We all have our ups and downs

It has been so nice this week that we have spent our afternoons outside. Some friends of ours were nice enough to share with us an old teeter totter that their kids have outgrown and my kids have loved it! It's been one of the few things that the kids have found to do recently that doesn't involve yelling at each other, crying, hitting or biting. This teeter totter is great: not only does it go up and down, but it also spins around in circles. The kids have had a great time with it, as you can see:




To make our afternoon even more fun, Mommy made the kids pudding cones. Since we were out of ice cream, we put pudding in an ice cream cone and enjoyed it while using the teeter totter. Look at these cute faces:

My sad little cripples

It was a beautiful day so the kids and I spent a fun afternoon outside in the back yard. They played in the sandbox for an hour or so before deciding to pull out the croquet set. Before I knew it, they had tired of hitting the ball (especially since Mommy wasn't setting up any wickets for them to aim for - why set them all up if we can barely make the mallet connect with the ball?) and had come up with other uses for the mallets. My favorite is this:



Of course, when Camille saw Caleb doing something interesting, she had to do it too!




You'll notice Caleb has the sad little cripple act down right away. Camille got the face down first...notice how she has yet to turn her mallet upside down...



By the time Camille figured out how to turn her mallet into a crutch, her brother had moved on to something different.



After that, the mallets became axes, hammers, golf clubs and a whole host of other imaginative items. My children chopped down the giant tree in our back yard and fixed our "broken" toy cars. I never would have dreamed a $5 croquet set would have been so useful...or entertaining!

Camille's New Bra

I don't know why, but both of my children are very interested in bras. Every time they find one of mine, they insist on wearing it no matter how many times I explain that they're just for ladies - not little girls and definitely not boys.

So today after we came in from playing outside (Camille's clothes went right into the washer because they were filthy) Camille found this blue storage lid and held it up to herself saying, "Look edybody! It's my new bwa!" She was very proud of herself.

Sadly, it led to some jealousy on the part of her brother who wanted one as well. "Why don't boys get to wear bras?" I figure that's a conversation for him to have with Daddy another day!

Chefs in Training

For as long as I can remember, the kids have been interested in what Mommy does in the kitchen. Before Camille came along, Caleb used to help me in the kitchen quite a bit...making cookies or mixing pizza dough or whatever I was doing. Now that Camille's old enough to help, it's a fun activity for the three of us to whip up a batch of something good.

Before they can help, they have to wash their hands and don their aprons (Camille's was a Christmas gift from my parents who actually found "Mommy and Me" aprons so Camille and I can match as we cook. Caleb was initially disappointed that there wasn't one for him as well, but pink and lace just don't look as good on boys as they do on girls!). They climb up on chairs on the opposite side of the counter and love to help. They count while Mommy measures and - when Mommy is feeling brave - she lets them dump ingredients into the bowl and stir.

Today Mommy was feeling brave and the kids were well behaved, so we actually made TWO different things - a batch of homemade granola, which we all LOVE to eat at our house, and a batch of Papa's favorite cranberry muffins. Too bad Daddy wasn't here because we finally tweaked the recipe enough so the cranberries weren't too tart. We ate some of the muffins for dinner and are going to finish the rest for breakfast, although we might save one or two for Daddy if we're feeling nice!

Let us know if you need extra help in the kitchen and I'll send Caleb and Camille right over to help! (Just beware, almost as much goes into their mouths as it does the bowl!)

Our White Trash Trampoline

Yesterday was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and temperatures in the sixties, so we decided to spend the afternoon outside as a family. Unfortunately, our kids have managed to outgrow most of their outside toys so they've been having trouble coming up with fun things to do to occupy their time. Yesterday was no exception...until we pulled out the trampoline.


Most parents, when their kids want a trampoline, will go to whatever store is nearby and buy one of those giant above-ground trampolines, complete with a safety net to keep their kids enclosed. Not us. We're so classy that we pulled out an old box spring that we had sitting around the house. It was supposed to be on its way to the dump, but the kids discovered how springy and perfect to jump on it was. (Mom and Dad soon discovered how totally white trash it was to have our kids jumping on an old box spring in the backyard!) So we spent a fun afternoon outside jumping on our white trash trampoline and having a grand old time!