life of the party crasher

"Where's Ethan?"

This is a question that has been asked many times.  One time we lost him for 1/2 hour (!) at the Lights of Christmas deal at warm beach.  *shudder*

Anyhow, this was nothing like that.  Ebo was at a birthday party for one of his best buddies, along with Aidan and Luke, at Jump Around Fun Zone.  The plan was to play there for a while then go out for Pizza somewhere in Blaine.  Of course, since this is Washington State, Jump Around Fun Zone, being an indoor facility loaded with bouncy houses, was a dry, comfortable refuge to no less than three separate birthday parties on this day.

Shelly, the mother of the birthday boy was doing a quick head count when the question came up: "where's Ethan?"  Incidentally, Shelly was with us when we lost him at the Lights of Christmas *shudder*.  After searching the facility herself to no avail, she enlisted the aid of some of the older boys at the party to search the facility for Ethan. 

Still nothing.

Then she started thinking outside the box.

Not too long after that, Ebo was found.

She found him sitting in one of the other private party rooms eating pizza, chips and pop. 

There were at least 20 other kids in that room.  Ethan didn't know any of them.  Didn't matter.  Apparently it didn't occur to him that his brothers should be around somewhere.  I honestly don't know what is more strange: Ethan following a bunch of kids he doesn't know into a room to eat OR the parents in charge just giving him food.  Actually the weirdest thing about it is that it's just not really that surprising at all.  If it'd been one of the other boys...  unimaginable.  Ethan?  yeah....  I can see that happening.

The lady in charge of the party Ethan crashed told Shelly that he came in and acted like he was in the right place so she gave him some food.  She even let Ethan take his food with him.  Of course all the other kids were confused as to why Ethan got to have food and no one else did.

Ethan didn't see anything strange about it all. 

I asked him about it in the car on the way home.  He started to explain himself, stammered a bit, then just went silent.  I didn't press. 

Some things have no explanation.

Like this, for instance.

I don't recall ever mentioning to Ethan that he needs to hang up his socks and underwear in this way.  As a matter of fact I can't think of anyone else I've ever seen take care of their underclothes in such a way.  Luke had no explanation.



Of course, not many 6-year-olds can bang out hand stand push-ups until they get bored.

He's a special kind of treasure.

justus 1.5

He's so peaceful when he wakes up, when he has his precious thumb

When he wants to turn on the charm, there's plenty to go around.

This is what his face looked like after a weekend with Dad. He plows through life with a good amount of reckless abandon.

 

Yes, that is a hot pepper in his hand and he was eating it.  Don't even think about taking it away from him.  A hard thing about Justus is that as much as he might love whatever he's doing (taking a bath, eating rocks, writing on furniture with permanent maker, etc), the expression of his disdain for concluding said activity dwarfs that love in duration and intensity.

J-Bear always has a smile for the camera. 

And some piercing blues to draw you in. 

Can you smell what Justus is cooking? 

huntin'

Aidan and Luke are really into hunting lately.  I love it.  They are outside, getting exercise, being manly.
They are however 8 and 10 so they need a safer version than what one might normally think of as hunting.

They dress in snow gear (because our yard is a mud pit), grab a BB gun (we now have more than just the pink one), some ammo and head out.  Most of the time they walk around looking for birds, rabbits, voles, or a coyote would make them very happy.  One day they came up with the idea of setting up a "blind." 

Here is Luke behind the blind waiting for dinner to come walking up.  Notice the strategic placement near the bird feeder.

I am so thankful that they have not yet actually killed anything.  We don't hunt for sport alone and I really am not looking forward to whatever meal they bring home...

free time

"Hey Mom, can we use the face paint?"

"Sure, but you have to let me take your picture."

{Side note: I should also have required that I find no traces of the paint in my house afterward.  It was everywhere.}

ava turns 4

Ava celebrated her golden birthday this year.

She turned 4 on the 4th.

Grandma D and Aunt Helen came over and we enjoyed the usual birthday merriment.

This is the face Ava makes when she is thinking. She is that cute almost all of the time.

on any given afternoon

{I am not going to be cliché and mention anything about how long it has been since we have posted anything on this blog.}

Walking through my house on any basic afternoon, this is what I find.

Open books. 

Everywhere.

Someone is in the middle of reading these books.  (I only have three readers currently but I have around ten open books in my house.) 

On the one hand I love it.  Hey they are reading. 

On the other hand, I really like a tidy home and I do not see how this is going to possible in the future when I have five readers times several books being read multiplied by "I can't risk putting it back on the shelf or finding a bookmark".