Time for another photo update!!!

In absolutely no particular order comes these pictures to you. Enjoy viewing our recent weeks of summer!

This is Ashley and I having a kiss.
Annie and I hugging after an exceptionally long afternoon of just getting home from Brandon's for 2 weeks and breaking down a bazillion times. You can see the sleepiness all over her eyes!

The swings were not up on our new playground-of-death before they left so the first thing they did was get on and swing!

I went through this phase. There's multiple close-ups of my face or pieces in here. Whatever, I think it's fun.

Brandon's girlfriend's parents have this truck. Minus the tow part, it's Tow-Mater from Cars. So the kids HAD to climb in and get a picture in Mater.

He must be blinking but he's so serious looking up there. He's turned out to be quite a little gymnast on that bar!

Just getting up. Or down. Whatever. From the other side you can see his fully formed 6 pack!

Annie ready to get off now. She was trying to convince the big kid who got her up to get her down but I wanted a picture first.

She did like it before she didn't.

Ashley is trying to see what Annie's doing. I think it's such an Ashley picture.

Alex trying to figure out the crossword puzzle at Shari's. It's cute because he hasn't figured out the answers are on the sheet so he's always impressed when I know exactly the right word to try in the spaces. Sometimes it's really not what you'd think so I'm glad they have the answers there!

Ashley was counting for hide and seek but was so excited by her warped face in the doorknob she could barely remember to count. She still got to 10 before I got the picture framed. I still like how this turned out.

A Mom and Ashley hug.

This is totally an Ashley face. Mostly it's an "I caught you doing something" face. You can almost hear the "ooooohhhhh ho ho!" come out of her mouth!

There's her cheese ball smile!

Annie wanted a kiss picture. So she made her eyes all big (it's a long story). It looks like I'm pinching her or something but I'm not. I swear, it's all on her own.

Ashley suckered me into helping her hang. The look on her face is annoyance with me as I was just then told to take my hands off so she could do it by herself!

But I didn't go far!

Alex is just cute. And somehow I don't get enough pictures of him. So I post the ones I get.

He's just so damned handsome!

And we have Annie's goofball face. She's actually hamming it up about something else right here but I don't care. I'm letting you draw your own assumptions. Because I love this face when she makes it.

I also love the heck out of this face!

And we're back to Ashley swinging. It's what she would do all day every day if we let her. The best part is she knows how to pump but she gets tired and starts asking us to push her. So the little boys come over and push her gently. One in particular is really sweet about it. They were in pre-school together and are just sweet friends.

And my giant close-up smile. There's eyeball pictures too, somewhere on facebook. But I'll let you find those on your own.

Last but certainly not least is Aiden. While the kids were gone we spent a lot of time with Goretti's family. This is her kids' guitar. Aiden put the strap on and played. So I took a blackmail picture that is just really cute.

And a video of Alex on the bar.

Wordless Wednesday

2007

2009

(I still need to find and upload the picture of Val and I. Mom, if you have it, or Val, if you find it, would you please scan it and send it to me? I don't know where my copy is and I want to frame them side by side.)

Beauty and Brawn

Yesterday we babysat Samantha. She lives with her dad and that's it. She doesn't get a lot of GIRLY time so we decided to play "Beauty Shop". This begins with a lotion I have, which has glitter in it, for arms, necks, face, and shoulders if you're Ashley (since she was in a tank top). Then there was hair curling by Mr. Aiden (because I have NO patience to curl Annie's hair which is thick and will not hold curl). After that we did make up including 3 different colors of eye shadow for each girl, applied using a Q-tip for accuracy (and less germ swapping). Then we painted their nails. All 20 of them. Each. It was a lot of nail painting.
They decided they wanted to have ladybug fingernails and reverse ladybug toenails. Actually, they wanted ladybug toes, too, but I have no polish remover right now and Annie's toes were already black so everyone else got to change. It turned out really cute!

They were pretty dang pleased with the outcome, and the Otter Pop. Samantha doesn't get girly at all so after we were done she whispered to me, "this is the best day of my life".

THEN Ashley was playing on the new playground with a bunch of other kids. All day long they had been doing this game about giving each other boosts down the slide. Or up the climbing wall right next to the slide. At one point one of Goretti's kids tried to break his back going off one side of the slide. He landed on his back on a board that sticks out under the slide.

Then Ashley went over the other side (with a boost from Annie) and broke her face on the climbing wall. It was awesome. I was helping get Goretti's family back in their house (Santo had been sleeping on me) when I heard Ashley start crying. Aiden went racing to her rescue. By the time he got to her she had blood all over her face. Both of their shirts ended up with blood on them. She has a swollen lip, blood blister in her mandibular frenum (look it up), what will probably be two black eyes, and a banged up forehead.

