April 25, 2012

Building our own house!

Highlights from today: (Click here for today's pictures) 

• The kids were all up fairly early this morning but Reagan was the only one that slept a bit longer.  I was able to take my shower right before Robby left and soon it was breakfast time.   We did some of our memory work and then the kids played for a few minutes.
• Keaton and I were in the kitchen, Reagan, Anderson and Graham were upstairs and Campbell was in the school room.  I knew that the plumber was here and that he had to drill through the wall (cinder block and brick if you remember) so I wasn't too surprised when the drilling started.  But Campbell was much closer to it than I was and she sped out of that room running towards me as fast as she could.  Her mouth was wide open!  In her defense, it was crazy loud-like we then had to do school outside so we could hear each other talk.  Crazy loud like I was worried about my dishes rattling or pictures falling off the wall.  
• We became a little bit chilly on our blanket outside so we came in but first we were able to finish half of school and cut everyone's fingernails.  We picked up a bit and then started our work on our state stuff.  Reagan said today that she was tired of talking about South Dakota and was ready to talk about another state.  Anderson told Nonna and Pops that he was going to show them Oklahoma today on the map but pointed to South Dakota-maybe we have been talking about it a bit too much.  I am must excited about Mt. Rushmore so maybe I have done a bit too much with it.
• Nonna and Pops soon came over to make strawberry jelly with us.  Reagan really wanted to take some of her freshly picked strawberries to her teachers at school so we made jelly for her to do take to them.  The kids were a bit interested but then they were just as happy playing upstairs.  Though at one time they were all 4 standing on top of the counter so they could see what was going on.  When the jelly was made we had a few sampled on toast-like we all ate 1/2 of a loaf of bread with our warm jelly.
• Robby ran home for a few minutes and brought home a few doughnuts that the kids enjoyed and soon everyone had left and we started our afternoon.  I did laundry while the kids dressed up.  I didn't get any pictures of that today but both boys dressed up in superman costumes and while Graham was dressed up he helped me carry a few huge boxes from the UPS man into the house.  I think the brick workers might have gotten a kick out of a miniature superman hauling boxes into the house.  The girls also dressed up both wearing purple dresses.  Campbell let Reagan put a big purple bow in her hair and then they both put on their Sunday shoes.  I overheard Reagan assuring Campbell that it was fine to wear their Sunday shoes because they were playing dress up.
• Campbell and Keaton then had their naps-poor Keaton couldn't sleep in our bedroom because ti was too dusty, couldn't sleep in the school room because the big kids wanted to watch a movie so I moved her to Robby's office and soon the banging started again which woke the poor thing up.  
• Reagan, Anderson and Graham discovered the cardboard box that my delivery came in and started to make a house out of it.  It was kind of funny because Reagan so wanted to do everything perfect and didn't want the boys to scribble or mess up the house.  So she would try her best to be so diplomatic about things saying things like "Graham you are such a good colorer, why don't you color the roof with this red."  "Graham, do you want another color?" (handing him another red), "Anderson, why don't you draw a picture on a piece of paper of the house?"  "Anderson, color this wall all blue okay?"  Thankfully they all cooperated but when I woke Campbell up from her nap, I heard them scrambling trying to hide the colors from her.
• The big 4 all squeezed into the box and started their supper but soon all returned to the barstools.  Then we went to church for our last night of Awanas for the year.  Things were going great until we picked up poor Campbell.  Her teacher said that she was about to go to sleep in the floor.  As we were greeting Campbell, she looked at us and said "my ear hurt."  Man, that just rips your heart out to hear her say that.  Needless to say that Campbell got lots of attention tonight: we brought her home and took her upstairs, I changed her clothes while Reagan and Graham got her toys, blankets and pillows.  Then I put drops in her ears and as we were standing back up, she saw her drink medicine that I had poured and drank it (though she earlier refused).  I started clapping and chanting her name and soon Reagan, Anderson and Graham all joined me in cheering for her.  She went to bed easily and hopefully will sleep well.