Sunday, September 29th

After a late, adventurous night camping outside (and/or in Nana's room) the kids all woke up ravenous on Sunday morning.  I made breakfast and the kids played inside and outside for a couple of hours before we headed out to do our camp supply shopping.  We all took a great nap in the afternoon before getting around and taking the big kids to their very first AWANA meeting!  I participated in AWANA from the time I was a kindergartner til I believe sixth grade, and loved-loved-loved it; I was really excited when our friends, the Phillips, told us they had found a good location and invited us to join them.  The kids had a total blast and were already asking for specifics about exactly when they could go back :-)

I made the kids some hot, gooey cinnamon rolls and a pot of tea.  Everything smelled delicious!  I had to quickly make up the adult's breakfast so that I would not eat all of the rolls, haha :-)

Warming up with tea while the rolls were in the oven.

Waverly is getting so grabby - its a fun stage, and I always enjoy watching her expressions when someone else is holding her.  You can see when something grabs her interest and she starts trying to maneuver herself into a good position to grab it.  She desperately wanted Jim's bottle, but it was far away on the table, so he got it and held it on his knee for her (we suspect she might think she has some sort of Jedi mind control, since she simply looks at an object and it comes to her, lol).

"Aha, you have come to me at last!"

Lincoln, Scarlett and Victoria - they were so excited to leave and head to AWANA.  They asked me 538 questions on the way there concerning every possible facet of what to expect ;-)  In the end, it wasn't exactly as they had imagined (they later told me), but was even better.  I love that they love it!

Saturday, September 28th

Saturday morning Jim worked on pulling out all of the camping gear for our upcoming trip.  We wanted to make sure that everything was in great shape and finalize a list of items to pick up.  Of course, a mock campsite set-up in your own backyard equals hours of play for kids!  In the early afternoon there was a Notre Dame football game that Jim and a friend were going to watch at our house, so I left the littlest fan at home and took the three big kids out for a couple of errands and then to see a movie.  As soon as we were back home, the kids ran right out to play for the rest of the evening in the backyard and the girls ended up camping in their tent all night :-)

Sure appreciate Jim's hard work in getting this all set up!  The kids had told us very specifically that they wanted to sleep in their own tent this year on our camping trip.  We thought we were going to have to buy a little cheap secondary tent, however Nana had a really nice one stowed away and so we got that one all set up and it's perfect!  Thanks, Nana :-)  I'm so in love with our big, cabin style tent, too.  That was such a a great investment.

Victoria found this super fuzzy caterpillar, named his Crawley, and spent hours playing with and tending to this thing :-p

When Lincoln was little and not yet walking, we had purchased this baby holder for use while camping.  It's like an exersaucer meets an adult camping chair, with loops around the top to clip on little toys.  Waverly loves to be outside and was all bouncy and excited when I took her out back to try this out for size, but when I set her in there she looked up to Jim like, "Really? What am I supposed to DO in here?" haha  She's still a bit small for it, but we'll make it work with some extra support.

While Jim was busy, I got the kids all decked out in their Notre Dame gear complete with tattoos, stickers and all!  He loved it :-)  Sadly, it did not help them actually WIN, but at least his crew looked cute.

Go Irish! (love Lincoln's fierce football player face, hehe)

Another favorite that we've had since Victoria was only a bit bigger than Waverly is now - our awesome hiking, baby-holding backpack. It's a Sherpani, and was worth every penny - it's held up awesomely over the years!  I was pretty sure that Waverly would be way too little for it, but we decided to give it a try and she fit great :-)  

I needed to go by Target for a couple of things before we went to our movie, so I told the kids they could each pick out one candy to take.  I kid you not, we spent at least twenty minutes in the candy aisle while they poured over, compared, negotiated, asked for details and otherwise had everyone else passing by laughing at their hardcore, candy-decision-making behavior. (Final decisions: Scarlett - Junior Mints, Lincoln - Whoppers, Victoria - Angry Bird Fruit Snacks; however Scarlett and Lincoln split their choices 50/50 so they could have a little of both)

Movie time!  We saw Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 - it was a really fun, cute movie that the kids thoroughly enjoyed.

