Earrings

In the car tonight, I told Gillian "Guess what? Soon we will be able to put different earrings in." She said "When I can wear new earrings? Like tomorrow?" I said "No. We have a week to go. And then we get to put in different earrings." She smiled and said "I want diamond earrings." I giggled and said "Really? Do you know what a diamond is?" She said "No. Not really."

Pinnies

In the car tonight, John told me about this week's elective, Capture the Flag. He said "Well, we don't have flags. We use frisbees." I laughed and said "So it's really capture the frisbee?" He said "Yea. We play pinnies and no pinnies. I like no pinnies. Cause when you play pinnies you gotta wear a pinnie. And I got really hot. So I had to take a break." 

Countdown

Our kids love a countdown. We countdown the number of days until vacation, Christmas, birthdays and the end of school (just to name a few things). A few years ago, I bought a sign to display our various countdowns. We are currently counting down to Gillian's birthday. She is learning how to write her numbers and has been helping to change the "days until" everyday. 

A few days ago she wrote.

And today she wrote. 

I love that she is helping me with our countdown!

Baking

I had a little helper tonight. 

We had to make some cupcakes for Gillian's birthday party tomorrow. Gillian helped make the chocolate cupcakes. 

I think she just wanted to lick the beaters. I always let them lick the beaters. 

Afterward she had chocolate all over her face. She didn't believe me when I told her that she was a mess. She checked out her reflection in the toaster and tried to lick all the chocolate off. 

Reveille

Daddy woke the kids up with Reveille this morning. He went into John's room with Reveille playing on his cell phone.

John woke up and said "I'm up. I'm up. I'm up. Dude, I said I'm up!" Next he went to wake up Gillian. She didn't even open her eyes, she just flailed around until she knocked Daddy's cell phone out of his hand.

I asked the kids if they liked how Daddy woke them this morning. John said "NO! Who even likes that song?" Gillian said "It was disgusting. We didn't like it!"

The Catapult

What do you do when you build a catapult at camp during your woodworking elective?  Well, in our house, you plan a sneak attack on Daddy with marshmallows. 

We even had Gillian help with the attack!

The nose plays

I received a call this afternoon from John's camp. They informed me that John fell and hit his nose and mouth. He was upset, but they were applying ice to his nose. I asked to talk to John. He sounded very upset. He told me "I'm ok." I asked if he wanted me to pick him up. He said "Yes." And I ran over to camp to get him. When I arrived they told me what happened. John and his group was hanging out in the Bunny Barn and John was holding himself up between two tables and swinging his feet. He was told by his counselors to stop, but he continued. His hand slipped and he fell face forward on the floor. 

I took him back to work with me (I had payroll to submit). His nose looked a little swollen, but he was content to watch TV while I completed my work. We left work a couple hours later and he told me "My legs feel week." I thought maybe he was just tired, but he ended up running into the bathroom and got sick to his stomach. I cleaned him up and got him in the car. He sat in the car and ate some goldfish crackers and drank some water. 

We got home and John explained everything that happened to Daddy and asked "Can I take a bath? After I hurl I always take a bath." So we drew him a bath. While he was relaxing Daddy and I decided we should take him to the hospital to get his nose checked out. We were a little concerned about the vomiting, but more concerned about his nose. I called Grandma and she sent Aunt Betty to our house to watch Gillian while we took John to the ER. 

We were seen right away and were told
that he would need an X-ray and then they could make an assessment. The X-ray clearly showed a broken nose. But there is nothing we can do about it now. The PA told us to take John to an ENT in a week after the swelling goes down. The ENT will determine the next steps. 

John was awesome at the hospital. He listened to all the nurses, PAs and doctors. Unfortunately, the trip to the ER didn't scare him at all. When he got home Aunt Betty caught him balancing on one foot on Gillian's footboard. Yup, won't be my last trip to the ER with this kid. 

IKEA

We took the kids to Ikea today. Daddy and I knew exactly what we needed but we still decided to walk around and look at everything. John and Gillian both carried around the paper measuring tapes to assist us. John also was the map reader. When we were downstairs in the marketplace I noticed that John was walking around with a pencil behind his ear. 

He kept us informed on where we were and what was coming up next. 

The Zip Line

I took Gillian to a birthday party yesterday at My Gym.  Basically it is an indoor gym for little kids.  They have a trampoline and a ball pit.  They play a few games with the kids and at the end all the kids get to go on a zip line.  Gillian was the fourth kid to go.  She wasn't afraid and couldn't wait to tell John all about it when we got home.  

 
John was very impressed with Gillian.  But he of course had to make a big deal out of the zip line he went on last summer.  Don't worry Beansy, you will get to do the big zip line soon enough.

Houston, we have a problem...

Every week at John's camp he has an elective. It is a special class only offered for a week and they spend about 45 minutes a day in the elective. John's elective this week is rocketry. 

He came home on Monday telling us, "I got rocketry!" Daddy asked "Did you go to the moon?" John said "No. We were just working on building our rocket." The rest of the week, we had similar conversations. But they spent most of the week building their rockets (no trips to outer space).

