The Lieslands

Andrew was the Des Moines Menace mascot, Mari was a baby fairy, marking her third year in a row as some sort of fairy, and Elliot was some sort of witch, or something. We had a great time walking around the neighborhood.

Mari has never been much of a singer. She has never seemed to interested in it, until recently. Ever since this summer (maybe around Vacation Bible School?) Mari has been singing much more. She loves learning new songs, and the motions that go with them.

We just returned from another of Andrew’s school birthdays, and I was once again impressed. Moving up from kindergarten to first grade I thought they  might scale back a little bit, but once again they had a nice ceremony, complete with a candle, globe, Andrew walking in circles and us sharing pictures and stories.

As part of the ceremony we sing Happy Birthday to Andrew, once for real and once replacing the first letter of each with with the first letter of his name. Mrs. Wolfe-Guess said that it does not work well with vowels, so we switched to ‘J’, creating another interesting version of the song.

After the singing all of the kids in the class wished Andrew a happy birthday, and gave him a hug.

Susan and I got out on Saturday night to see Peter Mayer play here in Des Moines. Susan became a fan while she was in college and I became a fan while riding in our car listening to him. He has some great, thoughtful music, and he does some nice work with the guitar. He played a fun show, intermingling serious songs, funny songs, and even funnier stories. I managed to record one of his ‘sing-a-long’ songs, Hot Pickles:

Peter Mayer – Hot Pickles

In other news, Sylvia, our babysitter, got our kids to sleep without a hitch. She just read to them, tucked them in, and then left the room. That is a first.

Susan and the kids hit the apple orchards today and brought home a lot of apples. I am not sure what the plan is, but it should be tasty!

We took a day trip with Rebecca and Bianca to Ledges State park last Friday and had a great time. We spent the afternoon hiking and playing in the flood-ravaged park and then cooked dinner and s’mores over a campfire.

The Hula Ninja, deftly avoiding the mosquitoes.

We got a call from the school nurse today and she said that Andrew was eating hot lunch, but they didn’t have any gluten free options so he was eating salad and pears. We were rather confused by this because we pack his lunch every day. When he got home he said that he could not find his lunch. He claims to have put it in his locker this morning, but Nate says that when he got there, after Andrew, that Andrew’s locker was empty. Hmmmmmmm. . . . .

Today we participated in Meals from the Heartland, a local event to package ready-to-cook meals for starving people around the world. It was a great experience. All three kids came and participated, along with our friend Bianca. By coincidence we were at the same table as a family whose mother grew up on the same street as Susan and knew her entire family. There were 3 adults and 7 kids at our table and we prepared over 1300 meals for people all over the world without enough to eat. We were present as this year’s event passed the 4 million meal mark, and there was still a lot of packing to go. We will definitely be heading back next year!

*Once again, I must apologize for not bringing our camera. I promise I will work on that.

The kids and I got out for our first official fishing trip this past weekend. They have been fishing several times (thanks, Johns!), but this time we were on our own. Mari and Elliot enjoyed reeling in their practice lines and Andrew tried his hand at the real deal – casting his own line with the full setup. He actually caught a fish on his first cast!

Tragically, that was the only fish we caught all day. It was still a great time. It reminded me of fishing at my grandparent’s lake. Most of the fishing poles I own are thanks to my mom’s parents and it was great using them and I look forward to many more years of sitting by the lake with my kids.

*Next time I need to remember to bring my camera, so I don’t have to use my phone.