Monthly Archives: February 2008

When we’re helping, we’re happy

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Jeana| 5 Comments

Today Suzanne called me to see if I wanted to go walking and I instead convinced her to go get some free mulch with me. We loaded up the kids and a bunch of bags and headed to the church (our church got a bunch of mulch to put around the trees and they had a lot left over so they asked people to take it). Anyway, we got to the church and shoveled 4 bags full of mulch while the kids went crazy until we finally got them out to play. We went back to Suzanne’s and spread the mulch around her trees and in her flower bed and used all of the mulch up. It was noon by this time so we made the kids some sandwiches jumped back in the car and headed back to the church to fill up 5 more bags. It was a fun and tiresome adventure. Suzanne got a sunburn (it was 89 degrees here today) and Lucas puked up bark. But overall it was a fun and productive morning. The kids were such troopers. Even before we started the whole mulch excursion, Audrey and Kate helped me weed our flower beds. Then, Audrey helped weed at Suzanne’s and spread the mulch and then helped spread the mulch at our house too. This a huge improvement from last year when she wouldn’t do any outside work because she didn’t want to get her fingers dirty. I kept telling her what a good job she was doing and I said, “It’s kind of fun to work together, huh?” She said, “Yeah. Is that why you had kids?” I totally remember thinking that when I was younger – that the reason my parents had kids was for us to do all the work (I was in high school at the time, so she figured it out much sooner than I did).

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Posted in Audrey, Friends, Garden, Jeana, Kate

The Paper Bag Game

Posted on February 23, 2008 by Scott| 5 Comments

Last night, some of the gang decided to meet at Chuy’s for dinner. When we showed up, the wait to be seated was about an hour. Adam made an executive decision for us to select an alternative dining venue. We ended up ordering pizza and going back to our house.

After the pizza (too much for some of us), I suggested we play a game. The paper bag game is a classic Baldwin game the dates back to when I was much younger. You start with a brown paper bag opened and placed in the center of the room. Each person must bend over and pick up the bag with their mouth, while not allowing any part of their body to make contact with the floor except their feet. Once each person in the group has a turn, an inch or two is cut off the top of the paper bag. Again, each person takes a turn and the cycle repeats. The best part is how wet the paper bag gets in the later rounds when there is less paper to choose from. Tactics change from lips (Adam, we learned has some really long lips) in earlier rounds to tongue (Jeana) and sucking (Jeff).

For those who may not have been there last night, you now know the game and you better be ready to play next time you’re at our house. Here are some action shots to give you an idea of how the game is played.

Jamie, trying to copy Jeff’s bird wing technique.

My personal favorite of these shots. Notice how Adam’s nose is bent against the floor.

Clay, as soon as he got the bag in his mouth, lunged forward prostrate on the floor. We just had to make sure the young kids were cleared of the area.

Danielle told Jeana today (the day after the game) that she expected to wake up sore. Instead, she went to bed sore.

Suzanne stunned us all with her ability to fold down into nothing given her height.

Jeana did great considering the bulky sweatshirt she was wearing.

Brenna consistently succeeded into the final round. Maybe it’s the Idaho blood in her.

I have never seen as much grace exhibited in this game as I saw in Jeff last night. He was still dressed in his business casual attire from work, and would walk right up to the bag, bend over slowly, extend his arms like a majestic eagle, and swoop down to pick it up.

Once we got to the end of the game, we allowed the more slobber-prone children to have a go. For how good kids can squat, I was surprised they needed as much assistance as we gave them.

Andrea and Tanner conceded rounds before the camera was brought out. We’ll be sure they’re photographed next time.

Here’s to next time!

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Posted in Friends

E-mail or female?

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Jeana| 7 Comments

Yesterday Audrey and Kate were out jumping on the trampoline while I was making dinner. Every few minutes I would hear them say, “I have to go check my e-mail.” Then they’d jump off the tramp, run over to an outlet on the house, flip up the gray cover and pretend they got mail out of it. They kept doing this over and over again. When I went out to try to sneak some pictures of them, I discovered they weren’t saying “e-mail;” they were saying “female.” Scott and I got a kick out of it and later explained the difference between e-mail and female to them.