Parentheticals

This is a post that covers 3 weeks because we were too busy or tired to post the last two times Two weeks ago it was spring break and we organized lots of playdates for the kids. Timmy larped twice: once at Dimitri's house with Sally and Gideon and Momo and kind of Dimitri. Sally was a wizard Momo was a barbarian Gideon was a rogue and Timmy was the dungeon master. They fought some goblins and freed a city from an evil goblin. They also went to the Rogers house and larped there. During the whole time, Timmy has been playing his dinosaur game a lot and has enjoyed it a lot.  Also two weeks ago they got the digging done for putting in a new foundation for the garage and master bedroom. Alison also started organized simplicity and cleaned about one room a day in Grandpa Mike and Grandma Sheila's basement. It looks super good now that she is done with all of it. She rearranged the main room and our bedroom to make them much more efficiently positioned. We also moved the carpet rug ...

This last week we failed to write a blog post, so this week will be a twofer. Last week we celebrated Easter by doing activities every single day. On Monday we remembered Jesus cleansing the temple by playing the game clean up your own backyard. This year that consisted of having a bunch of balled up socks in the carpeted room and making a line down the middle of the room. We divided into two teams and each team attempted to rid their "yard" of socks. Given the fact that in previous years Mike would cheat by hoarding up a bunch of socks and then throwing them all at the same time which was totally unfair we had rules this year to prevent that from happening. By the time that the timer ran out neither team had won, so we ended the game. We made the game 3 minutes this year, however Alison felt that it was still too long. Perhaps next year we will make it shorter. Caitlin and Sal's kids came over to our house for multiple days this week. Caitlin and Sal were going on a conv...

Rea and Alison got new glasses this week. Rea has never had glasses before, and they help her see much better than she did before. They are green and very cute. Some of the other kids that didn't have to wear glasses are jealous of her, however, we told them that they can get sunglasses if they want to the next time that we go to savers. From Tuesday to Wednesday the kids had a sleep over at the Poulson's house, so Alison and Mike got to have about 24 hours without kids. We went shopping, made a fancy dinner, watched a move, and had a very quiet day. It was nice, although we were happy to get the kids back when it was over. On Friday our internet broke, and Mike spent a lot of time trying to get it working again. It was finally working by Friday night. Mike nearly canceled our account with the company, since they said they couldn't fix it for three days, but persistence paid off for now. Friday night we had our first meeting regarding Welcome Corp with Craig and Julie. They...

Has it been two or three weeks since we wrote? Oops. Well, here's what we remember. Last week we celebrated Easter. For Palm Sunday, we did the donkey race, where the donkey tries to crawl across the house and the kids have to put blankets in front of the donkey fast enough that they never crawl onto bare ground. It's always very hectic and fun. On Monday we played Clean Up Your Own Backyard. We divided into two teams and used stuffed animals. Mom, Sara, Gideon, and Boo were one team, and Dad, Rea, and Timmy were another team. We made a new rule this year that you can't hold more than one thing at a time, which made it more fair. On Tuesday we watched Prince of Egypt, which was fun as always. Mike did homework during it, so he missed most of it. On Wednesday we commemorated the Passover. Alison cut it down severely this year, and it was really nice and didn't take a day and a half, so we will probably do it this way in the future. We had a meal that reminds us of what w...

 This week we did all of our Holy Week traditions. Sunday we played the Palm Sunday triumphal entry game, where Mike is a donkey and the kids have to race to strew blankets in his path. Then we read about the triumphal entry. On Monday we played up Clean Up Your Own Backyard and talked about Jesus cleansing the temple. Tuesday we watched The Prince of Egypt and discussed the source of the Passover traditions. Wednesday we had our modified Passover meal. This year we made it a bit longer because Rea wanted to include the afikomen and waiting for Elijah. It went pretty smoothly. Thursday Easter walk in the canyon with fire and marshmallows. This is a new tradition to commemorate the Garden of Gethsemane, and it seems we finally have a winner! Alison has tried a lot of things that haven't worked, but everyone loved going up the canyon, and we built a fire and talked about Jesus' suffering and sang "The Miracle" before roasting marshmallows. The kids didn't want to le...

This week we celebrated Holy Week and Easter. When we told the kids that last Sunday was Palm Sunday, they got very excited. Apparently Rea and Sara at least remember some of our Easter traditions and were excited to do them again. That made Alison very happy. Mike was sick with a cold, so the kids took turns being the donkey for the Palm Sunday game. Then they went outside to find green things to wave while we sang "Hosanna" from the Children's Songbook. On Monday Mike was still feeling sick (as he had most of the last week), so he decided to take a sick day for himself. In the evening we talked about Jesus cleansing the temple and played a game of Clean Up Your Own Backyard with socks. Sara didn't want to play at first (she currently resents all organized games), but she got drawn in because it was so fun. We all enjoyed it. Tuesday we went outside in the rain at Wheeler Farm. Gideon actually made it a whole hour! He's hated being out in precipitation or ...

On Monday during the day Mikes new team at work went to an indoor shooting range for a team building activity. Mike shot four guns, and did the best with the handguns. If you are a thief, and within 7.5 yards of Mike, and he has a hand gun, say goodbye to the right half of your neck. Monday night we went on a hike at the Bell Canyon Granite Trailhead. We hiked up to the reservoir and decided that we were going to go camping there some time. Rea was pretty grouchy the entire way up, but Timmy and Sara and Gideon had a grand time. Once we got there, we saw some ducks, and then we decided to turn back. Rea and Gideon switched places as the grouchy one, and the entire trip back Gideon screamed, and Timmy, Sara and Rea had a fun time. We have since expanded our plans for a camp out to include actual shopping for a camp stove that is small enough to backpack with. We will probably not carry up our water, so we need filters as well as ways to attach our hammocks to trees. It will probably...

We never actually finished our blog post last week, so this week is two-for-one. That means that it is double long as well. Last week was Holy Week, and we have been celebrating in many different ways. Alison always comes up with activities for each day, so this week, on Sunday we played the Triumphal Entry game, On Monday we talked about cleaning the temple and played "Clean Up Your Own Backyard", on Tuesday the kids learned about the origins of the Passover by watching Prince of Egypt, Wednesday we had a Passover meal, Thursday we did service (opening the church nursery for a funeral), Friday we talked about the Stations of the Cross, Saturday we had an egg hunt, and Sunday we celebrated Easter. Really, Easter should be as big as (if not bigger than) Christmas. We wouldn't celebrate Christmas at all if it weren't for Easter. So Alison goes to a lot of effort to make Easter a big deal. This year the food turned out the best of any of the years we've done...