No One Always Or Never Does Anything

Last night was a big deal around here.

In our married life we've often done things we swore we'd never do. Owned a minivan, dressed our kids in cartoon character clothes, gone to bed angry, and other things along those same lines.

We also said we would never, ever take our kids back to Chuck-E-Cheese. We took Emma once when she was like 2, and it was a miserable experience.

But last night we wanted to do something special for Maggie, to celebrate her graduating from Speech. She sees the CEC commercials, and begs us to take her. We always refuse. So Sugar Daddy gets this idea that we surprise her with a trip to CEC to celebrate.

We did it.

We went to Chuck-E-Cheese with all 3 kids.

It wasn't as bad as I remembered. We arrived just before 5, and it was practically empty. By the time we left at 7, it was getting packed, and more and more obnoxious. I think the timing was perfect, because I couldn't have lasted much longer in the chaos.

We came home with 3 toys purchased with our 400 tickets, and 3 very happy exhausted kids.

But I swear, I'll never do that again.

Transport

We're going away this weekend. It's a very exotic-like vacation, so don't be too jealous.

You see, we're taking the trailer out. Finally. We used it once last year. Sad, but since I was in Utah the entire summer, we didn't really have the opportunity to use it. Trust me, if I had my choice, I would have loved to have used it every weekend last summer. If only.....

But alas, things change. Mom is gone, and now the trailer can come out of storage. So we're heading out to the Chain O Lakes state park. Yes, it really has the "O" instead of "Of". And they think us Utahan's are rednecks.

Part of the joy of the trailer, is getting everything ready to go. Food, towels, sheets, blankets, propane, putting back in the batteries, emptying out the poopsicle that never got emptied before it froze solid. See, fun stuff like that. But there's also getting the truck ready to haul it. Fuel, car seats, iPod, new U-joints. Wha? Yep. A day before we need to get ready, the truck needs new U-joints. Figures. It's actually about time, but still, car repairs are the worst. Luckily for me, Sugar Daddy is a master at finnagling things, and can fix pretty much any car problem.

He did it. He fixed it all by himself. And it could have cost us $650. Instead, it cost us the price of a one day Metra ticket, since we had to wait a day for the part, requiring him to take the train into work for a day, and then $35 for the actual part. Labor? Totally free. He rules.

So we're getting ready to go. I can't wait. Even though the Chain is about, oh, 5 minutes away from our house, it will still feel like a major getaway, since I've never been there. I love the trailer. I love being with my kids, and seeing how they interact with eachother, and with nature. I'm sure Maggie will be in personal Hell with the bugs and trees and water all around, but she'll survive. I don't think Gretta even remembers the trailer, since it's been a year since we last went. I'm sure she'll love it, too.

I have a good FFF tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Skipping

I'm skipping today's Mother's Day Week post in lieu of something much more important.

Emma's talent show is today.

She performs for the school today, and for the parents later tonight.

She has braids in her hair, and looks adorable.

She's a little nervous. I'm a lot nervous. I want her to totally rock it. I know she will.

But I'm still a lot nervous.

Spring had Sprung

Spring was here. For one day, and one day only. We enjoyed a day of relaxing on the patio while the girls frolicked in the sprinkler. I had a big refreshing beverage, a salad from Chili's, and a bestie to chit chat with, and life was good. I garnered some sun on my arms, a little on my face, and the kids tanned nicely as well.

And then the next day came, and the rains came down. And down, and down and down. It's pretty much been raining here for 5 days straight. April showers and all that jazz, it's true. I do enjoy the thunderstorms, though. We certainly never got anything like this in Utah. The lightning is spectacular, and the worms that leave the grass in search of higher ground are fat and fabulous. You should see these suckers.

But for one day, life was sunny and good. A peek into what the summer may hold. I liked what I saw.


Gretta in her water shoes. She loves the water; the tub, shower, sink, toilet, sprinkler, hose, doggy dish, anything that can get her wet. No fear.


