Catching up

Wow, it's been a long time since I sat down and blogged. Lots of pictures to post, too. First, our trip to Six Flags a couple of weekends ago was a lot of fun. Besides the sweltering heat and the 2-hour wait to actually walk into the park, it was totally worth it. We were all really thankful to enjoy the quality time together, sans younger brothers, and Samuel got to enjoy a miriad of "firsts." The picture above is the tamest ride we tried, but also one of my favorites shots of the day. That's Adam with his hands out, and Samuel behind him with his hands up. Samuel was a bit disappointed to learn that his beloved Superman rollercoaster (which was featured in one of his Popular Mechanics for Kids videos) required a 54" height, and alas, he's only 51". But he did get to go on his first upside-down rollercoaster, the Boomerang. And he got to try out the new Tony Hawk ride.

Then we had my dad in town for several days. We didn't actually go out and do a lot with Poppy (again, the oppressive weather conditions), but did manage to go to a water park and hang around the pool. It was a really fun visit. Spending time with him always makes me (and everyone else too) miss having him around.

Somewhere in there, a plumbing fiasco left the kids' bathroom and bedrooms under water. It was a huge mess, and we ended up needing to replace the carpets in the bedroom. Now, when we moved in I sort of dropped the ball on decorating their rooms the way they wanted, so I decided that since the carpets are going to be torn out anyway, what better time to paint? So we're all covered with Castaway Blue right now as we try to tackle this as a family project. That's what I'm taking a break from now. I never imagined that I'd be letting the boys help me paint, but what better situation for them to pitch in? I heard somewhere never to underestimate what your kids can do to help out, and that's really proved true here with Samuel. He's learning how to paint properly, and I can honestly say that he's been a help rather than a hinderance. Even Elijah is learning how to dip his little paint brush in without getting too much. The tough part of this job is that the boys both decided they wanted a chalkboard paint design on their wall. So Elijah chose his shape, a house (easy), and Samuel chose his shape, a Star Wars T.I.E. fighter spacecraft (not easy). And I'm having a terrible time trying to tape off a shape that even barely resembles a spacecraft. But Samuel will be glad to finally have his Star Wars bedroom. I'll take pictures when it's all done. But at the rate we're going, that may be awhile!