Can you call the black phone?

Caleb had been bugging me to play a computer game. I told him that when I got done with my shower he could go and play. Well, just as I was getting out he ran down to play. As he was running down the phone rang, and I yelled for him to answer it. I didn't think that he had heard me as it kept ringing. But it stopped ringing, and then a minute later it started ringing again. I hurried to answer it, and it was a friend. My friend then proceeded to tell me that Caleb had indeed answered the phone the first time, and this was how that first conversation had played out:

Friend: Is your mom there?
Caleb: Yes, she is. But she is just getting out of the shower, and I'm downstairs playing a computer game. Could you hang up and call again, but call the black phone instead?
Friend: Ok, but don't answer the phone this time.

Caleb wanted her to call the black phone (which just happens to be the phone in our bedroom). He was so excited that I finally let him go play his computer game, he thought of a very good plan to not have to leave his game and come get me!!

Multi-Engine Checkride

Joel passed his checkride this afternoon. He now has his multi-engine rating! The kids were excited too. We celebrated by taking them out for dinner. We've had a good time, but now we can go home!

My Body Project

We also worked on a life-size body project this week. It was recommended to us by a couple of different people so we decided to do it. The kids enjoyed coloring all the different organs and then attempting to put them in their proper places.

Hanging out!

We are spending this week hanging out in a hotel out of town where Joel is doing some flight training. We are having a blast swimming in the pool, visiting the area, reading all the books at Barnes & Noble, paper airplane flying in a nearby field, more swimming in the pool, cutting out lots of paper dolls, Barbies versus a Storm Trooper, and more. One hard thing is trying to keep the noise at a reasonable level while in the hotel. They're not being any louder than usual, but every sound just seems 10 times louder than at home. Add a crying baby every now and then and I think most of the hotel can hear us.

They're watching a movie right now and Caleb just said, "Whenever people get happy at the end of movies, it makes me happy."

Jumper

Grandma F. bought this material for a dress for Eliana when she was here visiting. Eliana just loved the little butterflies on it and especially the princesses. Grandma told her she was going to make her a jumper and then mail it to her when she was done. Well, while we were waiting for the jumper, Eliana would talk about how it would make her jump. I was wondering what she was going to think when it got here. When Eliana tried it on, she started semi-jumping around the room and then said to me, "Mom, how come it's not making me jump?"

Sleeping baby

Turtles

We had three big turtles in our living room last night.

Water Works VBS

The kids were at VBS this past week and had a blast every day.

A "stained glass" window

Joel was home sick from work for 2 days last week. The kids wanted to cheer dad up so they made him a "pretty" window to look at while in bed. Looks like we'll have our own private coral reef for a while!

A solar engineer

"Did you know that in less than 1 hour the sun delivers as much free energy as will be consumed by earth's population for one entire year? Solar energy is not only unending, the amount produced is staggering. As the cost for producing solar energy drops, and the costs of fossil fuel rises, producing energy from the sun will become more widespread."

Caleb & I started working on this solar kit today. The quote above is found in the book that came with it. The kit has over 30 experiments and then he'll build 12 different models. He was so excited building the basic solar model and seeing his engine spinning a sprocket wheel. We also built a "tractor." It'll be fun to see everything we can do.

3 Little Wooden Catamarans

The kids had fun today building little wooden catamarans at Home Depot today. Joel can tell they are getting smarter and more independent. Joanna and Caleb went ahead and nailed some of their boards almost correctly. He had to help them do some disassembly to get them together properly. Eliana, on the other hand, just started nailing one of her boards into the workbench. Joel had a hard time keeping up with everyone, but somehow he managed. In the end, all the catamarans look pretty good.

The pool

We finally made it to the outdoor pool at the Y! Although the water was very cold from the storm the night before, the kids had a blast. Caleb is tall enough this year to go down the slides and he loved it. He would go down the long yellow slide and then wait at the bottom for Joel. As soon as Joel was down, Caleb was jumping and flapping his arms ready to go again.

A Little Imagination Goes a Long Way

When Joel went out in the back yard today to see what Joanna, Caleb, and Eliana were up to, they invited him to join in playing house with them. Joanna was cooking in the "kitchen" and Caleb announced with a water pistol in hand, "I'm gonna hunt for chicken!" That was too good of an invitation, so Joel grabbed a super soaker "gun" and joined Caleb for the hunt. Caleb said that the best way to hunt chickens and turkeys is to hide behind something (like the electricity box) and wait for them to come out. Then you run out and shoot them. So that's exactly what they did and brought home several plump turkeys and chickens for Joanna to cook up.

Since this was an old-fashioned frontier house, they would have to cook the chickens over the fire. First Caleb plucked the chickens with his super vacuum plucker machine (an admitted anachronism for the frontier days) , and then began turning them over the fire (sandbox) on a "spit."


Then Joanna came up with a better plan of having the birds cook on a rack (basketball net) over the fire. Eliana helped collect the green leafy vegetables (weeds from the yard) for the salad.


However, when Mom arrived home from the store with a (real) pizza, all plans of eating the sumptious poultry and salad dinner were scrapped in favor of the pizza.

2 months old

Karis is getting so big. We all love her talking to us and her little squeaks.

The kids just love this shirt. - "Daddy does my hair."

They laugh every time she wears it.

"So big!"

An evening at the park

Evenings are a nice time to go to the park now that the warmer weather is here. There was some new equipment that the kids got to enjoy and of course the good ol' swings.

Tootles can't go in the swings yet, but it won't be long.

Sleep!!

Karis slept for a little over 8 hours last night!! I woke up around 5am and thought she was waking up, but it was just the birds outside. She was still sleeping. It's always nice to get a little more uninterrupted sleep. Now I just need to get to bed when she goes to sleep.