Sleeping Arrangements

For the last week or two, the kids have been sleeping in one bed. They bounce back and forth between their rooms, but they like being in the same bed. Well, I guess the same room.
Every now and then Trace will get up and come to complain about Kinsey bugging him or flopping around in her sleep or being on his side of the bed. I went to check on them before I went to bed the other night and this is what I found. You can't tell, but Trace is in his bed. That's Kins on the floor. Guess she was bugging him again...

Tin Can Stilts & A Little Rain

Trace has been asking for tin can stilts. I'm not sure where he got the idea, but i emptied two big cans of peaches, Chad worked his magic, and voila...tin can stilts! Check out Kins peeking out from behind him.

It rained for all of five minutes this afternoon. One of those summer rains where the sky gets a little dark in places, the wind starts to blow, just a little, gets your hopes up, then it rains just enough to tease you. We ran outside to play in it, but by the time Kinsey put on the required swimsuit, it had all but stopped. And it was hotter than before the rain. So our water playtime was short-lived.

We weren't the only ones excited to have some puddles on the driveway. These little guys fought and fought over the coveted puddles. Before I moved up to the front door and scared them away, I counted 20 little birds jockeying for position.

Besties

Here they are...two peas in a pod...Kins and Ella. They get along like sisters. One day they can play for 8 hours without a single cross word, then the next playtime it's nothing but arguing and we have to call it quits early. These shots were taken after gymnastics today.

Here they are looking at how pretty they are. Kinsey's words. They were so funny today. There was a man changing light bulbs in the room we were in and he asked them what they were up to today. Kinsey responded, "We just finished gymnastics and my brother's in there now." Then Ella says, "My mom keeps kids, so Ms. Sunny take me everywhere." I laughed out loud. Precious.

Ice Cream Tuesdays

I think Tuesdays are the kids' favorite day of the week. At Big Mama's retirement community, they serve Blue Bell every Tuesday. I think Big Mama looks forward to it as much as the kids!

Killin' Time

Here's what Trace does to keep himself busy when we are out running boring errands. Plays his PSP. Photo courtesy of Kinsey.
Here's what Kinsey does to keep herself busy during those same errands:

I cannot tell you how many pictures I have of her like this. I have a ridiculously tiny camera that stays in my purse all the time. So when we are somewhere and she gets bored, she takes pictures. Lots, and I mean LOTS of them are of her face. Very close-up.

This will be fun!

I should clarify...that is not laughter you see on her face. I don't know he talked her into it, but she was NOT enjoying being on his shoulders. And yes, this did end badly. She did a semi-face plant on the kitchen floor. She got her arm down before her face hit, but she sure did milk it. She finally did admit that she was more scared than hurt.

And the Oscar goes to.......

Fashion Show

Yesterday I was priveleged to attend an exclusive fashion show put on by none other than T & K. Here, he is a bounty hunter who has just captured Katie. She's wearing my tank top and boots.

Here, we have an army man, using the pattern on his 'cammies' to his full advantage...hiding in the green blanket. I don't think Katie can see him!

Katie even got in on the action.

Here is a model...wearing her Ariel costume as a skirt and a tank top with a 'brawl' in it.

Darth Vader even came by. Check out the announcer!

Floating

This afternoon, Trace asked for an umbrella to use when he jumped off the bar stool. He was thinking that the umbrella would help him to slowly float to the ground. So he tried it. And was disappointed. Chad suggested they take it outside and he jump off the ladder. When I got outside with the camera, here's what I saw...

He decided to try jumping off the toolbox first. Then he moved back up on top of the cab and jumped. I thought this was just one big broken ankle waiting to happen, but there were no injuries.

Boyfriend Talk

We were riding bikes tonight when Kinsey started, out of the blue...

Kinsey: I don't know the perfect man to be your boyfriend, but you should get one.

Me: But what about Dad? Don't you think he'd be upset?

Kinsey: No, when your boyfriend asks you to marry him, you just break up with him. It will be ok.

I wish she would stay 5 forever.

Bet you'll never have a cake like this...

