We have a great group of 10-11 year old boys from church that Jacob just loves. And they are all playing football this year. So I got them together (minus one who was out of town) for some football, lunch and pool time. It was VERY hot that day, so the football only lasted about an hour and a half. Throw in lunch and 3 hours of straight-pool-time and I'd say that's a pretty good party. Cute boys with cute manners…it was fun.
Pictured L to R: Cole, Josh, Brock, Austin, Boston and Jacob
While playing around on Mark and Anne's wood deck, Samuel backed into a splinter of wood which pierced the heel of his foot. OUCH! We knew it was bad. So we drove to an Acute Kids Care place (it was a Sat night) and they had two nurses and Derek hold him down while a doctor tried to get the wood out. It was a nightmare! No anesthetic for 30 minutes. Poor little guy was screaming and sweating and miserable. Finally they gave up and told us to soak it every two hours and it would eventually come out (they had scalpeled it after all so it had an escape route!). He walked on his toes for two days and it was inflamed and red. So on Monday afternoon I took him to Children's Medical Center and they were MUCH more attentive and helpful. They x-rayed it, numbed it, pronounced it infected and within minutes had a 1/2 inch thorn pulled out of his heel. Poor guy was so relieved (and so was I)! He deserved a popsicle and so did his brothers who were troopers for the wait. Glad to get that "piece of wood" out of his foot!
My boys have the coolest aunts and uncles EVER! Mark and Anne took the boys to the circus on Sat afternoon. Snow cones, cotton candy, peanuts, hats, elephants, then back home for pizza and swimming. To say my boys are spoiled would be an understatement! My favorite pics are the ones from Mark's law office prior to the circus – the other lawyers probably thought Mark had brought the circus TO the office! I love that these boys have lots of people who love them. Thanks Mark and Anne for the fun treat!
sidenote: derek and i saw a movie together while the mice were away!
Please buy your wife an adult-sized float…this is pathetic.
Love,
Management
On July 22nd our sweet Caleb turned 8!! It was serendipitous that the pool was finished and filled on 7/21 just in time for Caleb's "friend" party on the morning of the 22nd! In fact, he liked to tease that the pool was his birthday present! Friend parties at the end of July are always hard because so many people are out of town but we were lucky to get some of his favorite buddies over for a swim.
(Pictured in the pool from L to R: Greyson, Jacob, Brayden, Caleb, Jax, Ava (a trooper for being the only girl – she and Greyson are siblings), and Luke)
Later that night we took him to dinner at Giovanni's for Italian food (his favorite) and came home to open more presents (magnet pool gloves and a circuit game from Papa C and Mimi and clothes and a flag football set from us).
On Saturday night we had his "family party" with Nana and Pops bringing heaps of pool toys for the birthday boy and Uncle Mike and Aunt Olivia joining us too (they bought him a Lego set).
It was a fun birthday for a fun boy. Caleb is fun to celebrate! He is happy and helpful. He is fun and friendly. He is kind and his laughter is contagious. He is stubborn, for sure and sometimes grumpy. But mostly he is just delightful and such a big help to me around the house. He is a GREAT brother and we all love him for being such a peacemaker in our home. We sure love our cutie, cutie Caleb!
And in the words of Dr.Seuss…"But that is not all, no.that.is.not.all…"
More 8-year old celebrations coming up!
We decided to take the first jump together. All together. And we asked our neighbor, Donna, to take the pictures for us. We would all get wet at the same time (or at least in theory :). And it was worth it…
Can you tell we're a little excited?! The picture with Caleb by himself (since he was a little late on the take-off) might be the most priceless one EVER – makes us giggle every time we see it!! Funny story #1: We forgot to take towels out! We're new at this. So I had to trudge back through the house, soaking wet, to get towels! Funny story #2: We've been so excited about our family "event" tonight and so preoccupied with Caleb's 8th b'day tomorrow, that we completely spaced two things that we were supposed to attend today. I completely forgot that Caleb had piano camp this afternoon and Derek completely forgot that he had Young Men's tonight. We sincerely apologize to those that were counting on us to be there – we are SO sorry. Seriously? Seriously. Who does that?! We're distracted, that's all I can say.
Lookie Lou who has water floating in her pool?!?! Yippee!!! Fill pool Fill!
The DVD player in the Suburban doesn't work and we're too cheap to pay to get it fixed. But the VCR works just fine and so we watch the oldies but goodies and I thank my lucky stars I kept all those Disney Classics from way back when. At a recent garage sale, I picked up Old Yeller on VHS, and it has already paid for it's $1 value about 20 times over! The boys LOVE to watch this movie. I, frankly, have still not SEEN it since I'm always driving, but I have HEARD it a dozen times and almost have it memorized. Our favorite character is the little brother, Arliss, because he has some humdinger lines:
"She ain't a ugly dawg…She's a perdy yeller dawg." (We now call Maggie our perdy yellow dog.)
"Well, you were sick too – why didn't they shoot you?"
"Ain't there no cows in heaven for the angels to milk?"
Of course, the car always gets really quiet when Travis has to shoot Yeller. Sad, sad, sad.
It's nice when we can find a movie that all three boys can watch and enjoy.
I love good old-fashioned sweet family stories.
After our Family Home Evening lesson tonight (on the fruits of the Spirit) Derek thought it might be fun to "wear the boys out" on the slip n' slide in the side-yard. Secretly, he just wanted to use them to get his grass watered, but what do they care?! I stayed in to go to the bathroom – or at least that was my excuse, I was just deep breathing and soaking in the silence of the house for a few seconds. I went out to check on them – smiles and splashing all around. I stepped back in to get my camera so I could capture these beautiful summer memories. Upon stepping back out I heard wailing. It was Jacob. He had fallen hard and hit his head. He was grabbing his head in agony and crying – LOUDLY (it's sometimes hard to know what to do with the dramatic ones, isn't it?). But this continued for about 5 minutes. Finally I took him in for a shower and put him to bed. I would not be surprised if the poor child had a mild concussion – he really was hurting (and yes, I'll be checking on him frequently this evening). I step back out to check on the rest of the gang, just in time to see Samuel wipe out and hit his head. Yikes, this isn't going well. He is consoled by his father. I get the camera ready to catch Caleb sliding down only to see him wipe out and fall flat on his face, and come up with a bloody nose. Wailing ensues. Shower. Put him to bed.
That is the LAST time we get the slip n' slide out, I can tell you that right now. So much for summer splash fun. It's almost funny – if it weren't so sad. We're calling it a night.
Thank goodness I have chocolate banana bars and The Closer on DVR to console me.
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