Our really cute neighbor holds a week long day camp for kids. Although Icka is technically too young, both kids are invited. And both kids have a blast. When I went to pick them up after the first day, I asked Scout how cam was, and he exclaimed, “It was AWESOME!” Well, I guess that says it all. But what says it even better is that Icka has been wearing big girl pants each day, and hasn’t had one accident. That weasel is, and has always been capable — it is just a matter of if it is important enough to stay dry. When I told her that if she had an accident then I would have to pick her up and bring her home — I guess she decided it was “important” enough to stay dry.
A blurry picture of our walk over on day one. (Actually — day 2. On day 1, I blanked that camp was even going on. Whoops.) They had their bags filled with towels, a lunch, and a water bottle.
They had a little free time at the beginning, and Icka was helping push Scout on the swing.
When Ezzy showed up, they all hit up the play set. I love how swollen my kids eyes are because 9:00am is early for them. Who knows what I am going to do when Scout has 8:30 preschool this year.
At the official start, I was proud of Scout and Icka for lining up exactly how they were supposed to.
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Nice work Lexi — and don’t ever grow old enough to not like this week long reprieve for us parents!!!
XO
My kids love the new car, and someone came up with the great idea of going “camping” in it. Literally in it. So Micah and I brought a bunch of blankets down, Micah moved all of the seats forward, we stuck in Swiss Family Robinson, and went camping in our driveway. The kids loved it — especially Scout. He was so excited that a movie wasn’t really doing the trick. So “after the tree house part, we are going to get paper and do some art, and then we are going to play pirates”, etc. So after that part, we went into the table and drew pictures of pirate ships while I drew a treasure hunt map. Then afterward, instead of playing “pirates”, my kids went on a treasure hunt to find a buried treasure box.
The camp site.
The snacks.
While the movie was doing the trick!
The treasure map.
Surprisingly, Scout did a really good job of reading it. He even knew that part of it was to go and kiss Nonnie three times!
When they found the treasure, I tossed the handful of Skittles on the ground and they went after them like mad men.
it must have been a success, because Scout has asked for a treasure hunt every night since!
Saturday morning jobs this week consisted of washing Dad’s car. Both kids participated pretty good, and were pretty good helpers. I remember every Saturday morning when my dad would whistle “Zippity Doo Dah” as he went around to wake all of the kids for our jobs. I got pretty good at hiding under my bed when I heard his song, or hiding in the closet. But he got pretty good at pouring water on me if I didn’t get out of bed the first time around!
Icka was on tire duty while Scout helped Micah fill the bucket full of clean water.
Drying was a little tougher for the kids because their towels were already wet from the ground. Notice the big girl underpants on Navy!!!
Sidenote: I had a friend tell me that whenever she checks out my blog, my kids are always in their undies. It is true. My kids are ALWAYS in their underwear, and it is by their own doing. Friend — just be glad that we have the saying, “keep your privates private” in our household, because if they could really choose — underwear wouldn’t even be part of the equation.
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Our last job of the morning (other jobs were — clean back yard, make beds, take out kitchen trash and empty the dishwasher) was to go put some sweat equity into our garden. My kids love the garden. They have their own little plot where they have their own crops. I told them we need to harvest some things for Sunday dinner, and we got a load of stuff — tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, potatoes and some onions. Besides the fact that our dinner was delish (especially the herb/garlic potatoes), I love that my kids are willing to put in an hour or so of work. After they thought their time was up, and Micah and I were still pruning and weeding, the kids went fence climbing. Scout went uninjured, but instead of jumping, Icka slid down the fence and caught a wire on her way down that scraped up her stomach.
Poor thing was a trooper, and didn’t even shed a tear.
But she did make a couple of “I’m in pain” faces.
DRAMA!
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Their hard work paid off.
That afternoon, they earned a trip to the circus!
