Milk shots and meatloaf

It has been a good week for family laughter. For example, the first half hour of my day today contained three back-to-back conversational gems:

After our morning family prayer, during our traditional post-prayer family hug time, Amber chased Jay down the hall saying "where's my Jay huggy? Where's my Jay huggy?" Once she had caught and hugged him, she let him go and then proceeded to chase him again, this time saying "where's my Jay-kissy? Where's my Jay-kissy?" Jeff and I could not stop laughing. That girl! 

Meanwhile, Rose was sitting at the table eating a bowl of Lucky Charms (leftover from a Costco Christmas sugar cereal splurge). Rose carefully ate all of the cereal bits out until all she had left was a bowl of rainbow colored crunchy marshmallows. "Mmmm, it's my biggest bite of just marshmallows. Look how gray the milk is, Mommy!" That girl.

After Amber had obtained her Jay-huggy and her Jay-kissy, she followed Jay around again, this time strumming her ill-tuned pink ukulele menacingly at him. In an attempt to shake her off with his razor rhetoric, Jay said "I play an instrument too, Amber. It's more elegant than yours." That boy! 

The other family funnies I managed to remember long enough to write down all happened during family dinner conversations this week.

We had a cozy goofy family dinner Monday night. The fare was leftover meatloaf, taters, and peas. Once all of our plates had rotated through the microwave and we were all settled at the table, I asked each kid to tell me one good thing that happened at school that day (Mondays and Tuesdays are their days for in-person school in the hybrid model). 

Rose said she got to play basketball at recess with two friends. 

Jay told us "someone said five whole words to me!" Masked 6-foot-apart middle schoolers don't talk much and it bugs Jay. He loves words, talking about ideas, and joking with his friends! Naturally, we all wanted to know what the five words were. Before Jay could say, Jeff jumped in with a dad joke, spoken in a deep monotone voice while counting each word on his fingers: "give me your lunch money!" Jay cracked up so hard, he couldn't talk or eat for a solid five minutes. I could live off of his belly laugh! 

We all started laughing and from there the meal got goofier. Rose started trying to be silly in her classic extra-enthusiastic way (whereupon we attempted to educate her in the art of subtlety). I don't even remember what Jay said the actual five words were that the kid spoke to him at school--something about a computer. We were too busy laughing and goofing off!

Amber's first answer to my "what was a good thing that happened at school" question was "Penelope got in trouble." We all busted up again. Amber is always telling us what Penelope did in her kindergarten class. 

I guess someone else getting in trouble other than Amber herself counted as a good thing in Amber's eyes. Amber also said that she did all of her work and learned about penguins. "The dads take care of the babies and the moms go find them food," she informed us matter-of-factly between bites of meatloaf. 

Jay was still giggly from Jeff's lunch money joke, and I said "nobody drink milk--it'll come out your nose with all of this laughing!" Instead of pouring a full cup of milk, Jeff used a shot glass, ostensibly to avoid having too much milk in his mouth if someone made him laugh. (We use shot glasses for the sacrament water on Sundays during home church -- they're the perfect size, and reusable!) Jeff drank the tiny glass of milk in one swallow, then refilled the shot glass with the bulky gallon milk jug. Gulp, refill, gulp, refill. Laughter all around.

Milk shots and meatloaf: Monday night dinner at the White House. 

I made brownies for dessert, to wide acclaim.

During dinner on Tuesday night, Amber entertained us all with her descriptions of kindergarten recess games. Apparently classmate Penelope cried because she wanted Juliana to play with her, but Juliana chose to play with Amber instead. They played Among Us, a game popular with much older kids involving suspects in a murder mystery. Amber talked about running around "peewing"  people dead. She said it was like tag. We were all cracking up at the funny way Amber described her friends and school! And trying not to cringe at the idea of Amber shooting a finger-gun at school.

It was extra humid on Monday, and Amber's curls loved it.

Amber likes doing my hair into a fancy tangle.

Rose's school picture came in this week. Fourth grade. Turning 10 in a few weeks. We love her.

We had three sunny 45-50 degree days in a row this week! No wonder we were all so giddy by dinnertime. Unexpected Vitamin D overload!

Jeff moved into his new classroom in the new building at the high school. I visited him one afternoon and he showed me the high tech touchscreen big screen he now has. Jay meets Jeff here after in-person school days.

Screen time is a big part of life. We do our best to balance it with activity.

Screen time, view 2.

We had a visible SUNRISE more than once in the same week! Glory!