Darren's Birthday Wish

One of Darren's favorite things to do is play video and computer games. He would play all day if he had his wish. Actually, I found out that it WAS his birthday wish!

After letting Darren play for several hours on a Saturday, I finally told him it was time to quit. He started crying and said, "But now my wish is NEVER going to come true!!!!! I wished that I could play video games for a whole day." He was devastated when I told him that probably wouldn't ever happen. I explained, "I could wish for all the candy in the world, but that wouldn't mean it is a good wish, because it would make me very sick." He replied,"But that wouldn't ever come true. I tried to wish for something that could actually come true!"

Am I a mean mom? Should I grant his wish? maybe I will after all . . .

Patio

Before: This is after the first contractor dug it up, before it was finished.
When it snowed, we had a red neck ice skating rink.

After! (We still need to do some landscaping, so ignore the weeds and dead grass.)

I found this playhouse at a garage sale for $40! I was so excited!

Last August, we hired a contractor to put a concrete slab, basketball hoop, french drain, and retaining wall in our backyard. He gave us the cheapest rate, but seemed like a good guy, so we went ahead and broke the #1 rule of hiring contractors: don't hire the cheapest guy!!! Long story short, this guy ended up being "Slim Shady" after taking our deposit, digging up the backyard, then doing nothing else for several months. It was excuse after excuse for why he couldn't come out. We fired him and waited until Jerry got another job, 7 months later, and then hired someone else to finish the job. It ended up costing a lot more, but we couldn't be happier with the results! It is so nice to have a fun place for the kids to play and ride their bikes instead of a soggy, squishy back yard!

Baseball Camp and Kids Camp

We started off our summer with a baseball camp for Darren at Timber Ridge High School. It lasted for four days. It was a small group, and Darren was one of the youngest kids at the camp, but he really liked it. The coaches seemed really nice. The following week, Darren and Claire got to go to Kids Camp at Light of the World Church, where they used to go to preschool and kindergarten. It was their second year to go, and we love it! Darren's classes each day were: cooking, "around the world", and "ooey-gooey science experiments." Claire's classes were: playground games, "down on the farm," and "planes, trains, and automobiles." Hopefully Miles will get to go next year, too.

Budding Scientist

This year was our first year to experience a science fair. Darren worked hard on his project and did almost everything by himself. He learned how to make several different kinds of airplanes, then tested them to see which one flew the farthest. He has always liked making paper airplanes, so this was a fun project. (Please excuse the "mad scientist" hair, as we were too busy experimenting to get a haircut!) We were pleasantly surprised when he won first place for his grade! We saw many other great ideas there. Darren is already trying to come up with a good idea for next year.

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial day with some of Jerry's work friends. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, and the kids played outstide in the water. It was nice to meet some of Jerry's friends from work.

Girl's Weekend and Campout

It was the weekend of the Father-Son Camp-out, so Claire and I decided we needed to have a special "girls weekend". We went to the Olive Garden, shopped for swimsuits at the mall, got haircuts, and made a craft for Claire's room. Claire LOVED the Olive Garden, and says it is her new favorite restaurant. We didn't even have time to do all the fun things that we had planned. We had so much fun, and are looking forward to many more! By the way, the boys had fun at their camp out, too. Darren's friend Gavin was there, and the two boys had fun exploring trails and staying up until midnight.

Car Troubles

Poor Jerry has been driving a purple Nissan Altima (that looks brown) almost since we've been married. When we bought it, it had 119,00 miles on it and we thought it would be something we only had to keep for a while while he went back to school. We sold his beloved Toyota Tacoma and paid cash for it. Anyway, one-hundred thousand miles and eight years later, it's still going, albeit the minor repair now and again. One such visit to the shop occurred a couple weeks ago. I told Jerry he could take the van to work and we would just walk everywhere. I ended up having "car troubles" of my own! The front wheel of our jogging stroller kept popping off and I couldn't get it to stay on. I had to throw it into the back of the stroller and go on the two back wheels, hoping no one would notice! We ended up having to walk to preschool, the grocery store, and the doctor!!! Good thing everything is so close. That's why I love living where we do.