Swimmers Part Two

I will include video when I figure out how to...

Swimmers Part One

We can hardly picture a summer without swimming every other day and our kids have turned into quite the little fishes. While I had a coupl eof weeks where I couldn't swim because of the surgery, the boys had quite a lot of fun jumping in and getting crazy by themselves. Lucklily the "floaties" let the twins do that by themselves and Ryan has become quite the little independant swimmer. Hopefully I can figure out how to post a video soon. Ryan begged me to take it. Wyatt knows no jump besides the belly flop. Horrible because it is so painful to watch.

Chocolate Milk

This is what has happened lately in our backyard. An explosion of interest into the culinary arts...well, as along as dirt is involved. The kids have loved going and playing in the unfilled planter beds filling buckets with dirt and getting water (often tracking it through the house) and mixing "chocolate milk". Stirring for good consistancy, spreading it liberally over clothes and clean patios, and having a grand old time. These pics were taken this morning before it was time to get ready for church. All the kids get involved, although I have only included pictures of Wyatt. He has been really cracking me up lately. He is our biggest mystery child. We have a hard time understanding what makes him tick.
He is the BIGGEST pushover for his siblings. He will give them anything they want. If there is a fight to sit in the two seats on the car cart in the grocery store, Wyatt will decide he wants to walk. If it is his turn to pick a cartoon show the others just whisper what they want in his ear and he goes with it. He usually watches for about five minutes with them before coming to me wondering what we are going to do next. When Ryan and Mia play "house" or any pretend game, Wyatt dutifully assumes the subrodinant role of baby, dog, or other pet. When he and Mia are alone together they play "Mommy and Puppy". When Mia asks him (often), "Do I look pretty?" he replies, "Oh, you look cute Mia. You look very good today." If he has something the other two want, all they have to do is say, "Please Wyatt?" and he gives it up fast. When it is his turn for a privilege, we have a hard time making him take it because he often hands it off to Ryan and Mia, who say imoocently, "He doesn't want a turn, he wants us to have it!" The other two often fight over who gets to play with him (they only play together when doing destructive things like messing up the backyard). This leaves Wyatt with a hard choice. Go along gender lines or age similarities? He is usually pretty diplomatic. I do think he worships the ground Ryan walks on. He has even adopted Ryans "tongue out of mouth for the camera" pose. (See above). They often play Spiderman and Star Wars imaginary games with each other.
Sounds like a pretty agreeable child huh? He is, until it comes to his parents. Although he is very verablly expressive ("I love you Mom" he sighs often), he is the most stubborn of the three. If he decides he doesn't want to do something, he will dig his heels in pretty fast, even when he knows punishment is imminent. He goes to time out the most often because he refuses to give a single inch. He will get frustrated with me and scream like a banshee as loud as he can. He is, in short, my mystery man.

Sleepyheads

If nothing else, you can say that I am comfortable. This week after the appendectomy has been full of me sleeping on the couch...a lot. The kids often take advantage and nap with me. Unfortunately that negates the benefit of sleeping downstairs (cooler temperatures) with the addition of the warm furnace of a toddler body. It just might be worth it...

I Love the Rain

After a couple of weeks of over 100 degree temperatures, we have been shocked to have a couple of rainy days - today has been especailly wet. Hurray! The boys grabbed cups and tried to catch the rain from the gutters and put it into their bucket (a standard car wash type bucket). They have probably dedicated over 3 hours to this task today. First they stood and waited with one cup and then got smart and grabbed a couple of cups and chairs. It's amazing how much energy they can devote to such a monotonous task. And amazing how much I can get done when they are not in the house! Mia thought this was fun for about five minutes and then came in to read. My garden (tomatoes, watermelons, sugar snaps peas, cantaloupe, pole beans, zucchini, and strawberries) is also liking the wonderful rain.

Girls Night Out

Mia, Nana Carlsen, and I had our first ever "girls night out" while the boys went on the Fathers and Sons campout. While they roughed it, we had french toast sticks at Dennys and painted our nails. We even tried our hand at putting makeup on each other. Mia didn't see the point of eyeshadow and I think we got more blush in our ears than on our cheeks, but we sure had fun!

Mia concentrates on getting as much on the fingers as possible.









Pretty Girls!

Mothers Day

My big mothers day present was going with a group of friends scrapbooking for two days (Fri&Sat). We pooled money and rented a vacation house and potlucked our meals. I got a ton of pages done and had fun talking with friends (mostly about our kids). I was reminded repeatedly of what a wonderful husband I have when all the other girls were calling home kid instructions to their cluless husbands. I knew that I didn't have to worry (or call) because Don is Mr. Mom! He usually gets much more done at home than I do when I am home with the kids and I even came home to a clean house. Woo-hoo! This is an example of one of the layouts I did. I think I completed 13 layouts that weekend! I should be scrapbooked out but all I can think about is "when can I have another weekend?" :0) This weekend, Don is taking the boys to the Father and Sons campout. More girl time at home!