Mags was a little hesitant to get wet at first. After a few minutes of keeping the sprinkler on "low, mom", she was fine, and bouncing through the watery tendrils with the other kids.


Meet the other kids. Can you tell which one belongs to me? Emma and Shivani are total besties. They play at school, and at home on most weekends. She is a wonderful girl, and very sweet and kind, so I have no problem with them spending lots of time together. But really, could they look any more opposite?

The rest of this week is supposed to be kinda blah, but I think we're on an upward trend for sure. Pretty soon you'll hear me complaining about the heat, I'm sure. Already my hair is as curly as it gets, and I don't love that, but I'm dealing with it.

Gettin' Smart

While I was in the Motherland, Sugar Daddy went all good-little-wifey on me, and took the girls to the city to see the Field Museum. Last year we had an annual pass to the aquarium, so this year he got us a pass to the museum. The kids loved it, and they didn't even get to see it all in their trip down there.

Gretta showing off her newest face.

The girls in front of some sort of dinosaur. I'm sure Maggie could tell you which one it is. She really likes dinosaurs. Which is surprising, since they are bigger than her, and I would think that would scare her.

Mags with the Cheetahs. Does this make her a cheetah girl? Hmm.

I've always said Sugar Daddy is a better wife than I am. If I had been stuck at home with the girls for a weekend while he was away, they would have watched a lot of movies, I would have caught up on sleep and cleaning, and we would have gone about the days just as any other. I'm glad he took some initiative and got the kids out and about. He's such a good little mommy.

Lake Delton-ish

This last weekend we decided we needed a change of scenery. I myself needed a change in a bad way. So at the last minute, we rented a condo and headed up to the Wisconsin Dells. For those of you not in the know, The Dells, as the locals call it, is home to the most and biggest indoor water parks in the world. Or as I like to say, "The Dells, a way to stay pasty white all year 'round!"

Wisconsin is only a 10 minute drive from our house, but The Dells is just over 2 hours. And let me tell you, that extra 1 hour and 50 minutes makes a huge heck of a difference when it comes to the weather. They still had about 2 feet of snow on the ground in places! The lakes were still frozen! But people (us) were walking around in wet clothes to and from the car to get to the water park.



Here is the condo we rented. Literally at the last minute. We were just going to start driving and decide where to stay when we got there, but the nice owner called us back and squeezed us in. She was so embarrassed because there were still dishes washing in the dishwasher. I told her I could live with that, and so she said it was fine. We were expecting something kind of ghetto, especially for the price we paid. But I figured as long as it had a bed and a kitchen, we'd be fine for 2 nights.

As you can see, it was much more than just a bed and a kitchen. It was gorgeous! 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, TV's and DVD players in every room, and most of all 2 balconies, one of which had a hot tub. I always want to sing the Eddie Murphy SNL skit of "Hot Tub" whenever I say that. The hot tub was a hit. The girls, even Maggie, would have been content to sit in there all day. It had a radio, a light show, and even a waterfall! Who needs tickets to a water park when you have a lighted rockin out hot tub all to yourself?

Here is Maggie. I think this shot shows her having the most fun of the day. My Maggie is afraid of everything. And water parks are probably right up there with being picked up, and getting dirty. We did force her on a couple of slides, one of which was a family slide. She screamed her guts out the whole time, but the second time, she didn't scream quite so much. Even the lazy river was a little too much for her to handle.

Here's Gretta intent on finishing her Kool-Aid. This kid is exactly the opposite of Maggie when it comes to adventure. She was going down slides, swimming around the baby pool, and begging to go on the family slide. Even in the lazy river, she didn't want me to hold her on my lap in the tube, she wanted to hang on to the handle and dangle over the side so she could float. No life jacket, no floaties, just good old fashioned water lover in that kid. Like her mother.


