Easter Fun

Whoever said holidays are for relaxation hasn't spent one with us! We have been waiting to put up our new swing set for the kids, and this last weekend was the first free weekend we've had. So, Easter or no Easter, we dove in and started constructing! I say "we", but really, it was almost all Dave. I've mentioned before my inability to construct things, and one look at this particular manual convinced me to stay away. I gratefully accepted the job of "adult helper" and handed Dave whatever screws, bolts, or washers he needed. (I never knew by the way, how many types of those there are...hex bolt, lock washers, split washers...sheesh!) Here's what the first phase looked like:

Dave was undaunted, however, and proclaimed this a "piece of cake". I should add, by the way, that these pictures were taken after I returned from a meeting, after Dave had already been working for 3 hours. I still would have been figuring out how to put the slide together. So, in all it took "us" 9 hours to get the swing set up and functional, but it was totally worth it. The kids have hardly spent a minute indoors since it went up. We still have some finishing touches, but it is so nice! Yesterday we hauled pea gravel to cover the ground beneath it, so it will look really nice when we're done!

On Sunday, we washed off all the dirt and got ready to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. The kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at church, and we loved getting together with family and friends. Also, a friend of ours from church returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, so we went out to the airport to welcome her home. It was a wonderful day! We hope everyone had a beautiful Easter and remembered to praise God for all He has done! He is so good!

Still learning...

I thought I had this parenting thing down. I mean, we've been through the major milestones already...crawling, walking, talking, potty-training. Well, apparently I had forgotten another one....
Yesterday, Garrett came to me and said "Mama, my tooth is really loose this time." He has been claiming his tooth is loose ever since he learned the tooth fairy gives money for lost teeth. (Smart boy!) But, he never actually has any loose teeth. So, I dutifully said, "Let me see if it wiggles". I stuck my finger in his mouth and pushed on his bottom tooth, and....It Wiggled--A Lot!! My first reaction was complete horror. I nearly rushed to find the dentist's phone number, before it sank in -kids are supposed to lose teeth! In spite of his claims every few weeks, I guess I somehow forgot that kids this age actually do lose teeth! In so many ways, I think of Garrett as a "big kid", but he's still my little baby at the same time. I guess I was in utter shock that he is actually old enough to have a loose tooth. My little boy is growing up! (sob!) So, I'm sure we'll keep you posted on the status of The First Tooth Lost, complete with gap-toothed grinning pictures. In the meantime, I'm going to re-read my parenting books to see what else I am forgetting....

Relatives and Rattlesnakes

Well, we returned last night from visiting my brother's family in Arizona. We had a blast, and the kids are completely exhausted, which means--NAPS! Yeah! We arrived in Chandler on Thursday afternoon and immediately went to the park so the kids could blow off some steam after being in the car for 8 hours. On Friday, we visited the Phoenix Zoo, along with at least 75% of the school age children in Phoenix. (It was their spring break, and apparently they all had the same idea as we did!) In spite of the crowds, the kids had a ball. Although, now that I think about it, the only animals I actually remember seeing were the giraffes and a couple of monkeys. Instead, the kids spent their time climbing trees, playing on the many animal statues, climbing the "spider web", digging for worms in the kids garden, and playing in the tree house. At the end, they took a carousel ride. Somehow I, being the most motion-sick of the adults, ended up being the one who rode it with them, but I am happy to report that there was no vomiting following the ride. In fact, a good time was had by all.
Saturday was even more exciting. We took the kids up to a mountain area near Jeff's house for a hike. Paige didn't want to ride in her hiking backpack; she was ready to do it on her own! We hiked up a hill and had snacks at the top, enjoying the views of Chandler and its surrounding mountains. After some snacks, the kids decided to climb some of the rocks. Jeff was helping Michaela and Garrett try to get on top of a big pile of rocks, and he lifted them over a bush to a higher rock. However, when he went to step over it himself, he nearly fell over backwards. He yelled "Michaela, don't move!!" and I knew we were in trouble. When he had gone to step over the bush, he had seen out of the corner of his eye a snake curled up in the crevice of the rock he was on. Naturally, the kids were fascinated and wanted to see, but Jeff and Dave weren't sure whether it was a rattlesnake or not. Jeff thought it probably wasn't because it hadn't rattled at him, but Dave thought it might be because of its triangular head. So, they carefully lifted the kids to safety, and then, in true "boy fashion" proceeded to throw pebbles at it and poke it with sticks to see if it would rattle. Eventually, Jeff lifted it a little with a long stick and nearly fell over again when he got to the end and saw the rattle at the end. Apparently, this snake was still a little "dozy" from the cold, or we probably would have ended this adventure in the ER! I have included in my photo album a picture of all the kids, Jeff, Tina, and Dave all looking in the crevice to see the snake. You might note that this picture appears to have been taken from far away. Well, I am not only the most motion-sick adult of the group...I am apparently also the only one who is AFRAID OF SNAKES! (Although, in my opinion, that makes me the only practical one, too...If you're not sure it's a rattlesnake, let's just leave it alone and say it was. Because finding out involves the possibility of finding out the wrong way, if you know what I mean!) Needless to say, it was a much more exciting hike than we had planned, but it was one the kids will never forget!!
So, overall our trip was a great success. The cousins all got along wonderfully, and we had a nice time visiting with Jeff and Tina. Thanks guys, for letting us crash your house for the weekend. We love you! Enjoy our pictures!

Arizona 2008

Blah, blah, blah

So there's not much to report lately, unless you want a run-down of our attempt to finish our taxes before April 14th this year, or a weather report on the yo-yo weather season we are having...blah, blah, blah. We're stuck in a holding pattern between winter and spring, and everything else seems to be stuck with it.

