Bovees and Brothers - Day 3

Well, today was packed with fun! We got up early and went to our weekly storytime at the Park's lovely home. This morning our theme was picnincs! Our picnic took place inside thank goodness! :) We heard a story that was about Prospect Park in New York where the Park family used to visit when they lived in Brooklyn, and a story about some run away babies. There were others two but those two were the best ones.

After story time we did a paper basket weaving craft. This was a little challenging for the little ones but everybody did great once they got the hang of it.

Craft is done and we are ready to march like the ants!

Liz played a guitar and the children took turns being the leader and marched around singing, "The ants go marching one by one, horrah, hoorah. The ants go......". I think Zeky was thinking "baby song" but he participated and didn't complain one time. His face shows his true feelings here. Ha!

Elli is the leader and still marching!

Then snack time! We all enjoyed some snacks on the picnic tablecloth in front of the fire.

Everybody smile! And Zeky of course putting food in his mouth just for the picture!

Then after Jonathon got home from some appointments, we headed to Shipshewana to see the ice sculptures. They were all real troopers as we walked around the whole downtown to spy which ones we could find. Amazing work of ice for sure! Anybody in the Shipshewana area should swing by for a visit.

At Blue Gate their is a huge horse. The children all thought it was funny because there were icecycles hanging from it's nose like frozen snott (wow, I don't know that I have ever spelled that word. Is that right?).

So amazing!

And you know I couldn't post something without pictures of Benaiah. Here is our little snow baby all bundled up enjoying the ice sculptures too.

We had told the children that we had something special planned for on the way to taking them home. Well, they all thought that the surprise was getting to see the ice sculptures. We didn't say otherwise until we pulled into the parking lot at the ice skating rink in Elkhart. Alegra has been begging for the last 2 years to go since she was given some ice skates awhile back. We never fit it into our funds and with our little guests and Alegra's birthday coming up, we decided to go for it. Happy Birthday early, Alegra!

You should have heard the excitement when they realized they were actually getting to go. This picture is of all of us entering the ice for the first time. Jonathon stayed with Benaiah and Josiah and I put some skates on skated with the children. I had done it as a child on small pond down the road from our house, but haven't since then.

This is how the girls looked most of the skating time. Hugging the rail with all of their might. I believe it was Diella who said later on that ice skating is harder than she thought it would be.

Zeky took to the ice quite quickly and was definitely braver than the girls. But the beow pictures are classic of him. Enjoy!

Yes, he still had his share of falling, but he got right back up and tried again. Zeky and I were the only ones who actually skated the full loop. Laura, the gal taking them the rest of the way home, came and sat with the girls while he and I braved away from the rail and skated away from the safety zone. My legs and feet were quite happy when we got back to the beginning and got to rest again.

They all really did have a good time despite being really cold. They even got to watch the zamboni come out and smooth out the ice. We took that time to get Zeky a bigger pair of skates and wipe runny, cold noses.

The four skaters showing off their slippery footwear.

Elli, Alegra, Diella, and Zeky

And finally everybody said they were done and we all went in and took those wretched things off our feet. I don't remember skates hurting so bad. Ha! I guess I wasn't this old either. :) Here is Laura helping out and making sure we all had all of our parts and pieces. Thanks Laura for your help!

By today the children were bickering a little more, but with fun things planned in the evening to keep them all busy, it helped a lot. I learned some lessons while having two more children in the house.

-Feels better to keep up with the dishes all day long than let them pile.

*Is better to make them keep up with the dishes.

-Is more difficult getting school accomplished.

*Helps to have them compete against each other to get school accomplished.

-Telling them what fun we are going to have helps motivate them to get ready.

*Seeing the sheer excitement on their faces from a surprise is much more fun.

-Having a quiet reading time is necessary to a peaceful day.

*Letting them choose between certain books is necessary for peaceful reading time.

-Establishing bedtime rules from the first night is imperative to going to sleep.

*Simply telling them they cannot do anything but breath and sleep works too.

-When all of the house is a disaster zone and the mom needs tranquility, computer games help.

*For calmness amongst ALL children at the same time, movies are better.

-And just when the meal is over, it helps to make sure all bellies are full.

*Even if you do and bellies are full, expect to have starving, wasting away children in 10 minutes or less.

Thanks for sharing your children with us for a few days. We all had a great time and hope we get to do it again soon! It was a good taste of what the families who took such good care of our children did for us while I was in the hospital. It's a blessing to have those relationships with others where we can take care of one another in whatever the circumstance. I'm glad yours was for a vacation in Florida and not a vacation in the hospital.

Hope you guys made it home safely!