Busted, yet again

Poor Bennett.  The child is truly cursed.  Remember how he broke his leg last January?  Well, apparently he's going for some kind of record or has decided to one-up himself, because not only did he break another bone, but he broke it bad enough to need surgery.  That's right, my six year-old child had to go under Tuesday night so that an orthopedic surgeon could reattach his elbow bone with three pins to his broken humerus bone.  Not all that humorous to his mom and dad, let me tell you.

He's been home recovering the past few days, gets a full cast tomorrow afternoon and will head back to school on Monday.  Oh, did I mention he broke his arm on the monkey bars during recess at school?  Things other than monkey bars that Bennett won't be able to do for the next six to eight weeks: soccer season (he was only three games in and LOVING it), rollercoasters (we had a great time at Great America last Saturday), the Off-the-wall Soccer Arena party we had planned to do for his seventh birthday in a few weeks, swimming (it was in the nineties yesterday), bikes, scooters, swings, treehouse, sports, and pretty much anything else he does in our backyard  or at school recess every day.  He can't even play Mario Kart, since it takes two hands to use the controller.  Poor kid.  Poor me!

Coastin' it up

by Eli

My mom says to remind you that "our blog is our scrapbook," whatever that means, as I show you what I loved about this summer's family vaycay.

1. Cousin time

I have the most awesome cousins!  No joke.  They played with me, laughed with me, hung me upside down, buried me in sand, carried me, chased me, fed me, took care of me, they basically functioned as my parents--but a WHOLE lot more fun--for the week. 

(Don't tell Mommy and Daddy, but sometimes I wish they could trade forever)

2. Water time

Whether running through the waves or filling up water guns,

the ocean kept me busy and plenty cooled off.

3. Beach time

Sand, especially beach sand, beats swings and slides any day.  Best playground in the world, dude.

4. T-shirt time

I am always a sucker for matching tees, so much so that I asked to wear this shirt every day for a week after we got back.  Drove my mom crazy--ha ha! 

5. Food time

What's better than matching shirts AND hanging with the cousins and aunts and uncles and grandfolks?  Pizza and soda with those tees and people, of course! 

p.s. There was so much good food on this trip.  Every family cooked up some serious deliciousness that kept me full and happy.



 Next up: Benito's reunion faves

Teeth and Tithing

I'm always amused at the interesting ways lessons are taught in our family. Bennett finally lost his second top tooth Friday night, just a week after losing the first. Too bad he didn't lose it in time for last Thursday's school photos, in which he'll be Snaggletooth instead of "that cute kid with no front teeth."

Anyway, slacker parents that we are, we completely forgot to put the Tooth Fairy quarter under his pillow and woke up Saturday morning to two very concerned boys. I quickly "found" the money in their bunk bed, explaining that he had confused the Tooth Fairy by sleeping with his pillow on the wrong end of the bed, a fabricated story which he and Eli thankfully bought without question.

I told Bennett to put his money in his piggy bank, only to discover that he's been dumping out his coins and dollars to play with them when friends are over. After searching all of Millie's play purses, we rounded up most of the missing money and had a stern talk about keeping money in the piggy bank. One of the boys asked if he could pay tithing and next thing you know we're calculating ten percent of their piggy banks for the first time ever, while bishopric Daddy busts out tithing slips for them to fill out. This is all before 8 o'clock in the morning, mind you (we had an 8:30 soccer game to get to).

Eli could not have been more excited to take Bishop Stanger his tithing envelope today, although technically he could have just given it to his dad like Bennett did. But no, Eli had to haul the world's heaviest tithing envelope, weighed down by some serious coinage, to church, wait until after the primary program, and then hand-deliver it to his bishop. His little face beamed so brightly, it got even me excited to pay my next fast offering.



You know all he wants for Christmas, don't you?





Poor Bishop, having to carry all those coins in his suit jacket






Is this not the cutest tithing slip you've ever seen?

 

Ore-ree-gone

by Millie

A few of my favorite things:

1. Toenail Polish 

It turns out Mommy has been holding out on me.  Little did I know that girls get together and do something as fun as painting their toenails, until I woke from my nap one day to find Mommy, Aunt Ashley, and cousins Shemaina and Solana doing that very thing in the beach house.  I am in love! 

They all chose some rather odd colors, while I went traditionally girl with pretty pink.



2. Coloring with Grandad Jory.

This guy cracks me up.  You should have see the way he tried to win my attention all week.  Who'd have thought I could get the Great Khan to color my Sparkly Princess Color Wondor Book with me?  Best part: the pink sparkles that stuck to his face for the rest of the day!

