Sidewalk Paint = Lifesaver

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest.

I love all of the great ideas I find on the site, but really hate how uncreative/unorganized/unawesome it makes me feel.

Tonight I loved Pinterest.

My kids were driving me crazy around dinnertime.

(What?!  My kids?!  I know, they are complete angels - always.  Mmm, hmm.)

I remembered seeing a recipe for sidewalk paint.

 Hooray!  Hooray!  It saved my day.

 The kids were entertained for an hour while I made dinner.

Thank you Pinterest for helping me be an awesome mom today.

Splash

Yesterday it was hot when we got home from the Tulip Festival.

The kids immediately ran outside and set up the water tables.

They got soaked within 5 minutes and were inside looking for their swimsuits.

I heard Miss Pink run into her room, but didn't think much about it.  A few seconds later there was a huge thump followed by a crash.  I ran down the hall to see that her dresser had fallen over, that explained the thump.  Frantically I searched the room for her.  She was right next to the dresser with a huge smile on her face and she said, "I jumped out of the way!"  Of course you did, I thought.  I went to pick the dresser up and saw cause of the crash.  

A few months ago our friends gave us their beta fish when they moved to another state.  I have done my best to kill keep it alive.  It lived in the kitchen for awhile, then spent some time in Mr. Orange's room.  A few weeks ago he moved into Miss Pink's room on top of her dresser.

Let's just say that the beta's bowl was in a bajillion pieces all over the floor, water was everywhere, and I thought that hopefully maybe the fish had died.  Mr. Blue happened to be home while all of this was going on and he helped me clean up the broken pieces.  He was moving a larger piece of the bowl and we realized the fish was underneath it.  Mr. Blue picked up the piece and the fish flipped up in the air.  Mr. Blue jumped and Miss Pink ran to find something to put him in.  It took Mr. Blue a few minutes to figure out how to get the fish off of the floor and into the pint jar Miss Pink found without touching the fish.  He managed.

After everything was cleaned up I asked Miss Pink why she didn't ask me to help her get her swimsuit out of her dresser.  She said, "Oh, I couldn't see you and I climb up there all the time."  I think I sprouted 9 more gray hairs this afternoon.

After the fish fiasco the kids set up a water park in the backyard.

If it is even remotely warm outside, these kids will be playing in water.

They dragged last year's pool out and set it up.  Mr. Orange came running inside and said, "Mom!  Something is wrong with the pool!"  I went out and sure enough it was splurting water out the side as fast as it was going in.  Hmmm.  I patched it up enough for them to play and decided we would be getting a new pool this year.  I don't know how they could stand playing in the water.  It was like an ice bath!

I am so happy that warmer weather is here.

And that my heart has calmed down.

And that Miss Pink wasn't hurt.

And that my kids love to play water park in the backyard.

Finally! Some Snow!

On Monday Mr. Blue had to work.

Miss Pink had dance class.

Mr. Orange had the day off and was boooored out of his mind.

On our way to pick Miss Pink up from dance he said, "Mom, I need to go sledding.  Right now."

Me, "Well, let's pick Miss Pink up, eat some lunch, and if there is still any snow left then we'll go."

Him, "Okay."

We picked up Miss Pink and ten minutes later we were walking over to the sledding hill (my grumbling tummy lost that battle).

The kids got sleds for Christmas and this was their first run on them.
Mr. Orange was so excited to use his sled.  He ran up to the top of the hill, laid down on his sled, asked for a push, (which I gave him), and he went nowhere.  The snow was too sticky in that spot.  We decided to go where other people had gone before and the sledding was much better.

 Miss Pink face-planted it a few times.

(I think she did it on purpose so she could eat the snow.)

 After a while the kids got tired of sledding and so we ate snow, chased each other, threw snowballs (mostly at me), tackled each other, laughed, tried to build a snowman until Miss Pink fell on it, built a snow castle, laughed some more, threw more snowballs, did more sledding, etc., etc.

After an hour and a half we were pooped.

It was a wonderful afternoon.

