Cub Camp or Dirt Camp?

We switched our vacation plans for the lake in order for Giggles to attend his very first Cub Country. He was not disappointed. At the end of the first day I did not recognize the ball of dirt that walked through my front door. I had him march straight into the bathroom for a bath in the hopes that the child who emerged was, indeed, my son.

The second day at Cub Country I went up for part of the day to help out as a leader and watched the boys do the obstacle course, shoot arrows, sling shot rocks, make pet rocks and leather wristbands and learn the history of the American flag. Again, Giggles came home unrecognizable. He was so dirty it looked like he was wearing eyeliner. But the whole experience was well worth rearranging our vacation.

Giggles the Quietest??? Are We Talking About the Same Kid?

Parent/Teacher Conferences are here again. This time around I decided to throw tradition a curve ball and leave my kids at home.

Don't panic! Sheriff is now old enough to watch his younger brothers (although the maturity factor is still up for debate). And his younger brothers don't even listen to me so I don't see how they could possibly listen to their oldest brother.

BUT... I am done taking four kids to parent/teacher conference for an hour and spending most of turning around to tell Smiley and Giggles to be quiet, stop touching each other, stop arguing, keep your chairs on the floor, etc. etc. and not being able to focus on what the teachers are saying.

It was heaven. And my heart went out to the moms with four and five kids in tow. I breathed several sighs of relief when I saw them.

The greatest revelation of the afternoon during parent/teacher conference came when Giggles teacher said that Giggles is her quietest boy in her class. As compared to what? A fog horn? She said that although she has to tell him to stop talking in class, the only way that she can tell he is even talking is that she sees his head shaking because he does it so quiet (sneaky). What? At home he shout talks. Example: "Giggles, I'm standing right here, you don't need to shout at me." "Giggles, your brother is sitting right next to you, you don't need to shout in his ear." Several times a day I have to ask him to lower his volume.

Apparently he talks so quiet she can barely hear him.

What?

This is the kid that I am afraid has a hearing problem because he is shouting so much at home.

The things we learn about our kids. At least I know that I don't need to take him into the ear doctor. I might need to take myself in pretty soon though if he doesn't start talking quieter at home. Hearing loss will set in.

Happy Tears

Life with kids is often a daily grind with the usual routine of getting them ready for school, helping with the mounds of homework that teachers assign along with book reports, projects and then managing all of the other extras that kids do like sports, piano, cub scouts and scouts. I won't even go into all of the micro-managing of laundry, refereeing of fights etc.

But every so often a moment comes along that brings those happy mother tears to your eyes. That moment when you look at your child and either you are so proud of them or you see how proud they are of their own achievement and your heart swells with emotion and you think ... wow... it's all really worth it.

A few weeks ago Giggles class was recorded reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and it aired on the radio yesterday morning. We gathered around in our living room and listened to it before school as a family. Giggle's face beamed as the sound of all the children in his class combined came over the radio waves belting out the Pledge of Allegiance. Tears filled my eyes as I listened and watched him. He has come so far since joining our family in 2007. He continues to amaze me with his abilities and I know that he can do anything that he sets his mind to. I'm so grateful for him.

Darn it... here come those happy tears again.

Birthday Candles; Take Two

Giggles turned 7 on Saturday and on Friday afternoon I had a friend party for him. Because it was in the afternoon after school I was going solo in the parent department with 6 friends plus Giggles, Sheriff, Wannabe, Smiley and Sunshine (our foster daughter). Things were going great despite the odds until it came to the presentation of the cake. I couldn't bring over the cake with lit candles AND take a picture of him blowing out the candles at the same time. I needed to set the cake down on the table and go back for the camera.

SIDENOTE: Giggles has ADHD and when he gets something in his mind ... like oh... blowing out candles....

So here I am bringing the cake over and he is on the opposite side of the table and sees a cake with candles on it. He starts climbing onto the table to get to it. I know right away what it happening and I say, "wait... (still climbing) wait! (still climbing and now has his whole torso on the table) WAIT!!!!! (torso and legs fully on the table)

Too late. He reached the cake and blew out the candles before I could even set it down and stop him.

