Saturday: change of plans

The day started out as planned.  Ben and I slept in, got McDonald's, and played Dominion.  We dealt with a few things around the house.  We finished our movie.  As we were having lunch we learned that Isaac wasn't feeling well and that the kids were going to come home early afternoon.

It was fine, but it was a bit sad to not have the extra day to ourselves.  There might be plans to do another night soon, but nothing is on the calendar yet.

Friday: out and about

 This morning we were supposed to go on a walk with Aunt C.  We get about a third of the way there and the car starts making a weird sound...a grinding sound in the front left.  We get about two thirds of the way there and I decide that this is not a good idea anymore.  I cancel on Aunt C and call the shop to see if they can take a quick listen right then.

They can!  So we go to the car shop.  Of course, I wasn't planning on this so I don't have things for the kids to do.  They did an amazing job over the next 30-40 minutes though, taking turns with my phone and being patient.  The people did hear the noise, but everything looks ok.  The boot that covers the axle joint was still in good condition and there weren't any vibrations so I was given the ok to keep driving.

Aunt C texted me just as we were about to leave the shop so we ended up restarting our plans with her!  We were going for a walk at the Discovery Center and it was a beautiful day to do so.

There was a hawk sitting on one of the pillars in the playscape.  It was at the same place I'd put a hawk statue, so that was cool.  Joshua was excited to show Aunt C the eagle nest.

And we saw the birds of prey, walked around for a bit, enjoyed the playground a little bit more, and just had a lovely time.

We got back home, misunderstood each other a little bit as chores were getting done, and then I brought the kids to Larry and Cheryl's house for the weekend.  Ben and I had a very relaxing night: pizza and a movie, two games of Dominion, and no wrangling of kids.  It was wonderful.

Thursday: mostly Joshua

It was a rather busy day.  I got a few things finished, but there were several that didn't.  Oh well.  We went grocery shopping this morning.  By the end of the trip I was rather done.  I'm not sure why...grocery shopping is usually tolerable.

Isaac and I played my new Dominion set.  It was the easy intro, but still a lot of fun.

Isaac went rock climbing.  He enjoyed himself much more than last night, but he was by himself.

It was meet the teacher night.  We had piano lessons right afterwards, so there was a bit of a time crunch.  We made it though!  The whole place was busy, which was a little rough.

Joshua's room was nice, as was his teacher.  Ben got a cute picture.

Isaac's stuff was definitely geared towards older kids.  He put his stuff in his locker and has a schedule and I'm slowly feeling more comfortable.  I know they've done this transition lots of times, but I don't completely know what to expect.

As we were praying tonight, I started out with some adoration: "You are the King of kings" and a few others.   The Joshua jumped in: "Oh, I've got one.  You are like a killer bunny."  "Oh?" I asked.  "Yeah, God's dangerous like the laser eyes killer bunnies have, but He can also be soft and cuddly."  I'll be honest, it seems like a very apt description.

Wednesday: kids

It felt like the day was all about the kids.  It's ok, and I still got some other work done, but it was just a fine day.

Isaac was ready to work on a Minecraft set, so we did that in the morning.  It was only missing one piece!  And it was an easy to find 2x2 brick...all the fiddly pieces that are usually missing were present.  It was pretty exciting.

Joshua and a friend went to Urban Air this afternoon and stayed for 3.5 hours.  We got home and Joshua crashed, but he had played really hard.

Isaac tried out the dev(elopment) team at rock climbing.  I was really hoping he'd love it and he definitely didn't.  The timing was even going to work out no problem.  So now we have some questions we need to ask...does it get harder/more challenging?  Can he try a few more practices and then decide?  Ben and I don't want to force him to do it, but at the same time there are a lot of good parts about being part of a team.  Stay tuned.

Monday: Detroit

We were in Detroit today.  We had a small mismash of things planned, and the plan worked pretty well.  There was a bit of extra afternoon downtime in between things, but the break was nice too.

We started with Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.  It's an arcade with a mix of old things (think talking heads and old arcarde games), pinball machines, and new arcade games.  Ben and I were expecting a bit more old games and fewer new ones, but we still had a fun time.

Hit the dots was a favorite game and got played several times throughout the time.

There was also a Japanese drum game.  Similar to rock band, but Ben said that the drum heads were better.

My personal favorite was the bus one.  It is pretty much one of those silly drop a coin in and get tickets out if you drop it in the right place.  But, it was only a penny AND instead of tickets you got pennies back out, so you could drop them in again.  It was a lot of fun for only 25cents total.

Next we went to iFly, an indoor skydiving place.  Isaac has wanted to go for the last several months and Ben was excited to do it again.  It was a lot of fun!  Joshua even conquered his fear of going up high in the wind tunnel and decided to do it last minute.  Let's see...the first time Isaac got in the wind tunnel his legs pretty much flew over his head, but he got the hang of it really quickly.  Ben was able to go a bit more advanced and was able to steer himself around a little bit.  And I was happy with just being stable...or as stable as one gets in a wind tunnel for the first time.

Then we went to our hotel in downtown Detroit.  It has a little sitting area separated from the beds and I'm rather excited by it.  I'm currently sitting with the lights on, not worrying about waking up the kids.

The last surprise of the day was dinner at the Sugar Factory.  It has been Isaac's favorite restaurant (that he had only been to once prior) for a long time, although when I asked him at lunch time today he didn't mention it.  It's been several years since we've gone and I think he had given up.  Ben and I split a cajun pasta that was amazing.  (Side note, at lunch Joshua had a grilled cheese that he didn't like, but everyone else  thought it was amazing.  So we knocked it out of the park with food today.)  Then, of course, we had desserts.  In no particular order:

Joshua didn't think I'd let him get this one because of the sucker.  But since I had already told him he couldn't get the King Kong dessert that serves 12, I told him yes to this and he was rather excited.

And now we're back in our room.  The kids are asleep...Joshua told us he wanted to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.  I'm exhausted, but it's only 9:30pm and a bit too early for me to go to bed.  I didn't sleep all that well last night as the air conditioner was really noisy when it turned on.  I woke up a lot, but at least I was also able to quickly go back to sleep.

Sunday: poem and Joshua

 I forgot to share my birthday poem from Dusty:

Happy Birthday to a girl named Amanda,

with more moves than a kung fu panda,

She's sweet as can be

And heals as a tree,

With better shade than my house's veranda.

**********

We were driving in one of Ben's work vehicles today and it alerted him that he should keep his eyes on the road.  (He was trying to get the error on purpose and was being very careful.)  Joshua responded with, "Ouch, that would hurt."

Saturday: birthday

 Happy birthday to me!  I received some nice presents this morning and did mostly normal Saturday stuff.  

This evening we visited with some friends.  These are the friends that only have boys...the kids ran around a bunch and we all had a good time.