Here's Emma in front of one of the kiddie play lands. She was perfectly content to do her own thing most of the day. She climbed the stairs, went down the slides, and put that on repeat. She and I decided we wanted to go down the "toilet bowl" slide. It's the kind where you shoot through a steep dark tunnel, and then it spits you out into a toilet bowl looking thing, wherein you fall out through a hole in the bottom. It was scary, but she said she'd do it if I bought her some watershoes. Deal. She bonked her leg pretty hard, got lots of water up her nose, and vowed never to do it again. I concurred, and we went to the gift shop for the shoes.

One sad thing about where we stayed, is that it used to be lake front property. Last year the dam broke, and the water rushed down the Wisconsin River. They have fixed the damn dam, and Lake Delton is currently filling. I'm sure by next year it will be lake front again. Not that we cared, since it was a frozen piece of dam ice anyway. But I'm thinking next summer, condo rental, kayak in tow, and maybe a far away family member or two. Perfect.

Inaugural

One thing you must know about Gretta is that she loves her stuffed animals. And lately, it has been her stuffed dogs. Dogs in every size, shape, color, and species. In addition to carrying 3 or 4 lucky "doggies" around all day, she insists on each and every one of them sleeping in her crib with her. This brings the total to 267 stuffed dogs in her crib, along with her "woof woof blank" blanket from Grandma. It's like the dog pound in there.

This morning I was returning from Neighbor Kate's house after letting her 500 pound dog out to pee, and as I entered into the house, Emma runs to tell me Gretta has thrown up in her crib. Oh, great. I can hear her upstairs saying, "eew, throw up ma!" So I hurry upstairs to purvey the damage. First thing I notice is no smell. Whew, maybe she didn't barf up that entire cup of milk she guzzled minutes before falling asleep. Second thing I notice, it's everywhere. But still, no smell. I flip on the light, and voila! No barf. It was a bloody nose!

My baby duked it out with her 267 puppies in the dog pound, and lost.

But those poor dogs took a pretty good beating. Blood everywhere. On everything.

I find it appropriate that she had her inaugural nose bleed on this, inaugural Tuesday. Firsts all around.

And the bleeding has stopped, thanks for asking.

Snow + Power = Hilarity

Cousin Chad is so sweet. He always has something fun up his sleeve, and is endlessly entertaining our kids. One day, he'll make a great dad, but for now, we'll take him as our surrogate. This particular day, a day or two before Christmas, we headed over to his parents house, and spent hours (okay, maybe an hour) pulling the kidlets around on sleds behind the 4 wheelers. It brought back many a fun childhood memory, as we spent most of our winters this way.

It was a cold day, so Chad built us a fire by which we could warm ourselves. As you can see, it didn't feel cold to me, since it was at least 30, and it hasn't gotten up to 30 in my hometown for months, now. It felt balmy to me.


Here I am, pulling Brent on the snowboard. He did better than I thought he would, and apparently, he was cracking me up. Yes, you see correctly, I have no coat on. Honestly, the only thing that got cold on me was my hands. I'm so tough.


Here's poor Livvy. She was the first casualty of the evening. Bloody nose, fat lip, and not a peep of discomfort from her. She was such a good sport. She was very brave, and wouldn't give up, even with blood streaming down her face and onto her coat.

Sugar Daddy and Emma driving around like they own the place. I think Duane was a little miffed when Sugar Daddy decided to take a spin through his garden, so I had to put a stop to that right off. Emma loved driving, though, and I think some 4 wheelers are in our near future.



Here's Kinney slamming righteously into Brent's car. You see, Sugar Daddy was a little slow on figuring out the whole "whip the sled around, but avoid obstacles at all costs" thing. Good thing Brent is leaving on his mission, here to Chicago!, in a couple of months. I doubt he'll even notice the dent her head left. Although she does tend to walk in circles, now.

I have some cute photos of Gabe and Eli, too, but blogger is being picky, and won't upload them. I don't know why. Maybe because they are 2 of the cutest boys Ev.Er. and blogger feels like keeping the fairest in the land hidden away.

