Tuesday: a classic summer day

Today felt like a classic day of summer vacation.  There was some school work done, but it was in the form of a video game.  Joshua had gymnastics.  There was a boring errand. 

We also went to something at the library called "Science Tellers."  They tell a story with special effects and then walk through the special effects to show the science behind them.  At first I was skeptical.  It was a good story, but I wasn't seeing how the kids would connect it to science.

She also used a lot of volunteers, which is always fun.

We had some more screen time after that and then the boys wanted to play in the sprinklers.  (Side bar: The sprinkler people finally made it here to 'start' the sprinklers today, on their third try.  I signed up for an 8am appointment so I would be first and wouldn't have to worry about the 4 hour window, but they didn't show up until 9:30.  Then Isaac noticed one of the sprinklers wasn't working.)

They had a great time playing in the sprinklers with the tunnel.  I know it's for toddlers, but it's a 'safe zone' from sprinklers too.

Friday: VBS, starting vacation

I'll admit, I don't remember much about the last day of VBS.  I think it went fine.  During prayer request time I was asked to "pray for my grandmother...who's already dead".  I knew what they meant though.

You can see Joshua in the front row below.

After VBS I continued packing.  I skipped my nap because I knew I wasn't going to be able to settle enough to sleep.  This meant we got out the door on time, but that we didn't travel as far because I wasn't up to it.  We made it about five hours or so, so still over half the trip.  The boys fell asleep promptly, so that was good.

We made a stop in Champaign to pick up some cheese dip from our favorite restaurant.  It was surprising how much I didn't remember about the roads.  We didn't go into the city very deep because we wanted to get farther down the road.

Monday: first day home

We had several errands that needed to be run today.  They ended up going faster than I was expected, which was nice.

Everything is almost unpacked.  There is one more box that needs to be done; it is the "annoying box".  That last bag/box/suitcase that has all the odds and ends that you don't really know what to do with but you know they need to be dealt with.

Saturday: coming home

After a week in Missouri we came back.  (More posts to follow.)

First we had to pack up and get out of the house by 10am.  While it was a bit early, we were ready in time.  We ate leftovers with whatever we could find. 

The boys played a few last games of the driving arcade game.

We said our sad goodbyes and left.  We decided to go to the Discovery Center that was about an hour up the road, but pretty close to our planned route.  We stayed there quite a while and had a really fun time.  (We also went to an Indian restaurant down the road and the kids didn't like it at all.  Not even the mango lassi-s.)

There was a bed of nails.  It felt quite silly, actually.

Shadow wall

Ferro liquids

I drank from a toilet!  I was Mrs. Stinky for a while with all the kids, so it seemed so appropriate.

Joshua immediatly went to the big Lego blocks and patched up the house framework.

They were both surprised by the whisper dish.  They thought it was magic for a while until I showed them the dishes.

The water part was one of their favorite parts.  I had to "drag" them away because other people needed a chance to play too.

But then we found some air tubes with pom poms that blew out and hit you.  I haven't seen that much excited jumping from the kids in a while.

Joshua was really hamming it up on the drive home.  "Mom, do you know the word Mississippi?"  "Mom, do you have the toilet seat?"  (That one stumped me for a while until I realized it was his portable one.)

We pushed through the whole drive in the end.  The boys slept quite a bit and so that is always helpful.

Thursday: VBS

Today's VBS went a bit better than yesterday.  People listened during the lesson.  There was a skillet and phone book incident though.  (Two of the kids got the relics of a strongman show...but then didn't want to let us carry them for the rest of the morning.  Seriously...we couldn't let a kid carry around a skillet with so many kids around.)

Here's Joshua with his class.  He's the one in sunglasses.

Wednesday: today

Well...VBS day 3.  We had two new students today that were a handful.

Isaac and Joshua are spending the night at Cheryl's, so it was a relaxing afternoon.  I did do some work, but I could do it while not talking to anyone. 

Tuesday: VBS day 2, evening

VBS was good today.  Our class got to go on stage to dance with a sloth.

I sat almost next to Joshua while Isaac was on stage, but I don't think that he ever noticed me.

It was a cleaning day, and Tornado snuck into the pantry one of the times I opened it for cleaning supplies.  Then I opened it again a few minutes later and saw this...

This evening didn't work very well for Joshua.  I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, but the problem he was crying about was the bath foam.  He didn't like it.  But when we ran out of foam he wanted to make sure I got more.  But he wanted to play with it.  But he didn't.  Ben and I both talked to him and I finally told him if he couldn't calm down and play he was going to bed early.  He didn't calm down.  On his way out of the tub he hit me again.  (Again, not hard; but it still isn't ok.)  I called in the reinforcements, since he seems to listen to Ben better than to me.  After a double talking to by Ben (about slightly different things) he finally went to get his pajamas on and calmed down.  He still went to bed early.