For Babies

Last night, on the way home from church, Scott had a stern talk with Seth. Apparently he was a little nutsy in OP Live last night (example: the leader says, "How do you have joy?" Seth answered, "You burp in their face!" Not good.) Anyway, his punishment is going to be that he will not get to go to OP Live next week, but will have to sit out in the hallway outside Blane's class where I help teach on Wednesdays.

Seth was a bit distressed. "Can I have some books or activities to do out in the hall?"

"No."

"You mean I won't have anything to do? I can't do that!"

Zac tried to be helpful. "Maybe you can listen to Blane's class while you are in the hall."

I couldn't see Seth's expression back there in the dark, but I can just picture it. "Come on, Zac," he groaned, "that class is for babies..."

Unlike that towering paragon of maturity which is my middle son, I suppose.

Leap Pad Upgrade

Zac asked me yesterday when he was going to get his Leap Pad upgraded to a Leapster. The logic was classic Zac:

"Mom, the age range on the Leap Pad is ages 4 to 8."

I thought I would offer him a bargain. "Zac, if you want a Leapster for your birthday, I will give you $20 towards the Leapster, since that is what I would spend on your present anyway. Then you can use your money to pay for the rest." This is a child who's piggy bank account is close to the century mark. "Or, " sez I, "you can have a simple birthday party with your best friend over for cake, and I will use the money we would have spent on the party to get the Leapster."

He thought for a moment. "No," he replied, "I want a new Webkinz for my birthday instead."

Ah, choices. They start early. I mean, I could have had new granite countertops last week, but, uh, I wanted a drivable car instead...

Monkey Bags

The gear-up for Seth's birthday party on Saturday (snow forcasted!) began in earnest yesterday. Blane and I headed to Wal-Mart to get supplies. He was a great little helper, but did get restless at the end as I was trying to decide whether Raisinets or Milk Duds would make better monkey ears on the cupcakes (I ended up going with Milk Duds--I'm not a big raisin fan).

I carted the loot home and spent the afternoon making the goody bags for his party. Seth was anxious to help, but I did talk him out of cutting out the monkey faces for the bags (sheepishly, I admit I do care what those mothers think when their kids bring those bags home). So Seth decided he would help me fill the bags. I introduced the Industrial Revolutionary concept of assembly lines to Seth (by the way, why didn't anyone think of that before the 18th century?) And that's when the problem started. What I forgot to take into account at the store was that Zac, Seth and Blane would all want goody bags as well (I just went on the number of invitations I sent out). So I needed to fill 11 bags, and only had some treats in quantities of 8. Sigh. No matter how I was going to spin this, there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

After an outburst and a fit of crying after he threw himself on the bed upstairs, I explained to Seth that, hey! we can go to the Dollar Store and get cooler stuff to fill his bag that only he would get, since he was the birthday boy and all. The tears dried up and he immediately began asking when we could do just that. I explained that since it was Wednesday afternoon and Zac had homework and a project due on Thursday, we would probably need to wait until Thursday afternoon. So guess what we'll be doing today...

By the way, the monkey bags turned out super-cute. I think we'll hang our assorted house monkeys around the dining room for effect on Saturday.

Winning Jayhawks and Sleepy Boys

Last night was a big night, of course. Scott called earlier in the day and asked me to have the boys rest for a while during the afternoon. Neither Blane nor Seth ended up sleeping, and Zac ended up playing at his friend's house after school until 5 (but he is a sleep camel, after all). We got everyone all ready--pajamas on, teeth brushed, chores done, and we did our family devo too. The much anticipated game arrived, and within 5 minutes Blane was sawing logs on the floor. Seth lasted until halftime, at which point he said he just had to take a little nap. He was soon dispatched to the upper bunk. Zac remained, and stayed up (with his pillow and blanket) through the exciting OT win and until Luther Vandross sang "One Shining Moment". Scott had to give a few hoots outside, where we saw dancing and celebrating at the house across the street and heard firecrackers going off in the neighborhood. He stayed up for a while to watch some commentary, while I went to bed.

Everyone got up okay this morning (even Zac)!

