May 27, 2016

A very eventful week.

Last Saturday, my in-laws, the kids and I went to Houston for the day to celebrate Abby graduating from pre-K. Francis had to stay home and study for his qualifiers (poor guy!). Well, we got there early and so we stopped at a starbucks in an outdoor shopping center only to find there was a car show going on. There were really nice cars and super old cars. William liked the Ferrarri's and the Delorean. He also liked any car who had door that opened "funny". Robert liked a "batman" car. It was fun! We then headed on to Abby's ballet/tap recital. Abby did great and the kids watched her with excitement. They even got to give her flowers afterward which was very special. We went back to the Boerger house to have pizza which is when Austin and his boys Ranger and Asher arrived. The kids played, we all went swimming at the neighborhood pool, we all had cookie cake, we watched a movie and then we went out to dinner. It was a good day and everyone was rightfully tired by the end. William got some presents (as did Abby) including a Superman backpack for next year. He is ready for school to start! The kids love their Abby. What a way to celebrate!

William has been putting his math skills to good use. The other day he asked me what 3 times three was. I asked him if he knew and he answered 9. then he said. Ok then there are 9 windows on that building because there are three groups of three. He was right! He also wrote his first "books" on Sunday. He cute out paper to make 2 books. One which said, "Once upon a ime, William loves his brother Robert, The end" and the other said, "William loves his Hannah." He then gave out the books and read them to each of his siblings. It was super cute. At play camp this week he built a beaver dam out of blocks. When kids tried to help them, they apparently gave him "random" blocks he didn't need and they eventually built a castle behind the beaver dam that needed protecting. Such an imagination!

Robert has been building Robots all week out of different legos and objects. When he isn't building them, he is pretending to be one. His imagination is also flourishing. He has also started telling jokes which are sometimes extremely funny, though most of them involved physical comedy and won't translate to the page. It a "you had to be there" moment. He's a ball of energy and his teachers loved him at his camp this week. He has started to ask lot of good questions and really want to understand. I love it!

Hannah took her first steps on Monday. She had taken a couple side steps during the afternoon when the boys and I were playing with her. When Francis got home we were chatting on the floor with Hannah and Lucy-dog in between us when Hannah took a big step toward Lucy with no help. Francis and I both celebrated! She'll be running around in no time! Hannah turned 10 months on Tuesday. Ten months!!!!! I can't believe it. She can crawl almost as fast as I can run past her to get something off the floor away from her. She can say momma, dada, brother, and bye bye. She can sign "more" and a couple other words when prompted. She still doesn't like to sleep much and very much has a mind of her own. We love her so so so much. My heart overflows with thankfulness that God lent her to me.

Francis is currently taking the last of his qualifiers. After studying non stop studying for weeks, he has had testing Monday, Wednesday, and today. he has been under a lot of stress and pressure, so we look forward to celebrating his completion later today. You can do it Honey!

While the kids have been at "camp", I have had three full days of Parent Practicum for Classical Conversations. We have chosen to participate in this program as part of our homeschooling for next year and this was a crash course in everything about the program. I admit I went home crying the first day because I was so overwhelmed. I'm told this is pretty common. I know I will learn more as I go, but I am grateful for this foundation. Our last day the kids from each camp came in and did a presentation. William now can tell me the phases of the moon and parts of a flower. He had fun AND learned a lot. Best of both worlds! Yesterday wast the last day of PP and it was very eventful. At lunch they had a dad's lunch so all the father's of the families arrived and were eating together in a different room. All of a sudden around 30 minutes later all of the dad's were standing in the doorway and none were smiling. "There's a tornado out the window. We need to seek shelter." Sure enough through the doorway and out the window, I could see the tornado and it looked very close. Now among the dads we had 2 police officers, 2 paramedics and a fireman. They quickly and calmly ushered us to a safe area with each family together by a wall. We ended up in the nursery area, so the kids were able to play with toys while we waited. It was a tense few minutes and I was so glad Francis was there. We got the all clear momentarily and then had to seek shelter a second time because the storm was circling back. We found out later that it touched down just across the highway from us. Around 30 homes were reported destroyed/damaged. The rain was pretty extreme, but Francis left anyway and he eventually made it home safely to study. We tried to go back to our meeting, but after a time we had to seek shelter a third time. This time the kids were not with me (I had taken them back to class after having lunch with them). I ran down the hall, grabbed them and we waited. We waited for what seemed like an eternity, When we finally received the all clear the rain had let up slightly. reports were that it was going to continue through the evening so I made the call to try to make it home. The highway was shut down because parts of it were underwater and they were having to do deep water rescues. 18 wheelers were apparently floating away. Crazy stuff. Well, I drove through the rain and had a few close calls. the water was up to the bottom of  my doors a couple times. I crossed two bridges where the water from the river was dead even with the road, but not coming over. I prayed the whole way. There was really no way to turn around. God is good and He allowed me to get home. Not something I would like to repeat any time soon! Other than that the practicum was good and I bought many of the supplies I will need for next year. Kindergarten here we come!

That's it for now!