Nonnie and Poppie

Nonnie and Poppie are our grandparents. We call them Nonnie and Poppie because we already have a Grandma and Grandpa and everyone on Mama's side of the family is named something different. We have Dodie and Buggy, our Aunts, Unka Cheese and Uncle Cookie, our Uncles and Mimi, our great-grandma. Nonnie and Poppie live in California, but come down to W.A. every two weeks and stay for two weeks. They always drive, and sometimes take Mimi. They own like six rentals down here and more up in C.A. They helped us fix up our new house and work on our old house too. They also help us with our rentals. Poppie is a handy-man and Nonnie paints and watches us kids. They are very fun Nonnie and Poppies and I love them.

The Cast Party!

This year at our cast party for the Spring pageant, almost everyone in the play came! It was at our house instead of at the gym like last time. First we ate hot dogs and chips and cookies, and then we all piled on the bean bags in the basement to watch the play on the projector. It was fun and everybody knew everybody else lines, and so we were doing the whole play in unison! The middle school kids went on a kayaking trip to one of the rivers while we watched because Mama said they could and they had already seen it a bunch of times. They didn't get back for a few hours. After we were done watching, we all went outside and swam in the lake. It was the first time we swam in the lake for the fun of it! Dada got rid of most of the seaweed and there is sand about four feet out from the rocks. We also had a water balloon fight, curtesy of Squishy and his birthday, and I got hit in the head from a foot away by all of the boys. We also jumped on the trampoline and after everybody else left we built forts and had a nerf war with the Well's boys. Chuggy and I got to ride on Mr. Evart's boat while Dada, Mr. Everts, and Mr. Wells wake surfed. It was a fun day!

This Year's Spring Pagent

Every year our church, LC3, all of us kids kindergarten through fifth grade do a musical if we want to. This year it was called "Kidz Under Construction" and was about a lady named Monica Fisher, who was played by me, and she is news reporter who comes to know Christ. This Sunday there will be a cast party and all us actors will watch the play for the first time. There was one scene in the pageant where Woody and Piper (Jasper and a girl from church) were fighting and they had a whole stomp routine with their crews (Opal was on Piper's and Berg was on Woody's). It was fun and I had my own make-up person, Sally, who was played by Bethany, my partner last year and I really like her. I personally think that last year's play was better, but this one had longer songs and I got a bigger part. Mama also moved up from Dance Coordinator to Director, and Marlee moved up from assistant Dance Coordinator to the Dance Coordinator! It was fun, but also scheduled for the late months of Mama being pregnant, through Mama's due date and the play happened when she had a newborn baby! Our good Dada was in charge of Coal, Tuff and Pella. He was rocking Coal in his car seat with his foot while feeding Tuffy snacks and making sure he didn't disrupt the musical while Pella was enjoying the play and trying to wave to us. He did really good, but finally had to leave right before it was over because Coal started crying. Or was it Tuff...? Anyways it was a good play and I think a good one for being my last year. I will go into middle school officially soon, and then I won't be allowed. Oh well. By the way, Nonnie, I am sorry you didn't get to see it. I'll try to get Mama to email it to you once we have it. Bye!

Berg's Star Party!

On Saturday Berg turned six and we celebrated with a star party! We hung stars everywhere and put glow in the dark star stickers on all of the walls. During the party Joli found a dead catfish floating in the water under The Bush and tried to catch it with her bare hand, but it was to slipery and got away. Then she used a Chinese food to go thing and we showed all of the adults, who suggested cooking it up and eating it for dinner (which we didn't do)! We also bought Berg a pinata because Eben didn't finish the one he was making by the night before. We all lined up from shortest to tallest to hit it but it wasn't the strongest thing and only about five kids into it the pinata broke. We had fun hitting the remains, and for all of the other kids that didn't get a turn before Joli and I kept the pinata line moving after dinner. We made sure that everyone got a turn before we let Carl do it- in two blows the cardboard had literally exploded. Instead of a cake Berg wanted cobbler, but it didn't work out and we bought cheese cake and pies. We had a ninja star making and throwing contest for the adults, and I forgot who won. I think Mr. Schock made the most stars. Cute little Squish has had lots of fun party's, and personally I liked his marshmallow party the best, though this one was super fun too.

