Back on schedule - I hope!

I think my last post was Tuesday or Wednesday, so there isn't too much to tell about our week! Or half a week.We had a great week, or half a week. We went to the nursing home and celebrated one of our friends' birthdays. She turned 94 on Thursday!! We brought chocolate chip cookie bars and Beatrice and Lindsay made cards for her. She loved it. We went to my sister-in-law's house after the nursing home and had lunch with them. Then we brought my niece and nephew home to spend the afternoon with us and bring them to church. I was supposed to "help" one of my sister-friends with her class on Wednesday night because our other sister-friend is the one who just had surgery. By the way, her surgery went great, if you can say getting cut open could go great! God blessed her and His hand was upon the whole process. So, late in the afternoon, my OTHER sister-friend, who was supposed to be well, texted me to tell me she couldn't make it because she was still recovering from the stomach virus. Let me just say here, I love toddlers and preschoolers. They're cute, they're fun, they are energetic, they are full of life. But, they're toddlers and preschoolers. I promised myself about 15 years ago that I would do our church a favor and never teach that age group. It's true. I am not good with that age group. And well, having that age group in my house for the past ten years has put me in a position where it's a bit redundant to spend all day with that age group, then go teach them! But, I had a great time teaching them. It was just John and Rachel, my niece and nephew, and Beaker. Beaker's buddy was home sick and her other little buddy had the stomach virus. John is just like my brother. I read a story about a collie and it was a sad story. John nearly started crying. It had a very happy ending, though. His dad, my brother, used to cry everytime he saw Lassie movies!! We would be cracking up at him and he would just be sobbing! HA!!

Beatrice took this photo. It is her Bitty Baby doll, whose name is Sara. She named her fish Sara too. Her favorite teacher at church is Mrs. Sara. Of course, you can see the pattern here so no explanation necessary.

Here are Beatrice and Beaker happy. About 8 seconds after this photo, they were arguing with each other. I know, how can that be? Well, welcome to sibling rivalry.mom! It's the age old problem and I think girls are the worst because they take it so personally. Robert will get in an argument and get over it. But the girls will be sobbing and say, "She took such and such 8 hours ago and I wanted that too!" 

Here is John, Rachel, and Beaker. Notice that Rachel is sitting like a little lady. She is a true girly girl. She and Beatrice are buds. The love each other. They are waiting for their Wednesday night class to start.

I forgot to mention that Maddie helped me. Aside from reminding me every five minutes that I was obviously not equipped to teach this age group (this is sooooo ironic because, like I said earlier, I've been TEACHING this age group for, like, what did I say, OH yeah, 10 YEARS!!), she did fabulous. She is doing a puppet show for them. Maddie has such a servant's heart. She loves to help and work. What a blessing that is!

THE BOY is working on his gold award in T&T and he had to make a model of the solar system. I am going to tell on myself but it's pretty funny. I thought we could make our own model but he wanted to buy a kit (good for him! Smart boy). So, we went to Michael's and got what I thought was the planets kit. Let me just add here that sometimes when I go shopping for something, I have to concentrate. And sometimes, when I go shopping for something, my children are so excited that I CAN'T concentrate. This was one of those times. The excited children were winning and I grabbed what I thought was the planet kit. I paid for it, 40% off, and we all walked to the van. Well, thank the Lord, I decided to look in the window of the box. I saw about 15 small styrofoam balls. Now, it's been a long time since I studied the planets but I KNOW there are no more than 8 real planets and one dwarf planet circle around the son not 15! So I read the box. I had grabbed the MOLECULE kit. So, I ran back inside and the clerk helped me trade it for the PLANETS kit. This is not the funny story. THIS is the funny story. After school, THE BOY wanted to put it together. So, he took all the sticks and styrofoam balls out, got the table ready outside to paint. Yup, I'm a party pooper. No messy crafts in my house. Especially paint. So he came back inside, and I figured out that we needed to put all the sticks in order from smallest to largest and do the same with the planets. I saw the directions were on the side of the box. Now, keep in mind, I READ the DIRECTIONS in English. This will be important so don't forget it. The DIRECTIONS were rather brief and did not show how to tell which stick went in which planet. But there was a diagram on the box to SHOW where they went. I couldn't read any of the writing because it must have been in scientific jargon. So we looked at the pictures to determine which size styrofoam ball went with which stick. It was a little bit tricky because some planets were about the same size, and distance from the sun. I kept trying to read the writing but determined it was in French or Latin (this is my rocket scientist moment). We finally got them all straight. I was equally confused because Earth was labeled Terre. I knew terrA meant ground. And I also knew it was third from the sun so I at least go that one correct! After THE BOY took everything outside, I happened to pick the box up and turn it around. Well, what do you know? There is the diagram in ENGLISH!!! I was reading it in the WRONG language!!! I told his AWANA director the story and she was cracking up and told me not to worry about where they were in proximity to the sun.

Friday Frenzy was a fun day. We had a great time at co-op and then we ate lunch, stopped at the fabric store one of my sister-friends works at and did some work on banner fabric and colors. Then headed to band, to art, back to band, and then back to art. From there we went to basketball practice, then home. Are you tired just reading that sentence?!!

On Saturday, Maddie, Beatrice, and Kristinie the Great and I went to a baby shower, the one I made the cute blilt for. Here are some of my friends playing a game where you had to scoop the cotton balls into a bowl blind folded with one hand. I tried but was terrible at it. I also watched this game and took everyones' bowl. It was a lot of fun! :)

Here is Maddie getting ready to play a game. She won!

They had to draw a baby on a plate on their head. Ha ha ha!! 

THE BOY won his first basketball game!!! He was so excited. He told me, speaking about one of his friends who also plays in the same league. He said he and Michael's team had opposite records: Michael won all of his but one, and we lost all of ours but one! THE BOY was more excited that they had opposite scores than upset that his team had only won one game all season so far! What a blessing that kid is! 

Here is practice on our next banner. Satin works great! This is going to be a lily of the valley flower. It will probably be smaller but I hope the banner comes out nice.

Here is Killjoy, I mean Killroy!! She wants to sit on my lap so badly while I warmed up and played this morning in Sunday School assembly but I told her no. She was not too happy with me. I don't mind her sitting with me but she tries to make me play which is rather disconcerting when you think your finger is going to press one key and it suddenly presses the wrong one! Have a great week and see you next Sunday!