Truman Family Blog

Last week was very quiet.  We made up for it this week. 

Notice the blanket around Braden's shoulders.  Something happened this week.  We now have a little boy who is attached to his blanket.  I always thought other parents must push their child to have a security blanket.  In the first seven children, none of them carried around a blanket.  I could show you another dozen pictures all with the blanket in tow.  If we take him quickly from his bed in the morning and leave the blanket behind, within a few minutes he goes back up to his crib and pulls the blanket through the bars.  If it is not around his shoulders he drags it between his legs and rides it like a horse.  One morning I convinced him to put it in the laundry.  He ran to his crib, pulled the other blankets out of his crib and put them in the wash also.  That made me laugh.  I had planned to hide the blanket for a few weeks but he found it in the clean laundry before I did.   One good thing out of this is that he keeps himself wrapped up at night.  The temperatures have been in the forties at night.  I have checked on him every night around 2:00a.m.  and he has always been wrapped in his blanket.  

We celebrated the Marine Corps' 236th birthday.  We listened to Marine Corps Marches, rewrote some lyrics, had a baseball game, and went to the beach. 

Here we have the boys team...

and the girls team.

A perfect pitch,

and the baby ran away with the ball.

The boys won 61-31.  Every time a runner made it safely to a base they earned a point. Every batter hit once each inning. No strike outs, no foul balls.  After three pitches the hitter ran to first base.  We made up the rules to fit all of the players abilities.  We had rules and structure for the older kids, but still kept it low key for the little kids.  

After five innings, we headed to the playground.  Braden quickly discovered he loved the slide.  At first I helped him up the stairs,

into the chute,

then caught him at the bottom.

He let us know he was big and didn't need any help.

He went down the slide again, and again, and again.  We took a million pictures and a movie.  He just kept going.  Finally after half an hour we just picked him up and went home.  He wasn't to happy.

This was a day to celebrate.  If you read sign language Jessica and I are signing 28.  Yes, that's right 28.  That is the score Jessica earned on the ACT.  Yippee!  Yee haw! Yeah!!!!!

Spencer joined us when he finished at the ball fields.

David was full of amazing stunts.

"Do you think I can jump from here?" David challenged.

"You bet I can!"

Monkey bars are awesome!

Friday, we went to the Wilmington Children's Museum.

Braden was shy at first.

Here we played music by hitting the open pipes with a fly swatter.

Those are the biggest teeth we have ever seen.

Here Braden warmed up to the museum.  He realized everything was for him to play with.  This room was full of teddy bears and doctor supplies.  It was a teddy bear hospital.

The pirate ship was a favorite.  

The pirates treasure island.

Katie made herself at home reading the books behind the beaded waterfall.  

Gavin gave the dinghy a spin.

Jessica built a fort.

Braden loved steering the ship.

Hannah and Katie painted in the art room.

The boys found passageways that came out in unexpected places.

Magnet wall

The weather channel

David was learning to point to the map on the screen.

David's image was superimposed on the weather map.

We learned about sound interference.

The panels could be moved to create varying paths for the ball to travel through.  Braden wanted to take the ball home with him.

Air blowers for hoovering balls and scarves.

The pretend grocery store and restaurant were a dream for Hannah and Katie.

Katie patiently mixed her primary colors to create a full rainbow.

This bus was really a green house.

Spencer tried his hand at bowling.

Hula hoops were harder than they imagined.

The spider web was really cool.  We need one in our back yard.  Spencer, with his pioneering merit badge, says he could construct it, but he would need a lot of rope.  

Braden loved the stairs. We went up...

and down...

and up...

and up.

We could have stayed longer.  If we lived closer we would buy the year membership.  The kids said they would love to use the museum as their living room.  Everyday after school they could just go play in their favorite section.  It looked like it was set up that way.  There were couches and baskets of books all over.  We had fun.

Two blocks from the museum was the Cape Fear River.  We took a stroll on the River Walk.   Notice the paddle boat in the background.

A venus fly trap sculpture made out of green glass and bronze was really interesting.

We imagined what the tree would look like at night.

The court house had a beautiful fountain that just beckoned the two angels as the fairly floated up the steps.

Katie

The end of the walk.  Now where did I park?

As we left the Target and car dealerships behind, we traveled into the historic section.  With beautiful old buildings and a fountain right in the middle of the intersection.  There were two lanes on each side of the fountain.  I really didn't think the truck was going to make it.  The kids thought it was really cool.

The USS North Carolina is moored across the river. 

 Another field trip for another day.

On the way home we did stop and pick out p.j.'s and slippers for everyone.  That night the temperature fell below freezing.  David looks a little sad only because the baby just bit him. Yes, it does happen a lot.  Mostly just to David.  He seems to know that David can not react quick enough and get out of the way.  

So we made our our own parade.  The kids didn't want to walk as one big group through the mall.  So they walked in a straight line.

Saturday we searched in vain for the Veteran's day parade.

Luckily the mall was just opening for the morning, and was not very crowded.  We were a funny sight.  We walked one loop around the whole mall.  We walked slow and looked in all the store windows.  I didn't have to hold hands or worry about a kid running off.  They all just walked in one straight line.  

Happy Birthday Marine Corps.  

Hannah made and decorated this delicious chocolate cake from scratch.