PopPop's Visit

Last week, the girls had off on Thursday and Friday and we also had my dad in town visiting!!! On Wednesday Daniel and I picked him up at the airport and stopped off at Home Depot to get the materials to fix the bathroom wall and the toilet. We came home and Daniel loved helping PopPop work. :) Daniel also loved having this day with just PopPop, without the girls around. They had a "Boys Only Club" where they did lots of wrestling and soccer. Daniel was in heaven!
After school on Wednesday the girls were so excited to give PopPop a tour of their new school. After seeing the highlights of the new building, we headed home and began our mini vacation with PopPop. On Thursday we headed uptown and started off at Discovery Place. We got there at opening and since most other schools were in session, we were the ONLY ones there! We got to see every exhibit, and eventually ran into 2 other families there--both from our school! So fun!

At lunchtime we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous day and walk to find some lunch. We walked to Fuel Pizza and enjoyed a fun little pizza party. Lexi and Lainey didn't let PopPop out of their sight :)
After lunch we walked to Imaginon (the children's library) to pick out some new books and play there a little bit. We then walked BACK to Discovery Place to see a few more things. Then completely exhausted, we headed home for some rest.
The kids all loved hanging all over PopPop and listening to stories.
Friday morning I had conferences with the girls' teachers from 9-10:45. Afterwards, we took the whole gang for the 3 little ones' first bowling game ever! Daniel thought the special shoes were perfect for tap dancing and spent much of his time tap dancing on the wood floors....












After bowling it was time to take PopPop to my brother's house so he could visit with them for the rest of the weekend. We sure loved every minute with him and miss him already!!

On a sidenote, I thought it was cute how the kids were a little misinformed about PopPop's abilities....we've told them that the Dolphins are "PopPop's team", meaning that they are the hometeam for where PopPop lives. The kids take this to mean that PopPop PLAYS on that team. So whenever the Miami Dolphins are on tv, the kids are looking for PopPop on the field. I had also told them that PopPop used to bowl on a league (when I was a toddler). I guess they didn't quite understand what a bowling league was, because they think it was more of a professional thing. :) Also, when Emily introduced my dad to the receptionist at school, she told Mrs. Hargrove that PopPop used to be a plumber! Not true, he just knows how to fix lots of plumbing problems :) I guess that the kids, like me, believe that PopPop can do ANYTHING! :)

Future in the NHL?

To prepare Daniel for his future in the NHL (ha!), we signed him up for a 7 week course in ice skating. He went each week with Dave and endured it, but I think his main motivation was just to have time with Daddy and do something Daddy enjoys. In the end, he did earn a patch and gets to move on to the next level, whenever we decide to try again. Here are some pictures from his last lesson (the girls and I attended the last one).

Random Funnies

Daniel has been dead-set lately that he wants to be a dog when he grows up....So last week he was telling me that since he's almost 4, pretty soon he'll be 5 and then 6. I told him to slow down....He said, "I know you want me to stay 3, Mommy, but if I EVER want to be a dog I've got to grow up!!"

Emily came up to me over the weekend and said "Mom, I think I know why God gave us to you. Maybe you were not very responsible before, so God gave you 4 kids to try to teach you responsibility!"

Lexi was writing a "letter" to a friend recently and once she had filled the page with random letters, she handed it to me and asked me to read it. I looked at it and said "What does it say?" to which she replied, kinda frustrated with me, "I don't KNOW! I can't read!!!"

:)

Scholar and Social Butterfly

It has been SO, SO fun watching Lexi and Lainey grow into themselves more this year in school. I am now completely sure that separating them was the right decision. They've really shot off in 2 different directions:
Lainey has become my little scholar. She is picking up things so quickly and noticeably reads better each day. Every thing she's supposed to practice, she works at and learns without too much trouble. She loves learning and practices things on her own without me even having to ask her to. I'm so proud of how hard she is working and how much progress she's made in not even 9 weeks! This is all pretty new since starting school. I don't hear her talk much about other kids in the class, but I hear lots about her teachers (which is exactly what I expected from her).

Lexi, on the other hand, has become quite the social butterfly! She doesn't care a bit about reading or schoolwork, all she cares about is her friends (which is everyone in the school, apparently). It is TORTURE to try to sit down with her and get her to do anything related to school, whether it be reading, writing, math, or even just coloring something. She wants nothing to do with it. At school she is completely focused on friends. From the moment we pull into the school's driveway, she is literally pounding on the windows trying to get out to see her friends! She yells through the windows to kids as we're pulling up because she just can't contain herself! In the afternoons, it is not uncommon for her to chase kids to their cars to get in one last "goodbye". Last week we were praying for our trip to Lynchburg in the school parking lot, and in the middle of her prayer she yelled out "BYE, SANDEEP!!" because she happened to see a classmate leaving as she was praying. Friends are most definitely the ONLY thing keeping Lexi in school. She has zero interest in reading or anything else they learn! When I try to get her to practice reading, she starts crying and says that it's too hard. Again, I'm so glad they are in separate classes because Lexi gets really down when she sees how easy it is for Lainey. I have to pull Lexi out of the room when Lainey reads because it just makes Lexi cry :( One of these days things will "click" academically for Lexi, but for now she's just enjoying the 7 hours of socializing she gets to do each day :)

Twins

Lexi and Lainey are so funny, in that they seem to have no idea that they're twins most of the time. When Lainey's teacher asked her to tell the class what was unique about her earlier this year (fishing for her to tell them that she has a twin), she gave all kinds of answers like having a dog, etc. It didn't even occur to her that she has a twn and that that would be unique.
The girls also don't even seem to notice each other at school. Their classes go on every field trip together, on the SAME BUS, yet every time they come home and tell me about their trip, they are surprised to hear that they both went on the same field trip. They literally sit on the same bus for their weekly field trips and go to the same places, yet never notice each other! Bizarre!
It cracks me up when they notice that they have something matching (not many things these days) and they put them both on and exclaim "Look! We're twins!!!!" as if the matching clothes are what is making them twins. Last night they found matching nightgowns in their drawer and were thrilled to pose as "twins". :)
I guess I'm glad that despite always referring to them as "the twinnies" and feeling like I always lump them together, they very much don't feel put in that box. They barely know they're twins!

