VBS Mayhem

Today was the third day of VBS (Vacation Bible School) and for me (Amanda) It was the most difficult.  I am a crew leader, meaning, I lead a group of kids from one place to another.  My crew is named Jump for Jesus, thus named by one of the girls in my crew.  I was supposed to have 6 kids in my crew.  But for the last 2 days I only had 4 kids, 2 didn't show.  Today they finally came.  One of them, a 2nd grade girl, is hyper.  She can't sit still and does not understand the concept of no.  Disciplining her is a balancing act.  She definitely presents an interesting challenge.

  The rest of my crew is fine.  I have 2 four year olds who are adorable, 2 older girls, and the poor lone boy in my class.  My crew is usually the last to leave crafts, as my entire crew are extremely creative perfectionists.  Who will not leave if something is incomplete.  Overall I am greatly enjoying myself and look forward to tomorrow.

Amanda

Help! Aliens have taken my mother!

Something is very wrong with my mother!  Last night, she was prowling the house, complaining that we had no ice cream, cookies, or other baked goodies. 
"Don't we have any junk food?" she inquired as she opened and closed cabinets.  "Hey, we have ice cream cones.  We can have those with marshmallows and peanut butter in them."
The rest of us stared at her in disbelief.  Did our mother just suggest that we eat marshmallows?  As she assured us that she was not kidding, we were left with one conclusion: she must be under the influence of aliens from outer space!  (Yup, we were watching Star Trek.)
She proceeded to melt chocolate and serve us all ice cream cones stuffed with almond butter, marshmallows, melted chocolate, and chocolate chips.  Our confusion only deepened when Josh asked if he could have a second cone. 
"Why not?" Mommy replied.  "Have whatever you want."
What is wrong with her!?! and what do we do about it?

~Megan~

Attitude

My baby sister is impertinent.  When I came downstairs today, she took one look at my outfit and said, "That doesn't match.  Why do you have a light blue shirt with a dark blue skirt?"

And yesterday, I was playing a computer game and asked a question, just thinking aloud.  Hannah promptly answered me correctly.  

"How did you know that?" I asked, astonished.  "There's no way you could have figured that out, since you can't read the answer on the screen."

She shook her head at my ignorance.  "Brains," she replied in a 'no, duh' tone of voice.

There's a problem when your four-year-old sister starts critiquing your fashion choices.  Then again, she probably picked up the attitude from her siblings.  (And for the record, I think my outfit looks just fine!)

~Megan~

Twin Terrors

Hannah and her cousin Molly have been getting along very well this weekend.  They insisted on wearing their hair alike, sitting together at meals, and eating the exact same foods.  They look and act frighteningly alike sometimes.  Being together also seems to bring out the most cunning, sneaky nature in both of them.  These are some of the things they've said:

Hannah tattled, "Megan!  Molly's going to play with the Barbies, but you told us not to!"

From behing her, Molly looked frantic and whispered, "Stop!  You weren't supposed to tell her."

From across the room, I spotted Hannah sucking on the tip of the plastic play dough knife.  "Hannah, take that out of your mouth!"

Hannah replied, "But Molly was doing it!"

In a game of pretend, Josh asked, "So, whose birthday is it?  Is it Hannah's birthday?"

Molly replied, "No, it's my birthday."

Hannah countered, "But Molly, my birthday is before your birthday, and I haven't had my birthday yet.  So it's mine."

~Megan~

Saturday

We were pleasantly woken this morning (as much as being woken is ever pleasant) by Daddy, who had made breakfast for everyone. We were treated to eggs, sausage, hash browns, mixed berries, coffee, and juice. Isn't he wonderful?

Now we all get to spend the day cleaning. Uncle Peter, Uncle Paul, and their families will be arriving late tonight and spending a couple days. I just hope it doesn't get unbearably warm. Cleaning is bad enough, without heat and humidity!

~Megan~

Indiscreet Crooked Banker

Nathan's been very into Monopoly lately, and a couple days ago he convinced Amanda and I to play with him. Halfway through, he went bankrupt, leaving him as the banker and just us two girls to duke it out. I was practically broke, and Amanda had just acquired all of Nathan's property, so it seemed pretty sure that she would win. That is, until my crooked banker began slipping me $500 bills under the table. Suddenly I could afford to land on Yellowstone (or Boardwalk, in the traditional game), even with a hotel.

The only problem was, my banker was NOT discreet about his cheating. In fact, he giggled, squealed, smacked my leg if I didn't take the money immediately, and generally made himself obvious. He even decided that he felt bad, so he tried to pass Amanda a bunch of money too. (She wouldn't take it.) The game finally ended when we got bored. I insist it was a draw. Amanda thinks differently.

~Megan~

Poodles and Freedom

We all went swimming on Sunday afternoon. (It's getting far too hot!) We had "chicken fights" in the pool- Nathan sitting on Daddy's shoulders and Joshua on Mommy's and both boys trying to knock the other off. Hannah discovered that she can touch bottom in the shallow end, so she enjoyed running about.

When we got out the pool noodles, Hannah called them 'poodles'! I like the name. Nathan, the king of safety, instructed his brother in the proper way to use a noodle. "Josh! Don't hit the water! You can only hit people!"

After dinner, we had our Independence Day celebration. (Well, we had already dressed up in red, white, and, blue and blared our patriotic music on our way to church as we inched through all the New Yorkers trying to get into Squantz Pond, but this was our main celebration.) Daddy read the Declaration of Independence aloud, pausing to interpret in modern English and discuss. Nathan, Josh, and Hannah drew freedom-themed pictures and Amanda wrote a lovely piece about the risk our founding fathers took when they signed the Declaration. When it got dark, we did sparklers and tried not to gag on all the smoke they created.

We hope you enjoyed your holiday as well. Happy Independence Day!

~Megan~