Our week

It's been a week since I've posted anything, mostly due to the fact that I'm suffering from a case of Priorities. This is the condition in which you'd really LIKE to be doing things you enjoy, like blogging, but out of necessity other stuff gets in fun's way. Like dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, hourly putting away thousands of items that land in the walking space (or hounding the little people who put them there to put them away), etc. Okay, so it hasn't all been pain and suffering.
Wednesday of last week we hit the road after gymnastics class and headed to McDonough. My dad was out of town on business, so the kids and I stayed with mom through Saturday. The main reason for going was to see my grandparents- Nanny, and Granny and PaPa, plus any other relatives who happen to be un-busy. My family gets together pretty regularly, but since most of them live in or near McDonough it's easy for them to throw something together last minute and we can't usually come. Hence the occasional trip to visit. We spent most of Wednesday afternoon with Nanny (my mom's mom), who lives next door to my folks. She enjoys the kids, and I enjoy her. I know we would hang out a lot if I lived near her. The kids enjoyed playing with Grandmommy's toys that evening, and after much popping up out of bed for lots of trivial things, they finally all went to sleep.

Thursday morning mom gave the kids the choice of a trip to the Aquarium or to Imagine It, which is a children's museum in Atlanta. They had been there before, and have talked and talked about it, so that's what they chose. There's really nothing "museum" about it, it's a big place soley for kids to play. They do have several exhibits, as they call them, but they're all to play with.

Here Amelia tends to her flower garden. She loves planting and picking the flowers. Maybe we'll do a real one this summer.

They have a Bob the Builder theme going on as the special exhibit for a few months, and had a lot of construction themed things. Shannon hauled rocks all over that place in a wheelbarrow.

All of them painted, and Avery particularly enjoyed it. Perhaps because at home I still try to make him think he's "painting" with a brush and water while the other two use real paint. I think he's catching on...

Poor Elizabeth gets dragged around wherever we go, with no normal nap time to speak of. I was a bit of a sleep Nazi with the first two compared to how it's gone with the last two. Doesn't look any worse for it, does she?

They have a couple of bins full of "moon sand," which is sand somehow mixed with wax. It sticks together like wet sand but doesn't get all over the place and doesn't stick to you.

Here's Shannon's favorite thing, the ball crane. There's a whole series of "machinery" balls can go through, elevators, coveyer belts, chutes, and then the crane. He thinks this is the coolest thing there. Here he is dumping the balls into the crane's box so he can get in the seat, turn the crane, and dump them in another bin.

Everyone had their face painted. Avery had a really good angelfish on his cheek, and sat very still while it was being painted. He was proud of it. Amelia's butterfly and Shannon's puppy were at their request. Shannon's had a cute tongue painted on, but he licked it off after about three seconds. (Hence, the smudge.)

We ended up staying about six hours that day, until it closed and they ran us out. That sounds like a long time to play at one place, but the time really did fly and they still weren't ready to leave. If you're ever in Atlanta with kids, I recommend going to this place. Thanks for a fun day, Grandmommy!

On Friday my brother Jonathan and sister-in-law Lisa came to mom's house. Jon works with my dad, and drives from Marietta to McDonough almost everyday. He brought Lisa and my niece Jordan, and we got to hang out while he was at work, then they spent that night at mom's. We took all the kids to visit my dad's folks, Granny and PaPa. It's always great to see them, and we enjoyed our visit. I don't get to see them nearly enough. They've had a lot of health issues over the last year, particularly my Granny. Papa has diabetes and she's always taken care of him, but this past year she had a stroke and has been working hard to recover. He has mostly taken over running the household and taking care of her. She has taken it all in stride, just as she always has handled the curveballs in life, but did ask me before I left to keep praying that she could get back to normal again. I know it's hard for her, she's always been very independent and active.

I got to spend part of Friday afternoon doing some long overdue clothes shopping, get this- BY MYSELF! If I weren't so "economically minded," I might have come away with a whole bunch of stuff, but ended up with enough to tide me over for awhile. I've finally decided to retire some of my wardrobe from college. This decision is based partly on the outdatedness of some of it, but mostly on the hole/fray factor. Shopping wasn't easy though, on top of disliking to part with my money, I also seem to be woefully stuck between the junior department being too young/skanky and the women's department being a little too "mature" for me. Perhaps this is why I tend to end up in the dressing room with things that look just like what I already have at home (minus the holes). Be safe, go with what you know.

While at Grandmommy's we also played outside. This is my almost 15 month old niece, Jordan. She's a cutie pie, and is a fun age. Did I mention earlier that I'm going to be an aunt again? Jon and Lisa are expecting! :) This makes me happy.

Seems Shannon is doomed to ride a pink bike wherever he goes. Thanks to Mimi he does finally have a helmet that doesn't have princesses on it. At one point he cut the handlebars too sharply and took a spill. He has spent the last week telling people about his, "road rash."

