Lucy's farewell

Lucy lost a dear friend this week- her beloved BOTTLE. For weeks, she has loved asking for it first thing in the morning, multiple times throughout the day, and of course, at bedtime. Food has taken a back seat to warm milk and sometimes that’s her total intake for the day. Her favorite pastime is curling up in her pink fluffy blanket (that aunt Shelly made), with bottle in hand, and just sucking away, while watching a favorite video or laying around the house in various locations, including the nice hard wood floor in the kitchen. It’s become an obsession. An obsession we haven’t been too concerned about, because it keeps her busy and quiet when her parents need a break. Now that our company is gone, we’ve decided to take the plunge and say goodbye to “boddle.”

As with many other parenting endeavors, we’ve taken the good ole cold turkey approach. I put all the bottles far away in the basement, thinking that “out of sight,” would mean “out of mind”, and so far, it’s worked. When Lucy asks for a bottle, we go look in all the usual places but never find them. Then we shrug our shoulders and say, “all gone”, and she’s pacified. So, for now, it looks like the beloved bottle isn’t being missed as much as we would have thought. She seems content with taking her sippy cup of water to bed.

Whatever friend was lost in the bottle, Lucy has found in Shirley Temple. She adores her. While Nana was here, Lucy was introduced to “The Little Princess”, and became mesmerized. They watched it several times and she never took her eyes off the screen. So, now that’s my new babysitter when I need Lucy to be entertained and the boys aren’t around. I find myself being mesmerized as well as I watch the little sweetie. I loved “The Little Princess” while growing up and still get teary eyed when I watch it.

Spencer passing off articles of faith

Spencer hit a milestone this week- He passed off all thirteen Articles of Faith. His den leader said she'd give a mini candy bar to the boys for every article of faith they passed off. So, Spencer decided to surprise her and pass off all thirteen.

In our Illinois ward, the Primary president offered a plate of chocolate chip cookies to everyone who passed off all thirteen articles of faith. Although Spencer was only four and a half when Sister Workman made the offer, he's always remembered it. So, for additional motivation (not that he needed any), I told him I'd make the same offer. He passed them off immediately and the next day, I made the cookies. I'm really proud of him. Here's a video of him reciting his most difficult and favorite articles of faith.


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You have to watch the second part of this to fully appreciate it.


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Sawyer's scare

Yesterday we had our annual Ward picnic at Bear Creek Park. It’s a beautiful park with a nice pavilion, playground, large field for games, and several nature trails for geocaching, walking, etc. We did have a scary incident while there. Sawyer, Spencer and several other children started on a nature walk and apparently Sawyer ran ahead and ended up getting separated from the group and lost for over 45 min. Spencer came back to where we were right away and was visually upset and told us Sawyer was lost. Brad and I were both focusing on something else and didn’t take Spencer seriously. We figured Sawyer was with one of two groups out geocaching or treasure hunting. Brad was in charge of field games, I was keeping track of Lucy, and we were both searching for a lost bean bag. Nearly half an hour later, Brad sensed Spencer was still upset and asked him for more details. I called the leader in charge of geocaching and he said Sawyer was not with them and never had been. So, we started to think he was lost. Brad, Charlie, and Spencer went looking for him.

Now, here’s the story from Sawyer’s perspective. He indeed ran ahead from the group and shortly realized he was lost. Not knowing which path to take back, he accidentally started walking in the opposite direction from where we were, which lead him to the township hall, fire station, and business area. He said he was scared and tried to get into the fire station, but it was locked. He tried another building and it was locked too. So, he went up to the only person he saw, which gratefully was a woman, and told her he was lost. She was just a random person dropping off her recycling in the same parking lot where he was. Sawyer said he was crying a little and she offered to help him. The exact details are scanty, because Sawyer was embarrassed to talk about it. But, the lady ended up walking Sawyer nearly half a mile back to where we were. Brad and Spencer met them on the path. Sawyer asked Brad not to mention it to anyone else back at the park. I’m just relieved we had a happy ending. Sawyer said he knew he had walked in the wrong direction, once he got to the strange parking lot, but he was too scared to walk through the forest alone again. He said it was too dark and quiet.

Sawyer realizing he's lost and feeling scared

Sawyer practicing what he'll do if someone scary appears

July 4th- Jenny, Brett, & Maya

The week of the 4th of July, Jenny, Brett, & Maya paid us a visit. We had a great time together. Brett & Jenny were able to get away for an overnighter and enjoy a couple fun bike rides along Lake Michigan. They were in Muskegon area. We had fun watching Maya. She fit right in and the boys decided they wanted to keep her and that Jenny & Brett could get a different Maya for themselves.

Highlights
Brad and Brett enjoyed several strenuous bike rides, racquetball, and tennis. We all enjoyed walking through the nature preserve, camping, BBQing (on the 4th), seeing Ratatouille, playing tennis, and swimming. The week went by like a whirlwind. We went from one thing to the next, but, enjoyed it all.

One of my favorite things was seeing my mom ride a bike again after not being on one for at least 30 years. On her first ride with us, she led the pack the entire time! I was impressed.