I also have one of Maggie having what could be the best time of her life. If you can sense my sarcasm here, it's fully intended. That girl is afraid of everything. For her, wearing layers of clothes, gloves, boots and a hat, along with the loud sound of the 4 wheelers, was totally overwhelming. She hardly moved from my side, or from the fire pit, the entire time. Oh, except for when I literally shoved her into my lap on the sled so we could go for a ride together. Yeah, she screamed the whole time. I know, I know, slap the parent of the year award right here next to my many others, but my dad did that kind of stuff to me, so I figure it can't be all that harmful, right? I mean, I turned out perfectly.

At Least It's Clean

Yesterday started out like most days. Up and at em bright and early. Emma off to school, Maggie awake and dressed in her standard outfit consisting of a Hannah Montana shirt, jeans, and the puffy pink skirt over the top of the jeans, all of this topped off with sparkly pink shoes. She is all girl. And Gretta being her silly self carrying around 13 binkies and her milk. We headed over to the local Starbucks to meet up with some friends and get "coffee", which is code for Hazelnut Hot Cocoa. Mmm. I chatted up the ladies while the kids sufficiently destroyed the table and chairs with donut pieces and spilled milk. Eh, we'll just leave a tip, no biggie. After I had my fill of funny stories and gross sex talk, it was time to head off to Maggie's dance class. She danced her little butt off. Gretta got her white-girl groove on, too, and it was hilarious.

So we head home. I've decided that on the way, a trip to Linens N Things is in order, to take advantage of their misfortune of going out of business and scoring an electric blanket for cheap. Sounds good, right? Yeah. So I'm heading along, minding my business and listening to Cathy and Judy's Sex Thursday talk show, when I approach the turn off for my street. Should I continue to LNT, or should I head home and put Gretta to bed? Hmm. If only there was a way for this decision to be made for me. If only.

Then suddenly, "Waaahh, baaarrrfff." Gretta has spewed all over in her car seat. Decision made. I turn up the street and head home as fast as I can. She continues barfing in her seat, not really crying, mostly just saying "Eeewww", and looking at her slime covered hands. We whip into the driveway, I pull her out of the van, and strip her down naked on the grass. Mind you, it's 30 degrees outside. But I'm not taking any chances of having my van smell like rotten milk, as I was doomed to drive around a Jeep that smelled that way all summer. My bad. But I digress.

I pop G in the tub, and start the mind numbing task of disassembling the damn car seat. Does that remind you of the movie Short Circuit? "No disassemble, no disassemble! Number 5, alive!" That movie reminds me of Meg for some reason. And again, I digress.

What the heck is with those car seats? I mean really. I understand the need for safety and all that good stuff, but who hasn't had their kid puke in the car seat, and needed to rip it apart STAT? You'd think they would make them a little easier to get apart for washing and sanitizing and such. This is the second time in 5 months I've had this kid puke in her car seat. I should be a pro at this by now. I'm not. So now I have a clean, sanitized, taken apart car seat in my dryer. Sugar Daddy is out of town, and this time I don't have an identical model to copy like I did last time. What's a girl to do? I guess I'll stay home and take care of business here. Or I could attempt to put it back together. But at least it's clean.

Dang You Darci

A few weeks back, my loving cuz Darci from L-to-the-V blogged about her sweet kid pooping in the bathtub. You will want to scroll down a little bit to see the comments section. Go ahead, scroll. I'll wait. I'm waiting.








Did you see what I said? Yes, my kids had only ever done this once. Note that I said kids. With an S.

Until recently. Gretta has taken it upon herself to poop in the tub 4 more times since I wrote that comment.

Murphy's Law? Probably. Sick irony. Yep. For sure.

The Best Thing

For those of you that know me well, know that I likey my sleepy. I love taking naps, and I love sleeping in on cloudy, rainy days. Unfortunately, I have an early riser on my hands. Emma likes to get up around 6 or so, sometimes earlier. But it's not Emma that I'm talking about. Maggie, she could sleep in until 8, no prob, so it's not Maggie I'm talking about either.