Birthday Pie

On Saturday, Seth decided that he wanted "square waffles", strawberries and cherry pie for his birthday dinner. So we did the waffles in the waffle iron and got the strawberries out, which were enjoyed thoroughly. I had not had much experience with a gluten-free cherry pie before, and it was a bit difficult to get it into the pie plate. Finally, we got it baked and stuck a candle in it for Seth. He took one bite and decided he didn't really like it. Somehow, I knew there was a good chance that would happen! The pie wasn't bad, but we had a pretty treat-heavy weekend planned, what with the Malottes coming over and me fixing thick cheesy enchiladas and double-chocolate chip cookies. So, we dumped it. I guess it was worth it for Seth to have the experience.

A Visit from the Malottes

On Sunday afternoon, the Malottes (Aunt Patty, Susie's sister, and her family). Uncle Don's father died, so the entire family was here (Ben and Austin, Scott's cousins). Of course, Aunt Patty loved walking around our house and garden! We had enchiladas and finished off with chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Austin took Uncle Don to the airport while Aunt Patty and Ben stayed to visit.

Blane, of course, showed Aunt Patty his cars. He made some great sound effects as well. Aunt Patty said, "Blane, what would happen if I pushed a 'button' on this car? What sound would it make?" She pushed the imaginary button and Blane made the engine sound.

"Now, what would happen if I pushed a different button?"

Same sound.

In fact, all his cars, and all their buttons, make the exact same sound!

Zoo Boys

Back to our Friday...we went to the KC Zoo after eating our lunch and the library. We were thrilled when we got in for about half-price: they cut the rates because of the temperature that morning, but by the time we got there at 1 pm, the warm-weather exhibits were open because it had heated up sufficiently. We first headed for the Africa exhibit, and decided to take the tram there. When we told Blane we were going to ride on a little train, he screamed, "NO! I DON'T WANT TO!" We have no idea what bothered him so much---but, too bad, dude! He reluctantly got on, and later realized that it wasn't so bad.

We first stopped at these large plains that were supposed to contain a variety of African antelope (gazelles, oryxes, kudus) and cheetahs? At least, that's what the sign said. Scott and I were a little concerned, because the simple electric fence, ditch and small wooden fence certainly did not appear cheetah-proof (um...I'm no expert, but can't they jump?!) Surely we misread the sign...why would they put cheetahs in with the antelope (poor babies!)? For what it's worth, we did not see any cheetahs prowling about. When we turned around and looked at these beautiful cranes, Seth exclaimed, "I'm glad God made the world, because if He didn't, we wouldn't have any zoos!"

Next we crossed a big suspension bridge into another area. Blane saw a "crashed airplane" that they set up for decoration and later declared that this was one of his favorite parts of the zoo. The best part of that area was the silverback gorilla. He had a very odd smell--not at all the manure smell you expect from an animal pen. It was really pungent, almost like body odor, but certainly not a human smell. Anyway, that was a fascinating experience for all of us. We eventually wound around to the chimpanzees (as you can imagine, this was a highlight, especially for one of our children--can you guess which one?) Fortunately, there was an enclosed viewing area, shielded by poop-deflecting glass. They were amazingly fun to watch. The oldest chimp knuckled over to the window and sat up, looking straight into Scott's eyes with great curiosity. Then he gave Scott that chimp "grin" and walked away. A few minutes later, one threw himself against the glass, playing around, I guess. The display talked about how chimps and humans share 99% of their DNA. As we walked away, Scott commented, "There is a big difference in that 1%!" That's something I never thought of, but...how very true!

We stopped after rhinos, hippos and zebras for a snack break, for which Seth prayed, "Thank you, God, for the zoo and all the animals You made!" We later took the tram back to the Austrailia area (no fuss from Blane this time). We saw the orangutans (did you know they come from Borneo and Sumatra? I always thought they were African), the tigers, the red pandas and the kangaroos. The kangaroos were loose on a lawn...again, a little big of a creep-out factor, just not as much as the cheetahs. They were all sleeping, so it didn't matter anyway.

We wrapped up our day with the kids playing at the Discovery Barn and the Climbing Tree (a big model of a baobab tree with a slide inside). I walked over to see the sea lion show, but it was forgettable.

On the way home, we stopped at Old McDonald's for an early "dinner", because we had promised Seth that we would go as part of his birthday celebration. We rented "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" from the Red Box there and finished out our day watching that. Whew! We were tired when we all went to bed last night!