Life, DeL-ified

We had the 4 little DeL kids with us this past week from Wednesday to Monday while their parents flew out to Idaho for Jonathan & Allie's wedding. As you can imagine, when you spend 4 1/2 days with 4 kids, 6 and under, there are quite a few opportunities for smiles and even out-loud laughs. :-) Enjoy this peek into the minds of the DeL kiddos...

Sunday night we played church. Corrine was the pastor, I think. :-)
Corrine: Now we will have the Passover. [takes out the fake money and starts passing it out] Here is your money to put in the plate. [proceeds to collect tithes and offerings]
Winston: No, Corrine! The Passover is when you eat FOOD.
Corrine: Oh! [does the Lord's Supper, making sure to assure us that it was gluten free]
Later on in the service it was time for the benediction.
Corrine: Now, a token from God----
Winston (interrupting): Corrine! A token is a INDIAN thing!
Corrine: [pause] Squanto was the best Indian... [and launches into the story of Squanto instead of the benediction]
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While baking cookies...
Winston: Do you know why I'm SO SMART? Because my mom teached me.
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The kids were going out to play in the snow. Because they didn't have snow pants, Tara told the girls to just wear their tights under their pants.
Camille: Mommy said to never wear tights under our pants.
Tara: Well, just this once it is okay.
Camille: But Mommy will know! Even if we don't tell her, she will know. She knows EVERYTHING.

In the car, Corrine was looking at a book, and Winston (in the back seat) could tell she was doing something but couldn't see what. Corrine told him it was a secret (they apparently have this thing about secrets - everything is a secret).
Winston (to me): SHE has a secret, and she's NOT telling me! And I am NOT HAPPY about that!
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We played house, and Tara was the mom, Winston was the dad, Corrine and Camille were the babies, and I was the grandma. First off, though, Tara and Winston had to get married (according to Corrine).
Me (I played a dual role as grandma and minister): Winston, do you want to marry Tara?
Winston (giggling): Yes.
Me: Tara, do you want to marry Winston?
Tara: Yes. [she's a very convincing liar. *winks*]
Me: I now pronounce you man and wife.
They walk back down the aisle.
Winston: That is the SILLIEST part!
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In the car on the way to church...
Winston: I smell beans! MAYBE, we have a BEAN FEEF!
Me: A bean feef? What's a feef?
Winston: A FEEF! Somebody who steals stuff! I bet, the feef was stealing some beans, and he dropped one under the seat! We better make a trap to catch that feef....

Camille: Aunt Joanna said that we can wear a pretty dress and be in her wedding.
Me: Really? That will be fun!
Corrine: Maybe you should have us in YOUR wedding!
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Mom went up to get the girls up from their nap/rest time and found them both cuddled under the covers. As they came down the stairs, though, Camille enlightened her...
Camille: I was dancing ballet in our room!
Mom: I thought you were taking a nap.
Camille: Well, I was dancing, and then I heard you coming up the stairs, and I jumped back in bed so you would think I was taking a nap.
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We went out to play in the snow, and Tara came out wearing her coat, black snow pants, and a bright pink headband/earmuff.
Winston: You look like Uncle Josiah!
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Winston and Corrine were going through what they could remember of the 10 commandments.

Corrine: Thou shalt not steal. Ummm... Thou shalt not kill.

Winston: Thou shalt not steal.

Corrine: Uhhh... Thou shalt not commit adulurity. Mmm... Thou shalt not steal.

Winston: Thou shalt not make a new covenant. THAT means, Thou shalt not worship a new car.

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I hope this put a smile on your face today. ;-)
-Kathryn

Happy Birthday Tara!

The baby of the family is 18 today!

Look what Mom got for her birthday...