Saturday morning Jonathan and Lisa headed for home. The kids and I spent some more time with Nanny, and walked over to see my Aunt Jackie and cousin Luke, wife and son to mom's brother, my Uncle Don. Mid-afternoon I packed up the car and headed back to the hills. We had a Sunday School party that night, and I decided to go straight there from mom's rather than going home first, since then I would have to backtrack several miles. James was busy with a men's retreat at camp and couldn't join us anyway. We enjoyed fun with friends and some awesome soup and chili.

Shannon immediately found Curtis who was hooking up the tractor for a hayride. He loves man stuff, and always wants to help.

Here's the hayride crew! This was the first really chilly evening we've had this month. The kids went on hayride number two after it got dark and were all piled under blankets.

The party was hosted by Pete and Heather Talton, who are in our class. This is Heather and their son Silas, who is just about to be a year old. On the left is Carson Baumgardener, who likes little ones and is going to be a big sister again herself in May.

Sunday the kids and I went to church while James wrapped things up with the group at camp. That afternoon we had Open House here at camp, to show folks the facility, tell them about the program, and give them a chance to try out some camp activities (climbing, horseback riding, canoeing, archery, riflery). The day was beautiful, and we had a steady stream of folks, frankly more than I was expecting. This was the first time we have held one in the fall. We're doing all we can to fill up camp, which isn't easy with the patheticness of the economy right now. God is keeping things going a day at a time though, and we have faith that He will keep camp growing. There were a lot of summer staff around that day, so it was fun to catch up with them. My kids will grow up warped in some way I'm sure...today we were discussing birth order and Shannon asked me when we had the counselors!! I wish I had Open House pictures, but I was busy giving camp tours the entire time.

Monday was a "boring" stay at home day. We never left the house and still I felt I accomplished zero, but looking around realized that at the end of the day the kids were fed (at least three times), were clean, were in clothes that were clean, Amelia had "been to school," and the house although untidy didn't smell funky or weird, so...seems I accomplished plenty!

Tuesday morning we had playgroup at INK (Interactive Neighborhood for Kids) in Gainesville. This is another children's museum, and the kids love going there. While at the one in Atlanta I bought a membership, which is recognized by the Gainesville one. Now we can go whenever we want, which suits the kids just fine.

Here are Lyndsi, Amelia, and Ruth in the library. Ruth is practicing her shorthand typing skills.

There's a display with things that work when the kids press buttons. Avery loves this one because there's a train that goes around and a backhoe that digs when you press the right button. He also loves this shirt. "See my PUNkin?," he says, in classic Avery talk. (Accentuate the first syllable.)

Here's Jenny holding Elizabeth. She has developed this licking thing. One night a few weeks back while holding her I suddenly realized my shoulder was soaking wet, and that she was licking me! Oddly enough I also have a picture of Amelia at this age with her head turned to the side, licking her car seat. Guess she's hinting that she's ready to try some solid food...

There's a very friendly turtle there. He kept following Avery every direction he walked, and would come up to the glass when he put his finger on it. Maybe he likes PUNkin shirts too.

On the way home the older two kids made sure I knew they didn't want or need a nap that day. I usually do school with Amelia while the others are napping anyway, but Shannon usually still sleeps a little each afternoon. After all of our partying with Grandmommy and friends, they were actually tired and fell asleep in the car. I woke up two very whiny kids when we got home, and told them to go lay down on the couch or chair, thinking they would perk up after a few minutes. Here's what happened instead.


They both slept an hour and a half this way!

The rest of the week was spent doing the usual, gymnastics Wednesday morning with a trip to Ingles thrown in just for fun (and groceries and laundry detergent, lest we go hungry or be doomed to stinky clothes). Wednesday night was church, Thursday was spent at home until going to Rebecca's for Thursday night dinner. My dad joined us, since he was in town, as did Alison's mom who was visiting from Ohio for the week. Today is Friday, another homebound day. We do have a group here through the middle of next week, so it's been great to have meals taken care of. We went to the Dining Hall for all three of them today.

We officially have nothing planned for tomorrow, Saturday, either. James will be busy all day with now two groups who are here at the same time. I hope to get some pants hemming done since all of Avery's winter stuff is too long. If only I were good at it. I put it off tonight so I could work on this. Seems when you read a post that it shouldn't take very long to do it, but it really does. Picture loading isn't quick, then I blah blah blah about everything that's been going on, then because it's me and I don't like typos or weird grammar, I re-read several times before I officially post it. (No doubt you will still find plenty of typos and weird grammar!) So...it's not a short process. But it's still fun, and one day when there are no toys left in the walking spaces, a lot less laundry to do, and when grocery shopping takes me 1/4 of the time it does now (sniff, sniff), I will be very glad I spent the time on it. (Sniff. I will stop thinking about that now.)

And here's one last parting shot of Elizabeth, who I, perhaps a bit biased, think gets cuter everyday.