Wordless Wednesday

Tell me, mate, I need to know

Recently listening to some lectures by Carl Trueman reminded me of the several British people we met in St. Lucia and the partially-serious remark I made to Jason that I would ask all my questions of the next British person we met.  

Such as:  What is the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain?

Do you really eat fish for breakfast?  (I assumed the poached tuna on the breakfast buffet in St. Lucia was for you, because it definitely wasn't for my benefit.)

Do you like how we talk as much as we like how you talk, or do you find it annoying because we're saying it wrong?

Do you celebrate Guy Fawkes Day?  Does it strike you as weird to burn an effigy on a bonfire?

What are kippers anyway?

In light of the ancient history of your land from whence so many of today's nations sprung, the world dominance of the seventeenth-century British Empire, and the surprising success of the relatively recent upstart American Revolution, do you resent the United States's perceived position as the current standard of western civilization?

Wordless Wednesday

Happy happy

Jason turned 40.

Despite his express wish for a jazz funeral held in his honor in New Orleans, I had to do the next-best thing and take him on a mystery birthday trip.


I told him to take off work and gave him departure and return times and a packing list.  He seemed delighted to be treated to a mystery surprise, but it drove the kids crazy.  I gave them the same information--no more.  They tried their best in the weeks leading up to it to trick me into giving away more information, but I held fast.  I've never seen them so eager on the edge of their seats on a car ride.


I made a new playlist just for the family road trip entitled "Karaoke Party."  Included was the Beatles' "Eight Days a Week."  Sometime after the second verse, Caleb burst out from the backseat, "That's more than a week!"  Somewhat indignant, he informed us, "That's an extra day!"  Along about the third or fourth (admittedly repetitive) verse, I heard him mutter, "Eight days a week again, geez."


The trip was only revealed in stages.  First stop, we checked into a hotel with an indoor pool and a few hours to play before dinner.

Then I drove them to Ted's Bulletin, where Caleb had a Mr. Breakfast for dinner and we all had milkshakes.

The next morning I had everybody dress up, much to their bemusement.

We parked downtown and walked to the waterfront of the Potomac, where a cruise ship stood waiting for us and things started to become clear.

Trying to hold up 40 fingers

All aboard the cherry blossom lunch cruise!

With time to spare before our dinner adventure, we hopped aboard an open-air tour bus for a ride.

Which was right up Caleb's alley, especially when he got the seat in the very front.

Next up, Dave and Buster's.

After that, everyone stayed up way late watching the NCAA final back in our hotel room.  

(We tried to put Caleb to bed, but he came out after a while holding his bleeding mouth open and wailing that he lost a tooth.  I asked, "Where is the tooth?"  "I don't know!  I LOST it!")

We slept in very late the next morning and concluded our birthday trip with brunch at a diner before heading home.


Happy birthday to Jason, and many happy more.

Annoying

I'm slowly, cautiously starting to believe in spring.  My favorite pear trees right across the street have bloomed; the mercury has hit 74˚; the redbuds and cherry trees and crabapples are out...

and we're on spring break.  Hallelujah!

I'm not sure if this helps or hinders my children's relationships with each other; I think the lifting of some pressure helps everyone to relax and have more time to enjoy playing with each other.  Hopefully it doesn't too often degenerate into bored kids irritating each other. 


Not that that would be anything new.  The boys, particularly, are constantly at each other.  Jeddy always tries to point out that he once saved Caleb's life (On vacation one year, at the pool, Caleb forgot he wasn't wearing his floatie, jumped in, and promptly sank straight to the bottom.  Grandma, watching from the deck, yelled to Jeddy in the water, who turned around, noticed the problem, and plucked out the soaking, gasping child.). 


Caleb actually credits Jeddy with saving his life a second time, when he cut his hand trying to slice up an apple.  While Caleb cried and bled, Jeddy finished cutting the apple for him, thus saving him from death by starvation, or blood loss, or something.


But none of that induces lasting gratefulness when Jeddy is bugging Caleb.  He rejected Jeddy's gratefulness argument by crying, "You only saved my life two times but you annoy me a bunch of times!"


Fair point.

Ears, sporting his new tie that Ada made for him.

And completely decked out in his new handmade suit.