The Ducklings are Back!

Every year in spring, we see the ducklings. Because we live on a lake, we see a lot of them. Most of the time they are brown, but on the old lake we saw a few that were adopted by another duck who were yellow. Unfortunately, because of their bright yellow fluff all but one were soon targeted and eaten by eagles (which we had three of). The brown ones are just as good though and have been the only kind we have seen so far at this house. Every year at spring, I make this goal to catch a duckling. I never really succeed, but I've spent hours trying. This year I told Eben that I would give him a free trip to Mexico if he can catch me one. He has til' the end of summer, but I don't think he will be able to do it, especially since they won't be ducklings for much longer. This year we also named two ducks Felicity and Joe, and they came up for a while and we fed them. Now they have nine ducklings who swim by twice a day with Felicity, which is nice because then we can see them more often. They are also growing like grass, they get bigger every day. I can't wait for next year when they return, with their kids.

The Weird Club

The Weird Club is this club that Eben started awhile back. You see, it all started back at Seaside when I wanted to start the slug club ( which never worked out, by the way). The boys decided that they wanted to start clubs too. Jasper wanted to start a cool club, where all of the 'cool' kids at church could get together and... do stuff. Eben wanted to start a weird club, and unlike Jasper and I, actually built on his idea. When we went home, I forgot about my idea and Jasper recruited some boys for his, while Eben typed and printed out I.D. forms for any kids that wanted to join the club of weirdness. He became the president, and soon had two elders and about a dozen kids. I joined, and Jasper eventually quit his status as president of the cool club to Austin, second in command, when he found out Eben made I.D.'s. Now every one in our family, including some aunts and uncles, are all members. The weird club is now thriving, though we have never had any meetings and there is really no point to joining, except it's fun to say that you are part of a club. It's funny, though, because we kind of forgot who all joined, so you could ask a random kid at church if they have heard about the weird club and half the time they will say that they are members while the other half of the time they's look confused and then walk away, or ask you about it and later become a member. I think it's a fun and good-for-nothing club, and would recommend it.

Seaside

At least once a year, starting a few years ago, our family goes on vacation to the beach at a place called Seaside. Once Grandma and Grandpa came with us, this time Poppie is coming. Dada rents out this little house from one of his friends at work. It's really fun to go there, and I feel like us kids get a lot more freedom because we are allowed to ride our bikes on the street and do the family's shopping at this little store close enough for us to walk to! We also have memories there, like, once I wanted to start a slug club, because at Seaside banana slugs are everywhere! Seaside's also the place where we found out Mama was pregnant with Tuff, and where Opal and Berg learned how to ride their bikes!
At Seaside, it is important that we all know how to ride a bike (except for the two littlest's, who get to ride in a bike trailer), because once a day we all pedal to town where Dada buys us each a one dollar ice cream cone at this cute little candy shop. The shop is famous for it's 170 flavors of taffy, but they also have tons of flavors of ice cream and a wheel you can spin to win a free taffy or some other big candy. Another tradition at Seaside is getting sick. And it's always either me or Dada, or that one time it was Mama because she was pregnant. When Grandma and Grandpa came with us, I was the one that got sick. Grandpa lost Opal when they were bike riding and I wanted to go look for her so badly, but I wasn't allowed to, and was stuck laying on the couch. On Friday we are going to go to Seaside again, with Poppie like I said earlier. The house there has three bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room and a living room, and is nice and cozy, so I don't know where Poppie will sleep yet. Normally there is a boy's room, a girl's room and a Mama/Dada room, but I don't know what there will be this time.

P.S: I forgot to mention that we also go to a Goodwill where we are each allowed to pick out a five dollar or less toy to play with while we are there.