5 Miles

We decided, rather spur of the moment, to head to PA for Memorial Day weekend a few weeks ago. The primary reason to go was to buy James’ sister & brother-in-law’s van. They just had to move to a larger Surburn and were looking to sell it.  We also thought it’d be fun to be at the farm during warm weather when the kids can play outside with their cousins. I was a bit hesitant to go with James’ sister having 2, 2-week old babies (yes, TWINS! And they were born on different days, how cool is that?), but knew we’d be staying with his mom and dad and hopefully our visit would be a fun distraction, not a problem. Since we were bringing the van back, we were debating between just James going & flying out, driving the car out and then car/van back, or renting a car out and driving the van home. The later option won out. So Friday evening we picked up the car and were excited to find out since we were  a one-way trip, we could get a free upgrade to a large car (I have no idea why that rated an upgrade, but I was thrilled to not be in a mid-size…that’s what we own right now and most trips in it I feel rather squished).  Since we had 24 hours to return that car without getting a late fee, there was a bit of stress to get to PA by 5:00 (and have time to return the car to the airport).  It usually takes us 12 hours to get to James’ parents house. So we left at Saturday morning, 4 am. We ended up having our best trip time ever since we’ve had kids, we made it in 10 1/2 hours! The boys did VERY well with only having stops for breakfast, lunch and one for gas. (Especially considering they never fell back asleep when we put them in the car).  So we got to the farm with plenty of time to get the car returned.

Sunday we went to church, relaxed, and held babies. Monday one of James’ brother and his family came up for a big picnic day. You can see pictures here.  (That’s easier then trying to put them in here, and you’ll get to see more that way.) We all had a fun time.

Tuesday and today have been rainy and COOL. Cool enough that I’m kicking myself for not packing long-sleeved shirts for the boys (but I did remember jeans and socks…but guess the swim trunks I packed are a bust).  So we’ve been inside more then expected for May. James has had a great time helping Reuben with work on the farm. I’ve been either taking time off from kids and resting, or watching kids so my SIL could run to the store with my MIL. We got to have a movie night last night and go see Star Trek.  We’ve played games, talked and eaten–pretty typical Miles vacation!   Tomorrow should be warmer so we’re looking forward to more outside time.

When I was looking around for some pictures of my MOPS group, I found a few pictures I had meant to put on the blog but forgot to. Since my last one of these featured all of Will’s work, it’s only fair Alex get a turn.

This one I had to include b/c it has a nick-name one of his babysitters gave both boys. It made me laugh.

This was from around Christmas-time. I just had to laugh because when I think of the verse written at the top, “God made the world and everything in it”, I usually don’t think of gingerbread men.

Friday was Will’s last day of preschool. The school had a small celebration for the kids that consisted mainly a silde show of the year and cake.

Will, sitting with two of his friends.

We all started off in the sanctuary for the slide show, but moved back to the rooms for the teachers to give the kids a certificate and a new Bible.

Will’s teacher “Miss Val”

Miss Val also gave the kids a photo book with the class picture and a few funny pictures from the year.

You can see Will was amused!  After that, we sat around a bit while the kids talked and played and then headed out. It wasn’t really a tearful ceremony and Will is rather ready to be done. He’s been at this preschool for 3 years now (he started when he’d JUST turned 3) and enjoyed those years, but he’s looking forward to kindergarten in the fall.  Alex is looking forward to his turn to go this fall though!

This weekend we went up to the Chicago-land area for our nephew’s baptism–Andrew, son of Karl and Cori. We drove up Friday afternoon and stayed at Aunt Nancy’s again (felt like we’d just been there! Alex was asking if everyone who’d been there for the Easter Egg Hunt would be there again. Had to tell him no.)  We got there and pretty quickly the boys were asking if they could play the Wii again.

 

Since they’d been so good in the car for the previous 5 hours, we let them. Here they are playing Wii boxing. Alex grew tired of that and I got to fill in, and beat Will with a KO.  Later I played Alex and I just won based on punches (I backed off a bit to see what would happen). James gave me a hard time for beating up my kids, even virtually.

Alex loved petting Maggie again. The poor dog put up with the two wild kids as best she could!