While I had fun being coy with Grandad, I had no hesitation with all the younger daddies at the reunion.  I snuggled up to Uncle Justin, Uncle Eric and Uncle Brett without hesitation, if not a little ad nauseum at moments.  It made my parents nervous for what's to come when I'm a teenager!

3. Sand

Hours and hours of glorious beach time, and I still cried every time we had to leave.

4. Flying kites with Daddy

I finally understand what those people in Mary Poppins were singing about.

5. Wave jumping with Maina and Kati.

I don't care how cold that water is, I would stay in that ocean all day if my mom would let me.  My cousins patiently carried and waded and helped me jump the waves to my little heart's content.  I wish I were back there now, in fact!

Double the adorable

Look who I got to hang out with this week:

My newborn nieces, Ella and Brynne, made the best snuggle buddies an old auntie like me could ask for.

This was my view for a good portion of the week.  Love, love, loved it. 

Let's not forget the twins' older brothers, Mr. Ethan and Loverboy Chase.  Playing with these cuties gave me all sorts of flashbacks to a few years ago when my own boys were the same age.  Fun stuff.

And when was the last time I got to hang out with my little sister, sans my own kids, for a whole week?  I forget how similar we are until we're together, saying the same things to our kids or laughing at the same wacky stuff on TV or discovering we have the same favorite Dairy Queen blizzard flavor.  Even in the midst of all the baby madness, we managed to have some serious fun together.  The only drawback is how badly it makes me wish we lived closer!!  (Sorry no pic.  Once again, we forgot to get a sisters shot until it was too late.)

Conquering the Deep End

If you've ever had one of your kids slip under the water in a pool when you're more than a foot or two away, then you know that feeling of awful panic.  One of my least favorite feelings in the world, to be sure.  It's what made going to the pool with three little kids less than enjoyable until my oldest figured out the basics last summer, and it's what made throwing down dinero on swim lessons more than worth it. 

Benito made a lot of progress this summer.  He learned freestyle, backstroke, and eventually started getting the hang of side-breathing.  The one thing that continued to elude him was the deep end.  I didn't really mind or push him about it, since I've had a few issues myself with kids in deep water.  Just ask my friend Alisa, who patiently sat next to me during last year's lessons while I had near panic attacks over my kid jumping into nine-foot water.  Totally irrational, I know, considering trained swim teachers were right there to help out if needed.  I just couldn't get past that old feeling of panic.  What if?  What if they turned their head and he sank right down to the bottom?

Anyway, the summer passed and he still took no interest in the other end of the pool.  I started to worry about it, and then the switch flipped for him.  He spent one lesson treading water in the deep end and something clicked.  The next day he was jumping off that diving board with abandon, as many times as they'd let him, not to mention swimming and playing in the nine-foot water like I'd never seen.  I couldn't believe it.  Now let's hope I'm over my fear of the deep end, too, so that when it's Eli's turn to jump off that diving board I'm not breathing into a paper bag or something!













Local shoe thief, trying on all the kids' shoes while they swam

 


Check out those swimming abs and arms

 

"My pony!"

After two boys with only the most basic of hair needs, I must confess I felt pretty excited to have some fun with longer locks.  I pictured myself sitting cross-legged on the floor, brushing and braiding my daughter's hair while she smiled and sang and said "Thank you, Mommy!"  I bought a bunch of cute, girlie, little hairclips and even tried my hand at making a few homemade ones.  I stocked up on ponytail holders, headbands, and ribbons, only to discover that my own girl wanted nothing to do with them. 

The first few times I tried sneaking a clip in Millie's hair, she screamed as she ripped it right out and threw it across the room.  Persistence and distraction had to be the trick, I thought, so I kept at it.  All those cute hair clips I bought and made for her?  Gone.  Lost around the house, tossed on the ground outside, kicked around the van, thrown out the window of the car, gone, gone, gone.  So much for my docile, dress-up doll of a daughter.  If only I had really paid attention to how stubbornly she refused, I would have noticed its foreshadowing of many power struggles to come (i.e. eating dinner, choosing clothes to wear, cleaning up, and everything else we've faced off on). 

Then came this week's miracle.  After months of unsuccessful cajoling and eventually having to accept the fact that my daughter's bangs are destined to rival Cousin Itt's, I watched Miss Millie start taking notice of the band holding my hair up.  Sure enough, once I explained my ponytail and showed her how it worked, she decided she wanted one too.  Victory!  I'm happy to report five days of successful "ponies," the last three at her own request.  "My pony!" has become part of her daily routine, and while I'm not thrilled that her favorite place for a pony is on top of her head, I'm learning it's a whole lot better than a face full of bangs. 



So much hair in the face she can't even see





Soon-to-be Cousin Itt, just up from her nap

 



Pony on top

 


Move over, Old Faithful, there's a new geyser in town!





Being her own paparazzi