Genius

Whoever came up with the idea of making an inflatable bouncy toy into a water slide with a kiddie pool at the bottom is a genius.

We had just been swimming with friends, stopped on the way home to get a pizza, and arrived at our apartment to find the entire yard in between our apartment and our neighbors' filled with the neighbor's family celebrating their grandma's birthday.

All the grandkids were having some slippery fun, and they invited my kids to join them. So they put their swimming suits back on and had even more water fun while I cooked the pizza. We had a picnic dinner outside, rode down the slide a few more times, and then happily went to bed. Hooray for summer fun!

FHE

Actually, these pictures document the kids (all cousins, woohoo!)

getting ready for our

post-FHE dance party!

We watched the first 3 or 4 seconds of this video about 15 times. Awesome effects, Bentley.

Our new favorite snack

Celery and pimento cheese.

Celery and pimento cheese.

Mmm. Celery and pimento cheese.

Oh yeah, with grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Sister love

Jack Jack or Daddy must have taken these pictures, because I'm in the background of a few that didn't make the cut, folding and putting laundry away.

Typical Rose, eating and pointing at the camera. We have so many pictures of the tip of her index finger.

So sweet!

I'm so glad my four-year-old is feeding my 18-month-old. What would we do without her?

And keeping her hydrated.

More picnic fun

Rose was interested in the swing action going on, but smart enough to keep her distance and take the opportunity to commandeer a toy she'd had her eye on all evening.

Ellen and Daddy took a turn on the swing.

Happy times, documented.

Oh yes, and this was our "let's get together for dinner before the babies are born" picnic. Megan (left) had her baby a week or so after this picture, and Regan (right) had her baby exactly a week after that.

Megan and Regan are my partners in preschool fun. We miss you!

Who needs toys?

We got together with friends for a picnic dinner on one of the days that it wasn't 100+ degrees in Lubbock. I'd forgotten about these pictures until we recently uploaded all the pictures from our camera to our computer.

I love how the three older kids have convinced their siblings to push them on the swing.

They were really getting going here.

End of the ride.

Or maybe one more push. Or two. Or twenty.

Good times, good times.

Foxland Growers

Waaaay back at the beginning of the summer we took this field trip to a local farm that supplies florists in Lubbock. The kids loved the greenhouse.

And we got to pick some flowers of our own from their outside cutting garden.

Boys are . . .

I was talking to Jack Jack at bed time a few days ago, and we had this conversation:

Mommy: Jack Jack, you're so cute.

Jack: No, I'm not.

Mommy: You're not? What are you?

Jack: I'm a king.

Mommy: You're a what?

Jack: I'm a king.

Mommy: Who told you that?

Jack: Nana said boys are kings, and I'm a king.

Mommy: What are girls?

Jack: Girls are cute. Girls are cute, and boys are kings.

After I told Daddy about the conversation, he asked his mom why she was telling Jack he was a king, and she said it was because he told her that he and Ellen were queens and princesses. Ellen introduced him to a game of her own invention where they "fix" their hair by getting it all wet and then hold hands and dance around the room because they're playing "queens and princesses." Thank you, Nana, for clearing that up.

Friends

Jack overheard Ellen and Jack Jack playing behind the couch and asked them what they were doing.

"We're playing with pretend Bentley and pretend Triston."

Oh, yeah?

"Yes. We're making them a cake to help them feel better because pretend Bentley and pretend Triston ate frogs and now they are sick."

Miss our real friends much?

Firsts

Today marked two firsts in Ellen's young life. We tried to make as little hullabaloo about them as possible, and laugh as little as possible.

Ellen had her first Pop Tart today. Shocking, I know. I'm not a big fan of processed foods and don't buy them. When she showed up after church today to go home, she had a pop tart in her hand, and was very excited to tell me that she got a pop tart and pretzels for a snack in her Primary class today. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, she mentioned about a dozen times that she got a snack called a pop. tart. She pronounced it really carefully, too. All that sugar probably blew her mind.

One of Ellen's favorite games lately is to make rhyming pairs. She regularly recruits Jack Jack to rhyme words with her. The game consists of saying a word and then changing the first letter to make a "word" that rhymes. Some times it's actually a real word. Today her letter of choice was "b".

Hair, BEAR!
Jack, BACK!
Ellen, BELLEN!
Wall, BALL!
Fun, BUN!
Switch, B---

Yes, today Ellen said her first cuss word. While Jack and I were trying not to laugh out loud, she had already moved on to the next word.