Spontaneous Mommas

Need motivation to get into a coldish May pool for the first time of the year?

Spend a couple hours at a sunny park on a 90 degree spring day. Oh, and walk there and back pushing a weighted-down-toddler-toting double stroller.

That's all it took for me.

While at the park, the boys found a muddy hole to play in.

Charlie stripped his own shorts and diaper off. 

The other kiddos found a cleaner puddle to stomp in.

Then, Us Moms got spontaneous and earned cool points when we hosed them down.

After the hot hilly walk home, I was sweatyyy.  So, we hurried inside and dug into our swim drawers and put on last year's swim gear. Found new sunscreen I had bought on clearance at the end of last summer! I was so pumped (and surprised) I found it, instead of forgetting and buying more :) And then we eased down the stairs into the pool. I was very happily surprised that it wasn't unbearably cold.

I expect that Annette will remember from last summer how to swim in the next month or so. Well, that's me just 'hoping' more likely. And maybe even Charlie will figure out the real swimming deal by the end of the summer? Annette was just 2.5 when she figured it out.

As of now, the floaties make my job a lot easier.

I can already tell this summer is going to be so so so nice for keeping my kids entertained. Watching these two play in and by the pool together is won. der. ful. As they say, siblings are fabulous built in playmates.

Wonderful Summer, I mean Spring, day.

There is nothing like coming inside from a good dose of sunshine and smelling like sunscreen :)

Happy FRIDAY!!

Less Words Wednesday

Hand print Caterpillars. 

We need to go back and add grass and flowers to the background. They need a little more color.

These two feel like they get closer and closer in age. Is that weird?? They can play together so well now. Here they are playing 'night-night'. Which means I go and turn out the lights and we say "good night! i love you!" over and over : )

I've ound several fun links to Dot Art printables via Pinterest. Thank you, tot school and Making Learning Fun , for great FREE resources.

To ROY G. BIV correctly, we 'created' orange and purple by layering with the primary colors.

Isaac and Charlie play this game just about every night. Throw the football up in the air try to catch it while lying down. My husband is quite amazing at raising a boyish boy. 

I've said it a ton before, but Annette really loves chalk. I was getting tired of our regular hop scotch, so I decided to use letters instead of the traditional numerals.  We say the sound as we hop on each letter. Then, we blend the sounds together to say the word. Annette can get the word right about half of the time. She can segment words way better than she can blend them. Which is kind of unusual!

For instance, she can play this app very well independently.

It's called Montessori Words and it's my favorite phonics app yet.  I'd recommend it for kids that already know their letters and letter sounds, since this is the easiest level.

We are excited about being able to enjoy the pool soon. Until now, the little one will do:)

This pic was taken this afternoon right before Charlie was stung on the hand by a mean ole bee. I wanted to smash that thing into a thousand pieces. He was so tough. Only cried for about 30 seconds. We put ice on it for a few minutes and then he was eating chips with that hand in about 2 minutes. 

However, he has screamed every time he has seen a flying bug since.

Come on, pool time... Stay away, bees!

Reasonsssss to Celebrate

All of my mom's family, except our four well-missed South Carolinians, were able to come over to my mom's house today because we had some special happies to celebrate. **If you see these pictures and wonder how our family is so large and easily gathered, read the end of this post : )


First off, Mattie graduated from UCA on Friday. SO so SO proud of my littlest sister!

Another happy, my grandmother, 'Memaw', turned 87 this month. She was sick and in the hospital at the beginning of the summer, so it was extra special to have her with us and doing so well. We had some other August birthdays too-- Isaac will be 30 on the 20th (watch out!) and so will my cousin, Adam.

Annette placed the candles on the cakes. Always wanting to be helpful when it comes to sweet treats.  