It's Gretta. She wakes up at the first sound of life in the house. Which, unfortunately, is around 6 when Emma wakes up. Not.A.Good.Thing. But since I'm a loving, devoted mother, I arise and start off the day, doing my motherly duties of cereal and milk and making lunch. And of course I do all of this with a smile on my face, and a song in my heart. Sense the sarcasm here.

The other night, as I was getting G ready for bed, she became fixated on a Hello Kitty pillow that resides on the bunkbeds that share her room. She didn't want to leave that pillow alone on the bed. So I put the pillow in her crib, thinking she would be sick of it in no time. Turns out, she loves it. Yeah, she's 21 months old. She probably shouldn't be sleeping with a pillow. But she is.

And my life has suddenly become much, much easier. Now, her once short sporadic naps have become 2 hours or more. Heaven! And her habit of waking upon any sound in the house? Gone! She sleeps through anything now! I can even go in her room to check on her now, which is probably a good thing, since she's sleeping with a pillow and she's 21 months old, or have I mentioned that already?


So thank you, Hello Kitty. I never thought I would be grateful for a creepy kitten with a giant head, and yet, I am. Gretta thanks you too, from her very rested heart.

White Girls

A few weeks ago, we attended the Latin Festival in Chicago's lovely downtown. I love the city. I would totally live in the city, waterfront of course, if I didn't think my kids would be the whitest girls around, or have the possibility of being one of 27 Public School students shot this year. Really, 27. So far. And school's been in, what, like 4 weeks? Damn guns.

But here are my chica's. They were loving the festival. They loved the music, the food, and the Manzanita Sol. In fact, Emma hounded us to buy some for a week afterward. She has good taste, what can I say.

After the festival and all the appreciation that comes from people watching, we headed over to the Shedd Aquarium. We have a season pass, so we thought we'd swing in for an hour or two before we headed back to the parking garage. As an aside, did you realize ( I did not) that it costs $25 a day (!) to park in the downtown area? Crazy! While watching the Kimodo Dragon to make it's move on the strategically placed prey, I had a little anxiety moment. Too.Many.Strollers.And.Kids.In.Baby.Bjorns! Really, they have that stupid petrified dinosaur looking thing in a room the size of my closet, and they expect us to enjoy that experience? I guess it's a good thing the aquarium is remodeling this winter. So needless to say, after that I needed a dose of serious medicine, so off to Baskin Robbins it was. Ah, serenity. Doesn't that word remind you of Fergie's "Big Girl's Don't Cry"? Me too.

So that's it for today. And yesterday, apparently. Man, I can't remember the last time I was too busy to sit and blog for a minute. I guess I should start taking advantage of the post-date posting option, huh? I'm hoping to get my camera battery charged up, and put up some wicked cute pics of a new little bizzeenass I have going with neighbor Kate. We are just so darn creative, it's scary.

Big Red Car

Tuesday brought a crazy day at our house. Crazy fun, that is! Thanks to J-Lo and Dubyah, we were able to get in to Six Flags (I almost wrote Sex Flags, how funny would that have been?) for free. It's nice to have friends with connections.

So the kids enjoyed Wiggles World with Dubyah while J-Lo and I did the big kid stuff. I love roller coasters. I really do.

I also love "Amusement Park People". You know the ones. Swimsuit under their too tight shirt, cottage cheese booty hanging out of their shorts, and white socks with unlaced black tennies. Yep. Classy. Here's G enjoying her popcorn while watching the "Wiggles-esqe" show. That job blows. I bet those dudes get major ladies. Not.

Mags on, and I quote, "the most beautiful horse ever". Yes. Yes it was.


And G getting her cowgirl on. Dang, that kid is funny. I just love her.

