Church stuff

Sunday school started yesterday. I'm teaching the junior high class for the first time ever and I actually really liked it. I'm not going go lie: I was really unsure of it before class yesterday. I've taught the younger kids for years now so teaching older kids was a little daunting. But it is super fun teaching kids who can actually discuss the bible with you.

Also at church yesterday, Frejya and her little friend Katelyn lit the candles. Frejya does it pretty often and it totally brings back memories of my childhood. Lighting the candles was always so fun.

Pulling teeth

For some reason Frejya's permanent teeth seem to think that there is enough room in her mouth for them without having to get rid of her baby teeth. Every single one of her bottom teeth so far have grown in behind the baby teeth. And those little baby teeth don't even get wiggly or lose their roots because of it. They just hang out there like that's what they're supposed to do. So she had a few of the little guys pulled out when she was in kindergarten. But more recently, she had a tooth on the side come in and the tooth in front of it just stuck straight out at an angle. It drove me crazy for months but the little sucker was not at all wiggly. So frustrating! But last week Frejya had a little accident with her cousin Joshie and banged her tooth on his bike helmet while they were playing. And I was so excited to see that the tooth was finally wiggly!! It was wiggly enough that we knew it had to come out soon, but not wiggly enough for us to pull it out with our hands (Have you ever actually tried pulling someone else's tooth out? They're slippery little things. It's not as easy as you would think). So Gabe grabbed his hook extractors and yanked the tooth out. Frejya didn't feel a thing - that's how ready this tooth was to come out. And can I just tell you that I am so glad it's finally out. It's really too bad it couldn't have come out before school pictures were taken, but whatever. Beggars can't be choosers.

The new tube

Even though it was Labor Day weekend and we knew the lake would be crowded as can be, we decided we really wanted to try out our new tube. So we pulled the kids out of bed and put them in the truck at 7:00 on Sunday morning and made the quick drive to the lake. Julie and Ben came with the kids and we made a big morning of it. We were there early enough to get a couple hours of pretty calm water before too many other boats got there. And then we had some fun on the rougher water before calling it a day a little after lunchtime. Paul was the first to hop on the new tube (along with Frejya) and he did awesome. He absolutely loved the tube until we accidentally capsized it with all three of the big kids on it (oops!). And then he was done with it. Tubing is fun but being underwater is not so fun. I spent a lot of time on the tube. Way too much time if my insanely sore muscles are any indication. But it was so worth it.

Finger painting

I decided to pull out the finger paints for the kids over the weekend. I got out a big roll of paper and brought the kids outside for some fun. But I didn't even have to get the paints out for Gabriel to enjoy himself. He thought the paper by itself was totally awesome. It was the perfect road for his trains.

And when we finally added some paint into the mix, he thought it was even better. And Frejya had fun too. It's been a long time since she last finger painted. I think there's something to be said for getting your hands a little messy every once in a while.

And of course finger painting turned into body painting. Painting on paper is fun and all but it is so much cooler to see the paint on your tummy.

 And something tells me he had a little help with the body painting. Am I right?

The boys

We had so much fun wakeboarding that I just decided to stretch our trip out for a whole week's worth of blog posts. And I've failed to include the boys in any of my previous posts so I thought I'd give them a little spotlight too. Frejya's friend Charlie wakeboarded and was awesome at it. He popped right up like he's been doing this his whole life. I guess these things are easier if you are young.

And I just can't resist posting his wipeout picture because it cracks me up a little bit that we actually got this. If you're going to learn how to do any water sports, you have to accept that you're going to do a lot of crashing.

We didn't have a wakeboard for Gabe to use so he just did a little kneeboarding. The first picture cracks me up because it's him telling me what to do. I get a lot of direction from him when I'm driving the boat. And I probably wasn't laughing when this picture was taken.

All in all a very good trip. When the water got too rough we switched to the tube and the kids had tons of fun as always. We finally bought a bigger, nicer tube this week so we're hoping to get out sometime this weekend to try it out.

Happy 9 years to Frejya!!

It is so crazy to me that Frejya is 9 years old already. That means a year from now she will be in the double digits. How did that happen so fast? We went to Cattlemen's for dinner last night to celebrate. It's what Frejya likes to do every year and since she'll actually be with her pop for their first overnight visit tonight, it made sense to start the celebrations a day early. We had lots of time to play while we waited for our food. Gabriel wasn't in the most patient of moods yesterday so it was no easy task to keep him occupied. Luckily once the food arrived, he was fine.

Frejya is easier to entertain. Especially when she has Nana all to herself. (And check out the big old earrings I let her wear just for the occasion. Whoa!)

 

Frejya's favorite part is always the after-dinner singing and ice cream part. She revels in the attention. Plus she gets a free cowboy hat. Score!

Our waitress decided in an attempt to keep everyone happy (or maybe in an attempt to get a bigger tip?) that Gabriel should get an ice cream too. So to that offer we said, "Why not?!" And he definitely enjoyed it.

But ice cream is very cold. Very, very cold.

Happy birthday Frejya!! We love you!!

She can do more than just take pictures

Janet did a little wakeboarding last weekend also. We let the kids try it first and then we were a little nervous that we were going to look bad because the kids seriously got up right away. But Janet and I did just as well. And Janet makes some awesome faces when she wipes out so that was super entertaining for me.