AND crab rangoon! There was enough for TWO entire meals, so I ate the other half tonight for dinner--it was even better the second time around. Look how tired little Cal is (below).

I snapped 3-4 pictures before I left to go home, but I was at an awkward angle and never did get Aidan totally in any of the pictures.

It was very nice to be invited out tonight. Brendan really likes Ramen noodles, and this place had a ton of different choices mixed with all kind of yummy stuff. Cal ordered some too and ate it like a trooper--he and Brendan have similar palates and are easy to feed because of that. Erin didn't do as well with her meal, but she had eaten quite a bit with her afternoon snack, so hopefully she was okay. Aidan ordered plain rice and seemed to enjoy it too.

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY, Brendan. I don't suppose I can convince you to stay this age forever, so I'm not going to try. Anyway, no one in their right mind would want to be stuck in Middle School for the rest of their life! Sigh.

January 30/31 Overnight with Erin

Friday/Saturday:  After two very snowy weather weeks, FINALLY this Friday worked out for me to drive over and pick Erin up for a sleepover. Yes! There hasn't been any recent accumulation of snow in the last few days, and roads are finally treated to where they are no longer icy. I was so glad to pick Erin up today after school. I think she was quite surprised to see me!

In preparation for Erin's sleepover, I got out a few things we haven't played with in a very LONG time. I have two kind of fancy LEGO models that I keep high up on the toy room shelves, so they don't get all taken apart and the pieces mixed up with all of the other LEGOs that I have around here. However, I often forget completely about these sets--and then no one plays with them! Erin was very glad to see them off the shelf and available for her to enjoy them.

One set is a lighthouse (shock!) with an ice cream shop attached to it (complete with ice cream cones, milk shakes, etc). There is a little washroom/bathroom at the back of the ice cream shop, and there is a little bedroom above the shop. This model is part of the "Friends" sets. The other model is of a cute little treehouse. Erin loves treehouses. We had such a fun time pretending and making up stories with the little figures and sets. Erin is very good at pretending.

We also did a bunch of art stuff--Erin has kind of a 3-ring circus of activity going all the time--I could barely keep track of what we were doing next--but we did just fine.

Doesn't Erin have the sweetest little face?

Friday night we had a "movie" time, but the movie I chose wasn't exactly right I guess. "The Little Princess" moved a bit too slowly, and after about 20 minutes, Erin asked if we could just watch it some other time. Yes, of course. I told her to pick out something else, so she picked out "Despicable Me 2" and we watched a lot of it, skipping ahead of the parts she didn't like, and all the while eating popcorn and enjoying some leftover Christmas chocolates. Yum.

Saturday morning, I combed out Erin's hair--well, I tried to get the tangles out, but some of them were NOT going to go anywhere at all. But I took this picture when we were finished--doesn't Erin have pretty hair?

We played all morning with various toys, all the while with Erin talking and singing--we played the piano for awhile too. Erin was scheduled to go to her friend Emmaline's b-day party by 1:30, but then Kelly called and told us the party was actually earlier; so we gathered up Erin's stuff, got ourselves dressed, and left for Culver's by about 11:30. 

Erin enjoyed a very delicious Oreo milk shake (she was very kind and shared some with me) and had a cheeseburger (with cheese curls) child's meal. 

I love eating with Erin because she really enjoys eating! Me too!

Oh! We also did a LOT of bird watching while Erin was here. We didn't take exhaustive pictures, but this was when the blue jays came back and forth, in-between 2-3 very active and playful squirrels. Erin had a blast watching all of the scurrying around outside. I'm so glad I have all the feeders and such beautiful little creatures to enjoy watching.

Erin and I also read two books at bedtime Friday night. One was about a little lame lamb who felt left out of everything with the flock he lived with. He had to remain behind when the others went to better pasture, but that night, he got to keep baby Jesus warm after He was born--so he learned to be thankful even if he had a bad leg. The other book was about the healing of the Roman soldier's little boy in Capernaum. Erin knew a lot about both of these stories--it was really fun to listen to her as she interacted with the stories.

Bedtime was challenging--but I was not surprised. Thankfully, Erin finally got tired enough to fall asleep at about 11pm--but nothing was unpleasant about it, and I did not get grumpy this time. Thank you, Lord.

January 28 Hibernation Update

Wednesday:  It was actually warmer at the South Pole last week than it was here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We had another "round" of several days in a row of more snow--just 2-3" at a time; but I bet we have 15" on the ground outside my little house. The drifts are much higher, and the plowing piles are reaching almost to the rooftops.

School was cancelled once again yesterday, as it was last Tuesday and also last Friday. I was supposed to have dear Erin overnight Friday, but I didn't venture out at all that day; in fact, the only time I have driven in the last almost two weeks was to church Sunday morning, and then last Thursday over to Family Fare (over on Northland) to get a few food items that I was completely out of (eggs, milk, etc.). 

I did go to Monday Night Bible study this week because it wasn't cancelled like it was last week--plus, snow was predicted to begin late evening Monday night and get quite heavy all day Tuesday (the forecast was correct). It was nice to once again be in my small group and enjoy the company of friends.

Tomorrow, I am going to attempt to grocery shop over at Meijer's. An elderly lady (Bev) from my Sunday school class at Calvary called this afternoon and requested a ride, both to Aldie's and to Meijer's tomorrow. I hope the roads have been cleared. I told her I would pick her up and we would get it done!

I took two pictures yesterday after I had shoveled my driveway:

We have had mostly single digit temperatures for most of the last 10 days. This Friday it is supposed to plunge down to -8 to start the day. Oh joy. I'm not at all a fan of severe cold. I dress in multiple layers just so that I can stand it, and even keeping my thermostat to 72 degrees doesn't really warm me very much. But now I'm just complaining. Pioneer Polly I am NOT.