Saturday morning Aunt Nancy joined Will in playing Wii Golf.  We were waiting until the last possible moment to dress the kids up for the baptism.

Here we are! It was a nice, small, private ceremony Saturday Afternoon. The kids enjoyed being able to see what was happening.  The priest did a great job explaining things for those of us who aren’t used to going to these. I just wish I could have paid better attention, but I was a bit distracted by my two boys.

They chose to dunk instead of spring water, returning to the original tradition. Andrew seemed to enjoy it, thinking it was bath time! Will felt the water for us later and told us it was VERY warm.

The priest is both Godfather to Andrew and he did the ceremony. This created some funny moments when he was asking himself questions. Nicki, a friend of Cori’s is Godmother.

This was my attempt to get a close-up picture of Andrew’s gown, made by Grandma Lo. Sadly, he did not appreciate my attempts. (It wasn’t the gown, I know that)

Grandma Grover holding her Great-Grandson (notice he’s happier because of his thumb in his mouth).

There’s a close-up of the gown. I was just sad you can’t see the cute matching booties.

We drove home that afternoon. The kids did fairly well for being in the car so much, but by the end it was getting touchy…Alex didn’t nap well in the car either way and they stayed up way too late so they were TIRED. He slept in until 8:30 so James and he stayed home while Will and I went to church. We were so tired we came home after first service (I was working in the 2 year old room). During the afternoon I got a nap in, but the boys played outside while James did yard work.  This made for a very fussy Alex tonight, but both he and Will went to sleep RIGHT away.  Now we’re gearing up for the last week of preschool, Kindergarten testing and Dentist visits!

Well, it has been awhile since I gave a good update here, hasn’t it?  We’ve been a bit busy. It seems we’ve either been trying to find ways to stay busy in the rain or when it’s not raining, we’re outside trying to get things weeded and planted.  We’re also spending the year wrapping up all of our activities. Wednesday was my last day of Bible Study and Awana (yea! Survived that! Boy it was a rough night, kids were REALLY hyper). Next Tuesday is the end of MOPS. It’s kind of nice to be seeing open squares on the calendar as we look ahead!

But, looking back, here are a few highlights. First, here are some pictures of the boys last week–they were painting rocks with the neighbor boys:

Friday morning we woke up to exciting news. James’ sister delivered her twins over night–one baby girl was born Thursday night (10 minutes before midnight) and the other girl was born Friday morning (10 minutes after midnight). We all find it fun they have their own birthdays. (As maker of the family calendar each year, I had figured I’d have to get a picture of them together each year for their birthday spot. Now I’ll need two separate ones for each day! According to a friend of my who has twins, that might be harder to get then one together!)  Friday we found out James’ sister-in-law had started to have contractions and we got excited about having 3 babies in 3 days…but this baby took a bit longer to come. He was born Monday evening and looks a great deal like Will did as a newborn. This means there is a one month old, 3 week old babies and one due in June. Christmas will be crazy this year!!!

Saturday we went up to my Mom and Dad’s house to celebrate Dad’s birthday and Mother’s Day.

Dad enjoyed his game (we got him that + the Builders/Trader Expansion) and we played two games of it. Will enjoyed the first one but was ready to play with Alex after that.   Right before supper James and Dad took the boys out to fly the kites Grandpa and Grandma had given them. Sadly Will’s broke and then later Alex’s got blown away. So it wasn’t quite as fun as the last time we went kite flying.

Sunday was a relaxing Mothers Day for me. We went to church and I worked in the 2 year old room, and then we slipped out early to go out for lunch. We were worried about crowds and tired boys so we thought it’d be better to go early. I got treated to Tex-Mex (YUM!) 

Friday night we had got the larger plants for our garden (I lost a number of my starts to wind-burn and then didn’t get the next batch of seeds in time, but I have the seeds for next year). So I got those in the ground Friday night and then Monday got the rest of the seeds in the ground for the garden.  Once those start growing I’ll put a picture up for you (right now all you’ll see are tomatoes, an eggplant, a jalapeno plant, a zucchini plant and the peas I started earlier coming up). One friend was amused at all my “ones”…I reminded her (and me) we’re starting small! 

