Funny Zufelt Quotes

I found some awesome swim caps at Mustafa. A bright, bold pink shark with a dorsal fin sticking up on it. I knew Maddie would love it so I grabbed one for her and one for her girlfriend Anna since they are nearly always together and kept it for her birthday present this week. Maddie got hers for her birthday back in September.

 

This week we were at the pool with Anna’s mom, Ms Jennifer, discussing her birthday party plans. Maddie chimed in about the swim cap we were giving Anna then says to me in front of Jennifer, “Wait. Can we give her my old one?”

“No. Why?”

“Because I didn’t get to choose which one I wanted and I want the other one.” Turn on the attitude and what I call the flippy floppy body.

“No. That one’s used. We’re going to give her a brand new one.”
“BUT IT’S DRY! She can have that one.”

Jennifer was rolling on the floor laughing. “But it’s dry” has been cat called at me a time or two in the last few days. She even told another mom about it and said it was one of the funniest two things she’s heard the Zufelts say. The other? She’s Baptist and one of my best friends. She asked one day sincerely if we have the same ten commandments she believes. I don’t even remember my response but apparently I said, “We can kill, but other than that they are the same.” Cheeky girl I am.

 

Last night reading scriptures Brian helped Maddie with some new words, one of them was “two.” She retorts in a loud, defiant, don’t-lie-to-me sort of voice, “That’s not how you spell ‘too’!” Brian tells her it’s the number two. She considers, then smiles and carries on as if nothing happened.

 

Cake Request

I asked Jake what he wants on his birthday cake for tomorrow.
"Definitely my candle. 'Cause it's going to have FIRE!" Then he went on and on about keeping safe with a fire and singing and blowing the candle.
"Ok we will have a candle. Now what picture do you want me to put in the top?"
After much thought he decided he had his final answer. I was all ready for a complicated Disney character request or a fire truck or something that would take six different icing colors.
"I want a circle, tri-ang-uh-gull, rectang-a-gull and square." Later he decided to add an oval to the list. Now in thinking through how to make this shape cake look cool.

Practicing Up for the Big Birthday

Here is Jake and his best friend and birthday twin, Anderson. Today we cooked play dough after lunch and they have been very busy making things with their imaginations. The favorite thing of the day seems to be their own birthday cakes with tons of candles. Then we had to sing to Jake then Anderson then Jake then Anderson again and again and again and again. And a few dozen more times. It's been a fun afternoon.

The Sucker I Didn't Earn

"I love you mom but sometimes I'm tempted to choose another way." That's what jake just said to me as we were driving to the elephant park.

Somehow Jacob got his hands on a dum dum sucker two days ago. He carried it around in the wrapper for a bit. Eventually he says to me, "Mommy I'm going to keep this sucker and hold it. And when you do something really good to me you can earn it."

Try as I might there was nothing quite good enough that I tried doing to earn it. He reminded me often of the challenge. This morning he remembered nice and early. Panicked, he asked where were his pants. He retrieved his yesterday's pants from the laundry bag and fished the sucker out of the pocket. Then, once again, he reminded me of my goal to do something "so super nice to me" that would merit this precious sucker.

When we got in the can to go this morning I got to sit by him. He shlwed me the sucker and clutched it in his cute chubby fingers as we rode. Then he said, "Actually, I changed my mind. The wrapper is coming off this one. I'm just going to eat it. He ripped the wrapper off and stuck it in his mouth. All I could do was giggle. Giving away a sucker was just too hard for this cute little three year old despite how much his little heart wanted to give it away.

A few minutes later in the car he threw a little salt in the wound. "If you want to know how the sucker tastes, it tastes GOOD."

Lovely Tropical Mold

We took the car seat out while our visitors were here and left it by the front door. This is what happened in about seven days. It's absolutely covered with mold. It is so hard to keep things clean here.

Bali: Night One

We got to our hotel after 11pm. Maddie was in full melt down after bring woke up to disembark the airplane then again after the hour ride to the hotel. The kids did fantastic on the plane. Well, as far as I could tell. I got Ashlyn to the side. Brian had jake one row ahead of grandparents with Ben and Maddie.

This place rocks. There are no other guests and its fancy. We get the run of the whole villa. It's fancy but Indonesian outdoorsy. As in the showers are kinda outside. Grandma Zufelt is gearing up for her shower and checking the curtains to stretch and pull them as big as she can. No worries. It's big enough. Just barely but enough.

Maddie has had her dreams fulfilled. She's sleeping on a bed with a fancy, flowing canopy suspended over her bed with a big hoop. Never mind that it's a mosquito net with an actual purpose in our open air accommodations. She's pretty stoked to close herself in the bed and drift into dreamland a few minutes past midnight.

Jacob loved that they made him fresh pineapple juice and did the happy dance to prove it.

Ben really thought this place was amazing for at least 15 minutes. Then he started realizing what all the rustic-mess meant. He told me, "I really like this place. I just with it was more like our house and not so much like camping.

Ashlyn is happily sleeping in a pack n play with the mosquito net I happened to toss in the suitcase. Those little things God puts in our heads can really help, even if they help someone some other time.

Brian found fireflies in the rice paddy fields the we over look from our own pool. This vacation is going to be awesome!

Now it's well past bedtime. I've given up finding Vietnam visa info for the night at least. The frogs are chirping and the jungle is humming with night life. Time to sleep.

Rainy Season

It's coming into rainy season again. This is the rain storm we walked home in on Friday. I went to the school thirty minutes early to take pumpkin cookies made from the class scarecrow pumpkin head. I thought they'd get a kick out of eating their friends head. Anyway it was cloudy but not bad and I was distracted so didn't bring an umbrella. We were soaked when we got home. Maddie took her socks off and before she even wrung them out the were dripping. The rain can be AMAZING here and turns the streets and sidewalks into flowing rivers. Just watch this video for proof!