Last week was pretty busy for the Stringer household. We had a house full of visitors the entire week. My brother and sister-in-law went to Boston and so we had their three kids staying with us Mon-Sat. Needless to say it was different taking care of four kids as opposed to just one. I tried to do some fun things with them, so they could keep occupied and busy and not think so much on missing mom and dad. We had a couple of bumps starting out. Monday night, I couldn't sleep and was awake until about 2:30 until I finally drifted off to sleep. A little after 3:00 the fire alarm went off. I was downstairs on the couch so I wouldn't disturb Aaron with all of my tossing and turning. I ran into the kitchen, and couldn't see anything on fire there, so I ran upstairs as fast as I could. By the time I got to the top of the stairs, the alarm had shut off. When I got to the guest bedroom, I could hear little fingers scrambling to open the door, but unsuccessfully, and I could hear panicked sobs. I opened the door and found Reese in quite the terrified state. After checking the rest of the house, I assured her everything was okay. She slept in our room the rest of the night while Tate went right back to bed. Piper must be deaf, because she didn't stir one little bit. All day Tuesday was consumed with talk and talk and more talk over fires and fire alarms. Try as I might I could not get Reese to calm down over the whole fire alarm incident. Tuesday morning also brought my piano lesson. I had to bring all four kids as I had previously talked with my piano teacher about. They were really good, except Piper at the end had to come and climb up in my lap for the last ten minutes while I played. I don't know what it is, but she gets so jealous when I play the piano. As we were leaving my lesson, no sooner had we walked out the door my phone rings and as I'm trying to balance Paysen, my piano books, and scrambling to answer my phone Tate informs me that he got stung by a bee. Since we had been outside for a total of five seconds, I didn't believe him and worked hard to usher the three older kids down the street as I'm trying to talk to my brother. By the time we got home, one look at Tate's face told me he really must have been stung by a bee. He is one tough dude and since he was so distressed, I knew something wasn't right. Sure enough, he was stung by a bee. Once I acknowledged that fact he burst into tears. We mixed up some baking soda and water to make a paste and fixed up his hand. I couldn't help but think that Lynn and Jaclyn would think I wasn't taking care of their kids between Reese's distress over the fire alarm and Tate getting stung by a bee, all happening with them only being with me for about 16 hours. But it got much better after that. We spent the rest of the day hanging around the house and going to the park.
One of Piper's favorite thing at the park. This tractor is always here and she loves to play with it. She keeps telling me she wants a tractor. (Something that her great grandpa Penrod would be so proud of) Although when I get her a tractor I will get her a John Deere tractor, because every one knows they are the best.
Wednesday we went to Kangaroo Zoo, which is an indoor play area with big blow up slides and jumping areas. A big success. Everyone enjoyed themselves, including myself because it kept all four children happy and entertained. We stayed there for almost three hours, I was just so happy that everyone else was happy. I didn't get any pictures there at Kangaroo Zoo.
Thursday morning we played at the park and that afternoon we went somewhere, but I don't remember (pregnancy brain for you). That night we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores in our fire pit in the back yard. Reese informed me that s'mores were the most delicious things EVER. I was in close agreement with her, although I have a few things I like better than s'mores, but they are pretty good.
Hanging outside with Cooper.
Piper really enjoying her s'more.
Friday morning we went to the park and later that afternoon we went to a trampoline gym and then when Aaron got off work we went bowling and had pizza.
Saturday after I dropped the kids off with Jaclyn's mom, Aaron's grandparents, Mama Jane and Papa Doc along with Aaron's uncle Randy came and took us out to dinner and spent the night with us. They had been up in Montana visiting another uncle of Aaron's and then were going to Flagstaff to visit Aaron's parents. This was a lot of fun, especially visiting with Randy since we don't get to see him too much as he lives in Australia.
For some reason, we couldn't capture Piper's smile, I guess the camera was too slow.
Piper with Randy.