The good news is, Garrett's 2nd soccer game was a much bigger success than his first. He actually chased the ball around the field and even attempted a goal, which only missed by a few inches. So, we're happy about that!

Our current project is the backyard, but with the weird weather lately, we haven't made much progress. We sold our old swingset:

and bought a big wooden play structure for the kids:

They are dying to put it up NOW, even though it's in a million pieces and has an instruction manual the size of my college textbooks! Have fun, honey!

That does actually bring to mind a little annoyance that we're in the middle of. We posted our old swingset on Craig's list, because we've had lots of success selling other things on it. The very same day I posted it, we had a call about it...except the call was at 11:00 AT NIGHT!! Hello??? We posted a SWINGSET, which means we have KIDS, which means WE GO TO BED EARLY because we're exhausted!! But the caller acted like it was completely normal to call an hour before midnight, and Dave, being too asleep to care, proceeded to give him all the info. So, they decided that the couple would come look at the swingset Friday night between 5:30 and 6:00. The next day, I made dinner early, and we ate fast so we'd be done before they showed up, in case they wanted to take it right then and we'd have to take it apart. 5:30 rolls around...no buyers. 6:00 rolls around...no buyers. 6:30 rolls around...no buyers. Finally I checked the Caller ID and called them to see if they were coming. The man says they'll be right there because they're on their way. Finally, at 7:20, they show up. They immediately like the swingset, pay us in cash, and say they'll come back the next day to pick it up after we've taken it apart. To make a long story short, the swingset is STILL sitting on the side of the house. Apparently these people have just donated money to us but have no intention of actually TAKING the swingset! We've called them 3 times to set up a time for them to get it, and they have missed every one. We'll see if they ever come for it or not!
I'll wrap up my boring post (don't say I didn't warn you--read the title!). Hopefully I'll have more to say next week, since we'll be visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Arizona this weekend!

It's Official!

Well, I don't have the mini-van, but I am now officially a "soccer mom"! Garrett joined a preschool soccer team this week. We were prepared for some pretty funny moments, and it has definitely proven true. At their first practice on Tuesday, the coach was trying to sort the kids into 2 teams. He was saying "You're 1, you're 2..." The kids got all indignant: "I am not 1! I'm 4!!" Then they spent part of the practice comparing cleats and soccer balls. At the end, they were supposed to vote on a name. They narrowed it down to the Tigers or the Stingers (the uniforms are yellow and black.) The poor, patient coach was trying to get them to vote, but they couldn't understand. One little girl kept insisting she wanted the Ponies. Finally, they settled on the "Tiger Stingers". Watch out world! Garrett is the only boy on the team, and he is a good head taller than any of them. But he was so excited!
Today was his first game. It was...interesting. You would think by now I would know not to have any sort of expectations about how things will go. Every time I envision a beautiful, "Hallmark" moment, it inevitably goes south. Take a few Christmases ago, for example. It was the first time all 4 cousins would be together for Christmas. I had visions of reading by the fire, all the kids tearing into their presents, and total bliss. The reality: 10 people with the stomach flu throwing up into garbage cans while trying to get the wrapping paper off the presents! Or when I returned home from my first "Mom's away" trip to San Francisco last year. I thought the kids would run through the airport yelling "Mommy's home!" and throw themselves into my arms. Well, Garrett did, but then promptly said, "Can we go to McDonald's? (and sulked the rest of the way home when told 'no'). So, I should know by now that I can't expect anything when it comes to the kids! The soccer game was no exception. I thought Garrett would be laughing and running up and down the field, chasing the ball. Well....not quite.
We ended up getting to the game a little late because the directions for getting to the field were, shall we say, "stupid"? It said the games were at Balloon Fiesta Park, but the road we were supposed to turn off on was a good mile before we got to the park. So, we missed the road without realizing we missed the road and drove around in circles for awhile with Garrett freaking out in the backseat. "Am I going to be late?" "Do you know where you're going?" "Why are we going this way AGAIN?" Needless to say, tempers were a little thin by the time we got there.
This particular soccer league does a few minutes of instruction before the game starts, and Garrett was totally into that. They practiced throwing the ball and he was all grins. Then the game started, and he just stood there. Literally, just stood...and watched. I think he expected someone to actually give the ball to him before he kicked it. He did get a couple of chances to kick the ball when it went out of bounds. (Which it did, repeatedly). But even then, he kicked it gently, not at all like the great hard kicks he practices in the backyard. Dave and I tried cheering from the sidelines "Go Garrett! Run after the ball!!" He just turned around and waved at us.
At some point, I think he understood that he didn't really know what to do, and it must have flustered him. He came off the field and sat down in Dave's arms and had little tears sparkling in his eyes. He claimed his knee hurt "really bad", but I think it was just a reason to get off the field. The funny think was, nobody knew how to play! The other kids were kicking the ball every which way, and one little girl kept picking it up every time someone told her to get the ball. So, it's not like he was the only one who was unsure. (Incidentally, he was also not the only one in tears.)
He didn't play any more of the game, but he got his little prize for showing up and trying his best. After getting his candy and kicking the ball around on an empty field a few times, I think he finally left feeling like soccer was sort of fun after all. We'll try again next Saturday and see what happens! My term as "soccer mom" may be short lived, but we'll enjoy it for now!
Here's some pictures of the game. The last picture is from my proudest mom moment yet. The other day, Garrett came into my room and said "Mom, I think I'd like to do some extra chores to earn a little money. Can I pick up the dog poop in the backyard?" After picking my teeth up off the floor, I said calmly "Of course you can", and off he went! Is this the first sign of budding responsibility? Or just a kid wanting to buy a new toy and wanting more money? Either way, I didn't have to pick up the yard, so who cares???

Soccer Mom