Mini Engineers

What do you get when you take four boys, and then add a chain and a log to a swingset? Here, let me show you:

Yes, that is four boys, two on each end of a log, suspended by a chain from the top of our swing set. Well, no one ever accused any of them of not being creative!! They all love the new "teeter-totter." Hey, who needs to spend money on attachments when you have mini engineers in the house??

Friday night didn't go quite as planned. Derrick wasn't hungry, so he didn't touch his spaghetti. Which meant I had no cute messy pictures to put up here. And he was crabby, so I didn't bother wasting the time to try and make him smile. Hopefully he'll be in a better mood next Saturday when we have his actual party!

Saturday marked cleaning day, which means the kids help maintain the house in which they produce mass destruction during the week. Even Derrick was helpful this weekend, and wiped down the kitchen cupboards...he's on the right path already! My brother came over and watched the boys while Bubba and I went on the closest thing to a date we've been on in months. We went to Menard's to look at new doors, since the need to replace the one in the kitchen is now at a critical point. There is no glass in that door right now where the window is supposed to be, just two pieces of plastic holding out the chill of fall, and things just seem to get colder from the point on. So, we found a door we like, and with any luck it'll be installed sometime next weekend. Then we swung through Wal-Mart, picked up the things we needed there, some we didn't need, and headed home. We had a friend and her kids (one of which is pictured above) over for dinner, and I later, on a whim, went out dancing with another girlfriend. We had a great time, we don't get much of a chance to go out together, so it was really great to hang out again with her. Hopefully more of that to come in the future! It was even an early...uh...morning...since we were home at 12:30 AM!

Today, Sunday, I was in charge of the Sunday School Service Project. This was my first one ever, so I had no idea what to expect. We had a nice turn-out, about a dozen kids or so, and our Service Project was to do fall clean-up outside around the church. I searched the congregation during church for the Sunday School director, but she wasn't there. Gulp! Great...now what?? I'm in charge of getting these kids, most under the age of 10, to be excited about cleaning up outside, when most of these kids probably have nightmares about cleaning up their own rooms. Okay...deep breath...I can do this. And apparently I did alright, becuase we had kids pick up the garbage along the road and along the tree line, we had kids and parents raking leaves in the back of the church, we had kids and parents raking leaves in the front of the church, we had kids cleaning the outsides of the windows all the way around the church, and everyone worked together to bag up 2 1/2 bags of leaves! I gave one of the moms $5 and asked her to please go to the store and grab some hot cocoa, since today was a little chilly and damp, and it started raining as we were finishing up, which she graciously did, and then I had three kids help her make the warm treat for the rest of the troops for when they were finished. On the way home, I was feeling a little unsure of my performance today as leader of the pack, so I asked my harshest critics...the boys. To my surprise, I got a "fine" from Talin, and a "really awesome" from Trey, and Talin said that Derrick thought I was "totally awesome" too (funny thing, I didn't hear Derrick's comment! LOL), which really made all of my anxiety about the day dissolve. I called the director later after I got home and let her know that all survived, and everyone was home in time to see the Packers LOL

Tomorrow is Trey's first swim team practice. I'm REALLY curious to see how this is going to go for him! I know he'll try hard, I know he wants to swim, I know I want to see him succeed, I know he looks better a nice pink flesh color and not blue. He's all packed up and ready to go...I just hope he remembers not to get on the bus home, cuz there's no swim practice here at home for him, unless he wants to practice in the tub!!

Off to bed...will write more tomorrow about Trey's first day of swim practice! Hope you all had a great weekend!!