A Day at Home and What We Did Yesterday

Today was one of those catch-up days, wherein I did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, bathroom and family room, mopped, and actually let Madeleine have all her naps at home in a bed! Imagine that. She didn't disappoint--I think she napped for over 2 hours the first time and about 2 hours the second time. I am confident she has not done that since being a newborn. As I cleaned and cooked and cleaned and folded and put away, I listened to Harry Potter Book 7, which I have previously read, but to which I thoroughly enjoy listening. I often listen to BYU Women's Conference or Education Week on the computer, and I really enjoy doing that, but an audio book especially fun, and one that I've already read is great for a day like today, since it doesn't matter if I miss a few lines here and there. I'm going to look into what children's chapter books are available as audio books, since I think Warren would really enjoy listening as an alternative to TV/computer games. He reads well now--you should hear him read the scriptures--and I think having a chapter book available in both text and audio would be fun and motivating.

Warren spent his day trying to build an airplane. Seriously. He kept coming in and asking me if he thought his creation would "fly with all 3 kids on it." After 4-5 times of this, dug deep into my past and did my best to explain what I remembered of potential and kinetic energy from HS physics. So naturally, Warren asked, "Well, would it fly if we rode on top of the car with it on a freeway going a hundred miles per an [sic] hour and all 3 kids jumped off as we were going?" Brilliant. Let me explain the "plane": a 3 foot wooden dowel with several pieces of copy paper taped on each side for wings. Each "wing" had a LEGO or wooden plank (Kapla block) taped to it. Each revision involved taping more paper onto the existing wings in an effort to increase the surface area--a principle I tried to explain from last weeks kite-surfers. In the end, he took it apart and turned his attentions to decorating the car with little pieces of paper that read "Happy Brthday [sic] Dad," since Andy's birthday is tomorrow. Naturally, in an effort to ensure the element of surprise he said, "Dad, don't look outside. Actually, you can look outside, just don't look at the car." Still, not quite a dead giveaway as yesterday's secret give away.

I took the kids to Lewisville Park all afternoon yesterday (12-6) to play on the playground sets scattered amongst the campsites, and to wade/play in the river, which right now is a small creek. It was a warm day and the water was perfect for the kids, who enjoyed finding dead fish, minnows, and crawdads with other children who had come more prepared to find such things (buckets, nets etc.) We had a picnic and we walked all throughout the park. At one point, I had Madeleine tied on to me with Avery and Abigail in Madeleine's stroller as I pushed it. I'm sure we looked a little odd. It was a lovely afternoon. On the way back to town, we stopped off to Safeway to buy some blueberries that were on fabulous sale, and get gas at Warren's favorite place, Chevron. Ever since Andy told Warren that a mechanic told him that it has the best gas, Warren is religious about locating Chevrons. He also checks the feature that displays how many more miles you can drive before running out of gas and starts to warn us at anything under 300. While at Chevron, I saw they had a drive-through car wash, and our car sorely needed it, so we delightedly went through the wash. A well-spent $7. Just for fun, I told the kids, "Let's not tell dad that we washed the car and see if he just notices." So as soon as we got home, Abigail said, "Dad, did you notice anything about how the car is clean?" And then as an aside to me, "See mom, I didn't tell him that we got a carwash!" Abigail is definitely the funniest secret-keeper of all my kids. The best thing is that she really doesn't think she is giving it away. She does it all the time with gifts or surprises.

As an afterthought, I brought a leotard for Abigail along on this trip, and I think it is the most used piece of clothing we brought. She organizes shows on the back platform all the time. Or lessons, which often involve her handwritten signs. She knows how to print all her letters now--I'm not sure how she learned them, as there was no direct effort on my part. Just a lot of reading, occasional "Super Why" viewing on PBS, some beginning handwriting at school and lots of questions from Abigail. I think her desire to know and the subsequent questions were the biggest part of her learning to write so many letters. It really is so cute.

I told the kids that they could play outside or clean inside. Naturally, they played outside (yeah!) Except Avery, who after a while came in and said, "Mom I want to help." It reminded me that she was my little cleaning helper when the kids were in school, and made me smile looking forward to the time we'll have together again soon, just us+Madeleine.

Wish Andy a Happy 30th Birthday tomorrow!