It's all fun and games...

I went through my pictures for the last five days and they were all just a random bunch of snap shots... But every snap shot tells a quick funny story...

Like Daniel getting buried in the sandbox.  Normally this is fun.  But when all the carpenter ants in Washington State are swarming and mating and they really like our sandbox, burying your sibling might seem like a form of torture. 

Ian and I found Ninja Penguin defeated by a foe.  Again, it was Fiona.  Did she have an explanation? She said something about him attacking the dinosaurs they were playing with or something.

Awww...my little thumb sucker!  I love the age she is in right now.  She knows me and lights up and laughs when she sees me coming to rescue her from her bouncy seat.  Mark tried giving her a bottle this evening so I could get dinner heated up.  But she wouldn't accept him feeding her! Only her mama and siblings can hold her bottle!

This is a snap shot of a wedding that Evie and I watched live online.  The bride is the oldest daughter of one of my favorite bloggers and a family we scouted with before we moved.  For some reason, this wedding had a huge effect on me.  I had to spend a few days thinking about why.  And I think I figured it out... I'm a reader and have always loved reading.  The worst part about a good fiction tale is that the story ends and you always want to know what happens next.  You feel like you get to know the characters in the book (I swear, Ramona Quimby, Laura Ingalls, Jo March, and Anne Shirley were my best friends growing up) and you cry when they cry and laugh when they laugh.  Reading someone's blog is like reading a book that never ends.  You experience the ups and downs of their lives right along with them (you know, as long as the ups and downs are blogged)!  That beautiful bride gave us Ling-Ling five years ago when she was twelve! And now she is married and moving to the other side of the world! Evie was so enchanted by the whole story of the bride and groom and every word the pastor said about marriage.  I thought about my own marriage and was inspired by the pastor's message.  The wedding was such a special moment my little girl and I shared, thanks to the family that opened their lives for others to peek in to...

I call this picture Bigfoot Sighting.  Ian earned his First Class rank in Boy Scouts this week AND his feet are bigger than mine!  Mark and I left Shane in charge of Fiona and Daniel and enjoyed a potluck dinner with only two little kids in tow (Evie was in dance class) for Ian's Court of Honor. It was almost like being on a date...with two babies....and a room full of scouts...  and then Lula decided she was no longer a good little girl and I spent the evening with her in the car.  I would have just left and come home, but I left the keys at the table.  We are so proud of the work that Ian is putting into scouts.  He seems to have figured out how the whole system works and is showing a lot of growth in his time management and goal setting.

Daniel has been pretending the wood stake and flower pot are a teeter-totter.  He was not happy with the way the stake kept sliding off the pot, so his little scientific mind went to work...

 ...he needed some way to stick that stake to the pot and the stickiest thing he could think of was glue.

I loved, loved, LOVED watching his mind go through the scientific method all on his own and coming to his own conclusions.  I couldn't have planned a better problem solving activity for him.  Of course the glue didn't stick and he wandered off to do something else before the glue dried, but watching him identify a problem and come up with a solution just made my day.

Now if only he could come up with a solution to the hole in our bathtub!  Can you believe that Lula did that with her CHIN?  The same chin that split open? The doctor must have added some reinforcement or something, because she hit that tub HARD!  I was washing her hair and she tried to escape, but she slipped.  I pulled her right out expecting to see blood pouring down her chin, or at least out of her mouth, but there was nothing...just a teeny tiny scratch on her scar.  Mark was MAD. He said to Lula, "You are the most expensive kid yet!" Yep, highest charge for her birth, had to buy a new van, the bill for the stitches, and now replacing the bathtub! (We are actually going to patch the hole, but when Mark called her the expensive kid he didn't know the hole was fixable)  She is also the first kid to wander down to the pond by herself, so I'm going to install some field fencing around the sandbox/play area and lock her up!  There isn't enough money in the world to replace my Lula Joy!

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for us.  Shane is crossing over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.  We are packing up the entire family for this.  And the weather forecast is for rain! 

I've been trying to locate all the patches Shane has earned this year and get them sewed on for his last day as a Cub Scout.  I'm out of room though...