FHE at BK

Last night we had dessert at Burger King. The kids have been working hard and definitely earned their ice cream cones. Zack is plugging away in reading and writing and I am so proud of him. Luke spelled the word STRENGTH correctly in a pre-spelling test... meaning he'd never looked at the word before I tested him. I was so surprised because sometimes I spell it wrong. Luke just amazes me. Ben is preparing to take the standardized testing for the school system (3rd grade is when they start making you do it.) I am not a fan of this because I basically think it's a waste of time.. not just preparing for the tests but taking them. Spending two days locked up in a room filling out bubbles seems ridiculous. But we're doing it anyway. The first day I had him take a practice test, I apologized and said he needed to spend about two hours alone, without asking any questions. Zack, Luke and I played while he was testing. At the end of two hours, he came out of the room, handed me his materials and said, "That was REALLY fun! Can I do more of those?" I felt so relieved and laughed to myself... it's easy homeschooling a teacher's pet.

So to the indoor playground we went. Aaron, Simon and I sat and chatted while the kids played. They came out every once in a while to eat their ice cream. As I sat at the tables, I thought back to when Aaron and I were in college. I was sick with Mono and didn't get out much. But a group of friends decided to go out one night for dessert and I reluctantly joined. When we got to the ice cream shop, I felt terrible and went to lay down at one of the tables. Aaron quickly noticed, ordered my favorite ice cream and sat next to me while everyone else socialized on another table. I had already made it clear that we were "just friends" but I came away from the ice cream shop knowing that he wanted to take care of me. It was a great night. And here we are, more than ten years later, eating ice cream one late night together. He has not only taken care of me all these years, but he's provided for and loved my four little children. They were hyper and silly and I felt happy and warm inside. I am so very blessed.

I know I keep saying this, but I love my daily habit of taking random videos. I only captured one video of our Burger King outing, but the 90 seconds recaps our experience better than I could ever write. I can't wait to have a year full of random, silly videos. Our boys will only be this young for a moment... before we know it, another ten years will have passed us by.

Pictures are always good too... (at least for my blog book anyway..)

I must give a little more explanation for Zack's socks. This kid is SO independent. He doesn't ask help for anything anymore. If he can't find something to wear, he improvises and wears the next best thing. Sometimes that's his brother's pants that fall down. Sometimes it's sandals in the middle of winter. And sometimes it's daddy's socks. A few weeks ago, he came home from preschool wearing one of his own socks and one of Aaron's-- all the way up to his knee. I didn't realize before he left because it was neatly tucked away under his pants. When I asked him why he was wearing such a big sock he calmly stated that he couldn't find another one of his, so he went to Dad's dresser. When we were at Burger King, Luke and Ben came out laughing at Zack's socks... this time TWO of Dad's. I sent Ben in with the camera to take a picture. Zack doesn't understand why it's so funny.