Day 1146. How I would have wished to not have an alarm tell me to get up at 8 am! I hit the snooze button and got comments from Emmy who was surprised I was not getting up. He was right. I needed to get up and forced myself up.
After breakfast, I needed to get started on making our soup for lunch right away. I had a student at 10 am, and the soup needed to simmer on the stove for a while. As the kids were still upstairs, they wanted to help me. They've helped me in the kitchen a few times now and really enjoy it. The main thing to do today was pretty much stirring the soup. Tammy and Emmy did help me put stuff into the soup. And then she poured out the corn on the floor. Just what I needed! And just before that Randy was trying to open up a can with a screwdriver as the little latch on it had broken off, and suddenly I felt tomato juice all over my back. Of course it was also on the counter and on the floor. I had to shower off before continuing to cook.
Then the kids finally went downstairs, after I had dressed them. My time to 10 am was already rather short, but it was sufficient. I sat down at my computer to prepare my lessong, and then taught until just before 11 am. Then I started doing office work and called Paul in Mali to get an update. And then it was already 11:45 and time to return to the kitchen. Just after noon we sat down at the table to eat.
The kids really like the soup I made, and two out of three emptied their bowls. Tammy and Emmy didn't want icecream but rather watch Paw Patrol, and so Sammy was the only one eating an icecream (and Daddy). After washing him off, he went to bed. Just before 1:15 I turned the video off, and the other two went to bed as well. I told them they needed to fall asleep fast, as we had just over an hour until they would have to get up again. Amazingly, they were all asleep by 1:30, which wasn't easy, but easier than expected.
I was pretty tired and returned to my computer. At one point I set an alarm and closed my eyes for a few minutes, but I didn't get to sleep. The time was too short. Sammy was the one waking up first just after 2 pm. At about 2:20 I opened the curtains, and Emmy was up pretty quickly, but not so his sister. We got them ready to leave and left the house just after 2:30 pm.
We took the 2:50 train, then bought some chestnuts before getting on the subway. After we got off, we walked through the mall to get to the area where the church had set up their activities. It was outreach day, and they had set up all kinds of activities for children, and there were kids everywhere. It was the first time they had done something this big and were surprised themselves by the amount of people.
Our kids were excited to see it all. They wanted to see Kasperl most of all, but it wasn't time for the show yet, and so they headed straight to the jumping castle. There were a lot of people there. Tammy was ready to get on, but Emmy suddenly didn't want to anymore because of the many people. Once Tammy was on and having fun, he changed his mind though and joined her. I had Sammy and put him on there by the side and made him jump up and down, also while standing up.
Once the group of kids was told to get off to make room for other kids, we walked over to the table where they were face-painting kids. Our kids had also been looking forward to it. I held Sammy but he started freaking out right away, so we had to abandon it. Tammy and Emmy sat down at the same time, and Emmy wanted to be a tiger, while Tammy wanted a rabbit. The ladies who were painting were no professionals, and so the result was mediocre at best, but the kids didn't care.
Leaving there, it was time to go sit down for the show that was about to start a few minutes later. The kids were impatient and kept asking when it was gonna start. And then it did. As children were sitting down on the floor, our two also did, and they were watching intently. It was a nice story that included a good lesson, but it was really short.
The kids wanted to go jump again, and so that's what we did. Randy took Sammy and looked at the picture of a horse on the side of the castle. As for me, I had a good conversation with the guy from church who was responsible for the castle and who I didn't know yet.
After they had to get off, there was only one thing left to do and that was crafts. They had already reduced the size of the teams there as the end was nearing. Emmy sat down to do a necklace, while Tammy wanted to go paint right away. Emmy then joined her there a little time later. They had never used watercolors before, and I had to explain to them that they needed to put the brush into the water first, and THEN into the paint. They'd put them into the paint and then into the water, but as it was pretty dirty already, it still worked. The lady there helped them finish what they were creating, after they were done painting. And they were the last ones to leave the table before they shut it down and cleaned up. 5 pm and therefore the end had come. We put their shoes back on and made our way to the subway.
They asked to go to McDonald's of course, but we already go once a week after swimming. We got on the subway, and when we got off at the train station, we ran to the elevator, as the train was about to leave 2 minutes later. The door was about to shut, when two people stepped into the elevator. And then they pushed the button to the stop BEFORE the train platform. I then asked them to please let us go on to the top so we had a chance to make our train, and they agreed. When the elevator reached the top, the train was already sitting there. We got off and ran to the door, and as the driver could see us, he kept the door open for us. Thank God! We had made the 5:30 train!
By about 5:45 we were back home. It was about time to start making dinner. The kids had watched Paw Patrol all the way home and continued doing so, while I was making their food. At about 6:30 we sat down at the table to eat, then they continued eating in the bathtub. Just before 8 pm they were all in bed, and I sat down by them. I was extremely tired, and the kids were pretty active still. I was glad, when Randy had finished eating and could take my place. I then went to the kitchen to make my dinner. Then I sat down to eat, and after I was done, I started working on today's pictures. Now it's a good bit after 1 am and time to clean up the kitchen before going to bed.
