Chan was getting lonesome and tired of just her brothers, so we decided to invite Britney over for a couple of days as she was needing a little brother break herself.
Gina and I talked off and on during the week and finally settled on them coming out Saturday evening for dinner and to drop Britney off. I called Suzette on Friday to see if Emily could come out and hang out one day while she was here and she decided to come to dinner, too!
It was a great evening, loads of laughing and the dads got to hang out, which was extra good, they don't get enough play time!
We celebrated Matt's birthday a couple days early, since we were all together and Emily and Britney spent the night.
Emily is about...5 feet tall, she's sweet and smiley and always so polite and helpful. She is such a great kid...until you give her a game controller. Ack! She can talk smack and not just here and there. They went until 3 a.m. and she beat the crap out of everyone she played against, keeping up a steady stream of G-to-PG rated smack going the WHOLE time, punctuated by maniacal cackling laughter at frequent intervals. hahahaha!
Gina and I talked off and on during the week and finally settled on them coming out Saturday evening for dinner and to drop Britney off. I called Suzette on Friday to see if Emily could come out and hang out one day while she was here and she decided to come to dinner, too!
It was a great evening, loads of laughing and the dads got to hang out, which was extra good, they don't get enough play time!
We celebrated Matt's birthday a couple days early, since we were all together and Emily and Britney spent the night.
Emily is about...5 feet tall, she's sweet and smiley and always so polite and helpful. She is such a great kid...until you give her a game controller. Ack! She can talk smack and not just here and there. They went until 3 a.m. and she beat the crap out of everyone she played against, keeping up a steady stream of G-to-PG rated smack going the WHOLE time, punctuated by maniacal cackling laughter at frequent intervals. hahahaha!
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| we would like to thank Suzette and Sara Lee for providing the cake! |
On Thursday, the shipment of new computer parts arrived! Matt built a computer from scratch for Ben, who is as pleased as can be about having his own computer.
He also upgraded graphics cards and memory and such in the other computers, so we currently have 5 working computers in the house! It's so nice for everyone to have their own system, the boys had shared until February of this year when their computer died. Chan's was to the point that she had to use a paperclip to open her cd rom drive. Now she has a dvd player and cd burner! I am so happy everyone has a good system they can game on and go online.
Letting kids go online has been such a controversy in our group, and I imagine among most parents. Here's how we handle it.
Jake and Chan have wireless dongles that plug into their usb ports and allow them to access the internet via our router from their rooms. Ben is plugged right in on a cat 5 and is in the living room where we can see what's on his screen at any time.
We can check and see what Jake and Chan are doing at any point from our computers. The deal is, if they end up somewhere they should not be online, they can come tell us. It can happen to anyone, you click a link in a search and BAM. Boobies! We have safe search on their computers and so far-nearly a year now-there has not been a single issue. If there were an issue with chat rooms or certain websites that we don't feel are safe, we can just pull the dongle and they are no longer able to get online.
Jake and Chan have wireless dongles that plug into their usb ports and allow them to access the internet via our router from their rooms. Ben is plugged right in on a cat 5 and is in the living room where we can see what's on his screen at any time.
We can check and see what Jake and Chan are doing at any point from our computers. The deal is, if they end up somewhere they should not be online, they can come tell us. It can happen to anyone, you click a link in a search and BAM. Boobies! We have safe search on their computers and so far-nearly a year now-there has not been a single issue. If there were an issue with chat rooms or certain websites that we don't feel are safe, we can just pull the dongle and they are no longer able to get online.
I am probably the least strict parent in our group, so I have to admit, I don't police much. Now that Jake is on his own and away from me (he was using Matt's computer, which I can see from my own) I will probably check his history now and then. Or let Matt. Or not...if he's going to be old enough to go off to college in just a few more years, there is a time to give more free reign. It's hard to know...what's being respectful of their space and what's just being naive. I think if someone contacted him or if he got into a situation he was not comfortable with, he'd come tell me.
