Daddy Goes To Camp

I KNOW, I KNOW...I've abandoned the blog this summer! I'm really disappointed in myself. The last couple weeks I've been working on publishing the 2009 and 2010 editions of Keepin Up with the Kutschers in book format....and that's made me even more disappointed. Looking back, even just a few months ago is so entertaining...and I think the boys will love having the blog to look back on when they get older, and now this summer I've not kept up the Kutschers myself! All is not lost though...here goes another last ditch effort to catch up on a month of summer activities.....

In July Daddy took his boys soccer team to EIU for camp, like he always does. But this year was a little different on the home front. :) We told Landon that Daddy was 'going to camp' but I guess we didn't explain it very well. Daddy goes to lots of 'camps' and comes home a few hours later. This one was Sunday through Thursday. Landon was asking when Chad was going to come home on Sunday by 7:00. At night when he'd say his prayers at the end he'd say 'and please let my Daddy come home soon so I can see him again'...like he'd been sent to some far away country and had been gone for months.

So the boys and I had to hang out here at home because Landon had a dentist appointment on Monday. But on Tuesday we packed up and went to Effingham to stay with Mom and Dad for a few nights. We met Chad in Effingham for a surprise dinner at TGI Fridays. The boys were really excited to see him...as I'm sure you can tell from Landon's expression. Here he is playing a belly laugh, rolling in the booth funny game of 'I got your nose.'

Wednesday we got up and went to Grandpa and Grandma's where Grandma tried again to show me how to use her embroidery machine. I've been trying to brace myself (financially) to buy one of these things for going on two years now. I picked one out that I thought I really wanted, but it was 3 grand....yes that's right. 3 THOUSAND dollars. So after I did my stand in Clinton, I thought I'd buy one...but then we bought the new bay window for the living room....which conveniently cost 3k too....so I didn't buy one. And then I left from Grandma's thinking I didn't need that one, I could buy one for only 2 grand and have what I wanted....and then we came home and sold our house. More about that later. So, again, not getting the sewing machine. However, I did get the first ever personalized binky blankie made, for no one other than Miss Sophia Ann Mehring. One of these days, I'll have a machine myself and will be able to do this. I'm putting it in writing RIGHT NOW. It WILL HAPPEN. :)

After trying out the sewing machine, we tried out the first bit of corn to come out of Grandpa's ever famous sweet corn crop. I think the pictures speak for themselves here....Grant actually was holding his ear of corn in his mouth with no hands, which was pretty funny, but I didn't get a good picture of it.

That afternoon, my friend Megan brought her kids Hayden and Baby Paige to visit for a little bit and then we packed the boys up and went to VBS at CUMC. Landon wasn't sure what to think. He was pretty clingy at first, but warmed up. The theme that night was I'm a soldier in the Lord's Army...and Landon made a Christian flag from felt and heard some former soldiers talk, sang some songs (well, watched all the girls in his class sing songs and learn dance motions...he sat with all the other boys and watched), threw water balloons from the belfry tower, and had a snack. He liked throwing the balloons, but wasn't crazy about being below and having to dodge the balloons...because he was 'afraid he'd get his new shoes wet.' Oh yes, that's my boy. We've gotten toughen him up a tad.





The next morning we got up and had some chocolate chip muffins, did a little Kohl's shopping with Mom, had lunch with Dad and Tim, and headed back to Springfield.