Spring Break! Woo-hoo!

-or-

It's a good thing there was no school last week since we all caught the plague.

Madison started Spring Break off right by throwing up in front of the whole 6th grade only minutes before school let out for a week.

She spent Saturday recovering, and by Sunday she felt well enough to go to church. 

We had crock pot chicken pot pie for dinner.  I don't think either of us will be eating that any time soon as she threw it up all over the kitchen floor and I was the one who had to clean it up.

Monday she spent recovering.

Tuesday she felt well enough to go a friend's house where she ate a bunch of cookie dough.  For dinner we had "Taco Tuesday", usually a big hit with the kids.  The chicken tacos are pretty tasty, and for only $10 I can feed my whole family. (Christopher usually opts for a pb&j or something from the freezer). 

"Taco Tuesday" will not be on the menu any time soon.  Madison threw up immediately after eating one, and just the smell of the tacos was more than she could stand.  A similar incident with Nick several years ago has prevented us from eating at Del Taco since. 

I was getting worried that there was something wrong with her, as she was getting sick only in the evenings, and each incident was about 48 hours apart.

Then Zach started puking.

The kids being sick was bad news for Nick as he had invited some friends over to watch Doctor Who and celebrate pi day (3/14). 

Good thing he cancelled because he was throwing up before his nerdy get-together would have ended.  Which was REALLY BAD NEWS because he was supposed to leave bright and early the next day for this super fun mountain man rendezvous campout that he had been looking forward to for weeks. As a scout troop they even made knives in anticipation of this event (and as you recall another mother sat up sewing him his capote).

He spent Thursday recovering, and John was able to take him and meet up with his troop bright and early Friday morning.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, Christopher threw up all over his bed and floor around midnight one night during the week.  I finally trudged to bed around 430 am, after he finally passed out. 4 hours of crying will do that to you.

And then it took some convincing by me to make John and Nick go camping on Friday morning when John caught me hugging the toilet at 3 in the morning.  I could see it in his face that he planned to stay home and take care of me.

He might have stayed if we didn't have such great kids.  He put Maddie in charge of taking care of me.  I was easy, I just needed sleep.  They took Christopher on bike rides, to the park, I gave them money for frozen yogurt, I let them go to the dollar store.  And I slept and slept and slept.

And then, when I finally ventured down the stairs- I expected to find the house a disaster, but instead, I stumbled upon a scene that made this poor mother's heart melt.  They were cleaning.  And not just picking up, but scrubbing the table and sweeping.  (Before this I had my doubts to whether the kids could tell the difference between a clean and dirty table, as the sticky messes seem to bother only me) Madison had even purchased flowers from Sprouts with her own money. 

The next morning I was treated to breakfast in bed (applesauce and soda crackers) with little get well notes written on the napkins.

I think the kids took better care of me than I did of them. I can't decide if that means I have exceptional kids or my mothering/nursing skills need improvement.  I'm going to ignore the voice in the back of my head telling me otherwise and choose to believe option one.

So, if you are counting, by Friday morning, 5 out of 6 of us had been sick.  John escaped by being out of town.  Unfortunately he did spend about 2 days in town which is just enough time to catch what we had and take it to Washington DC with him this week.  He plans to puke after class.

So that was our big spring break.  For once I'm glad I didn't have anything big planned like Disneyland or out of town guests. And as soon as he brings up his science grade, I'll let Nick re-invite his friends over for another doctor who nerd fest. :)

phone pics -continued

Nick just finished his very first ever school play- "I Never Saw Another Butterfly". He had lines and everything. He did an awesome job and said he had a lot of fun.  I'm trying really hard, but I can't not mention his T-rex impression. (he was supposed to be a bird) It was funny. For whatever reason, he said they didn't practice that part of the play very much, so on opening night during the "play within a play" scene, he had me wondering what on Earth he was doing. It took a couple of minutes to figure it out. I guess his teacher even yelled at him. Needless to say, John said he was very bird-like the next night.  We had to tag-team both nights, as we had several events going on each night. (soccer games, pack meetings, etc)

While his bird impression needed a little work, he did a good job as a Jewish kid during WWII.  Personally I think the T-rex added a little comic relief to an otherwise downer play.  (in the end most of the kids including Nick get shipped off to Auschwitz.)

