One Funny Kid

Schaeffer is a funny kid. It's hard to explain what makes him so funny but if he's in a good mood, it's hard to look at him without smiling and giggling a little. I thought maybe it was his shaggy hair but now I've decided that perhaps it's his eyes. He just has this kinda goofy, mischievous look about him. The other day we were playing out front and my parents stopped by to pick up Jack. Dad started pulling weeds out of the front yard...helping us not get kicked out of Morton for poor lawn upkeep! The boys started helping him. Then they started pulling out this flowery vine that was growing in the middle of one of our bushes. The boys, Schaeffer especially started bringing the purple flowers to my pot of purple mums and adding them in. Then Schaeffer brought over the whole vine and placed it just so with the mums. Then he picked up a single leaf and careful placed it just so among the flowers. It was just so funny how he went about it, like he was really doing something to help me decorate the front porch. 

John Deere Day

We kept ourselves busy this August by squeezing in a few mid-week day trips before school starts (tomorrow!). We did the zoo in St. Louis which Jack's teacher heard all about on her home visit, puke stories included. And a few weeks later we went for a visit to Iowa to spend the day with Megan, Dennis and George. With four little boys one of our favorite things to do when we visit Iowa is play on tractors. We first went to the John Deere headquarters where they have a big display floor filled with a variety of tractors, many of which they allow you to climb into. Jack has been several times before but this was Schaeffer and Logan's first time. It did not disappoint. They all ran from tractor to tractor climbing in cabs, buckets and wheels, pushing every button and testing every control and of course pretending to run me over. Jack even took me on a safari in one of the Gators. If you've never played on huge tractors then you nee to know that climbing in the giant buckets, shovels and wheels is a must. Especially for little kids. It's a wonder to them to see how huge these tractor parts are and that they fit right inside and often many of them fit right inside. After getting our fill at the headquarters we grabbed lunch and headed over to the John Deere Pavilion. This is like a show room with information and several more tractors and a kids area. Jack's absolute favorite was a forestry machine that actually walks in a strange bug like way. He didn't get to climb in it but he got to see a video of how it works and he thought it was really cool that the tractor could walk. I'm with him, it was pretty neat. The kids played and played and then we went over to the gift shop where they have play tables with lots of tractor toys for the kids to try out, so we played and played some more. My three will all thrilled to walk out of there with new John Deere shirts and a new little tractor toy each.

It takes a lot of little people to operate a huge combine!

Jack in the combine, another favorite of his.

Megan and George

Schaeffer and Logan taking a sleep in the bucket.

Nearly impossible to get a good pic of these four.

Georgie!

Fisherboy

We have been at the lake a lot lately. Did I mention that before? The day after my Dad's birthday we hosted a party for our small group at my parent's house. It was another beautiful day and we had all sorts of different activities we could do. But it turns out our small group is full of fisherkids. We had 14 adults and 18 children and kids and dad's fished almost the entire time (when they weren't driving the skid steer and floating in the paddle boat). The fish weren't biting much that dad but lots of baby catfish were caught a few walleye and many tiny frogs. I think perhaps the older boys inspired/influenced Jack. Up until that afternoon he had always fished with his special pole with a rubber fish on the end. He would cast it out and real it in over and over, each time pleased that he had a fish. This method works well for little kids because it's much safer than having them fling a hook around. And it allowed him to develop a pretty impressive cast for his age and size. This afternoon however, he decided he wanted to try a hook with a worm like everyone else was doing. I wasn't involved in this but Paul said he did a great job being careful and he even caught some fish! In my dad's lake it's not hard to catch a little fish. You pretty much just have to drop a hook off the side of the dock and bam, you have a fish. The hard part it catching a big fish. Anyway, he was super excited and told my parent's all about it before we left that night. And boy does he have a good fish story. He told with much excitement how he caught a really big fish and it bent his pole and it almost pulled him off the dock! Pretty sure he was talking about the sunfish in the second picture, but hey it's all about the fish story, right? We've tried to remind him that fishing requires patience and you don't catch a fish every time you go fishing. But so far Dad's lake hasn't let him down and he catches at least a little something every time he goes out. Ever since this night he has been on a fishing kick and has begged to go back out night after night. We've taken him a few times and he even got to spend several hours fishing with just Papa and no pesky little brothers running around. From the stories I heard after that night, I'd say they had a good time. And I'll admit, I think it's cute and fun and sentimental that he enjoys fishing and fishing with his papa so much. 

