One Fun Night

On Friday night, we attended the annual fun night at my school, Bentheim Elementary. Greyson was pretty tuckered out (as you can see in the pic), as he has been working on cutting his first couple of teeth, but he was content just to be pushed around in the stroller and stare at all the big kids playing the games and eating junk food. Lauryn and Kaden had a blast! This is their second year going to fun night, and they just think it is the best. They still love all the carnival style games like Pencil Pull, Plinko, and Go Fishing. They also love the dorky little prizes that break within a couple of days and are proudly displayed in the attached picture. All in all...it's cheap entertainment, and totally worth it for them. This year was especially fun for Lauryn, who will most likely go to Bentheim as a kindergartner next year. This time she thought of it as Fun Night at her new school instead of Fun Night at Mom's school. How "fun"!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wordless Wednesday.

Good Bye Grandma TenHarmsel

This will be a short post. We've had a strange week, and I really don't have much new to report, but I wanted to let you all know that Troy's grandma, Annamae TenHarmsel, passed away this past Tuesday. It wasn't extremely unexpected...she had been in a nursing home for three years, and she wasn't in great health for awhile, but it was still sad to see her go. We spent Thursday night at visitation, and Friday afternoon at her funeral, and the blessing of the whole situation was that we were able to see many of Troy's family members whom we don't often get to visit. We also shared some great stories about Grandma, and Troy and his brother, Travis, reminisced about all the times they spent with Grandma and her cute little way of making sure we were all comfortable at their home on Sundays after church, "Do yous want some Pepsi? How about a cookie?" (They were always Windmill cookies or pecan sandies.) She will be missed for sure, but it was good to celebrate her 81 years of life. Please be in prayer for Troy's grandpa, Bernie TenHarmsel. Although struggling with Alzheimer's himself and quite confused for much of the events, Grandpa was very sad to see his best friend go. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! I'll try to scan in a picture of Grandma to post soon.

Snowmen At Night and the Big Why?

So...this is a post that was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago, but as you all know, life happens. That said, the picture is still really cute, and I like the idea I had for this writing, so I'm going to post it anyway. Ten days ago or so, the last weekend in February, we had what will probably be our last good snowfall, and it was, as we call it in our family, "good snowman snow," meaning it is quite damp and packs well. So...upon discovering this type of snow in the driveway, Troy and I decided to bundle up the big kids and let them build a snowman. In reality, the snow didn't really pack as well as we thought, and it wound up being more of a snow mound, but the kids were delighted. That night, as we got ready for bed, we read the kiddos the book "Snowmen At Night." This is one of their favorite books, a story about a boy who speculates about what his snowman does at night that leaves him looking so disheveled in the morning, and it was great to hear their predictions about what their snowmound would do that night. As we expected, the snowmound melted the next day, but it was fun while it lasted.

Once again, the G Man and I were inside hanging out. He is getting to the point where he follows me around the house while I do chores and chatters, "Mum, mum, mum, mum..." while making kissing noises and hugging my legs. With the older two kids, this would have been cumbersome, but somehow it's different with him. They were very demanding, pulling on me to get attention and face time. He doesn't even want me to stop what I am doing...he just wants to cuddle with me while I work. What a honey!

In other news, Kaden is now in the Why Phase. Those of you who have had three year olds understand. Sometime between age 2 1/2 and 3, kids begin to question everything. This is where we are. Kaden wants to know everything and then some. His most recent questions have included:

"What does Jesus eat?" (My answer: bread, water, fish, and grape juice.)
"Where do trains sleep?" (At the train station, of course.)
"Why do you work, Mommy?" (Because I love to teach kids, and I think they like me too.)
"What you teach you kids today, Mom?" (Fractions, poetry, and making predictions.)
"Daddy driving him police car now?" (Yes.)
"Why him drive his police car at work and not at home?" (Because your car seat wouldn't fit behind the cage.)
"Why him police car have a cage?" (To keep Daddy safe.)
"Why does Wheeze have hair in her ears?" (To keep out all the food Grey drops on her.)

You may be laughing already, but now let me tell you that all these questions were asked in a five minute period while I put him in his pajamas. One right after another with hardly a pause for an answer. Ahh...the why stage....