Happy birthday baby girl!

It's hard to believe that Ella is closer to driving than she is to being born.  Nine years ago we had our baby girl...

And man is she growing up quickly all of a sudden.

 

 

For her birthday we go some free food at Joe's BBQ, Joe's Grill, and Libery Market.  We took Ella and cousins and friend to Build-a-Bear.  Opened a bucket load of presents.  And just celebrated our sweet little girl who is growing up to fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 9th Birthday Ella!

Foot fungus! And Science!

Cleaning up my desk area at work, I found an expired bottle of tryptic soy broth.  What on earth is that?  It a liquid used as a growth medium for bacteria.  I'm not sure why exactly we had a bottle at work, but we did.

 

Hmmmmmm, what to do with a bottle of stuff that will grow any bacteria you put in it?  Where could I find some interesting bacteria in a house full of smelly little boys?

Swab stinky little boy feet, of course.

At first they all ran away screaming, convinced that I was going to use this bottle to grow the fungus ON their feet.  Like I was going to dump this stuff on them and the next morning they would wake up with furry fungus feet.  I finally convinced them that the foot fungus was not going to grow on their feet, but that we were going to grow the fungus that was already on their feet in the bottle.  We dug out some Q tips, swabbed, and dipped.

About a week later, and the broth was distinctively murkier than it had started out. 

 

I told Noah to open the bottle. I think he was mildly concerned that I was trying to get him to open it, rather than open it myself. With good reason.

The pressure had built and the rubber stopper popped out right in his face.  I think it scared him, plus he got the first blast of what smelled like a rotting carcass.

I tried to get Ella to smell it.  She wouldn't do it.

Levi and Luke cowered on the couch, and refused to get anywhere near me.  Paige told me to get the cap back on, because at this point the whole downstairs was starting to smell like the fridge had been turned off for an entire month.

So I did what any rational person would do... find the kid who doesn't know any better.  Who still trusts her Dad even though he is carrying a little bottle and telling everyone to smell it, while they all flee the other direction. She leaned right over and took a big whiff.

A few days later, I took it to work to show a few people there.  Then I disposed of it in the garbage can, but not before popping in open to see if it had gotten any more potent.  It had.  I accidentally got one drop on my finger.  Not being the brightest bulb in the box, I stuck that finger right under my nose and sniffed.

Oh. My.

I have a pretty strong stomach, and almost no sense of smell... but I about ralphed right there in the back parking lot.

Of course, that finger did prove to be a very useful sneak stink attack when I got home that day. 

"Hey kids, smell my finger!"

Ahhhhhh, science!

We still try to keep them physically active

Now that Levi and Noah earned that Wii, they would like nothing better than to park themselves in front of the TV and not budge for 39 days.  So occassionally we try to get them out for some exercise.  The Freestone Rec Center is a favorite location for keeping their brains and bodies from turning to mush.  For  a few bucks, they get to...

Play raquetball

Climb the rock wall

 

 

 

Play another set of twins in foosball

They finally earned it

Levi and Noah worked for months and months to earn 100 popsicle sticks with good behavior. Over the course of earning 100, I would bet they actually earned 200, since they also lost sticks for bad behavior. The second they hit 100 sticks, I got a phone call at work.

"Dad. We got to 100 sticks today. Can we get one now?"

We had a plan to buy it off a guy at work who had one he didn't use much.

"Dad. Can Andrew bring it over?"

I told them Andrew and I still had to do work.

"Oh.... ok. Tonight then?"

I asked Andrew. He didn't plan to get home until late.

"We can stay up. We will be good. We promise."

I headed home, with a plan to wait for a phone call from Andrew when he got home. Bedtime rolled around, and the desperation in Levi and Noah's voices was palpable.

"Dad. Is Andrew home yet? Did he call? Why not? Can you text him and see when he will be home? Why isn't he home yet? What could he possibly be doing this late at night!?!?"

I met up with Andrew after they were in bed, and when they woke in the morning this was waiting for them...

 

 

Yes, we actually own a Wii now. Levi and Noah have been dreaming of the day this might happen. They are obsessed with video games. When they can't play electronic ones, they play weird little finger video games with each other is some bizzarre twin language of squeaks and beeps. And now they have their very own Wii. They done surprisingly well with it so far. We've previously had some pretty spectacular meltdowns when leaving the homes of friend who own Wiis. Quitting video games has not historically been an event we look forward to around here, so I was questioning our sanity a bit by even letting this thing near them. But they have impressed me with their ability to play and then quit when they are told. Not perfect, but there certainly hasn't been a meltdown every time they need to stop.

