Latest Toughs

Yesterday was eventful with a food-filled visit to Grandpa's. He baked us a cake for Abby's birthday and gave us plenty of other goodies. Later in the evening I finally made it as a soccer coach. Amber watched and gave me her stamp of approval (she gave me a B+). Allen said that I was a really good coach and that he especially liked that I was supportive of the kids and the practice was fun.

Today the kids and I had a pizza dinner and Abby got mad at me for not giving her a binky (still). She can get aggressive. She gave me a pinch that left a mark on my head. Just to type that here even seems both impressive that she was able to pinch the skin on the top of my head and sad that I am still whining about it.

Ashton told me that she is looking forward to soccer and school and she showed me how fast she can run. She did admit that she will not be as fast with her shoes and shin guards on. I hope she has fun at soccer, too.

Abby's Birthday!

Today is Abigail's birthday. We had plenty of fun. She received some neat Rose Petal Cottage amenities such as a table and a complete set of birthday related things like a pretend cake and some gifts. She also enjoyed the Barbie toys as well as some Play Doh. We all ate ice cream cake that had a likeness of Dora and Boots on the top. Balloons and singing were a common theme around the house.

Today also marks the inevitable end to the use of pacifiers (a.k.a. "binkies"). She is a big girl and as such is no longer in need of any binkies.

Uber Productive

Today we painted the cabinets and cleaned up the house a little bit deeper than usual. I also fixed a leaky drain in the kitchen sink. Amber and I also finally received all of the info for coaching soccer. It is official: I am a little kid soccer coach.

I am Beat

I misread my schedule today and ended up being a bit too early. That made my already long day even longer. This is the time of year where things are getting busy at work and we were very busy. I feel bad because Amber had been feeling sick for the last few days. Things are moving a little slower around the house tonight. I am okay with that.

I Don't Pretend to Know What it is

I just think it is really cool.

Touchy Day

As the day comes to a close, I guess that the heightened sensitivities on the part of my family members is just probably due to everyone getting sick. Amber came home a little early saying that she has flu-like symptoms (she had a temperature), Allen has been complaining of aches and has just not been himself, and Ashton and Abby were easy to set off with crying and just being disagreeable.

In spite of it all I think we had some fun visiting in Hastings with Grandpa and the cousins and we visited the library in Lake Odessa. The Summer reading program ended so it was time to collect the prizes from the drawing. I think it is really neat that they gave all of the kids free ice cream vouchers for a new frozen treat parlor in town I have been wanting to try.

Crayon Mess

Abby felt that throwing all of the crayons she could find all over the floor would be fun. I told her to stop and that it was time to help clean up the mess. Her laughing and smiling immediately ended and turned into telling me "no" rather loudly. I said that if she did not help me pick them up that she would have to go to her room and her answer did not change. I picked her up and placed her in her bed. I then picked up the crayons with Ashton. After a little while (about a half an hour) I realized that Abby had not left her room let alone been heard from. In my past experience the older kids would yell or at least pathetically ask to be allowed to leave their room. I went to check on her and saw that she tucked herself into her bed and fell asleep. It was very cute.

Music Project

I was able to get some needed materials to make our own musical instruments last night. Allen received a book about science projects and he was very excited to make these items. Abby got a pan flute, Ashton helped make a drum, and Allen helped make a horn that looks like a trumpet but sounds like a tuba.

The drum was very hard to make but it was all worth the effort to see the marching band that went through the house the rest of the morning.