While we were away...

John and I just got back from a reunion with our cohort in St. Louis.  I'll write about that later if I get time, but I wanted to quickly jot down some of the funny things the kids said while we were away and immediately after we returned.

After we loaded the kids into the van and kissed them good-bye, Nana (John's mom) told me that Hannah was saying, "Bye bye, Mindy" as they were pulling out of our driveway.

One cold morning, Nana firmly told the kids that they had to keep their shoes on if they wanted to play outside.  After a while, Sarah approached Nana and said, "Nana, can I take my shoes off now, 'cuz my foots are bored."  

After Nana and Pop bathed the kids Monday evening, Christopher threw the towel into the bathtub that was still filled with water.  When I learned of this, I said, "Christopher - what in the world did you do that for?  We don't put bath towels in the water!"  He looked at me and earnestly asked, "Then why do we call it a 'bath towel'?"

When we arrived to pick up the kids at Nana and Pop's house, they were all going crazy trying to tell us all of the fun things they did while we were away.  I then said, "Ok, now I want to hear a report from Nana and Pop on how you guys behaved while Mommy and Daddy were away."  As Nana began to gush about how good they were, Christopher interrupted, "Well, there was some disobedience, but NO consequences!"  

The other day while we were driving to the grocery store, Christopher said, "Mommy, that sign says 40 miles per hour...Pop told me to tell you how fast you're supposed to drive."

Yesterday, the kids and I walked to the playground and Nana drove to meet us there.  Sarah was riding her bike and said, "Mommy and Chri-ofer are walking and I'm riding my bike.  But Chri-ofer doesn't like to ride his bike because he's scared...and Hannah and Mary Grace ride in the stroller because they're babies...but Nana can't walk to the playground because she's old."

Last night the kids went to the Explorer Kids program at our church.  After the puppet show, the teacher asked the kids if they knew of anyone they could tell about Jesus.  She then asked if anyone had a sister or grandmother they could tell.  Christopher raised his hand and yelled, "My grandmother is 67 years old!"

Copy cats

One of the funniest, adorable, and sometimes alarming things that you get to witness as a parent is your children copying your behavior and manerisms or repeating what you say.  I thought it was pretty comical that Christopher would begin his answer to almost every question with, "Well..." until I heard Sarah do it on a regular basis.  Then I realized that's how I begin all of my answers to their questions; they simply learned this response from me.  

After a very full morning of homeschooling on Wednesday, I persuaded my wiggly 5-year-old to get through his history timeline and Latin memory work with the promise of a Starburst upon completion.  As soon as he was finished, he triumphantly took his Starburst into the family room to show Nana, who was reading books to Sarah.  Sarah naturally wanted one too, so she came into the kitchen to see where the stash was.  I had her sit down and simply go through her number recognition so that she could earn a treat just like Christopher did.  She took great pride and satisfaction in this.  After she picked out a sucker for herself, she said, "I want to take another one to give to Hannah."  I let her take one to Hannah, who was happily playing in the toyroom. Moments later, I heard Sarah asking Hannah her catechism questions while dangling the tasty sucker behind her back!  "Hannah, who made you?  Who made you, Hannah?"  Ha!  She was making Hannah "earn" her treat as well.  Hilarious.