So we had fun. I had a funnel cake sundae, oh my heaven. The kids had churros for lunch, cause I'm a good mom like that, and I was 15 minutes late getting home and getting Emma off the bus. Again, cause I'm a good mom. Hey, she knows the garage code, and came right in and made herself a snack. She was cool with it. Hey, I was distracted by all the latest runway styles, okay?

The Greatest Lake

We did something we've been wanting to do for a long time. On Saturday, after the kayak voyage, we loaded up the coolah, and headed over to slum it gangsta style in Zion on the beach of Lake Michigan. I'll be honest, it's a little scary over there. But that never stops us from having a great time. We were blessed with Kate and Pat's presence, and had some good laughs, mostly at their expense.

See that blue chair crumpled up on the ground back there? Yeah, Pat broke that one as he sat down. Oops. Now look more closely at Kate's perch. Yeah, she sat down and busted right through the fabric on that chair, too! Now if that had been me, I would have had the lowest self esteem moment of my life. Not that it would have been the first time I'd broken a chair, but that a whole nother post. But Kate, she just sat there and took the jokes. She's a trooper. A Super Trouper, maybe?

See that huge resort in the background? Doesn't that look like a nice place to spend the weekend? I don't think it's a place you'll be making a reservation at any time soon. It's a nuclear (nucular? GW Bush, anyone?) power plant. You'd think that would make the water a little warmer, no? No. Still freezing. I think the icebergs just melted last week, though.

Here's Maggie and her long lost twin, Madison. These two are soul sisters. They dress alike. They act alike. They're almost 2 years apart, but sometimes we can't tell them apart from afar.

And here's jungle Sean. As soon as he lied down, the kids were all over him. Notice Cayden (I fixed it, are you happy now?) head over heels over him. He thought that was pretty neat, and I think Sean liked the idea of having a boy to play with for a change. Don't get any ideas, that's not happening.

So aside from hanging in satellite Ensenada, and watching all the kids bathe in their Spiderman undies, and the freezing cold water and rocky shore, and biting flies and sand in every morsel of food, we had a pretty good time. Next time, no food items at all. Especially of the chocolate variety. Too sticky.

What You've Been Waiting For

One of the benefits of having your customized road bike stolen out of your garage in the middle of the day is the fact that the insurance company is very kind, and gives you a big fat check. The other benefit is that you can choose if you want your butt to be sore after a ride, or your arms, neck, back, and abs to be sore after a paddle. I chose the latter. This is moi, paddling out on our lake. It was a gloomy, overcast day, with a brisk wind, and only in the 60's. Meg, you would have hated it. Me, I was in heaven. I paddled out to the island, around the other side, and back again. Only an hour voyage, but we had other things to do that day.
And here's what the kidlets did whilst I paddled away. Don't worry, I didn't just leave them alone on the beach. Obviously, since someone had to be there to take the pictures. Sean stayed on shore (he's not an agua lover) and made sand castles and rivers with the girls. Here you can see Gretta does not share his fear of the water.
And Emma showing off her Olympic debut. I remember doing this when I was a kid. We called them "cherry drops". Jill was always way better at them than I was. She was better at a lot of things than I was. Still is. Man, I miss you guys.

Anyhoo, I love the kayak. Love.it. There is just something about being out on the water, nothing but me and the waves, the sound of the paddle slicing through the water, and knowing that I can be out there as long as my heart desires. Or until the kids are ready to leave.

Quick Splash

Yesterday I was an uber motivated mom. G woke up all sorts of pissed, which I don't really understand, seeing as she's sleeping with a cashmere blanket these days. Really, cashmere. I wouldn't leave my bed. Anyhoo, she was mad at the world, and ended up going right back down for a nap. Meanwhile, a neighbor kid came to play with Mags. This is wonderful because then I have more time to blog, play solitaire, and download music. Not that I neglect them or anything, but they just entertain eachother so well, they don't really need me. Unless we have a pee-your-pants incident, and then I'm so there with new undies and shorts.

