The Puddles

An hour and a half of singing in the rain!

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Madie joined all of the other 4th-6th graders today at the high school football stadium to compete in athletics. Everything for the 400 meters to math relays. Madie was a part of the tug of war. They won 4th place!!! Pretty cool with a ton of schools participating!! Now we are at Panera Bread cooling off with some good food.

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This is the sign that the 4th and 5th graders made to share with all of the people of TOL. They did a great job!

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I hear the whispers, the gentle opening of the door, the quiet presence of someone standing right by my head staring at me, and  a quick push of my snooze button by an unknown hand right before my alarm goes off.  I am having a hard time keeping my eyes closed because I am so excited as to what is coming next.  The kids told me that they had a surprise planned.  Finally the oldest child wishes me a good morning allowing me to open my eyes and to acknowledge the gathering of children in my room.  Surprise.  They have made breakfast, wrapped presents, and best of all . . . all three were completely dressed and ready to go to church.  Madie organized the children.  Ben made the toast.  Ainsley picked the cups and counted the scoops of coffee to make sure it was the way mommy liked it.  Everyone climbed on the bed.  We opened presents. Ainsley asked if she could eat the toast.  Ben wanted to turn the tv on.  Madie told me the plan for the day.  It was so wonderful!  My children are so caring.  Nobody told them to do this.  Daddy hasn’t seen them since Wednesday morning, so he certainly didn’t do it.  Everything was homemade and by them.  It is one of these days that I will always remember.

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The graduation was held at Fellowship of the Woodlands.  A HUGE church.  All three kids had comments on this church compared to ours.

1.  Madie – A serious outlook on the church.

She wants to know why can’t our church be this big.  She wants a coffee shop, a church store that is open every day, an elevator, a beautiful water fountain, a cool playground, and plenty of staff.  Although this is a very materialistic outlook, she thought that this meant that the church had so much money that they don’t have to deal with budget cuts.  She says, “Their pastor probably doesn’t have to worry about whether or not the church is going to get cleaned because the church had to cut the budget.” (It was our turn this weekend to clean the church, so this was on the mind of Madie.)  The budgetary concerns of the church and the upheaval of the last several years has weighed heavily on this young child. Even though these topics are not part of our dinner conversation, the toll it has taken on our family has been tremendous.  She sees, she listens, and she understands.

2.  Ben – a novel  outlook

The church had large golf carts that were going around and picking up people in the parking lot and taking them to the ceremony.  Ben wants one of those at the church.  I was telling a fellow member that Ben wants one and he commented that our parking lot isn’t big enough.  True. But Ben doesn’t care. It is just an awesome thing to be picked up at your car in a golf cart.  Of course, Ben also wants to drive the vehicle too, if we get one at TOL!   He said that the hill by the santurary is hard to get up sometimes for those “old” people.  A golf cart would help!  Please, Daddy?

3.  Ainsley – a contented outlook

“I like our church just the way it is! ”

Amen, Ainsley! Well said.  Three children and three very different observations.  It certainly made for some interesting conversation last night!

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I was downloading pictures and realized that I didn’t get a picture of the actual graduate. Darn.

Last night the kids and I went to see Ms. Bunny graduate from college. It was fun. The puddles were so ecstatic over the event. Ben was so wound up from the screaming and celebration that containing him in his seat was near to impossible. At one point I wanted to put a LoJack on him, just in case he wondered into the mass of humanity and was swept up in the waves of people. The girls had friends but the only other boy was Callen and he is almost two but still unable to talk Legos with Ben. Although they both tried.

It was a good day and we were so happy to have been a part of the celebration with Ms Bunny.

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On Friday, all three puddles earned the right to attend the carnival. It is an hour of fun for the kids. Only the kids who earned enough AR points get to go. The fourth grade teachers created fast passes for the kids. The top 10 students with AR points got to go to the front of the line. Since Madie has the most in the whole grade with over 400points, she was first in everything. I was able to volunteer at the carnival and spent time with all 3 kids. It was fun and a really good day.

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“Is Mom going to do a U-turn?”

“No, she is going to do a B-turn?”

“A B-turn?”

“Yeah!”

“If it was a B-turn, wouldn’t she have to turn twice?” asks Ben.

“Good point.  It is definitely a U-turn,” says Madie.

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