My poor slugger.

Ashley is singing again!

The video is sideways, I know. But she was singing in the bath this morning. Watch all the way to the end. When she realizes she's being watched, she just reacts in such an Ashley style.

I forgot to add...

What I neglected to mention in the last post is how much the girls both enjoyed the feeling of peanut butter on their hands.

Annie was the only one with sap all over herself but Ashley saw the peanut butter coming forth from the pantry and her eyes lit up.

"Can I have peanut butter on a spoon!?!?" she wanted to know.

When she found out I was only putting it on hands of people who were sappy (ha!) she changed her mind and informed me she was, in fact, sap covered as well.

Both of them had to be drug to the bathroom sink and have their hands washed for them to get the peanut butter off. Apparently it's more fun than Play-Doh.

Annie was so happy about the whole thing she ended up flapping and clapping her peanut butter into little globs of wall decorations. And ceiling. And shower curtain. And mirror... you get it.

What it's like

We went to Applebee's for dinner last night (Wednesday night is "kids eat for 99 cents night"!). The girls had to go potty so we let them walk each other back to the bathroom.

While they were gone our food arrived. Alex took a big dunk of ketchup on his grilled cheese sandwich and bit in.

Then he started making strange noises.

After several attempts to guess what was wrong (it was a really big bite) he decided to fingerspell it ASL style.

K-I-N-K-

"It's kinky?" I asked.

-E-

the laughter ensued.

-R

Aiden guessed it, CANKER in his mouth. OH!

Then I went to check on the girls since it had been a long time since they left us to go potty.

I walked in to bathroom and heard them talking to each other.

There was a large, old, disabled woman trying to get herself into one of the stalls.

I knocked on the handicap stall door (where I take them if we all go together, I totally understand why they went in there) and asked how it was going.

Annie informed me that she couldn't reach the toilet paper and Ashley, who was walking around in there) couldn't get it to give her any.

I made her unlock the door and I went in to help.

While they were unlocking the door the old lady came back out of the stall she was trying to get into and asked if they were finally done yet.

I apologized and said it would just be a minute.

Annie ended up having to finish her business in another stall which only took a second but I was embarrassed that this old woman had to wait for my kids so she could do her own business.

I helped Ashley wash her hands and then Annie emerged ready to do the same. This old woman had moved about 3 inches from the counter (not for spite, just because she was that slow and sore). Annie started washing her hands and I asked the old woman if she needed a hand and apologized once again.

She informed me that she can do it on her own but she's just sore from waiting so long to use the handicapped stall.

I apologized once again, again and went back to our table.

I suppose she thinks I should teach my kids NOT to go in that stall but this is the first time this has happened in all my years of taking kids potty. I am not about to change this habit of theirs. Frankly, Ashley still needs a little help once in awhile and Annie is able to help her.

Am I wrong?

After we got home we took the kids out to ride bikes (except the one who behaved poorly and got an earlier flight to bed). At one point I listened to Alex asking his friend, Jared, how he spits. Apparently Jared and made some comment about Alex's style (which I didn't know he had or was doing...). They were riding around the corner I was stationed at so I only heard the beginning of the answer but I giggled to myself about the things boys ask peer advice for. They are SO unlike girls.

"Graduation" Day

Ashley had preschool graduation on Friday. Unfortunately, we got our wires crossed and arrived an hour late thinking we were on time. So we missed the little ceremony but still got pictures of Ashley with her teacher and in her cap!

There was an hour break between the ceremony and lunch where they had face painting, water tables, a cop car, all the playgrounds open, tons of stuff for the kids to do. But NOTHING for the parents to do but follow their kids around and try to keep track of them amidst all the other kids (4 classes participated) and their siblings and parents. It was crazy!

Last year we let Alex skip school to come see Annie's. We'll let him and Annie skip next year to come see Ashley actually graduate to kindergarden. For this year, we just had the girls with us. We convinced Ashley to have lunch at McDonald's instead of waiting for overheated rubbery hotdogs. Our sense of adventure has waned.

Anyway, some pictures from the day:

This is her with Miss Alyssa, her teacher.

In her "graduation" cap.Annie getting her face painted. The girls got stuck waiting for a friend to finish messing with the boards.THIS is the acclaimed CJ of many a twinkle in Ashley's eye. She's got good taste, huh?HE is less than thrilled about all the PDA. (Maybe they HAVEN'T been kissing!)

This is my new desktop background. I LOVE it!

Fiddle Dee Ha Ha

Annie and Ashley have fallen in love with "Take Me Out To The Ballgame".

They sing it in the car.

