Friday, April 5, 2013

Winding down our year

Going backwards now: Tonight we celebrated Mr. Handsome's birthday. It is not until Sunday but we wamted to have a surprise party for him. He got home from Charlotte about 145am. He had a job interview as well as a rehearsal to sing in a 1000 voice choir in Charlotte in September for a crusade along the lines of Billy Graham. The children chose a football theme and he was very surprised. He loves Duck Dynasty so they picked out a tshirt with Si on it. He loved it.

Today, we were the Adventure Bus. Lindsay's bff spent the night last night - she goes to year round school and was on break - and the day with us. We were all over the place looking for a duck dynasty tshirt! We went to target and Lindsay - the giver - shared her allowance with her bff so they could get matching shorts to wear with their matxhing shirts and matching necklaces. Not that anything matched each other mind you! I was also able to get a serious picture of BB and Kristinie the Great. Robert found footballs cards and plans to mail a Tampa Bay Buccaneers card to my cousin's husband. It is so sweet how they love family they dont see much. 

Last night was Roberts first Boy Scout meeting. He received his Boy Scout patch. I am very proud of myself. I didnt even cry. And that is because, as you can see from the photo, I was with a bunch of oh-so-happy girls! Everyone was very tired. The next two photos were taken at my friends house. Now stay with me here. This is a bit confusing. She and her mom take care of her grandpa - her moms dad - who is a yankee. See the old guy playing with the phone? He is getting ready to move to a nursing home - hopefully today. I am there helping my friends mom. My friend had to go to the hospital to be with her daughter who was having her ENTIRE colon removed from perforation and infection. Yes! So since kids were done with school and they finished the house cleaning, I skittered over there to help watch the two (yep, two) grand daughters my friend keeps. They are a month apart. The one in the photo belongs to the young lady who had her colon removed. And I also helped watch her grandpa though he slept the whole time. I dont know how my friend does it. Her daughter will come to her house when she is released from the hospital so she cam care for her and her baby while her husband works. My life is boring compared to hers!

And Easter Sunday. We went to my parents for a couple of hours. The kids had fun with the egg hunt. And I actually got a photo with everyone in their Easter outfits! What a wonder!

We went to an Easter party the Thursday before Easter which was a lot of fun. The little girls and Lindsay made resurrection gardens. They really enjoyed that.

The little girls playing. Kristinie the Great must have learned about doctors because she has a mask on. And I learned something about food. I didnt know this but since Mr. Hamdsome loves popcorn and so do kids I will probably avoid it with more diligence. I dont like it myself but it is the worst food for you. It immediately turns to sugar in your body! Who knew! Onto better things -

The photos of the man with the big 'bum' as we say are really Robert 'crossing over' to Boy Scouts. You cant see him (Robert) because he is in front of the man with the big, um, 'bum'. Yep. Every single time I snapped a photo he got in the way. But the rest of the photos he was nowhere to be seen. The man with the big bum. Obviously. The little boy next to Kristinie the Great is one of her buds that homeschools. The young man in the photos with us is our teenage nephew Sawyer. Robert is also with his four friends from his den that he crossed over with. And in case you are wondering I did in fact cry. I am a big baby with our children. Especially with The Boy. He's our only one and we will only see those milestones once. I was pitiful! But I am good with that.

The next two photos are of Robert and his friend's Vietnam project for their history class. They worked very hard recreating an unknown battle scene using their Great Wall of China from another class. Its okay, you crack up here. I did. But that me. The other moms think i am a tad bit strange but I have come to the conclusion that it is because I am nearly 20 years older than most of my mom friends. I have two who are my age and their youngest are Roberts age. I call myself the old lady with young kids. Ironically they did all this the same week some little boy brought cupcakes to school with army men on them and he was asked to remove them because they might be 'offensive'. And I can say I am thankful to the Lord we homeschool. Robert and his friends probably would have been expelled if they were in school.

I realize the next photo looks like I am running over Maddie the pizza delivery girl but I actually forgot the leftover pizza was on the car. This is a rather common occurence for me. Not leaving pizza on cars but forgetting things. So far I have only forgotten Kristinie the Great one time in the van. She is pretty loud so she let me know VERY quickly that she was forgotten.  But our Maddie was kind enough to rescue the pizza.

The children are tempting fate here. They are not allowed in the water so they are playing on the rocks.

The next photo may look mysteriously like a Norwegian pancake covered with snow. That is not snow. It is sugar. This is what happens when you step away from the table for a minute. None of the older children have the sense to stop number five from dousing her pancake with sugar. It was thrown out.

The last two photos are indicative of what happens when you send a tired 4 and 6 year old to their room and they have to clean it. Bea felll asleep with her jacket on. Incidentally, the jacket is on because she didnt want to put it away. Kristine fell asleep under the bed. 

And there are snippets of the last two weeks of my life. We are looking forward to summer. We are winding down ever so slowly to the end of the year.