helpers

I am loving that these kiddos are old enough to actually be helpful, rather than just jump in the leaves!

Luke turns 8!

The first question Luke asked when we told him we might be moving was “but what about my birthday?!  I wanted to have a sleepover with Daniel and Liam!”  We quickly assured him that we would still do it- maybe at one of their homes or maybe they could even come up here- and THAT is what he really wanted, more than presents for his birthday this year.  Thankfully, Jen was willing to drive the boys up on Saturday, and then we drove them back on Sunday.  What a sweet friendship these boys have!

This year we had a Lord of the Rings treasure hunt with clues written by Max.   

 What impressed us the most was Isaac’s ability to figure out the clues when no one else could.  One clue they figured out was toilet paper, but they didn’t think to look in the closet where the extra toilet paper is stored.  Isaac thought to look in there on his own.





  Another clue was hidden in a guitar, and the boys found the guitar in the living room, but couldn’t find the clue anywhere, when Isaac had the bright idea to look in the “ODDER” guitar!!

  The final clue was something to the effect of “where the king sits. . . ”  at first they all thought it was on Daddy’s chair at the dinner table, but then Isaac said “the van!” It turned out it was in his car instead, but Isaac’s insight is what led them to the vehicles! 

Halloween 2013

Its that time of year again!
Everyone got to pick out their template for a Jack o Lantern.

All year, the boys talk about who they will be for Halloween, and its constantly changing, depending upon which phase they are currently into.  This year worked out well, because although Luke was mostly into Lord of the Rings, I happened to find a Captain America  costume at salvation army a couple weeks before Halloween, and Captain America is his favorite of the avengers! 

They desperately wanted Isaac to wear his Hulk costume so they could all be avengers, but he was dead set on wearing his Batman costume.  Isaac is still in the phase where he dresses up just about every day, all day, and he is super cute no matter which costume he is wearing!  I sure will miss these costume days!

 

Of course our little Red Riding Hood stole the show!

 

The following pictures are from the most amazing house we've ever gone trick or treating!  She was dressed as a witch, stirring her pot (and gave each of the kids a "dead animal" out of there. She transformed her home into a haunted house, using neighborhood kids as zombies, etc.  It was too scary for Max and Luke to finish! 

Fire Alarm

We were at the farewell party for the Beans in August.

It was towards the end of the night and we were catching up with some people we hadn't seen in a while when I suddenly heard the fire alarm go off.

Within seconds, I said "that was Isaac".  I just had this gut feeling and knew it had to be him.  And sure enough, I was right.  As everyone began filtering out of the building, I ran to the hallway to find an hysterical 4 year old boy.  He was clearly scared, and knew he had done something, but didn't know how to fix it.  As he was trying to push the lever back up, he was screaming bloody murder, but quickly transferred his fright to me, yelling "why did you DO that?"  amongst other screams that I can't remember anymore.

  I scooped him up and carried him outside while he was still screaming his head off.  When we got outside, I mentioned to a couple of people that it was Isaac's fault, but he was not happy about that, and started to deny it.  I realized he must have been embarrassed, so I waited until we got to the van to say any more about it.

In the van on the way home, we tried to talk more about it and asked how he felt when he pulled it- if he was scared or whatever, but he refused and kept saying no, and it was clear he didn't want to talk about it.

The next day I brought it up again and asked how he felt when he pulled the alarm, and he finally admitted that he didn't know it was going to do that and he was embarrassed and didn't want everyone to know he had done it.  At least he was finally able to talk about this traumatic event!  I've noticed with Isaac lately that he is not trying to be bad or mischievous, but often times is in his own world with such a wild imagination that things just happen.  He does feel really bad when he does something wrong and would rather just cover it up so nobody knows, but at least he seems to care more than he used to about following rules.

The Haircut

It was Sunday morning, and I heard Isaac and Miriam playing in her bedroom while Max and I were still waking up.  It is not unusual for the boys to go in and entertain Miriam or get her out of the crib before we even get up.  This particular morning I heard them playing "Dad and Son", a game they play almost every day, and I've always just thought it to be super cute since Miriam is a girl, but she has to play the "son".

Finally I got up and wanted to get her out of bed, but her door was locked.  Hmmm, why would Isaac lock the door?

I asked him to unlock it right away, which he did.

When I walked in, I can't even described the feeling I had upon seeing Miriam.  I think at first I didn't believe it, but I just kept staring, and saw the scissors in his hands, and a nice short boy haircut on her head, so I realized it must be true.  I started screaming at him, No. . .NO. . . why would you DO this?  Of course Luke, Andrew and max came running in and started screaming at him as well.  Luke said "now she looks like a baby again!"

Luke and Andrew began to think of all the punishments Isaac could receive- one of them being that he gets spanked every day for it until her hair grows back.  Another punishment was that he doesn't get to eat or drink all day.

Max was upset that he could have poked her eye out.

I was just upset that the beautiful hair that I could now braid and put in pig tails of my one and only girl was now gone.

Isaac did get spanked for playing with the scissors and getting into mischief (again), but there was really nothing we could do to change the situation, so we had to just get used to it.

Of course, it was Sunday morning, so Max made mention of it when he got up to preach.  He said, "you may notice that I no longer have 3 boys and a girl, but 4 boys. . . "  and then went on to briefly tell the story.

I had to just remind myself it could be worse.  In fact it made me think of little kids that are going through cancer treatment that have no choice but to have no hair.  How blessed we are to have 4 healthy children.  Each day is a gift from God, and hair will certainly grow back.

Later that night when I was tucking Isaac into bed, I asked if he was trying to make her look like a son (as I suspected since they were playing "dad and son") and he said yes.  He clearly felt bad for what he had done and wasn't trying to do something bad.  In fact, he asked me if I would remind him every day to not cut Miri's hair, because he really does want to follow the rules, but as I've said before, he gets lost in his own little world, and doesn't even realize he is doing something that could get him into trouble.