Oh! and I have to mention that on the closing night of the play Nick stayed out until one in the morning.  They had to break down the set, then they had a cast party at some one's house.  I finally felt like the mother of a teenager having to wait up for my kid to come home, or in this case, a text to come and get him.  Since there had never been a reason before we had to discuss curfews and how one in the morning is a not an acceptable curfew for a 15 year old. But we'd let it slide cause a) it was a special occasion, and b) we hadn't had reason to set up curfews before.  Of course, when I told his dad he was out so late, his response was "Good for him!"  (Secretly we are pleased he was off having fun, but as the responsible parents we still need to set limits Ü. )

Speaking of soccer games, Zach has been having a lot of fun on his team.  Christopher took these pictures because there are days when playing with my phone is the only thing that will keep Christopher happy and seated. Zach's team is one of the orange blobs.  I couldn't say for sure whether or not Zach is even on the field or not.  

And here is one of the two of us when he got antsy and climbed onto my lap.

And finally ten minutes before the game ended, he fell asleep in his chair watching his new obsession on youtube- videos of school buses. 

Here's a couple pictures that made me laugh-

Can you guess which kid is responsible for each?

Did you guess that Christopher is the goofy kid who carefully lined up the rocks in the street in the front of our house, and that only my girl would draw a heart around a sci-fi reference (and spell it wrong as well)?

Although I would rather the kids pick these up when they are done, I love that my kids love Calvin and Hobbes. 

Zach is really into them lately.  His current favorite genre of books seem to be comic books these days, but reading is reading. And how awesome are Calvin and Hobbes? They're timeless. I remember buying some for my little brother for his birthday when he was 14 or 15.

And finally, someone posted this on facebook and I had to copy the picture. 

I figure it might come in handy in four years when Maddie starts dating. She already has her share of admirers. One boy even left a small heart shaped box of chocolates on her desk on Valentines day.  Of course I told her she wasn't allowed to date until she learned to eat like a lady.

I realize we were eating ribs on this day, but she is always the messiest eater in the house. On the other hand, there is that philosophy of keeping your daughters as unattractive as possible for as long as possible.  She can clean up when she's in her mid twenties, after college, when she's ready to settle down and get married. Until then, I will just have to keep plenty of napkins on hand.

phone pics

Just for fun I thought I'd share some recent pictures off my phone.  Maybe some of these things deserve their own blog post, maybe not.

If I get to wordy, I'll make this a two-part series. (Lucky you)

Christopher lost a tooth this weekend. It was his second one. (Okay, third, but we don't want to talk about the one that got pulled several months ago. They gave it to me in a box so he could stick it under his pillow, but it was so bad it went straight into the trash. I don't know what tooth fairies use teeth for, but they wouldn't want this one).

Anyway, this was the first tooth to actually make it under his pillow.  He lost his first tooth a couple weeks ago, I had been waiting for it to come out because he'd been growing a row of shark teeth behind his baby teeth, and when it finally came loose, he wouldn't let me near it. It hurt, it bothered him, he cried, but kept his mouth clamped tightly shut.  I think he was a little traumatized by my offers to pull it. Then the next morning he woke up and it was just gone.

But this tooth was a completely different story.  Zach lost a tooth last week and put it under the pillow for the tooth fairy.  It must have had an effect on Christopher because when his tooth was bothering him on Saturday, HE LET ME PULL IT OUT.  Which actually makes him my first kid to voluntarily let me yank something.  In two weeks time, he did a total 180 from "You monster! how dare you suggest I let you touch my mouth! Don't you know it hurts?!?!" to "Yes. Please yank it.  I would feel so much better."

On a whim we used part of our tax return this year to buy a pool table.  We found a pretty good deal on Craig's List.  Seems people would rather sell their perfectly good tables for a bargain rather than move them.

And then we bought a ping pong top to go with it.

The kids have been playing with it non-stop.  I just need to redecorate the room now.  New paint, some kind of curtains/window treatments, some fun decor... Unfortunately the giant collection of trains still occupy the room, and will until Christopher stops playing with them, but the room is slowly turning from a toy room to a game room.  John and I have big ideas for the room.  He wants a TV to watch sports.  I want a jukebox.  An old fashioned kind with the lights and the bubbles. I found one for only $3800. (reg. about $6000)  But, we don't have that much money just sitting around. Darn you responsibilities and bills. And kids who like to eat.