LU Homecoming Adventure 2010

This past weekend we headed to Lynchburg for Liberty's homecoming weekend. The first 12 hours were a little bumpy, but it got much better after that. Here's the run-down of the first 12 hours:

• We left town straight from school pickup at 3:15 and almost immediately got stuck in traffic. We reminded the kids that once we got to the hotel they would get to watch a show on the Disney channel--their favorite part of travelling since we don't get that at home. We putzed along for a while and finally at 4:45 just got off the highway and sat in Outback Steakhouse for a nice relaxing dinner.
• Got back on the road around 6pm and it was smooth sailing for a while. Once it got dark, all 4 kids fell asleep so things were looking up. I saw a few deer and stupidly asked Dave if he had ever hit a deer--his answer was no. Not 30 minutes later, he slammed on the brakes and I looked up and yelled "Oh, deer!!" There was a big deer staring me right in the eyes. His antlers were touching the passenger side of our front windshield, he was that close. We must have just skimmed him because there was no damage to the car, but it sure woke up the kids and shook up Dave and I! The kids spent the rest of the drive talking about how much it hurt their necks when Daddy hit John Deere! Emily claims that the van "reared up". :)
  
• At 9pm, we finally pulled up to the hotel (took 6 hours instead of 3 1/2). The kids were SO excited to get into the room and watch a Disney show before bed. Imagine our surprise (read: anguish) when we discovered that our "bargain" hotel didn't have cable tv!!! They had about what we have at home--the networks and a handful of other useless channels. The kids wanted to pack up and leave right then. This was the last straw.
  
• But wait, there's more! We also realized in this same moment that we had booked a room with one king sized bed! I had assumed that the room also had a fold-out couch because so many recently have, but that was a wrong assumption. Not a problem, just get some extra blankets from the closet and make beds on the floor, right? No, this "no frills" hotel didn't have a closet, much less extra blankets. So all 6 of us would be sharing the one bed.
  

Data plans on cell phones sure come in handy to watch movies to try to appease the very disappointed children! The 3 little ones watched part of Bolt on Dave's phone, while Emily watched Jonas LA on my phone.

Here is how a family of 6 shares one bed--at least now we know we could live in a one room house if it ever came down to it! The kids and I slept across the bed and Dave slept at our feet. Not ideal, but we logged a solid 7 hours of sleep that night.

But wait, there's more! That morning I realized that although I had packed the kids changes of clothes for any weather we may possibly encounter, I had left out several key items for myself, namely certain toiletries and undergarments! Nice. At this point even I was thinking maybe we should just head home. But instead of heading home, we headed to the alumni hockey game.This is where the weekend took a big turn for the better. Our friends, the T's and W's showed up at the hockey game with 5 of their children and our kids began having a blast. I also loved having friends to talk to and catch up with. The kids enjoyed watching Dave every time he came onto the ice and were excited to run down and talk to him after the game.
From the hockey game, we headed to lunch and then to the campus for the homecoming football game. Here we met up with the remaining members of the T family and had fun cheering on our team. Between our 3 families, there were 10 kids ages 7 and under (7, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1, and 4 mos) and they just loved hanging out, eating popcorn, and enjoying the beautiful day. The adults thoroughly enjoyed the adult conversation and catching up.

Daniel and Jacob had so much fun together! They were the only 2 boys out of the 10 kids, and both have 3 sisters. They were so cute together!

A few attempts to get all of the kids in the picture. Never did get one with all of them :)

After the game, we took over Moe's and enjoyed a fun dinner together. Then we said goodbye to the W's and headed to the T's house for a sleepover. This was a MUCH better night than the first! The kids went to sleep pretty easily and the adults had a great time staying up late talking. We are SO thankful for such wonderful hosts and are thinking maybe we'll bypass the hotel next time and just sleep over with them, if they don't mind :)
Below is a picture I snapped of the twinnies sleeping at the T's house--I love how Lainey uses Lexi as a pillow! So cute!
Sunday morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast with the T's before they headed off to church and we headed back home. And thank the Lord, the trip home was completely uneventful!!!!

A Day out With Thomas (and Elaine and Brody) :)

Last Friday after dropping off the girls at school, Elaine and I loaded up the boys and a picnic lunch and headed to Spencer to see Thomas the Train. It was just the perfect day! Beautiful weather, good friends, and a really fun train museum! Daniel is such a trooper about being dragged around to Target and dance class all the time, so I was excited to finally do something just for him.

Below you see the boys in front of the "caboose train" that we rode. They thought it was loud :) We rode in the very top of the orange car, if you look at the train further down the page. (blogger is messing up the order of the pictures)
They also got to see Thomas pulling a train, meet Sir Topham Hat, and play in a fire truck.