The night of the 4th, we hosted a BBQ at our house with two other families. We made homemade rootbeer and had lots of good food. The evening was wonderful until 12:00pm. We were all sound asleep when my mom starting calling for help- Spencer was barfing all over his carpet. He didn't feel sick or anything, I think he just drank too much rootbeer. I didn't even know how to begin cleaning up the mess. I told Spencer, "this definitely takes the cake for the grossest clean up job in my nine years as a mother." We covered everything with baking soda to get rid of the smell and left it till morning, when we could get a wet vac to help. The carpet will never be the same.

So, in the midst of our figuring out how to clean up all the barf, we started packing for our camping trip and left around 3:00pm. It literally took us all morning to get ready and our cars were packed to the hilt just for one night of camping.

Camping
We camped at a park called Addison Oaks (about 25 min. from our house). It's a beautiful park with biking trails, a man made beach and lake, and lots of shade. We set up our camp around 5:00 pm and a few hours later, the sheriff came through and said a bad storm (with 60 mph winds) was headed our direction. So, we got in our cars and thought we'd wait it out. It rained a little, but the worst of the storm never hit us. Although, we found out later, that our neighborhood was hit and without power for several hours, so we were glad to be camping. For us, one of the highlights of the storm was seeing a double rainbow.

Jenny prepared some delicious tin foil dinners (with cream of celery soup in them), that hit the spot. The boys roasted hotdogs, and we all enjoyed smores. The little girls were making us nervous around the fire, so we strapped them in the chariot. We headed to bed around 10:00pm. We didn't fall asleep until much later though, because we could hear sounds from neighboring campers. A racoon was bothering the campers next to us. Lucy was delirious but couldn't fall asleep until I found her bottle.

We had two misfortunes that evening. Brad accidentally erased all our digital pictures, and Brett accidentally locked his keys in the car. Despite our efforts using hangers, a locksmith came to finish the job the next morning.

For breakfast, we had hearty pancakes and fruit and then all headed on a bike ride through the forest. The boys weren't happy when we decided to go around the six mile loop a second time. But, when we finished, they enjoyed playing in the lake for several hours with our friends the Lewis's. Sawyer spent most of his time trying to catch a fish with a net he found on the beach.

We brought our Baggo game and just enjoyed a low key afternoon.

The kids really enjoyed pet sitting our neighbors fish- SpongeBob.

A visit from Nana- continued

Week Three- We stayed home this week. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire month. We got Mom a one-month pass to the fitness center, so she enjoyed swimming several times each week and then sitting in the steam room. I was able to make five different visits to the doctor/dentist/orthodontist/podiatrist and not take all the kids with me, which was wonderful.

Main activites: swimming, making yogurt and bean quesadillas, cannery, soccer games, reading with Charlie, doctor visits, shopping, free massages, and Nana watching the "Little Princess" with the kids while Brad and I went on dates (i.e. temple, wedding reception, and test driving cars).

Charlie dropped a bench on his big toe one morning and we thought he may have broken it. So, we had it x-rayed and were relieved to find it just bruised. Another day, I took him to see an orthopedic surgeon about the cyst behind his knee. He does have a Baker's cyst (as we thought), but the docs say it should go away on its own so no worries there.

Charlie and Nana practiced words and reading each day. That was one of my favorite parts of having her here. He's well on his way to being a great reader!

Spencer went to his first scout camp and I got to chaperone for half a day. I really enjoyed it. The boys were fun to be around and they loved camp.

We attended a soccer party BBQ for Charlie's team and got a great recipe for Texas Caviar (which is kind of a corn salsa).

Sawyer got hit by a frisbee and got a real "shiner" as Brad called it.

A visit from Nana

I'm grieving today. This morning I took my mom to the airport after a wonderful month long visit, which went by way too fast. We had a busy month. Here are the highlights.

Week One- Brad and AM in NYC

We snuck away for two nights to enjoy NYC without kids. Brad had meetings during the day, so I walked around the city, had lunch with a friend, rode the subway, and visited sights. We had a great time.

Walking around Times Square

Central Park

We had dinner at the Stardust Diner. This was so much fun. The waiters/waitresses are professional singers who continuously sing broadway songs while you eat.

Visiting the United Nations Building

Lunch with Emily & Madeline

(I enjoyed hearing/seeing firsthand how it is to live in the city with a baby)

Week Two- Chicago

We returned from NYC on Friday evening and headed to Chicago with the whole family on Tuesday morning. Once again, Brad had meetings, so my mom, the kids, and I hit the city. We went to 4 different museums: The Children's Museum (At Navy Pier), Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, and the Adler Planetarium. We also spent time at Millenium Park. Having said that, the kids seemed to enjoy riding the elevator up and down 17 floors, helping themselves to breakfast, and watching TV in the hotel room as much as anything else.

Children's Museum

Dinner at Gino's East. They are famous for their cornmeal crust pizza. Our experience was stressful and humorous. Charlie ended up choking twice on the cheese from the pizza and the other boys thought the pizza was gross. Even more so, after watching Charlie hurl it up. Needless to say, 2 hrs. and $60 later, we were ready to leave.

Near Shedd Aquarium

Adler Planetarium

Nana and kids on the Magnificent Mile

We went to see Little Red Riding Hood at the Chicago Children's Theatre.