As the Dad, I don’t have the opportunity to post on here very often. However, with Heidi out of the house being a taxi service for our oldest attending Science Olympiad, I have the blog writing cornered for the afternoon.

Yes, Ruth’s birthday was yesterday, the 27th, and yes we have plenty of pictures of the token blowing-out-the-candles ritual and all that stuff, all which will eventually be posted after Heidi parks the cab. Today, more important business was performed: the traditional birthday flight with Dad!

This, of course, piqued the curiosity of all the boys, who asked in unison where their so-called “traditional” birthday flights went. Ever since going full-time in ministry, raising personal support to fly them around on their birthday went way of the Dodo. My flying hours have diminished significantly, and that’s ok.

But today we splurged. We offered Ruth her first opportunity to fly with Dad at the ripe age of two years to…Schaumburg! (a whopping 20 miles away for you out-of-towners). Schaumburg has perhaps one of the best fly-in restaurants in the country, Pilot Pete’s. So, Heidi packed up the kids sans Ruth in the car and drove to Schaumburg while Dad took Ruthie to the airport and flew to Shaumburg. (Jeremy pleaded ad nauseam to go with me and Ruth until we eventually caved).

Here are the two of them posing for the obligatory picture in front of the plane shot.

To be honest, Ruthie was not all that sure about this.  When the hanger doors opened to reveal the airplane, she bolted off in the opposite direction.  Here’s where having Jeremy with us proved quite valuable, as she dutifully followed her older brother into the airplane.

Now as you can clearly see from this video, Ruth just loved it!

We saw our house from the air.

Ruthie arrived at the airport and quickly found Mom, who was taking pictures from outside the gate.

After a good lunch, we headed back up in the air (this time Derek and Peter argued their case for inclusion)

During lunch, Ruth was a total chatterbox. “Airpane, airpane up in da skyeee” was all she said. On the way home Ruthie was much more relaxed and excited as you can see. Healthy fear, then food, followed by non-stop talking, equals…

After landing, another obligatory shot…

…and Ruthie explaining to Peter that what he sees is an “airpane”.

For a Dad, all of this is priceless. Happy Birthday little girl.

P.S. For the aviation fans out there, here’s our landing on the grass runway at Naper Aero. Ruth slept through the whole thing.

Seeing this picture

reminds me of a cool video the kids and I just watched:

We went to the park after lunch today.

Jake gave Ruthie a push on the swing to get her started.

Then everyone else hopped on a swing and began motoring

and motoring.

And while the boys were laughing

and flying

and talking back and forth,

Ruthie sat on her swing, clutching the chains, observing it all.

Content to be still.

The best part of our after-lunch recess? Seeing the pure joy on their faces. I love that feeling.

She observes more than I realized. She recently confiscated a pair of pom-pons from a cheer coach’s bag, walked to the sideline, and began twirling.

My name is Ruthie.

Yeah.

And I’m a cheerleader.

Yeah.

And I’ve got spirit.

Yeah.

So check me out.  Uh-huh, uh-huh.

She’s becoming quite the renaissance girl…tackling and head-butting her brothers by night, cheerleading by day.

We shopped at the Home Depot today as a family, and as Jake and I were standing in the aisle looking at bolts, Derek said it.

“Mom, Jake is taller than you.”

I used to have visions of my boys towering over me one day, but it always seemed so far off. And everyone I knew warned me they grow so fast, so enjoy them while they’re young. Yeah, yeah, I know.

Well today, I was stopped in my tracks as I found myself ever so slightly looking up into my firstborn’s eyes.

The funny thing is, Jake warned me that he felt like he was in the midst of another growth spurt when he came downstairs yesterday morning and said, “Mom, I feel like I’ve grown about an inch this week.” Yesterday I chuckled. Today I’m taking him seriously.

When Derek looks out the back window and sees this,

his mouth starts watering while he runs for the BB gun. Problem is, he’s had to relocate his shooting spot ever since we had the deck built. BBs and screens do not get along.

But because necessity is the mother of invention, he now has a hunting blind.

He was having a field day going after those geese.

Cause and effect are so much fun.

As most of you know, we’ve been sick around here. While I had my turn with it last week, I learned some lessons. The following is a random list of five of them.

1. It’s important to slow down every once in a while. It takes being intentional–or getting sick–to make this happen, otherwise life fills up and races by at lightning speed. Life goes on if I don’t get to every email within 24 hours.

2. Being sick made me appreciate health all the more, and to be thankful for every day God sustains my health.

3. Health can become an idol, a gift that surpasses the Giver in importance.

4. The horrible feeling that comes from vomiting made me think of the many, many people going through chemotherapy right now, today, experiencing this unnatural thing on a regular basis.

5. Being sick reminded me that there is no sickness in heaven. No vomiting. No disease. No disability. If I was in perfect health every day of my life, would I ever long for heaven, my true home?

1. Long hair

2. Pigtails

3. Tights

The inspiration for this treat came from this night…

when Aunt Judi asked if we had ever made s’mores with peanut butter cups. Mmm, the seed was quickly planted in our minds. So the following evening we gathered the supplies:

First we lit the fire.

The kids roasted their marshmallows

while I prepared the chocolate and crackers.

They plopped their marshmallow on top,

squished the lid on,

and ate.

And ate.

And ate.

And ate.

If you’ve ever been to a football game, you know that what happens on the sidelines can be just as entertaining as what’s happening on the field.

As the Mighty Mite Saints were warming up for their game, someone spotted an abandoned shopping cart near the field. The little guys were attracted to the cart like ants on peanut butter.

Coach saw the potential disaster and command those boys to get off that thing right now. They did.

He says that coaching this age is like herding cats.

Meanwhile, Derek was getting fired up for his game, arm in arm with his teammates, jumping up and down grunting out boy-man sounds.

As entertaining as this is, what perhaps is most fun is watching Ruthie. Let’s just say she enjoys all the attention from Grandma and Grandpa when they come out to watch the games.

Here, she learned how to apply lipstick.

And when cousin Sammy came to the field, she had someone to partner with in all sorts of mischievous fun activities.

There truly is never a dull moment on these Saturday mornings!

We’ve accumulated quite a number of football pictures. Here are some of the best.

Derek enjoys continuing as center on the offensive line this season.

For the first time this year, he is one of the biggest kids in his division. I think he likes it that way. He’s also added defensive lineman onto his resume, and is taking great pleasure in tackling ball carriers. Because of his size, he breaks through every offensive line.

Meanwhile, Peter and Jeremy are enjoying their winning season.

Peter is quarterbacking while Jeremy plays offensive line, occasionally as the center. Every once in a while, Peter has the chance to play some defense too.