AND, my cousin, Adam and his wife Katie, welcomed their second baby, Nathan Cole, into the family. I got to hold all of his sweet little 7 pounds. He was so cute and easy it gave me a hint of that 'baby itch' again;)

To top it all off, a HUGE reason to celebrate.... my sister, Lauren, received more good news from her doctors at MD Anderson! No cancer cells from the preliminary bone marrow tests:))) Here is her story if you want to read more about my amazing sister.

Best Buds. For real.

And here are some pictures of us eating up and catching up.

My cousins, Maggie, Jack, and Carter.

A couple of my uncles eating up. 

my kids love the pool

 Cught this funny picture of my Dad. You can see where I get my facial expressions.

Bubbles with cousin Landon.

fun times

**It's so nice that most of my extended family lives in central Arkansas. We get to see each other pretty often, but still not often enough.

Most of my Dad's family (three of four siblings) live in central Arkansas. His younger sis, my Aunt Mary, lives in Memphis. Not too far at all.

My mom has three sisters and one brother, and all but her youngest sister (my wonderful Aunt Carol who lives in South Carolina with her amazing chef of a husband and two college aged sons)  live in central Arkansas too. So we are doubly lucky. 

Our Fourth. And Third, Second, and First

The First of July:

To start the weekend off right, Isaac and I squeezed in a date night. Love him.
We went to Terry's and it was DEEElicious. Maybe even more so because of the cute dishes.






The Second of July:

We had some major pool time. At my mom's house in her big pool and baby pool, and in our backyard. Charlie seems to prefer the baby pools. Annette, the big ones.

Below is my best attempt at taking a picture with Annette. She is in this phase where she has boycotted looking at the camera. Ready for this silly phase to pass. Makes ME want to pout. Remind me not to pay a photographer to take our pictures anytime soon.

Annette said she was making a rainbow.





Have I mentioned yet that Annette can swim?!?! I'm just a weee bit proud. I posted a video on Facebook, too:)

The Third of July:

We went to church on Sunday...which was a hilarious kind of fun, because it was a 'family' Sunday. As in no child care. Which was a nice break for us Nursery/Sunday School Workers. But made for an interesting attempt at real worship or hearing the message. Charlie twirled in the aisles, flipped and flopped on the carpet, and left a trail of goldfish along his way. We left for the playground about 15 minutes in. Made us very grateful for our usual Sunday routine... complete with childcare and teaching third graders on Sunday.

Charlie's 'let me down so I can run around' face.

The Fourth of July!!!

Our little foursome went to PV for some family fun. Swimming, bouncy things, balloon tosses, cheeseburgers, Cheetos, suckers-- my kids were in heaven! We got to play with the Osborne's too, which made it even more fun.

emma, (noah's cousin), noah, and my silly annette

thanks, mandy, for this cute picture!

noah is such a gentleman. always letting the ladies go first;)

he even encouraged her to go down, with just a teeny weeny nudge.

BIG slide. She is beyond brave.

Charlie played in some of the smaller bouncy houses, which he loved. Cute Sam in the background.

notice the grill applique in red, white, and blue.... not sure if it was worth cutting out those thin little legs. think i'll go with a simpler design next time!

it's cool to drool, right???

my little gymnast

playing water balloon games

We went home and took naps, which weren't quite long enough.... And then we went for a ride.

Wagon rides are one of our go-to ways to get out of the house.

Notice my bare foot children. I think my kids may be the reason AR maintains its shoeless reputation.

I eagerly waited all day looooong for the Fireworks. Seriously. Fireworks are one of my top favorite holiday traditions, so I was excited, probably too excited. Charlie crashed at home around 8:30, so Isaac stayed with him, while Annette and I hopped in the car and drove over to the golf course.

Annette doesn't like loud sounds, ever since an untimely trip to Baker Park on a Wednesday at noon, so I wondered how she would do with the constant booming.
She covered her ears for the first few, but then decided she liked the noise. And the colors. And I loved sitting with her on a not-too-hot-night, listening to her sweet chitter-chatter about the display. Worth the late bedtime for sure! And I'm hoping that next year the whole family can make it to the fireworks:)

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