A Weekend of Our Life

On Friday morning I decided to try to run a couple of errands and have lunch with the boys. I dangled a carrot (a.k.a. the park) in front of them so they would behave. I also tried to make it sound like a Dora the Explorer adventure... "Where are we going? Park! How do we get there? Store, Store, Lunch!" We finally made it to the park and it was hot. They spotted the splash pad from a mile away! Take this piece of free advice: If you happen upon a splash pad in the middle of the summer and you don't have a swimsuit or change of clothes, don't believe 'em when they tell you they are just going to get their feet wet. Those boys were soaked within seconds! I didn't mind. I was really wishing I could get in there with them. At one point, Kyle gave me a hug with his drenched little body--it was quite refreshing.





That night we met Cody for dinner at the Mexican restaurant in Farmersville. I think it was like the 5th meal in a row we had eaten Mexican. Heh heh. Can you guess what this is?


I'll give you a hint in the form of a joke:

What do you call a stuck up raisin?

Give up?

A:Snotty! That's right. It was Kyle who stuck the raisin up his nose this time. We think he put one in each nostril but we only found one. We all took turns looking up the orifice with a flashlight, making him sniff pepper, blow his nose, etc--all to no avail. I wonder where that raisin is...

(I am skipping Saturday because I worked all day but I will include Monday.)

Sunday was Gigi's birthday. Happy Birthday to my wonderful mom!! The boys made her birthday presents this year. We got the idea from Chasing Cheerios. My hats off to preschool and elementary school teachers! I do not know how they do it. I was going crazy trying to keep paint from getting everywhere and I only had 2 kids to deal with! On Sunday, the boys wrapped the gifts all by themselves. I almost bit through my tongue but I managed not to comment the gross overuse of scotch tape. They were so excited, that once the presents were wrapped, they had given them to her within 10 seconds. Gigi had lots of help unwrapping them as well.






We all went for a celebratory lunch at Texas Roadhouse.
This conversation ocurred on the way home:
Me: I'm tired.
Barrett (age 4): Me too.
Gigi: Me three.
Cody: Me four.
Kyle (age 2): Cinco!

Such comedic timing, that one!

Today we made Strawberry shortcake for dessert. Not just any Strawberry Shortcake, the most wonderful, magnificent strawberry shortcake in the whole wide world as good as it can be when you forget to put in the baking powder and salt. It was a little chaotic in the kitchen. The boys were just sooo excited to be making strawberry shortcake just like in this book we have been reading for months and months. The book is called Cook-a-doodle-doo by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. It's about a rooster, iguana, pig, and turtle who make strawberry shortcake but don't know the first thing about cooking. Really cute, educational book with a recipe in the back. Tonight we all took on a character in the book and had fun. Everybody wanted to be the pig (taster) though...ha!

Children's Books

I know some of my friends really like the children's book called Love You Forever. However, it gives me the creeps. If you have never read it, or even if you have, let me give you an unbiased run-down. A mother is rocking her baby boy to sleep and tells him "I'll love you forever, I'll love you for always, As long as I'm living. My baby you'll be." That's sweet. Then he does something naughty when he's a toddler and she's says it again. Then time passes, she sings this when he's a teenager, and THEN, when he's and adult (and possibly married--the book doesn't say) the mom drives across town, climbs her aging booty up a ladder, sneaks in a window and picks him up and while he's sleeping and sings him this song. UM--what??? oh, that's not the end of the CHILDRENS' story. Then the old lady is too sick to hold him and the son sings the song to her while he holds her.

I am typically a sentimental sap, but when I feel my heart strings are being manipulated, I tend to pull back the other way. I was talking with my husband about this story--he is about as big a fan as I am and we are in agreement that, after the mom died, the son kept talking to her as if she were alive and started the Bates Motel. That's right, folks! You've been reading to your children the prequel to Psycho!

Now I can't just be all negative so I will recommend a book I absolutely LOVE! I just found this book called Little Boy by Alison McGhee. It shows a boy going through his days and his wonderful imagination and the joy he has with such simple things as a cardboard box, a bowl, his dog, and fallen tree. I love it because it reminds me of my boys and of childhood, and the message at the end is suprisingly deep. To me, it seems to say that their childhood shapes the men they will become. This is the last sentence "Little boy, you remind me of how, so much depends on days made of now." My boys love it because they see a little boy doing things they like to do.
This author/Illustrator pair also wrote a lovely book called Someday. This is also a great book--the child in this book is a girl for those of you with daughters.