In the summertime when the weather is fine

Its just the beginning of June and, except for today, the temperature has been already close to or above 90 for many days. So, to cool off, this past Saturday Brian and Keith filled an empty tidy-cats bucket with water balloons while Addy and myself slept in. After breakfast, the kids hopped into their bathing suits (you'll see Addy's obsession with the color green is wearing off on everyone else!) and enjoyed the first water balloon fight of the summer. Thankfully, they haven't realized that they could actually throw them at each other, and all of them burst on the ground. Brian couldn't believe how quickly a bucket of water balloons disappeared!



One of their favorite outdoor activities is to drag out their riding toys and ride them everywhere. This will entertain Keith for as long as you let him, and when its time to go inside you have to pry him off of it. Literally! My mom got to experience this first hand today when he was riding the tricycle at her house. She finally gave up and said "I can't get him off, Jennifer, you'll have to try". As I pulled him up, I would pry his fingers off the handle bars and he would lock his ankles under the seat. Then I would untangle his ankles, and he'd hurry and grab the handlebars. All of this while screaming at the top of his lungs. I finally just had to shake it until he let go. It was not a pretty site. Thankfully, he's quite resilient, and stopped his crying shortly after. Funnily enough, Brian has the same reaction when I tell him its time to come in from playing with his F.J.

ADDY'S RIDING TOY:
(Brian is forcing me to point out the bumper sticker, of which he is particularly proud)


KEITH'S RIDING TOY:
(which, if my grandpa were still alive, I'm sure he would insist on painting it orange!)


BRIAN'S RIDING TOY:


I've been struggling recently with these darn pacifiers (or bappies, as they are referred to in our house). The kids (for the most part) only use them in bed. At our recent dentist appointment, the dentist assured us that they should drop this habit on their own, and not to force the issue of taking them away. But Addy has some speech problems; for instance, she doesn't say her r's and l's and rarely her f's correctly, and I just keep wondering if this stems from her chronic bappy addiction. So, I've been dropping hints about the bappy fairy coming to take the bappies away in exchange for gifts, but so far, I'm still hitting a brick wall on the issue. Here is a small example of what I'm up against:


Finally, one last funny from the week. Recently my mom, nieces, myself, and Addy went to see Shrek 3. Addy had never seen a Shrek movie, and really wasn't too interested in it except, of course, the parts where Puss In Boots was in the movie. She absolutely LOVES all cats, even the cartoon ones. So, she was super thrilled to find Shrek bandaids that had Puss In Boots on them. She's been dying to get injured so she can use them. Finally, she got a splinter in her middle finger and so I washed it up and put on the beloved Puss In Boots bandaid. She then ran into the kitchen saying "Daddy, daddy, look at my new bandaid!!" And when he turned around, this is what he was presented with (SCROLL DOWN):

























(NOTE: this photo was not posed, this truly is how (innocently) she was showing off her bandaid!)

Until next blog,
Jen