I went with Madison and the rest of the 6th grade to the Renaissance Festival. It rained up until it was time to go.  Madison still had fun.  But she has one of those sunshine-y attitudes and manages to have fun despite the weather.  And she still managed to don a set of fairy wings as well.

Here she is making a rubbing.  She thought that was pretty cool. She wants me to frame it.

Okay, I got too wordy. (I doubt that surprises anyone)  So, stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of my recent phone pics.

New personal record

The night of Madison's party, I banned the boys from the house.  This was a "girls only" affair.

They went out to eat, and then they tried to go bowling.  Bowling was a total bust.  After waiting almost an hour, they couldn't get a lane, and waiting with Christopher for something he loves is about as fun as getting a root canal.

So, they left.

Christopher was distraught to say the least.

For the next 24 hours he wouldn't let it go.  He tends to obsess about topics that are in his brain.

So, finally we went. A fun time was had by all, except I think our lane was stupid, it seemed to take twice as long to reset the pins as every other lane there, (sometimes several minutes) which was annoying because we paid for one hour, and barely made it through one game. Grrrr. 

But here's the cherry on the top of all that family fun-  I beat everybody (which I have never done before, my score is usually in the lower half) and got my highest score ever.

Yes, you are reading that correctly - One hundred and Eight!  WITHOUT BUMPERS.  And I realize I can't actually prove that that 108 is in fact mine, since there are no names in the picture, so you'll just have to trust me on that.  And John's score (on the bottom) was actually 97.  I got so excited I prematurely took the picture.  I think my second highest score was achieved when I was 16 (20 years ago) and that was only 103.  I think I've only broken 100 one other time. (It goes without saying that I don't go bowling very often, and I usually suck.)

 But don't worry, I'm sure it's just a one time fluke.  It's still a good bet that I will not be contacted by sponsors any time soon, and have no plans to join any kind of league.

toasted

Have I mentioned my toaster before? No?

Odd, because I love my toaster.

John doesn't care much for it, and it tends to eat Eggo's, but I think Eggo's are gross, so I'm okay with that.

Anyway, my toaster is awesome.

It's so awesome Nick's orchestra teacher requested it be brought to school so the kids could make toast before the field trip.

I believe the conversation went something like this-

The teacher, shocked that most kids didn't know the song 'It's a Small World' asked the kids who did know it to raise their hands.

Nick said he sheepishly raised his hand, then explained that his toaster plays it every morning when the toast pops up.

He also explained that it burns Mickey's face into your toast.  (on a side note, Zach says it looks like Mickey's mug shot.  "Face forward, now turn to the side...")

So she thought it would be something fun for the kids to do while they waited to load the buses to California.  (And Disneyland!)

 Anyhow, that's the story of how I ended up taking my toaster to school.

Christmas Season 2011

 Amidst all the caramel making, (50+ batches)

(which I totally do to myself- I'm not complaining and I don't need any lectures- you know who you are) we still managed to fit in some Christmas merry-making (much of which I didn't take pictures of, so I'll just throw in some pictures of my kids to appease the grandparents)

playing a viola duet of Christmas carols at a nursing home,

piano recital,

freezing our wimpy Arizona tails off looking at the lights at the temple,

looking for Buddy our shelf elf,

and making gingerbread houses.

And probably a few other things I am forgetting.

But this girl-

spent much of her free time writing letters for Buddy to take back to the North pole,

and decorating the house with her own special touch.

(Seriously though, how sweet is that letter to Mrs. Clause?  Love her. )

Why my kids were almost late to school today

A helicopter landed in our backyard.

Ok, so technically not our backyard, but pretty dang close.

The kids got all excited about it, saw it land, and take-off.  They stood outside in various states of readiness, until it was over, then got ready in record time and ran off to school.

I'm choosing not to dwell on the fact that our "Exciting Morning!"  was somebody else's "Really Really Bad Day."

I'm also gonna just choose to believe that that helicopter saved their life and pray for their speedy recovery.

But it was still pretty cool.  It has happened before.  At least once.  Also once a hot-air balloon. That was pretty cool too.

Halloween

Low-key.

That's how we played it this year.

Well, as low-key as you can get with three days of festivities.  Saturday was our church party.  Chili and cornbread and a bounce house and games and activities and a trunk or treat. 