At home that evening, the kids played and played outside and finally asked if they could have their last thirty minutes or so before bed as outside, in their tent Nook time.  We acquiesced and then decided to surprise them by allowing them to sleep in their tent.  They were all ecstatic!  However, when push came to shove, Linc wound up in Nana's room and fell asleep in her bed after about 90 seconds ;-)  Jim opted to sleep in the other, big tent as well - he wanted them to feel big and cool, sleeping in their own tent, but he wasn't quite ready for them to sleep in the backyard alone.  What a great daddy, sleeping out there all night so his girls could have that fun experience :-)

Friday, September 27th

Every once in a while I have this really good "bad" problem, in that the kids will start playing beautifully first thing in the morning... Actually, the kids often start out the day playing really nicely together, but I have no trouble pulling the plug and getting school underway.  However, on Fridays I tend to be more laissez faire with how much we actually get accomplished, and that Friday Attitude coupled with excellent playing + a spontaneous invitation to Chick Fil A from Grammie resulted in a whole lot of fun and very little (only math and reading!) crossed off our to-do list ;-)  In the late afternoon we went to our friends house to play and ride bikes for an hour or so and then back home for dinner and a relaxed evening.

Victoria woke up having slept on her leg weirdly and Scarlett set herself up as doctor/nurse, tending to her patient all morning long.  Pillow fluffing, mandatory rest, cool washcloths, sips of water... the whole nine yards.  Lincoln was often in there as well, sometimes being her assistant, sometimes finding unique ways to pest the girls, and other times just sort of lounging around.  When her medical duties permitted, Scarlett would grab her guitar and serenade the baby in a melodic but never-ending, made up song.

When Grammie offered to take the kids to Chick Fil A, they totally livened up and were running here and there trying to get shoes on as fast as humanly possible!  While they were gone, Waverly and I did important work on the computer - mostly banging on the keyboard, which is a critical skill for all babies in this technological age ;-)

As previously noted, Waverly has two expressions - smiling and poker face.  When the poker face is engaged, there is almost no amount of crazy antics I can do to warrant any reaction at all, haha.

So sleepy-faced, but not giving it up.  A little sling time while clutching her giraffe was in order.

The kids laid down for naps, but I let Scarlett get up - after she did a bit of schoolwork she was happy to play with Waverly.

I had to wake up Lincoln and Victoria - they were totally crashed after our few days of no (or little) naps - but they were eager to get dressed and head to our friends to ride bikes!  Lincoln, Victoria and N. 

I made a fruitless attempt at getting a group picture of the kiddos on their bikes.  Not pointing fingers, but one kid's bike didn't want to be in the picture (or so I was told).  I told him that's the problem with having a "Dinosaur" bike - they're very unruly ;-)

A sweet/ew sidenote: Lincoln brought me this pretty golden-yellow flower - he was so sweet about it and it had a delicious scent!  I put it behind Waverly's ear as she was waking up from a quick snooze in the sling and snapped this picture. (sweet) Then, I was chatting with Mrs. C and looked down and realized there were five confused ants scurrying about inside the flower (EW!), so I quickly snatched it off the baby and tossed it aside before doing a once-over on the baby for any stragglers. Eek!

After riding bikes for a few minutes, the kids hopped off and played "can I cross your golden river?" for a few minutes before aggravation ensued and I suggested they find something else to do.  This led to them winding up in the backyard for a bit - Mrs. C and I (mostly me) decided we would let them have a few moments of unsupervised play.  After a couple of minutes, Mrs. C went inside the house and while there she peeked out the back door to check on the kids and found Lincoln poised and ready to leap off the top of their playscape onto the trampoline.  I think she almost had a heart attack!  Welcome to my life...

Jim had spent a bit of time in the morning putting in his application for a CPL (carry pistol license), and in the evening he was going over the ins and outs of why someone might want to carry a gun, the safety one takes with a gun, procedures for what to do if you ever just find a gun ("Do you ever pick it up?" "What if you just want to hand it to an adult for safety, do you pick it up then?" a variety of scenarios), and so forth.  The kids were enthralled!

