So, Jane has graduated to a booster seat. This freed up her old car seat, so we moved it to my car, to make it easier for me to run out with one of them. Last Monday night, we met some friends for dinner (Hi Chris and Sheree – and Abigail!), and Ron rode home with me.
He was very excited, and told me three times, “I like yours truck, Daddy.” He wanted me to race, but I told I wouldn’t go fast until I was on the freeway. “OK, Daddy.”
The two oldest in front of the tree after decorating it. They had cookies too, so that’s what’s on Ron’s face.
The tree was from Mainstay Farms, where you can cut your own, but they didn’t have any in the species we liked. So we bought a precut one from their barn. Turns out it came from North Carolina near where my parents have a place in the mountains. The kids had a great time playing around the trees, digging in the dirt, playing around, and going down the 100 ft slide! No pictures, because I forgot my camera. Oh well.
“Catch!”
And sometimes he even mentions who he’s about to throw to, whether its mommy, daddy, Jane or even Peter!
The picture is from Halloween – he went as a “Baggieball” – Basketball player. More pics to come.
I took Ron camping this past weekend two weekends ago with some friends from church. We had a blast. Ron’s friend Mr. Jeremy rode with us, and Ron had a great time talking to him. Jane was disappointed to not go, and talked about how she wanted to go camping, and that she wanted to go with Ms. Wendy (Mr. Jeremy’s wife).
We drove out Friday evening, and had dinner out there. Ron was ready to eat, and ate a hot dog, chips, plus a bun, and his first s’more.
Ron knew that he always eats at a table. The rest of us were eating by the fire. He did eat his s’more and breakfast by the fire.
Ron didn’t see the raccoon. He was in bed, or at least in the tent. It took him a while to settle down. He played with his new flashlight, and jumped on the air mattress. He did eventually settle down and sleep. He had never slept in a sleeping bag before, so once I came to bed, I ended up helping him figure out how to stay warm. (zip up the bag!)
When I was showing Jane this picture, I told her that raccoons might look like cats, but they aren’t and they aren’t nice. A little while later, she told me she didn’t want to go camping anymore. Turns out, I had made her scared of raccoons. So, I explained that they were more scared of her, etc etc. She still wasn’t sure about the idea, and decided that she would go camping somewhere the raccoons couldn’t get to her. After I explained that Mr. Jeremy ran them off, she felt better.
Ron and I were up early, and he ate his yogurt by the fire. He also ate a banana.
My hat was a fun toy for a while.
Second breakfast: Mmmm. Breakfast was a canned biscuit, wrapped around a stick. The biscuit was then wrapped with bacon, which was pinned in place with a toothpick or sliver of wood. The whole thing was then cooked over the fire. Mmmm…. that was good stuff. The grease from the bacon helped fry the biscuit, which made it taste a little like a donut. Ron helped me eat three or four of these. Plus he ate a bunch of scrambled eggs.
The camping crew.
These last two were taken so Mommy would have fun pictures of Ron and Daddy for his scrapbook.
It was a fun overnight trip. It was definitely a guy weekend: no showers, no vegetables and a lot of meat and eating things cooked over an open fire. Ron fell asleep in the car on the way home, and was very glad to get home and see his mom and sister and brother. I was glad to rest.
Yesterday, the kids wore some new clothes to school:
Jane picked out her socks and put them on herself.
Ron had a new shirt, but this was the only pic where he wasn’t blurry from how fast he was moving.
Oh and the rain crumbs were back yesterday.
Lately, Jane has found it enjoyable to “make Mommy’s hair pretty.” This usually just consists of tousling it around with her fingers, but occasionally she does have a comb or brush. Last night she had a brush and was giving me the latest fantastic hairstyle when Ron decided he wanted to be in on the Mommy pampering too. So he decided he would drive his cars on Mommy’s back. This might not sound particularly pleasant, but it actually felt nice.
The kids started preschool last week. We have pictures from then, we’ve just been too disorganized to get them up before now.
This picture of Ron and his backpack is from the second day of school, but I had to get the picture with his straps hanging down to the ground. (click on the picture for a larger view)
[we'll have some pictures from Ron's party today up soon]
So last night we moved Ron from his crib to a regular bed. The kids were quite excited. 
After a few minutes of celebration and jumping around by the kids, we got them tucked in and prayed for.
A few minutes later, Mommy was making a trip in to settle them down.
A few minutes after that, we heard crying from the room, and I went in. I found Ron stuck between the two beds! He fallen down between them and couldn’t extricate himself. After trying a minute myself, I called for backup. So Mommy came in and helped him get out, while I moved one of the mattresses. He wasn’t pinned, just turned in such a way that he couldn’t figure out how to get out. I was ready to start tossing furniture to get him out, but he was fine.
Unfortunately, a little while later, we heard Jane say “Ron, your hurting me!” So I made a return trip, pulling Ron out. We had a meeting in the study. Ron left the meeting with a better understanding of what was expected of him.
“Ron you need to stay in your bed.”
“Ohhh.”
After that, he got in bed and assumed the sleep position. We heard nothing more from them until this morning.