Sunday we had the traditional potato soup served in a pumpkin bread bowl. (white bread that has been dyed and shaped to look like a pumpkin)  We invited a friend over, she brought cookies to decorate, and helped us cut out our jack-o-lanterns. (she's so much fun the kids prefer to think of her as "aunt Chelsa" cause then they have more of a claim on her.)  

On the actual night of Halloween we had our usual little get together at a neighborhood park for dinner.  Soups and rolls and chips and cupcakes.  I love living in a neighborhood that does those kinds of things.  It was fun.

Madison wanted to be a 50's car-hop.  Roller skates and all.  She even talked one of my more creative and talented friends into helping her with her costume. (Chelsa)  But alas, the cast wasn't ready to come off.

They did take the old green one off, but Madison was in tears as the doctor was asking her to move her arm, so they put another one back on.  And if you think she picked pink, (cause I got lots of comments from people saying they were surprised her cast was green) you'd be wrong (again).  She picked orange.  For Halloween.

But having a cast on for Halloween means no rollerskates. The car-hop costume would have to wait.  Again. She wanted to be that last year, but then I found the "Thing" costumes, and made an executive order that they would all be Things for Halloween,.  We played to our strengths and she was a hospital patient, or a car accident victim, or whatever.

I knew Christopher was going to be difficult.  I figured I'd just dress him up in Zach's old Thomas costume, but I couldn't find it.  I probably gave it away.  LAST YEAR.  Probably because Zach wore it when he was both 3 and 4 and now Christopher's 5, so I figured the window to recycle it had closed.... But I did manage to scrounge up Zach's old Spiderman costume from when he was in Kindergarten.  Minus the hood/mask thing, but Zach never wore it, I knew Christopher would never wear it, so I didn't even bother looking for it.

Of course at our church Halloween party on Saturday night, he would have NOTHING to do with it. He went trunk-or-treating sans costume.   By Sunday though, he had enough time to digest it all, and wanted to wear his costume around the house.  He even added my witch hat for good measure. 

By Halloween night we had no problems getting him into his costume. 

Zach wanted to be a Lego mini-figure.  I didn't know how to go about doing that.  He thought that I could just buy one of the costumes you see on people walking around LegoLand.  As in, the professional "character" costumes that the people wear, and the kids line-up to meet them and get their picture taken with them.  Sorry.  Not in the budget. 

Since he couldn't come up with something reasonable, I had him recycle Madison's old whoopie cushion costume from when she was in the 4th grade.  

Of course they had the parade at Zach's and Maddie's school at the same time as Christopher's school, so I had to choose between them.  I picked Zach's and Maddie's because I could support two kids, this would be Maddie's last parade, and it was closer, I could walk there instead of trying to find parking at Christopher's school (which is impossible).  Plus, I figured I'd be a distraction for Christopher anyway.  

So much for supporting two kids.  Zach elected to not wear his costume.  It sat rumpled in his back pack all day long.

Nick also recycled his costume.  He was Thing 1 again.  He tried to talk either of the other kids into being Thing 2, but to no avail.  We might have put more effort into finding him a new costume, but he didn't seem to care, and he was going to miss some of the festivities anyway. 

Did I mention he's working on the school play at the High School?  He's one of the spotlight guys.  As a freshman he's just an intern, but last Saturday night (the night of the church party) he got to run the spotlights himself as the more experienced person couldn't make it.  He's pretty jazzed about the whole thing, and it keeps him busy now that cross country is over.

 He really only dressed up to take Christopher Trick or Treating.  Which was great cause this was probably John's and mine first Halloween ever that we got to spend together.  Normally, it's more of a "divide and conquer" thing.

So after the little neighborhood gathering at a park (we have the best neighborhood), Zach ran off with his friends, Madison ran off with hers, Nick took off with Christopher, and John and I were left alone, hanging out on the front porch, giving the littlest kids too much candy despite the parent's protests, watching Halloween shows on the ipad in between Trick-or-Treaters.

The kids made it home safe and happy.

The End.

A quick update

Kids-

I only have a couple of minutes, so I thought I'd spend a couple minutes updating the blog just in case you happened to check it.

Venice was lovely.  Amazing.  I took lots of pictures and I'll update them later.  Most of just stuff I loved.  Like a door or a house or a courtyard.  I wish I was a better photographer.  We took a boat out to Murano and saw a glass blowing demonstration.  That was pretty cool.