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dad just turned 60. I used to think that sounded old. But the older I get the younger those big numbers seem. My dad doesn't seem old, he just seems like dad. But since it's kind of a big number and a new decade and all that we decided to throw him a little party. My family is not really big into birthday parties. I normally send a text or a phone call when it's someone's birthday and if they are lucky they get a card. But this year my sisters and I decided we should all get together for the day and have some fun and call it a birthday party for dad :). So that's what we did. We hung out all day. We took the kids on a nature hike around the property and managed to find the remains of the snapping turtle that lost it's life at the hand's of my father earlier this spring. The snapping turtle has been a favorite story of Jack's this summer and without giving it much thought I told him he could take some of the bones home to put on his dresser. I was thinking, "wouldn't I be a cool mom if I let me son display bones from a turtle shot by his papa in his room?" I wasn't thinking how dirty and gross they were and how would we clean them or sanitize them. So several of the kids collected lots of bones and carried them the rest of our hike. Later that afternoon we tried boiling them...cause that's what they do with bones on the TV series "Bones" according to Megan. That created a terrible stench in the kitchen just as we were cooking dinner. It was awful and we got concerned that we were destroying the bones so that only lasted maybe 10 minutes. Then following some hasty Internet research we decided to soak them in a bleach/water bath for a while. I have no idea if we succeeded in cleaning or sanitizing but regardless Jack now has a pile of turtle bones on his dresser. The first night we put them there he was up long past bedtime with his light on just sitting in bed looking at his turtle bones laying on his dresser. Not accidentally everyone else left their bones at Mom and Dad's house when the drove home. This will always be, "Remember that time we boiled the turtle bones?"

Besides collecting bones, the kids also got to go on tractor rides which is always a favorite activity. Dad drove round and round with one grand-kid after another on his lap. And when Micah and Jack couldn't agree who should go first Dad took them both and miraculously I snapped this great photo of the three of them. Dad is rarely looking and smiling when we take pictures and getting a three and a four year old to do the same is almost impossible. 

 Much fun was had a Grandma and Papa's house this day, both inside and outside.  

George being goofy.

A favorite activity of the little ones.

We played hard all morning, ate a yummy lunch and then put as many children down for naps as we could. The older kids got to watch a movie. Then Mom and I went shopping for dinner supplies and we spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out what to make for dessert, what we forgot at the store, cooking dinner, tie dying shirts for the P-fest and generally enjoying each other's company. We do have fun together. That evening we set up tables on the deck to enjoy the really beautiful evening and ate a very yummy dinner all together. It was really a wonderful time celebrating Dad and enjoying some much needed time as a whole family. After dinner and dessert we cleaned up and fed the fish. I find the dock crowded with just my three boys so to have 7 kids out their plus several adults was REALLY crowded. I stayed away, I was sure someone would fall in. Just look at those boys laying on the edge. 

In my opinion it was a wonderful day. I hope my dad agrees, I think he does. We love him so much and we are so thankful to celebrate his 60th birthday with him. I think he is blessed beyond measure and because of him, so are we. 

Fish Food

I can't even remember the last time I blogged. We've been having Internet issues so I haven't been on the computer in what seems like ages and blogging on an iPhone is not worth the effort. Typing with all of my fingers is much more efficient than typing with two thumbs.

We've spent many evenings in recent weeks at my parent's house feeding the fish. The boys have come to love this activity and I've bought many life jackets in an effort to ease my (and my mother's) fears of someone falling head first into the lake. Schaeffer and Logan are particularly terrifying as it seems they have no concern for the edge of the dock or perhaps they are far more confident in their balance than I am. But with the life jacket's at least they'll float and that's enough to ease my stress and allow me to mostly enjoy their careening around what suddenly seems like a very small plank of dock jutting out into a vast body of water. They seriously get so close to the edge and seemingly show no concern for falling in! It's constant activity and excitement when we feed the fish. The boys run to the bucket, scoop out as much food as their fists can hold, spill most of it on the dock and then run to the edge to throw it in. Jack and Logan mostly stick to feeding the fish. Schaeffer, however, is often throwing food on the shoreline or in the paddle boat or stuffing it down his life jacket. He seems perfectly content to do his own thing regardless of the silliness of it. They love throwing the food about as much as they enjoy seeing the fish come to eat it. Their delight is infectious and it doesn't matter if it's a few of the tiniest fish that come for dinner or a whole gang of giant catfish, they are excited just the same.

