Chickens and Jeckyll-and-Hyde

Look at me, blogging on Monday! Aren't you proud? I know you are. Now you all just have to get back into the habit of checking in frequently, just like I have to get back in the habit of reading everyone else's blogs. Funny how I seem to have so much less time now. Why is that? The days are getting longer aren't they?

We had a great weekend. We had some friends over on Saturday and we BBQed hot dogs and chatted all afternoon. It was nice to just hang out and talk without anything to do. Greyson had a really good time.

Sunday was the big Chickenque celebration. In case you didn't know, Chickenque is the yearly county-wide 4-H fundraiser. Each club sets up a booth showing off some things they're doing. Our booth was giving away seedlings for the 4H-Million Trees project. It was really cool seeing people wandering around with our little seedlings in their hands.

One of the booths was showcasing a project where you build a Windsor chair from scratch with period tools!

The booth next door to ours was a leatherwork craft. C&C each did one and had a great time with it. Cassia made a flower-shaped necklace with little purple hearts, flowers, and baby feet stamped into it. Cameron made a sword with a snake, an arrow, and some manly looking knot shapes stamped into it. Well, he thought he made a sword. What he really made was a cross, lol, but you just couldn't talk him out of the fact that the shapes are so similar. DH kept telling him, "But it's a cross that goes on a church!" and Cam said, "but isn't a cross really a sword?" I guess in a Crusader sense he's right. I guess I have a little Christian soldier on my hands now - too bad he's a self-proclaimed atheist. ;)

Greyson spent his time enthralled by the model train display. I was able to distract him from that for a few minutes with the animals
(he liked the goats and pigs the best) but then he was right back to the train. What is it with boys and trains?

The best part of Chickenque though is the food. Your lunch/dinner consists of half a chicken, a salad, a roll, and a carton of local milk. We came home with almost a chicken and a half worth of leftovers, lol. It made a great chicken salad tonight. After the BBQ is the cake. Oh the cake! Each family is required requested to bring a cake to donate and then they sell them for $1 a slice or $8 for a whole cake. Turns out that if you wait for the end of the day, the cakes are half price! They were selling them for $4 each or 3 for $11 when we left! What would a family do with 3 cakes?? We restrained ourselves and just bought one. And then we ate it for dinner that night. ;)

So today my morning was spent catching up on all my other computer stuff, lol, while the kids played. Oh wait, no, we started the day with an OB appointment. All four of us, yippee. It was an adventure to be sure. ;) But it was much more enjoyable than last month's super rushed appointment because my OB finally got herself a new RNP trainee to help her out. This is fabulous (even though it took her forEVER to find the heartbeat) because my OB came in looking relaxed and happy and ready to answer the questions that the RNP had relayed to her. So I had lots of time with someone and the doctor didn't have to waste her time (which is apparently super valuable) with the mundane things. Everything looks great, by the way.

So then we went to Trader Joe's and then we came home and I read a bunch of stuff online and the kids played. And then suddenly it was gymnastics time. Doing schoolwork in the car worked so well last week that I decided to try it again... but no dice. Cameron just flat out refused so we went inside where Greyson proceeded to run around like a lunatic and forced us back into the car where Cameron again flat out refused to do any work. *sigh* Greyson fell asleep, like I knew he would, and so I switched the kids out and sent Cameron in for his class and brought Cassia out to the car. She however was delighted to do schoolwork in the car!! She did seven and a half pages in her math book (which I finally found) and probably would've done more if it hadn't been time to go.

The kids made another Jekyll and Hyde personality switch when I made a deal with them tonight that if they promised to straighten up the living and dining rooms after dinner that they could eat in front of the tv. While Cameron vehemently promised that he would (and even managed to bargain for a slice of Chickenque cake after they finished cleaning), he spent his time playing with Greyson instead (even with repeated reminders) and landed himself in bed, without any cake and without any of the toys that didn't get picked up, half an hour early. Cassia on the other hand was delighted to help me clean and did an excellent job. (First time ever on this one, I think.) So Cassia, Greyson, and I enjoyed a piece of stale cake while poor Cameron was in bed wondering how long I'm going to keep his LEGOs this time. Do you think he will be more cooperative tomorrow? Me either. ;)