Okay, on with it. Comcast had to make their seemingly bi-monthly visit to fix my internet. I know! While they were here, I swept and mopped the floors, chatted with Kate and Dubyah, and folded 2 loads of laundry! After that, G woke up, much better I might add, although I'm sure the big dose of Tylenol helped, and the kids were super sweaty and stinky. What's an uber motivated mom to do?

*Image totally jacked off the internet. Not my kids. But it really is the spray park. So sue me. I forgot my camera, okay?

Yep. Head to the Mundelein Spray Park! Thanks to Carli and Shylo for inviting me. Even though I was late, thanks again, Comcast, and missed Carli, I was able to sit and chat with Shylo and her adorable baby. He is seriously so dang cute. He cuddles with her, and has this cute curly hair, and I could go on and on. But I digress. The kidlets sprang into action straightaway. G was first in, with Mags and T dumping buckets of water over her head. She didn't mind though. Again, I'm crediting the Tylenol. So we played for an hour, then headed home. It was a nice break during the day, and wore the kids out just fine.

Although Emma was a little miffed that she didn't get to go, but them's the breaks when you have school.

Sorry about the lame-o post. I'll be better next time. Stop yelling at me.

Giving it another try

Okay, we all remember the first dress fiasco, right? Right. Well, I thought I'd better try again. I think this one turned out much better.

Isn't that lace trim adorable? Yes, I sewed that on all my byself. Thankyouverymuch.


And check out those cute lace straps. Yes, my skills, too. Note that flawless smocking. Yeah, not me. Thanks to Wal-Mart (of course) for pre-smocking for me.


Here's the chicas enjoying the new dress. Gretta wore it all day. She didn't even want to take it off for jammies, and she always wants her jammies on. I guess I have a winner. Now if it would just get warm enough to wear something with no sleeves.



And a closeup of Gretta eating a pencil. Hey, at least she wasn't naked with a diaper on her head as she was yesterday.

Now Emma and Maggie want matching dresses, so I guess I have to indulge them. Really, that dress only took me about 15 minutes to make. My next project will be a pillowcase dress. They are so dang cute, and easy. Wish me luck!

Morning Kids

It's not a surprise to most people when I tell them I'm not a morning person. I never have been. I think Olivia, Maggie and I all suffer from the same sleeping-in disease. Emma and Gretta and Nunn all have that early riser, get-up-to-milk-the-cows-and-slop-the-pigs thing going on. But this morning, the light was perfect, the air was cool, but comfortable, and it smelled like wet moss. So I just couldn't resist letting the kids run outside to play in their jammies as Emma walked off to the bus stop. It's supposed to rain here later today, a major bummer considering how wonderful it has been, so that gave me more incentive to let the kiddies play. The neighbor even brought her kids over for a bit to let them play too! It's nice living in a circle, people seem much more relaxed about letting the kids run and play. I know I am.


Gretta is quite pleased with herself, as you can see by her clapping hands. Just disregard the ever present binkie.


Maggie is pointing out the seasons first potato bugs. Little tiny things that don't yet know how to roll up. She was sure to let them make it across the sidewalk and into the dirt, so they could be with their moms.


And Gretta playing with the wheels on the scooter. I'm telling ya, this kid would play outside All.The.Time if I would let her. A sharp contrast to Maggie, who once she realized there were gnats flying around, was in the house swifter than a mouse on crack!

It was a nice way to start off the morning. Now, I'm off to the craft store. I know, you'd think it would be for something fun, right? Nope. I have to make a poster for our Ward Preparedness Night. How am I supposed to make that look like fun? Sean had the idea of making the poster look like building on fire. That would get people's attention, at least! We'll see. I'll do some looking on the net and see what's been done before.

Child Labor

I've got to give her credit for trying. Notice what is the most expensive thing on the list. You'd think I was making her pick it up with her bare hands or something.

In Case that last post was too serious

I give you this. Hopefully it will brighten your day.