Bowling has become Zeke’s game of choice. He is so good at Wii bowling that he beats his siblings. When he had resorted to standing crayons on end for pins, I decided to buy him a children’s bowling set for his birthday. He sets it up on the floor or on the bench and practices quite often. Periodically, all other occupants of the house are forced into games of bowling. When bowling, he puts his game face on. He is already attempting to work on his hook as he releases the ball with his knuckles on top. I see shades of Dale’s Daddy when he throws. At Chuck E. Cheese this week, he spent most of his coins at skee ball. Skee balls are a bit heavy, so I could see that his arm was tiring and I tried to encourage him to move to another game. But he refused to stop. When I wasn’t looking, he’d slip another coin in the slot and throw some more skee balls. Dale may have hope yet to play in a league with his family. Lucky for him, he has enough children that he won’t be handicapped by his wife. Zeke has learned what Dale knows quite well: I am a terrible bowler. When Zeke tired on skee ball, I decided to try to help him out, and he realized quite quickly that maybe I wasn’t much help at all.
Throughout my life I have had friends, like my brother Rob and Space, who are the life of the party. Yet, when I lived in Australia, I met two people who are not only the life of the party, they are the party. Jed and Liz Brien bring the party with them wherever they go. While in Australia, Dale and I attended one of their 30th birthday parties. The first one was held the last night of Jed’s 20s (They celebrate their birthdays together because Liz was born on Christmas). It was a wild and crazy event. The second was held the next day when they were 30 and must now behave like old people. It was a Lawn Bowling party. Lawn Bowling is something the elderly play in Australia. Dale and I attended the Lawn Bowling party since we were on our way to becoming aged. As with all their parties, it was a blast. A month ago, Liz emailed me that she and the kids might be able to swing by on their around the world visits before they all moved to Mexico to teach in a Christian school. I told her that if she came, I would be at the airport with balloons and an obnoxious sign. When I went to the party shop to choose balloons for the kids, I saw one that said, “The Party is Here!” I knew I had to buy it for Liz. The kids had a terrific time swimming, playing pool, and carrying around Patches. The Briens always arrive ready for a party, so conveniently Zeke turned 4. For Zeke’s party, we played the Brien version of Pass the Parcel, complete with forfeits. We also played musical chairs, musical statues, and musical bobs. The kids found glow in the dark bracelets, shot off party poppers, and blew noise makers that made no noise. I heard all the Aussie news and saw all the Aussie pictures. (Trudy, I’d go with the dark green or dark brown choice) and enjoyed so very much the 2 days that they were here. Please pray for them. On August 7th they start teaching at the Lincoln School in Guadalajara, Mexico. Pray that they will learn Spanish quickly and settle easily. The party will soon be in Guadalajara, Mexico. I hope the Mexicans are ready.
My children periodically invent games for competition. The other day, Zeke wanted to play a game using his bucket of various super balls, ping pong balls, and nerf balls. So, the object of the game became to divide up the balls and attempt to roll them under the small table in the sun room. Whoever had the most under the table when all were rolled was the winner. The obstacles of the game were the chairs, table legs, and Patches, who sat under the table and periodically swatted the balls away. Having observed the creation of all the different games, Zeke has decided to invent a few himself. Today, Josiah was the unwilling participant in a game that Zeke named Verja. In it, you must spin a crayon and the crayon that spins the longest is awarded “points and stars”. As the points are awarded, they increase by whatever amounts Zeke can think up: “a million two thousand eight hundred and forty”, “million one hundred seven zero eight two zero eight”, “eight O two zero three hundred forty one”. Josiah would respond with a higher number than Zeke and would occasionally declare “Infinity”. Zeke always came up with another number that he felt bested infinity. Once Zeke spun his crayon and it stopped. He proclaimed “I don’t lose,” and spun it again. “I win! You lose!” is his mantra for all games. His favorite real game is animal go fish. At the end of play, both players count their cards. When he played with his cousin Jake, Jake counted the number of pairs instead of total cards. Now Zeke counts the number of pairs. He is not happy if the opposition has more cards then him and he must say “You win. I lose.” He constantly tells me, “I don’t want to lose.” or “I don’t want to be last.” After Verja, Zeke wanted Josiah to play bowling with him. The crayons were set up as pins at the end of the hall. Zeke then gave Josiah the little earth ball which fits in the palm of Josiah’s hand. Zeke chose for himself the big earth ball which is a giant inflated beach ball. If you don’t want Zeke to tell you “I win! You Lose!”, it’s best not to let him set the rules.
The kids have been praying Psalm 91 over me each night of my deployment. Mugs sent me a small digital recorder recently where she recorded various messages and other holly, jolly sounds. On one of the sound bites, the kids recited Psalm 91 from memory. Zeke participated as well. I couldn’t quite hear Zeke playing it back on the recorder, but once I uploaded the sounds to my PC, I could hear every little sound. It is great to hear Zeke’s echoes as he recites with his brothers and sister. I converted the file to Mp3 for your listening pleasure!