Yesterday we drove up into the Italian Alps.  The cool thing about that was the fact that instead of little Italian towns, the towns are more German than Italian!  German language, houses, food... We even sat next to a table last night were everyone was dressed up in traditional German clothes.  (think Leiderhosen).

Today we will be spending time at Lake Garda, then will be heading to Milan.

Love you!!!!

I'll try to blog later!!!

Buon Giorno from Italy!

Hey kids,  Just a quick note-

been missing talking with you.  Our schedules are so off, you are in school or asleep when we are awake.

Haven't had much time to blog- we're busy from the moment we get up until the moment we fall in bed, and we haven't always had access to the internet.

We are having a lot of fun, and seeing some amazing things, (and eating lots of great food) but we think of you often and miss your sweet faces.

We saw the leaning tower of Pisa yesterday- it was pretty neat.  We were actually pretty impressed.  It really does lean.  And it's really pretty too.

Tomorrow we head to Venice, so I'm excited for that. 

Dad says hi and he misses you.

Love you all.  Be good for Grandpa.  Do your homework.  Brush your teeth. Make your beds.  (sorry can't resist Ü)

Take care of grandpa, he sounds like he needs it.  Love you lots and lots. 

♥ Mom

just for you, Dave

Apparently John got chewed out on his weekly phone call to his dad this morning.  Apparently my father in law is not happy with the lack of blogging going on over here. 

The problem is, there isn't much going on at all over here.

I do plan on blogging about a trip to the lake, but once I do that...

Yes, I have more time to myself these days.  But that doesn't mean I have anything to blog about.

I've been cleaning a little.  (but just a little though. Apparently I can't get thrilled about cleaning out closets)

Reading.  Right now I am in the middle of the Count of Monte Cristo - (1400 pages) book club for that book was last week.  Book club this week is the book "The Devil in the White City".  It looks pretty interesting.

I've gone to the gym and walked on the treadmill while I listened to an Italian language program on my mp3 player.  It's not the best to get the heart rate up, but what can you do? I can now say the alphabet, and I think I can say "Hello, my name is Kirsten" without totally massacring it. 

I've run a few errands,

and I've napped.

Then after school it's all driving around and getting kids to and from their various activities and trying to make sure they've done their homework, practiced, done their chores, etc.

So you see, not much blog material these days.

John did go to St. Louis this week, where they once again tried unsuccessfully to get him to move there. (Technically speaking that's where his actual place of employment is.  I think he even has his name on a cubicle.)  On his way back to the Marriott (home away from home) he spotted a sign by the freeway (I told him to take a picture as this was the closest thing to blog-worthy we've seen in a couple weeks, but he wasn't able to get one).  Anyway, it was a sign advertising All Day Kindergarten for only $3600 a month.

I had to double check that I heard that correctly. (John said he "triple checked" to make sure he read it correctly)

 Kindergarten. Three Thousand, Six Hundred Dollars Each and Every Month.  Over 30 thousand for the school year.  For one kid!  KINDERGARTEN.  For that much money I could send a couple kids to college. Well, BYU or ASU.  Harvard will run me about 60k. Inconceivable.

Apparently the public schools there aren't that great, so private schools are a big deal.  Anyway, given that we currently send our five year old to all day kindergarten where he gets all sorts of individualized help, and door-to-door transportation FOR FREE,  not to mention we have three other kids currently enrolled in the comparatively-superior-to-St. Louis-public-schools here in Gilbert Arizona, we would need the mother of all raises to convince us to move to Missouri. John reminded him of that, and then the extra $ they spent on a plane ticket and a hotel room doesn't look so bad...

So there ya go, Dave.  And yes, I have a couple more to write up - a lake trip and a birthday, but then after that?  I'll try and do better.  But no promises. I suppose I can go dig up some old retro pic from my childhood or something.

Back to School

I've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the school year. 

Don't get me wrong, most of the summer was great.  Lovely.  Wonderful.  But, the last couple weeks have left me feeling a little frazzled and claustrophobic.  I couldn't take one more minute of the noise, and the messes, and the whining, and the arguing.  It was too hot to send them outside and so we all just stayed in.

Anyway school!  yay!  I was pretty excited.  It's my first year being home all alone all day long.  Last year I got 2 1/2 hours to myself, 4 days a week, for a total of 10 hours. This year Christopher is in all day kindergarten (pretty much a requirement for special needs.  I'm good with that though, I think it is truly what he needs) so between the hours of 8 am and 3 pm, Monday thru Friday, I am a free woman.

