Chaos

It's a good thing kids are cute.

They wouldn't survive otherwise.

Consider the range from Chaos to Order.

Where do my kids fall on that scale?

(let's not rate me right now.) :)

My two sweet boys have been the cause of a LOT of chaos in our house recently.

(girls too, but not as destructive)

For example:

1. Scissors and bed sheets

This beautiful hole is 8 inches long and 3 inches wide. (see Hot Wheels car for scale.) This hole is ragged and choppy. I think I might be able to save the sheet with some double stick fusible web I got from the craft store. I'll just cut a piece to patch, and iron it on. I hope it works.

This next hole is missing all the pieces from the center. I have no idea where they are. It is smaller than the other hole - only 3" by 2". Who knows when the boys might find the scissors again, and what they might cut next. (I think I have them all hidden) I even found some snips in the backs of their animal quilts I pieced, and their pajama pants.

2. Pens and couch cushions (and walls).

Look closely and you can see a faint scribbling artwork that won't come off. I tried using Purel (as recommended on lots of websites for removing ball point pen from microfiber) and if the fabric wasn't textured, it may have worked. This is 1/4 of a couch cushion. The artwork goes on and on...

3. Baby Powder

What happens when the kids get the lid off of the BIG bottle of baby powder. Lots and lots of dusting. Olivia was covered head to toe, plus most of the downstairs. At least it was deodorized.

4. Electronics

Yes, the T.V. is still covered in baby powder in the picture below, but this example is not about the dust.

How about WATER and ELECTRONICS!

Yes, "Someone" threw water at the TV. No one will give me a strait answer. Now the sound is shorted out. No more T.V.

5. Propane

Yet again, that child named "Someone" (or their sibling) turned the knob on the propane tank to open. It was sitting outside the open kitchen window. The wind was blowing it in the house. We couldn't find the source of the mysterious gas smell for hours. Finally, I walked outside and heard the hissing sound of the gas escaping from under the BBQ grill. (I haven't used the grill for about 2 weeks so it wasn't me.) Good thing we have fans.

6. Sometimes kids just can't help the chaos, for example, when the eat! Olivia has a new habit of hanging on her pigtails. No matter what food item is in her hair, it becomes hair gel during dinner. She likes to slick the hair until it stands out strait.

Like I said, It's a good thing kids are cute!

Chaos reminds me of a conversation I had with Miriam a few weeks ago. She asked me why she had to clean her room. A thought popped into my head about how to explain it to her. I told her God organizes things. He found a mess and organized the world. He cleaned it up and put everything where it was supposed to go. You get to practice on your room so you can learn how to organize things to become like God. Se seemed to accept that answer (or at least, she didn't argue). As I walked out her bedroom door, I felt rather guilty about that one corner of my kitchen that is called "my desk" that I am never able to maintain.

Emily's Birthday

Last week we had another birthday at our house.

Happy 9th birthday Emily!

(when did you get so old?)

This random shot of the boys that was just too cute..

In this picture, Emily just unwrapped a camera and can't believe it. She has been begging for her very own camera.

First thing she did was chase Miriam for a while trying to get some good pictures. Miriam didn't want to cooperate at first and hid - down the street. Later, Miriam was thrilled to pose for Emily.

The Cake. Looks just like Dad's cake did in July, but with more candles.
The layers from bottom up are: Devil's food cake, Hershey's chocolate syrup, Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, more chocolate syrup, cake, pudding/cool whip frosting. Emily choose the layers, and we had another ice cream cake. SOOOOO YUMMMY! (I liked this one better than Michael's strawberry ice cream cake.)

Here is a sample slideshow of Emily's photography since receiving her camera. Some of them are really good! (I took the first picture of the girls with new haircuts - with Emily's camera. That's how it got on this slideshow and now I'm just going to leave it there.)

My father gave Emily water balloons. It took 1 hour to fill 100 balloons, and 10 minutes for the girls to break them all. Adam squirted the girls with his water gun the whole time. At the very beginning, you can see Joshua run out of the video and then you can hear him complain about getting wet in his very cute 2-year old voice. You can probably guess this is the FIRST time they have had a water fight. They took turns throwing them at each other.

Yes, that's Olivia at my (messy) computer desk. Her main goal in life is to get on the seat and push as many keys as possible, and click the mouse buttons over and over. One day, she opened 41 Internet Explorer windows! It killed my computer. I never use Internet Explorer because it always freezes everything - and Olivia opened 41 times as many windows!

Happy Birthday Michael!

Michael's birthday was this week and he's depressed. "35 sounds like you are in your mid-thirties, but 36 sounds like you're 40!" he tells me. That one little year makes a lot of difference somehow.

And Michael did NOT cooperate for pictures. He doesn't like pictures, so he wouldn't smile for the camera. These are the best I could get.

Once you are an adult, you get one candle at our house. If I had put 36 on the cake, he may have been able to hide behind them in this picture.

Joshua was very excited to watch/help Michael open his presents. Michael really did smile - just not when the camera was pointed at him.

Here is Joshua jumping up and down with excitement as Michael opens his present.

What kind of cake? Ice cream cake!

I have never made this before, but I decided to try something new. I made golden vanilla cake (from the box mix), and baked it in a 9-inch springform pan. When cool, I wrapped and froze it overnight. To assemble, split cake, spread strawberry ice cream topping on bottom layer, then softened strawberry ice cream, and then some more strawberry ice cream topping. Replace top and wrap in plastic wrap. Freeze 4 hours. Frost with pudding/whipped topping mixture and freeze again (3-4 hours). Kids loved it and actually ate their cake with the ice cream this time! (nevermind the sink in the middle, or the uneven frosting on either side of the cake, or the smashed right side... it tasted good.)

If I made it for myself, it would have been chocolate cake with mint or rasberry chip ice cream and chocolate fudge frosting. Michael prefers anything but chocolate so we made it strawberry and vanila.

ObamaCare: what would it be like?

I have lived in Canada and experienced the health care system first hand. This video isn't an exageration at all. The inefficiency of socialized health care is real. The frustration of waiting in line for an undetermined amount of time is real. I experienced waiting to see the doctor in Canada, and eventually was told my pain was just due to stress and they didn't care to figure out what was really going on.

Just say No to socialized health care.

If you can't see the video, you can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw

Surprise Day...

Surprise # 1:

We woke the kids up at 6:30 am to see the hot air balloons.

Surprise #2:

We had Krispy Creme Donuts for breakfast,

... and had to watch the donuts cook through the window.

Surprise #3

Kids got to run off all that sugar at the park. (no one else is there at 9 am!)

Surprise #4:

Got some fireworks for the 4th of July

Kids didn't know about any of the surprises until they happened. They had a great time.

Airplanes

Last Tuesday, my grandpa called to tell me about an airplane show. He said that the day before he had gone to show my cousins some of the planes on display that were used in World War II. Grandpa was a navigator in a B24 airplane.

Here is Grandpa with my kids in front of a B24. (he was so excited for an excuse to see the planes a second day in a row! Grandpa was beaming the whole time.)

A picture of the whole plane with Adam. The people around the plane are waiting for their turn to crawl through the inside.

Grandpa got really excited to see this plane (it wasn't there the day before.) This is the same model he learned to fly in. He said he had to log 100 hours in this plane before flying in the B24.

In addition to the WWII airplanes, there were a number of modern airplanes on display too. This one was free to sit in.

Had to get a picture with Grandma and Olivia in the picture.