Thursday, September 26th - Passport Club: Argentina

Passport Club day had arrived and we were excited to head to the Kalafut's to gather with friends to discuss all things Argentinian!  The kids were all eager to do their presentations, even Lincoln who had earlier in the week gone back and forth on whether he was actually going to do it (weird for him, but I tried not to make a big deal out of it and ultimately that seems to have been the wise choice since he did wind up presenting).  We had a terrific time, with a really fun story, neat craft and yummy food.  It was also nearly Olivia Kalafut's birthday, and I think if you serve big birthday cupcakes at the end of Passport Club you pretty much just win ;-)  

We had to wrap up a bit sooner than usual though so that I could drop the kids off at home before heading out to participate in a (paid) market research group. Grammie had played with the kids all while I was gone and once I returned she continued to hang out with them outside while Waverly, Jim and I made dinner. Two days with no naps had the kids in their odd I'm-so-tired-I-think-I'll-be-hyper-and-move-at-warp-speed zone, so bedtime came a bit earlier than normal which was nice for Jim and me :-)

Before heading out for our morning, Victoria and Jim took some time to snuggle up on the back porch in one of the comfy chairs :-)  They sure relish these days when daddy gets to work from home and they can see him more!

Lincoln and BearBear snagged the other comfy chair :-)

Mrs. Kalafut, taking a few minutes to do an overview on Argentina during board time.

Judd and Lincoln, hanging out at the little kid table.

The kids all LOVED the story that Mrs. K had selected!

In Argentina, kids don't have the Tooth Fairy tale like we do - instead it's a mouse, El Raton Perez, who children believe comes and picks up the tooth.  The book Mrs. K read was the story of what happens when the tooth fair and the mouse go after the same tooth :-)  It was really charming.  This is one element we never touched on during our studies on Argentina - yet again, another reason why I love Passport Club!

A close up of the board.

For the craft, the kids did mock metal work, using foil. 

Mrs. K wisely had the littler kids tracing work already finished, and they just got to enjoy coloring in the picture - here's Lincoln's finished sun.

Scarlett, finished tracing and now coloring~

Waverly is so fun - she loves watching all the big kids with those huge blue eyes... but again, that cozy hip sling position makes it hard to stay awake too long :-)  I love that squishy face!

N and Victoria's finished suns~

Scarlett's finished sun~

Snack time!

Getting fueled up for presentations :-)

The kids all ready to listen and/or present.  Victoria didn't have a board, as she was speaking on Gauchadas - the act of doing a nice deed for or gifting an object to someone without expecting anything in return.  She decided she wanted to DO a gauchada, so after she spoke briefly on what they are and why they are called what they are called, she had a bag of suckers to pass out :-)

Scarlett, doing her epic presentation on Jaguars.  I plan to get a video recording again this month!

Lincoln's presentation on the Cave of Hands in Patagonia, Argentina.

Lunch:  Mini cheeseburgers, freshly deep fried empanadas, fruit, tortilla chips... a great spread!

After lunch was consumed and cupcakes devoured, Mrs. K took the kids outside to teach them a fun kids game in Argentina.  For the life of me I cannot recall the name of the game, but it involved standing back a ways from a box that had two holes cut out of the front (kid-facing) side.  The kids tried to roll their marbles into the holes.  They really enjoyed it!

Scarlett's roll...

Earnestly willing it to go into the hole (it did not) :-)

Receiving the marble from Mrs. K...

And his roll was closer but also didn't go in.

Now Victoria's turn (after waiting so patiently)...

Nice form! (and a big thanks to Mrs. Lawson for snapping these pics while I was inside tending to Waverly's epic "presentation" she made in her diaper, hehe)

My view from the 18th floor of the Terminus Building in Buckhead, awaiting my turn at the market research group.  It was a really fun and short one, and because I arrived a bit early I enjoyed being quizzed by a fellow mom who was considering homeschooling.  She asked questions one right after the other for about thirty minutes, haha!  Fortunately for her, there is not much I enjoy chatting about more than that particular topic ;-)