Dial It Down, Sunday

Sunday! A day of rest!

Carrie braided Annie's hair and worked with her in the arena.

Annie's making progress. Heidi came by and it was a horse day for Carrie.

Shane and I went to church and then I taught him how to play Memoir '44 after. It's a history game about WW2 I borrowed from John.

Loki ate a couple of pieces that dropped on the floor. He loves cardboard.

Loki peed when I yelled at him.

Shane rolled really well and won! I missed a rule about sandbags making him roll one less dice against me, but him winning may mean he'll be more willing to play again in the future.

I was happy to lose the battle to win the war on future boredom!

I spent a fair amount of time outside and helping out. I discovered a gross friend in Annie's poop.

It was at least a six inch long roundworm. I took a picture in case we needed to show a vet, but Carrie just grunted and said, "Time to worm her." For such a full grown worm, Carrie thinks Annie came from Sonya's with them.

Shane and I did manage an afternoon play date. We met the Cartwrights at Dorrier Park.

Claire wasn't there, because she was selling Girl Scout cookies. Logan brought his Nerf guns and Julia grabbed the ammo and ran off. Shane tried to get the ammo back for Logan, but it ended up a free for all.

Their dad, Alex (?), had a single shot nerf rifle and got involved in the running around. Shane told him to "pull up his pants" because he could see his butt crack!

"HVAC crack is worse than plumber's!" Corrie said (the mom - not sure on spelling).

The kids all enjoyed running around. Shane opened up a store where he started to sell ammo and other things. Logan accidentally shot himself looking down the barrel of his gun, got upset, and broke it.

It wasn't the longest play date, but it got some energy out.

I reached out to Shelby's family, as well, but their kids were all sick. That left horse chores and hanging out to finish up the weekend.

Sunday Visitor

Shane and the Cartwrights all played in Sunday School together again. The kids all wanted to play Minecraft together again, but the schedules didn't mesh.

So we found ourselves at home. Shane was dancing on the trailer in the front yard as Loki paced cars. I don't know who was watching who (They were both in their own worlds).

Meanwhile, there was cleaning to do. Carrie washed all the pillowcases from the couch, there was a backload of laundry, dishes, you name it. Shane sort of helped.

We finished the cleaning before our visitor for the day arrived! Henry was happy to see Loki.

The first stop on Shane's agenda was the walking machine! "The limit is 5," Shane said.

So Henry immediately tried to push it to 6. Shane called him out on it, Henry looked at me, and then backed it down!

The funniest moment was all Loki. The dumb dog tried to run across the treadmill in front of Henry. It swept his feet out right from underneath him! Loki hit the conveyor belt feet up and Henry had to jump over him as he was swept away!

Loki spilled off the back end, hopped up, and started barking at the treadmill. He was ok!

I asked the boys if they wanted me to try and call the neighbors for some group fun. Shane was all for it, but Henry declined. 

Instead, Henry wanted to build a fort. Shane thought that was a fantastic idea and they set right to it!

I moved them away from the barn, because Heidi was riding. I told them they were welcome to shop around for materials after she put Eddy back up.

They decided to play on the hay and build their fort there instead. You can do a lot with a tarp and some rebar!

Henry was ready to play Kirby by the time Carrie started to cook dinner. He requested spaghetti and cheesy potatoes.

You can tell both boys are only children by the way they bicker. It's good they get some practice dealing with other kids outside of school!

Shane and Henry have a funny dynamic when they're over here. Shane is excited to have a friend and is extra goofy and dramatic. Meanwhile, Henry tries to play the angel. He corrects Shane's behavior when it's in front of Carrie or I and acts like chores are the coolest thing in the world.

I like to think Shane's learned a little bit of circumspect. Henry just says exactly what he's thinking. "These potatoes aren't as good as last time."

Carrie's eyes popped! "They're exactly the same!"

I pointed out it was the pairing. Some foods go really well together. The last time Henry had cheesy mash it was with BBQ. Situation saved!

Molly came to pick Henry up after dinner. One of these days we'll invite Henry to spend the night and see how that goes.

Sunday Friend Day

Today, I was drafted to help in Children's church. The volunteer for the week had fallen down a couple weeks ago and it's only fair I help since we're one of the three families that brings a kid.

The Cartwrights were there today. Last week, they'd asked if Shane could play. Their mother said they had to clean up first.

The lesson must have stuck, because the kids told me at the start of class that they'd cleaned up!

So Shane and I walked to their house after church! He's been wanting to visit them anyway!

The kids played Minecraft while I talked to the parents. The dad was smoking a pork butt about back, because "Carolina BBQ is the only BBQ." It smelled great!

Shane and I left for lunch, because we already had plans for an afternoon trail walk with Dylan and Eli.

Shane semi put his foot in his mouth and semi gave his honest opinion when he saw Dylan and Eli's long hair. "You all look like girls!"

It would have been more tactful if he didn't start laughing and say it multiple times when it was clear he was the only one laughing. He got the hint with a little help, and Dylan shrugged it off.

Dylan and Eli were very proud of their camelbaks. Shane was a little jealous, but Dylan started to regret his pack weighing him down a little by the end of things (especially with Shane running and staying in the lead).

The boys chatted merrily while John and I kept pace behind them. We stopped to throw sticks for a little bit. The boys may have gotten a little over-ambitious with the log.

After our walk (about 2.5 miles iirc), we headed over to John's place. The boys all plugged immediately into tablets and vegged out for the last hour.

Shane was sad to go! He loves to be around people! If I had managed to set up a play date with Shelby in the morning it would have been a hat trick Sunday, but I felt great getting two play dates setup.

Nana used to say she felt like our "social secretary" growing up. I know what she meant!

Church Friends!

No school! Hooray for MLKJ!

My day started with horse chores and a trip to the orthopedist. Shane came to look at my x-rays and give Carrie some space. 

Nothing was broken! We celebrated with haircuts. 

The second half of our hay for the year was being delivered when we got back home.

At least I hope it's for the rest of the year. Carrie's talked about ways to cut costs for next winter already.

The real fun for Shane didn't start until after lunch. We took Loki to the park.

We met Shane's friends from Sunday school there for a play day!

Half the time, Shane's the only kid at our church. The other half the time, the Cartwrights show up. It turns out two of the kids go to Shane's school, too.

Logan and Shane ran around with Nerf guns. Claire tried to skateboard. Julia and the baby dragged Loki around by his leash!

Loki was a really good boy. His neck was probably sore by the end of it.

Julia went back and forth from Loki to trying to mess with the boys. There were lots of shenanigans and some conflicts, but nothing that wasn't resolved easily enough.

I was surprised to find out how much I had in common with the parents. The mom was from NOVA and went to Thomas Jefferson HS until her family moved to the middle of WV (culture shock!). She was a twin and they'd lived in Houston for a while and actually knew where Beaumont was. To top it off, there kids went to Venable at one point and she used to walk them past my old school! She knew Mr. Brown from him walking out to say hello!

The dad wasn't there, but he'd gone to Charlottesville high school and wrestled for Coach Romanac. Coach Romanac's wife, Connie, was my good friend the secretary at LMA! Go figure!

If the oddly warm winter holds up, we'll have to have another playground meetup. All the kids are too wild to have around the horses. Especially with the nervous wreck that showed up today.....but that's another post!