Tuesday

This is a few days late...

  We woke up to snow.  It was beautiful outside.

  I cancelled regular school and most of the children went outside to play in the snow. 

Then, more excitement!  My wonderful mother-in-law came over and we took the children bowling.  We went to a small bowling place on our local Air Force Base.

Kevin came over from work for a while and gave the children some bowling pointers.  The kids aren't very good (since they've rarely played) and we were very grateful for bumpers so we didn't have a steady, disheartening succession of gutter balls.

As if bowling wasn't exciting enough, we ordered pizza, french fries, and pop for lunch.  The children don't drink pop much, so that alone was enough to make their day :-). If you look carefully in this picture, you can see Daniel sitting behind the table. He is in a high chair.  More on that later.

YUM, pizza! 

My role in this whole expedition was to help tie shoes, find light bowling balls, and (mostly) to chase Daniel.  I didn't actually bowl any games as I guessed I would need to leave early with the 2 little ones. 

So, Daniel.  I have been to this bowling alley with a toddler before.  And it was tiring.  I can't remember which kid it was, maybe Joseph?  If memory serves me, the toddler back then marched around in the restaurant area, explored around the pool table, and generally kept me busy.  So that's what I was expecting.

Well, Daniel was different. Daniel wanted to be on the bowling alley and its environs. You know, that area you aren't supposed to walk on without bowling shoes?  He just kept making a beeline for that area over and over again, and I picked him up repeatedly (not good for my back.) The big girls helped with him, but I was super glad when we found a spare high chair.  I strapped him in, gave him fruit snacks and french fries, and he was happy.  He eventually did get tired and cranky, so I took Daniel and Sarah home for a nap.  My MIL stayed 'til the older 6 were done bowling.

It was tremendous fun.