Sweetie Pie

Well, I was having a not-so-fun evening yesterday, because today I get to have a colonoscopy. So last night I was doing the prep. Clark took care of the boys, explaining to them that Mommy didn't feel very good, and needed to be left alone. I gave them a hug and kiss goodnight, but otherwise didn't see them the whole evening.

Until Sam came out of his room about 20 minutes after bedtime. Said he had a present for me. He brought me a piece of paper that had "best mommy ever award" written on it, and a picture of me standing on a platform with a medal around my neck. (can you tell he enjoyed the olympics?) I told him he was so sweet, and gave him a big hug and thanked him.

About 2 hours later I went upstairs to go to bed. Sitting on my pillow was another piece of paper, which said "To: Mommy From: Sam" on it. And sitting next to this paper was a circle of paper, about 4 inches in diameter, colored entirely yellow. With a big #1 written on it. And a string taped to it. Yes, he actually made me a gold medal.

So while it hadn't exactly been a fun evening, I went to bed with a big smile on my face.

AWESOME!!!!!!!

A few nights ago, Sam had earned enough stickers on his sticker chart for his first official "big guy night out". We'd told him that when he filled up the chart, one of us would take him out somewhere fun at bedtime, while the other one of us would stay home and put Paul to bed. Well, Sunday night was the night. I gave him the choice between going to see a movie (either the new Star Wars one or the Fly Me to the Moon 3D) or going to play lasertag. He'd never done lasertag before, and thought that sounded like a great idea.

We got there, and walked in. While I payed at the counter, he bounced. He was so excited that he just jumped up and down. We had to wait about 10 minutes for our game to start, so I told him it would probably be a good idea to use the bathroom before it was time to play. He opened the bathroom door and yelled "AWESOME!" on the top of his lungs. The bathroom was dark, lit only by a black light, with neon graffiti all over the walls, which of course were painted black. Sam came out a few minutes later and told me all about how the toilet paper glowed. I think it was worth the $7 admission just for the exciting bathroom.

Then we started the game. Sam was by far the littlest kid there--there were 3 boys who were probably 12-14 or so, and 4 girls who were probably in their late teens. Sam and I had a blast. We were on different teams, so he had a lot of fun sneaking up on me to tag me. At the end they printed out scorecards. Sam was in last place, by far, but he'd shot me more times than I'd shot him, so that was a very successful evening in his eyes. The first words out of his mouth as we drove away were "Can we do that again sometime soon? It was AWESOME!"

The beautiful sound of summer

The boys were getting ready for bed tonight when Sam suddenly said "Mommy, what is that sound? I hear music!"

I realized what it was--an ice cream truck! On our street! So I told Sam, and he went running to the door to look. Sure enough, it'd just passed our house. I told Sam "Don't worry, we'll catch it!" The only problem? Paul was naked. So I sent him running into the house for pants, while Sam and I chased down the truck. Luckily we didn't have to go far--it stopped 3 houses down from ours for some more kids who were outside. I looked back, and still didn't see Paul, so I handed Sam a $5 bill and went running back to find Paul. He came out, wearing inside out and backward pajama pants, but at least wasn't naked anymore, so off we went to the ice cream truck.

They both got Spongebob Squarepants popsicles, which cost $2.50 each. A little pricier than the 25 cent popsicles of my childhood, but I think it was just about the best $5 I've ever spent. They did a happy dance while eating them. Paul only made it through about half of his, but it was definitely the highlight of his day. And watching them dance and giggle while eating a popsicle was definitely the highlight of mine.

Conversations with a 4 year old

I was talking on the phone to a friend yesterday afternoon. She'd just returned home, after spending several days in Milwaukee, visiting family.

I asked her "How was Milwaukee?"
Paul interrupted and said "Who is Meeyaukee?"
I told him "Milwaukee is a place, not a person."
He said "oh. Okay."
Then a minute later he interrupted again.
"Can we go to Meeyaukee now?"
I said "no, not right now."
"Why not?"
"Because it's far away, and we don't have any reason why we need to go there."
"But it sounds like a fun place!"
"Um, maybe sometime we'll go to Milwaukee."
"Can we go tomorrow?"
"Maybe."
"Oh. Okay."

This is why I don't talk on the phone often. I rarely get to actually talk to the person who is on the other end of the phone line!!!

Busy busy busy!!!!

Well, this summer is flying by! I can't believe it's August already!! One thing I've learned this summer is that if we aren't at home, everyone is happy. If we are at home, the kids fight. Nonstop. So we're rarely home.

Now I'm going to try to catch up a bit on what we've been up to. June started out with some gardening. Clark and Paul planted some tomato plants, some pepper plants, and some various herbs (basil, thyme, chives) Paul especially enjoyed the "dig in the dirt and find worms" part. Eew.








Then we went on a trip to the U.P. to visit my grandparents. They have a condo right on the water, so the boys got to go fishing for the first time. And we got to go for a boat ride. And Great Grandpa let the boys have a turn driving the boat, which they thought was the coolest thing ever. Sam had fun driving us around. Paul had fun turning the steering wheel back and forth as fast as he could, so that everyone on the boat got splashed.

Fun Fishing

Our Safe Driver

The Wild Driver (we're lucky he's got another 12 years before he gets his license)