We went to Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse for supper. The kids enjoyed the show and surprisingly, complained very little about the food. Trace tried to catch food in his mouth that the chef tossed into the air, and their reactions to the volcano made out of an onion and the fireball on the grill were priceless.

At the end of the meal, a very sweet stranger paid the tab for the entire table. Turns out, he lost his wife to cancer two years ago and won just shy of $2 million on a scratch-off littery ticket a few months ago. He said he was paying for our supper because he enjoyed watching our beautiful children having a good time.

Surprise!

Last week, Kinsey started talking about wanting to have a surprise party for her birthday. When she realized just how far off her birthday really is, well, let's just say she was not pleased. She cried. And cried. Then she realized my birthday was just a few days away and decided she would throw me a surprise party. I told Chad and my friends, thinking it was precious that she wanted to do this.

The kids were in the backseat of the car when this realization occurred, so the planning began...in whispers. Then they asked me what I liked and didn't like. I assumed they were fishing for theme ideas. Trace talked about breakfast in bed and wanted to know why I never served him breakfast in bed on his birthday. When I explained that kids are messy and have to sleep in their beds, he understood.

Fast forward to Friday...Erin tooke me to have drinks and pedicures to celebrate my big day. I have never laughed so much while getting my toes done. When she brought me home, I saw cars in the driveway and was shocked. Truly surprised. Turns out Chad had been putting all of this together for weeks. I neglected to mention that Chad came home from out of town on Thursday and was S I C K. He went grocery shopping and ran other errands on Thursday when he was so sick. A real trooper. We had great friends over and had a fabulous time.

Trace woke me up at 7:45 this morning with breakfast in bed...

I am so fortunate to have such a loving family and great friends.

The Last Airbender

Trace's birthday was in May, but we were all wrapped up in All-Star baseball, dance recital, and moving then, so we postponed his party for a bit. With all the activities we had going on, I thought small would be better. We took three of his friends to the movies to see Avatar: The Last Airbender. I've never taken five kids to the movies before. They had a great time and were all very good, but may I just say that I am so glad I don't have five kids?

There were lots of jokes about bending air, or in eight year old language...farting, on the way home from the movie. I bet every one of those kids was bending water in the shower that night.

I'm sure he'll want to kill me in a few years for putting up pictures of him in his undies...but I'll deal with that later.

I Wanna Be a Pop Star

Here's my conversation with Kinsey this morning. And it will surprise none of you who know her well.

Me: Stop getting older.
Kinsey: But I have to have birthdays.
Me: Why?
Kinsey: I need to be a teenager so I can be a pop star.

Home

I am (more than) happy to report that we are the proud owners of JUST ONE house! We closed on our old house this morning. Whew! When we made the whirlwind decision, two years ago, to sell our brand-spankin' new house after living in it only three weeks, I drove up here to find a place to live. Basically, I had one day to find something or we would be living in an old, tiny, did I say old? renthouse. It stunk. Literally. I tried really hard to convince myself that it was ok, but it really wasn't. Thankfully, I found a great house in an even better neighborhood.

I told the realtor that I wanted to find a house in a neighborhood where they had block parties and all the kids rode bikes together in the evenings. She politely told me that she really couldn't guarantee that. Little did I know that is just where we would land. We lived there just shy of two years (yes, capital gains taxes...grrr) and it really was home. We trick or treated together, had Christmas parties, rode bikes, jeeps, and walked around that loop more times than I can count. We ate popsicles in the driveway, watched the kids (ok, and sometimes me) run through the sprinklers, played lots of baseball, and cops and robbers in that neighborhood. And I won't forget the conversations in the middle of the street, or our impromptu Neighborhood Watch 'meetings' in our driveway. We made lifelong friends in that neighborhood. And tons of fabulous memories.
I knew there had to be a reason all of that change was happening two summers ago. And I have decided that God knew of some fantastic people in that neighborhood He thought we should meet. We have been out of that house for a month, so that part is real for me, but I know that as the temperatures drop this fall and we move outside in the afternoons, it will be really real. sniff, sniff...