2015 Trek Against Trafficking

Last year we participated in a 5K for a Love True, an organization that works against trafficking. We signed up as a family for the race again this year and the kids were so excited to participate. 

The kids were part of a 50yard dash. After last year's fiasco with Amelia crying at the finish line, we had each of us staged at each end of the race. There were no tears though - she was just excited to run. And so was Austin!

At the far right

 

So I filmed Amelia first up to the finish line (look for the black pants); then when I went to look for Austin, you'll see he got a little off track.

 

 

With their medals

 

Amelia with her two girlfriends from church

 

A quick photo of all 4 of us.

Patrick and the kids did the 1 mile walk

I had been keeping up running for the past year and was proud for exceeding my personal goal in running the 5k. It was really sweet that Patrick had Amelia ready at the finish to run the last bit with me. I'm glad the race photographer caught that sweet memory.

 

First Sleepover at Our House

Our friends Delaney and Sawyer are moving away for a about a year and a half, so we convinced their parents to let them spend the weekend with us. I didn't tell Amelia until that morning and she was ECSTATIC.  They came over on Friday night for pizza and their parents left Saturday morning, leaving their kids to have fun with us through Sunday.

 

The kids had a show for us while the adults chatted after dinner.

A few weeks ago, we stopped at a yard sale where some kids were selling lemonade.  Amelia caught onto the idea and begged me to have some kind of sale at our next yard sale.  Our community yard sale took place that Saturday morning, so we baked the most excellent blueberry muffins you've ever had in your life and let the kids make signs for their muffin stand.

They were so excited that they were set up about a half hour before the yard sale was supposed to start. And they had business! Neighbors came by and frequently bought a muffin for $1, refusing their change.

After about15 minutes, the boys were done and off to goof off with Patrick. But the girls happily sold out all of their muffins in 1.5 hours - making far more money than we expected. Patrick entertained them later on with the remote flip car.

Hopscotch and bubbles

Lunch in a tent

Shockingly, they all did awesome during the afternoon rest time, sticking on their beds with books for the allotted time. Our two fell asleep, so I had some reading time with the big kids.

Afternoon dance party

 

We told them that we would use their muffin money to go buy an afternoon treat, but we didn't tell them where (we didn't know how much money they would make!). We loaded up the minivan and giggled our way there.

McDonalds milkshakes for all!

To burn off the sugar at a park

We probably spent 30 minutes playing red light, green light and simon says. Austin ran around happily clueless while the big kids enjoyed the games.

We went 'exploring' - everyone got a big stick to bang on trees, hunting for acorns and dandelions and rocks. We took a little water break in the shade.

We did a fun project after dinner; I only gave them the project in stages as to keep the interest longer.  We started with making toilet paper roll houses/apartments/buildings.

Then we rolled out paper down the hall way and divided it into sections with a main road, letting them draw whatever they wanted on their portion of the 'city'.

Then we pulled out stickers of transportation, animals, plants and flowers, etc.

I was pleased at how long they actually enjoyed the project. They decided to call it "Friend City".

After an awesome night of sleep by the big kids (Austin started a cold so we were up every few hours), we had a candlelit pancake breakfast.

 

and some playdough fun

When their parents arrived, they stayed for a bit and we even fit in a game of Candyland.

It was a great weekend; the kids squabbled far less than we expected and seemed to enjoy the activities. The 3 big ones actually shared a room for the two nights and did little pestering. We would do it again! And after a week, Amelia and Austin are still talking about it!

Amelia's 1st Day of PreKindergarten

Amelia's first day of Preschool arrived and she was so excited. Not a tear or a fear from her - once we met her teachers and visited her classroom during the Open House, she informed us that she wanted us to drop her off at the door and say goodbye there. We convinced her to let us walk in with her, but she waved goodbye and went off to play with cars, no extra kisses or hugs necessary.

When I showed her the sign I had made up, I asked her what I she wanted to me when she grew up (knowing the answer already). She suddenly was very upset, saying that she wanted to be both a librarian and a mommy. I told her she could do both and I could write both on the sign. She immediately perked up and declared that she could help librarians when they can't be at the library and she could get a sitter for her kids.  I told her that was a good plan.

She requested a family photo - so this is what you get from the car hood.

 

We also have made the tradition of measuring the kids on their charts at the beginning of each school year. The kids had been asking about it for days beforehand and were thrilled to get to be measured.

It is interesting to compare how much taller Amelia is than Austin at each age. She's got 3-4 inches on him at 2 years old, which is a decent amount when you're still under 3ft!

Other funny now (not-so-funny-at-the-time) story: Amelia's first day was short and had a parent meeting during it. There were multiple moms with kids in the room, but I still grabbed a seat in the back, knowing Austin's inability to whisper at this point. I had packed a bag of his favorite entertainment, but after about 15 minutes he informed me that he didn't want any of his choices. Then he proceeded to climb up on his chair, declare in a loud voice "All Done. Go Away Now." and then fall off his chair.  Commence wailing. Let's just say he's 2 and leave it at that.

Simple Fun of Visitors & Inside Projects

I finally did a download of photos of the little fun things we've been up to while home over the last few weeks.

 

I think they've picked up on how much I enjoy seeing them play nicely together. Anytime the successfully share a toy, they yell at me to come look at them.

Whenever we pull out the driveway chalk, they ask to be traced. I asked them what we should draw them doing, and riding on a train was the first request. They are making the train polka dotted.

One morning, I was sneaking in some sewing and Amelia asked me to come to 'dance class' with her. So we proceeded to pretend to ride a train and walk to her class. Then she pulls out this getup from a bag and tells me it's her dance costume (note: the hat is to keep the hair out of her face a la swim cap). Here she is pretending to be in class.

Little brother can't be left out and insisted on the hat, tutu and shoes for his turn.

I randomly walked in his room and Austin had pulled out the Bible story we had read the night before and 'retold' it to me in his phrases. It was one of those "they're actually listening while their squirming and jumping on the bed" moments.

One rainy day I let the kids paint in the bathtub. It started pretty simply like this.

Then morphed into painting their nails and their legs.

And ended with their painting each other's backs. They had so much fun and giggled so much and actually obeyed the limitations I gave them. We ended with cleaning the tub and them = success!

Because he irons while Mommy is ironing for her quilts

 

 Making a train in the hallway

Candyland

Ishita, Rohit and Rachit (Rohit's brother) came to play games with us after the kids bedtime. The kids begged for them to play a game with them before bedtime.

Even strangers get roped into reading to our kids

My favorite Saturday morning view. Daddy and Amelia are making pancakes and Austin is unloading the dishwasher silverware.

She's even learning how to pour the pancake mix on the griddle.

Dave & Elaene were our sunday school teachers years ago and we invited them to come for lunch. As normal, Amelia requested books as soon as the meal was over.

Daddy and the kids washed the cars one evening. The kids thought it was awesome.

The kids were pretend face-painting one afternoon and Amelia asked me if I would do hers. I surprised her by offering to paint her face for real. She immediately asked for a 'whole face flower'. They were so excited to have it really painted, even if bathtime was an hour later.

Austin asked for a tree.

And then wanted yellow involved so I made it into a lemon tree.

Pretending to paint Daddy's face

And then he asked for a white nose.

Here is how we kicked off the first Auburn game watching in our home. (I was behind on the laundry so all the kids Auburn clothes were dirty - they wear them as soon as they are clean.)

Since we don't have cable, our plan is to watch the games when we can get them on CBS streaming. Amelia was intrigued by the game on the computer and on the tv at the same time.

Pretending to watch a movie on the sidewalk