Busy Times

I have been a terrible blogger, so I must apologize.  I think it's been about 3 weeks since my last post.  Well it's time to get back on the wagon and get back to weekly.  So in those 3 weeks here's what we have been up to.

Most nights after I have put Mark to bed, Jim will join Mark in bed for a bit to chat and talk about the day.  Unfortunately one evening Jim was sick and had gone to bed at like 7:30.  I told Mark we couldn't wake-up Dad for his snuggles.  Mark INSISTED that he get to snuggle with Dad.  I wouldn't let him and the tears came.  I left the room and Lilliana went in there.  She offered him 2 pieces of candy to stop crying.  Mark's answer, "How about 6."

Some fun in the water, but more especially in the mud.  Where there is mud, that is where you will find Allison!

At the field Mark plays baseball there is a spigot for watering the field down.  Well of course when the hose is on it drips making a LOVELY mud puddle.  So at first Allison sat next to the puddle and gingerly put rocks and sticks in the mud.  After some time her hands were muddy, but no biggie right?  Then as I am about to tell her no more mud let's clean up, she gets up and sits right in the middle of the mud puddle.  Luckily it was a warm day because I had to take off her skirt and socks and shoes.  (I left her relatively clean onesie on.)    

Aunt Whitney came to visit and watch Mark's baseball game.

I guess the game wasn't very fun to watch so they went looking for ladybugs.

We are very lucky in that all the kids grandparents live within 45 minutes of us.  Grandpa Mark never leaves our house rested. 

Mark loves trains.  He manages to turn just about everything into a train.  This Sunday morning he found some rope and tied it to the bikes.  Mark can even make very convincing train sounds. 

One afternoon Camille saw some ants in and around this crack in the cement.  Not wanting them to go hungry she shared her goldfish with them. 

Just sporting her shades and a gold medal.  No biggie :)

A while ago I bought Mark some tinker toys at a kids resale event.  I totally should have bought more because this kid will spend hours building things.  Here he made an airplane.

Sisters walking in the park.

In Mark's kindergarten class they have something called VIP week.  Each kid gets a turn to be VIP and bring in things from home to share about them.  Along with being VIP they get to bring Ted home to visit.  Then you write in Ted's journal and share about all the adventures you have in the week.  Mark was very excited to bring Ted home.  As you can see Mark is teaching Ted the finer points of rock climbing. 

Parental dilemma...  Mark has a pet fish, Skills.  Skills is a blue beta fish and he LOVES him.  He draws pictures of him, we pray for Skills, Mark is already planning his first birthday party, etc...  Well one night as I'm reading to Mark in his bed I look over and Skills seems to lack any movement.  After Mark has fallen asleep I go in and check if indeed Skills has gone on to the big ocean in the sky.  Yes he has.  It's 8:30p on a Sunday evening...Petco was closed.  I was just PRAYING that 1. Lilliana wouldn't notice it and alert Mark, and 2. in the morning Mark AND Lilliana wouldn't notice before they left for school.  Luck was on my side because neither kid noticed anything remiss about Skills.  Now for the hard part.  I have to manage to get a new fish with Camille and Allison in tow.  Obviously Allison can't tell you what's going on, but Camille could spill the beans.  So we go to petco and look at all the animals before heading to the fish section.  I find the beta fish locate one very similar to Skills #1.  Now how am I going to pay for Skills #2 and not let Camille know.  So we walk around the store a bit more and she finds some purple ball chew toy that she wants to buy.  Hmm ok this could be my cover in buying the fish.  We get home and operation fish replacement is almost done.  I get Skills #2 all settled in his new digs, and Skills #1 gets to join Nemo in the ocean.  Mark gets home from school and doesn't notice a thing - oh except that the water level in the bowl in low and what did I do.  "I just cleaned the tank for you Mark, sorry I didn't put the water level all the way up."  So what would you have done?  Used this as a teaching opportunity or replaced the fish?  Generally I wouldn't have replaced the fish, but we had him only a month or so and I know how much Mark would have been crushed by his death.  With some luck Skills #2 will last much longer and then we can have that conversation about the circle of life. :)