One of those afternoons that you need as a mom.

Nothing to do, nowhere to go, just you and the kids.

Everything is perfect (except we missed Mr. Blue).

You can laugh freely.

Play with your kids.

Enjoy them.

Love them.

Watch their excitement about such little things like the snow in their mouths.

It was, well, perfect.

Sunday splash

The weather was nice this afternoon so we took the kids to one of our favorite parks.  They played on the playground for a really long time then they asked if we could go "look" at the lake.  They promised they would not get in the water.  

(We all know how sand, water, and kids goes....)

Mr. Orange spent the next hour or so digging a river and making islands between the two docks.

 I'm pretty sure that he didn't even look up except maybe once or twice to tell me stop taking pictures.  He was busy!

Miss Pink ran up and down the beach.

I'm pretty sure she ran about 5 miles.

 She listened really well and kept her clothes dry.

It was amazing how dry her clothes were after a few face plants in the mud.

 Her favorite part was having Mr. Blue chase her.

She squealed and giggled the whole time.

Sometimes I think I get so busy with the day to day stuff that I forget to take the time to appreciate the kids that I have been blessed with.  My heart was full of gratitude today for these little spirits that have been sent to me.

They are my treasure.

whiskers

My sister brought her kids over this afternoon.  While the kids played, my sister and I tackled the pile of clothes that I needed to take to Kid to Kid.  She helped me sort and organize the mound so that I could check that off my list.  Thank you!!

While we were sorting the kids came upstairs.  D was still in his regular clothes.  Mr. Orange was dressed in his lion costume and Miss Pink was dressed up as a lion.  They were busy looking at themselves in the mirror when my sister said, "Um, they have a Sharpie".  I turned around and Mr. Orange was putting whiskers on Miss Pink's face.  (He had already put whiskers and a nose on himself as you can see below.)  I put the Sharpie away but later D needed a triangle on his forehead.  Then Miss Pink wanted a heart on her belly button, then the boys needed dinosaurs on their tummies.  Then Miss Pink needed a dinosaur on her ankle.  I can see how people become addicted to tattoos.

D and Mr. Orange showing off their muscles

 Later I was making cookies and I looked outside.  D and Mr. Orange were "working out".  They would take turns holding each other's ankles while doing sit ups.  They also did pushups, pullups, and Mr. Orange's favorite exercise (below) from his tumbling class.

Kids are funny.

They are full of surprises.

I love that they are so full of imagination and wonder.

And that Mr. Orange had no problem going to music class later in the afternoon with whiskers on his face.

hide & seek

Mr. Orange slept over at D's house on Thursday night.  They had been looking forward to the sleepover since last Thursday when D slept over here.  When my sister brought Mr. Orange back home I got a brief recap of the evening/day that he spent there.  It went something like this:

I had a lot of fun.

I had asparagus soup for dinner.  (His favorite!)

We watched Ninja Turtles.

We played hide and seek.

Aunt K. took us for a walk.

Stop asking me questions about it!

After being home for all of 10 minutes, Mr. Orange asked if we could play hide and seek.  I counted first.  Miss Pink hid under her blanket on the living room floor and Mr. Orange disappeared.  When I was finished counting I started to "look" for Miss Pink in the piano bench, dishwasher, oven, her boots, all of the standard places she would hide.  {wink}  I "tripped" on her on my way to look for her by the couch.  She giggled like crazy and then the two of went to find Mr. Orange.

We looked in the office, his bedroom, her bedroom, behind the shower curtain and then I opened up the linen closet.  I looked down at the blankets, where he usually hides, and couldn't see him.  I started to close the door and looked up and SCREAMED AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS!

Can you see him?

Here's a closer look.  I was NOT expecting his eyeballs to be peering down at me from the top of the closet.  We all had a good laugh.
He's just skinny enough to scale the shelves with the closet door closed.
I didn't realize he was such a climber.
Nothing is safe in the house anymore.
I'm pretty sure I sprouted 4 more gray hairs when I started to scream.