SDFFN: Pajama Party

It has been an awful long time since we have had a family fun night, I have been reminded of this by my children.  A lot.  So, I decided this was the week to start!  Only I decided this at about 3:00 yesterday afternoon.  Given the limited time to plan and limited “stuff”, since all of my fun stuff is still hiding away in the boxes that haven’t been unpacked in the garage, I decided on a simple Pajama Party.  We all came to dinner in our PJs and had breakfast for dinner – chocolate chip pancakes!  What Pajama Party would be complete without a pillow fight?

You’ll notice Noah is quite serious about his pillow-fighting.

After the pillowfight, we curled up with our blankets and pillows and watched a movie, with popcorn of course!

Oh, Charlie…

So, about a month ago, we moved from our nice little townhouse to a new home that offers us much more space.  More space requires the purchase of things to fill the space, right?  One of our very first purchases was this:

Meet Charlie.  In a sponaneous moment of complete, total and utter insanity, I decided to visit the local humane society 2 days BEFORE we moved.  Oh yes.  And I fell in love.  So, like the perfectly rational and logical people that we are, we brought the dog home.  Two days BEFORE we moved.  But, not that it matters.  It isn’t like moving is stressful or anything.

The first night home, Jason comments to me, “You know, Charlie sounds an awful lot like Marley…  I should shoot him for his jinxing power.  The first few days with Charlie were awesome.  He was already fully housebroken, he crate trained in 2 nights, and he was just this mellow, yellow, ball of jello (sorry, got caught up in the rhyme) furry love who was everything I imagined the dog I picked out to be and more.  Well, by about the third day, we noticed his nose was running.  Come to find out that he had caught a case of kennel cough at the humane society.  So a trip to the vet and 10 days of antibiotics later, Mr. Mellow-Yellow turned on me.  Yesterday morning was a perfect picture of my provocational pup.  Between the hours of 6 and 8 AM, Charlie had:  chased the cat twice, barked about 82 times, tried to eat my slippers (whilst on my feet!), chewed on 3 socks, ate one red crayon, ate one blue crayon, chewed up 2 pencils, shredded 2 diapers (clean, thank you) destroyed a Peter Pan and Captain Hook book and ate Revelations, Chapter 2 out of my Bible.  By about 8:30, he was out for the count, napping by the front door, but not before puking up aforementioned red and blue crayons.  It is worth mentioning, that all of the things he chewed up were not in his reach.  He pulls them off of desks, bookshelves, counters and yes, even the top of the piano.

So, Charlie and I attended our first obedience class last night.  He did so well.  Faker.  So far this morning, he has barked another 82 times, chased the cat twice, ran off with Alden’s shoes, stole 4 socks, and has chewed on a hanger, another pencil, a Diet Dr. Pepper case from the recycling, and attempted the previous day’s book destruction on Ten Apples Up on Top!  Is it naptime yet?  Gotta go.  Charlie is at the door, barking at a leaf…

Mexico 2008

This summer Jason and I had the joy of returning to Chiconautla, Mexico for our second missions trip.  Chiconautla is such a special place to both of us and we love the people there like family.  Here is a little recap of our time there:

Where has the time gone?

“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”
— Dr. Seuss

Man was I shocked to revisit this and see I hadn’t posted since July!  Time sure does fly.  What have I been up to?  Well, since my last post, I have been to Mexico on a missions trip, bought a new house, moved, changed our kids’ school which meant a whole different schedule and in a spontaneous moment of insanity, got a dog.  Life was a little nutty for awhile there, but I feel that things are starting to get back to normal, whatever “normal” is.  I hope to get back to regular family nights and posting about those and anything else that happens to come along.

Beach Night

After a day of rain, we were ready for some outside time this evening.  Toria was sleeping over at a friend’s so it was just me and my boys!  We biked to the beach and hung out there for the night.

Noah got to show off some of the new skills he's learned in swimming lessons the past two weeks.

Alden getting dowsed by his daddy and brother.

Sweet Revenge!!

The local lake wildlife were big fans of Jason's! He tried and tried but never did grab one!

I know I am biased and all, but seriously, could he be any cuter?!!

We were treated to some beautiful masterpieces in the sky.

It was an awesome night.  Until…

On the bike ride home, Noah took a tumble and got some pretty impressive road rash on his forehead, arm and leg.

Alden was very sympathetic!

Camp Arbor

Today, I took the kids to Kid’s Camp at Arbor Lakes, something a local shopping area does every summer on Tuesdays.  Today was sponsored by a local nursery and the kids got to plant their own flower.

First they decorated their pots.

Then they filled it with dirt.

And here are the beautiful results!

Then we waited in line for about a HALF HOUR to get Toria’s face painted.  But the results were TOO CUTE!

SDFFN 4

It was Blindfold Night!  The kids wore blindfolds throughout dinner.  (The adults got a pass to help out where needed.)  The kids were silly and we had lots of fun, but it also provided an opportunity to talk about people with “different abilities” and the obstacles they overcome.  It also was a good chance to be thankful for things we take for granted, like our sight! 

Alden was a sport, but tended to cheat!

After dinner, I gave each of the kids, still blindfolded, some paper and a pen and instructed them to draw a picture.  I had them draw a scene with a house, a person by the house, a cat, a dog, the sun, clouds, etc.

The artwork!

FDF: Catching up

So I’ve gotten behind on the Forty Day Fast links, so instead of trying to get them posted each day, I have put them all in a box in the sidebar.  Just click on the name to be connected to their post.  Check back each day to read the posts!

FDF:d12

Today, there is a post about SIFE, Students in Free Enterprise, which is a really cool organization that allows students to use the skills and knowledge they are learning and teach people who, for whatever reason, face barriers that prevent them from stepping into a free market economy.  Today’s second post comes from LeslieBrooke.com and focuses on Water Aid, an international charity whose mission is to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.  What is cool about this group is that it works within the communities themselves to build the water source, so that the community not only gains some ownership in the project, but also is able to manage and/or fix any problems that may arise with it.

FDF:d11

Today includes a post from Steven at steven.russell in which he discusses the vast difference between the haves and the have-nots in our country.  It includes a video from the guys of Under the Overpass, (a book you should definitely read if you have not.)  The second post for today comes from Sarah and she discusses persecuted Christians throughout the world.