They sing it in the shower.

They sing it in their beds after we've yelled at them to shut up and go to sleep.

Always the singing it. ALWAYS at the top of their lungs.

Today we were driving and Annie decided to mix it up a bit. It was like listening to a Little People CD only not.

She worked her way through "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", "The Wheels On The Bus", and some other songs. Then she got to the one about meeting a bear. I don't know what it's called.

Annie did the singing and Ashley did the echo. At one point we got to "he sized up me" and Ashley echoed with "he sliced up me". And then to complete the thought: "I sized up him"..."I sliced up him".

I don't know what they sang after that because we were laughing so hard.

Annie also has a book from her school library right now called "'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving". At one point Farmer McNugget says something about the turkeys being 'filthy beasts' who will be hacked up into Thanksgiving Feasts.

So today is a day I will hide all the knives and just rock in the corner until all the cutting danger is over.

A Teapot and A Goofball!

Today Ashley's teacher, Alyssa, came for a visit. She was telling us how much she loves it when Ashley sings her funny version of the Little Teapot song. I was blindly nodding along but Aiden must have had a confused look on his face.

Hadn't we heard it? No.

So after Alyssa left, I got Ashley to sing it for me. Then I got her to sing it again and again and again until this was the best version of the video I could get.

I love how she had to check her spout. This was the fifth time she had sung it, in a row. It must get tricky!

In case you can't understand her, she says:

I'm a little teapot, short and round

here is my handle, here is my spout

when I get all steamed up, hear me shout

tip me over and pour me out.

I'm a little teapot, short and round

here is my handle, here is my...

Oh no! I'm a sugar bowl!

Then she mooned us.

... and then I had an aneurysm

We took the kids to the museum on campus this morning. There's a lot of animals and some skeletons and stuff (and it's free!). The girls had both been before but it was new for Alex. And since he's very science minded, he loved it.

We got done and went to Pizza Hut for lunch. (I love it when we can save up Book It certificates and eat for the cost of drinks!)

When we got home I took the kiddos outside for some running around time.

And then I noticed the wind. And how cold it was. There was another mommy out before us and since she was still out, I couldn't wimp out that quickly.

And then the rain started. And we both wimped out.

One of the neighbor kids wanted to come play which brought us to 4 kids and 1 adult (Aiden was resting his painful shoulder).

I decided the girls and I could play Sorry! while the boys played in Alex's room. But the boys wanted to play, too. So Ashley and I were on a team.

If you'll remember, Sorry!, when played with multiple kids (especially mine!) goes on FOR-EV-ER.

And since it was an hour and a half into one game before Brady decided he'd had enough and suddenly had to go home, I was starting to be bothered by my eye twitch that had started.

Here's the thing: Alex is a constant source of humming, singing, whistling, and general noise. And he was playing with his Bakugan he'd brought to the table. So his focus was somewhere else.

Annie was humming, singing, whistling, and standing next to her chair while she tipped it up and back to the floor over and over again.

Ashley, who has spent the most time with Aiden, wouldn't stop cleaning up the stack of discarded cards. Unfortunately, she's 4 so she kept fixing the one stack and knocking over the other one. And moving them further and further apart. Plus, we were on a team so I could help her strategize. This meant I had to convince her yes we could use that card (after the first unusable Sorry! card is played, we lose focus) and which guy we should use it with.

Brady also had a Bakugan with him (which he broke and Alex spent half the game fixing between turns). But the part that would drive me nuts was the part where he'd reach for his card before the turn before him was done (or really even started). And the part where he'd pick up his card and hold it, then set it on the table in front of him, take his turn, and have to be reminded EVERY SINGLE TIME to put his card back in the discard pile.

Ho-ly cow. That's all I have to say.

Someday we'll get a dog

We have been worried about the cat's sanity as summer comes upon us. The first really nice day we had around here had all of us outside for basically the whole thing.

Our poor cat was so needy that night, we began to wonder how he will handle the summer when we are outside considerably more.

Mom sent down the harnesses and leashes for her cats (who are now dead and gone, thus no longer using them.... not that they ever did anyway!) so we can take him outside with us during the summer.

Ashley has been dying to get a chance to put Jack on the leash and take him for a walk.

Today I put the harness on and she clipped on the leash. She had all these really big dreams of proudly walking her cat round town. What happened was a very different picture.

Jack sat there. He plopped his little furry behind down and refused to move.

She gave gentle tugs on his leash.

"c'mon Jack"

"Jack, come on"

"Jack, Come On"

through gritted teeth she then told him, "Jack, you are embarrassing me".

I couldn't stop laughing but I did keep it quiet. This led to tears running down my cheeks.

He is not amused.