Year 3, August 10th-11th, 2018: Party Time!

Friday was a "hurry up and hustle" kind of day.  We needed to get Benaiah to work and Keturah to a playdate and everyone work up late.  Actually, Abishai slept in in my bed, but I was awake and couldn't get back to sleep since Jared's 5:30 am alarm.  Lots of crazy, lots of chaos, lots of harsh words and frustrations.  Then Justin, Abishai and I came home for lunch.  Oh, and before I left, the garage door wouldn't close so Jared had to come home in the middle of his day to fix it.  Then Grandma took Justin for the afternoon to do something for Grandpa, and I was left all alone with Abishai. Wow, it was quiet!  And wow, I actually had to stay outside with Abishai because all my helpers were gone!  I did get the pool set up for him and he played for about an hour.  I was tired so I just watched some Facebook videos from Lilla Rose on a new thing we are going to get to do now.  Then we came in, he got some screen time and dug into some reorganization work on the shelves next to my desk.  I just sorted everything into categories without actually getting into the nitty gritty.  Some things needed to be rehomed, some things needed contained and condensed, and other piles were put to the side to go through later.  That way I can go back and take the 15 minutes to make the little decision in between other parental and household duties.  I love to organize.  I don't like to declutter and make decisions on what to give away, throw away, rehome etc.  But I've found my groove and trying to work it as much as I can.  Keturah's friend's mom dropped her off for me (yeah for a new friend and a mom willing and able to do transportation!)  Then we had supper with Leah because Gary was out of town.  Jared and Benaiah were out with Ethan and his dad at shooting range for Ethan's birthday.  Then it was bedtime.  The End.

Only New Englanders will get this joke I saw on Instagram.  It has to do with their accent.

My sister Stefanie turned 33 today!  Happy birthday!  And Auggie will be 8 in late November!

Keturah found an incredible new friend.  They are asking to go to each other's houses every week!  It's sometimes tough when you are homeschooled to find someone close by that can relate to you.  I heard they had an awesome time!  BTW, it's the same friend we met with last Friday who has the awesome pool.

OOOO, Keturah got to sing karoke and choose the Greatest Showman of course!  Nice!

Bwahahaha, this reminds me of the accidental pumpkin patch we grew at our Beech Grove house.  We had thrown pumpkins (and the pumpkin guts from carving them) in a little out of the way grassy area one fall, and then the next summer, we had several long vines and about a dozen different colored pumpkins!  I think Jared already tried to knock this one down, but it's fun to remember!

You probably aren't the fondest of these posts from Instagram, but they are an easy way to share here what I've already shared over there.  Plus, you can add cool emojis and fonts and stuff.

Seriously.  I was looking today and haven't a clue where to put the trampoline in Jared's forest.  Oh, and maybe we should call it the 100 acres wood from Winnie the Pooh.

#transformationtuesday is a real hashtag that a blogger uses to share her small declutter/organizing projects.  So here's mine.  I had to clean up this area.  It was screaming my name!

The extra room on the shelves won't stay extra for long.  I need a new frame for the Abishai baby picture collage and it's been sitting here for a year.  Go me.  I need to measure it because I think I can get one at Meijer for a reasonable price.

I tried to get a picture of stormtrooper Abishai but he ripped off the helmet too quick. He was adorable.

Get me out of this thing!

Wow, Benaiah actually looks like he knows what he's doing.  Actually, we have talked about gun safety and do have some guns locked up safely at home.  Jared's been shooting off and on for years.  We believe it's better to have handled the item and know how it works so that if you do find one somewhere, you have a respect for it.  And yes, I've had a tiny bit of training, too.  The kickback of a gun is pretty painful for me though and I don't enjoy it at all.  Ethan had never gone shooting before, so the boys were pretty excited.

Happy as a clam shooting a real gun instead of his video game guns.  The smirk isn't complete without his CFA hat of course.

It cracks me up that Abishai will now line up his cars by color.  He also told me not to put away the Magic School Bus book because he likes to look through it.  Ok then, I won't. No wonder I've been finding it on the toy box.  I keep putting it back and he apparently has been pulling it back out.

They bought more ammo.  And these are the sizes of bullets they shot in the handguns.  That's all the specifics I know.  I don't care to know more, thanks.

Gorgeous Indiana sunset.  I think it shows up better on the DSLR so I'll post that in another blog.  I haven't been picking up the DSLR because a) it's another device to load up pictures from and process and b) I purposefully have been taking less photos so blogs don't take as long.  My trigger finger got worn out on vacation, and so did my neck wearing the DSLR camera all day.  So, it's nice to take a break.  Until next week when we go to the fair of course.

