Lake Living

One sunny day last week a friend from school invited us down to her lake home. Of course I said YES! We had 3 moms and 10 kids (4 from Meg's class, 2 from Evan's, plus older and younger siblings. Except our siblings... I left Tressa and Hayden home with a babysitter. Expensive but worth it!)

The kids swam off the dock for awhile. Then we took the boat out for the kids to ride the towable. After we returned to the dock, the kids swam and fished while one of the moms made a fabulous fajita dinner. Every kid who fished caught something. One little guy caught a rather large catfish! The kids were so thrilled by each and every fish caught! At dusk, we made a campfire and toasted marshmallows for s'mores. We couldn't spend the night because I needed to get back to my little ones, so we left after the campfire, got home at 11pm. Great day!

Hannah, Evan and Meghan cruisin' through the "no wake" zone.


Fishing off the dock. That's Evan in the red jacket and goggles.


Good catch, Megs!

Another New Pool!

Check out this pool -- perfect for four kids!

Thanks Nana and Granddad!

Gasp! Who put the baby in the pool naked?

Tressa's 4th Birthday

Strawberry cake again, because Tressa loves pink!

At Tressa's request, we took the kids mini-golfing. Tressa went first at each hole, which entailed her running to the pin, dropping in her ball, and then jumping up happily telling us "I got it in!"

Ooh-la-la, my Tressa is posh!

One of Tressa's presents from Nana and Granddad was a Fancy Nancy suitcase full of exquisite ensembles (those are fancy words for beautiful clothes). Tressa was ecstatic! (That's a fancy word for happy).

Ahhhh --- Summer Nights!

They call themselves "Team Firefly"...

(yes, they really said that!)

Evan

"the spotter"

Meghan

"the catcher"

Tressa

"the keeper"

Perfect!

Evan's Seventh

Seven boys, two sisters, water balloons, water guns, and a water slide! That's one wild and crazy party!!

Mazel Tov!

Look at how wet that bib is! Poor little Hayden is cutting 3 molars all at the same time! The drool is unstoppable.










And on the topic of cutting teeth... here's Evan's latest. We've been waiting more than 4 YEARS for this one!
The next two pictures are Evan at age 2 1/2 when he knocked those bad boys out! There aren't many things cuter than a 2-year-old boy with his two front teeth missing!

Wee-Child Gets Wii-Fit

"Say 'buh-bye' to this belly!"

New Pool

How obnoxious is this? I begged Craig to return it... but he's such a kid. He refused.

Take note of our old pool in the background, deflated, dejected, formerly loved by the children, but now pathetic. The eyes of man are never satisfied... now where did I read that? Oh yes, Proverbs 27:20.

May by the Numbers

245 Photos Taken

45 Bushes, Hostas & Flowers Planted
8 Doctor Visits

6 Birthday Parties

4 Ear Infections
2 Field Trips

2 Nights of Fireworks

1 Awards Ceremony

1 Greek Olympics
1 Spring Concert 1 Animal Parade

How old are you now, Meghan?

Happy TENTH birthday, Your X-cellency!

Hooking 'em younger and younger...

"Why yes I do have older siblings. And why do you ask?"
Well, Hayden, it may have something to do with the earphones and wii remote in your lap!

Golden Cheeseburger

On Friday, driving the kids home from school, the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise" came on. Of course all the kids love it so I cranked it. The first line goes, "Tried to amend my carnivorous habits...". That word, "carnivorous", registered as familiar to Meghan and Evan.

"Hey! He said 'carnivorous'! Why did he say 'carnivorous'?"

Well.... they are used to hearing that word in the unfortunate context of one of their parents telling the screaming baby to "shut his carnivorous pie-hole". It reads worse than it actually is, since it is said lovingly in a cooing sort of way. Originally the phrase was to shut his cavernous pie-hole. Also fitting. But like nearly all names and phrases used in this household, it morphed.

So back to the story, hearing an unusual-though-familiar word made the kids curious as to what this song was about. So I explained that Jimmy was on a no-meat diet, etc., but at night he would dream about cheeseburgers.

"Oh. The song's a dream. I never knew that."

No, it's not a dream. We ended up going line-by-line. I told them what each line actually was, and then a brief explanation of what it meant.

"OHHHHH! I thought he said '[something that makes no sense at all]'".

Don't we all know how that is?! A certain New Order song about being shot right through with a "bolt of blue" comes to my mind... I always thought it was "bow harpoon". Not that I ever knew what a bow harpoon was (we didn't have Wikipedia back then). Or how about REM's "What's the Frequency Kenneth"? There's a minefield of miscommunication. You tell me, in the first line, is it "what's the frequency, kenneth, is your benzadrine" OR is it, "what's the frequency, kenneth, is your Benz a dream"? and later on, "You wore a shirt of violent green" OR is it, "You are a short, violent freak." None of those translations make much sense, but Michael Stipe would say it's the first option in both examples. Oh well. Back in the eighties and nineties we didn't have lyrics.com, so we did the best we could with our bare ears. And my ears are notoriously bad at deciphering song lyrics, as well as English in general if spoken by a southerner, australian, brit, indian, or really any non-native American. I am fairly decent at understanding preschoolers, though.

Back to the song, there are quite a few things that the kids didn't understand... what is warm beer? a Holiday Inn? Havanas? Daquiris? Heinz 57? Draft beer? This song was not looking so pretty when undressed. Add to that, I always feel uneasy singing the line "Good God Almighty which way do I steer...", for obvious reasons. Hmm. Better explain some things to the kids. So I asked Evan to tell me the first three commandments, which he is currently memorizing in school.

"1. You shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not make for yourself an idol. 3. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD, your God."

"This song," I told him, "breaks two of those commandments."

Silence. Better help him a little... "Good God Almighty. Is that not misusing the name of the LORD?"

"Oh yeah."

"And would you say that the cheeseburger might be an idol to him?"

"Hmmm. He made a big golden cheeseburger." Idol = golden calf. Therefore, golden cheeseburger. The logical deductions of a six-year-old. Gotta love it!

Well, Meghan and I thought that was pretty funny. And that made Evan and Tressa laugh too. We all had a good laugh picturing the golden cheeseburger. Hopefully that will help them remember the lesson! I'll never forget how my own mother ruined the song "Jesse's Girl" for me back when I was a kid by telling me that Rick was coveting Jesse's girlfriend... and thereby violating the tenth commandment. Perhaps my kids will have a headstart on discernment. But then again, maybe this lesson was for me. Maybe I should quit listening to certain songs, and certainly in the presence of little ears. As I recently read in a sermon transcription, "99% pure water, 1% sewage - I am not drinking". Not bad advice.