Zoo Flu

All summer I've wanted to take the kids to St. Louis for a little day trip. Things finally lined up for us to go last week and have a chance to visit the zoo, a couple of good friends and a new baby! Taking three small kids on a day trip is actually fun as long as you're prepared and have realistic expectations. I got up extra early to get in a shower and pack up all our things. I put everything in the van including the kids' breakfasts before I even got the twins up from bed. As soon as I was ready I got the kids up, got them changed and into the van they went. They always seem a little bewildered when the go from crib to van instead of crib to highchair, but they did fine. Jack mentioned when he first woke up to get ready with Paul that his tummy hurt. I honestly thought nothing of it. I should have. He wasn't feeling too good in the van but I am stubborn and didn't want my day of fun to be cancelled or even postponed. Plus, he has a tendency for car sickness so I hoped that perhaps that was the issue rather than him being sick. But really I had a good feeling he was just sick. As soon as we pulled into my friend's driveway in St. Louis, he puked all over himself. He assured me he was fine and he still wanted to go to the zoo. Even if he puked again he would be fine, he said. So we went inside, changed his clothes and took a little bit to see how sick he was. He ate a saltine and that stayed down for a while. To the zoo we went with Natalie Bell in tow. Jack insisted on eating an apple in the van. I let him. He puked it up right as we were parking at the zoo. He still insisted he would be fine and wanted to see the lions. Thank goodness Natalie came with us. With Jack out of commission, one of my stroller seats had a permanent non-two year old resident. One of the twins had to walk or be carried the whole time. It was so stinkin hot that day. Before we even made it through the gates we were dripping with sweat just from walking from the van. And pushing the heavy stroller or having a 2 year old clinging to you made it even hotter. But we got to see plenty of animals and the kids seemed to enjoy it. I couldn't actually tell if Jack was paying attention. He looked absolutely miserable. And the twins seemed very interested and at the same time very nervous about the animals. At one point a large elephant decided she was too hot and needed a swim. So she stepped into the water which was much deeper than it appeared. Her giant splash nearly soaked us. Natalie and I thought it was really cool. Schaeffer and Logan panicked. I found out the next day that Jack really enjoyed that part as well. We eventually made it to the lions where Jack puked up the grapes he insisted he eat at lunch. But the next day he told Paul all about the lions and never mentioned how sick he felt. We ended up having a really good time and Jack could tell Paul almost every detail of our trip to the zoo.

Natalie & Schaeffer pointing at a sea lion.

Logan and me prior to the big elephant splash.

Jack at lunch. His second nap of the day.

Strolling through the zoo collecting oohs and ahhs and compliments along the way for their extreme cuteness.

I just love it when they hold hands.

Schaeffer & Natalie checking out the gorilla.

Schaeffer and Mommy.

Your guess is as good as mine as to who this is. I'm thinking Schaeffer, but I'm really not sure.

Later in the afternoon I left Jack lounging on the couch with my friend Ami (Natalie's mom) while Schaeffer, Logan and I went to visit an old college roommate. Angela just had her sweet baby girl a few weeks ago and I was so excited to get a chance to meet her already. Adelaide was a sweetie and I got to have lots of snuggle time with her. As always I wish we would have had more time to talk and hang out but that gets difficult with two two year olds romping around. 

Angela, Adelaide, Schaeffer, Me & Logan

All for a Birthday Cake

Several weeks ago I was preparing for Schaeffer and Logan's birthday party and working to finish their motorcycle birthday cake. I was trying a new technique which seems to be my thing, always gotta try something different. I wanted the motorcycle to have a metallic/chrome quality and to do that I needed to paint it with something called luster dust. To make luster dust paintable you have to mix it with vodka. The high alcohol content causes the liquid to evaporate quickly leaving behind the color but not a gooey mess of wet fondant. Being the heavy drinkers we are not, I did not have any vodka in the house nor did I really know how to go about buying some. So Friday after the kids got up from naps I took us all to Wal-Mart. Turns out they don't sell vodka. I decided we would have to go to the liquor store. To be honest I wasn't even sure if kids were allowed in a liquor store, I thought maybe they were similar to casinos. But I didn't have much of a choice so I dragged the kids to Yogi's Super Liquors. Turns out kids are allowed you just don't want to take them because there are glass bottles stacked everywhere. I was convinced the boys were going to cause something to come crashing down and we'd leave the place embarrassed and smelling like alcohol. I was struggling to keep an eye on the kids and to find the smallest, cheapest bottle of vodka, so I asked for help. They pointed out a bottle and I took it to check out. As I was walking out I saw a display of tiny bottles, like sample sizes or something. Of course there was a tiny bottle of vodka...why didn't they tell me that when I asked for the smallest bottle?! I only needed a few capfuls for the entire cake. Now I have an entire bottle of cheap vodka sitting in my kitchen with no future intentions of using it. To top the whole thing off, Logan spotted some beef jerky and thought he had to have some. While Jack, Schaeffer and I were out the door leaving, Logan was still inside pointing at the jerky. I went back in to get him and of course a tantrum ensued and I ended up hauling him out, football style and dragging the other two to the van. Between that, my brown bag of liquor and my oh so casual tank top and ratty shorts...we looked like quite a crew stumbling out of Yogi's.