I woke up sick this morning. Thankfully Skilly and NayNay came over to save the day. NayNay swam with the kids, both girls baked cookies with them, and Skilly took them on a photo scavenger hunt. I made a list of things they needed to find in the neighborhood, and when they found them, Skilly snapped a shot. They had a great time doing it, and it allowed me to get a little rest.
Here is their shot of a pink flower.
Here they are in front of the best doctor in the world’s home!
Here is their “animal”.
And here is the two of them making a letter on the ground. Here is their version of an “H”.
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Thank goodness for the Clifford girls!
XOXO to them!
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when the swimming teacher talks about my daughter and says, “That Navy….she’s a pistol.” Most of the time, I want to laugh. Today — not so much. The story goes a little like this. Navy could have been potty trained a year ago. She definitely has the capacity, has known how to use the facilities forever, and is plenty smart enough to get it all down. I had some urging from others to get it done before Hawaii, and more urging to get it done before baby #3. But I always knew that when she wanted to potty train, she would instigate it and be a success immediately. (Plus, Scout potty trained himself in a day, and it was a cinch….and I was looking for a similar experience.) The good news — Navy instigated it about a week ago, and hasn’t had a misstep yet!
So on the heels of me having a day of throwing up and other lovely flu-like symptoms, Micah offered to take the kids into work this morning. It was great. It allowed me to get some R&R and a few errands done. When I went to pick her up, her entire lower half of her outfit was wet. I figured that maybe a new place, or a Daddy who wasn’t as proactive on asking if she needed to go potty was the reason…so no biggie. On our way home from his work, I had both kids in the car, and for some reason I also had arguing, sassing, “Scout hit me” when he clearly wasn’t AKA lying, and a few other choice moves out of my kids. As a result, both kids were racking up minutes of timeout like they were shares of Apple stock. When we got home, they were both in their timeout spots. (Side note — it always blows my mind when my kids are at each other’s throats, but the second they are in time out together, they become besties all over again.) As they laughed and chatted, Bella noticed a strong stench. When I called Navy over to ask her if she had gone poops in her big girl pants, she said matter-of-factly, “Yep.” When I asked her why she went (knowing full well that she knew not to) she said, “Because I was mad at you.”
Laughing just wasn’t in the cards today!
The Brockbanks head out to Lake Powell every summer, and they have a blast! So in an effort to see what it was all about, we invited ourselves to tag along for the last few days. They rented a great boat, had all of the water toys, and had the hotel all set up. It was just up to us to get there and play, play, play. And that is just what we did!
One of our first stops was Sand Mountain. Micah took it upon himself to challenge Jake to running up it. I think his original plan was to run up it three times consecutively, but the mountain was deceiving, and I think he got two times in.
Not willing to be outdone, Scout took the challenge. Nobody thought he would make it, but Scout thinks he is a better runner than his dad and Jake, so I knew he make it.
Trey and Micah encouraged him towards the top, and only minutes later, he was pumping his arms at the top!
Luckily the way down was much easier!
Sissy hung with her sidekick “Doey” most of the time.
Next to Sand Mountain was a little place to rock jump. Trey and Doey helped Scout up, and then he took the plunge.
Later in the day, the boys wanted to head out to some “real” cliffs. And the handsome Jake offered to carry Scout up to the top.
Once he got there, Micah needed to help him with his take off so he would jump out far enough.
And all was well with my little dare devil!
We then headed up through a glassy canyon and got a few ski runs in.
After that, we went and explored some caves.
When Sissy got up top, she found a rock for Auggie, that she demanded to be carried all the way back to the boat.
My poor kids were wiped about half way through the day, but nothing stopped Scout from having the time of his life!
Sissy on the other hand couldn’t hack it the whole day, and took a few snoozers.
Micah, Jake and Cade played “Last Man Standing” on the raft while Bryan drove like crazy.
It got pretty hairy out there, and I am proud to say they all kept trying to pull the “rear naked choke hold” on each other. I guess it is a wrestling move, but just sounds SKETCHY to me!