Saturday was hustle day!  Benaiah had mowing and CFA work.  The middles helped Grandpa and Grandma on some projects in the morning.  Jared, Abishai, and I put up the trampoline.  After the middles came back, we ate lunch and headed out for not one, but TWO back to back birthday parties!  Thankfully one was on the way to the other so the driving wasn't bad.  It was a very warm, but gorgeous day outside, so spent the late afternoon and evening outside, which was great.  Reflecting on the two parties and the two different circles of friends, one was a 1 yr old's birthday party and almost everyone was from our church.  It was pretty low key and the theme was dress up as your favorite super hero.  The 1 yr old girl and her mom and sister were all Wonder Woman, and the dad was, well, not sure, lol.  It was actually mostly women and kids at that party.  The second party was totally different.  Not only were the houses different, but the atmosphere was different.  It wasn't bad, but it's interesting to note the differences.  It was obvious at the second birthday party that the 3 yr old birthday boy was the oldest (or second oldest) grandchild.  Both grandmas were there and all the unmarried young, 20 something aunts and uncles, as well as a few young, 20 something couples.  I felt really old and realized yup, we've been through that beginning stage of life where you are newly married, starting a family, starting careers, etc.  Bright eyed and busy tailed, not worn out and cynical after you've been through a few hard things.  Everyone was pleasant, but almost too nice.  The party was very low key and some of the 20 somethings engaged with the kids and played sports among themselves.  It was obvious that this extended family is all about the sports, even asking my kids what sports they play.  Um, none.  "We don't do sports for the younger kids" is what I said.  It was also a family that have a little higher income than the first, so that made a difference, too.  Again, both parties were great in that they were low key, not show offish, not heavily themed, no one rented bounce houses, both cakes were homemade, etc.  I just like people watching, that's all.  We love both families, though, and the kids are great.  But we were the older ones, with older kids tagging along, bored to tears.  I just loved that we were outside and I wasn't looking at my messy house.

Now, onward to the rest and a super busy day at church and the fair tomorrow.

I had the kids pitch in to move all the pieces of the trampoline to the backyard.  Abishai did a few, but mostly he just bossed the rest of us around.  And that's how it was for the rest of the day.

Helper in his pj's.

We've got a trampoline! And typically Benaiah or Justin helps but they were busy.  So, it was my turn to actually do something physical outside.  Here we go......

Putting together a circular thing can be a challenge because you have to get the angles just right.  But it wasn't too bad since we knew how trampolines typically get put together.  I think it took us 1 hr or so.

Abishai wanted to go inside but no one else was home, so I made him stay outside a bit longer.  "But, Mommy, I'm tired."

Then he got back to helping.

Abishai was great at putting the springs in their slots.

This was our third time putting a trampoline together.  We've got a method and we are sticking to it.

I'm not sure if I meant to take this picture, but lots and lots of springs and you have to use a special tool to stretch them and get them hooked onto the frame.

Trying to wait patiently for the trampoline to be done.

A new shaded place to play!

Putting the last spring on!

First one to give it a go!  Jared literally said, "Don't jump!" Um, you can't tell a preschooler not to jump on a trampoline.  But Abishai did realize the net wasn't up yet, so he did a little jump and then hopped off when we told him to.

I thought I had gotten better pictures than these, but I'm sure there will be 1,000's more trampoline pictures to come.  Abishai was running around the trampoline in a circle around Daddy, giggling like crazy.  He was hot and sweaty pretty quickly though.  And he has this little drop and roll maneuver that he must have picked up from YouTube shows.  So cute!

The family that jumps together, stays together.

This is how a pyro guy takes care of a large ant hill in the backyard.

He wanted to reduce the pile in the backyard before putting up the trampoline right next to it.  So, I inhaled smoke while helping him.  No big deal.  Did I mention it was already 80 degrees F out?

The face of a little man who doesn't want to stop jumping.  He was up at 3:30am and came into our bed and then rolled around the house, maybe sleeping on the floor, until we got up.  He was already tired by 11am.

Kiddos got home and immediately tried out the trampoline.

Playing the popcorn game.

Um, when did he learn how to do handstands?

And Keturah was flipping like crazy!  Lots of fun crazy hair days ahead!

I asked Abishai if he wanted to jump with Keturah and he couldn't run fast enough from the front room to the back door screaming, "I jump in bare toes!"

We saw a buzzard on our street eating a squirrel carcass.  We have so much wildlife here in the country!

Why yes, he actually did put the Wonder Woman crown on.  He's becoming a softie.  Another dad did, too, and our friend got a picture of them together, too.  This was at the first party.

Second party singing to the birthday boy, Hunter.

3 tiered sports cake.  Baseball was banana cake/bread, basketball was vanilla, and football was chocolate.  We had a full meal of hamburgers/hot dogs, fruits and veggies, and corn on the cob, plus cake at this one.

Playing t-ball, something else we did have in Beech Grove that we don't have now.  They also played on a slide that was exactly like the one we had in Beech Grove, but just a different color.  And Abishai spent a lot of time at the basketball hoop that is very similar to ours.  And the mini soccer goals.

Go get those balls!

Setting himself up.  I miss that t-ball set!

Abishai knew exactly where the indoor toys were and then brought a few of them outside with permission.  He had been t Hunter's house before for a playdate.

The face says it all.  It's great having young adult aunts and uncles around to pull the wagon and play with the kids at your son's birthday party where you are 7 months pregnanty. 

Aww, Abishai with a cousin, and Hunter, the birthday boy.  A lot of the family is from Missouri, so they are all Cardinals fans.

Sweet!  This band, For King and Country, played in Gary's hometown tonight and will play for us tomorrow night at our fair.  I can't wait to see them live!