I was not to be stopped however in my memory making moment. "I'll just have to relight the candles and you'll blow them out again." I say

To this one of Giggle's friends responds, "are you INSANE?"

I flash back to all the moments I have had with Giggles and Smiley and I think, "yes, just a little bit."

True story.

Easter Fun

How many Easter Hunts can one family squeeze in in a day??? Our family managed 8.

The Easter Bunny visited our home while we slept and left some fun things for the boys.


Then we drove over to Grandma C's. Hunt #2 was for Smiley's age group. He did fairly well with mom dragging him along (his legs are little so he needed some assistance to go faster) Hey!!! the point is to win right???


Hunt #3 was for Giggles and Wannabe's age group. Giggles is really fast and faster still when it comes to egg hunts. He needs NO HELP from mom.




Hunt #4 was for Sheriff's age group and by this time mom was really getting competitive and was pointing out to Sheriff where the eggs were. Poor kid was getting turned around as he would go for one egg and I would shout to him to go somewhere else. Settle down mom!!!


Hunt #5 was for everyone... adults included. My total egg count for this hunt... one. Yep! One. I'm not the only disappointed soul however....




Hunt #6 was actually a treasure hunt with clues devised by my in-laws that had us running all over the place. Lots of fun and one of the clues even made fun of Brett backing into the basketball pole at his grandma's which had everyone laughing... except Brett of course.

Hunt #7 was at Grandma G's and was for all the kids.


Hunt #8 was also at Grandma G's and was for everyone. This is the hunt where everyone hopes to find lots of GOLDEN EGGS because they have lots of cash in them. I made up for my pathetic showing in Hunt #5 and came away with 4 golden eggs. Yeah mom!!!

Of course the best part is not the candy, the money, or the loads of chocolate.... the best part is spending time with family.




We are also grateful that Giggles is still alive after his attempt to make everyone laugh by putting his leg over the balcony at Grandma C's. No one found it funny as it would have resulted in a long fall to the concrete below. Giggles was not giggling when he got in trouble from his dad. (thankfully I was getting food plates ready for kids... I think I would have died of a heart attack if I had witnessed it).


At lunch today I put green marshmallow Peeps on the boys plates as a treat and told them that they had to "eat their Peeps last". I got a few snickers out of that comment and Smiley said "we pee on the toilet". Every time one of the boys talked about the Peeps on their plate Smiley would snap his head around to me wondering why no one was getting in trouble for saying "peeps" and he would say "no!!! we pee on the toilet".

Later today we watched The Lamb of God video with the boys and talked about Jesus. The boys were riveted to the video and I think watching it helped them to understand a little more what the Savior did for us and that he lives again.

It has been a wonderful weekend. Hope you had a great one too!

Giggles gets just rewards.

Giggles was challenged through his preschool program to complete 15 minutes of reading a day (which meant mom or dad had to read to him every day) for a month.  This goal was successfully met and as a reward there was a party for all of the children who met their reading goals.

It was held at the State Fair and dad was the lucky one who got to go with him.  The met the Cat in the Hat...

Curious George...

held a millipede... (sort looks like the one April had in her house which she then ran over with her car - again, and again, and again)

and a Madagascar hissing cockroach (I'm so glad he didn't ACCIDENTALLY bring it home with him)...

Giggles said to his dad "I was really good today wasn't I"  "yes you were" replied dad.  "will you tell mom"  (melt my heart... just like deep down Brett knows I'm nice inside...deep down Giggles wants to make good choices).  Although I did do a double take today at lunch time when he said "I saw Satan at church today." What the.... how do you NOT ask a follow-up question when you hear that????  "you saw Satan at church today?" "Yep, in a picture." (takes another bite of his sandwich) and I breath a huge sigh of relief.  If you knew Giggles you would know it really WAS a huge sigh of relief.  

Good job on your goal Giggles!