Comfortable Anywhere

While Eva and Machara were visiting, all of the kids spent a lot of time in the playroom.  There was a lot of yelling, laughing, screaming, crying, hitting, hugging, bossing and playing.  The four older kids just wore themselves out.  At one point in time I opened the door because I couldn't hear anything.  That is never a good sign.  At the bottom of the stairs I saw Machara.

She must have been too tired to make it up the stairs.  She slept like this for at least an hour.

Gus must have thought Machara had a good idea.  A couple of days later it was again too quiet and this is what I found...

This doesn't look comfortable to me.  I tried laying on a stair (no, no pictures of that) and it was horrible.  It must have been somewhat comfortable because both kids slept there for a long while.

Knitting

You probably saw the title of this post and thought I had taken up knitting.  Boy were you wrong.  I have nothing against knitting but I just can't add another thing to my schedule at the moment.  Kelsey is the knitter and she brought her stuff with her when she came to visit.  She is pretty good too.  She knit me a scarf last year and I love it.  So Kelsey had some down time and decided to knit...this is important to note so people don't start feeling like I worked her to the bone while she was here.  John thought the whole process looked interesting and wanted to give it a try.  Kelsey was kind enough to show him what to do.

Deep in concentration.

John kind of forgot all about this until he saw these pictures.  Then he tells me that he would like to "continue with the needle thing".  He was a little upset when I told him that I don't know how to knit.  After a moment he said, "Well, that's okay.  Kelsey can just come and stay with us again."  So Kelsey, if you have an opening next summer, instead of bringing paint clothes, you can just bring knitting needles.

July 4th Activities

Kelsey came to visit us again this summer.  I was actually surprised she wanted to visit again.  Our house is a bit hectic.  Just a bit.  I'm always thankful when she comes.  I was especially thankful for this visit because I had so much to get done around the house and Hans had just brought home a new puppy.  However, I couldn't have her visit for two weeks without some kind of fun.  We decided to go to the July 4th celebration at the community park in Channahon.  There were bouncy houses, music, dunk tanks, a playground and a splash pad.  We also decided to bring Fritz.  This was his first social outing and, while Hans and I were consumed with the three boys, Kelsey took control of Fritz and dealt with all of the "Oh a PUPPY!" comments.

 Fritz stole the show.  He was actually pretty good the whole time.

 Fritz was starting to bark and Gus was telling him to be quiet.  It was very cute.

 Gus stood here in the middle of chaos for a long time.  Just watching.  He isn't always sure what to do in a big crowd.

Then, out of nowhere and with no help he decided to climb something.  He is the poster child for "it is always the quiet ones".

 Anders had fun finding random trash and trying to eat it.  I had fun fishing things out of his mouth.

 If you ask John to smile, this is what you get.  What a weirdo.

People were telling us it just couldn't get any cuter...a baby and a puppy.

 Anders decided he was thirsty.  He does not like sippy cups.  I've tried every sippy cup there is and I haven't found one he will drink from.  Evidentally the dog bowl is the way to go.

Poor Fritz.  Anders licked the bowl dry.  As cute as this is, I also think it is quite disgusting.  But what are you going to do?

 John was dancing to the music.  He just can't help himself.

 He was showing me some of the moves he has learned from So You Think You Can Dance.

I'm so glad I caught this picture.  I love it.

After spending the afternoon in the park we all went back to the car to catch the fireworks show.  I didn't know it at the time but we were really close to the point of origin.  Really, really close.  I'm-pretty-sure-it wasn't-the-safest-thing-close.  It was so much fun.

 This was Gus' first fireworks show.  He LOVED it!
And before you ask yourself, "does that kid ever wear pants?"  The answer is no.  But he did have pants on before this and then played in the water.  I'm not crazy enough to leave the house with kids with no pants...but I may return to the house that way.

We all had a blast and can't wait to go back next year.