Trey wanted in on the action, and gave Micah a run for his money while they were trying to outlast each other.
The Brockbanks introduced us to “bouldering”. It is a very testosterone driven sport where the guys climb to free standing boulders and push/maneuver them until they crash into the lake. It is amazing how satisfying this was to all of them as the ladies watched from the boat. But there was an incident. Poor Cade was pulling up on a rock as hard as he possibly could. As he pulled, the edge of the rock broke off and flung into Micah’s face. Micah swears he broke his nose, and that his sunglasses saved his life. Without a doubt it must have hurt, but I swear I married someone who knows how to add drama to any story he retells!
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After this, we skied more, tubed more, played more, and finally headed into shore by night fall. We then went back to the hotel and swam a little, then went to eat and finally hit the hay.
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Then woke up and pushed repeat.
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I grew up spending summers in Lake Powell, and almost forgot how much I love it.
Glad I spent this trip remembering!
When we came home from Hawaii, Scout picked up a few new habits. I am certainly not pointing any fingers at any cousins, because quite honestly, I am sure he gave other cousins some new habits of their own. He probably sent a few of them home with a new found ability to crack jokes constantly (not the funny type — the type where you ask him if he already went to the potty and he says “no” when he really did), or tease relentlessly. Well, he came home with a really annoying one. (And I have no clue if it even came from a cousin.) But his habit was a word that he thought was pure bliss coming off his lips. Unfortunately, that word would be “wiener”. He would use it in sentences, he would call his sister a “wiener”, he would say it a million times a day! Which meant that I was correcting him that same million times. About four days in, I had really had it, so I brought out the big punishments — and one mention of them got him to stop cold in his tracks.
THANK GOODNESS!
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Fast forward a week. Scout, Icka and I were driving somewhere in a car. Scout asked me in seriousness, “Mom, I know I can’t say it, but can I say ‘wiener dog‘”? Like I can really tell him that he can never say “wiener dog”…so I responded with, “Scout, if you are really talking about a dog, then you can say that.” We kept driving, and within minutes, Icka had done something to bug Scout. I immediately heard, “Icka….you’re a wiener dog!” When I gasped, he calmly told me that “Mom, I was really calling her the dog!”
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Back to threatening with the big punishments.
My kids swim almost every single day. They are literally obsessed with it. Good thing we have a pool out back! One of Icka’s favorite things to do while in the pool is to take a dolphin ride on her dad’s back. I caught it on camera this time around.
Pre take off.
Mid ride.
Almost coming up for air.
This little thing can hold on forever. Micah is constantly surprised at how she just holds on and never complains. Especially when he goes almost the whole span of the pool.
Long ago are the days when Skilly would pass out free coupons that read, “One Free Musash….Only $20.” That girl passed those out for years, and every time I would try to redeem one, I got hit up for a bunch of money at the end. Talk about a con!
But these days, Skilly really does have a spa on occasion. This time, on a summer afternoon of not having much to do, she asked my kids if they wanted to come to Skilly’s Spa. They and I were all game! So 15 minutes later, Skilly had it all set up for pedicures.
She was very professional and exclusive. Notice the floating flowers in Icka’s water.
In the end, Icka turned up with pink polka dot.
And against my wishes, Scout got watermelon toes. Just like the ones Skilly got when she went to the spa a few weeks before.
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Just when I thought she was closing up shop, she turned them over to manicures.
The kids were loving the VIP treatment.
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But in an attempt to have a little masculinity shone through my boy via the spa, Skilly took him over to the make up artist.
And she worked wonders as she turned Stinky into a superhero!
I went to the garden, and I had some serious loot! My red brandy wine and lemon boy tomatoes are amazing! My yellow brandy wine are so so. I also got a bunch of japanese cucumbers and lemon cucumbers, some swiss chard, some green beans, a few purple onions, and a ton of herbs — basil, italian parsley and dill.
Basically, I can’t complain about eating deliciousness for days on end!
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