Tuesday was our 2nd sunny day in a row–that’s rare around here right now! We picked up a bike for Will from some friends who were selling it in their garage sale.  We had to take it for a test ride!

Alex is starting to pedal the “motorcycle” so walks are starting to go a bit faster then before. Though for longer walks we’re probably still going to use a stroller, I ended carrying this all the way home.

We walked over to the park by our house. There are apartment buildings around the park, and this cool bit of sidewalk that connects the apartments to the sidewalk loop around the park. This bit has several “bumps” along with a good slope that means you can go downhill FAST. The boys love to go up and down it.

On the way home we had to stop at the creek and throw sticks into it.  Alex wanted to play in it, but I made them wait until it’s warmer.

After another rainy day on Wednesday, the kids are enjoying sunshine and warmer weather. And Alex was enjoying splashing in the mud puddles (it’s 3 pm and they’ve already had a bath).  Plans for the afternoon are to work in reducing the dirty laudrey pile and make Rice Crispy Treats for Will to take to preschool tomorrow for snack. And sweeping and mopping the dirty/muddy floor (again, Alex).   And I feel better because I’m finally caught up here!

Will: Emma goes to preschool EVERY day. She goes to ALL the Lion class Monday, Wednesday and Friday AND the days in between.

James: Would you want to do that?

Will: No, if I did that I’d be de-sausted.

James: De-sausted?

Will: Well, really tired.

Last night, as James was putting the boys to bed he said “NO Noise. Remember what happens if you make any noise?”
Alex said “You’ll put us in jail!”

(For those of you wondering about our parenting practices, I must say he was influenced by his brother and friends from the kids of Youth Workers. They were playing during the Youth Workers meeting and had built a play jail so it was fresh on his mind. And usually, when they make noise, the music they like to listen to gets turned off.)

Last week Alex came in and said “Mommy, will you do me a favorite?”  It took me a second or two to realize he was asking me to do him a FAVOR.

* * *

Today, on the way to the baseball game,  while we waited at a red light, Alex asked, “Why are reds so long?”  When the light finally changed and we started to go through it, he said “Thank you light!”

Tonight was the company baseball game, a tradition that started about three years ago. James’ company buys a chunk of tickets to our local AAA baseball team and gives people the tickets.  The boys were SO excited to go. Even more excited to find out tonight was a double header because yesterday’s game got rained out.   Sadly, today wasn’t looking much better. Plus, a cold front was coming through so once the rain stopped, I knew it’d be chilly out.  But we went, in the hopes that the rain would clear up when we got there.

Nope. Thankfully we could sit under the awning and not get wet.

 

View of Lucas Oil Stadium, the factory with smoke stakes and a very tiny glimpse of the field covered by the tarp.

 

Yes, it was cool enough that winter coats were appreciated. I was glad I had mine!

The boys were happy to get their hot dogs and cotton candy. I had mentioned the idea of cotton candy before we left and Alex started asking “Mommy, are Smarties Cotton Candy?  Are lollipops cotton candy?”  We realized he didn’t remember having it the year before and was trying to figure out what kind of candy it was.  So we tried to describe it to him and then made him wait FOREVER (in his eyes) to try.

We waited and waited and at 7:15 decided to head for home. Not sure if they ever decided to call the game for rain, but we were done! On the way home Will said it was boring, but when I asked him if he’d rather we had not tried at all, but just stayed home, he decided he was glad we tried. They did enjoy seeing down town, seeing trains and tower cranes, and running around in the empty/covered areas of the stands. I’m thankful they’re easy to please, and we’ll all remember our “winter wet baseball game that didn’t happen”.

A few things Will made in church last Sunday that made me laugh:

This is Jesus (as he nicely labeled). On the right is Jesus dead, on the left he’s alive again. Not quite sure why when he comes back to life he has buck teeth or why he has wings (or are those hands on his hips, saying “so there” to all the doubters?)

This is a puppet he made. From what I can understand, they had a missionary talk to the class, so Will decided to make this of Alex being a missionary when he grows up. Will said he can’t be one because he’s going to be a race car driver.  Not sure how Alex feels about his brother determining his career choice or how he feels being drawn like a penguin. When I asked Alex he just said he wants to be a fireman and have LOTS of fire trucks and ambulances and police cars.