 

Congratulations Levi and Noah on reaching 7 year old video game Nirvana!  You earned it!

Please don't do this to me!

 

A week ago I was putting Luke to bed, and he was wailing his most recent complaint...

 

"Pwease don't do dis to me!  Pwease oh pweeeeeease don't do dis to me!"

 

You would think I was getting ready to string the kid up on falsified charges of horse thievery, not go tuck him safely into a warm bed.

 

Even funnier though, was getting the picture.  I tried to snap one while he was wailing, but he spotted the camer and smiled for it like a little ghostly Cheshire Cat.  I told him to make the super sad face he had just been making.  More smiles.

 

I said "What if I told you to go to bed again?  Then would you make that sad face?"

 

"No, becaws you awre just teasing me."

 

"Ok, but you just made the sad face when I told you to go to bed a minute ago."

 

"Yeah, but now you awre teasing me."

 

"Nope.  Go to bed."

 

He immediately burst into tears again.  I got the picture.  Paige called me a mean ol' Dad.  And Luke survived the torture of bed without any long lasting damage.

The Addink kids get groooovy!

I can't embed the video, so you will have to click the link here.  The kids thought they were pretty funny in this...

I pray a hedge of protection

So we sent Luke to a different preschool than all our other kids, at the Methodist church down the street.  And this came home from preschool on Luke's backpack today...

Hmmmmmm.  What exactly does that... do?  Paige told me about it at dinner, and our kids got wind of it and started asking all kinds of questions...

"What does a blessing mean?  Why did they pray to a backpack?  Why does Luke go to a school where they don't believe in God?"

I was just dying laughing because it made me think of these classic Tim Hawkins clips...

 

 

So seriously all my Methodist blog readers... what's with blessing a backpack? Growing up in the CRC bubble, I don't get it.

Horton Creek

After our friends stood us up this weekend for a Saturday afternoon visit (Ahem!  You know who you are!) Paige had the great last minute idea to take the kids up north for a hike.  So we all loaded up in the van and headed for the high country.

The first stop was the fish hatchery outside of Payson.  The kids were impressed by the hundreds of trout swimming around in tanks.

And by the fish pumper.  It sucks them up into a big hopper, separates them from the water, and shoots the fish out a tube (usually into a waiting truck.)

Then it was down the road a bit to the Horton Creek trail.  There was much discussion over whether we would see a bear, since there were warning signs about every mile along the road.  Then discussion of what to do if we saw a bear, and if a bear would eat kids, and if Dad had his gun, and if he would shoot the bear, and if he might have to use two bullets for a really big bear, and, and, and...

We didn't see any bears on the trail.

We only made it about 1/2 a mile before the kids all started wondering where on earth we were taking them, and if we were there yet, and what there would be to do when we got wherever we were going.

Luckily that was right about where we could hear water flowing, which is music to a desert dweller's ears.

 

Even if it is just a muddly little stream.  They had tons of fun playing in it, and it wasn't long before they were all down to the Addink standard dress.

 

 

 

 

Sophie didn't get to play in the stream much, having the unfortunate combination of no swimming ability and no fear of water.  So she and Paige sat on the bank.

And made funny faces in the phone.

 

 

After a good long time getting numb in the cold stream it was time to head home. The kids all agreed it was a great day, and we might have to come back here again some day.

Superheros squared

They were both wearing Superman shirts underneath, just for extra superhero powers...

I wan out of woom!

That was Luke's excuse tonight for his preschool family portrait. "I just wan out of woom fowr you Dad!" the final twist of the knife is that the dog made the cut...

The first day

Hard to believe we have a 3rd grader and 2nd graders.  It seems like just yesterday that they were just wee scroggins.

Noah, trying to pretend he didn't see his goofy Dad there with the camera.

Levi was anxious to get in there.  Probably more for the recess time than anything to do with class, but at least he still likes going to school.

The eldest, looking somewhat nervous.

We kept them in the same class again this year.  Seemed to work OK last year.  Their teacher this year is a twin, so she even put them in seats right next to each other.

Ella is in a different class than the boys (their school lumps grades 2-3 together.)  The kids were kind of dissappointed they weren't all going to be in the same class.

The big news of the year is that Luke started preschool.  Three hours away from home each day.  I think his mother was even more anxious about it than he was.

He seems to be handling it well so far.  Maybe even having fun.

Although when she picked him up today, he was singing "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, please don't take my mommy away."  But he also did say he was beginning to enjoy his new school.