SOME of my plans for the next year include- cleaning, decluttering, and organizing my house, getting more exercise, joining a THIRD book club, have meals mostly prepared before the kids get home, learn to bake bread, learn a new language (Italian Ü), work on those scrapbooks/photo albums (I'm only 5 years behind), paint and redecorate some rooms, maybe take a class or two....

Any way- here's the kids and their "First day of school" pictures-

Nick- First day of HIGH SCHOOL.  Can you believe it? I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around it.  He seems to be LOVING it.  He's taking drama, orchestra, seminary, PE, math, science and we're going to put him in an online English class.  And he joined the cross country team.  We're just worried how he's going to fit everything in.  He may have to give up EVYS on Thursdays.  They have those boys running 6 days a week.  He comes home exhausted and hungry!

Madison- 6th grade.  She was nervous about going to 6th grade, but I knew her fears were unwarranted.  She has Miss Faber, Nick had her as well.  She's going to love her.  Besides, she's got to enjoy it while it lasts, next year is jr. high.  (so not ready for that!)

Zach- 4th.  I think it will be a great year for Zach.  He has Miss Rogers, (Madison had her in 4th as well) and several of his friends are in that class.  Miss Rogers is super nice, she plays the guitar, and teaches the kids all sorts of cute songs to help them learn things like the capitols of all the states.  I just hope she's not too nice.  Zach's a smart kid, he just needs a kick in the pants every once in awhile.

Christopher- Kindergarten.  Or as he says it "Candy Garden".   I mentioned he's in a special "SPICE" class- I forget what that stands for, but basically it's their cute way of saying "autistic".  Guess how many kids are in his class?  THREE.  Three special little kids, one teacher, and two helpers.  Also there are therapists and others in and out working with my kid.  He does get to spend much of his day in a regular classroom with about 24 kids, doing regular stuff, but he takes his teacher and aides with him and still gets one on one most of that time.  AND they are pushing the toilet training. They seem hopeful.  Hopefully (cross your fingers)  he just needs a different environment.  He's been fighting me tooth and nail for 2 years now. 

 So, I mentioned how ready I was for the kids to go back to school?  How I was practically counting down the hours?  How when people on facebook were boo-hooing because they were going to miss their kids, I would leave comments like "Is it wrong that I am not sad at all?"  How my to-do list for the next year is a mile long, and I couldn't wait to get started?  Well, for some inexplicable reason, the doors on the school bus weren't even closed yet, when out of nowhere, I totally burst into tears.  It wasn't pretty. Apparently I am not as happy about Christopher being gone all day as I thought I was.

At the lake with Pa

It's become somewhat of a tradition that my dad and I take the kids and a couple boats- (usually a raft, a canoe, and a kayak) and let the kids paddle around a lake for an afternoon.   We've been doing it for years.  There's a lake we usually go to (I forget the name) up American Fork canyon.

But this year, we decided to try a new lake.  It was fairly close, and would only take a few minutes to get to.

At first glance, the lake seemed pleasant enough.  The location wasn't as lovely as the one we usually go to, but different can be good.  When we arrived we stood on the shore, and decided it might be a little too windy.  Kayaks and canoes are hard enough to handle for kids when the wind isn't blowing. 

As we were mulling over our options, I took a few pictures of the kids, and after awhile I noticed some debris in the water that the wind had blown our direction.  At first glance it just looked like sticks and stuff, but then I was like "Hey! Look!  That's a dead fish! Oh! And there's another one. And that looks like a dead raccoon floating belly up.  Ew, gross!  I think that is a dead raccoon!"  And just then a giant rat scurried along the rocks near where Madison was sitting, and we decided we had enough and left.

Sometime later, we found ourselves on the shore of the lake we usually go to.

The older three had fun paddling around. 

Christopher refused to put on a life jacket and had no desire to get in a boat anyway, so he and I hung out on shore and threw rocks into the lake.

 He ate most of the fruit by the foot snacks I brought, and even managed to convince Maddie to share hers with him.

The only incident came when my dad lost his balance trying to get into the canoe that Zach and Maddie were already in.  My dad managed to jump to dry ground, but dumped the whole canoe in the process, and thereby soaking the kids and giving the neighboring fishermen a good laugh.