This little sweetie joined us yesterday and is already making herself at home. She has tons of energy and is super friendly, and purrs pretty much 95% of the time. :-)

EDIT: The Nameless One is no longer nameless... she is officially named Katije (it's Dutch for Little Cat). It's pronounced kaht-ya... I know, we have this thing for weird unpronounceable cat names... :-)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Picnics, Cute Kids, Softball, and Other Assorted Topics

I love this picture... two little cuties in our backyard with peaches in their hands
(and totally oblivious to sagging pants)

All right, so I have to bring you all back up to date once again. I guess I should shoot for at least a monthly post... ah, well. I only missed September by a couple days. :-)

Let's see, what went on in September? Well, we went down to Morton for the annual Multi-Church Picnic, which goes by another name now, not currently lodged in my memory. As is usual for these types of events, I took essentially no pictures. I feel ashamed every time. But talking with friends takes precedence, wouldn't you agree?

Here we are with the lovely Riggenbach girls, trying to stay cool and failing utterly.

(Thanks for taking the picture, Mrs. Hirst!)

So some escaped into the church and amused themselves with music!

Next on the calendar was a "camp-out" at Wendy's house, though not very many people camped out. :-) Friday night was dinner and games and a campfire, and on Saturday we all went to the world's largest corn maze and made it through... with our fair share of going around in circles, thanks to certain members of the group who decreed that we should traverse the maze without using our maps (brilliant, I know). I don't have any pictures of that as I didn't want to lug my camera around on a 10+ mile maze in the blazing sun.

Friends!

Oh, look, a cute kid!

Everyone knows that it is a crime to get together and not play volleyball.

The beautiful and photogenic Raeanne, whom I plan on recruiting for a photo shoot in the foreseeable future.

Anna was using Wendy's camera during the games, and I told her to "look professional." :-)

And most recently, the great Annual Softball Game! It was a grand event involving several churches this year, and instead of just one game (how boring is that?!) it was a tournament. We were gracious hosts and let the other 3 churches claim the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. ;-)

Lots of effort going into that swing!

Notice the spider web?

Little Miss Cami started out the day being very shy but Megan cracked her shell!

I like this father/son moment... I was a split second too late to catch Mr. Geaschel patting Armin on the back before they separated to their positions. Grrr. I still like this though.

My partner in crime! ;-)

The kids had fun on the playground

Jessica keeping score for the other team (they only brought players so they had no score keeper and no fans to cheer them on. Don't feel too sorry for them - they still beat us).

The Wintons gave us a nice concert

I got to hold this cutie the whole evening *happy sigh*

Ok, now in between taking pictures of the game, I got distracted by a certain adorable young gentleman. I think my camera has a magnet installed in it and the other end of the magnet is somewhere inside his head. Anyway, I couldn't decide which pictures to omit because they are all so stinkin' cute. So I compromised on a collage so you get small versions of almost all of them. :-)

Well... that's it for now. So until next time...

Our Visit to Pine Crest

A few weeks ago we had the wonderful opportunity to take a mini vacation up to Door County. Dad's secretary's brother owns a beautiful house up there that he let us use!

The house was all of stone and looked like something out of a BBC movie. :-)

The terrace in back

The back view... pretty big, eh? :-)

This is a historic restaurant in the area and is apparently THE place to go for ice cream or lunch. It was packed!

They had a really neat old phone in the kitchen! The whole house had a lot of antiques.

Dad in the "study." See, even the inside looks like a movie! Dad's just missing a top hat and a cravat.

Tara took some pictures of me with my harp

(here's a slideshow of more pictures if you're interested)

And I took some of her in various outfits.

You can see more of this on my photography blog.

(I only have photos from the bridesmaid dress shoot so far, but I've got more coming :-)

We had breakfast at the Old Post Office restaurant, which sounds a lot cuter than it was, but it was pretty good food. :-)

The lovely two-room kitchen (no coveting going on here at all... nope)

Adorable dining room (it had two tables)

Blurry picture of the study leading into the living room

The upstairs extra room which housed the TV, and some couches which were certainly not my style. :-)

One of the pretty beds.

We had a nice time relaxing, shopping, eating and enjoying the house. If you'd like to see more pictures of the knick-knacks in the house, I'll be putting up some of those more "artsy" pictures on my blog tomorrow!

(and we finally got a family picture without us dressed up in our Reformation Day outfits!!! :-)