Today, I picked up John and when we got in the car he says "I'm really sad." That's never something a mom wants to hear. I automatically think the other boys are bullying him. So I say "Why? What happened." He tells me "Well we launched our rockets today. And I lost mine." My poor boy. I asked "How did you lose your rocket?" He explained "Well I shot the rocket in the air and it flew towards the pirate ship and then I lost it. It might be in a tree. But I don't know." 

At dinner, he explained what happened to Daddy. "We took our rockets to the field. Some rockets didn't launch right away. And the we would say 'Houston, we have a problem.'" Daddy asked "Why did you say that?" John said "You know! Cause when you are in the rocket and you have a problem you say 'Houston, we have a problem.'" Daddy asked "Did you have any failures?" "Just losing my rocket." He explained that he launched his rocket and then ran to get it after it landed, but couldn't find it. He said "It could be in a tree or gone forever." How frustrating for John. He worked so hard on his rocket to lose it. I hope they find it before the rain comes tonight. 

Owls and Sharks

Yesterday Gillian told us "We learned about owls today. And did you know owls sleep during the day and are awake at the night time?" I asked her "Do you know what that is called?" She said "Ummm, I think so." But before she could think of it John shouted "Nocturnal. It's nocturnal, Gill." She got mad at him. "I know John. And we heard the noises the owls make. Some of my friends were scared but not me!" She told us more about owls and showed us the awesome owl puppet she made. 

Tonight I asked Gillian "Did you learn about owls again today?" She smiled and said "No. We talked about sharks! You know what? I want to swim with sharks." I was a little surprised to hear that. But she was smiling and so excited. I said "You should talk to Daddy, because Daddy knows how to scuba dive and would love to take you." So she walked across the room and says "Daddy, I want to swim with the sharks." 

Ponies

Today at John's camp they had pony rides. On our way home tonight, I asked him about the pony rides. He said "We didn't get to ride them. We are too big. So we got to walk them." That stinks that they didn't get to ride the ponies. John's age group isn't the oldest at this camp, so we were a little surprised to hear that they weren't able to ride them. John told Daddy about it later. "We didn't get to ride the ponies. But we did get to walk them around. And you know what my pony's name was JD!" Daddy asked him "Tell me more about JD." John said "Well, he had a red hat and it said 'JD' on it. And he was brown. That's all I remember." Daddy pushed it a little further "What else can you tell me about him? Like what was his cutie mark? A turtle?" John laughed (for those who don't know cutie marks are the little designs My Little Ponies). John then said "If we did get to ride them, then I would tell them that I don't need help. You know I rode a horse in Myrtle Beach!" 

It stinks that he wasn't able to ride the pony today, but he was able to brush him and walk him around the camp. For a boy who loves nature, he won't complain. 

The pool

We went to a pool party yesterday.  Gillian was prepared to go swimming and wore her new goggles in the car on our way there.  She didn't end up using them in the pool.  I guess they are just fun accessories.

John showed us some of his new swimming abilities.  He also jumped in the pool. He totally has no fear of the water.

Grapes

Yesterday, Gillian told me "I like a fruit." She cracks me up. So I asked "Really? What fruit?" She said "It's purple. You know!" I can't remember feeding her grapes recently. I have tried in the past, but not within the last year. So I said "Grapes?" She said "Yes. I like the purple ones. Not the green ones." 

I bought her some at the food store today. When I got home, I called her upstairs and told her "I have a surprise for you." She got really excited when she saw the bag and asked "Can I have one now?" Can't say no to that. So she ate a few and danced around the kitchen. I asked her "Did one of your friends bring grapes to school?" She said "Nope. My teacher gived me some. And I love them." 

She finished her snack and went downstairs.  On her way down the stair she announced to John, "The emergency was delicious!"

The Aquarium

On Sunday Aunt Betty and I took the kids to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. John led the way. He loves reading a map.

We walked through the shipwreck exhibits. And we stopped at an amphitheater. The seats faced a huge tank and we could see a few turtles and sharks. We stopped to watch the turtles and ended up staying to watch a show with some divers. 

 

We checked out the sharks. 

And then John announced "We are going to touch a shark!" There was a touch tank. Gillian immediately said "No way." Aunt Betty tried to get out of it too, but John convinced her to try it. 

They leaned in the tank and touched the shark. And then John said "Let's do it again!" Since convincing Aunt Betty was not enough, John also got me to touch a shark!

But we weren't done yet. There was the stingray tank next. 

After the stingrays, we headed outside to see the penguins. It was feeding time and it was very crowded. We didn't stay long, which made Gillian very unhappy. I promised to bring her back. 

We headed upstairs to the kid zone. 

We checked out the hippos. The kids hated it in there. Gillian said "Why is it so stinky!" John said "I'm going to have shower after are done." 

We ended up in the gift shop where John picked out a new stuffed turtle and Gillian picked a stuffed penguin. We went back outside to see the penguins. It was empty and Gillian got to show the penguins her new friend. 

 

The kids also got to ride on the big slide that was outside. 

 

We had an awesome trip to the aquarium!