Full House

We had the Hicks' children at our house this past weekend. We've talked about doing it for months and it worked out that this was close to Hillary and Charlie's anniversary (13 years - holy shmoly!) and their deadline for getting the house inspected is just around the corner. The plan was they could use this weekend as back up in case they weren't done with all of their projects yet. But luckily they pushed and got almost everything done so they had a weekend all to themselves!

We loved having the kids here. We squeezed everybody onto air matresses, couches, and into the spare bedroom in the basement (poor Alexis slept there - you can hear every squeak from upstairs in that bedroom). We had pizza and went down to the park and played for an hour or two on Friday night. Then Saturday we had a big breakfast, Makayla helped me make bread for Family Dinner, we played some video games, broke in Harvey's new train set, made fuse bead creations, weeded my garden (not fun, I know, but I paid them), went to Harvey's friend Simon's 2nd birthday party, played in the pool and slip-and-slide, had hot dogs and cake, Jaxson helped me make more bread for Family Dinner, everybody took baths or showers, Chelsea helped make airpop popcorn, watched Coraline, and finally went to sleep. I don't know about the kids, but Kurt and I were exhausted. Jaxson came and asked me to make it bedtime about 20 minutes into the movie so he must have been pretty tired, too. On Sunday we got up and Chelsea and Makayla helped me make monkey bread and we had sausages shaped like hot dogs, which lead to a lot of confusion. Then we all hung out for the morning and played with lots more toys before we got ready for church. The kids were great about helping pick up and packing their stuff when the time came. In fact, the kids were great the whole weekend. I think the only crying was when Makayla tripped while running in her flip flops the first night. She got a really big scrape on her knee but she didn't complain about it at all and did a great job keeping up on changing her bandages. Kurt and I are looking forward to the next time we can have the kids down to visit. I think a weekend at our house is going to have to be something we do more often.

My favorite moments about this weekend:

Alexis: Alexis made fast-friends with a girl at the park the first night. Though the park is definitely geared towards younger kids, her and her new friend had a great attitude and found ways to amuse themselves without picking on the younger kids. Not many pre-teens as advanced as Alexis would have kept such a good attitude. Lexie kept up that same great attitude all weekend, how awesome is that?!

Merrit: I loved that by Sunday Merrit could name all of the different moves that we were doing in Super Smash Brothers. That kid has some serious analytical and strategic abilities. And he did a great job of playing with the other kids who weren't as good at the game as he was. He'd always try to help them out or show them ways to get better. Maybe he'll be a teacher like his dad.

Makayla: Makayla and I went to the grocery Saturday morning because I hadn't had a chance to go shopping before they got there. So I had a list of all of the essentials we needed to get through the rest of the weekend. I had also let the kids vote on what fruits we would bring for Family Dinner and I'd forgotten to write those down. Well, it was a good thing Makayla was with me. I kept forgetting things on the list or walking right past them. She was an awesome helper and kept reminding me of all of the things I was forgetting. She also wore her apron to the store which was precious. I hope she always keeps that creative spirit and the good patience while dealing with the scattered brained.

Chelsea: Chelsea did a really good job of eating while she was at our house. It is hard for Chelsea because she only likes certain things and, other than pizza on Friday, I didn't serve any of her favorites all weekend. But she did a great job eating the food anyway. She even ate the goulash after she realized I had snuck carrots into it. She also wore every single dress in the dress up box at one point or another this weekend. I think she made up a different story to go with each. Some characters had the dog for a pet, others had the penguin. I'm looking forward to where her imagination is going to take her in this world.

Jaxson: This weekend was a challenge for Jaxson. I think he is right at the age where Harvey is too young to be a play buddy yet and he isn't always old enough for or interested in the games his siblings are playing. He had a really great time at the party, though. He had so much energy but was still really good with the toddlers who were trying to use the pool, too. He also was so excited when I told him he could have two pops at the party. It was the happiest I saw him all weekend. If such simple pleasures will keep him happy, he'll be a satisfied kid as he gets older.

So, this ended up being a really long post. Here are some pictures for anybody who managed to read through all of that.